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June 28, 2006

Nice Words from Heather

I just finished a resume for Heather at Dream Big Coaching. I wouldn't normally tell you that but Heather wrote about it in her own blog, so I figure she won't mind. I loved all the praise Heather heaped on me, but that's now why I'm telling you this (No. Really. It's not!)

I liked this part of Heather's post:

Getting the information to the writer that she needed to create a killer resume was not easy for me. You may recall me whining quite a bit about this in my post.

But now that I have my new top-quality resume in hand, I feel somewhat like a proud mother with my newborn baby. Sure, it took some work on my part to get this kid out, but who cares about that now!

There's no way on earth that I could have crafted a resume as effective as my new one. This is crystal clear to me now. I could no more have written this resume than have built my own house or have landed a plane at the airport. This is because good resume writing is a specialized skill that takes training, experience, a particular knowledge of recruiting and marketing, and plain ol' talent to do well.

I can write, and I've seen about one bazillion resumes in my career, neither of which means I can create a top-notch resume. Especially my own top-notch resume.

You don't have to hire me to write your resume - indeed, our services won't be for everyone - but you should consider hiring someone. If an experienced career coach can't write a compelling resume for herself, what makes you think you can?

Posted by Louise at 02:21 PM | Permalink

June 27, 2006

Si, se Puede!

Billie Sucher tells a funny and inspiring tale of taking up a new hobby over on Career Hub. I particularly love her description of the helpful sales clerk.

Asked the associate what tools and resources one would need if one wanted to start painting and one had zero, zilch experience in this skill area. She gave me a near-nasty look and said "Why are you gonna' paint if you don't know nothin' about it?" I offered a lame "why not?" response, only to wonder later why I hadn't quipped the confident "because I can" line.

The Paint Associate (TPA) suggested that I start with "on sale" and "clearance items" so "you won't be out too much when you quit." Hmm. Quit? Clearly, she was ahead of me in the transition process.

As an ex-pat Brit, I am following England's progress in the World Cup. Most Americans don't care about football (or soccer as it's called here) but in other countries, it's practically a religion.

England football fans are a long-suffering bunch. Often touted as favorites for the final, we never actually do very well and it doesn't seem to matter how many superstars we have on the field, they always play like, well, England. So, despite the fact that the team has now advanced to the quarter finals, none of my friends back home are very enthusiastic preferring not to get their hopes up. Each win is greeted with responses along the lines of "well, they won, but they didn't play very well. It's only a matter of time."

By contrast, I recently found out that the entire country of Ecuador took national holidays to watch their games and all joined in with the chant "si se puede" which means "yes we can." When the team lost to England, Ecuadorians poured out onto the streets to celebrate how far their team had advanced before losing.

We England fans remind me of Billie's Paint Associate. I much prefer the Ecuadorian outlook. If only I knew how to adopt it!

Posted by Louise at 03:09 PM | Permalink

June 22, 2006

The Best Interview Advice You'll Get all Year

And it wasn't even written about interviews.

Jill Konrath writes a blog on selling to big companies. Today's advice jumped off the page because it's perfect for anyone preparing for interviews.

She talks about the mistakes many sales people make when asked the open-ended question: "Tell me more." According to Jill, most launch into a description of their process or their proprietary approach - exactly the wrong answer to give a busy, stressed executive looking for solutions to his problems.

Her advice is to deal directly with the executive's problems by:

1) Expanding on how tough it is for companies to achieve their objectives using outdated systems or processes. Talk about all difficulties that arise, the bottlenecks and the workarounds, the frustrations. Mention the ramifications on other areas in their business.

2) Sharing a story about a particular customer you recently worked with, how they were doing things when you initially started working together, the problems they faced and the impact of these problems on their business. Then briefly summarize the outcomes.

3) Then you wrap it up by asking a question that engages your prospect in discussing the issue in greater depth.

She then outlines how she would answer the "tell me more" question:

The biggest challenges facing sellers today is cracking into corporate accounts. Decision makers never answer their phone. They roll all calls to voicemail and they never call anyone back. Most all direct mail goes into the trash and emails from strangers are considered spam.

You may have the greatest product or service in the world, but if your people can't get their foot in the door, it's all academic. Most sellers I work with are extremely discouraged. They've tried everything they know, but it's not working. I help them figure out what it takes to succeed in this crazy business environment.

How big of an issue is this for your company?"

Can you see how this would work for an interview? Don't you dread the "So tell me about yourself" question? How about: "So, why should I hire you?"

Honestly, in my experience most interviewers don't even really know what they want to hear when they ask this question -- but we do. They want to hear an answer that tells them their problems are over.

Using Jill's formula, you can give it to them.

Posted by Louise at 05:11 PM | Permalink

June 21, 2006

Being Nice Pays Off

At least according to this Newsweek article. It doesn't surprise me that the idea is being promoted by two women.

At first women wanting to rise through the ranks of corporations were forced to fit in with the guys - be tough and competitive and work twice as hard just to prove that we could cut it. But as we've become more established, we've started to assert ourselves. In all spheres of our lives, women have always succeeded by helping out other people and asking for help when we needed it. In other words, being nice to each other. Now we're bringing it into the workplace. I think that's really cool.

Posted by Louise at 05:14 PM | Permalink

June 08, 2006

Advice for New Graduates

Curt Rosengren asked for contributions to his new group blog, Collective Genius. He asked for advice for new grads. Here's mine ...

Cliches are cliches for a reason - they're so true that people say them over and over until they become overplayed.

This is certainly true of the phrase "it's not what you know, it's who you know." We've all heard it so many times that it barely registers anymore. But it should. Because it's a fact.

Sadly, I am much older than you (as my brand new eye wrinkles will testify!) and during my former career as an HR executive, I heard the same thing thousands of times: "how did he/she get that position when he/she is such a [insert abusive word of your choice here]?"

The answer, of course, is that they knew the right people.

Over on Career Hub, we highlighted two recent surveys about executive job search. One found that 43% of positions were filled as a result of networking. Another surveyed headhunters and found an even higher number filled their openings through networking - an astounding 63%.

So, while it's important to work hard and develop your skills, the single most effective thing you can do to ensure future success is to build and maintain a thriving network. Stay in touch with everyone. Look for ways to help others. Share your goals with friends, family, neighbors, hairdressers, random strangers in the street. Always be generous with your time and ideas. Ask for help when you need it.

It really is all about who you know.

Posted by Louise at 12:04 PM | Permalink

June 06, 2006

Network, Network, Network!

Over on Career Hub, Deb Dib points to a recent Execunet newsletter to highlight the importance of networking.

According to the survey of 1,483 professionals with an average salary of $193,000, the top three sources for job interviews include: Networking contacts (46%); Internet job listings (24%); and Unsolicited contact from a recruiter (5%).

Most job seekers spend much more time on applying to Internet job postings and sending resumes to recruiters, than they do on builing and maintaining a network. Don't be one of them!

Posted by Louise at 08:14 AM | Permalink