employment

The First Things to Do If You Are Laid Off | No BS Job Search Advice Radio

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter discusses the first two things you need to do if you are laid off.

 

[spp-transcript]

Let’s talk about that moment in time when you’ve been told that you are going to be laid off.  Maybe, your firm is being acquired.  Maybe businesses just bad.  Whatever the circumstances are, I want you to hear this.

The 1st thing you do is collect names, phone numbers and email addresses from everyone that you can in order to maintain contact in case you need a reference.

You want to make sure that you have the personal information from folks so you can stay in contact with them.  In this way, like I said, if you need a reference, they are available to you.

The next thing you wind up doing is you sit there with your wife, husband, partner, or just yourself. If you live alone and figure out what expenses you can cut back on.  I really mean this.  Working to save money?

Get out your credit card bills. In natural electric bills. Your water bills… All sorts of bills that you have and start to examine what should I be spending my money on.  For example, if you have a mortgage payment. Okay. You’ve got rent. Okay.  We are not talking about saving money there.  There are unnecessary expenses. Almost everyone has.

Cutting back on those expenses NOW. Especially if you’re getting a severance, is so smart.  Doing so, gives you additional staying power in your job search, so that in case the search runs longer than you think it will, you don’t have to take anything out of desperation.

You can interview well. You can look at opportunities for what they are instead of saying, “Oh my God! I need a job!  I really need a job. Help me!  I’ll take anything!”

If you can stay in the job market. If you needed to for an extra 2 months because you cut back on spending, and gives you a huge advantage in the desperation quota.

Again, get everyone’s personal email addresses and phone numbers. Then, from there, figure out where you can cut back on your costs, just in case

[/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.”

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

Deciding to Change Jobs – No BS Job Search Advice

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decidingJeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter discusses what you should do once you decide to change jobs.

 

[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.”

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

Job Search Lessons from the Presidential Election of 2016

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3-ASGxxvbg[/svp]
I believe there are lessons that can be learned from the first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Sec. Clinton that you can apply to your job search. Both made mistakes that you can learn from.

[spp-transcript]

Today, I want to point out another one of those lessons that’s coming from this year’s presidential election. The lesson I want to point out comes from the debate that took place this week with Donald Trump and Sec. Clinton and entering “the deathmatch.” One on one. “Manno a Femmo.” I want to offer a less biased opinion of what I saw and what the media seems to be providing.

Universally they seem to say Trump was awful. When I saw was that in the first 30 or 40 minutes of the debate he matched up well. They obviously disagreed on items and you would expect that. I thought he was accurate and some of his statements on the impact of trade policy and matched up well with her there.

There was a point after the 30 or 40 minute mark where the tide clearly turned. At this juncture, Sec. Clinton’s preparation served her very well. For you as a job hunter, I believe there are lessons that you can learn from both candidates. Critiquing both of them I think there are things that you can take away.

He was not as well prepared as he could have been. Yes, we all read these stories about how he wasn’t going to be doing debate prep and a variety of other things. It’s kind of like going to an interview without preparation and deciding to “wing it.” Presidential debates on job interviews and were seeing the two people in making decisions about them.

Trump didn’t do well he did well in the first part of the interview but in the next hour of time, I thought he did poorly and revealed his lack of preparation. The words didn’t come out well. Even his snarky comments where he whispers into the microphone to disagree with her, he hadn’t done them with an audience before and appeared to be snarky.

I think Clinton made mistakes, too, and the biggest one was that she was smug. She appeared to bask in her own magnificence and missed opportunities to connect with the audience. Yes, she had punches to the ribs and kidneys throughout. Here is one example. Talking about how Trump and his businesses didn’t pay bills to small businesses like her father’s. Her father’s business never did business with Trump. she used it to illustrate that a lot of small business owners who were stiffed by Trump.

She would have a smile on her face that was arrogant, smug and not likable.

To me, that was a missed opportunity. Yes, the intelligence is there but part of what you try to do as a job hunter is connect with the audience, the interviewer, the panel. You can’t sit back and be so cocky that you turn people of.

So, I want to point out that there are lessons we can take from their mistakes that you can apply to job hunting. I’ve done shws about dumb interviewing mistakes that candidates make involving lack of preparation and being so full of yourself that  \\you are sitting there with a big smile on your face, enjoying yourself, instead of focusing on the audience.

[/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

How to Ask for the Job – No BS Job Search Advice Radio

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains how to ask for the job at the end of your interview.

[spp-transcript]

Today, we’re going to talk about ending the interview and asking for the job.

Asking for the job is one of those classic pieces of advice that recruiters offer and no one really explains how to ask for the job. You never want to go into that situation by saying, Please give me the job! I need a job!” or anything that could be interpreted in that way; instead asking for the job is really a euphemism for expressing interest. So, I don’t think it’s appropriate at the end of the interview to say things like, I would be a perfect for this job. When are you going to hire me?” . . . or words to that effect or anything they could be interpreting that same way. Instead you want to express interest.

So at the very end, when they signal they are wrapping up,” I think the smoothest way to end is to say,”I just want you to know how interested I am in this role. Have I answered all your questions? Is there anything else you need to know in order to feel comfortable with me in this role? Is there anything that’s left unaddressed that you might want to ask me?” In this way, you have you given them one more cut at asking you questions you also expressed interest.

When they say “no. I think I’ve gotten everything I need.”

“Great! What would the next step be there in the hiring process? When might expect to hear back from you in one way or another?”

“Well, I expect we’ll finish first round interviews next week. We’ll be back to you right after that.”

“As things stand now, how do I rank? Again, I’m very interested.”

That’s it of very blunt question that requires that they give you a candidate assessment. To me, it’s best that you know right then and there, but you don’t have to necessarily be that blunt if you’re not comfortable with that. You can again say,”Again, I want to be clear, I am very interested in this role and look forward to hearing from you about next steps in the process. If I heard correctly. I know this isn’t cast in stone, because sometimes cancellations and reschedules occur but I might expect to hear back from you within the next week.

“Yes.”

“Terrific, thank you so much look. I look forward to meeting you again as well as other people on the team.”

The idea is to express interest. I happen to like that question about where you rank in the process because I would rather have you get honest feedback than the current BS where they don’t respond back right away and getting delays and you are holding out hope unecessarily. Sometimes, people make the mistake of freezing other interviews, waiting for that one thing.

You keep going out there interviewing until you have the offer in hand because otherwise, you can get caught short. You can be misled by someone who doesn’t have the courage to be honest with you. And, again, if they say to you, “You did really well. We think very highlyof you,” they still not committing themselves to you. At least you’re getting good feedback by being told you interviewed well.

There may be reasons why they choose someone else that include in differences in the compensation, personality and fit and a variety of other things.

At least for now, you’re getting feedback that you interviewed well. So, to me, the best way to ask for the job is to simply say, “I just want to know how interested I am in this role. What would the next steps be like? When would I expect to hear back? How would I rank amoung the other people you’ve interviewed so far?

[/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 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

Why Do Some Companies Say the Position Requires US Citizenship or Permanent Residents?

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

[spp-transcript]

Why do some Companies say a position requires US citizenship or permanent residence if the job doesn’t require a security clearance?

Firms use that language or language like it such as, “Position requires that you be able to work for any employer without sponsorship,” to indicate they are not willing to do an H1B transfer. It doesn’t mean that they are not willing to consider someone who has EAD status but they don’t want to incur the time or expense involved with doing a transfer.

Why? There are a number of reasons. I don’t want to give short shrift to anything so let me do my best to outline some of the reasons.

There was an expense that they incur.

This administration (Obama) has been hostile to both visa transfers and to  sponsorship in general. They make it extremely difficult for organizations to transfer one. Even with expedited visa transfer requests, it can take longer than many employers are willing to wait.

In addition, there was a provision in the bank bailout law called TARP that restricted firms that accepted money under the law from hiring individuals who required sponsorship as either an employee or as a consultant.

As a result, although the blame goes to the employer, is actually government policy that is made it exceedingly difficult to hire people who require visa transfers.

Again, this is not about whether or not you can do the job. I’m sure you can. This is about a situation where a firm is incurring an expense, time that their in-house counsel has to incur to do the transfer. In addition, there is a hostile environment toward visa transfers by the US government. Finally, there is legislation the requires firms to hire people who have US citizenship or green card status.

[/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 http://bit.ly/thebiggamehunter

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 to Respond to a Low Ball Job Offer – No BS Job Search Advice Radio

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter offers  a simple strategy for responding to a job offer lower than what you are looking for.

[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 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

When Your Current Employer Wants More Than Two Weeks Notice

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter explains how to respond when your current manager asks for more than two weeks notice.

[spp-transcript]

I want to talk with you about those instances when you are giving you notice in your current employer turns around and says, “No! No! No! Not two weeks notice. We need four, six, eight weeks notice two months notice! Two years notice!” Whatever it is, it’s more than two weeks.

Here’s how you respond to it. I want to understand that the reason you doing this is that if you agreed to their unreasonable request (and it is an unreasonable request), it has an impact on your relationship with your future employer. That’s where you are going to be for the next period of your life, not with your former employer.

You just very simply respond by saying, “I understand your concern. I want you to know that I’m very prepared to do over time in order to ensure that this is a smooth transition. I given a commitment to my future employer on a particular date. My commitments are important to me; it’s important to them as well and I’m going to be there on that date.”

“If you need me to work overtime or participate in the interviewing for my replacement and assist with the hand off , I can take phone calls, not a ridiculous number of phone calls but I can take a phone call or two when my new job and will be happy to answer the new person’s questions. However, again, I need to be there on this particular date.”

If you work for big or midsized company, you don’t have to worry about this, because sometimes we work for a small firm or the owner is very hands-on you, may have to contend with an owner who says, “What! If you feel that way, get out of here now!” And they throw you out of your job now. If that happens, they obviously didn’t need you for more than two weeks, right? If you want to start sooner at your next employer you can contact them and say, “The person I was working for decided it would be better if I left now and I would like to join sooner.”

“Why did they feel that way?”

“They had an emotional tantrum when I gave them two weeks notice and they asked for four and I said I’m going to keep my commitment.”

That reinforces an ethical quality in the mind of the next employer in you.

[/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 

The Easiest Way to Apply Isn’t Usually the Best Way – No BS Job Search Advice Radio

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter discourages you from applying to jobs using convenient buttons on job listings.

[spp-transcript]

today, I’m going to talk with you about a mistake the job hunters are making our convenience. Often, at the end of the job description, there are a group of buttons that allow you to apply with LinkedIn, apply with indeed, or apply with monster. These are not ideal ways of applying for jobs.

They are easy and convenient ways but they are not ideal. Let me give you an example.

You see a job description and say to yourself, “this is easy. All I have to do is click the apply with LinkedIn gotten.” Here the problems:

  1. LinkedIn usually doesn’t give you a great resume. Most of you right your profiles as a synopsis of your experience. So it’s kind of thin.
  2. For all of these, whether you use LinkedIn, indeed, or monster, you haven’t tailored the submittal to what the client is looking for. You are sending a generic response.

Before you actually apply using one of these buttons, think to yourself, “what am I sending? How does it demonstrate that I actually fit the job that’s involved?”

Without that, you’re actually flipping a bad resume like a burger at a fast food restaurant to the job at.

With many of these, certainly with the LinkedIn profile, many of you don’t put a phone number in your profile or open up your email address to the receiver. How was someone supposed to contact you? An email exchange? No! We are there to interview you. We want to talk to you.

Replying by email saying, “send me your phone number please. I would like to call you.” Garbage! It’s a waste of time!

If you think were making that phone call first when we have people who actually gave us their phone number to call them and made it easy for us to reach out to them, you’re mistaken.

[/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

Can I Apply for Another Job Now If I’m on a Contract?

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[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trw434XeE6k[/svp]
The assignment will end in a few months. I don’t want to be unemployed when it is over.

[spp-transcript]

Can apply to another job right now, If I’m on a contract assignment? The assignment I know will end in a few months. I was wondering how early can I apply for another job so I will not be unemployed when the contract ends?

This is the dilemma of being a contractor. You know you’re making decent money but all good things come to an end. The same is true with full-time jobs; I’m not here to debate that. I I will answer this question.

So, number one, do the terms of the contract specify what happens if you leave now? Almost all contracts for IT professionals and other professionals allow you to break the contract with two weeks notice, three weeks notice, four weeks notice, some version of notice. So read the terms of your agreement to find out clearly.

Now what I read there was that the assignment is due to end in a few months. There is a difference between two months and four months in the answer.

So if it’s four months, I suggest waiting for a little while, maybe three or four weeks, and then starting. If it’s two months, act now.

If it’s three months, probably now because job hunting takes time and the statistical probability is that you are not going to find the job instantaneously. Let me define that for you.

You send out a resume in the seas part, the earth opens up. I hand reaches up to you and says, “ Here my child. We have a job for you.” It doesn’t work that way.

Usually, you go on multiple interviews over the course of some period of time (usually two months but it can be longer) and the result winds up being that you need to start now if you need something in two months or three months. Four months, you wait a little bit because you know it takes time.

Employers usually want to interview multiple people before choosing someone and you want to get the lay of the land too so that you have a sense of what’s out there that fits your needs and will pay you the money that you want and deserve.

So, again, the answers I always are, “It depends,” because there’s always missing information two answer more explicitly. So again, 2 to 3 months. Start now. Over three months, wait just a little bit so that you benchmark it to 2 to 3 months

[/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

A Creative Way to Use Facebook for Job Hunting

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Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter discusses a creative way to use Facebook for job hunting.

[spp-transcript]

This is a creative tip and I say it’s a creative tip because it is an underutilized one. I know with Google, you are used to seeing advertising around the page and I’m sure you’ve noticed that Facebook does the same thing.

Facebook is remarkably inexpensive and terrific way to promote yourself. For you people in a creative field, why not do a campaign on Facebook. It’s very inexpensive; you can choose the demographics of who the ad is displayed to. You can run campaigns for a few dollars per day and put your impressions in front of people, perhaps link it back to a website or page on Facebook where you can promote yourself and your capabilities.

Creative ideas like this for creative professionals go a long way toward helping you stand out from your competition. Don’t just go for the conventional route. Look for ways that you can reach out to individuals who might be a position to go, “how. That’s a great idea!” Click through to you and then be interested in meeting with you.

[/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