May 3, 2015 – Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter's Blog

Job Search Tips If You Are Over 50

May 3, 2015 by Jeff

As someone who is over 60 (GASP!), it feels funny to write about the issues of someone ten years younger than me but the fact is that there are serious issues that crop up for job hunters once they cross the age of 50.

Some are issues related to what feels like bias (I say feels like bias because as we all know, discrimination on the basis of age is illegal but next to impossible to prove) but is cloaked in the language of “behavior (“I don’t know she will fit in” or “He’s too senior for job like ours” or “She just doesn’t have the right energy for our team.”).

So what can you do to as a job hunter to win?

1. Stop being so fixated on your age.

I know this is harder than it sounds but the more that you fixate on your age, the less attention you are paying to your target–finding work. The more attention you pay to your fear of bias, the less effort you will pay to your interview preparation.

2. Think and Act Like You Are Self-Employed

Being self-employed requires that someone be effective and professional, employ technology tools effectively and remains current with trends and required skills. Although their is a market for antiques (and a good market at that), there is a bigger market for those who have leading edge skills. Go one way or the other but try not to stay in the middle.

3. Stop Spamming Your Resume

Too often, people send resumes out almost willy nilly to job ads. If the ad lists 10 required skills and you have two, it does not mean you should send your resume. It means you shouldn’t. Over 50 job hunters commit this sin frequently.

4. You have connections. Use them.

You’ve worked in your field for 25-30 years. There are people you know who can help you. Re-connect. Some of them may be in a position to help you. Some of them may be in a position to hire or refer you. Some may not. Use LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Google to locate people.

5. Target particular employers

You may have an idea that there are certain companies that can use your expertise. Find out the name of managers, directors and executives via LinkedIn. See if one of your connections can provide an introduction or contact them directly.

But remember this adage when you contact them:

“What’s in it for them to meet you or to hire you?

That you want to work there is not a reason; that you have an understanding of their business and can make a direct contribution to their sales or profitability, that you have an understanding of what they are trying to do in an operational area and can help it become better (bigger, better, faster, cheaper) is.

6. Join a networking group or create a group of job search buddies.

There is great power in support. I have been a member of a men’s support group more than 25 years. That there is someone who holds me accountable for commitments I make, has learned my excuses and will push me through them and who learns to care about me (and I for them) enough to supoprt me through my struggles has helped me tremendously both personally and professionally. You can find the same power, too.

7. Consider consulting

Instead of just sitting home over eating, watching tv and forwarding jokes that have been emailed to you, do some consulting or temp work. I think you will find that there are ways to earn money while you are out looking for work.

8. Have patience

Rome wasn’t built in a day and rarely is finding a job. Like running a marathon, it is often a long race and if you sprint, you will wind up being exhausted early in the run. You just need one good job offer, not 10. Give your all, but pace your efforts and emotions.

Do You Have A Website? Here’s Why You Should.

May 3, 2015 by Jeff

There were a number of interesting articles in Forbes recently. The key points were:

80% of all open positions are not advertised

For any given position, 118 people apply; 20% will get interviews.

Talent management software will weed out 50% of all resumes before anyone even looks at the resume

On average, interviews last 40 minutes and a decision is communicated in 24 hours to 2 weeks later

In the US, more than 40% of candidates are uncomfortable negotiating salary resulting in more than $500000 in lost income by the time they reach 60

Last year, employers reported that 56% of their job offers were rejected.

56% of employers are impressed by a job applicant’s personal website, more than any other personal branding source . . . fewer than 7% of job applicants have a website.

What a personal website does is allow you to offer an employer an insight into your personality beyond what your resume is telling them about it (which usually if nothing) and allows you to “control” your brand.

By controling your brand, I mean that when firms or recruiters search you, they will find your website relatively quickly and, thus, what you want them to know about you.

You don’t want to discuss politics or religion on the site, nor have it look incomplete. You want it to provide your thoughts, opinions and idea about professional matters and not, for lack of a better term, “nonsense.”

Obviously, if you are in a creative field, a personal website is an absolute requirement as a home for your portfolio and your evolution.

But beyond that, make sure that it includes a great headline derived form your elevator pitch, your contact information (but not your address), a bio, your resume, a professional summary of your experience, results and/or successes, links to articles you’ve written, podcasts you’ve recorded, professional organizations you’re a member of, videos you’ve recorded and testimonials and endorsements.

Given how popular websites are with employers, shouldn’t you be proactive?

Is Your Career Path Blocked?

May 3, 2015 by Jeff

Have you noticed how old your boss is?

How about your boss’ boss?

Have you noticed that your manager has been with the firm for 9 years and his boss for 15?

Do you think they’re going anywhere or are they in it for the long haul?

According to a survey, the number of baby boomers is 78.2 million. With all the fear that existed in American business circles about the potential loss of labor and their intellectual capital, we now have a new problem and, if you are in your 30’s, you may be acutely aware of it.

The number of workers in their 30’s is only 40 million.

This means that if you are a Gen-X or Millennial worker, your career path is blocked by a Boomer (like me) in their 50’s or 60’s.

The good news is that companies caught discriminating against an aging worker will get hammered by the government, the bloggers and a million other constituents. They will embarrassed in the media and run the risk of losing access to valuable potential workers.

The bad news is that where do you go? What is the upside for you? If you’re a Gen-X worker, how do you advance your career?

The 3 Keys to Being a Champion

May 3, 2015 by Jeff

September is a great time of year for sports fans.

Baseball is in the middle of its pennant drive. Football is kicking off. The US Open is finishing in New York. College football has begun its drive to the national championship. Men’s basketball training camp is a few weeks away but women’s basketball is in the midst of its playoffs.

And that has reminded me to remind you about the three keys to becoming a champion.

The first is talent. I won’t spend much time on this because everyone has talent. The question is what someone will do with their talent.

This leads us to the second key to becoming a champion– Practice.

All of these great athletes, every last one, spends an enormous amount of time practicing their craft before they ever step into an arena to compete.

How much time do you spend?

If you are like most people, from the time you receive the call that invites you into an interview, until the time you arrive, you spend very little time preparing and, when you do, most people spend time getting ready to talk about what they’ve done, not what they’ve done in the context of what the employer is looking for.

This leads us to the third key–Persistence.

To quote former US President Calvin Coolidge,

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

So many people I speak with job search lackadaisically, even in the face of tremendous financial pressures. Maybe they spend an hour a day on a good day trying to find work.

Yet they tell their friends about how tough the job market is when they themselves are the problem.

So, as you look at the scoreboard to see the final score from your favorite team or athlete, remember what they put themselves through to compete and apply the lesson to yourself.

Organizing Your Job Search with Outlook

May 3, 2015 by Jeff

5 Tips to Using Outlook Effectively When Job Hunting

Many use Microsoft Outlook in their offices but have you thought of using Outlook in job search?

Here are a few quick tips for using Outlook to your advantage in a job search:

Use the Contacts area to keep track of every ad you respond to. Enter the name of the person and their company in the appropriate field of the contact form and copy and paste the ad into the body of free-form notes field.

Set reminders for follow ups instead of relying upon your memory. I have a very good memory but I sometimes make mistakes by relying upon it. Outlook won’t let you forget about those things to follow up on.

Send resumes at times when people will read them. It’s good that you are looking for job leads at 1 AM or on the weekend. If you send your resume then it may get lost in the recipient’s inbox lost behind other resumes that arrived more recently. Use Outlook to delay sending your resume to normal business hours in the time zone of the recipient. To do that, when you have your message open, click on Options, then Do Not Deliver Before and set the date and time.

Use Tasks for those ideas that pop into your head.

Use the message area of your email like a cover letter. No one opens an extra file beyond the resume file when they receive an email. Use the message area of your email like a cover letter and tell the reader about how you fit the job you are applying for.

Who Are The Most Annoying Job Hunters?

May 3, 2015 by Jeff

I have spent years compiling data about my reactions and responses to resumes and job applicants.

Most people do their best but are generally ineffectual. Their resumes don’t do a good job of selling themselves but their behavior does not fall into the realm of annoying.

People reflecting “the hot skill du jour” can be problematic. Their desire to be catered to is high but usually just reflects not knowing me, not learning to trust me yet . . .that seems to change pretty quickly.

No, the category of people who seem most annoying are the people who should know better are hiring managers.

Hiring managers should know better than to send resumes that don’t make a case for their qualifications for a job but still send it anyway. Thinking that I should read between the lines and know that they really did this 10 years ago.

Or when I send a few questions to them, reply with, “call me” instead of answering my question. After all, they are too busy watching tv to respond to my four questions.

Or my favorite, “I have that information on my website. Why don’t you read it there.”

I can only respond with, “As someone who has hired people, I’m sure you expected people to clearly lay out their qualifications in their resume before inviting them to meet with or speak with you. My client conducts themselves in the same way as you do.”

“As things stand now, your resume does not make the case for your qualifications for the position. Please revise it and re-send it to me.”

And then the entitled attitude really starts!

I’ll spare you the details and simply say that your resume needs to make the fit obvious between your experience and your qualifications for the position as defined by the employer.

Without the case being made, your resume will be ignored . . . and rightly so. After all, it is no better than spam.

As a manager who does this, whether you like hearing this or not, you are being lazy or asking to be treated as special for no other reason than the fact that at your current employer, you hired people.

It is like trying to cut to the front of the line without earning the privilege.

Is that how you want to be seen?

Is that how you expect your next employer to conduct themselves– accommodating every person who thinks that they are special?

Now, to me, this is different than having an employee refer you and cutting the line that way. In that case, there is an earned privilege (someone knows you and can vouch for you).

So, for those of you who want to be seen as “special,” you are . . . but not in the way you want to be seen

The Two Best Ways to Conduct a Job Search

May 3, 2015 by Jeff

Most of the time when I write about different elements of job hunting, I am dissecting a small piece of the process and trying to offer you a better way of doing what you are doing or fix something that is broken.

Here, I want to be explicit and tell you the two best ways to look for work . . . other than have an agent or recruiter find the job for you, of course. Actually, that is a mistaken notion. Good recruiters fill positions for their corporate clients and take into consideration the needs, wants and desires of the job hunter, meshing both in their work. They do not work for you; they work for the institution that pays them.

And one thing I know about recruiters is that they have a bias to prefer representing the passive job hunter to the active one. The belief is that the active one is failing where they are or were laid off because they are not as good as the staff person who was retained. Thus technique number one is to be “found” rather than appear to be an active job hunter.

“But, Jeff, I need a job. I need to send my resume out an put it on the job boards to get found, don’t I?”

Well, yes and no. Even on job boards, you can be found by using the blind resume feature where they hide your name and contact information to obscure that you are who you are. I’ll come back to this another time.

The trick to being found is using your network and your social network to support your job search. How good is your LinkedIn profile? Is it keyword rish enough to find you? If you look at job ads for positions like the one you want and are qualified for, would someone looking for those keywords ever find you?

Re-write your LinkedIn profile to make sure of that.

Go to ZoomInfo.com and make sure they have your correct name and title. Same with Spoke.com.

Do you have a website or blog? Recruiters love to do Boolean searches that find people who blog. They think they have found platinum every time they connect with someone that way. What you really have done is put bait out to draw the bee to the honey.

The second way to search for work is networking. More than 75% of positions are filled by networking with others . . . but I don’t mean selfish networking; I mean generous networking. many entworking groups are no more than speed dating meetings. Everyone walks up to the mike and says, I am looking for a job as a such and such or I do such and such. Ugh! The best thing about this approach is that it gives you a place to practice so that when you speak to people in the real world, you are less inhibited.

The best way to network is through volunteerism, attending conferences and putting yourself out there, ideally when you actually have a job.

Nick Corcodillos from “Ask the Headhunter” (Nick publishes a good tip letter every week; go his site to subscribe) printed a wonderful thank you letter this week from a job hunter who wrote about how his suggestions led to him finding the job he wanted in another city by networking with the founder of a trade event. That connection led him to someone, attending another industry event, where he was able to really connect with the person who introduced him to someone who hired him. Read the full story here.

Industry events and conferences are places where you can network with leaders and not just co-workers and put yourself in a position to be recommended for work. Go to trade shows and industry conferences regularly. At worst, you’ll find yourself with a new group of friends IF you nourish the relationship.

Getting Started: 5 Things You Need to Decide When You Begin a Job Search

May 3, 2015 by Jeff

There are few things more frustrating for a headhunter than asking a person basic questions that revolve around what you as a job hunter are looking for in a job and being given uncertain answers. I’m not talking about salary; that’s a question where a wise person states a target objective and is flexible enough to let the market decide their value.

I’m speaking about these basic questions:

1. What is your current compensation? The three wrong answers are: (1) a lie (A lie will be found out generally after you’re hired. You know what happens then? While you’re out to lunch or have gone home one day, your ability to login while be terminated and security will be waiting for you at your desk with your personal items packed to escort you from the premises). (2) I won’t tell you (This reveals that your salary is much lower than the amount advertised and that you are seeking a big bump). (3) Do you really need to know that (Yes. I do because my client will want to know. They will ask it on their form. Many companies will terminate an interview for refusing to answer)?

2. Geographically, what’s acceptable to you. Some people are willing to drive more than others. Some people must follow mass transit routes. Some people are willing to relocate at a company’s expense or are willing to relocate on their own for the right opportunity. Think about it.

3. What’s not working for you that is prompting you to want to look for another job? Most of the time, money is not the only factor. Be prepared to discuss your reasons maturely. An immature answer would be, “I hate my job,” or “My boss is an idiot.” Instead, try this one-“I would like to leave consulting and move to industry so that I can avoid the heavy travel that is keeping me away from my family too much.”

4. What are you looking for in a new position? Nine times out of ten, people don’t think of this when they speak to me. What am I supposed to do? Guess? “I know it when I see it” isn’t helpful either.

5. What was the corporate culture like that you were working in? Did you like it? What did you like about it? What didn’t you care for? Let me know if I should replicate your current work environment in your next firm with more money and more interesting work… or not!

Take some time before posting your resume to decide what is important to you and you will find that your interviews will be better… and so will your results!

What Are You Looking for in a Job?

September 18, 2015May 3, 2015 by Jeff

Job hunting can be an emotionally grueling process.

If you were fired or laid off from a job, you have had to deal with the shock of the layoff or termination notice even before getting into the pits of the search.

If you are like most people I meet, you have fumbled around with your interviewing and job search process and helped to create some of your job search difficulties with your ignorance or arrogance in believing you know know how to do a job search.

And now you have a job offer . . . or maybe more. Should you accept the job offer? Which offer should you choose?

Again, if you are like most people I meet, you are seduced by the siren song of the dollar offer.

But what about the benefits?

What about your boss?

How frequently will you be reviewed?

What are the prospects of the firm you are joining?

What about your future colleagues who you have never met?

How do they give promotions and raises?

When I coach executives and managers in their job search, we go through a process of identifying the skills they bring to the next organization PLUS what is going to be most important to them in the next job organization. What will you need to see or know in order for you to be certain it is the right place for you to join.

Without thinking about this and writing it down at the beginning of your job search, you, too, may be seduced by the sales process of the recruiter, your new salary and a host of other things that will cause you to sacrifice your goals.

Make the time at the beginning or stop and do it NOW!

Can You Afford to Stay in Your Job?

May 30, 2016May 3, 2015 by Jeff

Most people I meet have been raised to give their best efforts when they work. Somewhere they got the message that if they work hard and give their best efforts, they will be rewarded for their loyalty.

And sometimes they are… and generally, they aren’t.

For most people, work involves travel to and from a place away from home, dressing a certain way and following direction to them according to company rules. You are expected to deliver a certain amount of output for which you receive a salary and, perhaps, benefits and periodic raises.

For many people, raises do not keep them ahead of inflation. Through October 2005, the consumer price index was up 4.3% and the core inflation index (the one that excludes food and energy prices) was up 2.1% (could you do without food and fuel?).

This means just to keep up with inflation, a worker who was paying taxes of 25% on the federal, state and local level would have to receive a raise of at least 5.4% just to stay even with their income taxes. Add in property tax and school tax increases that occurat different times and that raise you’ve gotten won’t go very far.

What should you do?

Walking in to your boss’ office, pounding their desk and demanding a raise is not a good idea, easpecially if you don’t know the value of your experience in the job market.

Instead, update your resume and get yourself another job. Why allow yourself to get paid less than your market value. Are you that rich that you can forgo the additional income?

For example, if you earned $50000 and received a 10% salary increase, you would be earning $55000. You would be ahead of inflation (inflation is5.4% including the tax bite; you would be getting an actual raise ahead of inflation).

But let’s look at the multiplier-5 years from now, if you only received a 5% raise each year, here’s what would happen:

Year Raise to: Money you are ahead $50000 $55000 $5000
$55000 $57500 $12250
$57500 $60300 $22550
$60300 $63315 $35815
$63315 $66480 $52295

Can you really afford to ignore over $50000 in earnings? And what if you joined a company where raises were even higher?

Most people I meet work to take care of their family, to save for their future and enjoy life. Couldn’t you do a better job of all three with an extra $50000 or more?

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Do you really think employers are trying to help you? You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been a career coach and recruiter for what seems like one hundred years.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com is there to change that with great advice for job hunters—videos, my books and guides to job hunting, podcasts, articles, PLUS a community for you to ask questions of PLUS the ability to ask me questions where I function as your ally with no conflict of interest answering your questions.

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