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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!

I heard a very interesting interview with Reshma Saujani, the Founder and CEO of Girls who Code.  When asked why she started the program she said something brilliant.

If you can’t see it, you can’t be it.

Her argument was that the world of coding and app development is filled with hoodie wearing guys clutching Red Bull.  How would a 15 year old girl believe that she could be the next Mark Zuckerberg?

Similarly, could the average teenage boy envision himself as a registered nurse specializing in traumatic brain injuries?

There are thousands of jobs and more are evolving every day.  The world of work is changing faster than ever before.

This presents lots of different opportunities for us and for our kids.  Just take a few minutes to look though the new programs being offered by George Brown College, Sheridan College or UIOT.  I bet there are courses in things you didn’t know even existed.

So when your niece, neighbour or offspring says they want to study sneaker design or industrial mathematics, don’t frown and dismiss it.  Ask why it interests them and where they heard about it.  This is way more helpful and supportive.

You never know, you might learn something that helps you in your own career.

I read resumes for a living.  I read other stuff too but resumes are the main focus during the day (and sometimes evenings, much to my husband’s consternation).

It never gets boring, Each resume, like each person, is interesting and unique. People take different paths to the same role, have different educational chapters and insert more or less of themselves in their resume.

BUT

• Spelling mistakes
• Fonts with curly cues
• Indented boxes and sidebars that get mangled by my software
• Leaving out dates or titles
• Pretending a company or university is in Canada when it clearly is not
• Squishing in information by using narrow margins and 8 pt letters
• 20 bullets for one role and only three for the others
• Acronyms that are not widely understood

These are all things that take away from the positive impression that your resume is supposed to provide. It’s like you are strolling along and you suddenly trip on the rug.  Once you recover, it can be hard to remember what you thinking about before.

So before you send me your resume, have someone read it for you.  Ask them if it’s smooth.  They make look at you funny but it will give them a constructive perspective which should generate good, usable feedback.

You might not have noticed but its half way through January.   Yep…..half way.  Apparently, time flies especially quickly when it is dark and cold outside.

Did you set some goals for 2016?  It might have been in the fog of New Year’s morning or the champagne induced glee of New Year’s Eve.  Do you remember them?

Once you get into the flurry of everyday life, it can be hard to even remember the special things you wanted to do, let alone focus on getting them done.

I learned a neat trick from one of the great people I volunteer with (yet another reason to put up your hand and volunteer!).  I commented on her aggressive development plans for the year and she said that she learned long ago to use the B-HAG method.

Excuse me?

Was she calling me a hag?  And if so, how did she know?  We have not known each other that long…..

No, not at all.  B-HAG stands for big, hairy, audacious goal.  She said the idea is to make sure you think of it every day and work to make advancements, no matter how small, every day.

She even has a B-HAG pet. (image on right)  It’s a little furry thing that sits on her desk.  When her eyes fall on it, she is reminded about the bigger picture.  Also, people come into to her work area and ask her about it which presents another opportunity to describe and focus on her goals.

She said it worked really well last year and so to up the ante and keep it effective, she is going to move it around her office.  A bit like Elf on a Shelf.  It will have eyes on her all the time.

In the end, it does not matter how you do it.  You just need to make sure that you have something or someone that continues to remind you why you need to do one more thing before lunch, bed or wine.

Good luck!

Was your New Year’s resolution to get another job?  Have you succeeded?

I know the year is young but, just like any other resolution, the more time is takes to start, the longer it take to succeed.

Most of the articles I have read about making resolutions stick, talk about breaking the objective into small parts.  If you want to get fit, starting with a marathon is probably not the best way to go.

Its better (they say) to start by walking around the block and then build into longer runs with the marathon on a six month horizon.

Career building is the same.  Only Cinderella got a new job with a chance meeting at a ball.  The rest of us have to work a little bit harder.

There are several places you can start.  You can dust off your resume and give it refresh.  That tends to be a bit overwhelming though. Especially if you don’t know where you last put it.  

LinkedIn is probably the best place to begin.  You can a password reset if you have forgotten how to get in.  (Shame on you!). Resist the temptation to create another profile.  Work with the original.   You don’t want to have two profiles.  It is too confusing.

Updating your current responsibilities or adding some new volunteer work is great.  You can also change your photo.  That’s a fun and impactful exercise.  Remember: no dogs, birds or kids.  And try not to use a cropped photo from a wedding.  We can tell and it looks cheesy.

LinkedIn wants to let everyone know that you have made positive changes.  Most profiles default to notify your network when you do some editing.  You don’t have to tell the world that you are fixing a typo or changing your headshot.  Click on the square with you picture at the top of the right side and then Privacy and Settings.  Under Privacy Controls, the second option is whether people see your profile edits.  If you unclick it, no one will be notified when you make changes.

That way you can save the updates for the important things …..like your new job!

I have been working with several candidates who have been out of the regular workforce for more than a year.  Now that they are getting interviews, they are not sure how to best deal with the questions and concerns about their absence.

This can be tricky because, as a candidate, you don’t know assumptions the interviewer has already made.

The only way to deal with this is to call it out at the first opportunity.  If you introduce the length of your absence, how it came about and what you did with the time and present it in a positive light, you will have a good chance of putting their concerns and fears to rest.

Should you say you were “consulting”?  If you were actually engaged by a company to do work in your field, then the answer is yes.  If that’s the case, be prepared to discuss the nature of the assignment and the results.  If the work came about from a referral and because of your reputation, throw this in too.

If you got a really good package after a long career at a single employer, it’s okay to talk about taking the time to reflect before jumping back onto the carousel of work.  You might not want to share that you binge watched the entire Netflix library.  You can talk about caring for family, taking courses, writing a book or exploring a hobby.

The object is to put this chapter of your career in a positive and constructive light.  That’s what hiring managers want to hear.  They want to feel comfortable that you are a) ready to be back in an organization and b) not a flight risk.  Those are the real concerns that you need to address.

You might not know it yet, but there is a pretty good chance that one of you or someone at one of your parties will make a new year’s resolution to find a new job.

Here’s a list of tools you might want to have handy for that moment:

Dropbox – a great place to save resumes and cover letters

Evernote – piles of cloud based digital notebooks to lay out your strategies, plans and save good tips and articles

LinkedIn – not for job postings but rather to look at the profiles of people you admire.  This will not only give you a lot of ideas but you may get some new connections as well.

YouTube – search for interview tips.  A word of caution: you will have sort through the silly ones and the serious ones.

Podcasts in iTunes – just type “job search” into the search bar. You will be surprised at how many podcasts are available.  There is bound to be some great tips and maybe even some inspiration.

Overdrive and a Library card – so you can read the hottest business books and magazines for free

And finally, Netflix.  For when you are done caring and just need a Mad Men marathon.

Happy New Year!

I don’t know about you but the next two weeks on my calendar are sprinkled with pot lucks, lunches and cocktails.  This is generally where I roll my eyes and find other things to do.

But this year is going to be different.  I am looking at each get together as an opportunity to learn new things.

I am going to try not to gossip about people in other departments or complain about the weather, Instead, I am going to positive and maybe even interesting.

For example, when someone asks me how things are going, my response is not going to be “busy”.  Of course I am busy.  Everyone is busy.  We would not have jobs if we were not busy.

Instead I am going to talk about one of the search projects I am working on.  This opens the door for much more interesting conversation than “I am so busy”.

I am also going to avoid asking about people’s plans for the holidays.  There are lots of people who are not going skiing in the Swiss Alps or dining with celebrities.  While it can be fun to hear about those adventures, it can be depressing too.

I am going to ask about next year instead.  “Got any plans for 2016?” has a nice ring to it

If I can stick to this plan, I should be able to come away from this holiday season with lots of new ideas and information which will be an excellent foundation for my big plans in 2016.

Cheers!