What Do You Do (In Seven Words)?

February 3, 2010

A friend of mine, Mark Whitaker, is an experienced market research professional. His official title is Strategic Research Consultant at The Kansas City Star.

That’s an impressive title, but what does it mean? What does he really do? What impact does he actually make?

In seven words on LinkedIn, Mark summarizes his job as “helping you find the information you need.”

I really like that “job description” for three reasons:

  1. It’s simple. I can understand it without having to translate industry jargon.
  2. It’s differentiating. It really describes what he does, not what his company or co-workers do.
  3. It’s outwardly focused. He describes what he does for others. He focuses on the benefits he provides, not the process involved. Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by Duane Hallock

Effectively Selling Yourself in a Job Search

December 15, 2009

Good sales people know the difference between features and benefits. Often that makes the difference between making a sale or conceding defeat to a competitor.

Likewise, effective job seekers must also know the difference. That knowledge often determines who gets an interview and ultimately who snags the job offer.

Sadly, most job seekers focus only on features when they should be talking about benefits. So what’s the crucial difference?

Features Tell. Features are facts, the list of items on your resume that describe you. They provide basic information — Who you are. Where you’ve worked. Dates you were there. Job titles. Accomplishments. Education. Community involvement.

Benefits Sell. Benefits convert features into relevant information. Benefits describe the value that a potential employer might find in one of your features. A hiring manager is always asking questions such as — So what? How is this relevant? Why should I care? What can you do for me?

Features and benefits are both important. To be effective, though, you must lead with benefits and then follow up with features. Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by Duane Hallock

The Hidden Value of Job Hunting During the Holidays

December 10, 2009

It’s tough looking for a job in December. I’ve been there, and I know it’s not fun being in a job search during the holidays.

Right now, I personally know at least three dozen people who are between jobs. Though they’ve remained positive during these stressful times, it’s very easy to become overwhelmed with fear and negativity. Few employers are hiring in December. The economy is still bad and who knows what the future holds. On top of that, personal finances are likely strained during this season of materialism and consumerism.

On the other side of the coin, though, the holiday season can actually be a deeply meaningful time for job hunting. Done rightly, December can be a time of renewal and rejuvenation as you anticipate all the good things awaiting you in the coming new year.

Here’s my advice to anyone feeling trapped in a holiday job search:

  1. Spend quality time with family and friends. A stressful career transition can refocus you on life’s true priorities—family and friends. Surround yourself with people who truly care about you and your well-being. Let them know how important they are to you.
  2. Reconnect with your existing network. Update your professional contacts on the progress (or lack of) you are making. Remind them what you’re looking for. Suggest simple ways they can help. Look for ways to express gratitude for things they have already done.
  3. Make new friends. The holidays are a good time to network and meet new people at parties, religious services or other social events.
  4. Rethink your strategy. From time to time, we all need to think about what we’re doing and why. For me, nothing works quite like sitting alone in a coffee shop. I can clear the clutter in my mind, filter out distractions and experience a surge of creativity. The change of venue gives me a fresh perspective. Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by Duane Hallock

How Soon Will You Be Obsolete?

November 3, 2009

In these strange economic times, too many good people are unemployed. I’m grateful for my job, yet I know there’s no such thing as complete job security. This is a scary time, yet I fear something more frightful than unemployment.

I’m afraid of obsolescence—becoming obsolete, irrelevant and dispensable.

Every employee, every worker and every professional has an expiration date (and I don’t mean a date with death). Like milk in the grocery store, everyone has a “Best If Used By…” label. Everyone has a skill set, a knowledge base or a network of contacts that will be outdated very quickly in today’s fast-paced world. No one buys sours milk, no matter how fresh it once tasted. Neither do employers hire or retain obsolete workers, no matter how productive they once were.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by Duane Hallock

Three Things to Say When You’re Networking

October 29, 2009

When you’re looking for a job, everyone tells you to network.

Network! Network! Network!

That’s great advice, but it can be quite overwhelming and even intimidating.

A while back I was meeting with a young woman looking for her first job out of college. When I emphasized the importance of networking she said, “Everyone tells me to do that, but when I’m meeting with someone I don’t know what to say.”

I appreciated her candor, so I spent extra time helping her develop a networking agenda. After filtering out the noise and distractions, we realized there were only three things she needed to say in a face-to-face networking meeting. Likewise, your networking agenda can be as simple as these three items:

  1. Here’s who I am. Briefly describe yourself professionally.
  2. Here’s where I’m going. Describe your ideal job so the other person can visualize you being successful in the next phase of your career.
  3. Here’s how you can help. People want to help but usually they don’t know how. Give them a few simple things to do.

Organizing a networking meeting around these three points will give you the confidence you need to succeed.

As you move forward in your job search , you’ll also be making new friends and expanding your network of professional contacts.

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Posted by Duane Hallock

Three Things to Ask for When Networking

October 27, 2009

When looking for a job, you’ll find most people want to help you. They just don’t know how. It’s your job to tell them what you need.

In planning for an upcoming networking meeting, here’s an idea:  Have objectives! In other words, go into the meeting knowing what you want to get out of it. It’s not very difficult if you hang your requests on these three pegs:

  1. Feedback. Get the other person’s input on your resume, cover letter and job search strategies. Seek feedback on market conditions and other areas where the person has expertise or knowledge.
  2. Names. Ask for names of other individuals who might be helpful in your job search. Perhaps the other person will offer to introduce you to the new contact. Such introductions are especially beneficial. If you are going to contact the person directly, make sure you have permission prior to using someone’s names as a door-opener when introducing yourself.
  3. Follow-up. Ask the person if you can stay in touch. Who could deny such a request? Then, by all means, find ways to follow up. I’m dumbfounded by the number of people who look at a networking meeting as a one-time interaction rather than the beginning of professional relationship. You can stay connected via LinkedIn, e-mail, a handwritten thank you note, an in-person follow-up meeting or some other method of keeping the person updated on your status.

Look for ways to give something back. Any good relationship is always interactive and ongoing. Those who only take and never give back will never be successful networkers.

Those who view networking as a short-term means for getting a job will find the experience shallow and burdensome. However, those who see networking as a way of life—a way of staying connected with the world—will be rewarded in unexpected and inmeasurable ways.

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Posted by Duane Hallock

Finding Meaning in a Job Search

October 15, 2009

In outplacement I once met a displaced executive who was very angry after being let go from his previous job. He had been treated unfairly and was so consumed with anger that he was unable to get on with his life.

To help him regain his balance, he’d met several times with his priest who said, “You must to get to the point where you can pray for your former boss.”

One morning my new-found friend boasted that he was finally able to pray for the one who had done him wrong. “Every morning,” he said, “I pray that my former boss will get run over by a bus.”

After a good laugh, we both agreed that wasn’t what his priest had in mind. What he needed was to forgive and then move on without hoping for revenge.

When I’ve been in transition, I’ve tried to find the purpose and meaning within the circumstances. Even though things usually seemed confusing at the time, I’ve always believed that everything happens for a reason. I’ve learned that if I’m patient, somewhere down the road understanding will come.

The biblical story of Joseph tells how he was treated unfairly, punished unjustly and then forgotten. It must have been a lonely, painful and confusing time, but it was not wasted time. Joseph sorted things out and later, after achieving great career success, said to those who had wronged him, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good.”

Somewhere, embedded in your circumstances, you can find meaning. Somehow, even when you’re in a free fall, you can discover opportunities to learn and to grow. Heroes are made in the midst of strange and uncertain times. Be a hero.

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Posted by Duane Hallock

My Personal Mission Statement

October 6, 2009

Several years ago I was a guest of the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City at a workshop on “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.” One of the exercises was to write a personal mission statement. Intrigued with the process, I continued revising mine long after the workshop concluded.

You see, I’m one of those people who needs to know WHY. I want to understand my raison d’être—my reason for being. I’ve spent quiet moments thinking about my purpose in life, and I’ve come to realize that my personal and professional missions merge together seamlessly.

My threefold mission in life is:

  1. To understand the world around me.
  2. To create order from within the chaos.
  3. To share unconditionally the abundance in my life.

That’s it in three word:  understand, create and share. Those words came to life after I spent considerable time exploring the colorful dimensions of each.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by Duane Hallock

What Can You Do?

September 24, 2009

—Making promises during a job search

I was once being interviewed for an executive job in Ohio. At the time I had not yet completed my master’s degree, so I asked the company CEO if that would work against me. “I don’t care how much you know,” he replied. “I want to know what you can do.”

During a job interview, the hiring manager is not thinking about you. He’s thinking about himself. He’s not concerned about your success, your knowledge or your experience—except as it relates to him and to his success, his profitability and his ability to look good.

With that realization, you should focus your job search communication on what you can do. Occasionally you may need to mention your degree, your experience or your achievements. But those should always be presented as evidence of what you can do in the future.

Twice I’ve hired candidates who presented me with a list of things they intended to accomplish during their first 90 days on the job. Admittedly the lists needed revision, but I was impressed to know that the applicants were already thinking about the work needing to be done. Both candidates sold me on what they could do, not on what they knew, where they’d come from or what they had done. They demonstrated that they were already engaged and eager to get started. Momentum was already building. I appreciated the thinking that both individuals had shown, and I rewarded them with key leadership opportunities on my already-successful marketing team.

Making “campaign promises” during a job search requires a combination of two important elements—introspection and research.

Introspection. Before you really know what you can do, you have to look inside yourself and become fully aware of what you have already done, where you’ve been successful and what types of work have made you feel most alive and productive. You then have a good idea of what you can do.

Research. To find the ideal match for you, you will also need to research market trends, study the major projects of targeted companies and understand the priorities of the hiring manager. You will be well positioned to achieve exceptional success when there is alignment between a) what you can do and b) what they need.

My advice to anyone in a career transition is to talk about what you can do. In other words, change the sentence, “I’m looking for a job in ______________.” to “I’m looking for an opportunity where I can ______________.”

Many LinkedIn status reports describe the type of job the person is looking for. I was impressed, though, when one of my jobless friends stated that he was “looking for a sales opportunity where I can generate exceptional revenue.” He talked about what he could do. Before long he found a great job and is now doing what he promised he could do—making sales and generating revenue.

So my question of you is:  What can you do?

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Posted by Duane Hallock

What Have You Done?

September 22, 2009

—Telling your story during a job search

When I’m interviewing someone for a job, I’m always impressed when he or she confidently talks about career achievements. Those who interview well are those who describe their accomplishments in a story format, and the ones who rise to the top are those who tell their stories in three parts—a beginning, a middle and an end.

You can effectively describe your achievements if you tell stories that cover these three things:

  1. The situation. Describe the circumstances you found yourself in. Perhaps you were given a problem that needed to be fixed. Or maybe you were assigned to lead a project with declining revenues or eroding market share. Maybe you inherited a team with low morale or poor productivity. Describe the problem (but no whining, please).
  2. Your action. Then, talk about what you did to address the situation. Maybe you developed a plan and implemented new procedures or systems. Perhaps you hired and trained new employees, coaching them to work together cohesively as a team. Maybe you identified an untapped market for your product or services.
  3. The results. As a result of your actions, what measurable impact did you have? What positive results did you produce? How was your department, your organization or the community a better place because of what you did?

When describing what you’ve accomplished, talk in the first person, using “I” rather than “we“—even if you were part of a team effort. I’ve sometimes interrupted interviewees who were proudly describing what their team had accomplished. I asked them to tell me specifically what their individual contribution was to the team’s success.

I recommend that you develop nine success stories using this formula (situation, action and results). Why nine? Because I love the rule of threes. You can always remember three things when you don’t have access to your notes and the pressure is on. So here’s how I came up with nine stories for your portfolio:

Three Positioning Themes. Select three broad categories that represent your professional accomplishments. These should be three differentiating attributes you want someone to know about you. Your interview answers should be anchored on these themes so that at the conclusion of the interview the other person will remember at least these three things about you.

Three Success Stories. For each theme, develop three stories describing your success in that area. Stories are memorable and will bring to life the three themes. Each story should be written, edited, honed and practiced. Then, during an interview, you’ll be able to tell the stories in an engaging, conversational tone.

It works best to have various versions of each story so you can adapt it to the specific situation. Sometimes you might need to be very succinct, telling your story in just one sentence. (“Faced with declining sales, I identified an untapped market and increased our revenue by 12% the first year.) By the way, the one-sentence version of your story should also be a bullet point in your resume. Other times the listener will want more information and you’ll be able to flesh out the details and tell a more complete story.

With the right preparation, you can approach your next interview with a relaxed confidence, knowing you’re just having a conversation with someone who wants to hear an interesting story.

…and they all lived happily ever after!

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Posted by Duane Hallock

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