Praxis Speaks

So you have decided to start looking for a new job.  Maybe you’re getting laid off or maybe you’re just tired of your boss.  Whatever the case, you need to take into consideration some important facts:

1.        Realize it’s quite a job in itself to find a new job.  Generally, people take for granted the amount of work required to land a new position.  The days of posting your resume on job boards and actually getting some hits are long gone.  In case you haven’t heard, we’re in a major recession and everyone and their brother are competing for the same jobs these days.  You need to be prepared for a protracted “career searching campaign” with innovative job seeking methods. 

2.       Don’t quit your day job!  Or your night job, part-time job, or any other job for that matter that has a steady pay check rolling in.  Since you’re likely to be looking for six months or longer, (yeah, that’s no joke) you will definitely want to hang on to your current job until you are certain something else is ready and waiting. 

3.       Misrepresent yourself at your own peril.  Employers are savvy these days and they will most definitely check your credentials including employment history, criminal background checks, and often credit and drug screens.  I can attest to this fact personally having caught plenty of applicants who clearly took major liberties with the truth.  Sure, you might land a job based on false information, but when your company finds out (and they always do) it’s going to be pretty embarrassing to be led out by security.  Worse, the company could press charges for fraud.  There are certain ways to exaggerate your skills and background without blatantly lying.  Believe me; the best jobs go to those who know how to skillfully tread this line.

4.       Be always mindful of the “big four.”  When seeking that ideal career, you have to practice due diligence to MINN.  First, your marketing materials must be top notch.  This includes your resume, cover letter, and any other piece or written material that a prospective employer may see.  What?  You only have a resume and cover letter?  Consider developing other pieces such as a benchmarks summary, resume supplement, or resu-letter.  Next, how are your interviewing skills?  Do you know the right questions to ask?  Do you know the one thing you never tell during a job interview?  Third, are you skilled at negotiations?  Are you comfortable asking for what you’re worth?  Do you even know what you’re worth?  Consider giving this some thought.  Finally, what does your network look like?  Does the extent of people in your network include your grandmother and that guy who sold you your car?  Are you terrified at the notion of calling people you know for information about potential job openings?  In this world, you must have a solid web of people who you can call on.  Vital statistic:  Only 4%-5% of jobs are secured through postings on job boards and traditional application methods through the HR department. 

5.       Adopt a “sales” mentality when it comes to finding a job.  Remember, you’re selling your most valuable asset, yourself!  You must become adept at marketing your skills to prospective employers in such a way that they won’t be able to resist hiring you.  Perhaps you’ve heard of the old saying in sales, “Features tell and benefits sell.”  Corny though it may sound, you must make your prospective employers understand the value of what you bring to the table.  Stop telling them what you have done in the past.  Nobody cares.  Let them see what you will do for them and why they should care.  Spell it out for them.  Instead of simply using semantic phraseology, always throw in some statistical facts whenever possible.  For example, instead of saying, “Designed state of the art database system for all healthcare contracts”, say, “Through the design of a state of the art database system, ROI was increased by 35% over a six month period on all healthcare contracts for current company.  Based on preliminary research on ABC Company, this would yield similar if not higher results.”  You might even want to have a separate area on your resume for “potential benefits” to the company to which you are applying.  Yep, you guessed it; this means individualizing your resume for each company.  The days of the “cookie-cutter” resume are gone.  Nowadays, we have a new term for that type of resume; it’s called the “tombstone” resume.  Interpret that as you wish.

6.        Consider hiring an expert.  Professional job coaches are skilled at increasing your visibility as well as decreasing the time it takes to secure a position, often by as much as 50%.  Frequently, they work on a commission basis and sometimes they merely charge a flat fee.  But one thing is certain; they can be worth their weight in gold when it comes to training professionals on how to maximize their perceived value to potential employers.  They are can develop marketing material for you, role play and give you feed back on your interviewing skills, show you how to manage your appearance, give you best practices on networking and negotiating, as well as numerous other topics.  They often offer a free initial consultation to determine your specific needs and a good career coach will do a lot more listening in the beginning than talking to make sure they hear you loud and clear.   – Brooks Barton

Do you remember the last time you got into an argument with someone? Chances are you do because typically when we disagree with someone it tends to stick with us because of one simple reason alone: the other person was acting irrationally, right?  Have you ever walked away from an argument with one of your peers or friends thinking, “How can he possibly think that way or hold that opinion?”  One prominent psychologist has studied this very concept and formulated a theory that describes how and why people develop the opinions that they do.  Chris Argyris of Harvard University developed what he calls “The Ladder of Inference” which essentially attempts conceptualize the pattern of human beings’ thoughts and actions.  It consists of seven “rungs” which become progressively more subjective as one is exposed to more and more experiences over time.  We naturally filter out things in the “real” world that do not reinforce our assumptions and beliefs about the nature of our world.  At the top of the ladder are our actions which are solely a result of our a posteriori knowledge which, of course, has been continuously filtered over the years.  The result is what we know as opinions and are often a cause of conflict in our relationships.  The point then is that we can do little to shape the opinions of others in the context of deeply held beliefs, but we can understand why other people may hold different viewpoints than us.  More importantly, we can develop a sense of self-awareness about our own dogmatic views of the world and embrace them. At the same time we can open ourselves to the notion that our own perceptions as well as the perceptions of others are more of a subconscious reaction to the stimuli around us and not a personal attack on character.–Brooks Barton