Category Archives: Quotes

Career Planning

Career Planning: Weighing the Decision to Change Jobs

Quotes

Career Planning:  Just because you are unhappy with your current job does not mean that you should get a new one.  There are reasons to stay where you are even though you believe you might be happier somewhere else.

Are You in the Wrong Job?

If you feel unappreciated, are you in the wrong job?  By unappreciated, I mean that you experience these things.

  1. Your turn has come up for promotion, but the promotion goes to less qualified peers.
  2. Your company brings in management from the outside for jobs that should have.
  3. Your peers repeatedly get credit for the work you are doing.
  4. Your boss takes credit for your work.
  5. Your pay raise is smaller than the pay raises everyone else gets.
  6. Everything people say about you is negative.
  7. No one asks you to join in at breaks or after work.
  8. You believe that nothing you do makes a difference.
  9. You feel like an outsider.

Reasons Not to Change

Lost benefits: Companies increase vacation time and other benefits with the length of time people stay at a company.  time.

Marketability: Companies become concerned about hiring people who lack stability in their employment history.  The best employers lower the risk of investing time and money in hiring, onboarding, and training employees who don’t have the ability to stay and grow with a company.

Stress: A job search is stressful.  Furthermore, the first three months you are in a new job, employers are forming an opinion of you. The pressure to perform at once is stressful.

No Guarantees: Changing jobs does not guarantee that you will be happier.  You may find that the next job solves no problems.  You may be rushing from rut to move to another rut.

Additionally, changing jobs often means leaving friends and familiar routines to go to a place where you do not know anyone and where the people, the ways of working, and the culture are completely different.

Career Planning: Weighing the Decision to Change Jobs

Changing jobs might be the best option for you.  You can go to a place where you find greater satisfaction, increased pay, and increased career opportunity.  Nonetheless, weigh the benefits and risk to changing jobs.

 

Interview Tools

Job Search Tools that Can Land the Job You Deserve

Interviewing, Job Search, Quotes

Job Search Tools: Are stuck in your job search?  Perhaps the list of tools in the article will help you land the job you deserve.

Powerful Resume

Powerful Resumes: Are you sending out dozens of resumes and not getting job interviews. You might find the suggestions in my article “Powerful Resumes: The Critical Details for Getting Job Interviews” helpful.

In my “See All Posts” archives, you will find close to thirty articles on how to write a resume that will get you interviews.

Research Tools

Research gives you a critical advantage over people who don’t research companies, contacts, and job opportunities.

Before approaching a company directly, research it thoroughly. How is it structured? Bottler, distributor, direct, or broker sales? Public or private? Do you have a referral to help you get your foot in the door? Who are the key managers for the job you are seeking? To whom do these people report?

I remember driving to the main library in Houston.  This library had the information I needed to identify companies to pursue. With further research, I could learn what types of jobs these company offered and the products and services they produced. I could learn information about the key officers in the company. Often, I could find the addresses to send resumes.

With the Internet, I can get so much more information without leaving my desk.

I can still use the library.  I signed up for a library card. Now I can read library books on line.

With a little bit of effort, I can uncover information about companies to show the recruiter why I am the most qualified person for a job.

Job Search Tools

Read the want ads in the local newspaper, national publications, and especially trade journals. Job search engines and job boards will have job opportunities all over the country.  Become an expert on what is in the job market.

Lay out your goals as specifically as you can but be aware that the more flexible you are in terms of money, location, and opportunity the more opportunities you will have available to you. Understanding your goals will make you more effective in identifying job opportunities.

Recruiters

Types of recruiters: Contingency recruiter or retained recruiter?  Contingency recruiters work under contract for payment and successfully filling a job. A retained recruiter works under a contract that pays the recruiter a retainer fee to initiate a search and complete payment after the new hire starts to work.

Typically, contingency recruiters work on middle management searches.  On the other hand, retained recruiters are conducting searches where the compensation is above $250,000.

In practice, how a recruiter is compensated is not important.  The key information for you to know is whether the recruiter has contracts (contingency or retained) for conducting a search assignment.

Before you call a recruiter, be aware of the limitations that working with a recruiter might place on you. On the other hand, you should know the services that recruiters offer job applicants.

Do reference checks on recruiters. Recruiters are humans. Some you will like. Others you may not like.

Network Building Tools

Start with a list of all the people you believe can help you. These are people you know well enough that they will need no reminder of who you are. From there, make a list of everyone you have met since beginning your career.

In creating your list, include the phone number, email address, and mailing address of each of these people.

Ask for referrals of every person you contact.

From there, begin to use social media to identify people who can help you.

Be Organized

Make a list daily of your contacts, what you discussed what action you have taken and what action needs to be taken.  You might create a status board similar to the one in my article titled “Status Board.”

Headlines

Resume Headlines: What Good are They If No One Reads Your Resume?

Quotes, Recruiters, Resumes

Resume Headlines: Do headlines help or hinder in compelling the recruiter to read your resume?  What you say in the headline makes all the difference.

“Writing headlines is a specialty – there are outstanding writers who will tell you they couldn’t write a headline to save their lives.” – The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership, Bill Walsh

Additionally, my LinkedIn banner looks like this:

There are benefits and risks to using a headline. On one hand, they can raise the number of times your resume appears in keyword searches. Furthermore, an effective headline can increase the number of people who will read your resume.

On the other hand, based on the wording of your headline, a recruiter can decide whether to take time to read your resume or toss it. Additionally, they take up space where concise, compelling wording is critical.

My LinkedIn Headline

For my LinkedIn headline, I chose a title that I have used for over thirty years as a recruiter and combined that title with keywords that describe my services.

The World’s Noblest Headhunter, Business and Career Builder

I had an advantage is selecting this headline.  Over thirty years of experience have demonstrated that to me that the headline is memorable and that people respond to the headline.

Headlines Instead of Objectives or Summaries

A good place to insert the headline is in place of the objective statement or a summary of skills.  I generally don’t recommend stating an objective, with the possible exception of when the objective specific to the job and the company.  For example: Objective: To apply for the project manager position available at ABC company.

Likewise, as I have written elsewhere, stating a summary of experience skills at the opening of a resume is redundant to the content section of the resume. Therefore, I would recommend a resume headline over with an objective or a summary of skills and experience.

Resume Headline

Resume Headline: A Distraction or a Compelling Title

Quotes, Recruiters, Resumes

Resume Headline: Do headlines help or hinder in compelling the recruiter to read your resume?  What you say in the headline makes all the difference.

“Writing headlines is a specialty – there are outstanding writers who will tell you they couldn’t write a headline to save their lives.” – The Score Takes Care of Itself: My Philosophy of Leadership, Bill Walsh

Additionally, my LinkedIn banner looks like this:

There are benefits and risks to using a headline. On one hand, they can raise the number of times your resume appears in keyword searches. Furthermore, an effective headline can increase the number of people who will read your resume.

On the other hand, based on the wording of your headline, a recruiter can decide whether to take time to read your resume or toss it. Additionally, they take up space where concise, compelling wording is critical.

My LinkedIn Headline

For my LinkedIn headline, I chose a title that I have used for over thirty years as a recruiter and combined that title with keywords that describe my services.

I had an advantage is selecting this headline.  Over thirty years of experience have demonstrated that to me that the headline is memorable and that people respond to the headline.

Headlines Instead of Objectives or Summaries

A good place to insert the headline is in place of the objective statement or a summary of skills.  I generally don’t recommend stating an objective, with the possible exception of when the objective specific to the job and the company.  For example: Objective: To apply for the project manager position available at ABC company.

Likewise, as I have written elsewhere, stating a summary of experience skills at the opening of a resume is redundant to the content section of the resume. Therefore, I would recommend a resume headline over with an objective or a summary of skills and experience.

Powerful Resumes

Powerful Resumes: The Critical Details for Getting Job Interviews

Quotes, Resumes, Success

Powerful Resumes: Are you sending out dozens of resumes and not getting job interviews. Here are some resume basics that will increase the power of your resume.

Truth and Accuracy

Lying or stating inaccurate information on your resume can cost you an interview. Furthermore, lies can live forever.  Six months into the job, your employers might call you out or even fire you for lying to them about the things you put in your resume.

Often hiring managers and recruiters know whether your resume is accurate without even speaking with you.  Experienced recruiter’s, especially those who specialize in your field, have the knowledge and can access additional facts on the accuracy of your resume.

Hard Skills versus Soft Skills – Facts versus Opinions

Skills come in two categories: hard skills and soft skills.

Hard skills examples:

  • Skilled database developer: I created the first-ever, company-wide database of clients.
  • Skilled website developer: I can code in HTML, css, PHP, and JavaScript.  I am the company’s webmaster.

Soft skill examples:

  • Versatile
  • Intelligent
  • Conscientious
  • Loyal hardworking

As a recruiter, I view a simple list of soft skills of little value. Stated without substantiation, soft skills are just puffery.  A list of soft skills shows a lack of thought about the compelling and persuasive power of your resume. To me as I recruiter, powerful resumes describe what you have done, not what you think of yourself.

However, soft skills are important to an employer.  During the interview, the best hiring managers will ask you for examples that illustrate your soft skills. Here are two examples of how a candidate who has the soft skills of an effective communicator can illustrate those soft skills.

  • Served as the company spokesperson to the press, radio, and television.
  • Edited the company’s monthly newsletter.
  • Wrote the copy for the company’s annual report.

Stating an Objective

At one time, stating an objective at the top of their resume was common.

However, stating an objective is often a waste of wording in a document that must grab the reader’s attention immediately and hold the reader’s attention. As a recruiter, I am less interested in reading some general objective than I am in seeing whether you are qualified for a job. Like most recruiter’s, I spend just a few seconds reading a resume to decide whether to keep it or toss it. Although I want to match applicants with the jobs they want, I first want to see if they can land that job.

On the other hand, when people do include an objective statement, they can give it meaning by making it specific to the job for which they are applying.

Sample:

Objective: To apply for the program manager vacancy at your company.

Powerful resumes get straight to the point of your skills, accomplishments, and qualifications.

Grammatically Perfect

Seeing grammatical errors on resumes frustrates me as a recruiter. Suppose I have a perfect candidate. I am excited to present a resume to a client. But I have to stop, contact the applicant, and get a corrected copy of the resume.

Be careful about using grammar that is non-standard in U.S. correspondence.  One case in point is failing to use the Oxford comma for words in a series.  Here is an example of omitting the Oxford comma.  “Two amateurs, Chef Francois and Chef Diego prepared our meals.”

Here is the same sentence with the Oxford comma.  “Two amateurs, Chef Francois, and Chef Diego prepared our meals.”

Here is a bullet point illustration in a resume.

  • I increased sales, reduced costs, and expanded market share.

Powerful resumes contain standard U.S. grammar.

Powerful Resumes

Here are some other articles  on writing resumes that will land you job interviews.
Resumes Must Close the Sale on Getting a Job Interview
Resume Writing Made Simple: Here’s How
The Simple Way to Write a Killer Resume 

Attitude

Attitude: You Own It. Make It Amazing.

Quotes, Success

Attitude: How is it that some people remain calm, positive, and objective, when life gives them challenges and hurdles?  Is this powerful trait of attitude management is a teachable skill.

Understanding Moods and Attitudes

When I am in hungry, tired, or rushed, things can seem more personal.   I may feel more anxious or impatient.   My mood declines and my attitude declines with it.  I may feel angry over things that might not otherwise bother me.

It is easier for me to treat other people the way I feel.  Then I infect them with my bad attitude.  By simply taking a deep breath, having lunch, or taking a break, I can often change the way everything looks and improve the way I treat other people.

By understanding that other people experience the same decline in attitudes based on what is going on with them, I can avoid catching a bad attitude from them.  They are human.  I am human.  I can allow them the same understanding people have so often given me.

My response to other people in this light relieves me of the stress of owning their bad feelings.  I can let those actions toward me to pass.  I feel healthier when I can to see that, as humans, we share the same wiring.  I can find compassion for people who need compassion.  I can find patience with people who are being impatient.  I can stop and listen to people who are being rude without agreeing but simply letting them air out their thinking.

Conditions Affect Moods

Driving has a profound territorial impact on attitudes.  In my car, I have a sense that I am in my personal moving territory.  My mind says that the area around my car is like the yard around my house. It is my space, my yard, my safe distance between from other people and cars, my mobile territory.

If another driver moves into my mobile territory, I have a sense of violation and frustration.  My sense of mobile territory can even extend to a sense of injustice when I see a driver cut off another driver.

Among the thousands of other drivers on the highways every day, there are people who feel overwhelmed, experiencing grief, living in fear in failure, or experiencing other very difficult situations. There are other people who are simply tired and hungry and have just had a dreadful day and caught a bad attitude from someone else.

However, I can’t change their attitude.  On the other hand. I can change my attitude.  Maintaining a bad attitude is painful.   If I allow myself to stay angry or anxious, or fearful, I am trying to punish other people when I am hurting myself.  Bad attitudes are very painful.

 Furthermore, good attitudes have so many benefits.

  1. I am healthier.
  2. I feel better.
  3. I can focus.
  4. I can feel joy in the present moment.
  5. I can celebrate life as a flow of passing events.

When someone has a cold, I do not see them as being a bad person.  I see them as a person with a temporary disease.  When someone has a bad attitude, I see them as a person with a temporary attitude disorder.

When you can, avoid people with bad attitudes.

Most people avoid those types of people.  However, when that person is your boss or coworker, you may find that the best way to keep from catching negative attitudes from these people only takes some practical steps.

  1. Be very positive and upbeat around these people.
  2. If the person is your boss, try to understand what your boss wants done and try to do those things without expectation of approval.
  3. See them as people and not as evil forces.
  4. Angry, rude, difficult, even obnoxious people are just people.   When I see them as human just as I am human, I realize that they are the one in pain not me.

Surrounding Myself with Positive People

The most important thing that I can do is to stay close to positive people and read or watch positive things. I love the healing that I get from positive people, places, and things.  Today I am going to catch the good attitudes and heal the bad ones, in myself and in the people around me.

Listening Failure

Listening Failure: Reasons Great Ideas Are Never Heard

Quotes, Success

Listening Failure: What makes us ineffective listeners? What are solutions to overcoming listening failure? Here are steps for more effective communication.

The Value of Overcoming Listening Failure

Effective listening is important in all parts of our lives.  In our personal relations, effective communications can help us build strong, long-term bonds. In networking, effective communications can help us create trust with the new people we meet. Whether interviewing for a job or building success in our current job, effective communications will help us create success.

Take Away the Bias

Listening failure happens on both sides of the table.  To prevent these failures, both the listener and the speaker must keep an open mind.  They must set aside their feelings and focus on the meaning of the message.

Better Speakers Create Better Listeners

More effective speakers deliver clear, concise presentations.  They connect their message to the conscious mind of the speaker.  The seek feedback from the listener to create a more effective message.

Great Listeners Create Better Speakers

The most effective people know how to ask great questions and to learn from listening. ~ www.jaywren.com

Great listeners look for the message and help the speaker present their information.  They listen without judgement. When appropriate, they ask questions and collaborate in making the presentation a discussion.

Tactfully, of course, great leaders teach the team how to give persuasive presentations.

Steps to Prevent Listening Failure

For the listeners and the speaker, there are basics to have great communications.

  1. Stop what you are doing.
  2. Silence your phone.
  3. Look at the person who is speaking.
  4. Ask questions when you need clarification.
  5. Examine the discussion to see whether there is a recommended action.
  6. At the conclusion, repeat the subject to your speaker and ask if they have additional, helpful information.

Conclusion

In conclusion, listening failure happens on both sides of the table.  To prevent these failures, both the listener and the speaker must keep an open mind.  They must set aside their feelings and focus on the message not the messenger. Both sides must eliminate distractions and focus on creating effective communications.

Interview Killers

Interview Killers: 13 Things That Will Undermine Your Success

Quotes, Success

Interview killers:  How well you interview will decide whether you get the job. Here are thirteen things that can undermine your interview.

Avoiding Interview Killers

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

Arrive Late

You should plan for traffic delays.  Arrive thirty minutes early. Wait nearby to enter the building. Go into the interview five minutes early. Introduce yourself and say that you are there a bit early for your interview.

Wear the wrong clothes

Appropriate clothing will vary from job to job.  If you need to be dressed to go to work that day, wear work clothes.  If you are interviewing for a job for which you will have to wait for an offer, consider wearing clothes that are one level above the job.  For example, if the job requires jeans, consider wearing khakis.  If the job requires khakis, consider wearing dress slacks or a skirt.  If the job requires slacks or a skirt, wear a suit.

Leave Your Cell Phone Active

Turn your cell phone off before you entering the building for your interview.  Do note mute your cell phone.  Turn the power off on your cell phone.  For the short time you have in the interview, you do not need distractions from your cell phone.  If you even check your phone during the interview, you have lost the job offer.

Act Rude

Be courteous.  Know and say the interviewer’s name. Give the person a firm, but not strong handshake. Introduce yourself.   Thank the interviewer for meeting with you.

Bring up Subjects that are Not About the Interview

Help the interviewer focus on the interview.  Offer the interviewer a copy of your resume before you sit down.

Fidget or Act Restless

There are simple ways to relieve your tension.  Use the best body language.  Take a couple of breaths before entering the interview.  Make eye contact.  If direct eye contact makes you uncomfortable, look at the person’s face.  Focus on what you are saying and not what you are seeing.  Smile.   Sit up straight.  Gently hold in your stomach.  Keep your shoulders comfortably level.  Practice sitting this way daily.  It is good for your back, neck, and core, and will help you interview more successfully.  Speak loudly enough that the interviewer can hear you.  Keep your arms open.  Make occasional gestures as you are speaking.  As you behave relaxed, you will become relaxed.

Talk About Yourself and Not About Your Qualifications

Focus on your qualifications for the job.  Talk about what you can do and not about who you are.   Be specific when discussing how your experience fits the job requirements.

Go to the Interview Without Preparing

Show that you are ready for the meeting.  Refer to the things you have read about the company and about the job.

Act as Though You are Not Interested in the Job

Ask questions about the company and the job based on the information you found through your research and through reading the job description. Write a list of questions as part of your preparation before going to the interview.

Say Negative Things about Anyone

Talk positively about your present employer and your past employers. The way to keep things positive is to focus on your interest in the company that is interviewing you.

Dominate the Conversation

Allow the interviewer to lead the discussion.  Answer the questions not the things that the questions bring to your mind.

Leave Without Understanding What You Should Expect Next

If the interviewer has not told you what to expect next, ask the person when you will be getting information on the company’s interest in meeting with you again or making you an offer.  Express you interest in the job and say that you look forward to meeting again.  If the interviewer has a card on the desk, ask for one.

Fail to Follow Up

Successful applicants send a thank-note. The note shows that your interest in the job. Furthermore, the note shows that you appreciate the time hiring managers spent with you.  Equally, in the thank-you note you can request feedback on how well you performed in the interview.

Interview Killers

In conclusion, these things are interview killers.

  1. Arrive Late
  2. Wear the Wrong Clothes
  3. Leave Your Cell Phone Active
  4. Act Rude
  5. Bring Up Subjects that are Not About the Interview
  6. Fidget or Act Restless
  7. Talk About Yourself and not About the Your Qualifications
  8. Go to the Interview Without Preparing
  9. Act as Though You are Not Interested in the Job
  10. Say Negative Things about Anyone
  11. Dominate the Conversation
  12. Leave Without Understanding What You Should Expect Next
  13. Fail to Follow Up

More Powerful Career Articles
The Best Time to Change Jobs
The 30-60-90-Day Plan for Jobs and Job Interviews

Measured Steps

Measured Steps: Overcoming Procrastination and Achieving Success

Quotes, Success

The simple way to overcome procrastination and complete large tasks is to complete a set of measured steps every day.
Jay Wren

Measured Steps: Some projects require months, even years to complete. How do successful people set deadlines and achieve success throughout the year?

Can’t afford project managers? Here are steps to create your own system for managing large projects.

Project Management

Large organizations have people who specialize in project management.  Many of these people have years of experience. Additionally, project managers often have certifications that qualify them to manage large projects.

But what about the people who don’t have the capacity to hire project managers? How do sole proprietors and small start-ups keep projects moving ahead on time?

Procrastination

Anyone can suffer from procrastination.  Especially, large projects can discourage people from even starting to work on them.

The easiest way to overcome procrastination is to take one simple action. If you need to go for a run, first just lace your shoes.

Simple, Identical, Daily Reminders Are Useless

For large projects, a simple, daily, identical reminder to work on routine daily tasks is pointless.  Why even create daily general reminder for something that you do every day?
Here are some examples routine tasks that you can omit from your daily reminders.: read emails, return phone calls, attend 10:00 AM daily meeting.

On the other hand, you should have a list of tasks as they pertain to specific issues.  For example, “Call ABC’s buyer to confirm the order.” “Schedule a meeting with the distribution team to solve delivery issues.”

Specific Measured Steps

For me, dividing a task into smaller tasks is effective for completing long-term larger projects.  I schedule these steps according to priority and deadline. I measure them in terms of details, time, date, and time allowed for each of these steps.

Whether a person is writing a book or starting a retail business, they can create a list of the steps that they must take to reach finish the project.  Then break these measured steps into achievable daily goals.

In some cases, you must have tasks running simultaneously.  Even though the tasks are simultaneous, you can’t do any two things at the same time. Therefore, break your task into units that you can complete during a single day.

List these things on your daily calendar as specific measured steps in terms of details and time you will spend on a task and the time you will start it.

Conclusion

Can’t afford project managers? These steps help you create your own system for managing large projects.

Deep Breath

Deep Breath: The Simple Step to Mental Clarity

Quotes, Success

A deep breath will never dissolve my problems, but it will give me a clear head to solve them.
~ www. jaywren.com

Deep breath:  How does this simple action lead to greater success?  What are the many rewards of focusing on our breathing?

Health

Worrying about our problems steals our energy.  Our muscles tighten.  Our nerves become stressed and our nervous system becomes out of balance. We can get headaches, stomach aches. and aches in our back and neck.  Worrying is dangerous to our health, because it puts stress on our internal organs, especially our stomach and our heart.

Mind

Anxiety clutters our mind. Rather than dissolving our fears, anxiety hardens and fixes fear. We put the things that bother us under a mental microscope. We lose sight of the big picture.

And what am I really doing when I am worrying? I am not solving my problems. I am just scaring myself with my own thinking.

A Deep Breath is Normal

Breathing is healthy and normal. Panic causes shortness of breath. The decrease in oxygen only further increases the mental and physical harm of anxiety. Therefore, the physical action of a deep breathe helps restore our oxygen levels to a normal state.

According to Harvard Health Publishing, every healthy person is capable of taking a deep breath. However, we simply don’t use this normal, healthy process.

The Benefits

When we take a deep breath, our chest and lungs expand. The extra oxygen from deep breathing helps restore our mind and body to a centered and healthier state. We suffer less from nervous and physical tension.

Our problems still exist. But with a deep breath we can have greater mentality clarity to solve our problems. Focusing on our breathing helps us to return the present moment. We can look at our problems objectively. Our problems don’t dissolve, but solutions are easier to see.

Furthermore, we become available to our friends, our coworkers, and supervisors. Our lives not only become more productive with a deep breath.  They become enjoyable.