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.

Interview Preparation: Three Steps That Will Land You the Job

Interview Preparation: Are you frustrated with rejection when you have the qualifications for the job? These three steps will help.

Fifty percent of the effort for the best interviews is in the preparation. ~ www.jaywren.com

There are three distinct steps in preparing for an interview.

#1 Interview Preparation: Everything About You

In the first step, review your qualifications.  This step will organize your thinking about the things you want the interviewer to know about you.

In writing your resume, you will have begun to work on this step.  Ensure that you can discuss from memory the dates and places where you where you have worked.  Furthermore, prepare to present your qualifications as accomplishments.

In the United States, applicants for jobs in research, education, and medicine often use a curriculum vitae.

# 2 Interview Preparation: Everything About the Company

The second step in preparing for an interview is to research the company and research the people at the company where you are interviewing.

The Internet is a powerful tool in this step.

Research the directions to location of the interview. Your smartphone can direct you to the location.  However, having to follow your smartphone in traffic is stress that you don’t need.  Additionally, know where to park before you arrive at your destination.

Furthermore, is this a location where you want to work?
Then, research the details of the company business.  What is unique about the company?  Why do you want to work for this company?  Can you explain to the interviewer the reasons you find the company attractive?

Additionally, learn about the people you will meet.  Are these people you want to work with every day? Can you tell the interviewers why you are excited to meet them?

Thoroughly understand the experience and qualifications listed in the job description.  If the company does not publish a job description, find job descriptions for similar jobs at other companies.

#3 Interview Preparation: Everything About the Match

Prepare to discuss how your qualifications are a match for the job and for the company that is interviewing you.  In this step, merge the preparation you have done on presenting your qualifications with your research on the company.

Furthermore, show how you experience makes you the perfect match with the job requirements.

Based on your research, make a list of the things you don’t know about the job and the company.  Prepare questions that you fill in the gaps between what you know and what you need to know.

Do mock presentations.  Become confident that you can show that you are the best candidate for the job.

In Conclusion

You are competing against other candidates.  Most of them have the qualifications to get the job.  Separate yourself from the competition by using the steps in this article to prepare for the interview.

Interview Feedback: How a Thank You Letter Can Land You a Job

Interview Feedback: Have you had interviews and have no idea how well the interview went? A thank you letter can help you land the job.

“If you need interview feedback, sometimes all you need to do is ask for it.” www.jaywren.com

Interview Feedback: How A Thank You Letter Can Land You a Job

After an interview, you should always send a thank you letter to your interviewer. You are in competition with other candidates.  Therefore, setting yourself apart from those candidates is important in getting a job offer.

A Thank-You Letter Can Help You Do Several Things.

You can reinforce your interest in the job.  Additionally, you can reinforce your qualifications for the job.

Also, the thank you letter gives you an opportunity to ask for interview feedback and to ask for another meeting.

Who Gets an Interview Thank You Letter?

Send a thank you letter to everyone who met you.  If you are working with a recruiter, send the letter to the hiring managers and a blind copy the recruiter.  Recruiters have an interesting role between you and the company.  They can help reinforce your interests and your qualifications for the job.  Keeping the recruiters informed is important to enabling them to help you.

Note that both letters have a call to action: that is, you ask for a time to meet again.

Email or Postal Letter?

A thank you email helps you respond promptly.

A thank you letter is more formal and more impressive.

These formats will help you write a post-interview thank you letter in either format.

Sample Email Thank-You Letter

Name of Recipient:

The purpose of this email is to thank you for meeting with me to discuss my qualifications for the [name of position].

I am excited about your opportunity.

When may I meet with you again to discuss your opportunity further?

Thank you,

Your Name
Phone Number
Email address

Postal Thank-You Letter

I created a lengthier, more detailed discussion that might help you remind the hiring manager of your qualifications and your interest.  You can add a discussion like the one in the postal cover letter to the email cover letter as well.

Your information

Street address
City, state, zip
Phone number
Email address

Date

Contact’s information

Name, titles
Company name
Street address
City, state, zip
Phone number
Email address

Dear [Name of Hiring Manager]:

Thank you for meeting with me this morning.  After our meeting, I am even more excited about the possibility of working for your company.

I believe that I can contribute at once to your business.  Furthermore, I have accomplishments in the following areas that crossover to the job you have available:

Increased administrative efficiency 20%
Reduced 3rd-party contract costs 30%
Trained 6 new hires, all of whom have been promoted
Four-year member of the President Sales Club.

Your description of the responsibilities, the team environment, and the growth plan for your company tell me that your job is the job I want and that your company is the place where I want to work.

I look forward to being invited back for another meeting.

When may I speak with you again?

Thank you again for your time.

Sincerely,

Your Signature

Your Name Typed

In Conclusion

In these examples, I created two bodies of content.  The shorter you make your letter the better. However, if you believe that making the letter more detailed, and therefore, longer to read will help you get to a job offer.

The Best Job Applicants Do These Seven Things.

The best job applicants do things that land them job offers. Furthermore, they set themselves apart from other job applicants to be the person companies want to hire.

“In a job interview, it is far better to get a job offer than to have to learn from your mistakes.” ~ www.JayWren.com

The Best Job Applicants Do These Seven Things.

#1 Show they are interested in the job.

The best job applicants come prepared with information on the job.  Furthermore, they may come prepared with information on the people who are interviewing job applicants.

Research on companies is easy.  Additionally, when the best job applicants know the names of the people they will be meeting, they research the profile of these people on Facebook and LinkedIn.

#2 Thoroughly understand the job description.

Additionally, they know the requirements of the job and how they have the qualification for the job.  They prepare to how their qualifications are a match for the job.

#3 Bring the right tools to the interview.

What you bring to any business meeting will make or bring your success in that meeting.  Getting to a business meeting to discover that you do not have the things you need is not only embarrassing, it is often a business-meeting killer.  I recommend that you buy a portfolio case or a briefcase that you use just for meetings.  Keep the case stocked with the materials that you will take to every meeting.

#4 Listen to the interview questions.

Some of the feedback I got on candidates is that they do not answer the questions the interviewer asked.  They gave answers about the subject in the question.  However, the best job applicants listen to the interviewer and answer their questions.

#5 Ask for the job.

I have had countless applicants fail to get a job offer, because they left the hiring manager uncertain about whether they had an interest in the job.

You are not the only applicant in the interview process. If three equally qualified applicants compete for a job and only one is expressing an interest in getting the job, the hiring managers have an easy decision. They will offer the job to the person who wants the job.

They simply say that they want the job and state why they want it.

#6 The best job applicants send a thank you note.

A thank you note can remind the interviewer of your ability to do the job.  Furthermore, a thank you note shows interest in the job and respect for the interviewer’s time.

#7 Arrive Early.

Arriving early is an infinite amount of time.  Arriving after the time of your appointment means you are late.  The best job applicants arrive early.

Jay Wren Consumer Client List – Building a Business Never Ends

For me, building a successful business never ends. It is a continual process of expanding my skills and expanding my network, of adapting and innovating to win business.

Jay Wren Partial Client List of Companies I Have Served

Building a business or a career is a continual process of expanding your goods, services, skills, and network. The day I sat down to start my career as a recruiter; I had a telephone, an empty legal pad, and a box of blank 5 x 8 index cards. My contact management systems today holds tens of thousands of contacts. These are people I have personally tracked and for whom I created files. Most of them I have reached out to by phone, email, or professional networks. I still make new connections every day. Little has changed except that my file system has gone from paper to a computer.

I have continually added clients.

Here is a partial list of companies that I served.

  1. PepsiCo
  2. Pepsi Bottling Group
  3. Frito-Lay
  4. Coca Cola, USA
  5. Coca Cola Foods
  6. Mobil Oil Company
  7. Soft Soap
  8. Pillsbury Green Giant
  9. International Playtex
  10. Quaker Oats
  11. Dannon Corporation
  12. No Nonsense Fashions
  13. Coca-Cola Foods
  14. Del Monte Foods
  15. The Clorox Company
  16. Nestle
  17. Brach & Brock
  18. Catalina Marketing
  19. Health Resource Corporation
  20. Majers Corporation
  21. Welch Foods
  22. Softsoap
  23. E & J Gallo
  24. Sunny Delight
  25. M & M Mars
  26. Tambrands
  27. Nabisco
  28. News America Marketing
  29. El Dorado Marketing
  30. Imagitas
  31. ConAgra Foods
  32. ConAgra Armour Swift-Eckrich
  33. Polaroid Corporation
  34. Dial Corporation
  35. Dep Corporation
  36. United Vintners
  37. 7-Up
  38. Miller Brewing Company
  39. 13-30 Corporation
  40. Hain Celestial Group
  41. Q-Interactive
  42. Label Dollars
  43. Promo Edge
  44. Centiv
  45. The Sunflower Group
  46. PromoWorks
  47. The Wine Spectrum of Coca Cola
  48. Kaiser-Roth
  49. DSD Communications
  50. Black & Decker
  51. ActMedia
  52. Linkewell Health
  53. Bush Brothers Beans
  54. Marketing Technology Solutions
  55. Sunny D
  56. Twenty-Ten Corporation
  57. InStore Broadcasting Network
  58. Insignia Pops
  59. The Beecham Group
  60. GlaxoSmithKline – GSK
  61. Jacobs Suchard
  62. Cody Kramer
  63. SVP Worldwide
  64. Mauna Loa
  65. Garden Burger
  66. EAS
  67. New World Pasta Company
  68. Vacation Connections
  69. Lala USA
  70. Continental Promotion Group
  71. Kayser Roth
  72. Morningstar Farms
  73. Duracell
  74. Kiss Products
  75. Phillips Food Brokerage
  76. Unicous Marketing
  77. Kelley Clarke Food Brokerage
  78. Wizards of the Coast
  79. Oberto Sausage
  80. Fanfare Media
  81. Linkwell Communications
  82. Lindt
  83. Nurserymen’s Exchange
  84. Maybelline
  85. Advantage 360
  86. American Italian Pasta
  87. Warner Lambert
  88. Fuel Rewards/Centego
  89. First Flavor
  90. Potlatch Corporation
  91. Crossmark Food Brokerage
  92. RB (Reckitt Benckiser)
  93. Marketing Force
  94. J&J Snack Foods Corporation
  95. Cartera Commerce Inc.
  96. Alcon Laboratories
  97. Ray-O-Vac
  98. Naterra
  99. ICOM
  100. Slim Fast (Unilever)
  101. Potlatch Corporation
  102. Dean Foods
  103. …and others

Jay Wren Client List: Building a Successful Business or Career Never Ends.

Interview Tips: How Do You Get from a Handshake to a Job Offer?

Interview tips: Do you have a job interview coming up and are not sure how to prepare? Even worse, are you getting interviews but no job offers?  These tips will help you get a job offer.

Interview Tips: How Do You Get from a Handshake to a Job Offer?

Use these 5 interview tips to cross the maze to getting a job offer.  Hiring managers want to hire you when they invite you to an interview.  Make their job easy.

Say That You Want the Job.

This tip for getting a job offer sounds obvious.  However, I have had countless applicants fail to get a job offer, because they left the interview with the hiring manager uncertain about whether the applicants had an interest in the job.

You are not the only applicant in the interview process. If three equally qualified applicants compete for a job and only one is expressing an interest in getting the job, the hiring managers have an easy decision. They will offer the job to the person who wants the job.

Simply say that they you want the job and why you want it.

Use Facts of Your Accomplishments.

Don’t use a list of adjective about yourself.  Avoid describing yourself as outstanding, motivated, organized, etc.  These words have no value.

Use the facts of your success.

For example, you doubled the business.  At the same time, you reduced costs twenty-five percent.  You hired six people who got promoted.

These facts show the hiring managers you can do a great job at their company.

Show How Your Skills Match the Job Description.

Before you go to the interview, study the job description.  List your skills with each qualification the hiring company requires.

Prepare a presentation either on paper or on your laptop to show hiring managers how your skills match what their company is looking for in the person they are hiring.

Ask Questions.

Don’t make the interview about you.  Have the good manners to ask hiring managers about themselves and their career.

Certainly, ask questions about the company.

Say some good things about the hiring manager’s comments and about the company.  Humility is a valuable trait for getting a job offer.  Hiring managers want to hire people who fit in with other people as well as people they like.  Show the humility to show an interest in the hiring manager and the company.

Avoid Jargon.

Every company has its jargon.  The people in the company fall into using these words as part of the workday.

If you are transitioning from the military or interviewing for a job that is in a different industry, be especially careful about avoiding jargon that will confuse the interviewer.

Did You Pass or Fail that Interview?

Resume Cover Letters: Do You Have the Perfect Resume and No Job Interviews?

Resume Cover Letters: How important is your resume cover letter?  It is as important as your resume for getting an interview.

Resume Cover Letters: Do You Have the Perfect Resume and No Job Interviews?

Do you have the perfect resume and not getting interviews?  The reason could be your cover letter.

If your cover letter does not compel the reader to read your resume, either you are applying for the wrong job or, quite simply, your cover letter failed.

There are some simple steps to writing an effective resume cover letter.

The first sentence must state the purpose of the cover letter.  For example, your opening sentence might read like this: “The purpose of the cover letter is to submit my resume for [name of position].”

Second, the letter should be short.  Recruiters do little more than glance at a resume.  They are sorting out the resumes of people who are not a fit for the job.  Therefore, recruiters should be able to glance at your cover letter and feel compelled to read your resume.

Third, you need to show enthusiasm for the job.  Your enthusiasm sends positives signals to recruiters that your application is worth their time.

Lastly, your cover letter should have a call to action.  Ask when you can speak or meet with the recruiter.

Sample Email Cover Letter

Name of Recipient:

The purpose of this email is to submit my resume for [name of position].

I am excited about your opportunity.

Are you available in the next week for a phone call?

Your Name
Your Phone Number
Your email address

Postal Cover Letter

Your Name
Address, City, ST ZIP Code [Optional: Add if your address shows you are local]
Telephone
Email

Date

Recipient Name
Title [if you know it]
Company
Address
City, State ZIP Code

Dear Recipient Name:

The purpose of this email is to submit my resume for [name of position].

I am excited about your opportunity.

Are you available in the next week for a phone call?

[Signature]
Your Name

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