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1ST STEPS IN THE HUNT
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Two Types
December 10, 1999
There are two types of Job Candidates. The first type of Jobhunter knows what their market value is in the workplace. The second type has a vague idea about their market value based primarily on what they're earning at the moment.
Type one Jobhunters can enter an Interview and know immediately if the salary range for the prospective Job is sufficient to warrant their consideration. They have figured out the relative monetary worth of various benefits, so comparing different offers is simply a matter of plugging in the numbers.
For example, you can estimate comprehensive health care plus dental benefits at about $150/month, depending on your age. Company car use might save you another $100/month. Potential pension contributions can be divided into monthly amounts for an easy side-by-side evaluation. Vacation and sick days allowed are comparable by multiplying your daily pay rate times the difference in days allowed. If you get three more Vacation/Sick days at Job that pays $15/hr ($120/day), then that Job offer is worth an extra $360 annually.
Figuring your market value is far from an exact science. There can be significant variances from one region to another, and the ranges change based on the type of Job. A marketing manager in New York better ask for more money than one in Mississippi. Large cities often have a cost of living index that is 50% higher than rural areas, so make sure you can differentiate salary surveys by city or region.
Type one candidates not only earn more for doing the same work, they also move up their career ladder faster than type two candidates. Showing your new boss that you know how to research your relative market value tells them you are a savvy fact finder, one of their 'top flight' Employees.
You probably don't want to know what Employers really think of type two Job candidates.
Better Interviewing
December 9, 1999
You've probably been through some bad Job Interviews already. You came across too nervous, too frantic, and too lame. A list of what went wrong would take an hour to compile, and you're still kicking yourself about blowing the opportunity.
The key to nailing Job Interviews is being comfortable during them and treating them as a chance to learn more about the type of Job you're interested in doing. Think of them as being just like the Informational Interviews you've done, where you were excited and enthusiastic about new career possibilities. Interviewers are assessing your attitude as much as your ability.
Achieving the comfort level necessary to treat the Job Interview as a professional conversation requires three things:
During the first few minutes of the Job Interview your Interviewer will be trying to evaluate what kind of person you are. Do you have Integrity, Honesty, Stability, and a Life's Purpose that clearly emanate from your work history? Help the Interviewer see how your story fits with the larger mission of their company. The story of who you are entails more than just your work history; it involves what events have made you who you are.
Asking the Interviewer intelligent questions and making the right responses is a lot easier if you've carefully studied the Company. What are their key products? Where does the bulk of their profit come from? What needs do they have that you are offering to fill? In particular, how will your unique abilities and attitude add to the organization?
Their questions will probe your weaknesses. Your answers should show how you recognized your weaknesses and addressed them. If a situation left you groping for solutions, then you can indicate what you learned from it, and how in the future you will be able to deal with it successfully. Hours of practice at Interviewing will leave you with many of these answers simply flowing from your lips like honey, rather than sputtering like spittle.
No one is perfect, but Hiring Managers are looking to hire potential solutions and problem solvers, not future problems and trouble makers.
Salary Survey Sites
December 8, 1999
One key to successful Jobhunting is estimating how much your labor is worth. Salary surveys are the most widely used method for doing this, and they are readily available on the Net.
Unfortunately most of the data for these surveys originates from phone or print surveys, and takes a long time to compile and format. Therefore the data always runs months to years out of date. You may have to adjust the salary ranges by adding 5% (more or less, depending on your profession) for every year the survey data is out of date.
JobSmart is one of the best sites for online survey information. Their comprehensive listing is always a useful source. DC Preferred Jobs offers an extensive list of salary surveys online at no charge, though some of the data is dated (1996 and 1997 surveys). One of the comprehensive fee sites is Salary Source. They offer up-to-date salary info for $29 for every position you receive data on.
If these sites don't have what you need, use any of the major search engines and search for "my profession + salary survey" and see what pops up. Salary surveys for IT professions are the easiest to find, whereas low wage Job categories don't have any information available. If you have trouble getting any useful information, or the data is hopelessly out of date, try professional discussion lists and simply ask people what someone with your skills and experience should be offered.
Get as much data as you can, weight it by relative merit, and establish a small range of what kinds of offers you're willing to accept. Adjust your target range based on the individual Company offers - benefits and quality of supervisors can vary substantially. You want to end up working at a Job where you have a good chance of succeeding, and going to work is not something you dread.
Mission Statement
December 7, 1999
Rudy, one of my college buddies, works long hours as a lawyer and has an enviable income. My friend Joe, on the other hand, barely scrapes by as a handyman - working sporadically as his occasional Employer and the Economy allows. Rudy is miserable at his Job while Joe could hardly be happier.
Rudy wanted to be a farmer, but ended up in Law School. Once he graduated he needed to pay his school loans, so he began working as a Lawyer. Joe always liked tinkering with things, so working as an on-call handyman seemed a natural fit. Once you have uncovered what your career strengths are, you should determine whether they match your goals in life.
Thought experiments help in deciphering your deep-seated goals. Imagine what you'd do (long-term) if someone just deposited $1,000,000 in your bank account. What if your Doctor said you only had six months to live? How do you want people to remember you? What do you dream about, both subconsciously at night and consciously during the day? And fundamentally, what ideas really stir your soul?
The next step is to figure out whether the Companies you are considering for Employment match up well with those goals. Ideally, the mission statement of the company you want to work for will mirror your own goals. Too often the Company mission statement is a high and mighty sounding document written by someone in the marketing department, and has little to do with the day to day operations of the business.
Given the rather suspect nature of Company mission statements, you should research a prospective Employer's mission (as evidenced by the behavior of their Employees) to see if it matches your larger goals. For example:
Pragmatically, sometimes we have to take whatever Job we can find. Someone's got to pay the bills. Profitability is always an unwritten rule that lies beneath the surface of every mission statement. Without profit there is no long-term sustainability for either you or the Company (despite what you read about the vast majority of Internet firms!). But don't forget your dreams.
ASCII
December 6, 1999
Email resumes can be written in whatever word processing program you like to use, but should be 'saved as' text only or RTF (rich text format). This allows automated search and storage software programs to recognize keywords and text without errors in symbol translation. Neither Recruiters nor Employers will stop to unscramble the high quality of information your resume 'might have had' hidden in it somewhere between the lines.
The preferred formatting for emailed resumes is in ASCII. To make sure your format won't have any glaring errors in it you should follow some of these general rules: ·
Some Employers prefer your resume to start with your stated objective, which should come conveniently close to describing the Job posting you are tracking down. Others like the resume to start with easily searchable keyword skills; they'll scan the rest of your resume if there are sufficient keyword matches to warrant their attention.
List your past Jobs chronologically, and highlight the positions that are relevant to the Job you are trying to get. If you have a mixed career work history, point out those skills from the 'off-color' Jobs that are logically transferable to the Job you want.
If you make it easier on the folks reading your resume, they'll make it easier for you to find the Job you want.
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Materials written by John Sumser © TwoColorHat. All Rights Reserved.