Author Archives: Laura Machan

I was at a business thing last week and I started talking with this really interesting woman.  I asked her what she did and she said “I am an account manager”.

What a useless answer!

With no descriptive words or context, I have absolutely no idea what she actually does. Does she spend her day making sure accounts are in the right place at the right time?  Does she deal with products? Customers?  Beats me.

Turns out she works for a really cool food manufacturer and she is responsible for taking care of all their sports and event venue customers.

I had to ask several questions to get that information.  This borders on tragic and not just because I am a headhunter.  It does not matter who you are talking to, your introduction should focus on what you DO not what you ARE.

Compare:

I am an Account Manager.

To

I make sure that our new SuperSnacks are in all the arenas and ballparks on the east coast.

Big, big difference.

You only get one crack at your initial introduction.  Only people like me and really curious (sometimes creepy) people keep asking questions to really understand your job.

You never know when you will be talking to someone who is the link to your next big thing so give it some thought.   Have a strong and confident string of words ready to answer the question “What do you do?”

Here are the two most interesting job postings I saw this week.  I bet you didn’t even know that you could apply for jobs like this.

MEDICINAL MARIJUANA TRIMMERS 
Adecco 3.87,420 reviews – Markham, ON 
$12.75 an hour – Temporary, Contract

If I brush up on my French, I could apply to both of them,

My point is that there are job postings in all kinds of places.  Don’t restrict yourself to the same old sources.  I love LinkedIn as much as the next person but not everything is posted there.

Watch for magazines, trade associations, community newspapers, business groups – there are so many possibilities.

Many jobs are only posted on company websites.  There are quite a few good webinars that you can watch to learn about how to google for jobs.  I am not sure it’s a skill you need to really develop.  Most people do not want to be professional job seekers but it can be an interesting way to spend a rainy afternoon.

So keep your eyes open and remember, don’t just read postings for you.  Think about people in your circle as well.  There is no better karma than helping someone find a job.  I know because it’s what I do for a living.

There was a really good article in Fast Company yesterday about Uber.  It seems that the on-demand service is so popular that people are trying to offer different types of services using a similar platform

If you need your house cleaned, you login to an app and an available cleaning crew shows up at your house.

If you need a babysitter for an impromptu date night, type in your address and the duration and a qualified sitter arrives.

Will recruiting go this way too?  Could you log on and get a couple of mechanical engineers with expertise in aerodynamics?  Or how about a CA who knows about managing the funds in a not-for-profit?

I don’t think so.   It’s just not that simple.  Many roles require more than a list of skills.  They require a certain kind of communication style or the ability to handle sticky situations.

Or you are not really sure how to describe the person you need or what to call them.

Real recruiting is complicated.  It’s a process that involves reading, writing, research, assessing, probing, negotiating, patience and perseverance.

There are an awful lot of variables in selecting people for jobs.  And it’s pretty costly if you choose the wrong one.

So it’s fine to use Uber to get to your meeting but use real people to do your recruiting.

It’s a long weekend and if you are like me, you will spend some time working on projects around the house.  Maybe switching your clothes around.  Moving the golf shirts and flower prints to the front and shoving all the black stuff into a box in the garage .  Maybe cleaning up the back yard.  That’s what we like to do in spring.

It is not just your home that should be sorted and updated.  Your resume should be refreshed too.

It may not be as important as your changing your smoke detector, but in terms of your career, it should be right up there.

Here are the things to consider:

Has your title changed?

Has the scope of your role  changed?

Did you take any courses or workshops over the winter?

How about any special projects?

Any new volunteer committees or fund raising (yes, the Ride to Conquer Cancer counts)

Once your resume is refreshed is done and stored in a place that’s easily retrievable, like Dropbox, you might want to apply the same logic to your LinkedIn profile.

And if you have a few minutes at work, find all those emails that say “thank you” and “you’re a star”.  Email them to your personal account and then print them and take them home.  You just never know when you are going to need a little pick-me-up or evidence of your great work.

So put on your favourite spring shirt and get to it!

Getting your resume ready for public consumption can be a daunting task.  You have to find it amongst all your folders and when you do find it, you have to hope that it’s relatively current.

Here is a neat cheat.  LinkedIn Labs (http://resume.linkedinlabs.com/)  has created a nifty app to convert your LinkedIn profile into a resume.

You grant access for the app to use your profile, wait a moment while it is compiled and then, voila!  A resume!

What’s really interesting is that you can see your resume in ten or twelve different formats.  It’s a very quick and cool way to see what’s possible.

You can also edit what you create in terms of moving things around and choosing what you want to have included.  It’s a little bit clunky but useful.

It allows you to make changes to your profile on the fly and then refresh the resume to see the changes.

When you are happy with a version, you can save it within LinkedIn, you can make it publicly accessible or you can save it as a pdf.

I was not able to get it to the point where I was really totally happy with the LinkedIn version.  There was more tweaking that I wanted to do.  I chose to save it as a pdf.

Now, I am going to find a nice little pdf hack so I can turn it into a Word document and then put my finishing touches on it.

Take a moment to try this today – it really is pretty neat.

I read a great article in Fast Company last week.  It was a profile of Patty McCord, the founding HR Director at Netflix.  I am sure she saw more change there than most of us see in a lifetime.

What struck me was her view on downsizing.  She recalled talking to someone who had just been laid off and the person was crying.

Her message was simple and direct.  You were an important part of a really big stage in our growth.  You have fantastic skills but we just don’t need those particular skills in the next phase of the company.

How elegant and constructive is that?  You have great skills but we don’t need them right now. It’s not a damning of your personality or a criticism of your work habits.

The tricky bit is that you might not know about the next phase and why you don’t fit in.

When I was laid off, I had no idea that the President was about to change the whole business model.  Neither did anyone else.  So it was pretty hard to understand why I had to leave.

It felt like the worst break up ever.

But over time, I saw the new plans unfold and came to understand why my skills were no longer needed.

This allowed me to keep in touch with former colleagues and managers without so much resentment.  Which is good because after 15 years, some of them are still there and we are still in touch.

I know it’s hard to be positive when you are lying in bed in the dark in the middle of the night but try to keep this in mind during the day, especially in interviews and networking conversations.   It will serve you well.

How do you stand out from the crowd?  What makes you memorable?

In this world, you need something that distinguishes you from everyone else in your role/space/section.

Everyone has a resume.  Is yours special?  Maybe you use a unique font or your layout is ingenious.

When people look at your linkedin profile, what do they see first? What is their first impression?

When someone asks how you are, what is your response?

• “Oh, I am really busy, just swamped.”
• “It’s pretty slow.  I am just watching the clock these days.”
• “Things are crazy.  My clients are such pains.”
• “Really good.  I am working on some pretty interesting assignments right now.  Thanks for asking.”

Which of these responses is not like the others?  Which one will leave a lasting impression?

Yep, the last one.  It might even drum up a new opportunity if you were on the ball enough to have an answer like this ready.

Sure, you might feel extra confident if you arrive for your next meeting in a cool car with an expensive handbag. (I tried this and it does work.) But keep in mind that real accessories do not have cool brand names or a six speed transmission. They have warmth, humour and just enough information to be intriguing.

Jeans?  Khakis? Suit?  There are so many different work cultures now, it can be tricky to figure out what to wear to an interview.  Over dressing or under dressing can make you feel awkward at the beginning of a conversation and that can be tough to recover from.

Ultimately you want to dress in a way that makes you feel confident. So if you have favourite socks or lucky underwear, start with that.

You can check out the website of the company to see how they present themselves.  Look for candid work photos under the careers page.  You can look on Glassdoor (although you will learn a lot more than how employees dress!).  You can also ask the person who is setting up the interview.  Whether they are in the organization or from an agency, they should be able to give you some insight.

And don’t be afraid to ask.   How you show up is as important as where you show up.

Whether it’s a jeans place or a suit place, make sure what you are wearing is clean, neat and smells fresh.  Not like a garden, a beach or a forest.  Just plain clean.

This goes for hair and shoes as well.  People won’t care if your hair is long or short.  It’s about showing that you respect this opportunity enough to care about how you put yourself together.  If you care about that, the assumption is that you will care about your work too.

On the way in to the meeting, wipe your palms, square your shoulders and take a deep breath and you will be ready for a great conversation!