My beloved Michigan State Spartans lost to Michigan in basketball last night. I expected it to happen, actually. As much talent as the team has, they’ve been unable to put it to use this season. Missed shots, sloppy defense and a never ending stream of distractions have taken their toll.
I think a lot of people looking for work can identify with how the Spartans must feel. They know they have great skills, they remember previous successes…a time when they were the star…and yet they are stuck in a bad place in terms of accomplishing their goals. Their true talents aren’t shining through. They are losing when they could and should be winning.
What makes the Spartans different than many job seekers is they will continue to work through their struggles two times a week, center court. They must deal with their shortcomings head on and make immediate and continuous adjustments. My boys in green don’t have the option to avoid playing the game until they feel they are perfect again. They can’t hide from scheduled opponents and the audiences that come with them. There is no changing the teams they will face, substituting powerhouses for weaker programs. In the end, I think this will result in a faster solution. Just like many in Spartan Nation, I fully expect this team to find its legs in time for the NCAA Tournament. When they solve enough of their problems to actually have fun when they play again…LOOK OUT!
Those looking for work might want to consider the benefits of keeping yourselves in front of audiences and aggressive opponents as you struggle to find your groove. It’s easy to slow down and hesitate once you’ve suffered a loss or setback. The temptation to wait until you’ve figured out all that you’ve done wrong and how to avoid a repeat before moving forward is overwhelming. Giving into that temptation just might be adding months, if not years, to realizing what corrective action needs to be taken.
By the way… GO STATE!
Most people find fresh appealing. Consider how much you appreciate fresh food, air or sheets. Aside from things like wine and cheese, I can’t think of anything people prefer musty.
Folks, I’m here to tell you many people are struggling in their job search because they aren’t getting their fresh on. Their approach, responses, perspective, skills and attitude are stale. When one or all of the above come off to the employer as tired, overused or outdated, it makes the job seeker a boring and unappealing option.
For those of you wondering, this has nothing to do with age. Some may want to make it about calendar years on this planet, but I promise I’ve been underwhelmed by young and old. Think of all of the people you encounter in your life. A large percentage of humanity are no more than a blur in your vision field. They never stand out. They aren’t memorable. They are what you expect to see, they say what you expect to hear and they simply don’t wake your senses up enough for you to notice who they are.
Every now and then though someone crosses your path who is different and, ta-dah, you notice them. They are reFRESHing. They offer viewpoints you appreciate, but hadn’t considered before. They have ideas and strategies that give you the sense new and exciting things are possible. Their eye contact isn’t manufactured. Genuine interest is visible behind the retinas. Their ears are in the mix and they are registering your words and building responses around them.
My challenge to those looking for work is to take a step back and ask yourself where you might be stale. In all honesty, if you are tired of some of your answers and approaches, employers probably are too.
Jokes don’t hide anger and frustration. If anything, they amplify those types of emotions and give individuals on the receiving end of the manufactured humor the wiggles and squirms.
Many job seekers are in a tough place emotionally. They understand employers don’t want the negative energy that goes along with those feelings, so there are often attempts to throw in sarcasm and wit to mask sour moods. The end result isn’t good. Just like a Renuzit scented candle doesn’t hide the reality of a Friday night bar bathroom, an edgy punch line on the struggles of a job search can’t keep the waves of despair, anger and disgust from clouding the atmosphere of an interview room or networking event.
Humor is a wonderful thing when those delivering it are in a fun place. For example, I love to listen to Ellen Degeneres and Sinbad. They both make me laugh to the point of tears because they are sincerely funny. I don’t suspect for a moment there is an edge of seriousness behind their words. I don’t get that Andrew Dice Clay effect that makes me want to take a shower when I’m done listening to them.
If you’re looking for work and wondering how to hide the negative feelings you’re wrestling with, consider taking a pass on jokes. Sometimes sticking to the nuts and bolts of what’s being discussed is the best plan. You may come off boring or dry, but those impressions are much less problematic to potential employers than angry.
The best solution is to find ways to neutralize some of those negative emotions so your true personality can shine through. That may be as simple as surrounding yourself with more positive people, adding more exercise to your routine, joining professional/social groups or increasing the daily efforts made to identify potential opportunities.
Whatever the answer is for you, know that most people don’t find the situation you’re working through any more funny than you do. That’s probably why attempts at humor often fail. If you want to show off wit, use topics that aren’t the source of pain for frustration.
Looking for work? You’d be surprised what you can learn from a grocery store when it comes to strategy. Grocery stores have been in the business of selling their collective environments and individual product offerings for years. Take a moment to visit your local store and pay close attention to what the store is doing to sell inventory and keep you coming back for more. You might find some ideas that could help you get the attention of your potential buyers, also known as employers.
Here are some general observations I made on a recent shopping trip. As you read through these, think of how they might apply to all aspects of your search. Some will clearly play more into resume strategy, while others may give you some ideas in terms of networking, sourcing, interviewing and your overall sales approach.
- The brand names are typically priced higher than lesser known options. Even if the ingredients are the same, retailers know people are willing to pay more for something they feel familiar with.
- All expired offerings are pulled from display shelves immediately. It’s a big turn off for buyers to have to dig through outdated merchandise in order to find fresh and usable options.
- The store is arranged in a way shoppers can intuitively navigate the inventory, whether it’s a quick trip or a longer excursion. Items are grouped together in a logical way so the shopper can make easy decisions of where to look for what he needs.
- The environment is clean, bright and visually appealing.
- The basic floor plan for the store is consistent, yet subtle changes are made to featured displays to keep the return shopper from getting bored and to help him notice what is most relevant at the given moment.
- There is a plan to capture intentional and impulse purchases. Complimentary products are placed near one another. For example, you may find basting brushes on a hook by BBQ sauce or small plastic snack containers hanging by the Cheerios.
- Pricing is clear. There may be room for negotiation on some items, but there is a reasonable understanding of what the buyer will need to pay to make the purchase.
- The most in demand items are prominent.
- Samples of items shoppers may feel more comfortable buying after trying are often available.
- Products are positioned with the intended audience in mind. For example, cereals for kids are on lower shelves and cereals for adults are up higher.
- Stores consciously capture as much information from buyers as possible. Many have shopper cards that help identify who customers are and reveal buying habits; information crucial in planning strategy.
To avoid turning this post into a novel, I didn’t write commentary around each bullet to explain how they apply to job search strategy. In most cases, I think the dots are easy to connect. For those that aren’t clear, feel free to ask for more elaboration in the comment section of this post.
In the end, the point is to pay close attention to how those in the business of selling go about promoting their products and services. There is depth to the process. Almost every aspect is intentional and built around the customer’s experience, needs and interests versus around what might be convenient or easy for the seller.
You know that unemployed person you know who is lazy and sitting around all day and not doing anything to find work? Well, what if you’re wrong? What if, while you’re at your 40+ hour per week job that takes you away from observing his every move, he is actually making an effort? What if the reason you don’t know exactly what he is doing, who he is doing it with and when is because his unemployment crisis is intensely private to him? What if he doesn’t want you to know he’s applied to hundreds of companies and not one has been interested…even Burger King? What if he is embarrassed to reveal he is working midnights at the gas station for cash, while you sleep, and is in bed during the day as a result? What if he is online working on free tutorials all day to upgrade his skills because he can’t afford to go back to college? What if, at the end of the day, it’s simply none of your business to know what he is doing?
Better yet, what if that person really isn’t doing anything? But, what if it’s because he is broken versus lazy? What if it’s because he’s been working at this from the beginning of this crisis and has experienced never ending rejection on top of growing financial devastation. What if his home is about to be gone? What if even landing a job right now wouldn’t save him, someone who worked hard his whole life, from catastrophe? What if he feels so alone, ashamed and worthless there doesn’t seem to be a reason to make an effort anymore? What if the fact those who are losing their jobs now, who haven’t had to ride the same devastating roller coaster of joblessness he had to, during a time when there was nothing, are going to be chosen ahead of him because they don’t have a long gap of unemployment, is adding to the despair? What if he is thinking of giving up on everything, not just his job search, because there is no clear way out and he doesn’t want to be a burden to his family or society?
I’m writing this post today because my heart hurts. I sincerely love all of the unemployed professionals I’ve had a chance to meet in this journey we’ve shared to a better tomorrow. I know their secrets, their hopes, their private hell… I can’t sleep in my comfortable house at night because I can feel the weight of the load they carry. Can we as a compassionate society please work harder to assume those who are struggling with chronic unemployment might actually be good people in a bad situation versus jumping to the conclusion they are lazy or content with their situation? There are lazy people amongst us, but few people would be willing to lose the roof over the heads of their children to watch Oprah.
You’d be surprised how difficult it can be to connect with job seekers. In a time of fierce competition for jobs, it’s important to make sure employers have easy ways to get in touch with you. Here are a few examples of what I run into frequently.
- Changing your cell phone or internet service/provider without updating me you now have a new new phone number and/or email address.
- Allowing your cell phone voicemail account to become too full to receive new messages.
- Not telling those who share your phone number/email to look out for messages from me. It’s odd how often I’m greeted as a solicitor or debt collector.
- Neglecting to include primary phone numbers and emails on resumes, email signature lines, business cards and correspondence. I’d add, if you’ve included this information in small or difficult to read font, it’s still problematic.
- Connecting with me via a social medial tool (LinkedIn/Twitter) and then never going back to check that tool to see if I responded.
- Failing to provide contact information upon introduction at a networking event. This is made worse by failing to follow-up after a networking event with the contact information you promised to send along.
- Leaving a voicemail full of all of the times it won’t work for me to call you back. It’s much easier on the brain to hear ideas for when it IS good to call versus the opposite.
- Only stating your phone number once in a voicemail message. I’d add failing to say your name in a voicemail message.
- Calling me from a number that isn’t your primary point of contact.
Because the last bullet isn’t as obvious a problem as the others, I’m going to take a hot second to explain it more completely. There are several problems that stem from people not calling me from their primary number. First, I usually only save my contacts’ primary numbers to my cell phone. So, if you are an existing contact of mine and call me on a number that isn’t the norm, I won’t see it’s you on my phone. I may make the decision to let the call go to voicemail when I would have picked up the phone otherwise. Second, if the caller is not an existing contact in my phone, they’ve made it more difficult for me to make it so. It’s easy to click and add numbers to my directory from my inbound call list. Having to type it in manually relies on me being in a position to write the person’s preferred phone number down and then me getting it in correctly while typing on teeny phone buttons.
All of the above may sound like no big deal, but trust me when I tell you every little thing counts when it comes to making it convenient for employers to get in touch with you.
If you are a woman like me, scratching at 40 or better, you’re likely in a similar pattern of personal maintenance. For those of you who have reached this point of your life gray-free, talk to the hand. Every 6-8 weeks I head to the hair salon to invest time and money in hiding the signs of aging. Some months it’s a quick touch up, other months is a more thorough rework. Without fail, if I go beyond that point my roots start screaming to the world…demanding to be heard. The longer I go, the more hits I take to my self-esteem, the more people notice I’m not paying attention to my upkeep and the more expensive corrective action becomes. On some occasions, it goes on to the point I no longer care I’m overdue on maintenance. The, “I’ve gone this long, what’s another month or two” mentality slips in. Trust me, no one wins in that situation.
In a fast developing business world, the same thing can happen to professionals who fail to schedule frequent, systematic maintenance on their skills and general awareness of business trends. As crazy at is sounds, the root line of your knowledge base can quickly become apparent to others in a matter of months. Things change fast these days. You don’t want to be the employee, job seeker or business owner with noticeable evidence you’ve fallen behind with your professional upkeep. Never mind the challenges your up against when you need touch-ups or a major makeover in a hurry. You’re often left to a quick solution with limited resources to choose from.
Do yourself the favor of scheduling professional maintenance regularly. Attend local workshops, panels and business group meetings on occasion. Make a point to explore new features on social media outlets every few weeks. Read links to news on economic development plans in your area every month or so. Search Google for same year articles on topics relating to your field. When you keep on top of your personal maintenance you look like a million bucks. When you keep on top of your professional maintenance you actually have a chance to be worth a million bucks.
I love to cook. The fact I’m now skilled enough I can actually turn out food friends and family enjoy eating is a bonus. That wasn’t always the case. When I didn’t know what I was doing I hated cooking…not to mention eating the end result. Practice and paying attention to what gifted cooks were doing different than me was a significant game changer. Once I solved the mystery of why two people could follow the exact same recipe, yet experience vastly different outcomes, I was able to make critical adjustments. You see, I was one of those who blamed the recipe when things didn’t turn out well. Little did I know…
So why do people get different results with the same set of instructions? It’s not always about the recipe or the taste preference of the end user. Many times it’s about differences in the way the recipe is carried out. For example, a person who uses spices from a rack they bought from Kohl’s for $9.99 four years ago will likely consider the dish they create more bland than the person who uses higher quality spices that are fresher and have been stored properly. Or, the person who buys a roast with little marbling will probably think their roast is dryer and less flavorful than the person capable of identifying an inferior piece of meat. There are also problems with people who don’t allow pans, pots and equipment to preheat sufficiently. Or who use pots and pans that don’t distribute heat evenly because they are warped or not made of a quality metal.
You see, when it comes to recipes all sorts of things can influence the outcome. That doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with the recipe. It means the cook has to be aware of the quality of ingredients and tools they are using and not assume simply following instructions to the letter is good enough.
I frequently hear job seekers judge various job search strategies as ineffective. “I tried that and it didn’t work.” Okay, but it worked for someone, often times many someones. Why? Some chalk it up to luck, but I find luck has less to do with it than most think. There often is a clear reason when people take the time to dig deeper into what really went into a successful effort. Perhaps your situation is truly unique; the decision makers you are chasing are less receptive to certain approaches. What if the fact a recipe for success in a job search didn’t work for you had more to do with the way you carried it out? If it were me, I’d want to take a moment to find out. To me, when you have a formula that has worked for someone else, it makes more sense to try to figure out what you may have done differently than make the hasty decision to dismiss the idea as ineffective for your situation.
Though I appreciate the frustration job seekers feel when they believe less qualified applicants beat them out, I’d like to make a point for perspective.
For those of you who aren’t Michigan State basketball fans, I apologize in advance for boring you. As a green-blooded lover of all things Spartan, my mind has been on the recent struggles of the team so close to my heart. You see, they haven’t just been losing, they’ve been losing while playing basketball that doesn’t reflect their true talents and abilities. This year’s team is packed full of extremely gifted athletes. I’m biased, but I still think my assessment is fair. The fact they’ve lost some games they should have won doesn’t make them less gifted. It doesn’t negate the success they had individually and as a team leading up to this season. It doesn’t speak to their future potential. What it does is emphasize how much chemistry, productive collaboration, consistency and that special something no one has really been able to name yet go into the end result of any effort. It’s why teams of supposedly fewer talents, but strong chemistry and focus, can surpass superstars.
Employers aren’t wrong for wanting someone who will click with the existing team. They aren’t always making a mistake to take someone with fewer qualifications if they think that person has the potential to take the team to a higher level. Now, the perfect scenario would be if the most talented candidate also enhances the overall chemistry of the team. I guarantee if Michigan State gets their game together few, if anyone, will be able to stop them. They will have that ideal mix of ability and synergy.
So, if you’re one who has been frustrated about companies not appreciating your skills, consider the possibility it’s not about them failing to realize your talents, but failing to see how you would put those skills to use in an effective way. It doesn’t really matter if it’s about you or about the team. What’s crucial is to dig beyond the qualifications of the job, give attention to identifying what would be a successful addition to the team, ask yourself how well you’d really fulfill that need and sell yourself in a more effective way to the opportunities that seem to be an overall fit.
Oh, by the way…GO STATE!
When networking contacts or prospective employers ask you what types of opportunities you are considering, please don’t say “something in management.” That means nothing to most people. Management is one of those words thrown around without much thought.
Exactly what do you mean when you say you’re interested in management opportunities? That you want your own office? That you want a certain pay rate? That you want to be the one giving orders? That a title matters to you? What do you want to be managing? People? Processes? Programs?
I’m not saying the word management is bad, but it shouldn’t be left drifting in the wind by itself. Paint a picture for others of your capabilities and what types of situations you are prepared to take the lead on. If you like to be the one with your finger on the pulse of key projects within a company, say so. If your extensive background in sales techniques has prepared you to develop the abilities of others, make that point. If you enjoy being the point of contact when problems arise in an organization, spell that out.
If you don’t shed light on what you mean by management people will make assumptions based on their own experiences and views. It’s been my experience leaving others to guess what you mean rarely turns out well. Vague statements are ripe for guessing games.
