Winning With Mediocrity (from our vault)

April 26, 2000

Few Hiring Managers will admit it, but they don't really need to hire the 'top 10 percent' of Job applicants anymore. They're happy with simple competency from new hires as long as they show some willingness to improve over time while being able to get along with their co-workers.

Given their new mindset in these days of a tighter than usual labor market, there are several things you can do both to get your next Job and also to make a good first impression once you've accepted the Job offer. Of course, you should have already done some research on your particular field of interest, because labor markets are fluid and can range substantially from one Job Title to the next. Software Engineers may be highly sought after, while retail clothing Assistant Managers may be a dime a dozen.

Generally someone with even minimal experience doing the tasks the Job requires has an edge over someone who only knows the Job 'in theory'. Street smarts wins out over book smarts in the eyes of most Hiring Managers. Getting experience by interning or apprenticing is a common modus operandi for new entrants to an industry.

Repackaging your past experience and skill set so that you appear to have 'easily transferable skills' is a common means around the "No experience - No Job" dilemma that we've all faced before. For example, a hot Job at the moment is 'Internet Customer Service Rep'. Internet shoppers throw away two-thirds of the items that they originally put in their virtual shopping carts, primarily because they can't get sufficient information about the products. If you have telephone sales/marketing experience, these skills should be easily transferable to this new Job title.

Once you get a Job offer and start work, find out what skills are highly valued by your supervisor and learn them on your own time. Spend an extra ten hours a week mastering a skill that sets you apart from your colleagues, and within a few weeks your Boss will earmark you as a 'fast learner' destined for promotions. Those first impressions will allow you to coast along at work for a long, long time.

In the workplace you don't have to be smarter than everyone else, but it helps to appear smarter.

Team Player (from our vault)

April 25, 2000

In the back of every Hiring Manager's mind is One Question: Will this Job Candidate be able to get along with their coworkers? (In the front of their mind is the Question: Can you do the Job?).

The equally important corollary is: Will they be able to get along with you? The last thing an Employer wants is to hire someone who disrupts the work environment negatively and lowers the amount of production. Relatively speaking, it's not so bad if you are merely incompetent but fairly amiable - every business survives with a number of workers that fall into this category. While it sure isn't what a Hiring Manager is looking for first, sometimes they only need a body to fill a chair.

What kills Managers are new hires that are always on edge and itching for a fight with coworkers and supervisors. These Employees are not only time-consuming, but they are morale murderers as well.

Training a new hire the necessary skills to do the Job takes some time and effort, but generally is within the bounds of OJT (On the Job Training) that Employers expect to conduct. Modifying a new hire's disruptive behavior, however, is a much more difficult task. How we get along with our friends, coworkers, and people on the street is engrained behavior, and Employers are legitimately loath to embark on the Pavlovian task of changing how you treat your fellow Man.

Theoretically the screening process that you've survived to get to the Interview stage should calm the Hiring Manager's qualms about your rudimentary skill set. On a simple level, the Interview is conducted to find out if you can "talk the talk" that is outlined by your resume. While it is important to resolve lingering doubts about individual accomplishments and abilities, the larger issue is about your personality.

On a more complex level, the Interview is a psychological war. The Hiring Manager thinks she's got a round hole of a position - are you a square peg that will cause friction on all sides if she tries to slip you into their cozy work environment?

So when you earn an Interview with a target company, remember what they're really looking for when they talk to you. Look out for Questions like these:

• Describe some of the conflicts that arose out of your last Job.
• What frustrated you most about your last Job, and how did you overcome it?
• How would you resolve the following personality conflict at work?

These are designed to answer the one real Question that must be answered before you can get a Job offer, "Do you play well with others?"

Paper resumes that arrive at most firms are scanned into a database and searched at a later date for certain key terms or phrases. Hopefully your research about the target firm will have educated you as to what these 'industry keywords' are, so you can pack your resume with them. Because your resume will enter a database via a scanner, it is important that it is set up to be scanner friendly. Some keys to scannability are:

• Use a laser printer for higher quality scans
• Print on one side only, using white, letter size paper
• Font sizes should be 12 to 14
• Standard typefaces like Courier, Helvetica, or Arial
• Skip the use of formatting niceties (no Bold, Underline, Italics, etc.)
• Don't staple or fold the resume (one page really should be sufficient)
• Information should be set up chronologically
• Please spell check (includes having a friend look it over)

Don't forget the Job code and/or title of the Job you are applying for - generally it goes at the top of the resume you are sending. Your contact information should follow the Job title at the top of the page. Include sufficient contact information (name, address, phone, cell, email, and fax) so that you are easy to track down. What could be worse than losing the Job simply because they couldn't get in touch with you?

Use short and sweet headings that concisely tell a reader, at a glance, what they should expect to find in the text immediately below. After the electronic scanner gives your resume the once over, it gets passed on to the human scanner for further review. Clarity and keywords are the way to get past the first scanner - and quality of work experience or references is the best way to get by the human scanner.