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1ST STEPS IN THE HUNT
- An online column for the online candidate
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Self Confidence
September 24, 1999
Self-confidence is a real bugaboo for Jobhunters, especially if they've been out of work for a while. Lack of money and Job are sure to lower one's self-esteem, more so in a culture as materialistically oriented as ours. We even introduce ourselves by our Job titles.
And what are Employers looking for in Job candidates? Self-confidence, of course. When they look you dead in the eye and say 'tell me a little about yourself', mumbled responses and rambling stories are the kiss of death. One key is practicing your Interview spiel till you can do it without breaking a sweat or having any self-doubt.
In fact, if you are unemployed and have been Jobhunting for a few months, you will have to overcome the assumption that there's something wrong with you. No one will tell you, but it'll hang in the air around you like a noxious cloud. How could all of those other Hiring Managers, their gaze will imply, have passed on you unless there's some serious flaw? Have an explanation ready, "Rather than randomly applying for a position, I've been researching companies for the past two months, and picked yours because …"
You'll need to overcome this presumption of guilt through practicing Interviewing with family and friends. Generally people will believe what you tell them, given no evidence to the contrary. Remember the story about the man who constantly switched professions he had no experience in, pretending to be a captain, an engineer, a doctor, etc? The moral is if you believe you're the right person for the Job, then you put the onus on the Hiring Manager to come up with reasons why they shouldn't hire you.
Resistance requires energy. At the end of a long workday the Hiring Manager may not have the energy left to dispute your contention that you're a self-starter. Hell, you seem like one.
Relationships
September 23, 1999
There isn't anything magical about the Web, contrary to all the hype.
Basically it is just information going to and fro at a faster pace and in a better form. The first major technological innovation for quickly transferring information is arguably the Telegraph, which was substantially in place by the 1850's. Phone lines have criss-crossed the country for the better part of the last seventy-five years, about the same time that the rural electrification program was in full swing.
The Web uses phone lines and electricity to make connections, so the technology is relatively ancient. Considering all the hullabaloo about true videophones and accessing the Net from your cell phone or hand held device, it's easy to forget that these innovations are really arriving more than fifty years after the general population anticipated them. Dick Tracy's two-way visual wristwatch seemed to be an imminent product development well before our parents were born.
What is magical about the sending higher quality information a lot faster is the possibility in establishing better relationships between people who could only have hooked up together through Herculean efforts. If you have a particular interest (say rock climbing), you can now easily communicate with rock climbers from the US or all over the world. And this interconnection of specific interest groups is only going to accelerate dramatically in the next few years.
What matters is the quality of the relationships you make. Your career and Job satisfaction will depend on how well you interconnect with like-minded individuals with a passion for similar interests. The Internet is less about finding a Job, and more about creating a Job by sharing your deeper interests with others. There are tons of Employers desperately searching for motivated, quick learning individuals pursuing what they love.
They are less interested in self-serving resumes that only show you want a Job, any Job.
Angry at Work
September 22, 1999
The scenario is all too familiar.
You're working on one project that has a hard and fast deadline when your Boss drops something else in your lap. And it is even more urgent than the last project, though for some reason the first project's deadline remains the same. Simply put, you are expected to finish eight hours work in the last three hours of the day.
You are stuck in a no win situation. Either you will get the work done, in which case you've just trained your Boss that it's OK to dump projects in your lap at the last minute without any warning. In which case your stress level will soon be skyrocketing on a regular basis. Or, you won't be able to get one of the projects finished - and your Boss will mentally (and perhaps verbally) note that you're not a capable Employee.
And high stress levels can lead to bouts of anger in the workplace, which is considered a serious faux pas. Get mad at your Supervisor and you might get fired. Threaten someone at work and you'll likely get canned. Vent at your colleagues and you'll soon be spending 'quality time' with your Manager, HR supervisor, and the company shrink. Yell at your underlings, and …well, I guess this is typically overlooked.
While anger could be viewed simply as evidence that there is a problem at work that needs to be addressed, usually the 'solution' is to find better ways to repress the outburst. Employees are mad as hell, but they don't have much choice but to continue taking it some more. It's fine advice to tell Employees to just quit, but the time lag between paychecks when you quit one Job and begin another can stretch for an uncomfortably long time. Long enough to make rent, car, and bill payments become seriously overdue.
Most HR departments are equipped to contain, diffuse or redirect anger, while ignoring the underlying causes for it. If you are constantly trying to control your anger at work, consider what the causes are. Are you bringing unresolved issues from your personal life to work, or is your situation at work becoming intolerable? The latter situation demands some kind of action before it becomes a pressure cooker and explodes.
If you can't afford to quit, and efforts to resolve the issues at work always lead to a stone wall, try Complaint.com . It won't solve any problems, but telling your side of the story often relieves some of the anger for a while.
Testing the Waters
September 21, 1999
Let's say you've been looking for a new Job for several months now, and finally a few offers have been extended to you. After completing some research on each of the Job offers and the companies that made them, you pick the one that seems best. The pay, the benefits, location, hours, lack of commute, potential for career and/or company growth, etc may sway your reasoning.
And soon after you realize you've made a terrible mistake. The Job, your Boss, your coworkers, the workload, and the company - they're all the pits. And quitting now will make you look (to future prospective Employers) like, well, a quitter.
Employers are loath to hire the wrong person. Costs for a hiring mistake often run into several times the Employee's annual salary. And then they have to attempt to staff the position all over again. And for the Employee, getting yourself stuck in a dead end Job can result in lower morale, poor work effort, and a stunted career. Plus you're miserable, which infects your personal relationships.
Before you accept the offer, consider the following stratagem. Offer to 'try the Job on a trial basis', at least for a day or two. If you're working somewhere else, use a few sick and/or vacation days to give the new Job a trial run. See whether you can get along with your new boss and co-workers. While this isn't a surefire test, it sure beats the usual method of simply jumping into a new Job and just hoping for the best.
Employers may appreciate this offer. They don't want dissatisfied Employees anymore than Employees want their work to turn into drudgery. A trial run at your prospective Job will also give you a chance to talk to coworkers about what it's like working there. Is the manager supportive or non-responsive to Employee concerns? Are promises made to new hires generally kept, or do they fall into the dustbin of history?
Typically most companies don't have serious trade secrets that would be imperiled by this kind of 'Job Trial'. You may find that Employees rave about the valuable training and career help/internal promotions that they got from the company. That will sure give you a different impression than if you hear them complaining about the overtime that they aren't compensated for.
You can find out a lot more from inside information, especially when you are gathering the data firsthand.
Behavioral Interviews
September 20, 1999
Hiring Managers have the nearly impossible task of figuring out whether you are the best Job candidate to fill their company's open position. You know your resume is peppered with examples of 'positive spin', creative literary attempts to show your skills in the best light possible.
Well, they know it too. Your resume is one of hundreds a Hiring Manager sees every day - if they have been in their Job for any length of time, they've probably seen hundreds of thousands of them. They've seen great cover letters, typos out the wazoo, the clever and the cute. How they manage to actually read another resume is beyond human comprehension.
So don't worry too much about presenting the 'perfect resume', it's only going to get skimmed, at best. Concentrate on being able to answer questions designed to get at the root of how you might act if you get the Job you are applying for. Assuming you have assessed the Job function after researching the company, you should prepare for the Interview by considering some of the following questions:
Interviewers assume that your past behavior is a good indicator of future actions. They will be looking into your past through the stories you tell during the Interview, attempting to determine if your methods for solving potentially problematic situations will make a good fit within their company. Your resume says you have certain skills - do your stories about how you solved problems at your last Job show these skills in action?
Before you enter the Interview stage you should attempt to figure out what the core competencies of the Job are, and remember/create stories that clearly show how you possess these particular skills. Do exactly what the Hiring Manager is doing - trying to figure out what skills and kinds of behavior the Job requires. Are the skills related to technical proficiency, or more toward motivational or leadership skills?
Ask for a copy of the Job description, and see if you can uncover what abilities will be assessed in the Interview. Talk to Employees at the company to get clues as to the company's core values and culture. You may not get all the answers, but you'll be better prepared with a few stories from your last few Jobs. This is the kind of edge you'll need to separated yourself from the other twenty people Interviewing for the Job.
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