Ask The Big Game Hunter

Is It Common to Feel Buyer’s Remorse After You Start a New Job? (VIDEO)

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq3Pxj_mZiw[/svp]
I have started to have 2nd thoughts about my new job. Is this a common occurrence?

 

[spp-transcript]

The question for today is:

Is it common to experience buyer’s remorse after you accept and start a new job

Yes. I can’t be more direct with you than that.  The reason often has nothing to do with the new employer.  It has to do with you and unrealistic expectations you have about what it’s going to be like working at the new position.

What often happens is that you have idealized notions of what the job is going to be like, of what the people are going to be like (and I want to emphasize this one) , particularly if you are an experienced person who has worked at one organization for a long time.  This, in particular happens all the time.

You have to get crystal clear about what to expect after you join.  Find out what a typical day is like.  Meet with some of your future coworkers and asked them about what it’s going to be like working there.  Even then, you may place a halo around this firm, but they are just a bunch of people with idiosyncrasies that a bunch of people have.  You know, like there are people there who are going to say dumb things.  They are going to be people there who are not going to do what they say they are going to do.  They will have a whole host of foibles. That is a part of being human.

You are going to go there and, suddenly, Richard is going to become annoying to you because he tell you to your face one thing and does something completely different, just like at the old firm!  Or that the be just 1 of those quirks that people have with the refrigerator in the company’s kitchen that just sets you off.

Whatever it is, it is a very common occurrence that people have a sense of buyer’s remorse after they start a new job.

What you do is 1 of several things:

You can determine what you need to do to change your own mind because weird things will happen at every place that you work. 

Another thing is to recognize that these are just people with the common conditions of people.

Those are the 2 basic things.  There are few other nuanced things as well.  In addition, you can always change jobs again.  After all, if the problem is your boss or your boss’s boss who is picking on you and harassing you “trying to help you do a better job.”  You can of course change jobs again. You don’t have to put up with this.

But it is common.

[/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.”

 

Are There Places in Every State To Help You Find a Job? (VIDEO)

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H2OmGR6nUE[/svp]
What kind of places are you thinking of? Government agencies? Recruiters? Nonprofit groups?’

 

[spp-transcript]

The question for today is, “Are there places in every state to help you find the job?” 

It depends on what you mean by the word, “places.”  After all, I’m sure there are recruiters in every state that will help you find the job.  There are people that will help you find a job.  If you mean government agencies, which is what I suspect you are asking about, yes, I’m sure there are agencies that do occupational training and, perhaps, an Office of Employment and Training that will help you find work.  It used to be called Unemployment.  These agencies will “help you find a job.”  

What did they really do?  They will point you to a computer, tell you to do a search on their website and other websites to identify positions.

Do you think that’s the way that’s the way to help you find the job?

They may have pamphlets and other material for you to read (and probably not follow through on) that are designed to help you find the job, but are basic.

If you are the beginner level in your job search, you may need that kind of material to help you find work.

If you are a more experienced person, respectfully, , what I have seen of the information that is provided won’t be good enough to help you. Certainly, they are not going to go out and “find jobs for you.” Their job is to process people, not help you find the job.

Thus, the answer the question is, “it depends.” For most individuals, it is very basic stuff that won’t help you very much.

What you need to do take charge of your career, learn what you need to in order to find work now and in the future, and think of your career as a business that you own, not a him bdicated 2 other people.

It’s kind of like investing in mutual funds – – you handle your money to other people who you think no better, but do they really? Or a financial adviser? Do you think some of them really know better?

At the end of the day, you may not get a lot out of these Office of Training facilities and other places that the government has set up. You will get some amount of advice from recruiting firms. You can find people who can help you. There are nonprofit groups that can help. But you need to be in charge of your career,

I created JobSearchCoachingHQ.com to help both beginning and experienced professionals access to great information to help you find work. Also, you can ask me questions while you’re a member of the site and answer them to help you find work.

Again visit the site. – – JobSearchCoachingHQ.com

[/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.”

How Do I Get a Recruiter to Respond to A Salary Negotiation?

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7Zlwr8Xamw[/svp]
There has been no response to emails or instant messaging. I don’t want to bother my boss. Why aren’t they getting back to me?

 

[spp-transcript]

I was asked, “How do I get a recruiter to respond to a salary negotiation?”

The person has been an intern and they have made an offer to them.  The recruiter for this firm hasn’t been responding to emails or instant messaging and the intern is frustrated.  They want to find out how they can reach this person for negotiating.

Here are a few points:

  1. As an intern who is converting to full-time staff, you are small fish on their plate.  I have other, more important fish to fry, too.  HR has a lot of things on their plate; they have hiring managers who are demanding service; they are interviewing; they are trying to fill positions; they are writing a heads… There are many things that HR is doing… You are not a big concern for them.
  2. This HR person may be out of the office.  They may be traveling. They may be doing campus recruiting, hence why they may not be responding to you.
  3. You are right not to trouble your boss.  This is not a major priority.  If the rule, they offered you a job  and you have already done parts of this job before.  They will probably be asking themselves, “What’s the big deal?  You knew what the price point was we brought you want for this internship?”
  4. They just don’t care.  There’s no point or concern that they have, because, after all, it’s not like you’re the only intern on the planet or qualified to do this job.  There are others. Their desire to negotiate is really small.

Let me summarize for you where you stand.

On the one side there is a rock. On the other side, there is a hard place.  You are somewhere between the two.

If your goal is to just make the connection and they are not respond, send an email to HR with the subject line, “Are you okay?”  The message may read something along the lines of, “I have emailed and I am do you and had not received a response.  I have a few questions about the job offer.  Would you give me a call, please?  I just want to make sure you are okay?  My experience of you is that you would normally get back to me but since I haven’t heard, I just want to make sure that you are all right.”

That will usually “guilt them” into surfacing.

[/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.”

Why Do People Hire Career Coaches?

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRm_Kk-tYjE[/svp]

I offer one basic reason and offer two scenarios for why someone should hire a career coach.

the-thrill-is-gone7_thumbnail.jpg

[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.”

 

Stagnant Career But Can’t Find a Job

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnJ8vu0XdVY[/svp]
“I hate stagnating in my job, but can’t find a better one. Should I take a career break? I grew rapidly in my company but got stuck in middle management (“Head of…”), mainly due to hard politics. The worst thing is that other companies don’t seem to hire at my level.

I made huge sacrifices to get here and burnt out, so I would only be satisfied with higher pay and/or level of responsibility.”

 

[spp-transcript]

I received a good question from someone that I thought was worthwhile to choose for a variety of reasons.

Let me just read it to you.

“I hate stagnating in my job, but can’t find a better one. Should I take a career break? I grew rapidly in my company but got stuck in middle management (“Head of…”), mainly due to hard politics. The worst thing is that other companies don’t seem to hire at my level.

I made huge sacrifices to get here and burnt out, so I would only be satisfied with higher pay and/or level of responsibility.”

I want to expand the question a little bit to address less experienced workers and then come back to deal with this specific scenario.

For the younger workers finding it difficult to find something, maybe you don’t like your job and are not getting job offers, often the issue is that your interview skills need to improve. Thus, I encourage people to learn and practice and become better a job hunting. After all, the skills needed to find a job are different than those needed to do a job.

However, this is a scenario where we are dealing with a middle management professional who feels stuck. There are two ways of addressing this.

The first is to get “unstuck.” Start defeating the politics and learn where you been typecast in the wrong way and adapt. You to find your problem is being with your current firm and you are stagnating because people see you in one way and value something else.

Thus, the idea is to find what they value and start playing to it. This doesn’t mean you have to change jobs but it also doesn’t mean that you have to quit, go home and watch TV all the time.

That should probably be your first choice.

The second may be similar to the advice that I gave to the young professional but I’m going to emphasize something a little bit different.

For the inexperienced one, I spoke about getting better at job hunting. For you, I want to encourage you to get better at networking, Often, for people who are stuck in middle management, they worked so hard for so long, keeping their heads down to do a great job that networks outside their current firm are next to nonexistent.

You need to build the network seeking question and build the validity of the statement that you made that “other companies don’t seem to hire at your level.”

Often they don’t have an opening right now but (1) they may create one for the right person, and (2) the opening may come later on as corporate “musical chairs” starts to occur and people move from one vacancy to another.

What I’m getting at is that you are obviously frustrated with your current job but also frustrated with job hunting so you’re looking for permission to give up.

I don’t buy that. For the person who’s worked hard their entire career and for the first time have run into a career obstacle, quitting should not be your choice. Taking a break should not be your choice.

Finding the path to the right situation should be your choice and practicing patience should become part of your repertoire, rather than giving up.

[/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 for $.99 and receive free Kindle versions of “No BS Resume Advice” and “Interview Preparation.”

Is This a Generic Message or Is the Manager Interested? – Job Search Radio

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When a recruiter says, “the hiring manager sent your resume to me and asked that I reach out,” is that a generic message or was the manager really interested?

That’s the question I answer on this show can the short answer is, “It depends.” That’s a subject for today’s show; I’ll explain.

[spp-transcript]

When a recruiter says, “The hiring manager sent me your profile and asked that I reach out,” is that a generic message or is the manager really interested?

As usual, it’s a “depends message.” It depends on whether this is an agency or a corporate recruiter.

If it’s a corporate recruiter, it is likely that that is true. The hiring manager was doing some reconnaissance because they’re not seeing resumes that that. Where they are not getting referrals that fit the position you’re trying to fill, so they did some digging, and on the resume themselves, forwarded to HR and said, “Call this person.”

If it is an agency recruiter, the likelihood is that it is a load of crap. What’s happening is that the agency recruiter is trying to flatter you, distract you and not say things to you like, “I heard some nice things about your work and want to have a chance to talk with you,” and instead, try this load of crap to try to persuade you to talk with them.

Agency recruiters are doing their own work; they are digging, they are finding people, they are doing what they can to find individuals to fill jobs. Using lines like this are designed to flatter you and cause you to think more of them and their relationship with the hiring manager and the probable reality is.

Corporate recruiter? Believe it. Agency recruiter? No.

/spp-transcript]

Do you 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.

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

When NOT to Submit Your Resume – Job Search Radio

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Too often, people do dumb unthinking things in their job search. They call Monday morning at 7:30 AM expecting to reach someone and ask, “So what’s going on?” Probably not much different than Friday afternoon when you last called.

On this podcast, I discuss a mistake they job hunters make – – submitting their resume at the wrong time. I hope you aren’t making this mistake, but if you are STOP IT!

[spp-transcript]

 

Him and

Do you 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.

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

What Are Direct Ways to Get a Job? – Job Search Radio

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What are some of the direct ways to actually get a job without the mambo jumbo stuff?

[spp-transcript]

The question for today is what are direct ways to get a job without the mumbo-jumbo stuff. That’s the way the question was phrased to me and I decided make the headline for this show an abbreviated version. So I will highlight two ways and invite you to add others to the list in the comments area.

The two ways I’m going to recommend are (number one) contact friends; maybe friend can hire you. Friends, obviously, who are in positions of authority, have the ability to hire people into jobs.

The second way, and this is the indirect why which isn’t necessarily going to instantly result in you getting a job, is by being referred by a friend or former colleague who is able to say positive things about you to hiring manager. This requires, of course, that you have friends (number one), that they are working, that there working at firms that are hiring, and that they have a relationship with the hiring manager. Even if they don’t have a relationship with the hiring manager, they can refer you and to the employee referral program. As a matter of fact, LinkedIn has a system in place where if a firm is advertising a job on their platform and the firm has engaged this service, the employee can recommend you if you’re connected to them.

So what you are able to do is contact your friend through LinkedIn, say “I saw your firm is hiring someone. If your firm has an employee referral program, why don’t you recommend me or submit me to the job on LinkedIn.” They are able to do that. Now the mechanics of that, I don’t know, but you can research that if you want to.

The idea becomes because you are referral, you are running with a certain amount of a halo around you as being someone qualified for the job. If you are qualified for the job! If you are a doorman at a building or lawnskeeper applying for software engineering job, obviousl you are not qualified and have no shot. But, assuming that you meet the basic qualifications of the role, your friend is able to recommend you, your former colleague is able to recommend you and the result winds up being, because you arrive with social proof of the fact that your qualified, your advantaged over the absolute stranger. So where possible, it is always better to be referred by someone who is known to the hiring manager, not HR, but the hiring manager so that they can recommend you versus coming in out of the cold. Coming in as just an ad response are filling in an application on applicant tracking system.

[/spp-transcript]

Do you 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.
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

My Contract is Ending and The CEO Doesn’t Know Me – Job Search Radio

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Someone wrote to me and asked about this predicament they were in. They are a consultant who is been successfully working at a client for quite some time. However, their assignment is ending very soon and he is afraid that he will not be extended/renewed because the CEO doesn’t know him.

He asks, “Should I stop by their office, introduce myself and ask how I can help?”

[spp-transcript]

I have a fun question today!

“I work for a blue-chip company and my employment contract is expiring. The CEO has never heard of me. Should I stop by their office and ask if I can help them and how?”

I must in all candor say that as a consultant, you committed the cardinal sin, the most basic mistake a consultant can make. That is, once you’re on assignment, making sure the people in charge know who you are and want you to remain there because they see the value in your work. This applies to people in full-time jobs as well.

You see, at the end of the day, if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, why should they care? You’ve done nothing up until this point to make sure that the real decision-maker cares. It also could be that this person isn’t going to be involved in the decision for you to remain but, in the way that you presented, it gives me the idea that they will.

So, if you suddenly appear on the doorstep, like a week before your contract runs out and say, “Hey! I’m the guy who… What can I do to help you? I only have a week because my contract is running out…” Well, they’ve probably already made the decision to keep you are not.

But, remember, they shouldn’t happen at the time of renewal. They should be going on all law. You want to stick your face in front of people who are involved with you being retained. You want to be doing great work for these people. It’s kind of like in executive support, when they interview people for roles where they will be supporting people in the C suite and secondarily some staff, they ask how a person would prioritize.

The correct answer is: if they are in the C suite, they go first. It doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks. They always good for service. Why? If you have to ask the question you are an idiot.

The same thing has to apply to you and your career, whether you are a consultant or on staff. At the end of the day, the real decision-makers (not your immediate boss, but the ones a couple levels up from them) have to know your name, no which are capable of, know what your successes are. You have to market yourself both internally and externally.

You have to develop relationships where you as an individual are thought of highly and you are not thought of as being a pain in the rear.

It’s probably too late to do anything but learn your lesson. This applies to you as a job hunter, you looking at your career… Everything you do has to create an impression that you are someone that they want to keep.

Because there is going to be another recession (like for the questioner, there recession is going to begin when their contract runs out). For you who have full-time jobs and feeling superior, there is another recession is going to come up and do you want to be on,” or do you want to avoid the list .

Your boss may not be all to save you because they are too low down in the food chain to really advocate hard for you. You have to work your way up and make sure that those in positions of authority know your value. Otherwise, you’re just another name on the staff list and they can go, “Jeff is only been here for three months. We’ve done well without him before, we can do well without him again.”

Or

“Who’s this Harry guy? He’s been here for five years? Never heard of him before. Loser!” Do you get my point?

I hope you never put yourself in that position again.

[/spp-transcript]

Do you 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.
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.= http://www.JobSa

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.”

Do I Have a Chance When I Am Competing With Someone Internally? (VIDEO)

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwVVvDPvn6s[/svp]
I’ve applied for a job at a company where there’s someone who has his eyes on the same job. Do I have a chance?

[spp-transcript]

Here’s a fun question the someone asked me: I’ve applied for a job in a company where there is someone who has his eyes on the same job. Do I have a chance?

I hate seeming cynical but here’s a fact I can tell you: this goes on all the time. There is always an internal person who is being evaluated for the same job as you. The reason they’re looking externally is that they are not sure that anyone internally is qualified or suitable to do the role.

That may depend on whether the advancement opportunities with the same manager or a different manager. Remember, they’ve seen this person day in and day out, perhaps four years. They haven’t given them a promotion into this job yet, knowing full well what they are capable of. They decide to open this up to the outside because they’re not sure if this person can really do it.

So, yes, you have a chance and the biggest issue isn’t whether you’re competing with this person because you’re always competing with the person. You’re competing with people internal to a firm and you’re competing with people at external to the firm. In other words, other people are applying for this job, right? Don’t distract yourself with worry or concern about the internal candidate. After all, if they were so good, they would’ve already promoted this person into the job. If the manager liked them so much, he or she would probably be in a bind (the bind would be, “I have to give this person up to another manager? They are really good. I want to hold onto them.” They may work to keep them in the role they are currently in.

Don’t sweat the small stuff. Focus on the things you can control– make them fall in love with you. After all, no love… They are going to make you an offer, right?

[/spp-transcript]

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.

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 http://bit.ly/thebiggamehunter