Day: December 10, 2016

Remember Karma When You Job Hunt | No BS Job Search Advice Radio

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter discusses the importance of being respectful and courteous with people that you meet while job hunting.

[spp-transcript]

I want to talk with you today about karma. Karma in your job switch and conducting yourself in a proper manner. 

The trait of this is an email I received last night from someone. Let me set this up by saying someone contacted me because they knew I was recruiting for position looking for a certain type of background.  They interview with my client 2 or 3 times.  At the last one, he speaks with the overall head of technology and a peer.  The position is a manager’s role.  He comes of the interview higher than a kite and is very excited and enthusiastic. He is really interested.  Then, last night at 10 PM, he sends an email saying, “I am withdrawing.”  No explanation.

Okay. Help me understand this.  It is not like you are not entitled to change your mind about something.  It is not that you cannot be disinterested in a job.  It’s how you carry yourself in doing.  Politely withdrawing from the situation and saying thank you is good up to a point, but we are deserving of an explanation.  After all, the client, myself, have all been putting a lot of effort and care into trying to help you.  To simply withdraw without explanation is discourteous.

Again, there is a “karma thing.”  I know we have all heard the expression, what goes around comes around.  Whether you believe it, as I do, that can happen. Many many years in the future, perhaps lifetimes in the future, or in some of the professional situation doesn’t matter.

You always want to carry yourself in a way that allows another person to say, “I may not like the decision, but I respect the person where they are coming from.“

Again, treat recruiters, whether they are corporate or third-party with respect.  Treat them as though they are a member, your family, and, Lord knows, I know that every recruiter is deserving of that. But that doesn’t mean that you have to carry yourself that way.  You can still be professional.  You can deal with people in a kind manner without being rude as this individual was.

[/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

The Hunt for a Stable Job | No BS Job Search Advice Radio

by

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter discusses the mistake you are making if you are looking for a stable job.

[spp-transcript]

I want to start off by sharing the story with you. I have been a professional recruiter for more than 40 years. I remember being fairly junior, like my 2nd or 3rd year in search and saying things to candidates like this, “Hi! I have this great company that wants to meet with you,” I would then describe the environment that the person would work in. I was only doing IT work at that time. But that’s not the point of the story.

I would describe the technical environment. How smart the hiring managers were. A whole bunch of things that I had been taught.

I would continue by saying, “it’s with a bank. If banks start to lay off it is time for all of us to leave the country.”

Well, banks have laid off, I haven’t left the country. Maybe you have. By the way, the name of that bank was Manufacturers Hanover Trust which, as a name, has long since disappeared from the banking circles in the United States. They were acquired by another name that is long since disappeared, Chemical Bank.

In the hunt for stability I want to point out, there is no such thing as stability it with corporations anymore. Things always change. After all, the stories about the Fortune 500 at the time of the Great Depression, including the company that manufactured buggy whips and RCA and other firms with antique technologies and businesses are legendary.

There is no stability. What you can do is keep your head up instead of your head down. Look at trends in your field. See how you can capitalize on being current or ahead of the curve so that in this way, you are attracted to other firms.

The reality is if you are at your firm for the next 10 years that is now an unlikely occurrence. You are statistically an aberration.

Why is that? Frankly, to an employer, you are disposable.

I wish it were different, but their behavior tells me that.

The people who make the promises to you, are often long gone by the time the promises need to be kept. The promotional opportunities and the salary increases – – trivial. You move from droll level I to drone level II all the way up to drone IV. Who cares!

What is important is your personal marketability. If you are able to stay with the technology of your time, if you are willing to stay with the trends of the time and not fall prey to the laziness or the financial inertia of your employer who tries to persuade you that doing this work that no one cares about in the market in general is so wonderful… There will come a day where you will learn. To the contrary.

All I’m going to tell you is stop looking for stability within your organization or from the next company. The only stability that you can create as millions of people learned during the last recession is with your skills, knowledge and network.

Get that again.

Your skills, knowledge and network.

[/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