David Rimmer - The Balance

David Rimmer - The Balance David Rimmer - The Balance

How to weather the roller coaster job market - Hallie Crawford

How to weather the roller coaster job market - Hallie Crawford I was honored to be on the radio about the job market with Matt Jones at Cumulus here in Atlanta. I wanted to share the content we talked about on the radio with you here. The economic climate recently has felt like a roller coaster for job seekers. They get mixed messages about the job market, some days it’s good news and some days it’s bad. It can be hard to know how to handle it! For example: Median salaries for college graduates increased by 4.5%in 2012 and employers’ plans to hire them are up 10.2% (per surveys from The National Association of Colleges and Employers). Yet, early April also saw unemployment claims rise to 380,000â€"the highest levels since January 2012. Sure it’s changed again. So how do you know how to handle seemingly conflicting information? For a long time job seekers, including graduates, have been told to sit tight because you can’t land your dream job. In some ways that’s been true. Then we get some good news mixed in with bad and people aren’t sure whether to make the leap. I suggest several things to keep your cool when you’re receiving conflicting information: Temper your enthusiasm with pragmatism. I’ve said this regardless of the economic climate. You can land and work towards your dream job, and you absolutely should! Sometimes you need to be more cautious than others. Don’t give up on it, just measure the landscape, the economic climate and how quickly or slowly you need to make your change. Make a plan, and adjust the timeline based on how things look for your industry. Combine passion with pragmatism. Find something you truly enjoy and focus on it. Move towards it consistently but … figure out a way to pay your bills, take care of yourself and make the transition slowly. Take a part time job outside of your current one, volunteer, take a class, whatever. Go slowly but don’t lose enthusiasm for where you’re going. Keep your eye on the ball. I have too many people who get excited about a career direction, then go off track. They get disappointed because they’re not moving forward quickly enough and they give up, OR they get distracted by something else and move the wrong way. When I was working with my career coaching client Luke last week, he was doing just that. It’s the bright shiny object syndrome (which I also have.) I did this too when I determined that I wanted to teach in some way, but then I was offered a job in something completely different and I said ok and took it even though I knew it wouldn’t be a long term fit! It was offered and it was easy. Yes I had to pay my bills and that was part of it, but I should have instead said I’ll take this job while I’m working towards teaching or coaching on the side. Instead 2 years later I was stuck there and miserable. Always ask yourself, will this move me towards my goal? Know your limits. This sounds silly but some people don’t know what they need to live on and/or aren’t absolutely certain about those numbers. Determine how much you need to live and know your limits so you can work from a workable budget to stay financially stable while you’re pursuing the dream. Being absolutely certain about where you stand and what you need financially gives you that peace of mind and a foundation that you can move forward from. This way you’re not worrying about that as much and can focus on the dream. Think outside the box. Are there jobs out there related to what you want to do long term but that are easier for you to get right now and could help you move towards your dream job? Think creatively; be open to alternative ideas and options. While you do want to remain focused and not get off track, you also need to be flexible and open to other options if the job you’re wanting long term just isn’t attainable right now. Make a long term plan for making it happen. Focus on career management. See your career as an asset you need to manage, invest in and maintain long term. Not something short term you can just assume will be there. More and more we need to see our jobs as an asset to nurture, grow and plan for long term. So if you can’t get that dream job right now, and a lot of people can’t, that’s normal! Figure out how you can get it long term… I hope this is helpful!! Hallie Crawford Atlanta Career Coach P.S. If you would like more help with your job search and networking, be sure to check out our  Free Resources Page  today! Please Share This

Never Ending Problems of Workers and How Recruiters can Help..Or Not

Endless Problems of Workers and How Recruiters can Help… ..Or Not Is it true that you are assuming responsibility for your vocation and taking off issues before they happen? Or would you say you are dependent upon the impulses of your companys the executives? Benjamin Franklin stated, In this world nothing can be supposed to be sure. The more you advance in your profession the more important your time becomes. This is sure. In any case, this reality is lost of numerous organizations. Firms regularly give their staff lower raises than they could find by taking a line of work with another organization. Pay isnt in sync with the market. This is particularly evident when there is a deficiency of laborers with key aptitudes. Supervisors will in general neglect the way that their pay is a major supporter of holding top ability. Numerous specialists esteem more significant salary regardless of anything else. By what method can we not with understudy credits, home loans, and car advances being normal? Moreover, this issue such a significant number of organizations have uncovers something more profound. They disregard the significant expense of recruiting a substitution which can regularly be from half to 200% of yearly remuneration. Additionally, the fresh recruit should be offered the market rate (which was not given to the specialist who changed firms to get that rate). Wouldnt it bode well to build up a procedure that maintains a strategic distance from the significant expense of supplanting laborers? The thing isn't all administration sees that and adjusts themselves to this market reality. So what choices do you have in the event that you get yourself not being repaid satisfactorily for the aptitudes you bring? Think about selection representatives. By building associations with selection representatives, you will have alternatives. They can bring you openings routinely. This will give you a getaway way away from under remuneration and insufficient administration. Pay may be under-announced as a reason for turnover. We have been advised by mainstream society to see continually needing more cash as being covetous. Quit worrying about the media officials who acquire definitely more than their normal client. All things considered, a PwC survey has pay as a nearby third as purposes behind intentional turnover at 12%. The other 88% incorporate components that can change AFTER taking a vocation. These incorporate Absence of Supervisor Respect at 13% and Administrator needed authority aptitudes at 9%. It doesnt matter how great you are at dealing with clients, investors, and your administrator. Making companions and affecting individuals is no assurance. Your administrators and colleagues are people and new ones will travel every which way. An approach to diminish this hazard, it to have spotters who know, as, and esteem you. You don't should be helpless before possibility, politicking, your chief and colleagues. Sending an email routinely to work selection representatives will exercise the danger of these issues. A decent strategy is to email one selection representative each different business day. This will keep you top of psyche. In his book Pre-Suasion, Robert Cialdini says whatever causes centered to notice itself can lead spectators to overestimate it's significance. By being significant according to 10 selection representatives, they will consider you first when they have a customer who needs your abilities. Selection representatives and their customers need positions filled as quick as could reasonably be expected. The two of them will be glad to think of you as first (since youve manufactured an association with them). On the off chance that you have not created connections through email, you may be uneasy about consistently placing yourself in somebody's inbox. The best approach to make this work is to be infotaining. Enrollment specialists work extended periods with many exhausting customers and employment competitors. By sending a week by week email with a touch of inventiveness and cleverness in every, you will have enrollment specialists anticipating perusing your messages and coordinating you with a customer. Everyone is a person. You may discover a few enrollment specialists who don't coordinate your character. That is fine. Consider this making companions. You will discover scouts who like you for you. Building associations with enrollment specialists has a drawback. As much as selection representatives may like you, their customers despite everything must be persuaded. Nonetheless, you can create associations with recruiting directors straightforwardly also. Twitter is a decent way assemble proficient connections and be seen as a specialist in your field. Utilizing surveys, diagrams, and mechanization makes fabricating a notoriety and an after a smooth procedure. Furthermore, I know this procedure works. I was extended to my fantasy employment opportunity by a Twitter devotee. To perceive how I actualized this methodology look at the recordings I made of the procedure. https://rezzue.com/twitter-for-work searchers/

How to Identify Your Professional Accomplishments

How to Identify Your Professional Accomplishments TweetEmployers are keenly interested in a candidates professional accomplishments success stories from their past and current experience but it can be hard for job seekers to identify and recall them. In my recent article, Accomplishments: Resume Rocket Fuel!, I discussed what accomplishments are and why theyre important. Heres how to pull together your professional accomplishments list: Look through your old written Evaluations, Letters of Recommendation, or recommendations on your LinkedIn.com profile. There are usually accomplishments there. Which are most impressive and relevant to your career goals? Ask past or present co-workers or supervisors what they see as your best accomplishments. Find lists of Behavioral Interview Questions. Answer those questions for yourself and make notes of your answers. It is extremely useful to keep a list of your accomplishments, giving each one a name to help you remember it, i.e., Raising Client Satisfaction to 98%. For each one, jot down a few notes to help you remember key talking points. Use the SOAR approach: Situation + Obstacle + Actions + Results = SOAR. Read my article Job Search Storytelling that SOARS for more details. Brief descriptions of your professional accomplishments will add tremendous power to your resume, interviewing, and even networking conversations. They can be the most powerful tools in your job search. This post was originally published in September 2012. It has been updated. How to Identify Your Professional Accomplishments TweetEmployers are keenly interested in a candidates professional accomplishments success stories from their past and current experience but it can be hard for job seekers to identify and recall them. In my recent article, Accomplishments: Resume Rocket Fuel!, I discussed what accomplishments are and why theyre important. Heres how to pull together your professional accomplishments list: Look through your old written Evaluations, Letters of Recommendation, or recommendations on your LinkedIn.com profile. There are usually accomplishments there. Which are most impressive and relevant to your career goals? Ask past or present co-workers or supervisors what they see as your best accomplishments. Find lists of Behavioral Interview Questions. Answer those questions for yourself and make notes of your answers. It is extremely useful to keep a list of your accomplishments, giving each one a name to help you remember it, i.e., Raising Client Satisfaction to 98%. For each one, jot down a few notes to help you remember key talking points. Use the SOAR approach: Situation + Obstacle + Actions + Results = SOAR. Read my article Job Search Storytelling that SOARS for more details. Brief descriptions of your professional accomplishments will add tremendous power to your resume, interviewing, and even networking conversations. They can be the most powerful tools in your job search. This post was originally published in September 2012. It has been updated. How to Identify Your Professional Accomplishments TweetEmployers are keenly interested in a candidates professional accomplishments success stories from their past and current experience but it can be hard for job seekers to identify and recall them. In my recent article, Accomplishments: Resume Rocket Fuel!, I discussed what accomplishments are and why theyre important. Heres how to pull together your professional accomplishments list: Look through your old written Evaluations, Letters of Recommendation, or recommendations on your LinkedIn.com profile. There are usually accomplishments there. Which are most impressive and relevant to your career goals? Ask past or present co-workers or supervisors what they see as your best accomplishments. Find lists of Behavioral Interview Questions. Answer those questions for yourself and make notes of your answers. It is extremely useful to keep a list of your accomplishments, giving each one a name to help you remember it, i.e., Raising Client Satisfaction to 98%. For each one, jot down a few notes to help you remember key talking points. Use the SOAR approach: Situation + Obstacle + Actions + Results = SOAR. Read my article Job Search Storytelling that SOARS for more details. Brief descriptions of your professional accomplishments will add tremendous power to your resume, interviewing, and even networking conversations. They can be the most powerful tools in your job search. This post was originally published in September 2012. It has been updated. How to Identify Your Professional Accomplishments TweetEmployers are keenly interested in a candidates professional accomplishments success stories from their past and current experience but it can be hard for job seekers to identify and recall them. In my recent article, Accomplishments: Resume Rocket Fuel!, I discussed what accomplishments are and why theyre important. Heres how to pull together your professional accomplishments list: Look through your old written Evaluations, Letters of Recommendation, or recommendations on your LinkedIn.com profile. There are usually accomplishments there. Which are most impressive and relevant to your career goals? Ask past or present co-workers or supervisors what they see as your best accomplishments. Find lists of Behavioral Interview Questions. Answer those questions for yourself and make notes of your answers. It is extremely useful to keep a list of your accomplishments, giving each one a name to help you remember it, i.e., Raising Client Satisfaction to 98%. For each one, jot down a few notes to help you remember key talking points. Use the SOAR approach: Situation + Obstacle + Actions + Results = SOAR. Read my article Job Search Storytelling that SOARS for more details. Brief descriptions of your professional accomplishments will add tremendous power to your resume, interviewing, and even networking conversations. They can be the most powerful tools in your job search. This post was originally published in September 2012. It has been updated.

How One Job Seeker Landed 2 Job Offers in 2 Weeks

How One Job Seeker Landed 2 Job Offers in 2 Weeks Have you ever spent hours working on your resume only to find that its quickly rejected after hitting send? Not a great feeling right? Well dont worry you are not alone. I work with clients each week who are producing some pretty amazing results in their job searches. Their stories might be your stories so I hope youll benefit from learning more about what theyve done that makes all the difference. One of my superstar executive clients ended up landing multiple offers and a GREAT job, not too long ago, after tweaking something simple in her approach. Shes a superstar because she knew she didnt want to leave her job search up to chance and really committed to accessing the right tools to take her to the next level in her career.  Heres how she did it: Step 1: Be decisive commit  if you know you need help Robin came to me for branding help and we gave her a total makeover on her resume, Linkedin and cover letter. Being that it was later in her career, she was hoping to make her next move the right one something where shed be fulfilled but also be able to capitalize on her years of solid experience to really shine. She also was targeting a shift from an individual contributor role into management and senior leadership. Being a busy executive, she knew that she didnt have the time to work and rework her resume over and over and over again so she came to us for help. We got her all set up with The Works and she was on her way to apply for jobs. Step 2: Know When Somethings Not Working Change it As Robin was applying to jobs she noticed that she wasnt receiving the response rate she had hoped for. Since we offer a 30-day guarantee on all resumes, she came back to us to let us know something wasnt quite right. Our guarantee is in place to ensure that we are on target just as much as our job seeker clients and so we immediately reviewed the job descriptions to see where things were off so we could perform any rewrite work. No, this is not something all resume services will do (compare different resume services and what to expect here)  but we kind of have a thing about getting it right AND seeing our clients succeed, so we were on it! Step 3: Small Tweaks Create BIG Opportunities After reviewing the job descriptions it was clear why Robin wasnt landing interviews with her new resume: She was way too overqualified. BEWARE: This is a very common application error and one of the main reasons most applicants never hear back. We were able to identify some hiring language that indicated she was better off targeting higher level roles. We even did a preliminary search for better-fit opportunities and sent a few job descriptions to illustrate better-fit roles. Step 4: Embrace Timing as a Critical Factor Robin took the ball and ran with it now that she had this much clearer picture of where she was a fit. She put herself out there and remained active in pursuing new job applications and although it took a little time, she realized timing was everything (and worth the wait)! She didnt allow herself to get discouraged. Rather, she remained positive and invested in her search and her investment paid off. Step 5: Dont Risk Blowing the Big Interview A few months later, timing had worked out in Robins favor and she had MULTIPLE interviews scheduled. Im talkin life-changing opportunities that dont come along every day. And the beautiful thing with multiple opportunities is that you really get to be selective. She knew she didnt want to risk not having a selection of offers so she got back in touch with our team for interview coaching support. And of course, we were ready to support! If youve been  interviewing and havent received offers, heres what you need to know. Step 6: Let Someone Else Sweat the Small Things She felt great about her interview skills but needed help with a few specifics like asking great questions to her interviewers and crafting unique thank you notes for her follow up. We took these pieces off her plate so she could focus on preparing her answers. To access these thank you templates and make your life easier, sign up for membership to the NG community. Step 7: Pull Out the Big Guns Robin was resting easy, knowing that the little things were being attended to but she also needed a way to stand out. Partnering with our interview standout expert, Robin learned how to stand out and highlight her expertise through a strategic interview presentation. This gave Robin the extra edge by teaching her how to take control of the interview conversation and communicate to her interviewers she was serious, qualified and ready to hit the ground running! If you havent guessed by now, Robins interviews were a smashing success. She found herself negotiating two offers and selecting the one she wanted most. For compensation and negotiation coaching, click here. If there were ever to be a moral to this story it would be this: A new resume, alone, wont seal the deal. If the job search isnt your thing, dont be afraid to access help at every step of the way (until the offer is in hand)! A big congrats to Robin on her success! If accessing the right tools/experts is something you havent been doing in your job search, take it from Robin: it makes all the difference! I hope Robin can be an inspiration to you as you continue down your career path. Its never too late to try something new to shake up your job search. And you can never have enough support from the experts!