Category: Charting Your Career for Success

Rewrite for CPG Careers

The references you provide and how well you prepare them can play a huge role in your chances for a job offer. Here are a few tips to keep in mind.

1. Choose people you trust and who can articulately vouch for the work that you do. Supervisors or others who have evaluated your work are at the top of the list. Also to be considered are colleagues (past or present) and outside people that you’ve interacted with through your job (vendors, customers, etc.). And don’t forget about professionals who may know you through volunteer activities or advanced education or trainings. As we all know, relatives and friends should not be included on your list.

2. Make it easy for the interviewer to contact your references. Create a one-page reference sheet that includes your name and contact information on the top (I recommend using the same heading that is on your resume). For each reference, include their name, how you know that person (i.e., direct supervisor at XYZ Company or purchasing agent at ABC Corp, supplier for XYZ Company), and as much contact information as you can (i.e., company, mailing address, email address, work, home and/or cell phone numbers). Keep the format consist for each entry.

3. Keep your references informed. When you have an interview and leave behind your reference sheet, immediately send an email to each reference and include the job posting or any information available about that job. You want them to be aware that they may be contacted so they aren’t caught off-guard.

4. Prep your references. Just like you need to prepare for an interview, help your references do the same. Identify the top three qualities that are important in your next role, and ask each of your references to address one of those qualities. For example, if problem solving is important, brainstorm with one of your references a situation where you worked together to devise a solution to a problem. Or if leadership is key, ask another reference to discuss a particular project where you took the lead and convey the successful outcome. This prep can be done at the beginning of your search in general terms, or for each specific position you interview. Either way, by “assigning” a different quality to each of your references, the interviewer will get a well-rounded overview. And, your references will be more prepared to articulately convey solid information about you.

By choosing the right people to list as references and taking a little time to prepare them to speak on your behalf, your potential employer is going to receive rave reviews about you!

Kathy Keshemberg is a Nationally Certified Resume Writer and Certified Career Management Coach. Since 1983, she has created thousands of interview-winning resumes and related job-search materials for satisfied clients around the world. Need assistance with your career? We’re here to help! www.acareeradvantage.com

Whenever I talked with an applicant about their job interviews, I always asked the applicant what the interviewer had said about next steps.  Based on this information, I could know whether the person had passed or failed an interview.

If the interviewer scheduled another interview before the applicant walked out the door, the applicant had a successful interview.

If interviewers summarized by saying they needed to compare notes before reaching a decision, the applicant very likely had an excellent interview.

If the interviewer told applicants that they were speaking with several applicants and would get back to the applicants in a few weeks, I knew that the applicants had very likely failed the interview.

Jobs are always in season.  I have had applicants accept offers on nearly every day of the year. There are holidays year round.  If hiring managers have a need to hire a person, they continue the recruiting process until they make that hire.  If you going through a lag in activity, you can do things to create more activity in your job search.

Register with temporary agencies.  Many temporary jobs become careers. I have made permanent hires that started as temporary referrals.  I have a friend who started in a temporary job seven years ago.  He did a great job.  The company then funded his job as a full-time job.  He is still working for the same company.  He is in a larger role.

Look for seasonal jobs, part-time jobs, and full-time on the Internet.  There are listings for part-time work at all levels.  You can search Google for “part-time executive jobs,” “part-time director jobs,” and “part-time manager jobs.”  You will find listings for part-time work for nearly every job imaginable.

Continue to contact people right through the holidays. Most people are still working. Whether they are working or not, nearly everyone is reading email to stay ahead at work or simply from habit.

Reconnect with your recruiter network.  Remind them that you are still out there.  Add new recruiters to your list of contacts and connect with these recruiters.

Expand your connections through referrals.  Remember to ask for referrals from each contact you make.  People do not always think to offer help with referrals.  However, some people will be very helpful to give you names of contacts who can help you.

Work with your career team.  These are the people you really know.  These are co-workers, bosses, people you have managed, friends, and family.  If you call them to give them updates, they may have ideas that will land you a job.

Review your resume and online profile for keywords. Use action words and nouns. Action words show your accomplishments.  These words are verbs.  Nouns are names.  Search engines look up names.

Remember that no matter what the season, you are responsible for your career.  There are jobs out there in a very competitive market.  The people who work the hardest at getting jobs are the people who are most likely to get a job.  In you are in a period of inactivity, you can create activity with the suggestions above.

12 Powerful Ideas for Landing Your Next Job

1. COUNTER OFFERS

“Counter Offers: The Reason That You Resigned Seldom Goes Away If You Stay.”

Companies give counter offers when the timing works against them to lose a person. However, unless the reason you resigned have gone away, taking a counter offer means that you are returning to work where have shown disloyalty by looking for another job. Read more.

2. JOB CHANGE TIMING

“The Best Time To Change Jobs”

Changing jobs is one of the most stressful experiences in a person’s life. That statement does not mean that job changes do not bring high rewards. Getting married, having children, and buying a house are also among the most stressful experiences in a person’s life. Yet these experiences are rewarding. Read more.

To make any major life change successful and rewarding requires preparation, planning, and timing.

3. INTERVIEWING

“How To Handle The Interview Question What Is Your Greatest Weakness?”

I made the mistake of answering this question honestly during an interview for a promotion. I did get the promotion.

However, my new supervisor had an annoying habit of reminding me of my answer to that question during our work together.

Being able to answer this question is part of standard interview preparation. What should I have answered when he asked me about my greatest weakness? Here are some options that would have helped me. Read more.

4. INTERVIEW PREPARATION

“12 Things You Should Not Do In A Job Interview”

An interview is a critical step to getting a job. Preparing for your interview and making good choices in handling your interview questions can turn your interview into a job offer. Here are twelve things you should not do and suggestions for the correct things to do in a job interview. Read more.

5. JOB OFFERS

“How To Negotiate A Job Offer”

Employers are more open to negotiating a job offer when they can see that there is a real shortfall between what they have offered you and what you have in your current job.

The simple way to approach the matter is to make a straightforward presentation of the facts involved. Read more.
6. JOB OPTIONS

“Finding Jobs That Match Your Skills”

This lists compares skills to jobs to help you find jobs that you will enjoy and do successfully. Enter any of these jobs into the Job Search engine to find career opportunities. Read more.

7. SELF-EMPLOYMENT

“Is it Time for You to Start Your Own Business?”

Prior to entering recruiting, I worked for two terrific companies: Procter & Gamble and Polaroid Corporation.  I did a lot of things that I loved to do. I took pride in my companies’ brands. I loved giving presentations. I enjoyed the travel. I took fascination in new product introductions. I found joy in absolutely crushing the competition in shelf space, ad space, and in sales.  However, I had two frustrations. Read more.

8. RECRUITERS

“Should You Work with a Recruiter?”

Whether or not you should work with a recruiter depends upon your comfort level in working with other people about your income and upon your career goals and your urgency in finding employment. The best recruiters can help you in many ways. Read more.

9. NETWORK CONNECTIONS

“Your Know Network”

Today I so instinctively take the easy way to finding information and contacts.  I go to LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Job Boards, Business Directories, Google Search, and forget that the best network I have is the one made up of the people I already know. Read more.

11. NETWORKING FORUMS

“How to Pick a LinkedIn Group”

Different LinkedIn groups have different purposes. Some groups are directories of people in the same industry or who have the same interest. These groups are terrific for building networks or creating databases. You can pick nearly any business sector and find that there is LinkedIn group for that business sector. From there, you can build relationships to expand your network. Read more.

Other groups give terrific sources of information on how to get things done or how to find people who can help you get things done. These groups are really forums where people answer questions. The members of these forums tend are often very responsive and may give better help on topics that relate to products which have their own company forums.

LinkedIn: Can People Tell that I Have Looked at their Profile?

LinkedIn: Who Can See My Profile?

5 Simple Techniques to Get Rid Of Job Interview Anxiety

LISA EVANS, Fast Company contributor and freelance writer, uses her technique of helping readers make small changes for huge results in this article.  She writes,

Don’t let your nerves stand in the way of landing your dream job. Here’s how to put your best foot forward.

Source: How To Get Rid Of Job Interview Anxiety | Fast Company | Business + Innovation

5 Interview Questions Hiring Managers Must Avoid

I am not a lawyer.  I am a writer and corporate recruiter.

It is illegal for an employer to base a hiring decision on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.  An employer can’t ask whether a person is a citizen.  However, employers must verify that all employees are eligible to work in the United States.

If you are interviewing for a job and the employer asks you a question about one of those factors, you may find yourself in an awkward spot.  You can always ask the interviewer what the question has to do with the qualifications of the job.  You may also ask yourself whether you want to work for a company that would ask you any of those questions.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is the federal agency that oversees employment discrimination.  (1)

“The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person’s race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. It is also illegal to discriminate against a person because the person complained about discrimination, filed a charge of discrimination, or participated in an employment discrimination investigation or lawsuit.”

The guidelines from The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission specifically lists the laws pertaining to the factors that are illegal requirements for consideration for employment. (2)

• “Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin;
• The Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA), which protects men and women who perform substantially equal work in the same establishment from sex-based wage discrimination;
• The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), which protects individuals who are 40 years of age or older;
• Title I and Title V of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended (ADA), which prohibit employment discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities in the private sector, and in state and local governments;
• Sections 501 and 505 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibit discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities who work in the federal government;
• Title II of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA), which prohibits employment discrimination based on genetic information about an applicant, employee, or former employee; and
• The Civil Rights Act of 1991, which, among other things, provides monetary damages in cases of intentional employment discrimination.”

However, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) requires that all employers verify their employees’ legal status to work in the United States.  The specific method of verification comes from the requirement of all employers to complete the following form for all of its employees. (3)

“Form I-9 is used for verifying the identity and employment authorization of individuals hired for employment in the United States. All U.S. employers must ensure proper completion of Form I-9 for each individual they hire for employment in the United States. This includes citizens and noncitizens. Both employees and employers (or authorized representatives of the employer) must complete the form. On the form, an employee must attest to his or her employment authorization. The employee must also present his or her employer with acceptable documents evidencing identity and employment authorization. The employer must examine the employment eligibility and identity document(s) an employee presents to determine whether the document(s) reasonably appear to be genuine and to relate to the employee and record the document information on the Form I-9. The list of acceptable documents can be found on the last page of the form. Employers must retain Form I-9 for a designated period and make it available for inspection by authorized government officers. NOTE: State agencies may use Form I-9. Also, some agricultural recruiters and referrers for a fee may be required to use Form I-9.”

9 Great Ways to Find a Job Without Networking

I read a great deal about getting a job through direct referrals.  The NY Times has an article on companies using direct referrals for finding new employees.  Forbes also had an article on the same subject.  Networking for job seekers is important.  I have written several articles that discuss the topic of networking directly into a company.

Some career coaches recommend that you limit yourself to a dozen companies where you really want to work and use a direct referral to get into those companies.

Companies do use direct referrals.  As a contract recruiter, I have recruited for companies that also paid a referral fee to their employees for direct referrals.  Direct referrals come into the company with a solid reference from a person the company knows.  A company can evaluate the value of the referral based on the company’s knowledge of the person making the referral.

There are many opportunities that you will never find through your network alone.

Companies still use multiple resources for finding job applicants.

1. Recruiters
2. Job boards
3. Company websites
4. Newspapers
5. Trade journals
6. Internet want ads including newspapers and Craigslist
7. Social Media News Feeds
8. Press releases
9. Internet search Engines

Stay Focused

Using multiple resources to find a job can lead to a scattered search.  Stay focused on jobs that are best for you.  Pick companies that really interest you.

Unless you have unlimited time, don’t exhaust your network resources before you to turn to other resources for a job.  If you really need a job, contact and build your network daily while also using the other resources on a daily basis.

I created the website Find Jobs using Google Custom Search.  I find greater job search results using a search engine than using a job search website.  The website also has search engines for finding companies, people, and salaries.

Top Ten List of Why People Get Fired

Companies take risks when they hire people.  Employees have access to company property, information, and in some cases, company money.  In addition, employees interact with other employees and often have access to personal and professional information about other people in the company.  What companies expect from employees is honesty and top performance that brings value and goodwill to the company.

The reason that companies fire employees is failing to provide honesty, top performance, and to promote goodwill.  In working as a corporate recruiter, I have known of people who lost jobs for the following reasons.

Disclaimer:  I am not an attorney.  The information I am presenting comes from my professional experience as a recruiter.

1. Office romance can get you fired.  Certainly, sexual harassment can get you fired.

2. Falsifying information on a job application can get you fired.  Companies often do a thorough job of checking backgrounds, completing reference checks, obtaining copies of college transcripts, and verifying compensation.  Sometimes, discovery the false information on a job application does not happen until after a person has started to work for the new company.

3. Stealing is a common cause for firing.  One particular case that comes to mind is that of an employee who would make telephone sales calls and charge car mileage for driving to the customer.

4. Bringing illegal drugs to the workplace will get you fired.  I have known of more than instance when a company fired a person for possession of illegal substances in the workplace.  Because possession of illegal substances involves legal issues, companies need to handle the issue with help from legal authorities.
5.  Drinking on the job will get you fired.  Different companies handle people with drinking problems in different ways, depending on the company policy and the circumstances.

6. Losing a driver’s license may cost a person a job.  Repeated speeding violations, failing to appear to face traffic charges, failure to pay traffic fines, and driving under the influence of mind -altering chemicals can cost a person to lose a driver’s license.  Losing a driver’s license alone is generally not sufficient cause for termination.  If losing the license prevents a person from doing his or her job, then losing a driver’s license can cost a person a job.

7. Poor performance can cost a person a job.  Some companies use a forced ranking system as part of the company’s performance evaluation process.  Known as stack ranking, the process creates brackets.  Perhaps the best known is the 20-70-10 Employee Stack Ranking system.  Companies require managers to put each employee at some level of the stack.  Companies promote the top 20% tier.  They give standard pay raises to the middle 70% of the stack.  They fire the bottom 10 % of the employees.  Industry-wide, the process of “rank and yank” has mixed reviews.  Some managers consider the process as arbitrary and demotivating.

8.  Damaging company equipment can get you fired.  Operators of major equipment face large responsibility.

9. Using the Internet for personal use during company time can get you fired.  What you publish on the Internet anytime can get you fired as well.

10.  Making too many personal calls from work can get you fired.

Are you finding that searching for jobs with Google search is fruitless?  There is a reason for that.  The real jobs are on Google page 2.  Perhaps, it is better to say that the real jobs are on page 2 or greater.

Google ranks websites based on how many other sites link to those website not on the facts.  Therefore, the search results that you get when you are doing job searches on Google will show you the listings on the most popular job boards and job search engines first.

These jobs at the top of the listing are often not actual jobs. Rather, they link to pages don’t go to actual jobs listing.    Instead they go to The job listings you will see first are the jobs on Indeed, Monster, and other job listing websites.

The experience of trying to sort through job listings on the first page or even page or 2 of Google is that you keep finding the big job boards are just in the way of your search.

Google wants to rank pages based on the accuracy of the facts and has a process in development. (New Scientist http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22530102.600-google-wants-to-rank-websites-based-on-facts-not-links.html).

For now, job seekers will need to dig deeper into the back pages of search results to get the real job market and not just the bundle of highly linked websites that smother the top of the list.

As an illustration, I entered “product manager Houston TX” without the quotation marks.  I found ten job listings, none of which came from Indeed, Monsters, Career Builders, or Simply Hired.

As a matter of practice, try beginning your search on the back pages of the Google results.   You will be amazed at how many more jobs than what you have seen from continually conducting searches and reviewing what you find on page one of your Google returns.

For an in-depth look at conducting job searches on Google instead of going strictly to job boards, please visit an article I posted at this link: https://www.jaywren.com/google-job-searches/.

Prepare for the things to do in an exit interview.

Despite what some headhunters will tell when they are preparing you to leave your current company, there are benefits to attending and even excelling in the way you handle your exit interview.

Before resigning, weigh the pros and cons of leaving your current company.

Once you are committed to leaving, give the company two weeks’ notice.  Two weeks’ notice is common courtesy.  You owe your company no more.

Also, before you resign, remove your personal property from your workplace and download or delete your personal files from the company computers.  You do not want to run into your company holding your property until someone gets around to doing an inventory of what belongs to you and what belong to your employer.

Prepare to return company property.

When you go into an exit interview, bring the company property to the interview: e.g., keys to a company car, company laptop, mobile phone, etc.  Since you have already recovered all your property, put the burden on your employer to give you an inventory of any other property they believe that you need to return.  You may not have to offer to turn over the property during the exit interview.  However, having it on hand will make things simpler if your company decides to walk you out the door.

Prepare for questions that you have about compensation and benefits.

Prepare for a discussion of compensation due you upon leaving the company: unpaid vacation time, unpaid bonuses, and unpaid salary.  Your company should explain to you what money you have coming and when they will pay you.

Know the questions you need answering in transitioning or continuing your health benefits after you leave the company.

“COBRA generally requires that group health plans sponsored by employers with 20 or more employees in the prior year offer employees and their families the opportunity for a temporary extension of health coverage (called continuation coverage) in certain instances where coverage under the plan would otherwise end.  Department of Labor (http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/health-plans/cobra.htm)”

As you will discover from the DOL website, your employer owes you information on the way that your benefits extend beyond your employment.

Be positive but firm in your resignation.

Politely explain that it is time for you to move on.  Thank your employers for the support they have given you.  Ask for your employers’ direction about how you can transition your material and responsibilities smoothly and promptly.