Tag Archives: employment

Hear the Wolf At The Door? How To Survive Unemployment

MIAMI BEACH, FL - JUNE 11: Brittany Ganson (C...

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Unemployment Blues: Take Back Control- AdvancingWomen.com

One of the most emotionally crippling aspects of unemployment is the sense of powerlessness it engenders. Job layoff triggers financial pressures, emotional distress, family turmoil, and dashed career hopes. It is forced on us by unrelenting fate, an emotionally disengaged employer, and economic currents that have little to do with us personally. We feel that we have no control over our situation, our lives, our future.

As we work through the anger, resentment, depression, and fear which is the common lot of the jobless, we can take some steps to regain our balance, reclaim a positive focus, and reassert personal control.

1. Daily Routine.

We no longer have the structure of work to mold our days and give meaning to our leisure time. In a very short period of time, we start to drift. Our days are so much the same that we no longer remember what day of the week it is. The line between work and relaxation blurs. We don’t work hard enough at our job search so we feel guilty which spoils our play time. Nothing has to be done immediately so we put it all off until tomorrow. Take back control by designing, and maintaining, your own schedule. Get up at the same time each morning, shower and get dressed as if you are going to work. Map out your job hunting activities and stick to the plan. Build in relaxation periods and stick to those too. Having a regular routine, and a defined purpose (finding work) helps you to continue to think of yourself as a worker and a valuable, productive individual, both critical in avoiding the descent into social oblivion prolonged unemployment so often brings.

2. Physical Shape.

We eat when we are anxious. We eat when we are depressed. We eat when we are upset. Couple these psychological urges to eat with the fact that we no longer appear before coworkers’ eyes each day, have nothing to dress up for, and have seriously impaired self-respect, and our weight balloons out of control. Fight back by returning to a regimen of regular, healthful eating. So much of our lives is out of our control right now that it is a relief to find one area where we are in sole command. Cherish that opportunity by eating sparingly, reducing the amount of time spent in the kitchen, finding non-edible outlets for stress relief. At the same time, start a limited but regular exercise routine. It may not be something you enjoy but at last you have the time to do it and all that huffing and puffing is a wonderful way to temporarily banish your worries.

3. Personal Relations.

You don’t really feel like socializing. You are so tense and on edge that you take it out on those closest to you: your family. Make the effort to compartmentalize your life between your career strains and that of your family and friends. If you allow the frustrations of the one to spill over into the other, you are poisoning your best source of needed support and heading towards the personal disaster -estrangement, divorce, violence – that too frequently accompanies extended unemployment and the wide-ranging destructiveness it spawns.

4. Job Search.

We have no control over when we receive a call for an interview or get that job offer we want so much. What we can control is where we spend our valuable energy. Submitting resumes for openings advertised in the classifieds or on line should be a very minor part of our job search. For every position listed, hundreds of resumes may be submitted. Do the math and it is revealed as similar to buying a lottery ticket – easy and fun to do but unlikely to change your future. Spend your time more wisely by networking with everyone you know (and everyone they know) and calling on employers in your industry to identify openings which have not yet been publicized. Your sense of control arises out of being proactive: putting yourself in the public eye, refusing to passively sit by the telephone awaiting the call which never comes. You may be exhausted at the end of the day, and frustrated if the negative reactions held no hint of possibility, but you do have the self-satisfaction of knowing that you have taken your fate into your own hands and will no longer be relegated to the ranks of those who simply “watch and wait.”

5. Community Activities.

You may be relatively inactive in local events or deeply committed to your community. In either case, now is the time to intensify your level of activity. Since you can only productively job search for a limited number of hours per week, use the additional time to become connected. Volunteer for local charities, schools, union halls, hospitals, any communal events you can find. You control where you invest your time and efforts and being productive, even in a small way, can help repair your shattered self-esteem. Interacting with other volunteers is also a whole new opportunity for networking and may indirectly lead to that one golden opportunity you seek.

The world of unemployment, especially if prolonged, can be emotional debilitating. By reasserting control over some aspects of our lives, we can contain the damage inflicted on our psyche and face the future proudly, recognizing that job loss is a regrettable fact of life, not a personal failure.

Author Virginia Bola operated a rehabilitation company for 20 years, developing innovative job search techniques for disabled workers, while serving as a respected Vocational Expert in Administrative, Civil and Workers’ Compensation Courts. Author of an interactive and emotionally supportive workbook, The Wolf at the Door: An Unemployment Survival Manual, and a monthly ezine, The Worker’s Edge, she can be reached at http://www.unemploymentblues.com

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What You Need For An Interview: Self Describing Skills – Key Strengths

Self Describing Skills – Key Strengths – AdvancingWomen.com – Careers-Employment.

Author and career coach Peter Fisher “is very clear that you shouldn’t be misled into thinking of “acing interviews” or “finessing” your way into a business; the most sustainable and fulfilling roles are gained through understanding your own specific needs and creating your strategy accordingly.

You need to be the best you can at describing your best qualities; particularly your key strengths. In Fisher’s coaching practice, he says ” I generally, at some point, ask my client: “What are you good at?” purely as a means to establish if they have already thought through this most important question.

Some have, but more often they haven’t and the answer usually involves lots of head-scratching, umms and arrhs and then quite often a monologue on what they’re NOT good at!!

Your answer to this should be your key strengths statement. A “Key Strengths” statement is a summary of your most powerful skills and attributes.

The Key Strengths statement

  • Highlights your most important skills and abilities
  • Differentiates you from others
  • Avoids generalizations
  • Provides examples of your achievements
  • Spoken naturally should take no more than two minutes

Of course at interview, the question may take many different forms:

“What are your main strengths?”

“why should we hire you?”

“what do you think makes you the best candidate?”

“convince me you’re the right person for us”

“how do your skills match our particular needs?”

As with all your Presentation Statements it should be so well rehearsed that it sounds completely spontaneous.

This example I’ve given you here should get you thinking so give your Key Strengths statement some thought now.

“I have very good communication skills; I work well either leading or being part of a team and I am self-motivated and capable of working on several tasks at once.

As a leader of small teams I involve people in the decisions so that they feel involved and ensure they have the opportunity to contribute to tasks facing the team. I manage the information, plan and organise and make the decisions as required.

With my strong communication skills, I have been able to motivate the staff to higher standards of performance meaning we have also helped our profits figures through increased sales and tighter cost-control.

Alongside this I have encouraged innovation and my team has produced several very good ideas for new products, services and markets. As an example the new widget has taken off in Eastern Europe and is contributing 7% of profits in less than 18 months.

Most importantly I actively seek to develop members of my team for their own careers sake but also for the future of the business itself. This means I also look for personal development opportunities to ensure my skills are kept up to date.”

The Key Strengths statement from a a Chief Engineer might go like this:

“I have very good communication skills and work across all departments to ensure that issues are identified and practical solutions are prepared. Coupled with my project management skills and my hands-on leadership style I am able to consistently deliver and commission projects on time and to budget.

I am focused on internal and external customer’s needs, rather than purely functional needs and I apply specialist skills in continuous improvement and world class manufacturing to increase efficiency, reduce waste and losses due to downtime.

As Chief Engineer I have initiated and managed strategic change programmes and implemented effective quality improvement programs all the way through to successful local level implementation. This has led to savings of 750k per annum and helps to maintain the position and financial strength of my employer”.

These key strengths statements naturally answer many of the interviewers questions while being reassuring in content. You will find though, that they will create new questions for the interviewer, so be aware that you must be able to substantiate everything you claim.

Try working on your own statement using your own words and skills, blending them together to create a strong “key strengths” statement to meet your needs.

You’ll be surprised how often you use this one!!”

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Network To Promote Yourself, Your Product Or Service To “The Hidden Job Market”

An example of a social network diagram.

Image via Wikipedia

Yes, Virginia, there is a “hidden job market”. Reports estimate that as many as 85% of jobs aren’t advertised. Networking is one way to get at the “hidden job market” , those unadvertised jobs.

First, understand there are all levels of networking.

Level 1.  As Joan Runnheim recommends: Tell everyone you know that you are looking for a job. They just may know of someone who is hiring. Develop a contact list including: family, friends, friends of friends, acquaintances, co-workers, former co-workers, neighbors, doctors, dentists, and lawyers. If you live in a large city, chances are you can find a job search support/networking group to attend. Remember, more contacts equals more job opportunities.

Level 2. Get involved with organizations and non-profits where you can be helpful and highlight your skills at the same time.  Listen carefully to others’ needs. “Try to understand what others see as your value proposition. Take the initiative and volunteer advice, knowledge or other valuable information first, without being asked to do so. Once you have demonstrated that you can provide value, “says Executive recruiter William Werksman, ears will perk up.  You will begin to be on people’s radar.  You never know who in that group might need someone with your demonstrated skills, either now or sometime in the future. Once you make a contact, nurture it.  Stay in contact. Try to be helpful when called upon.  The more you can demonstrate your ability, the more likely someone will recognize it as a “must have” for their organization.

Level 3. To ratchet the game up a notch, more power comes when you tap into an existing network.  As you know there are all kinds of existing networks, and by now you should have tapped into many of them: your own professional network, all varieties of business networks, leadership networks such as those run by United Way or your Chamber of Commerce or high profile non-profits which call on movers and shakers in a community.

Joan Runnheim, M.S., founder of Pathways Career Success Strategies, a career consultant, gives her views on networking and marketing yourself in Career Success Through Self-Marketing – AdvancingWomen.com

“Marketing shouldn’t be limited to advertising companies. Finding a job or enhancing your current position requires good self-marketing skills. What is self-marketing? Basically, self-marketing is communicating your benefits to potential or current employers. Think of yourself as a “product” and explain to employers what differentiates you from other “products.”

Why is self-marketing important? Landing a job or improving your current position requires effectively selling your skills, abilities, and knowledge to employers.  You can’t sell yourself if you don’t get out there and meet people or tap into much larger networks which will get the word out about your value.

Today is a good time to start.

To read this entire article go to Career Success Through Self-Marketing – AdvancingWomen.com – Careers-Employment.

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Want To Get Rich? Stop Trading Hours For Dollars

If you work and are paid by the hour, your income is limited by the number of working hours you have at your disposal.  Like everyone else, all you have is time and your time is finite.  If, however, you are able somehow to expand the time available to you, without expending any more effort or acquiring any more skills or expertise…. becoming a brain surgeon for instance, an estate attorney for the seriously affluent or a used car magnate…you will be able to earn more.

How do you do this?  How do you expand your time? Every affluent person knows the answer to this.  One way or another, you have to find a way to climb out of the traditional and perpetual trading hours for dollars method of earning money.  Yes, you can earn some money that way but only with your core expertise.  And let that money be your launching pad.

Here’s how the people who start climbing towards wealth do it.

Take Anna.  Let’s say she’s a seamstress.  She makes so many dollars an hour sewing.  She buys a sewing machine and the automation allows her to work faster and make more money.  She is able to hire more workers, buy more machines and the next thing you know she has a small factory.  Anna is now able to use her time training others, moving from doing to delegating, overseeing quality, and spreading the word about her sewing enterprise. Business picks up.  Anna is starting to make a lot more money

Anna is on her way to attaining wealth because she  was able to stop trading hours for dollars.  How did she do this?  She had a skill and developed a reputation around the quality of her skill.  She could have raised her prices incrementally and continued to get more customers but, in the end, she would have been limited by the time she had available to work.  Instead, she invested in automation and labor, which freed up her time to market her services.  All her customers knew Anna, liked the quality of her work, and felt comfortable that if they dealt with her, she would guarantee good quality.  They didn’t care who sewed the material or what brand of sewing machine they used.

Whether you are an online entrepreneur or a work at home mom, you can do the same thing. Once you have established your business and built it up to a certain point, you have some choices to expand your supply of time so you can do what you do best, which is probably to design, produce, sell and maintain the quality of  your product or service:

1.  Automate – If you’re not a techie, ask a local tech guru or college student to set up as many automated features as possible on your computer.  Have emails with a certain subject line go into their own email box.  Set up an auto responder with a series of messages that fit your most common situations.  Set up a service to answer your phone and fax then send a voice mail to your in box. Don’t answer your phone except during a certain, designated time each day when you return calls. Put as many of your bills as possible on auto pay. See what other repetitive chores can be automated.

2. Outsource -Give up all the routine, administrative work someone else can do for you: from book keeping to setting up online accounts, there’s someone out there you can find through Google or eLance.com who can do it better and faster and free up your time to create, oversee and market, which pays a lot more.

3. Offload non-essential tasks. This means getting rid of anything that’s a time consumer and not an income producer, including in your personal life.  I hope you’re not still mowing your own lawn or cleaning your own home, if you’re trying to start, grow or run a business at the same time.  I have a friend who works at a top national radio chain.  She pointed out that the common denominator of every successful female executive she knew was that they had household help.

4. Invest for Passive Income – Aside from the fact that you want to save and invest, you want your money to be working for you.  It’s the same principle as hiring an employee or contract labor: someone else is carrying some of the load while you are out doing what you do best.  And your hours have been stretched. Plus which, if you’re ever injured or can’t or don’t want to work, investments producing passive income keep working for you.

5. Diversify - My father used to say  you should always have at least three businesses because there will never be a time when one of them isn’t doing badly.  Scale that back and say three revenue streams.  Same principle as not having only one big client. What do you do when they drop you, hire their brother-in-law or go under? What do you do when one revenue stream dries up or sinks like a rock in river?  Better have another to fall back on.

Lessons From My Business

In my web business, I devote my skills and attention to the creation or gathering of high quality content, graphics and business processes for the website or blog I am producing or overseeing for another organization.  Someone else can do the rest. I do some of the tech aspects since I had to learn to do them when the web was still getting cranked up and there were few techs and no automated software around.  But if I can pay someone, say $300 to handle a tech piece, while I am creating, say  $1,000 or $1,200 in revenue, that seems to me like a pretty good trade off for everybody. The tech gets more jobs, the client gets a great product faster, and I create more revenue for my company.  Everybody wins.  Right?

Tell us what you think.  Tell us how you stretch your hours.  Does this post help you?  Share your thoughts with us.

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Stand Out From The Crowd: Post Your Resume To A Specialty Job Board

As we’ve spoken about many times here, your goal, as a job seeker is to stand out from the crowd.  There are a number of ways to do that, including the specifics you put in your resume and how you quantify the results you’ve achieved, demonstrating your value to any company.

But one simple and often overlooked way to stand out is by where you post your resumes. Experts tell us that employers search out at least three different kinds of job boards and you should be represented in each:

  • Big Boards

Monster – World’s largest commercial Job Board.

Career Builder – Owned by three of the nation’s largest newspaper chains, CareerBuilder is the nation’s second largest recruitment resource.
Yahoo Hot Jobs- Job seekers voted No.3 HotJobs.com the “Best General Purpose Job Board for Job Seekers” in a survey conducted by WEDDLE’s in Feb. 2002.

  • Boards Targeted by Profession ( examples)

Legal Professionals Career Center Search the jobs posted by the nation’s leading law firms, corporate legal departments, and government agencies listing their full-time, part-time, contract, and temporary positions online.

DICE.com National job board tailored to independent contractors in the high tech industry. Searchable by state, area code, keywords, and type of employment – eg. Contract, Full Time, etc.

GreatTeacher.net Free job classified ads for teachers and speech therapists. Jobs are searchable by state and keywords.

Computerwork.com – Nationwide job listings targeted toward technical professionals in the IT field. Search by state, area code, keywords, and a number of other criteria.

Wall St. Journal Careers The Internet’s premier career site for executives, managers and professionals.

  • Specialty Niche Boards ( example)

Advancing Women Careers Our own diversity job board targets and recruits professional women, Hispanics / Latinos, African Americans, the disabled, and other diverse, minority populations in the most sought-after
fields.
Also consider:

National

Job Central The JobCentral National Labor Exchange is provided by leading U.S. employers in alliance with the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA) as a public service for all employers and all job seekers regardless of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, religion, age or national origin.

Local

Craigs List In most cities around the world, total traffic matches the leading job boards, and they excel in  job search effectiveness,

A new trend is the vertical  job search engines also called  job aggregators or job metasearch sites.  For a list of all these sites globally, go to InternetInc.com. This trend may be heading us in a direction where the same jobs are seen on all boards.

But for now, your goal is to stand out and get noticed.  Be sure you are on at least a big board, a board targeted by profession and a niche board.  Common sense tells you that if you can stand out on a niche board, you will be further down the funnel towards getting noticed, getting a job interview, then a job.  We hope you will consider a free posting of your resume on our board,  Advancing Women Careers, along with any others you may select.

Then write and tell us your experiences.  Share what works and what doesn’t,  We’d love to hear from you.

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It Takes Some Work, But It Can Be Done: How to Find a Job When There Are None Around

Wall Street taken above steam stack road works.

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We can guarantee you one thing: there is a job out there someplace for you.  It just may take a lot of work to find it. And you may have to go through a period of settling for less than you want or think you’re worth.  But out of those forced decisions can come unforeseen opportunity.

For some advice on how to start looking, we like  How to Find a Job when there are none around:

” If you cannot see something it does not mean it is not there; it only means that you have to try harder and perhaps with a different vision to find the unseen.
If you are in a layoff as a result of the economic downturn; then you will benefit from these tips on how to find a job when there is a hiring freeze everywhere and the companies are getting our of business left and right.

Network to Penetrate the Unpublished Job Market
Where all to look for jobs, when there are none being advertised? The answer is: Do your research and the answer shall come to you.

  • Read newspapers, trade magazines, journals, BLS website (this is the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and would be different statistics if you are not in US). What are the current industry trends? Where all is the funding money being channeled? These could towards the new solar development companies or other green-tech; there might be many unadvertised jobs here and all you have to do is first find out which ones could be the ones to apply for and how.
  • Research and find out which companies are showing good profits and sales increase in the tough economy; they could be the ones looking for hiring new employees since money is not a constraint with them.
  • Research to find which companies are launching new products and there is a possibility that the project teams could be expanding.
  • There could be some jobs that are recession proof, perhaps there could be the right job for you where you can channel or re-package your skills. (Read more at: Best Jobs to have during Recession )
Once you are ready with your research the next action step is finding the right contact to approach the position internally. Do not be put off if you do not see any advertised jobs on their online job boards. Some internal positions are not advertised and you can very well approach these jobs by smart networking.”

Use your Current Skills to Freelance
It won’t bring in the same money that you might be getting as a full-time job but when paying your bills and taking care of a family are the priorities then any additional income is welcome. Also make sure that you spend say about 40 percent of your “work” time in freelancing and rest of the time in networking with friends and ex-colleagues on any possible job openings leads and enhancing your skills.

Think About Relocating
Many good corporate jobs are moving overseas, there have been many reports during the last few months where companies in India and China have offered good positions to those laid off from Lehman and others affected from the Wall Street roller coaster debacles. Asian economies are growing and many companies are eager to absorb these globally experienced professionals.
An international experience would only enhance your portfolio and there is always a possibility to return to your native land when the going gets good.”

( For the entire post go to How to Find a Job when there are none around)

If Relocating Doesn’t Sound Like A Good Idea to You, Explore Your Transferable Skills

Ok.  Perhaps moving to India or China is not your cup of tea.  I mean, the recession might be over in 2009 or perhaps 2010 and there you are… in China! With a job, a home and moving expenses.  See
Key to A Career Switch: Transferable Skills In Your CV/Resume:

Producing A Good CV When Changing Career , a British blog makes some excellent points about this which are themselves transferable to the job market globally:

“The key thing here is to consider the job(s) you have already done and to see if you can identify any skills you were able to obtain within these job(s) that could easily be transferable and be considered of value to your new chosen career and to focus upon them. What a well-tailored CV will do, however, is make the switch to our new career seem like a natural and logical progression to the person reading it.

Just remember there is a job out there for you. You just have to persist: network, put out the word with your friends and family and colleagues, be visible. We wish you the best.  Please do share your experiences with us.  Add to this post with your advice and experiences.

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Can You Tell Me Something About Yourself? Fine Tune Your Answer For Your Audience

Can You Tell Me Something About Yourself! – Careers-Employment- AdvancingWomen.com

“Tell me about yourself” is a question, usually posed at some point in an interview. In Can You Tell Me Something About Yourself? Don ‘t Let That Question Stop You Cold we discussed the fact that interviewers use the interview process as a vehicle to eliminate your candidacy. Every question they ask is used to differentiate your skills, experience, and personality with that of other candidates. And we also discussed the process of preparing for the interview and how to handle the question.  To review that discussion, go here.

But remember, one size does not necessarily fit all.  Yes, your core skills, competencies and value to the company remain the same.  But there is a slight difference in perspective, depending on who’s asking the question. For different people, with different roles in the company and therefore different perspectives  on qualities which will be reassuring to them, you should retain your core “elevator pitch” but pivot slightly to address the main concerns of a person whose role shapes his or her outlook and the qualities he or she is focusing on.

When Asked by Different People?

The HR manager or CEO of the company or the Departmental Head can ask the same question and your answer should vary slightly since the expectation of each such person is different.

When asked by HR Manager, who is all about people skills, your response should include something like this: “My career has been characterized by my ability to work well with diverse teams. I seek out opportunities to involve others in the decision-making process. This collaboration and communication is what has enabled me to achieve success in my department. People are the most valuable resource of any organization.”

When asked by CEO, who is all about the bottom line, your response should include something like this: “I have achieved success in my career because I have been focused on the bottom line. I have always sought out innovative solutions to challenging problems to maximize profitability. Regardless of the task or challenge, I always established benchmarks of performance and standards of excellence. I have never sought to maintain the “status quo.” An organization that does not change and grow will die. I would enjoy working with you to help define new market opportunities in order to achieve the organization’s goals.”

So, prepare, define your competitive advantage, think “elevator” pitch, and adjust your pitch every so slightly, depending who’s asking the question. Then go in and dazzle them with your capabilities! Good luck! And please write and tell us how you do or if you have any other thoughts to help with this process.

( If you think you may need some help clarifying and preparing any of your answers, go to Advancing Women Portfolios, email advancingwomen@gmail.com or call toll free: (888) 565-4627. We would love to hear from you and we will be happy to help.)

To read the whole post, go to Can You Tell Me Something About Yourself! – Careers-Employment- AdvancingWomen.com

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Can You Tell Me Something About Yourself? Don ‘t Let That Question Stop You Cold

Can You Tell Me Something About Yourself? – Careers-Employment- AdvancingWomen.com

“Tell me about yourself” is a question, usually posed at some point in an interview , which can send cold shivers up and down your spine, if you’re not prepared to give the right answer.  In a nutshell, the right answer should be succinct, differentiate you from the swarm of other candidates, and highlight your value to the company for whom you are interviewing.

Purpose of the Question:

There is a purpose to asking each and every question in the interview.  Although the set of interview questions varies from industry to industry and position to position, interviewers use the interview process as a vehicle to eliminate your candidacy. Every question they ask is used to differentiate your skills, experience, and personality with that of other candidates. They want to determine if what you have to offer will mesh with the organization’s mission and goals.

Your Elevator Pitch

Before arriving at any interview, you should have prepared and internalized what many of us call “an elevator pitch”.  This is a description of yourself, your unique competitive advantage and your value to a company which is short enough to be delivered to someone whom you or one of your advocates…..your spouse or colleague, perhaps.. run into and have the opportunity to pitch on the elevator, somewhere between the 10th and the 3rd floor. Three to five sentences would make a good elevator pitch, so they’d better be good ones, whetting the appetite for more.

Defining Your Competitive Advantage or Unique Selling Point

Long, long before this, you should have spent some serious time figuring out what is unique about yourself…. your unique selling point… what makes you different from others… and you’d better have one. Not only that, you’d better be able to quantify it. ( If you’re a little foggy on this, or are afraid you’ll melt into the crowd, instead of standing out, it might be a good investment for you to develop a career portfolio that demonstrates the positive results of your career in a graphic manner which you can then share with others like the person who is interviewing you.)

Avoid This Type of Answer

Try to avoid a too general answer and one that focuses on what you are looking for.  For example: “I am a hard-worker who is good with numbers. After I worked as a financial analyst for a few years, I decided to go to law school. I just finished and now am looking for a new challenge.”  Trust me, they don’t care what kind of challenge you’re looking for: they want to know “what’s in it for them”, so……

Instead, be specific and quantify, something like this:” I began developing skills relevant to financial planning when I worked as a financial analyst for three years. In that role, I succeeded in multiplying the wealth of my clients by carefully analyzing the market for trends. The return on the portfolios I managed was generally 2% more than most of the portfolios managed by my company. After two promotions, as the manager of a team, I successfully led them to develop a more efficient and profitable strategy for dealing with new accounts”.( Give the numbers; better yet, show them in a graph.) “My subsequent training in the law, including tax law and estate law, gives me an informed view of what types of investments and charitable gifts would be most advantageous for your clients.” ( If you have a a career portfolio that demonstrates graphically the success you’ve had, now is the time to whip out your Blackberry or iPhone and share it with them.)

Preparing for the Answer:

Follow the steps outlined below to ensure your response will grab the interviewer’s attention.

1. Provide a brief introduction. Introduce attributes that are key to the open position.

2. Provide a career summary of your most recent work history. Your career summary is the “meat” of your response, so it must support your job objective and it must be compelling. Keep your response limited to your current experience. Don’t go back more than 10 years.

3. Tie your response to the needs of the hiring organization. Don’t assume that the interviewer will be able to connect all the dots. It is your job as the interviewee to make sure the interviewer understands how your experiences are transferable to the position they are seeking to fill.

4. Ask an insightful question. By asking a question you gain control of the interview. Don’t ask a question for the sake of asking. Be sure that the question will engage the interviewer in a conversation. Doing so will alleviate the stress you may feel to perform.

There you have it – a response that meets the needs of the interviewer AND supports your agenda.

When broken down into manageable pieces, the question, “So, tell me about yourself?” isn’t overwhelming. In fact, answering the question effectively gives you the opportunity to talk about your strengths, achievements, and qualifications for the position. So take this golden opportunity and run with it!

( If you think you may need some help clarifying and preparing any of your answers, go to Advancing Women Portfolios, email advancingwomen@gmail.com or call toll free: (888) 565-4627. We would love to hear from you and we will be happy to help.)

To read the whole post, go to Can You Tell Me Something About Yourself! – Careers-Employment- AdvancingWomen.com

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Want Your Resume To Stand Out? Quantify!

Free 3D Business Men Marching Concept
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Quantify, quantify, quantify!.

The purpose of your resume is to build your own brand, “Brand Me” which will have the effect of differentiating yourself from the competition and conveying your value to any company.  The best way to offer proof of your value is to quantify the results  you’ve achieved at your present or previous companies.

“Provide four or five bulleted points under each employer in the experience section of your resume to show what you have achieved for each employer as far as measurable results,” says Terri Robinson, president of Recruit2Hire.com

If you can provide a graphic, so much the better. A chart or bar graph enables the reader, in this case the recruiter, to capture, at a glance, the results you’ve achieved which demonstrate your value to a company.

Roy Miller of Job Search Guidepost gives an example and tells how he views the process:

“Managed a team of five that selected and implemented a new customer service tracking system that reduced lost sales for the company by $1.5M in the first year.“

You’re hired! No, probably not just because of that, but that second statement does two critical things:

  1. It tells enough of the story that an interviewer can ask you for more details about this significant accomplishment.
  2. It stands out from all the other resumes containing statements like the first one, because it talks about what your employer really cares about – MONEY.

Employers aren’t mean old scrooges. Well, most aren’t. But without profit (or without breaking even for a non-profit), there’s no business, which means no jobs.

If you quantify your experience, you absolutely vault over your competition.

You see, non-quantified experience says you showed up, did some stuff, and drew a paycheck. Not exciting, and unlikely to get the job if somebody else quantifies his experience.”

Why?

Quantified experience says you didn’t just take, you GAVE, and in a significant way. …Quantify your experience whenever you can. It’s not as hard as you might think. Just remember that three things count as quantifiers:

  • Dollars you added to the bottom line
  • Time you saved the company
  • Any other numbers that add to the “he uses numbers” impression

…If you initiated and spearheaded a project that increased corporate profits (or departmental profits, or office profits, or location profits – you get the idea), that’s great. Highlight it using real money numbers.

Ask yourself the worth of what you did, from your employer’s perspective. Did a particular action save money? That’s quantified! Did it bring in more revenue? That’s quantified! Did it produce an operational improvement, such as shorter turnaround on customer service requests? That’s not quite quantified (in terms of dollars), but it’s close! Don’t know a dollar amount, but know an improvement percentage? Use it!

Quantify whenever you can, and get as close to dollars on the bottom line as you can. That’ll get you rave reviews from your current boss (or a raise!), and will make it easier to get your next job.

( For professional customization and help with quantifying your experience in your resume, see AW Career Portfolios, Customized For You)

For more articles by  Roy Miller or his newsletter go to  Job Search Guidepost


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Great Resumes Answer One Critical Question: What’s In It For Them?

The critical resume question.

Great resumes, the only kind you ever want to have if you want an effective job search, answer one critical question for any potential employer who looks at it:

WHAT’S IN IT FOR THEM?

If your resume doesn’t answer that question in a few seconds, it’s garbage. It’s worse than worthless for you, because it can lock you out of that prospect.

Nice paper, or an Ivy League education, or fancy titles won’t impress as much as answering that single question quickly, and in a compelling way.

Ask yourself how people read a resume.

Have you ever been to a retail store, and had an overbearing salesperson try to sell you something? He wants to tell you about how great it is, how it’s a “bargain”, and how it’s…blue! Did you care? Not so much. You had a need, and you wanted it met, the sooner, the better.

Prospective employers are the customers in the retail store. You’re the salesman. The employer won’t buy something that doesn’t meet a current, or known future need.

A prospective employer certainly wants to know the high points of what you’ve done, but only so he can determine if you’ll contribute to his organization in the way he wants you to. Achievements are good, but achievements matching needs are what you’re after.

So, when you start to write or revamp a resume, ask what the target employer needs. Then describe how you meet that need.

Make the most compelling case for being the person uniquely capable of meeting that need, and you’ll get the job.

( For some professional customization, see AW Career Portfolios, Customized For You)

Roy Miller, creator of Job Search Guide Post: sign up for Roy’s free weekly newsletter.

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