Category Archives: Uncategorized

I think that Family Day should be renamed Resume Day or Apply-for-Jobs Day.  There was a big spike in activity on job boards, corporate sites and especially LinkedIn.

This is not unusual long weekend behaviour. Traditionally, we see a lot of activity on Labour Day too.  While it’s lovely to get a lot of join my network invitations, I can’t help but think that people are spitting in the wind.

If you are genuinely interested in finding something new to do, then you need to plan a campaign and then execute it.  You can’t expect to find success by flinging a few resumes into the universe.

If you only have an hour every long weekend for your job search, then you might as well join the smokers outside or hang out in a hockey arena.  That kind of random networking will give you about the same results.

The first step is to give your search direction.  What do you want to do?  Specifically.  It can be based around an activity or a technology.

• I want to lead a team.
• I want to fix a broken process.
• I want to build something new.

These are the starting points.  Once you can identify that, the rest will fall into place.

Your resume should emphasize why you are qualified to do what you want to do.  Provide good, hard evidence of what you have done and where you did it.  It should be easy for a hiring manger to understand where you would fit into their organization.

Once you are happy with your resume, show it to at least three people you trust.  It is helpful if one of them is a grammar geek or at least a big reader.  You want to make sure it flows nicely, it logical and does not have any spelling mistakes.  This is key and cannot be undervalued.

Now, you are ready to move into the research portion.  You know what you want to do.  Where can you do it that is better than where you are now?

Check out eluta, Linkedin, simply hired and indeed.  Look for the right keywords and geography to see what is posted.  Apply with a short and pithy cover note.

There are some neat alerts/tools on each site that you can use to automate this part.  Once you know what you are looking for, these are handy and efficient.

I am not guaranteeing that this strategy will get you the next great gig, but it will give you a targeted approach to the market.

It will also help you solidify your goals.  Your ears will perk up when you hear the smokers or hockey parents mention an opening, and you will be ready to pounce all over it.

I ran into a friend this weekend. We have a really cool history together. Just over four years ago, she was a party planner.  She was pretty sure that it was not the type of job that she wanted for the rest of her life.

Fast forward to now.  She is enjoying a very successful career as a project administrator working on some really important projects for a very large engineering firm. She feels challenged and satisfied. And most important, she now has dental coverage and a pension – not common in the party business.

This came about because of a temp assignment that I was working on.  It took some convincing of both her and the client that the skills that she used to plan corporate events were the same as the ones needed for coordinating massive proposals.  The both require the ability to juggle gzillion small details, wrangle documents from technical experts and a general sense of calm and unflappability.   She nailed the interview and the rest is history.

This worked out because there was a facilitator (me) who was able to point out the similarities.  In a situation where you are applying to a company directly, it is up to you to show what you know and how it will solve the company’s problem.

Don’t just use the same resume over and over.  Do some research.  Figure out how to explain why your candidacy is not as weird as it might seem at first glance.

I am not suggesting that you can perform a root canal because your neighbour is a dentist.  (Although I had someone try to convince me of that once.)

In a case where what you can do will really be beneficial to the hiring manager, make a strong and confident case.  Support it with some relevant examples and offer references who can back up your story.

Perhaps one of your references has a connection into the company you are targeting.  This is worth investigating.  Having someone sing your praises before delivering your resume is excellent.  It positions what you can do before someone passes judgement on where you have done it.

Big moves are possible.  Just ask my friend Susan.

It’s been a rough week for a lot of people.  Most of us are probably connected to someone who just learned that they have lost their job.  They might be at Target or Sony or maybe they work in the oil business.

We have a lot of support to provide to our friends, peers and former colleagues.  It must feel a bit like going to the Oscars when you are nominated but you don’t win.  I think it was Kevin Spacey at the Golden Globes who described this feeling.  It was his first win after multiple nominations.  He said you are total winner when you are nominated but if you don’t get the statue, no one will even make eye contact with you at the after party

Getting a job with one of these companies was a great achievement.  Don’t sell yourself short.  Squeeze all the stories, examples and lessons learned out of your two or three years.  That’s the material to get your next great role.

Stay connected to your co-workers but also with your vendors and the other people you met in the course of your work. They are your new foundation.

Take advantage of every networking opportunity.  LinkedIn should be burning up with soon-to-be-former Target folks.  Sure, you were too busy before – make it a priority now.  Connect. Connect. Connect.

Above all, keep an open mind about your next opportunity.  Do your research so that you are prepared for your interviews. Turn your concerns into questions – no one will think less of you for being thoughtful and cautious.

Finally, if you have been offered outplacement services, take advantage of every part.  I can’t tell you what you will learn but there will definitely be some gems.

One of the hardest things to do is to keep on top of news and events that are outside of your everyday life.  Some days, I barely have enough time to worry about socks and underwear, let alone what’s happening with the companies on my dream list.

The Dream List.  We all have one.  The companies that we have read about or drive by on our commute that we wish had a great job for us.  Maybe they do.  How do you know?

Google has a great little tool called Alerts.  You fill in the box Google gives you with the keywords (product, company name) and then you select how and when you would like the information to arrive.

You will get an email everytime something about your target is mentioned.  Pretty neat.

This is really handy if you want to look for job in another town or you want to keep an eye on a group of companies.  You can also add things on the fly.  Say you read an article on LinkedIn about a person doing some cool work. Just use their name for a google alert. You will be able to stay on top of what they are doing and when you decide to reach out the them, you will have all kinds of material to use in your note/call.

Here is the last tip about google alerts.  Set one up for yourself.  Even if you think you will never be mentioned, this is a good idea. Let’s face it.  Your name on the web will be either point of pride or embarrassment but you want to know when it happens so you can either call your Mom or your lawyer.

Let’s face it. We are going to watch a whole bunch of moves over the next couple of weeks.  We will be nursing hangovers, escaping family or just enjoying some high quality couch time.

Netflix and On-Demand movies give us so many choices.  How will you decide?

Here are my recommendations for great movies with a career lessons built right in. I am not saying they will cause you to edit your resume the moment you are done, but you might want to keep your laptop handy, just in case.

Working Girl – classic comedy with Melanie Griffiths, Sigourney Weaver and a very young Harrison Ford. A great story and it’s pretty neat to see all these stars when they were just starting out.

9 – 5 –  dated but very funny movie about the ladies in the secretarial pool taking over the world. Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily to Tomlin round out this cast.

Mrs Doubtfire – Robin Williams shines as a divorced dad who has to take on a whole new career to be able to see his kids

Tootsie – Dustin Hoffman transforms himself into a soap opera actress ” of a certain age” to get an acting job with hysterical and unpredictable results.

Wolf of Wall Street – Leonardo de Caprio brings us the whole career of the infamous trader who won and lost a huge fortune.  There are lots of lessons here.

Catch Me if You Can– an another Leo de Caprio character study. This one is interesting because the main character is a con man who takes on a dozen careers throughout the movie. A good study of how far street smarts and a little nerve will get you. (Although it’s helpful to have a broken moral compass too).

Margin Call – a young analyst played by Chris Pine learns about the ugly side of the Wall Street careers with Kevin Spacey leading an excellent cast ensemble.

Patch Adams –  you will need a couple of tissues for this one but it is worth it. Robin Williams takes us through the true story of a man who rose to become a well known physician, clown and author.  Enough said.

Feel free to post a comment about your favourites.  I am sure there are lots more.

Happy holidays!

My son needs to find a part time job to help offset his living/movie/beer expenses while he is going to college.  He finds the whole idea of looking for work overwhelming and unsatisfying.

This stems from two issues.  One:  he is only qualified for a few types of jobs and none of them involve using his brain, his empathy or any of his other best qualities.  Two:  he figures people should shake his hand and hire him.  He should not have to put all his information into an applicant tracking system and hope that someone notices.

In order to help him get started, I sent him this list on Monday morning.

Have some juice

Print 10 resumes

Take a shower

Put on a nice shirt and pants 

Go to the grocery store to the customer service desk and ask if you can talk with the store manager. Or you can go upstairs and find the butcher or produce manager. 

Tell them you a college student and that you live in the Neighbourhood ‎ and you would really like to work there. Even if it’s just for the holidays. 

If they say “we’ll get back to you”, ask when you should follow up. 

Also ask for their card.

Don’t forget to stop by the other shops in our neighbourhood and in the mall. 

Make a list in your phone of every place you stopped at and who you talked to 

When you get back home, put in your calendar any people you need to call back. 

So get out your fake smile and hit the road!

I love you. 

Mom

He does not have a job yet, but he said the guy at the bong shop seemed pretty interested.  I’ll keep you posted.

It’s that time of year again – the time of year when we fill the malls looking for the perfect gifts.  What if there are some job seekers on your list?  It’s unlikely you can find them a job to wrap up under the tree but here are some things they might really appreciate.

• A new dress shirt and scarf/tie – that’s bound to make them feel better as they step into their next interview

• A month of LinkedIn Premium – you can read about that here.

• A couple of hours with a career coach

• A compilation of the best career podcasts or TED Talks

• A gift subscription to a magazine. A real magazine that comes in the mail.  That way when they go to the mailbox, there will be something good to look at instead of just rejection letters.

• A gift certificate from Vistaprint for business cards or personalized thank you notes

• Resume review with an experienced resume editor

• A fancy pen or folio to complete the accessories for their interview outfit

• Guest passes to a couple of yoga or meditation classes

• Coffee gift cards. There will always be time to use up before meetings and interviews and wrapping your hands around a hot cup of coffee or tea is a lovely way to deal with that.  As an added bonus, if they meet someone randomly, they can offer to take them for coffee without worrying about having cash.

All the best for some great shopping!

If you will indulge me, I’d like to depart from my usual career ranting, and focus instead on a bigger issue: being mean at work.

It’s been all over the news. It seems that no workplace is free from rudeness, bullying and harassment. I am not sure why this is the case. We are not in grade school any more. We are grown ups with mortgages, dogs and kids.

When we are at work, we are all working for a common cause. We have customers and products. We work to make those products better. We wrap some trust and reliability around them and people buy them.

Where is there room for being mean in this process?

Sure, we all have bad days and sometimes we say things that hurt people’s feelings either because we are grumpy or sleep deprived. That’s okay. But when you see someone’s face fall after you make what you think is a hilarious joke, stop and acknowledge it.

The lines between our work lives and our personal lives will continue to blur. What used to be six degrees of separation is shrinking to five degrees or, if you are in the recruiting business, three degrees. This means it is very likely that the person you are talking to could be your neighbour’s best friend or your cousin’s co-worker.

I am not saying there is no room for humour or that we should always have a fake smile plastered on our face, but we can certainly make a conscious effort to be friendly and consider other people’s feelings, especially at work. It won’t solve the violence in the workplace problem but it will certainly help to raise the bar a little.

I was comparing notes with a candidate this week. We were talking about how easy it is to get completely lost and distracted when surfing the web.

I learned this in the early days of the internet. I was researching mechanical engineers to design racing bicycles. i remember stumbling across a really interesting blog and at the bottom of the first page was a picture from the writers recent vacation in the Dominican.

All of the sudden I found myself on sunwing.ca looking at when I could go to that resort.

Woah! Not productive.

If you are using the internet to search for opportunities, you need to wrap some discipline around your activities or you will just be wasting your time.

Here are some things to try:

• set a time limit – give yourself an hour or 40 minutes
• focus on a specific topic/job title/company
• open a word document – when you see something that is off the path but worth looking at further, you can copy and paste the web address into the word doc to review in another session. You can also use apps like Evernote or clipper.
• create a goal for your session – perhaps you want to identify four of your old classmates to reconnect with or five jobs that you want to consider.

Adding structure will make your journey much more satisfying and yield better results.
Because after all, you don’t want to book the trip to Costa Rica until you have the new job to pay for it!