15 Minute Job Search Tips

How Do Recruiters Go Through Online Applications? (VIDEO)

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC7Nolo8VD8[/svp]
Sometimes I don’t want to fill in the optional blanks like the high school information professional experiences, cover letters etc. however I’m really concerned it will influence the results. So how do recruiters go through online applications. Will they use resumes or just the application pages?

[spp-transcript]

The question for today is:

“How do recruiters go through an online job application?”

I want to read the rest of the question.  “Sometimes, I don’t want to fill in the optional blanks, all the professional experiences, cover letters, etc..  However, I am really concerned as to how will affect the results.  How do recruiters go through online applications?  Will they see your resume or just the online application pages?”

1st of all, you have to understand that when firms deploy an applicant tracking system, they are just trying to fill certain types of jobs.  They have government reporting requirements that cause them to need to fill all kinds of jobs, some of which will involve people who might only need to have a high school diploma.  Only including college ignores these people and their needs.  If you are a college grad and they are asking about high school, if you or someone with a Masters, do not worry about high school.

What’s more interesting is the fact that you upload a resume and it searches the resume to populate certain fields so it will take data from your resume(Name, address, phone numbers, , minimally, a city state and ZIP Code. Minimally, a city state and ZIP Code) for their data, because, think about it, how will they ever find you? 

Seriously. Do you think the area code of the phone number works anymore? It doesn’t because people have mobile phones and move from place to place. Minimally, you have to give them city, state and ZIP Code.

The applicant tracking system should be able to parse the data from your resume when you uploaded, including your college degree, where you went to school, if you referenced your GPA, it should be able to pull that out.

It should be able to recognize all the individual jobs on your resume. I want to caution that if you are a consultant, I want you to go back manually and make sure that it is obvious that you are a consultant that these organizations so that they don’t reject you because you have given them the appearance and impression that you are a job hopper.

Will they actually see your resume once you have actually uploaded it and once you have filled in all the stuff? A lot of it gets weaned by the system to give them preferences.

You have to understand that when employer receives resumes, most of them are absolute spam to them. The Purdue chicken plucker applying for the software engineering job is 1 of the examples I always give because that has actually happened to me.There systems will rate your resume and lower and make it less of a priority for them to look at if it doesn’t really demonstrate a fit for the role according to the system.

Ultimately, what they are not doing is looking at these fields, except that they are trying to reach you at a future date. What they are looking at is your actual resume and discerning from that if you actually fit the job.

They may never get to it unless your resume demonstrates unfit and the system recognizes it as a fit. So always review your application and make sure that you have done enough to show that you fit the specific requirements of the job and don’t just simply upload a resume.

By the way, one last thing, I think it’s important that you hear this.

Never ever apply for jobs to applicant tracking system. What you should be doing is finding out who the hiring manager is and contacting them directly. Do not apply to HR. Do not apply for jobs through the ATS. Only contact hiring managers and submit your resume to them

[/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.”

Placing the Blame Where It Belongs (VIDEO)

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlozDGec0L8[/svp]
I take a look at 2 stories of my own to help you and myself.

[spp-transcript]

I want to share some of my own story as the subject of this video.  Let me start by saying that this is a hard thing to admit because I’m really competent in almost everything that I do and I don’t make a lot of mistakes but on Friday, I was doing a coaching practicum and I “stink up the joint.”

I miss things I would normally catch.  I just did not perform at a high level.  I don’t even think I perform the mediocre level.  I was just bad.

My 1st reaction was to point the finger and blame the other person I was coaching as though he was at fault for my performance.  A practicum is a process where you have 30 minutes to coach someone you have never spoken with before, you don’t know what the subject is going to be, but you have 30 minutes. You’re going to be observed by a more experienced coach and by others.  It is like a fishbowl.  You have seen the scenes in movies or in hospitals where there is a theater where the surgeon is performing surgery and observed by less experienced physicians.

It kinda feels that way because there are people who are observing and they are quiet during the coaching session (their mics are muted) and there are other participants as well is the head coach for the occasion, who are also observing.

You have 30 minutes, not 31, 30 minutes.  It’s hard to admit, but I stank.  I missed a lot of turns and my 1st reaction was to blame the person I was coaching.  He set me up. He wasn’t well prepared. After all, you’re supposed to arrive at the practicum with something to be coached on and he gave me the idea that he was making it up as he went along. After 5 minutes, he said, “I’m not really sure if this is what I want to be coached about.”  As a result, I missed the turn where I could’ve asked him about what he did want to be coached about and exploring whether or not the reason for the shift that he was hitting on something that was too close to him.

But I blamed him because in my mind, I created a story about this guy and, like I said, I stink up the joint.

I don’t care who you are, but there are things you do where, at times, you blame others just like I did here.  Instead of looking at yourself as being the source, you look at the political environment, you look at bias (which obviously exists) and neglect to look at your part in the scenario.

There are places where you criticize others when you are ill prepared for the circumstances. I thought I was well prepared but my head wasn’t and it showed in this coaching circumstance.  

I’ll simply say that were blame belongs are with oneself.  You don’t do a good enough job and you start to blame your resources, you blame the coworkers… What about you?  What is your part in all of this?

I want to encourage you that before you start lashing out like I was doing, think in terms of your part in this.  For some reason, this played on an old message of mine that happened 8 or 9 years ago when I was attempting to be certified by a group that I was involved with to lead their weekend retreats.  Without going into a lot of boring details, I felt like I was screwed over by the people who were evaluating.

I was lashing out. I was criticizing.  Blame blame blame blame blame.

It was me and, on this occasion, I didn’t show up like I normally do.  I didn’t acknowledge my own foibles afterwards.  I blamed the panel.

You don’t need to blame others. It isn’t really useful for you.

All that happens if you confront them is they dig in their heels, they try to argue with you.  They have the authority and the power and, thus, they are right.  It forced me to look back at myself as I did in what happened on Friday and look at my own part in acknowledge that I wasn’t really all that good.

So, again, blame belongs with oneself. Most of the time, not with others.  Learn that lesson. It’s a hard one for most people to learn, but you will be much happier if you do.

[/spp-transcript]

 

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been coaching people to play their professional and personal games BIG for what seems like 100 years.

For more No BS Coaching Advice & encouragement, visit my website.

Ready to schedule your first coaching call?

You’re Crazy!!! (VIDEO)

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5vtNiBWpH8[/svp]
Quitting a job, changing jobs or careers, Often evokes a response from people that suggests, “You’re crazy!” Why is that?

[spp-transcript]

Have you ever tried to quit her job and leave a situation that everyone else thinks is ideal?  It’s safe, secure, you know the ropes… And what happened?

There are people who invariably say, “You are crazy.  You are nuts!  What are you doing?  You’ve got…” Then they list a whole host of things that are ideal about your current situation in their minds, but to you, well, you’ve already made the decision to move on.

There is an old Rumi poem (Rumi was a 6 century Middle Eastern poet) that suggests that when grandma thinks that you should stay in bed and take it easy, we are tempted by this.  Hey father’s stern slap is better for the boy and sends him off to school.

Here, this friend, this colleague is playing like grandma, wanting you to stay in bed.  Pulling the covers over your head and thinking that that is going to take away all the annoyance, all the discomfort in your current situation that has prompted you to look at something else. You’ve explored other alternatives and decide to make a different choice than what you have.

Now, I want to acknowledge that this person is expressing a sign of care.  They think you might get hurt.  On the other hand, is a part of them that doesn’t want to acknowledge their dissatisfaction as well.  After all, we’ve all been conditioned to believe that we all have to live in this pattern of behavior.. This box that leaves us feeling stuck and we don’t see alternatives.  You have found it alternative that you have found satisfying.  You may actually feel excited by this!

Interestingly, it’s not risk-free. You are going to experience a risk by doing this. In addition, you might fail!.  And, you know what? You’ve made that choice.  You might fail AND you might succeed.  And you might finish somewhere between the 2 poles of failure and success in some middle ground where basically you say to yourself, “I’m happy doing this. I didn’t get rich but I’m watching my kids grow up. And, you know, that’s okay.”

I think you have to ask yourself, “Why?  Why are they doing this?”  On the one hand they care and on the other hand you are symbol to them of someone who is leaving prison and getting to the outside and you have made a different choice.

It doesn’t matter if you’re quitting a job, or starting a business for yourself or any number of other things.  You could be changing your career altogether.  I know there are people who have worked in recruiting who hear that I have become a coach and they scratch their head in disbelief.  Frankly, for me, recruiting isn’t satisfactory anymore.  For me, it was worth the risk to take. Because a lifetime is not a long time.  I would like to think that this will all work out very well, I’m hungry to do this, I like helping people in this way.  It’s where my passion is.

For others, it’s okay to do a job and be paid a lot of money. That’s okay.  For me, it’s not enough.  Is it time to consider something else?

What’s not enough for you?

We are you prepared to be crazy in the eyes of other people?  It is important question to ask yourself because it takes away your excuses in your life.  It leaves you with the choice instead of surrendering/capitulating to your situation. You are making purchase decisions.

Again, you can make the conscious decision today and change it 6 months, a year, 2 years from now.  It makes no difference. Make a conscious choice.  Is this current life that you are living a good one?  Are you satisfied with it professionally, personally, the whole thing?

If you think it’s that time, which out to me.  My address is JeffAltman@TheBigGameHunter.us.  In the subject line put the phrase, “It’s time to change.”  Let’s set up a time to speak in get to work with one another.

I would love to help you.

[spp-transcript]

,

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter has been coaching people to play their professional and personal games BIG for what seems like 100 years.

For more No BS Coaching Advice & encouragement, visit my website.

Ready to schedule your first coaching call?

No B. S. Job Search Advice: Is Your Search Going Nowhere? (VIDEO)

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDv614bouHE[/svp]
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains what to do if your job search is going nowhere.

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.”

Abdication Isn’t Just Done By Royalty (VIDEO)

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DGTMXzPyxw[/svp]
Too often, professionals abdicate responsibility for their careers just like royalty does with their crown.

abdication

[spp-transcript]

The term, “abdication,” is an interesting one.  I know I tend to think of it in the context of royalty– a king or queen abdicating the crown, removing it from their head and surrendering authority for the realm.  Other people abdicate as well.  Let me offer a few illustrations.

The 1st 1 comes from my work in headhunting.  As you know I did for many years before becoming a coach.  There was a firm I done a lot of work with filled a lot of positions with that came to me and said that they wanted to reduce my fee by 20%.  I pause for a moment as we were speaking over the phone and nodded my head and said, “When you go to the store and pick up a package of steak and it says $20 on it and then you offer $15 or $16 for it, what did they tell you to do?“

“The answer is that they won’t sell it to you and tell you to put it back.  I charge the price that I am going to charge him is up to you to decide whether or not you are willing to pay it.  If you don’t, that is perfectly fine. You can purchase from someone else but this is what I’m going to charge.”

Story number 2 involves people in their careers.

When was the last time you really did career planning for yourself?  When was the last time you sat down and said to yourself, “You know, this isn’t going the way I hoped.  I’m going to sit down and figure out where I want to take my career 5 years and how I’m going to get there.“

Have you ever done that?  Most people never.  They go to a job and do the tasks that they been assigned to do.  They stop thinking about themselves and their needs, doing a great job for their employer so that mommy and daddy company will take care of them. How smart is that?  If you look at the last recession, it wasn’t too smart, was it?

And, we can expect another reces of course, not! S

I want you to start thinking for yourself ion because recessions always show up.  Do you think you’re going to be immune to layoffs because your good girl or good boy and did exactly what you are told? Of course, not.

I want you to put yourself into the equation, take responsibility for your career. Instead of abdicating it to someone else.  If you do abdicate, you put yourself and your family at risk.  Is that really all that smart?

If you are involved with job hunting or need advice with your search, visit JobSearchCoachingHQ.com and join there.

[/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.”

Can I Get Away with Using a Fake Reference? (VIDEO)

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THcBElp12QQ[/svp]
I answer a question for someone about whether they can use a fake reference and get away with it.

false-references

[spp-transcript]

I was asked the question:

Can I get away with using the fake reference?

I’m not going to give you the morality speech.  I will simply say that it is absolutely wrong and it is possible to get away with it, but harder than you think it is.

It’s possible to get away with it. If your “reference” has been properly briefed, speaks with confidence, understands the field of work that you are in, can talk in detail, not just simply about the simple work that you’ve done, but about the more nuanced work that you did for your organization.  Most people can’t pull that off.

This is 1 of the ways that people get caught.  These days there is LinkedIn.  Someone says that they work for your firm and they don’t work there.  Lo and behold, you are exposed as a liar.

They can’t speak in detail about you – – what you did and how you went about doing it. Any follow-up question other than name, rank, and serial number questions receives very thin answers and lo and behold, you are a liar.

Is that how you want to lose an opportunity? By faking it?

Let me also going one extra layer. If you have to think the reference to get the job, you’re probably not qualified to do the job will probably be fired.

Do you want to put all your blood and guts into getting a job and then, because you’re not really qualified, get fired?

Is it possible? Yes. Is it likely? No.

A quick story. In days of old, someone told me about how they went so far as to send someone in for their medical exam before they were hired! When it came time to do the drug test, because the real person look different and had a different handwriting than the person who is actually taking the test for them, they put a splint on the hand of this person. They got away with it, except when the person was on board, the person was fired for drug use.

Invariably, the chickens come home to roost.  You really don’t want to do this but recognize, if you do, you are putting your career at risk yet again.  There is something you are not qualified for in this job and need to have a liar life for you.

Don’t do it.

[/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.”

How Do You Get a Job After Being Self Employed for 20 Years?

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_7fkz4AgZI[/svp]
This scenario happens pretty frequently , and if it is happening to you now, I hope you find this helpful.

self-employed

[spp-transcript]

“How do you get a new job after being self-employed for 20 years?”

As many of my answers go, it depends.

It depends on the field that you are in. The answer is going to be different if you owned a retail store versus being an insurance broker versus being a contract consultant working in a number of clients. Let me give some general answers that will be part of the framework.

Assuming you are not a self-employed contractor type, that you have owned the business for a number of years, the idea is to take advantage of a number of the resources that you have that the average individual isn’t going to have.

For example, you have a relationship with an accountants and he or she has relationships with other accountants, your networking should start with your accounting firm, your audit firm, your CPA… “I’m thinking of closing up and I think it’s time for me to find a job. Please keep your eyes and ears open for me for other opportunities.” If they’re smart, they will.

Vendors

Start with your accountant, your insurance agent, all the vendors that you’ve worked with, make it clear that you’re not going bankrupt and that you will be a deadbeat with your bills and asked them to introduce you to people who might be interested in what you do.

So you start with professionals and then you start to go to your extended network. 

For example, if you belong to a BNI chapter and speak to the other members that you’re thinking of hanging it up, they will help you a lot, they will be an antenna for you in your local community for helping you get introductions.

Tell everyone – – friends, neighbors– there is no embarrassment anymore. What you are doing is using your network of relationships in order to receive introductions to others.

There is a classic story and job hunting that I heard many years ago whose cleaning person introduce someone to her husband, who is the president of a bank. The reason the person was cleaning homes was as part of the spiritual practice. She didn’t need the money but wanted to maintain humility.  Eventually, the person gave her resume, after all, this was the cleaning person and he didn’t know her husband was the head of a bank.  After all, who could she possibly know they could help him?

That’s why you tell everyone. You tell your banker (not the idiot at the desk. The person that you had a relationship with for a number of years, not the rotating 24-year-old who sits at a desk and opens accounts; obviously, there is a difference between the stereotype of the 24-year-old that I just used and others who are extraordinary). Start talking to everyone, making sure that they know.

Obviously, at some point you will need a resume. In constructing the resume, you will want to think, not in terms of being an owner, because, as an owner, unless you are buying another business or manage another business, you will be joining in a staff for all and, depending upon the staff role that you are interviewing for, make sure that your resume speaks to that part of your background.

So, lots of dynamics here and I want to offer a few points I thought might help.

[/spp-transcript]

Do you 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.”

Was This a Good Interview?

Was This a Good Interview?

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDnIFcQRmp4[/svp]

 

[spp-transcript]

 

Do you 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.”

Should I Hide My Dates on Employment?

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4ZOLlPujiQ[/svp]
I recorded the answer earlier but the audio didn’t work. Since, I lost the original question I’m working from memory. The follow-up to the question involve the individual experiencing anxiety and leaving jobs for that reason.

 

[spp-transcript]

Should I hide my dates of employment?

I misplaced the original email I received but, as I recall, this person seems to be a student and would take on jobs while they were in school And would quit when they start to feel anxiety. “Too much on their plate,” is how I tend to interpret anxiety at this stage in life. I divided the question into 2 parts: The 1st 1 is, “should I hide my dates of employment.”A good or average interviewer is going to think that (1) You are hiding something (They are right.  You are hiding something) and (2) they are going to follow up by asking you the actual dates.

Thus, you are better served by providing the actual dates and offering explanations for why you left.  For example,you might list all the firms that you work for ( this assumes that this is while you’re in school), listing all the dates that you were employed in these various jobs, Then underneath it say something to the effect of, “I would leave when my school requirements Became more of a priority. Rather than do my job halfway and get mediocre grades, I focused on school but needed to earn a living so I would work and quit when my schedule became too overwhelming.”

That becomes an easy way that you can explain it. If my memory is right about this anxiety issue, the more important thing for you is not interviewing for jobs with the work will make you anxious. How do you do that? There are a number of ways.

Do informational interviews about the field of work to find out that this is something that can provoke you. You don’t need to have anxiety.  When I think of anxiety I think of “overload.” Your circuits are fried. Rather than putting too much stress on the system, you modulate the stress.

Now, to be clear, I don’t think it’s possible to have a stress free life. However, what you can do is work in professions that interest you, motivate you, cause you to get excited about going to work and that usually is the kind of stress that people can handle. A lot of organizations will ask you to expand from your comfort zone which is a good thing.  You will learn to handle more and do more things.   You don’t want to spend the next 40 years of your life doing the same thing, do you? Of course, not!  You’ll learn to handle more and, thus, find that There is things that cause you anxiety may dissipate.

Get supports in place, whether it’s a counselor, a coach and/or a therapist so you have a way of sorting things through as things come up for you. After all, life is not without challenge.  In that challenge, you are likely to feel some anxiousness. As a result, is it better to have someone that you are working with than not.

[/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 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.

Connect with me on LinkedIn 

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

More Questions to Ask at Interviews

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPc0cyvD6HA[/svp]
At every interview, employers asked job hunters whether they have any questions for them. Smart questions will communicate whether you will be a smart manager, director or executive within their organization. I’ve covered some questions in previous videos; here are more that I believe will help you create a great impression.

 

[spp-transcript]

I was on StumbleUpon and I stumbled into something that I thought was worthwhile sharing. It comes from topresume.com. I’m going to give them credit for this. .  The question is entitled, “13 Questions to Ask the Hiring Manager.”

I think the article is geared toward more senior professionals, but I’m going to curate the information Because I think it can be applied to people at many other levels as well.

Here are some of the questions for you and a manager level and above that you will find helpful when you are at the end of the interview and they say, “so, do you have any questions for us?”

1 of the things I’ve always encouraged people to ask is, “Please give me an idea of your expectations over the 1st 30, 60 and ninety days.” That’s a pretty predictable question because 1 of the things he wants to find out is how they are going to get you up and running, as well as what their expectations are over the 1st 3 months.

Then there’s another question I asked people to ask.  “Let’s say you hire me, and it’s a year from now.  I have adjusted a good job; I’ve done a spectacular job amongst the best that you’ve ever seen someone performing a role like this. What what I’ve accomplished during this year that would cause you to think that way?”

These are to the questions I encourage people to ask. Here are some from topresume.com:

“What is the history of this position?”  Let me add to that by having you ask By having you ask, “how did my predecessor in this position excel?” “How did they fall short?” You want to hear what the good points for so you can replicate them and where they were seen as being deficient, so you avoid that.

Here’s another one that I like.  “What about this position is important?  How does it serve leadership and direct reports?” I think this is a nice question because you always want to be in proximity to positions of authority and power.  If you are down the line so far That what you’re doing doesn’t matter and they can’t answer that question, that’s real good for you to know.

“How will you measure my success and what can I do to exceed your expectations?” This has slightly different language than my question; I like mine better, but I wanted to have you hear this alternative.

“What part of the position has the steepest learning curve? What can someone do to get up to speed quickly?”

“What are the expectations about managing workflow?” After all, in the day when it’s very common for firms to be operating 24 x 7 x 365, Do you have to personally maintain coverage or can you coordinate that?

“How is the feedback process structured here?”  You are going to live and die with that while managing your team and will be affected by it as well.

“What opportunities will I have to learn and grow?” 

Then, in the article, they start to suggest questions of the manager about their circumstances. I’m going to give you their questions and you draw your own conclusions about whether to ask them.

“What’s the most challenging part of your job? What’s your favorite part of it?”

“How did you get your role?” You’re trying to find out if they were hired from the outside or promoted internally.

“Do you have the tools and resources to do your job well?” Personally, I would feel awkward about asking that question. You’re asking someone who is considering hiring you whether they have adequate resources to do the job.

“Do you feel like your opinions count? (Do you think they are really going to say, ” no?”)” 

“Is there anything that I’ve said that would cause you to doubt that I would be a great fit for the role?”

I covered that in another video where I talk about questions that you could ask later on.

Whether you you use all these questions were not, I think a lot of them are very smart for you as a manager level and above To ask in order to figure out whether this is a role that makes sense for you.

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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.

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