Category: Charting Your Career for Success

Charting Your Career for Success:
Feeling a pull towards something different in your work life? This category is your compass for navigating the exciting and sometimes challenging journey of career change. Whether you’re contemplating a slight pivot or a complete industry leap, you’ll find guidance and resources here to help you:

Explore new career possibilities that align with your passions and skills.
Identify your transferable skills and how to leverage them in a new field.
Develop a strategic plan for making a successful transition.
Learn practical tips for networking, upskilling, and adapting your job search materials.
Find inspiration and real-world stories from others who have navigated career changes.
It’s never too late to pursue a more fulfilling and meaningful career. Let’s explore the possibilities together and help you confidently chart your new professional path.

How to Write Anything and Make It Easy to Read

In an earlier post, I wrote about how to write letters that are easy to read. What I wrote in that post applies to anything that you write.

Writing is part of the job for professionals in all types of fields and responsibilities. Here is an easy to use format anyone can use.

State the purpose in the opening sentence. The first sentence expresses the subject. If there are two or more subjects, list each of the subjects in the opening paragraph or in a list format below the opening paragraph. The first paragraph is a summary of the information. You tell the reader what you are going to tell them.

Capitalize the first line of the paragraph for each new subject. The reader may only have time to scan information. Your key points stand out in the brief statements that are in the capital letters.

When you are continuing with the same subject and want to emphasize a new element or change the subject from one sentence to the next, let the reader know. Here are some ways to help your reader follow you.

Write a transitional statement such: “Now I would like to discuss a new subject.”
Use transitional words or phrases such as also, so, for this purpose, later.
Use bold type for the first sentence.

Start the first sentence of your paragraphs with the words First, Second, Third, and so forth.
However, do not use bullets or numbered list to change the subject. These lists organize the points of a one specific subject.

Grammar is as important as content. I carefully review what I have written and use word processing software to check for mistakes. I still make mistakes. If you see any mistakes in my writing, please let me know.

In conclusion, the formula for writing anything is simple. State the subject in the opening sentence. If you wish to write about multiple topics, just say so clearly in the opening paragraph. Use capital letters and transitional devices to introduce each new subject.

Your readers will appreciate your writing so that what they are reading is easy to read. You will find that the readers’ response to your writing will be more favorable as well.

“The World’s Most Noble Headhunter!”

Writing Letters That are Easy to Read

Writing is a daily part of the job for professionals in all types. Here is an easy format anyone can use.

State the purpose in the first sentence. The first sentence expresses the subject of the letter. If there are two or more subjects to a letter, list each of the subjects in the opening paragraph in list below the opening paragraph.

Use bold face or capital letters to show that you are making a change from one key point to another. A writer’s use of bold face or capital letters is helpful to the reader. The reader may only have time to scan a letter. If so, the key points stand out in the brief statement that is in bold face or capital letters.

Carefully review your letter for grammar. I carefully review what I have written by rereading the letter inside a word processor or text editor that checks grammar.

Ask someone to help you proofread your material. I am careful to correct what I write but I still overlook mistakes.

In conclusions, the formula for writing letters is simple. Introduce the topic in the opening sentence. If you wish to write about multiple topics, just say so clearly in the opening paragraph. Use bold face or capital letters to introduce new subject so that the reader receives a little alert of the transition in the subject.

Your readers will appreciate writing that they can read easily. You will find that the readers respond to your letters will be more favorable as well.

“You Are Hired!” How to Interview to Get the Job Offer!

“You Are Hired!”

Start the interview by showing an interest in the job.

Why? Because you are sending out buying signals which are attractive to the hiring manager. Why even go to an interview for an opportunity that you have not researched enough to know whether you are interested. If you are out kicking tires, stay home. You might burn a great opportunity. Do not walk through the company doors of any company until you know where you will be working, approximately what you will be making, and what you will be doing if you are hired. There is so much information out there on the Internet alone that most high school sophomores can pin down job details from a web search on a smartphone.

Prepare to be believable and let likeability take care of itself.

Do not focus on whether people like you. Focus on whether the interviewer believes and trusts you. Know your facts about yourself and your qualifications for the job for which you are applying.

Ironically, even entertainers do not focus on being liked. The successful ones focus on the act.

People will like you just fine. Just give your most sincere presentation of the match between you and the job, and hiring managers will be happy if not excited to find what they are seeking.

Don’t rely on stock questions.

Develop your questions from you research. As you gather information about a company, you will find that your curiosity begins to rise. There is always more to know. Build your question list from the things that truly have raised your curiosity. Many questions people ask are contained right in the job description: the title of the person to whom you will report, the scope of the position, even whether there are other people on the team. Taking the research a small step further, you can find out information about the supervisor for this position and information about the people on the team. Mention their names during the interview and ask questions from your curiosity about these people.

Know your interviewer.

Before you walk in the door, you should try to know the name, career history, and title of the person you are meeting. By knowing these things, you can put yourself on a more even footing against other applicants who may be coming in with a personal referral from a friend.

Layout a map to show the interviewer as to how you will produce results, save the company money, and become a member of the team for the good of the company However, you are not in an interview to be popular. You are in an interview to get a job. Be personable, assertive, confident, but do not act like you want to be someone’s pal. Companies need doers not back-slapper who are there to glad-hand. Within the first thirty seconds of the interview, the hiring managers should know if they have invited the right person to the interview.

Always trial close.

Ask for the date when you should follow up with the company.

Send a thank you note.

You can send a letter if you like. But send an email before the end of the day of the interview.

Post-Interview Letter: Follow Up the Interview With a Letter That Will Get You the Job.

Best Job Interview Questions

1. Why are you leaving your current job?
2. What is your greatest achievement?
3. Who was the best supervisor you have ever had?
4. Who was the worst supervisor you ever had.
5. What makes you the best person for the job?
6. What is your greatest strength?
7. What is your greatest weakness?
8. What are your long-term goals?
9. What do you plan to do the first 90 days on the job?
10. What do you do to grow professionally?
11. What qualities to you seek in building a team?
12. What are your career passions?
13. What did you want to become when you were a kid?
14. What is your typical day?
15. What is your greatest failure and what did it teach you?
16. Have you ever told a lie?
17. Whom do you most admire?
18. What is the most difficult problem you ever had to handle and what did you do handle to the problem?

Lists: Putting the Focus on Success

Some people are great lists makers. Whether shopping, going to a business meeting, planning an event, tracking their expenses, setting priorities for the day, these people are intuitively organized about the way they live their lives through lists making.

Other people, myself included, are less likely to structure their lives around lists, but go along through the day as things come up. I want to be more of a list maker.

I believe that lists makers are more productive, experience less stress, have a more clear mind, and work shorter days than those of us who just take care of things as these things pop in front of us. At least, I seem to have a more productive, less stressful day, and can focus better on my work when I have a plan laid out for the things I need to do.

I remember reading a book called The Book of Lists. I really enjoyed the book and as it turns out, according to Wikipedia.org/The Books of Lists, authors Irving Wallace, David Wallechinsky, and Amy Wallace, collaborating and working separately, produced a series of books of lists on odd and curiously interesting topics: world’s greatest libel suits, worst places to hitchhike, people suspected of being Jack the Ripper, and so forth

So some of you may want to save your daily activity lists. You may find they produce a book someday.

I sometimes find that if I make a list, I am more likely to actually use it when it is a short list of things of genuine importance. I might have a list of the three most important people for me to call today. I might have a list that only has one thing on it, such as a long tedious task that will take several hours and may involve taking breaks and returning to for the entire day.

I also find that lists can become outlines with categories and subcategories. For example, I may have on my list three people to call and under each person’s name, I may have a list of things to cover with that person.

Common sense seems to be to limit your lists to things that you really need to get done. With this approach you are more likely to actually use your list and more likely to get to the things done that have genuine importance.

To me, the really important lists are those lists that involve things I want to discuss in meetings or on the phone. Putting these lists together may take a little preparation and review and can become really important in getting cooperation. In these cases, I write down what I want to cover. I may need to review or research my activities with the people who will be in this meeting so that I am be mentally fresh on the material to be covered.

I may try to anticipate questions that a person might have so that I can do some research in preparation for answering those questions. This preparation can create a list of material in itself.

Some people find it helpful to keep a private journal, often in long hand on something simple like a legal pad. Making a list right before you go to bed may help you sleep better and wake up with your plan for the day prepared and perhaps sitting on your night stand.

For some people, writing a list of the issues on their mind takes the power away from the thoughts they are carrying around in their head. They become more in control of planning their moves instead of ruminating on their anxieties.

The main thing about making lists is that you actually use them. I got into a routine of scheduling monthly activities. Over time, I had so many monthly activities that I could not possibly get to them all. What I have found in terms of recurring activities is only to list the really big activities that I know that I will do. These activities are only on a list so that I can keep track of when I last performed the activity and when the activity comes due again.

I want to be a list maker. I have started a new technique of using a reference sheet that I use to keep track of business activity. My list goes into the very first space on this reference sheet. I feel better about the likelihood of becoming an effective list maker and will let you know how it works for me.

The World’s Most Noble Headhunter

Should You Discuss Compensation on the First Interview? Yes!

Conventional practice and advice is that discussing compensation on the first interview is in bad form and can cost an applicant future interviews.

If you are a hiring manager and make it your practice not to discuss income at all on the first interview or if you are an applicant and plan not to bring up the subject of compensation on the first interview, my experience has been that you are making a mistake.

If a hiring manager makes an offer to a candidate, the hiring manager is now only halfway to making a hire. For the first time, the applicant has the 100% power over yes or no in the process. Also, from my experience, if an interview process goes to the point of that an offer is extended and the offer is rejected, it is intuitively obvious why the offer is turned down: compensation.
Think about it. The applicant is very likely sold on the company, the people, and the responsibilities. Why else would the applicant have invested so much time to prepare for the interviews and make the trips to interviews if everything is not positive, and then turn down the offer when it is extended? The answer is compensation.

Do you need to discuss the details of an offer on a first interview? I do not think so.

However, I think that both the hiring manager and the applicant need to get some framework around the subject of compensation (salary, bonus, benefits) from both what the hiring company pays and what the applicant is making to know that the two are at least in the same range of expectation. So save yourself some time.

If you are a hiring manager, save yourself some time and let the applicant know that if he or she is chosen for the role, the person can expect the position to pay approximately a certain amount.

Hey, Catch! Interview Preparation

Have you ever had someone toss a ball your way and let you know it was inbound after the person had thrown it?

If you have good reflections and a clear mind, a surprise ball toss can be easy to handle. Personally, I need to know the ball is coming and preferably have a bucket to catch it in.

I have found that thinking on my feet in business can be similar. In my basic training at Procter & Gamble, the instruction booklet on persuasive selling included the recommendation of anticipating objections and preparing for these objections before entering for my presentation.

The Sacramento Kings had a point guard named Jason Williams, who was a real gym rat, street ball, highly gifted athlete. He was a lot of fun to watch and so unorthodox that the other players on the team had to maintain total mental presence lest they catch one of Williams’ no-look passes on the nose. Obviously, the players on the Kings team had an advantage in knowing what was coming next from Williams. They spent hours practicing with him and playing on the same team.

Giving a persuasive presentation in any situation, whether it is a job interview, a sales call, a meeting with peers, I find that I am more comfortable if I take a minute, write a few notes, research material I think might come up even if I believe that I know the answer, and try to think of information that might add value to the presentation and offer solutions where needed.

Another thing that I have learned to do is position material so I show I am interested in the point of view of the other person or people in the meeting. For example, without even agreeing with another person’s position, I have found that it sometimes helps to say something such as if I were in your shoes I am sure that I would feel the same way. I also try to make sure that the other person or people in the meeting have an opportunity to speaking through to the conclusion of what they have on their mind.

Some people find it helpful to call other people before a meeting and in that call, present what they plan to share in meeting, especially when the stakes are high or on occasions where there might be a lot of resistance to his or her position.

In closing, I am reminded of the famous statement regarding directions: “How do you get to Carnegie Hall? The answer: practice, practice, practice. ”

The World’s Noblest Headhunter!

Cocktail Napkins, Interview Questions, and Landing a Job

Cocktail Napkins, Interview Questions, and Landing a Job

I have a friend who has a way of making people aware of his interest in them as friends. He always greets people with questions that allow people to talk about themselves and their families. With me, for example, he asks how I have been. He asks about my wife and each of my children.

In a job interview, there are questions both sides should ask. Standard questions to establish rapport and build knowledge. Standard company questions about why you would want to work for this company, why the job is vacant, or the career path to which this job leads.

In a social setting, asking questions that you have typed on a written agenda would not seem appropriate. However, in a job interview, asking questions from a typed agenda is the best way to stay organized, on balance, or regain your balance.

I often find that the person who does the better job of preparing typed written material before an interview comes out way ahead of applicants who interview without a typed up agenda.

The Power of an Agenda

Comically, an applicant of mine actually went into an interview without any prepared material except for questions that he had written on a cocktail napkin. The company had two applicants and one job. This guy finished second.

If you are interview with several people in the same day, should you ask the same questions more than once? I would say that you should definitely ask the same question more than once. You may learn a lot about a company and its people by comparing their answers.

What do you do if you want a job but do not have any questions? You should ask questions that enable you to know that the reasons you want the job are in fact true. For example, you want a job because you see the company is in a safe convenient location or that the company has an excellent benefit program or wonderful work environment. Ask about the location, the benefit program, or the work environment. I have had hiring managers tell me that they already know if they are going to hire a person within five minutes of the person walking in the door and that they spend the next hour asking question to confirm what they believe to be true.

The Worlds Noblest Headhunter!

The Power of an Agenda

The Power of an Agenda for Your Job Interview

During lunch with a field sales manager of a major consumer goods company, I heard again the importance of preparing an agenda before each call. He told me about a day in the field he had recently spent with the Chairman and CEO of his company. At the end of the day, the Chairman pointed out to the field sales manager that throughout the day the Chairman had maintained control of the discussions. The reason he said is that sales manager had not prepared an agenda for the day.

The first sales call I made with my supervisor’s supervisor at Procter & Gamble, he asked me, “What is your objective for this call?” Fortunately, perhaps out of nervous anticipation, I had made scripted a call sheet for each place I planned to go that day.

When I entered the recruiting industry, I went to work for a search firm that had a former Pfizer executive for a CEO. The only thing that the CEO asked of us recruiters is that we sit down at the beginning of every day and go over a single sheet that contained a list of search assignments and prospects and that we update that sheet every day.

So began a practice of having a plan written out on a sheet of paper, reviewed daily, updated as the day progressed and then created anew or further updated as the passed into the next day. Managing my business became a process of following an agenda.

The same practices can apply to any business, including the business of managing your career. The following outline is the agenda that my daughter Heather used for her interviews with a National Basketball Team (NBA). She got the job. Using this type of outline to prepare for an interview, helps a person anticipate and practice how to manage many of the questions and the direction of the discussions in a job interview.

Interview Agenda Summary

Why I am interested in working for your company?

The reputation of the company as a customer-based marketer
The long history of success of your company
The opportunity to work in an environment that enables me to use the promotional and marketing tools I have developed for my career
The commitment to respecting and honoring all employees for their service
The opportunity to work in the field of my choice: sports promotion and marketing

What I bring to your company

Team skills with work with other people in all departments
Experience in creating promotional marketing programs to target community customers
A successful history of developing marketing strategies that include customer service, pricing, product choice, graphic design, and product presentation at retail and in the media

My thoughts on marketing and sales promotion

Does it present value to the customer?
Does it create the correct brand image?
Does it reach your target customer base?
Does it make a buyer out of your customer?
Does it create repeat customers?

Ways that I can make sure that you reach your goals.

Identify the target customer
Identify the message that will reach and draw that customer
Create a consistent brand image that will build customer loyalty

Create your own agenda. Prepare for the interview with research and outline your research results in an agenda that you take the interview. Show interviewers that you have an interest in their company through the agenda you bring to the interview.

Working with Recruiters: The Different Types and What They Do

If you are working with recruiters, you will find it helpful to understand the relationship between the recruiter and the hiring company and the relationship between a recruiter and a potential employee.

Recruiter or Placement Agency

The companies that use recruiters to fill a position pay recruiters for their services. Hiring companies do not accept unsolicited resumes from recruiters. Therefore, all recruiters are working under contract, and they work on behalf of the hiring company. If you are a working with recruiter, you are valuable to that recruiter. The recruiter will not charge you a fee.

There is a different type of staffing firm called a placement agency. These agencies work on behalf of job seekers and may charge job seekers a fee for finding them a job. The distinction between a placement agency and a recruiter is that placement agencies find jobs for people, and recruiters find people for jobs.

Contingency Recruiter or Retained Recruiter
Sometimes, people try to explain the difference between contingency recruiters and retained recruiters in terms of the compensation. There was even a benchmark set at $100,000-a-year for a point where a person would rise above contingency recruiters and pass into the realm of retained recruiters. At that time, I had contracts for retained work under $100,000 a year and contracts for contingency work above $100,000 a year. My relationship to the applicant did not change based on these contracts. I had jobs to fill and needed people to fill them. At times, a recruiter may have some contracts that pay them a non-refundable advance payment (a retainer) for their services and have contracts for payment after the job has been filled. More recently, retained firms have also done contingency work (The Directory of Executive and Professional Recruiters).

In practice, how hiring companies pay a recruiter is not important to you as a potential employee. The contacts the recruiter has in relation to the type of contacts you need to further your career is important. Since contingency recruiters and retained recruiters both work under a contract and given that financial benchmarks are not that useful in the changing landscape of compensation, the best way to work with a recruiter is to help the recruiter understand your experience and the type of job you are seeking. If the recruiter has jobs that fit your experience, he has a network that is valuable to you. Typically, the sterling silver of retained search firms are conducting searches where the level of contact is with the board of directors and the level of search is for “C” level managers, that is, Chief Executive Officers, Chief Revenue Officers, and so forth. When people at that level of experience contact me, I refer them to Tom Snyder, who hired people from me when he was an executive in the CPG industry. Tom has placed over 50 C-level executives. The Chicago office of Spencer Stuart, where Tom works, is the most effective consumer goods executive staffing practice in the country.

You and the Recruiter

Recruiters hunt for people: they are, figuratively, headhunters. They get on the phone and call people. They email people. They research for prospects. They are looking for fits like ring sizes. Hiring companies pay recruiters for their skills in finding those fits. Applicants as a potential employees have value. They are the diamond ring. The hiring company is the ring buyer, the customer. The recruiter is the jeweler. He takes a measure of what will fit the hiring company. If recruiters do not have a fit in their jewelry case, they hunt for one by calling people in their network. They often look for rings that are not yet on the market. Therefore, whether the applicants are rings in the jewelry display case or ones who are not yet on the market, the applicants and the hiring companies have value to a recruiter. If recruiters have the network to fit the needs of the hiring companies and the experiences of the applicant, the recruiters have value to both based on that network.