Asides

Keeping Your Activity Organized

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Since buying my first computer in 1983 (gasp!) I have struggled to find a tool that would be easy to work with that would help me stay organized.

I’ve used Outlook, Lotus Agenda, a Palm Pilot, software designed for my industry but found gaps in all of them. Difficult to use. Really only work related. Could only use on one device. Complicated to use. These are my reasons for failing with them. Maybe your experience is different but most people I speak with have a similar story about staying organized.

I read a story recently about a product that I have quickly grown to love called Wunderlist.

Wunderlist runs on almost everything you might want to use– iPhones, Android phones and tablets, PC’s, Macs and iPads, even Chrome extensions to facilitate entering items– and is very easy to use. It comes with a few categories built in but you can easily create more.

As a job hunter, it means your to do list is available anywhere you are. As human being, it means you can easily enter something you need to do, set a date for completion and check it off when it’s done.

Enter when to follow up with a call or email

Create to do’s for each resume you submit and follow ups with reminders to follow up with calls and emails.

Did I mention that it’s free?

I don’t mean freemium with in-app upgrades.

I mean free.

The only thing you now have to do is enter your to do and actually do it.

 

© The Big Game Hunter, Inc, All rights reserved, 2013

When To Schedule Your Next Interview

When To Schedule Your Next Interview (VIDEO)

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLezUAXP9uA[/svp]
In this video, Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains when to schedule an interview for and when not to schedule an interview for.

[spp-transcript]

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves life coaching, as well as executive job search coaching and business life coaching. He is the host of “Job Search Radio,” “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” and his newest show, “No BS Coaching Advice.”

Are you interested in 1:1 coaching or interview coaching from me?  Email me at JeffAltman@TheBigGameHunter.us and put the word, “Coaching” in the subject line.

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com offers 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.  

Connect with me on LinkedIn. Like me on Facebook.

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Don’t forget to give the show 5 stars and a good review in iTunes

If you want to know how to win more interviews, order “Winning Interviews.” You’ll learn how to win phone interviews, in-person interviews, the best question to ask on any interview and more.

Facing the End of the Honeymoon | No BS Job Search Advice Radio

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter discusses that time after you join a company where you wake up and realize that the honeymoon is over.

[spp-transcript]

I want to talk with you today about the end of the honeymoon.  Those of us who are or have been married understand that there is a glow period after you get married.  Everything about this person is perfect. They are wonderful.  It isn’t like you fall out of love. But things change.  So it is with your new job.

You join an organization and everything is going to be perfect.  Everything is going to be wonderful.  Nothing could ever go wrong.  There are things that you have been promised that are absolutely terrific.  You have a bright future.  Then one day things start to change.

A decision is made that you don’t agree with.  A coworker says something that seems a little snippy.  Whatever it is, things start to change as the relationship with you, your work, your manager, your organization starts to shift as well.

It doesn’t mean the job is bad.  It doesn’t mean that you should immediately go out and change jobs.  By any stretch of the imagination. That is the wrong approach to take.  It is just that the relationship is changed.  The environment is becoming more apparent to you.  Maybe it will become time to change. But, initially, all it is is a change.

It’s like in a marriage, things ripen. Sometimes they break.  Sometimes they ripen beautifully. Sometimes they sell.  Marriages end in divorce.  Jobs in the divorce.

Your goal is to try to make it work.  Your goal is to see whether it is just a change or something pivotal.

I don’t presume to know what those pivotal things should be for you.  I’d could list a few. But I don’t want to sour your thinking in any way.  You’ll know what it is time to go because you have the case that brought you to this firm. One day you woke up, realize this wasn’t the right place for you and decided it was time to move on.

If you or someone who’s been one organization for a long period of time. There is a pattern that I want to bring to your attention as well.. For those of you who have been with the firm for a long time. The next job tends to be of much shorter duration.  Often, under a year.  That’s because you have unrealistic expectations of what the firm will do for you.  What this firm will do for you will be different than what your previous firm did for you.

That’s not their fault.  That’s you and having unrealistic expectations.  Be patient.  Be patient with them and be patient with yourself.

Rome was not built in a day. Positive change and synthesis and marriages are not built in a day.

Again, one day you’ll wake up in your new job and will feel the same as it did when you 1st started there.  You will feel concerned about that.  Yet, most of the time, there was nothing to be concerned about.  It is just that the relationship has changed.

[/spp-transcript]

Do you really think employers are trying to help you?

You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

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

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes 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.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Don’t forget to give the show 5 stars and a good review in iTunes

What Does It Mean When The Recruiter Isn’t Returning My Calls or Emails? (VIDEO)

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAvCs5PFdf0[/svp]
If I’m a job applicant and the recruiter I’m working with stops returning my calls and emails, what does that usually mean?

fingers-crossed

[spp-transcript]

The question for today is:

If I’m a job applicant in the recruiter. I am working with stops returning my calls and emails, what does that usually mean?  

Well, let me pose a different scenario.  If you are going out with someone and they stop returning your calls, texts and emails, what would that mean?

You know what it means. Who are you kidding?  You just don’t like it.

Here is what often happens.  Job hunters have this mistaken notion that recruiters work for them.  They don’t.  They work for employers who pay them.  You aren’t paying them anything, right? You have to get this notion out of your head that you are working with them.  You aren’t working with them. They are trying to fill the positions.  Your background either fits or it doesn’t.  When they have something that makes sense, they will be in contact.  

You can drop them a message every once in a while (that doesn’t mean daily) to say, “I just wanted to let you know that I’m still available. If something comes up.”  

Often, what job hunters do because they are “working with the recruiter” is nag and pester the recruiter. 

Understand you are getting a message in the behavior in much the same way as in a dating scenario, if someone you were going out with stop returning your calls, you will get a message from that that they didn’t want to talk with you, right?  

So, you know what it means.  You just have to adjust.

Some people will say you have to work with a lot of recruiters.  I have no idea where you are, geographically, or where you are in your career.  For most people who do not have unique skills or are not at a leadership level, yes, you do have to connect with multiple recruiters.  Recruiters are not pounding on doors to persuade employers to speak with you.  That isn’t how the business works.

They are hired by employers and give them requirements for positions that they need to have filled and, if they find the right person, they will be paid for that.  They are not getting on the phone to make 100 phone calls to companies just for you using a call was that they have prearranged so that whenever someone walks in the door they call 100 people every single day.

No. They are filling jobs. They are not “placing people.”

Let’s assume that you are a relatively inexperienced person, you do need to be contacting multiple people and, more importantly, you do need to be contacting people who graduated from the school that you went to and learn how they got there current job and whether there might be something of their employer that might fit you. You are trying to work with multiple recruiters and responding to ads.  Networking to people that you don’t already know and doing informational interviews, networking, going to networking groups, telling everyone that you know repeatedly that you are looking for work…

It’s not enough to just simply tell them one time, you have to say it multiple times and the people are reminded that you are looking for job.  After all, when someone has a cold, do referred your doctor to them?  Probably not.  People need constant reminders to refer you to things that they care about.

Back your original question.  It probably means that they don’t have anything for you right now and leave them alone.

[/spp-transcript]

 

Do you really think employers are trying to help you?

You already know you can’t trust recruiters—they tell you as much as they think you need to know to take the job they after representing so they collect their payday.

The skills needed to find a job are different yet complement the skills needed to do a job.

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

JobSearchCoachingHQ.com changes 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.

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You can order a copy of “Diagnosing Your Job Search Problems” for Kindle for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”