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.

Overqualified: How to Get Interviews that Match Your Skills

Overqualified: Are you frustrated, because hiring companies will not see you for jobs you can do easily?  You are not alone.  Here are the reasons why you are not getting interviews and what you can do about it.

The Risks to Employers of Hiring Overqualified People

Speaking as a recruiter, I can tell you that my clients focus on specific skills.  These clients want to hire qualified candidates. However, they avoid overqualified applicants.

Why? Overqualified people are a risk of leaving as soon as they find a job at their skill level.   Vacancies are a burden.  They damage morale and productivity.  Filling vacancies takes time away from other company efforts. Furthermore, staffing fees are costly, especially when searching for highly qualified candidates.

The Risks to You for Interviewing Job Below You Qualifications

Taking a job below your qualifications damages your career.  You risk creating a picture of yourself as backslider.  You raise questions about your ability to continue to grow.  Furthermore, you may raise questions about what happened to push you back in your career.

How to Get Great Interviews with Companies Who Need Your Experience

Case Study:

Bob (not the real name): “How I should format my resume for the greatest success?”

Me: “As a person with advanced degrees and advanced qualifications, you should consider two formats for you resume: A Curriculum Vitae (CV) format or a resume format. Here are two articles that may help.

Bob:” How should I list my skills in a resume?”

Me: “Be specific. List your qualifications listed in the job description. For example, I once had a search for a company that sold perishable products (products types are different from this example). I had a resume for a general manager who was perfect for the job. His resume showed that he had canned goods experience.  However, his resume did not show is that he also had the required perishable foods experience at the same company.

After I filled the job, I learned that he was qualified for the job.

Bob: “How do I select companies?”

Me: “My recommendation is that you target specific jobs, not just every job opening. Identify roles that match your skills and get to know people who work at places that hire people for those roles.

Professional and Personal Network

Use your current close professional and personal network more frequently than you use a broad network of people on LinkedIn.

When introducing yourself via a referral, first ask for permission to use the person as a reference.

Where you have friends, who want to help you, ask them to forward your resume to a professional at a place where you want to work. Additionally, ask them to copy you on the resume.  Then you follow up directly with the new contact.”

Sharing Economy: Finding Gigs for Your Assets and Skills

The Sharing Economy:  The purpose of this article is to help job seekers find income quickly and help employed people quickly find supplemental income. With the Internet expansion and coincidental high unemployment from the 2008 recession, companies began to spring up to connect personal asset sharing with consumers. The development of phone applications has increased the ease for making these connections.

For many people, this article will serve as a reminder of the opportunities for short-term, immediate ways of making money.  For others, this article may help people understand how they can quickly make money by working with sharing companies.

Sharing Economy Keywords

Knowing the nomenclature of the sharing economy will help you locate opportunities on the Internet.  Here are some of the categories of gigs and asset sharing.

  • Vehicle or equipment renting
  • Overnight accommodations
  • Ridesharing alternatives to taxis and busses
  • Delivery services from store to consumers
  • Experts on demand
  • Crowdfunding to raise money from a large number of people who contribute small amounts of money
  • Ad-supported video sharing

The examples above will help you with keywords for searches to find ways of making money. Here are additional keywords to help you identify opportunities in the sharing economy.

  • Sharing Economy, obviously
  • Peer-to-Peer Redistribution Markets
  • Social Commerce
  • Crowdfunding
  • Collaborative Consumption

The Benefits of the Gig Economy

For 33 years as a recruiter, I earned a living by filling one job and then another.  I worked under contract with multiple companies.  Essentially, my company worked gigs or projects. I did not receive a regular paycheck from an employer.  The hiring companies contracted their search assignments out to me.  I took advantage of social media and a monthly newsletter to promote my business.

I worked gig on contract.

However, I had the benefits of setting my own hours, living where I wanted to live, and increased my income based on my performance. The gig economy enables workers to have those freedoms.

On the other hand, my income was uncertain. Again, as I stated earlier, I did not have a regular salary from a large company.

Sharing Economy is Not Perfect

A few years ago, my firm tested working a shared economy recruiting site.  Using a sharing service was different from the way my firm had always done business.

The sharing company had a website for finding and applying for contracts with their clients.  Once my firm obtained a contract for a search, we uploaded applicants’ resumes to the website.

The reason that I began to work with this job search network was that one of my major clients had turned all of its search assignments over to this company and listed me as one of their preferred firms.  To continue to work with this client company, I had to coordinate with the company’s chosen job-sharing search company.

My firm did have an offer extended through the sharing site.  I received more searches, but the revenue per search was lower.  I found that for my company I could make more money more quickly by sticking to my business model of working directly with hiring companies. Unlike working with my long-time clients where I typically had exclusivity, the job-sharing company assigned their searches to a number of recruiting firms.

Additionally, I began to become concerned that once my recruited candidates were in the system of the job-sharing company, I was not able to track how this company might be managing these job seekers for future searches.

Competition in the Sharing Community

How well job-sharing works for you depends in part on the number of competitors you have. The more people a gig company hires increases the power of the company to serve their customers. However, the more people a gig company hires reduces your opportunities for work.

In my experience, the gig job search company I joined listed dozens of jobs. However, I had to compete with countless other recruiters simply to get approval to work on a specific search. Then, for the searches I was able to contract, the gig company contracted other recruiters to work on the same search.

My experience is consistent with what other people find when seeking gigs through job-sharing websites. The hiring companies benefit from having a surplus of workers. On the other hand, the workers suffer from a system bloated with other workers.

Personal Chemistry: Creating Bonds in Job Interviews

Personal Chemistry: Are you finding that your interviews are not landing you jobs where you have solid qualifications? Could it be that you are not developing personal chemistry with the hiring managers?

Chemistry over Qualifications

For some hiring managers, the chemistry they feel with the applicant influences their hiring decisions as much the applicant’s skills, experience, and education.  Think about it.  The interviewer has read your resume.  They know to a large degree that you are qualified for the job.  That’s why they are interviewing you.  What they are measuring, perhaps subconsciously, whether you have the chemistry to fit within the company. If they don’t like you, they won’t hire you.

I have heard more than one hiring manager say that they have made their decision within the first five minutes.  They spend the rest of the time confirming their decision.

So, what can happen in the first five minutes of a job interview? The hiring manager gets a gut feeling about whether they like you.

Elements of an Interview

During the interview, hiring managers do—or at least they should—confirm these four things.

    1. The accuracy of the details in your resume
    2. Whether you can successfully apply your skills to the job you are seeking
    3. Your interests in the job and whether the job is a fit for you
    4. Your reliability and your potential

Personal Feelings Matter

But throughout the interview, the hiring manager is becoming more comfortable or less comfortable about you as a person.  Their emotions are telling them whether they want you in their company.

Furthermore, during an hour of interviewing, the hiring manager is measuring your chemistry against the chemistry of other people they have interviewed. Subconsciously, their emotions guide them to overlook which candidates have the best qualifications. They are deciding which qualified candidates the like the best.

How to Develop Personal Chemistry

Therefore, make every effort into making a great first impression.  When you meet the interviewers, smile.  Give them a firm handshake.  Listen to what interviewers are saying.  Especially, listen closely to what the interviewer is asking you to discuss. Nothing is more annoying or frustrating to an interviewing than the feeling that you are not answering their questions.

State your interest in the job. Show an interest in the interviewer and in the hiring company.  Use open gestures.  Sit up straight and comfortably.  Show the interviewer you have prepared for the interview by talking about the things that interest you about the company.  Have a meaningful list of questions and ask these questions as the interview progresses.

A little preparation, along with a few positive gestures and statements, can prepare you to develop the personal chemistry that will land you the job offer.

Career Planning: Weighing the Decision to Change Jobs

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.

 

Job Search Tools that Can Land the Job You Deserve

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.”

Interview Killers: 13 Things That Will Undermine Your 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

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