When the Graduation Cap Hits the Ground: Finding a Job after School

Melanie Massey, Research Consultant

As the initial excitement of having received a degree wears off, many new grads find themselves thrust into what seems like an unnavigable job market. And trust me; I know personally that The Search can be a daunting and exhausting experience. After being focused on school for so long, getting into a corporate mindset is a difficult task. You’ve done the work and obtained your basic set of tools: now you will need to make yourself stand out from the crowd. Here are few pieces of advice from seasoned workers and recently-hired grads alike, to get you on track.

Finding the right job begins with doing your research and building connections.

The first thing you need to tackle is the basic question, what do I really want to do? You may have a particular job in mind, or you may have a general idea based on your field. Try researching what kinds of jobs your degree can confer; a simple Google search will yield answers. Don’t be so broad as to accept positions you wouldn’t truly be passionate about, but at the same time, don’t shoehorn yourself. In an article by the Guardian[i], Laura Brammar, a senior careers consultant at The Careers Group, says, “You will change. The world of work will change, so try to think instead about what you'd like to do in the next 12-24 months to make the decision more manageable.” Ask yourself what valuable skills and experience you want to gain from your first job.

While you’re doing all of this, one of the most important things you can begin to work on is networking. Think about the people you’ve met over the years – they can be family, friends, peers from school, professors, or even people you haven’t met but are connected with – and ask yourself who is in a position to help me. Add them on LinkedIn and connect with them. It could be as simple as sending an email, or, if they are a few years your senior and you have a palpable connection (school, friends), ask them out for a coffee and get some advice on getting a position. In fact, Forbes[ii] stated that in a survey of almost 60,000 people, 41% were hired through connections.

Once you’ve done your networking and industry research, you should be able to come up with a list of about ten companies you want to reach out to. Take some time to assess their corporate vision, their culture, and their goals, and choose companies for which you are a good fit both experientially and personally. Never settle for a position simply because of salary! That’s a great way to end up hating your job, and the person hiring you will be able to tell.

The next thing to do is the active step of application.

Personalization and presence go a long way.

Now that you know where you want to work, it is time to tailor your resume and cover letter to both your unique offerings and the position you are applying to. Never send a generalized resume: it’s a sure way to have it wind up in the trash. Add in details about yourself that coincide with the position and company.

Here’s a success story. When applying for a position at a health supplement company, Kyle, a friend of mine, made sure to include information about his genuine passion for health and nutrition. He’d been an organic food fanatic for years. This sort of information created a tangible connection between the company he applied to, and his own personal interests and goals – his hirers could tell right away that Kyle and the position were just right for each other. Needless to say, he got the job.

Resume Tips:

Presentation: ensure your resume is attractive. Use one font throughout or two fonts (one for headings and one for text). Make sure it is a professional font, such as Arial or Times New Roman.

Proofread: make sure there aren’t any spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, or anything that would indicate you were less than thorough when creating your resume.

Cohesiveness: does your work history timeline make sense? Do the dates match up? Are they in reverse chronological order? Did you divide your experience into relevant sections such as Work Experience, Volunteer Experience, and Education? Ensure a reader can easily navigate through your resume, and that it is organized.

Descriptiveness and Personalization: when you note a position you held, you need to ensure you accurately describe its duties. You can also tailor your descriptions to different positions, depending on what the position entails. For example, someone applying as a childhood educator at the Science Center may want to stress that their previous life-guarding position involved supervising many children. You can also feel free to add a Summary (or Objective) section beneath your contact information, where you provide a brief description of your personal strengths and professional objectives.

Since many recruiters out there use online social media to find candidates, another good step would be to update your online presence. If you don’t have a LinkedIn account, make one ASAP, and add all of your friends, family, colleagues, mentors, coworkers, and bosses. Also ensure that you join groups related to your field, in order to build your network and get involved with your field’s community. Building a well-connected online presence may allow you opportunities in the future. In fact, a study[iii] of 400 HR hirers showed that 45% of them already actively use online social platforms to as a tool for recruitment. On the other hand, make sure to tone down any personal online presence – set your privacy settings up and get rid of unprofessional posts.

You have all the materials you need. You’re set up online. Now go out with your customized resumes and cover letters, and apply, apply, apply. The trick here is resilience. Do not give up. This is one of the most draining parts of the Job Search.

The Final Steps: Acing the Interview

Congratulations! The company (or companies) you applied to have called you in for an interview. You should know by now to dress appropriately, in business formal wear, with neat hair and accessories. This may be the first non-“McJob” interview you’ve had, so one of the key things you should do are research and subsequent preparation.

Before you head into that interview, ensure you’ve found out all you can about the company you are applying for; their history, corporate philosophy, internal structure, where they operate, etc. I cannot stress enough how important the fit of the corporate culture is. Get a sense of the social culture in the workplace.

All of these details can give you more information on how to better tailor yourself and your answers to the position. Any details you could not research, you can ask questions about. Remember to take down the names of anyone you’ve spoken to from the company, and address them by name if you meet them. This is a sign of a driven candidate. And importantly, be honest – but don’t tell your hirer too much.

Let me explain. One horror story of my career happened to an intelligent young man, Ryan: he had good experience, and did well in the first series of interviews. But his lack of research into what priorities the company had (the main one, being someone who would stay with the job, as it involved a lot of training), combined with an unhealthy dose of honesty led to him losing out on the role. In his last interview, he mentioned to the CEO of the company that his band was going on tour. Because they were already scared to have a flight risk, it was an immediate “no” for Ryan.

Another important part of the preparation is to make sure you know yourself. Look back at your experience and employment history and make sure you can explain them seamlessly. Think about skills you gained, and areas you need to improve. Remember the full suite of tasks you performed at each job and highlight the most relevant ones. As a recruiter, it is always impressive to hear that a candidate mastered their previous position, and I enjoy feeling educated about their role after our discussion.

Lastly, create a dialogue. Remember the questions you had about the company. It is better to custom-tailor questions to the particular role you are applying to, but some good general examples are:

       - What kinds of people work here? What is the culture like here?

       - What, to you, is the key to doing well in this industry?

Try to think of questions that inform you about the role while showing your interviewer you are interested in the unique particulars of the company.

The entire process is about building a relationship.

For a lot of people it’s hard to find the same fulfillment in a job fresh from school as they did in their studies. But if you are searching in the right places, doing your research, and finding organizations that share cultural similarities to you, your chances of getting hired will increase, you will perform better, and you will be happy with what you’re doing.

You have the tools you need, now go out there and get what you want!

***

Happy hunting!

Melanie

---

[i]http://www.theguardian.com/careers/careers-blog/graduate-careers-six-ways-get-job-after-university

[ii]http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml

[iii]http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/0/b/The-use-of-social-media-in-the-recruitment-process.pdf

Talent Planning, Chef Style

In the movie Chef, Chef Carl Casper is a talented but hot-headed chef who threatens to leave restaurant-owner Riva high and dry on one of the most important nights of the year. Riva is calm as he thinks he has a competent sous chef and line cook who can step into the void. While Riva is by no means an ideal manager (it's never good when one of your key employees regularly sleeps in his car) common kitchen hierarchy, known as brigade de cuisine, means that there are always a couple of understudies who can help out if a key contributor leaves.

/via/

Even if you do not employ temperamental chefs, it's smart have have a talent management strategy in place. Over the last six years, the baby boomers have started to retire. According to a US survey released earlier this year, 21% of employees plan to change jobs in 2014. Employers should be prepared to rehire almost a quarter of their workforce this year just to preserve the status quo (those in growth mode will have even greater hiring needs.)

Many employers are reactive when it comes to staffing: they do not think about hiring until someone quits or a skills deficiency causes a problem (these are the clients who call me asking if I can have someone hired within a couple of hours.) As a recruiter, I love the challenge but the trouble with this approach is that you are starting out behind the eight ball -- the cubicle is empty, the skills deficiency is obvious, the client has nobody to call -- and you need to fill the role as quickly as possible. You don't have the luxury to think about who the best hire would be and so simply try to hire someone who most closely represents the last person who filled that position. Each new hire represents an opportunity to make organizational change and having a talent plan in place can help you optimize the recruiting process.

We asked Jen Lawrence of Process Design Consultants about the key components of a talent management strategy and turn the blog over to her…

***

Hello there. Thanks for this opportunity to share my views on strategic hiring. While it is often a huge inconvenience and expense when an employee quits or retires, it is also a wonderful opportunity. Every time a position becomes available, you have the opportunity to rethink the role. The natural reaction to a resignation is to find an exact replacement as quickly as possible so you don't disrupt the status quo. In some commodity-like roles (think outbound telemarketers who follow a tight script) hiring a immediate replacement is exactly what you want to do. In more senior positions, however, chances are you want to disrupt the status quo as each new hire represents the opportunity to more closely match your talent pool to your company's current and future goals.

For example, when a company is in start-up mode it might need lots of employees with a strong lead generation capability whereas when the company matures it might need to add people who can manage the order pipeline and mine existing relationships. A company that once had an engineering competency might have morphed into one with strength in technology and therefore might need to shift the hiring profile to reflect the company's new direction. Perhaps a company is expanding into a new geographic market and needs people who speak other languages. Or your vertical manager might need less of a focus on oil and gas and more on alternative sources of energy. If you don't have a talent plan in place that aligns people with your overall strategy, you might miss out on an opportunity to move your organization closer to its vision through your hiring practice.

I'll keep with the Chef theme to illustrate my point. Think of your company as a cake and your people as the ingredients that make the cake a success or a failure. A good cake is the result of mixing together the right ingredients in the correct amounts and then baking it at the right temperature. You don't just randomly start throwing sugar and butter and eggs into the oven: you need some sort of plan.

First, you need an overall vision for your cake. Is this cake for a bachelor party or a five year-old girl's princess-themed birthday party? Each requires a very different kind of cake. How many people does this cake need to feed? In this case, our vision is that we want to bake a cake that will dazzle a group of 15 princess-crazy party-goers.You want to see the face of the birthday girl light up as you carry the cake to the table. What is the vision for your company? Are you a luxury hotel chain where the care and comfort of your guests is your focus? Are you a company that brings the latest technology to the masses? Who are you? What do you bring to your customers? Why do your employees get out of bed in the morning?

Once you have a vision, you need to figure out a strategy that will bring that vision to life. If you want to dazzle pre-school princesses, look is probably more important than taste. You might do some market research to discover that sweet and sugary is popular among the Dora set. You are going to need a big fancy cake, preferably with a lot of glitter. Subtle flourless chocolate cakes need not apply. What strategy is going to bring your corporate vision to life? Are you the low-cost provider or do you provide white glove service with a smile? If you are the low cost provider, you need to manage your margins and your volume. How are you going to do that?

Now that you have a general idea of the type of cake you require, you need to make some concrete plans. You research "fancy princess cakes" on Pinterest and decide on the pink glitter castle cake. Perhaps there are detailed instructions for decorating the cake but no recipe for the cake itself. You know that you will need a stable base for the heavy fondant icing and glitter. You ask around and get a recipe that has worked for other people's castle cakes. You now know what ingredients you need. Once you have a clearly defined vision and strategy and start to think about action planning, you are ready to think about the skill sets you need to make your vision come to life. These are your ingredients: you need someone who is great at managing an international supply chain; you need someone who is excellent at negotiating vendor terms; or you need the best concierge in Paris to look after your guests' needs.

Now you can source the ingredients to make your cake. How full is your pantry? If you have been minding the kitchen you should have the basics in place. Hopefully your have an oven and some bowls and a spoon. Perhaps there is some flour around. And some butter. If you are new to baking or things have changed (perhaps you used to avoid sweets entirely) you may need to bring in a lot of new resources. In the leadership and development world, we call this a talent audit. What skills do you have? What skills do you still need? Who can you train? Who must you hire?

Perhaps your pantry is full and you only need vanilla extract. If you have vanilla beans and vodka on hand, you can make your own (think of this as employee development) Otherwise, you will need to go outside to source the vanilla extract. What type of vanilla extract do you need? How important is this vanilla extract to the success of your cake? Do you need the organic, hand-blended variety in the fancy glass bottle or is the generic label variety alright? (And as an aside, if you need the organic, hand-blended variety in the fancy glass bottle, you might want to hire a recruiter like Nancy to help you with that!) What is your budget? Does your local store have stock on hand? Are you willing to bring in the vanilla extract from another town? Your needs will dictate the sourcing strategy. Generic vanilla -- such as the type required for our sugar-soaked princess cake -- can be found quite easily. The fancy stuff requires a trip to a speciality store. A line manager should work with a recruiter (internal or third party) to draw up a list of specific skill requirements for the new role. It's tempting to simply use the existing job description but if you want to maximize this hiring opportunity it makes sense to think about exactly what skills you need today and in the future.

So there you have it. That's talent planning. It's looking at where you want to go as an organization and figure out how your people are going to take you there. You need to train and develop the people you have and add in new talent whenever you need to. When you break it down into smaller steps, building a great organization through people is, well, a piece of cake...


***

Happy hunting!

Nancy

The Recruiter's Guide to Fishing

One of the questions I often get asked by clients who are contemplating using my recruitment research services is "wouldn't it be better just to place an ad?"

Certainly, there are recruiters who believe that the best way to find candidates is to place an ad in a print  publication or online. If you are looking to find a large quantity of candidates, placing an ad can yield results. Think of it as dropping a large shrimp net in the ocean: chances are you will get a big haul.

The trouble is that you won't just catch what you were seeking. Did you know that when shrimp trawlers drop their nets, on average they catch 5.7 kilos of non-shrimp (known as bycatch) for every kilo of shrimp?  Bycatch consists of other kinds of fish, birds, dolphins, tires, old shoes… A big part of shrimp fishing is sorting through the haul. It's an expensive and time-consuming process.

Dude, where's my shrimp?

Placing an ad yields similar results. It used to be that in order to apply to a job, you had buy a newspaper, cut out the ad, pull out your typewriter, type a letter, type a resume, find a stapler, find an envelope, type the address, buy a stamp, and go to the post office. You would only go through this process if you thought you had a good chance of getting the job. Now, all one has to do to reply to a job ad is hit "send." Because it's so easy to apply to jobs, people looking for a job tend to take the throw-the-spaghetti-against-the-wall approach and fire off hundreds of resumes to see if anything sticks. Recruiters will often use ad placement as a Gee Whiz tool, since they can brag to their clients about having 3000 people apply for a job. The thing is, you aren't looking for 3000 people. You are looking for one. And unless the main skill requirement you have is the ability to sport a hair net and ask, "Would you like fries with that?" you are after a pretty specific person. The extra 2999 applicants make the process of finding the one candidate who can best fill the role much more complicated.

I prefer to see recruiting like fly fishing: a targeted and specific craft. I meet with my client to find out what kind of fish they are after. Let's say they are looking for a Creative Director for their agency. As it turns out, Creative Directors are not so different from trout. I will start by studying them in their natural habitat: what schools did they attend, what companies employ them, what LinkedIn groups do they frequent, what conferences do they attend? I will go to a high vantage point and dive deep to figure out what is going on in the surrounding environment: who is hiring, who is firing, what trends are impacting the field? I can find out what people are being paid and let a client know if their compensation system is competitive. I will uncover the best fishing grounds: those hidden private gems that one can only discover through word-of-mouth. With the industry information I find, I will help the client craft a strategy to attract the very best candidates. Just as some trout respond best to a Royal Wuff fly and others to a Parachute Adams, candidates like to be approached differently. Sometimes it makes sense to reach out to people through LinkedIn. Others want to be tracked down at the office. Others can be tracked down through an industry association. Sometimes placing a very targeted ad might be part of the broader strategy, but it will only be part of the approach and will be written to appeal only to candidates with a very specific skill set. Less is often more.

I will also help a client position the pitch. From my research, I might discover that Creative Directors are a generally happy bunch: they are well-treated, well-paid, and always have the option of freelance work should they tire of their current role. I might have to offer a very tasty looking fly to draw them to the surface to contemplate changing jobs. I will place the fly with accuracy and when a good candidate surfaces, I'll be ready. I know how to recognize the "take" and will raise the rod tip and set the hook.

Once I've landed the candidate  - they are interested in meeting with the client and finding out more about the job - I won't toss them in a net with the tires and old shoes. Because I am dealing with a focused group of candidates, I can give them individualized, velvet-glove treatment that reflects well on my client. Nothing is worse than telling a great candidate you will  get back to them in a few months - if at all - because you are reading through a stack of irrelevant job applications. If you have a take-a-number approach to recruiting, it makes people feel like you not very discerning or don't know what you want. If someone is going to leave the security of their current job to join your firm, they want to believe that you  know what you are doing. You want a candidate's first impression of you to be positive as it helps when you decide to make them an offer. It's hard to convince someone in a good job that you will treat them well if their initial impression was negative.

There is a place for targeted advertising -letting hidden candidates know that you are looking for someone like them - but the days of casting a wide net are over. A client's time is too valuable to sort through the thousands of resumes that a broad ad will generate. It's far better to have a well-crafted, focused approach to finding your ideal candidate.

Happy hunting!

Nancy

New Year, New Job?

So, this year, instead of giving you a holiday bonus to pay for your new swimming pool, your boss signed you up for the Jelly of the Month Club.

/via/

Hopefully you did not take Cousin Eddie's approach to the situation...

/via/

Instead, you likely made a New Year's Resolution to find a job with a company that better appreciates you. If you made a resolution to find a new job in 2014, you are not alone. According to a poll by Right Management, only 5% of employees plan to stay in their current jobs through the end of the year.

Of course, changing jobs is easier said (particularly with a belly full of rum and eggnog!) than done. The reality is that only 23% of people achieve their New Year's Resolutions. Life gets in the way. One week into 2014, you are probably up to your eyeballs in work from your current job and feel that you are too busy with kids' activities, commuting, and paying down the holiday bills to think about a job change.

I hope you really like jelly…

If you are serious about changing jobs in 2014, there are some practical steps to follow that will significantly increase your chances of finding a new place to hang your proverbial hat this year.

1.       Polish your resume. While you were putting away the holiday lights in the basement, perhaps you dug through your files to locate an old copy of your resume. The good news is, you found it; the bad news it, it lists "WordStar" and "Lotus Notes" as your key skills. Now is the time to do a new resume. The universe works in funny ways and once you put the "I want a new job" vibe out there, you will get requests for your CV. Take the time before you kick off your job search to think about what kind of job you want and articulate why you'd be the ideal candidate for the role.

2.      Send your updated resume to your favourite recruiters. A perfect resume is a beautiful thing but it's not going to do you any good if nobody sees it. Send a copy to any recruiters you know or do some digging to see who the recruiting experts are in your field. Choose at least three recruiters and let them know you are open to new opportunities.

3.      Put together a list of the top 10 companies you have always wanted to work for and do a little research on them. If you have any industry association meetings or trade shows planned, use them as opportunities to speak with other people in your field. Find out who's hiring, who's firing, and a little about the corporate culture of your target companies. Perhaps your industry is going through hard times and you are lucky to be getting a year's supply of jelly. Better to know that upfront and consider making a more radical change.

4.      Get your references in order. There is nothing worse than being offered the job of your dreams only to realize that there is nobody who can vouch for your skills other than your current boss. Scan your LinkedIn connections and see who might be willing to give you a glowing review. Take your former boss out for lunch to reestablish a connection before you ask for a favour.

5.      Commit to two networking meetings a month. People who are successful at achieving their New Year's Resolutions put clear action steps into place. It's easy to get to December 2014 and realize you've done nothing to push your dreams forward. Meet with your old colleagues. Ask someone respected in your field if they'd consider mentoring you. Taking specific steps towards your goal will help keep you motivated.

6.      Spruce up your look. Have you ever watched the TV show What Not to Wear? There is something transformational in improving your appearance: everything from your self-confidence to people's first impression of you tends to improve. Take advantage of the January sales to buy a new interview suit or get a new haircut. Embracing small physical changes can help you prepare for larger emotional changes such as switching jobs.

7.      Prepare for any major changes. Perhaps you are an investment banker who wants to become a chef. If you plan to make a drastic career change, it pays to do some upfront research. Talk to people in the industry to make sure you know what you are signing up for. Meet your potential future colleagues. Sign up for a class or get the accreditation required. You try on a pair of shoes before buying them to make sure they are comfortable: take the same approach with your career.

8.      Start talking about your goals. Job searching while still employed is an activity that requires some discretion. Obviously you don't want to change your Facebook status to "Peeved off with the boss and looking" unless you know you can wrangle a package and start elsewhere right away! But it's OK to let trusted people in your circle know that you'd be open to new opportunities. Statistics show that at any given time, most people are open to new employment opportunities so while you don't want to advertise it on a t-shirt, it's not a state secret.

9.      If you identify a company you might like to work for, ask for an informational meeting. It's good to kick the tires of a company you are contemplating joining. Arrange a meeting with a line manager in the area where you want to work (you can cold call or, even better, get someone in your network to help arrange it.)  Find out what the company is really like and increase your chances of getting hired when a position opens. We've observed that successful informational interviews lead to an eventual job offer 80% of the time, as you've demonstrated your initiative and have some insight into the organization when you have your initial screening meetings with Human Resources.

10.   Have fun. Hey, you might be on the brink of changing your life for the better: it's exciting! It can also be stressful so surround yourself with friends and family who support your goals and can act as cheerleaders. Celebrate little victories such as getting your resume done or booking a key meeting. People who celebrate their small achievements along the way are much more likely to reach their major goals.

Making a resolution to improve your career can lead to a major life improvement. You can surround yourself with more like-minded people, improve your financial situation, and increase your daily satisfaction. And unlike those who resolved to lose 10 pounds, you can still have cheesecake (so much tastier than jelly…)

Happy hunting!

Nancy

The Tough Search: Please Don't Shoot the Messenger

In an old episode of Roseanne that seems to run permanently on late-night TV, Roseanne has taken a job helping out at a hair salon. She observes a client showing Iris, her hairdresser, a photo of a model in a fashion magazine:

Customer: Now, Iris, I love what you did last week, but can you make me look like that?  

Roseanne: Oh, I'm sure you can, Iris. I'll go get the wand.

As a recruiter, there are days when I could really use a magic wand too. Clients often come to me when initial efforts to find a candidate for a particular role fail. Often, through research and networking, I am able to find that needle in a haystack candidate they could not unearth though casual networking or a newspaper ad. But sometimes, I gather market intelligence that tells me that the ideal candidate for the role simply does not exist.

And clients hate that.

In an ideal world, wand or no wand, we could all have magazine-worthy hair. In an ideal world, each job search would yield 3 or 4 candidates with perfect resumes, sparkling personalities, a proper motivation for leaving their current jobs, and a strong desire to work for less than the going market rate; we could simply pick the one whose interview outfit best matches the office decor.

The research I do for my clients paints a realistic picture of the current market. It provides valuable information about the industry and competitors that, beyond the job search, can be used as general market intelligence (who's hiring, who's firing, salary info etc.) For some positions, there is a large pool of candidates with the necessary skills and experience. If a competitor has recently downsized, there may be lots of excellent people looking for a new job. In this case, where I add value is finding the people who are the best fit for a client's corporate culture. In highly specialized positions where there is a small pool of candidates, it is sometimes hard to find anyone who wants to change jobs. If a job contains any perceived risk factors (lower salary, high turnover, extensive travel, industry instability), finding good candidates becomes even harder. If I can present a shortlist of one or two people with 90% of the requirements, that may be the best the market has to offer. As a recruiter, I'm simply the messenger: please refrain from shooting me!

I know quite early in the search process if there are lots of candidates or very few. If the market is telling me that there are very few people out there who can fill this role, I will feed that information back to my client. At this point, we have a few options:

Revise the job spec: The more flexibility a client has, the more candidates I can bring to the table. Is a particular degree a must or a need? Is 20 years of experience necessary or is 10 years fine? Can any specific skills be added through training once the candidate is hired? Great managerial abilities can sometimes trump specific technical expertise: can someone outside the field fill the role?

Change the job level: Sometimes, there are few people with the desired skill set at the job level on offer. If a client can consider increasing the job level or salary, that can widen the talent pool. Other times, there are not many senior people available (especially in firms where senior people have golden handcuffs tying them to a particular firm) but a very talented, slightly more junior person could stretch into the role.

Look at relocating someone. Sometimes the perfect person is in another geographic market but would be willing to move. If a client will consider paying relocation costs, that could broaden the pool of candidates.

As a recruiter, my commitment is to find the best, available candidates for a position. While the ideal candidate is not always available, my commitment is to work with my clients until we can find someone who can effectively fill the role. If, as the messenger, I'm not afraid of being shot, I can work much more effectively and spend more time finding the best people for the job.

Everything we know about recruiting we learned on our summer vacation

Well, not really, but it makes for a snappy title, doesn't it. There are a lot of career lessons that can be taken from our holidays if we think about it though. Here are five:

Like potato salad on a picnic, jobs have an expiration date. If you have been in a job for years with no upward or sideways movement, at some point you get stuck there. After a while, people don't just take you for granted (have you ever been at a picnic without potato salad?) but they start to avoid you too (the warm mayonnaise becomes a worry.) It's important to ask to take on fresh challenges and learn new skills. If your current role offers no movement, perhaps it's time to update your resume and look around. Reinvent yourself: become a devilled egg.

Careers can be like a roller coaster or a ferris wheel. Some people's careers look like the ferris wheel. It's an easy and steady journey up and then, once the apex has been reached, it's a fairly steady ride down into retirement. You get a good view, you are rarely surprised, and you finish with your hair neatly in place. Other people's careers are like a roller coaster. There are big ups, big downs, the pace is fast, and nobody knows what to expect. Like the ferris wheel people, the roller coaster people end up in the same place (where they began, only with a fatter 401K Plan or RRSP than in the beginning.) The difference is, the roller coaster folks will either feel exhilarated or dizzy and sick upon their arrival. There is nothing wrong with either ride. Some people prefer the ups and downs of working for startups. Others like to join a big company and have a smoother experience. The key is to know if you are a ferris wheel person or a roller coaster person. As a recruiter, I sometimes find that ferris wheelers seek a roller coaster ride in later life. That's cool. Just make sure you read all the warning signs first. And for the roller coaster lovers who decide middle age better suits a ferris wheel, I urge you to take up a hobby to supplement your need for adrenaline. We hear that BASE jumping is fun.

Work is like baseball: when you hit a home run, everyone wants you on their team. If you are thinking of making a change in your job, don't wait until things get really bad at your current place of work. It's hard to interview well in this state. The time to start looking is when you've just done something well. Perhaps you just finished managing a high profile project. Perhaps you just won an award. If you've been thinking about leaving your role, try doing so when you are on a high. Everybody wants a winner on their team.

It takes three to waterski. If you want to waterski, you need three people: the skier, a boat driver, and a spotter to tell the boat driver if the skier falls.  What looks like a one-person recreational activity is a three-person endeavour. When you want to find a new job, it takes a village too. A close friend or family member can be your driver: proofreading your resume, practicing interviewing skills with you, and helping you craft those cover letters. You also need a spotter: someone to tell you what jobs are out there and alert you if something is going wrong. As a recruiter, I'm never the driver. I work for my clients, not the candidates, and it's not my job to get you employed. But I can be an excellent spotter and tell you what jobs are out there. I can also tell you if another boat has cut in front of us and you need to jump the wake.

Don't let a skunk ruin your campfire. At work, we will all meet skunks. If you engage with them, you might end up stinking too. The best thing to do is avoid them. Don't yell at them and don't try to remove them from the area unless you are a trained professional. If they refuse to leave your campsite, throw some food into the bushes (perhaps there is a side project you can give them...) and they will likely leave you alone.

If you want to enjoy the fireworks, you have to prepare. Fireworks are awesome but they don't just happen. Somebody has to buy them. Somebody has to set them up in the bucket of sand. Somebody has to wait until it's dark enough to light them. A good fireworks display requires some planning. You don't want to set off all the chrysanthemums right away and close the night with some sad looking burning schoolhouses. Be organized, persevere, and plan: the results can be spectacular!

Happy hunting!

Nancy

Increasing your visibility on LinkedIn

The one thing that everybody asks me is if recruiters use LinkedIn. The answer is yes. We do. And yes, you should be on it. But if you are an active job seeker, it's not enough to simply upload your resume and sit back waiting for a call. Here are a few tips from a headhunter about how to better use LinkedIn to your advantage:

Make your profile search-friendly. The best thing about LinkedIn is that everyone is on it. Of course, that's the worst thing about LinkedIn too. As a recruiter, I use LinkedIn to identify who's who in a particular job market. But when I do a broad search, I'll often generate hundreds of names. In order to make the tool work better for me, I have to set fairly narrow parameters. I'll often specify a job title or a particular skill set. If you do not have these terms in your profile, I might miss you, even though you'd be an ideal candidate for the job. Take the time to list all of your skills.

Use common terms. Perhaps you are King of Brand Philosophy. That's cool, but if I'm searching for a Marketing Director, I might not find you. If you have a job title that is not obvious, include a subtitle that explains exactly what you do.

Join industry and functional groups. When I am doing a search, I often look at related groups to see who is a member and who is actively participating. Join groups and be an active participant. Make it easy for me to see that you are a leader in your field. 

Look to see who is looking at you. You can choose to see who has been looking at your profile. If you see a recruiter has been looking at your profile, send them a message or link up with them. Having a good relationship with a few recruiters is never a bad idea. If you don't want to publicly link with a recruiter, we are always happy to get an email or a call from you. 

List contact information. Make it easy for us to contact you. Recruiters are discouraged from linking up with people we don't know. We can pay to use LinkedIn's mail function but we only get so many mail opportunities each month. Unless you are the obviously perfect candidate, I might not contact you if you don't list your contact information. If you are an active job seeker, make yourself easy to find. 

Be honest. If you are looking for a job, tell me that in your summary. As a recruiter, I am interested in finding people who are looking for work. It's tempting to try to hide that you are not employed but if you want to find a job, it's good to let people know that you are actively looking. 

Happy hunting!

Nancy