GETTING THAT INTERVIEW - CREATING CUT-THROUGH WITH AN AWESOME RESUME

Did you know in this environment that your application is at least 1 in 400 and depending on the role, potentially up to 1 in 1,000!!!

So if you are using a bog-standard approach to your application process, it could be why you haven’t got those interviews. In the last blog I gave you my top 6 tips on how to cut through. Today I’m going to focus on creating an awesome Resume.

1. My number one tip with your Resume is not to lie! There is nothing wrong in talking up what you have done but I warn you not to try and pass off lies, even small ones. Lots of people do and if you get a highly experienced interviewer like me, they’ll catch you out within the first ten minutes without even trying! And if you get caught out, it’s game over (especially when they are other great candidates to choose from)!

2.Next, research the type of roles you want to apply for. What are employers asking for in terms of behavioural and technical competencies, knowledge, qualifications and experience? Under each role, list the key points.

This of course assumes you know what you want. If you are unclear about your key motivators or you are in a rut, get a coach now.

Did you know that the cost of coaching is outweighed by the significant increase in your confidence, positivity, knowledge, skills, tools and clarity, which enables you to get the job you want often in less than half the time you would on your own. Also, in most cases, you can claim the cost of coaching on your tax!

3. Measure how you fit. Complete my SDOT template. Compare your strengths to your research. Ensure you play your strengths up in your Resume.

4.Develop a specific Resume for each type of job you wish to apply for. For example, your might be experienced as Executive Assistant and Customer Service Trainer and you are happy to do either of these roles. So you would develop a Resume focused on each role, highlighting the key competency areas and experience specific to the role.

5. The first page of your Resume needs to read ‘I AM PERFECT FOR THIS VACANCY AND YOUR COMPANY’!

Therefore your first page should include the following:
 A Personal Profile – Sell who you are, your values, what you want and what you contribute to an organisation in one crisp and punchy paragraph.

 An Overview of your key competency, skills and experience areas (both behavioural and technical for the role). Remember to include relevant skills, knowledge and experienced gained through voluntary work, sports, university

 If you have had more than three jobs in your career, include a Summary of the roles

6. Your Resume should not be more than 4 pages long, ideally 3. List jobs in chronological order (i.e. newest first)!

7. Detail each role - Be specific about dates, job title, type of company, key responsIbilities and above all key achievements/outcomes. Notice the word key – this means substantial, not everything you ever did!

8.Briefly explain big gaps in history (i.e. six months or more). Don’t just leave gaps hanging out there.

9.On the last page detail RELEVANT training and education

10.Do not put referee information on your resume. This should be provided once you have had a successful interview.

11.Be original, but drop the humour, useless anecdotes and overly personal information. Sometimes what you think is amusing is inappropriate and you will end up on the REJECT pile.

Remember your Resume is YOUR major SALES & MARKETING tool - it is a call to action to the employer to get you in! Ask yourself if you received this brochure in the post would you think it is appropriate and professional and does it catch your interest? If not, ditch the bits you are unsure of.

12. Avoid too much graphics, colour, crazy fonts etc. Certainly jazz your Resume up to stand out, but keep it professional. If sending through snail mail, use high quality paper

My Performance Coach can assist you in developing a powerful strategy to get the job and career you want through our first class career coaching programs. All our programs are highly competitively priced and you will be dealing with highly experience HR professional Coaches.

We are offering our blog readers a special 15% discount of all coaching programs until the 30 June 2009 (just let us know you read the blog). Contact us now for a free, no obligation phone coaching session.

ARE YOU GETTING THOSE INTERVIEWS? TOP 6 TIPS

In a tight labour market (as is currently the case) everyone, including high flyers, need inside track help if they are going to cut through and get those interviews.

As job vacancies get fewer, getting cut through is the key to your success. Remember, assume at least 400 other people (sometimes up to 1000) other people are vying for that job! Are you in peak condition to get the job you want or need?

Here are my top 6 tips to get you onto the short-list pile and not on the REJECT pile.

TIP 1: Develop and articulate your Personal Brand - Your personal brand needs to be portrayed in your covering letter/email, Resume and Interview process (including recruitment consultant interviews). Here is what you need to focus on:-
o What is your brand? Who are you? What are you selling?
o What is your unique selling proposition?
o Why should I employ you for this job?
o Do your SDOT – sell your positives. Find YOUR specific opportunities.

TIP 2: Develop a KILLER covering letter/email - NEVER apply for a job or approach a consultant without a cover letter/email. Your cover letter should portray:
o Be original, but drop the humour and useless anecdotes
o Portray your Personal Brand
o Tell them what makes you PERFECT for the role (do not just copy & paste criteria)
o Show you know their business and personalise the letter accordingly
o LESS IS MORE!

Remember you have about 30 seconds to make a great impression and avoid the REJECT pile, so ensure you are succinct, interesting and to the point! It should SCREAM – I’M PERFECT!!

TIP 3: Have a Resume for each type of role - If you are applying for more than one type of role DO NOT use a generic Resume! Your Resume MUST be tailored to the type or role you are going after. If you are failing to get interviews, this is likely to be your biggest problem! So make sure you have a killer Resume and that you have customised it.

TIP 4: APPLY FOR JOBS YOU ARE QUALIFIED FOR – Six months ago you could take a chance and apply for jobs that you had 60-70% fit, and potentially get an interview because it was an Candidate market. In case you haven’t notice, the tables are turned and it is absolutely now an Employers market. So don’t waste yours or their time on a job you aren’t well qualified for. Besides wasting time and effort (which needs to go to the great jobs you are suited to) it is de-motivating not to hear back!

TIP 5: NETWORK - I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again – GET NETWORKING! Most jobs will now be word of mouth or on online boards. HR’s best strategy is always through their own employees. Never underestimate people you meet/know. Get talking and selling yourself up at every opportunity. Go to free/low cost social events in your industry or professional group! You can’t rely on recruitment agencies to sell you, as they always struggle to create value in an Employers market and will have few jobs.

TIP 6: GET YOURSELF A KILLER CAREER COACH LIKE ME :) A career coach should be able to assist you to get the very best quality applications and to get interviews. When you get interviews, then they will help you to get the job! Make sure your career coach has a very strong HR background as this is an invaluable resource to you! A HR orientated career coach gives you the inside fast track and will ensure you get the outcomes you want!

If you would benefit from a free career coaching session, contact us on 02 8097 7971 or http://www.myperformancecoach.com.au/

ECONOMIC DOWNTURN?! GET A CAREER HEADSTART WITH COACHING OR MENTORING

I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but governments and media talk countries into recessions. We have seen that over the last several months in Australia. Are things really as bad as they appear? Mmm I wonder!

Having worked in HR and as a Coach to organisations over the last 20 odd years, I know that a recession is used as a fabulous excuse for everyone to externalise blame for avoiding and more importantly not making appropriate choices, decisions or actions.

Governments do it all the time. In particularly this Rudd government is using it to spend a truckload of money and enable legislation (Fair Work Bill) that is not great for small-medium business, which in turn affects the Economy. If the bill succeeds, there will be less permanent jobs that can be guaranteed. But will any worsening of the economy be blamed on the Bill or actions of the government? Of course not silly, it’s that pesky recession (which by the way isn’t his fault either lol)!!!

Companies play the game (strategic PR moves) as well: down-sizing, right-sizing, off-shoring & outsourcing. They take advantage of a situation (i.e. blame the good ole recession) to enable the things to get fixed in organisations. Why not, it’s as good a reason as any!

And then we have individuals who also use the recession as an excuse to keep themselves in their comfort zones. Perhaps they were contemplating leaving their job this year, but now have decided to ‘stick it out’ due to the economy, despite being unhappy and probably disengaged. Or they were thinking of going into business or changing careers, but its ‘now not a good time to make such a risky move’.

Oh really, there’s a perfect time? If you know of the mysterious future perfect time you should be making trillions by sharing the secret :)!

I’ll tell you a universal secret about the perfect time – IT’S NOW. AND IT’S ALWAYS NOW! The future is a figment of your imagination. The only thing you have control over is what you do in the now, so take some free advice and work it baby right NOW!

I was speaking to someone today about career management in a downturn economy. And they said, it’s like advertising in this environment. You get the best bang for buck as there are fewer companies advertising, therefore you achieve higher cut-through and Brand awareness.

That is exactly right! It is the same principle that I am arguing. NOW is the time to accelerate your career by investing in a Career Coach or a Mentoring Program and getting ahead of the game! To get ahead, you need a well thought out strategy.

Now, I know all you high flyers out there are going DOH! But the rest of the population are unlikely to be seeing it that way. They’re all sitting around waiting for something to happen to them or for them. That’s why they’re not high flyers and you are.

Do high flyers have a problem finding work in any economy? The answer there will be no! High flyers commit to their career, invest in themselves and grow and promote their brand. They are always in demand in any economy.

Everyone can do it! You just need a helping hand.

So you have a choice - are you going to be a sheep and get herded about with the other millions, or are you going to take a stand now, make a commitment and take action to accelerate your career, right here, right now.

Career Coaching, like that offered by MyPerformanceCoach, helps you work through your blockages (perceived barriers like the economy, limiting beliefs, skills, confidence and knowledge deficits); broadens or validates your thinking about your current situation and future career situation; helps you gain significant mileage by developing a strategic game plan (when everyone else has buried their heads in the sand and riding out the economy); and above all ensure you get to the front of the employment job line and become TOM (top of mind) to the employers you want to target.

I also have the great privilege to sit on the FITT (Females in Information Technology and Telecommunications) Steering Committee and lead their development program. The FITT Mentoring Program has been hugely successful in helping over 30 women so far gain a head-start in their careers. The program is well structured, with a fantastic matching process that ensures we attract high quality mentors. So, if you are a female in the ICT industry and are based in Sydney, check out our fabulous program. You’ll need to hurry as applications close 7 April 2009!

NOW is the time to act! Get yourself a good head start and Good Luck!
Vanessa

TOP 7 TIPS – WHAT TO DO IF YOU ARE MADE REDUNDANT

Unfortunately in the current economic climate, some of you are going to hear the words ‘I’m sorry, but your job has been made redundant’.

Is it the end of the world? No, of course not!

In fact, I would boldly suggest that the company has just done you a great favour ;)! Often, people are already thinking of looking for another job and this situation gives them the impetus to get off their butts and get a move on :). However, there are also others, who love their job and their company and are greatly taken aback when they hear those words.

Whatever your situation, here are my top 7 tips to get you through this period!

TIP 1: Expect strong emotions!

Often regardless of whether you were expecting to hear of the redundancy or whether you were already planning to leave, there is something about a ‘redundancy situation’ that is very upsetting for people. I suspect it is the idea that this is happening unto you as opposed to your choice.

I remember when I first realised I had to make myself redundant back in the early 90’s. I was very upset with myself and the company, even though I knew for a period of six months that I would be required to make the decision! Go figure!

The first thing you need to understand is that hearing this type of news is akin to hearing any kind of shocking news, such as a bereavement situation. Therefore, you should expect to go through a number of strong emotions ranging from anger, frustration, disbelief, shock, sadness, denial, fear, anxiety, stress or confusion in the first few days. This is perfectly normal. However, if after a week you are still feeling strong negative emotions, please seek help immediately!

The longer you experience strong negative emotions the more entrenched they become. Get help to move you beyond those emotions quickly.

Larger organisations often have a Free Employee Assistance Program. These programs are excellent and I would strongly suggest you take full advantage of them. Many reputable companies also choose to arrange an outplacement service provided by organisations like My Performance Coach for their redundant employees. If you are offered Outplacement, you should always utilise this, both from an emotional support perspective as well as giving you career coaching. Alternatively, you can also see your doctor and ask for a referral to a counsellor (which you will receive a Medicare benefit for) or contact a qualified CBT coach to assist you.

It is critical to your job search success to be at the top of your game, in a positive emotional state and looking forward to the future! All too often I see people spend months and even years lamenting about how bad their lives are and gradually working themselves into a depression. PLEASE, do not fall into this trap! Everyone has options, no matter what your situation. So get help to get you into a positive state.

TIP 2: Don’t Panic!

Often the negative emotions experienced are due to people panicking about the future. Will I get another job? When? How? What if I’m not good enough? Will I be able to meet my obligations? These are all reasonable questions to ask.

However, panicking doesn’t help anyone, least of all you! In fact, if you allow this thinking to continue, you will start to notice your thoughts will denigrate to catastrophising, for example: I’ll never find a job; I’ll be homeless; the kids will starve. And once you start that kind of thinking, you are setting yourself up to fail.

Remember we get what we expect! So expect more from yourself! Keep your emotions positive and keep yourself tapped into reality. This again is where a great career coaching program provides indispensible value to people! Having a strong vision, clear goals, clear understanding of motivation and values, clear and focused action and staying positive is essential to getting another great role quickly.

TIP 4: Get some Financial Advice!

Consider how best to use your lump sum pay-out.

Did you know that if you are in a company superannuation fund, you will have a financial planner attached to your fund? Often the fee you pay to them includes services to assist employees with financial planning. Find out who they are and explain your situation. Tap into this resource as they often have great advice about tax minimisation! Your HR or Payroll department can give you more information.

Alternatively, to help you keep tapped into reality, prepare a three month expenses budget. Cut down on all luxury items. Where are you at? Can you afford to take some time off? How long? When would be an ideal time to have a job by? Set your goals.

If you were already in a serious financial crisis prior to being made redundant, please discuss your situation with Centrelink. Also, there a number of not for profit organisations that do a fabulous job of advising and assisting people in financial crisis. Please be careful about diving into a ‘debt reduction company offer’. Ensure you get quality, independent advice before making any key financial decisions.

TIP 5: Get Prepared!

Often, redundancy is a blessing in disguise, as it presents a fantastic opportunity to re-evaluate yourself, your motivations, your career and your drivers.
This is a great time to spend some quality time really evaluating and preparing to get back into the job market. Here are the key things to do:

• Get into a positive, high energy state

• What rocks your world? What motivates you?

• What are your career drivers? What do you really want?

• Do you want to work for a company? If so, what type of company?

• Do you want to work for yourself? Do you have the attributes, knowledge and
skills to do so?

• Complete your SDOT

• Update and tailor your CV

• Work out the types of roles you are looking for

• Get together a list of quality recruitment agencies specialised in your
industry

• Develop your brand and brand plan

If you are unclear on what you want to do or you don’t have a very clear career plan (like 75% of people), I strongly enough recommend a career coach. Do I recommend a career coach because My Performance Coach does this? Well yes :), but it’s more than that! I only provide and recommend services or products that I know fundamentally impact and add value to people in their lives.

In my 20 odd years of HR, I can tell you that those who have had career coaching clearly stand out in the crowd and is one of the best investments you can make into your career!

TIP 6: Get in the game

You know how you were doing all that networking (and if you weren’t, here’s why you should have been), well here’s where that becomes absolute GOLD!!!

I’m sure you know that there is a whole hidden job market. In the economic times, organisations will be looking for EVERY opportunity to reduce recruitment costs.Most organisations have an ‘introduce a friend’ scheme and they will be milking that process now. Recruiting Managers will also be putting out feelers with their networks.

So, draft yourself a positive, upbeat email, succinctly stating what you’re looking for and availability, attach your Resume and get it out to EVERYONE you know (including all your contacts on sites like linked in). DO NOT underestimate who can lead you to a fantastic role!

Many candidates dislike dealing with recruitment agencies (me included). However, they are a necessary evil. So put aside all your negative stuff about it and find 3 - 4 great consultants who specialise in your field or industry and make sure you are TOM (Top Of Mind).

TIP 7: Work it Baby!

Remember that in this environment you need to cut through the competition. For example, one of my clients were lucky to get between 10-15 applicants for one role a year ago, last week, for that same role they got 358 applicants! However, 340 were put in the reject pile.

What does this mean? It means that everyone is trying their luck and are not focusing their efforts. What that means for you is that if you don’t catch the recruiters attention in terms of your suitability within the first 30 seconds to a minute of reading your application goes in the reject pile!

This is where BRAND YOU pays off. Sell your brand. Prepare a thoughtful, professional, tailored application designed to catch the recruiters attention and cause them to keep reading after the first two paragraphs.

Ensure that at all engagement points with the recruiter and the company that you are ‘on brand’ and selling the best of you. A career coach again will help you with this, in particular cutting through the competition.

Good luck and if you have any questions, please post a comment!

Vanessa

TOP 7 TIPS to keep your job in hard times

Top 7 tips to keep your job in hard times

The key to keeping your job in these hard times is being a great employee, a high performer and a value-adder to your organisation. What does that mean? Well, here are My Performance Coach’s Top 7 tips on what you can do to ensure you are highly employable. The key message is that you OWN your career and create your reality!

So do the work, make the necessary changes and see the pay-offs materialise! If you implement all 7 tips, you cannot, help but be successful!

Hot Tip 1: Prepare your SDOT (Strengths, Development areas, Opportunities & Threats)

Doing a self assessment is both a powerful and proactive act and will stimulate your creativity. The tool enables a proactive evaluation of your current situation and your future. It will help you come up with some great ideas top implement the rest of our hot tips.

The first step is to review objectively, any information you can get your hands on about your skills, performance and behaviours at work! E.g. recent performance reviews or peer feedback. You can also review any recent behavioural or personality profiles.

Use a variety of information sources to complete your SDOT. A SDOT is a complete review of your Strengths, Development needs, Opportunities and Threats. Be sure to ask your current manager and trusted colleagues about your strengths and development areas to assist you to answer the necessary questions

Get your free SDOT tool and further information here

My Performance Coach also has useful tools to assist you with your self assessment.


Hot Tip 2: Raise your profile within the organisation

I’m not suggesting here that you develop a huge ego and shout out at the top of your lungs how wonderful you are! However, many of us (particularly women) do a poor job of self promotion, letting people know subtly who we are, what we do and what our achievements are. So, know your strengths and being clear on your performance and contribution to the organisation.

The next step is to work out ways to get Brand YOU top of mind for the people that count. How do the people that need to know how fabulous you are, get to know that?
The first place to start is your boss and their boss! What is their impression of you? If you don’t know, simply pluck up the courage to ask. At least you’ll know where you stand and can figure out what you need to do to be successful. Think about your key clients, do they spontaneously provide feedback about you to the people that count? What about your immediate work colleagues, what do they say about you? What about other departments or key stakeholders?

Start proactively working on Brand You. You already have a brand in the workplace. The question is, it is your best possible brand? What are the key messages about you that you want the key people in your organisation to know about you? Take the time to come up with the key messages that make up Brand You. Be clear on what these are, make sure they are powerful and ensure that reality matches (i.e. your behaviour and actions reflect these core messages 100% of the time). If reality does not match, then get a plan to sort it out.

Key messages might include: No 1 sales rep; Service Excellence; Customers rave about them; Retained our top ten clients this year; Best people manager in the department.

When you have your top 5 key messages which should be all about how valuable you are to your employer, then test them out with people who know you. For example, you may ask your key clients, on a scale of 1 – 10, 10 being the highest, how would you rate my customer service skills?

Then take time to think about how you can develop your network, internally and externally, continually building Brand You as you go. The key to branding is consistency! Have a plan, write it down, take actions and continually review your success!!

Hot Tip 3: Avoid negativity and the ‘wrong’ crowd

It’s all very well and good to build a great Brand YOU, but you can undermine it in a second if you fall into the negativity trap!

Make sure you keep your thoughts focused on positives at all times. What you focus on is what shows up! So if you focus on the negatives, guess what, that’s what you will create. Everyone knows this at a deeper unconscious level and therefore avoid people who are deeply negative. So create the right reality, reframe situations and get yourself in a positive state and a positive state of mind.

Avoid the doom and gloom crowd. They’ll just bring you down and more importantly those that are in positions to make decisions will note negative behaviours, attitudes and groups. In hard times, the negative people are always top of the list for the exit lounge. When times are tough, what you need are people to rally, to be positive, and to go all out to get through the crisis. Negativity breeds negativity and bosses usually make the smart play or cutting loose negativity first up.

Note: if you think you can hide your negativity by not voicing it, think again! You’ll come across as passive-aggressive and you will definitely increase your odds of being escorted to the exit lounge!

Hot Tip 4: Know What is Important to Your Organisation

Consider these questions and answer them honestly:
• Do you know what your organisations vision is?
• Do you know what your organisations goals are?
• Do you know what your organisations values are?
• Do you know what your organisation considers to be of key importance?

If you don’t know the answers to these questions find out!

Ask your manager or HR. Check out your intranet. Many organisations have formally articulated this information, but just as many have not! Whether formally articulated or not, find out what is important around here! I.e. What are the key behaviours expected of employees?

Once you know what these things are, write them down and self assess yourself against them. Update your SDOT. Where are your strengths and development needs in relation to the expectations? Where are your Opportunities? Where are your threats?

Hot Tip 5: Make sure you are performing in the top 25%

Are you in the top 25% of performers in your team or department? Do you understand your performance and how you are rated? Do you understand your contribution to the business?

Employers do not normally cut their noses off to spite their faces! So think from an employer’s perspective. Who is the most valuable to you in times of crisis – the bottom 25% of performers or your top 25%! Ah, no brainer folks!!

If you are in the middle, i.e. a solid citizen, there is certainly nothing wrong with that! But sometimes, when hard decisions are required, some solid citizens need to be let go. So give yourself every opportunity to avoid the exit lounge.

Start now! Find out about how your performance is perceived, particular from your direct boss. Find out what they think you could do to improve your performance. Look around, who is considered the highest performer? What do they do, that you don’t do?

Hot Tip 6: Engage with the business and add value to it

Continuing on with our theme, when you know the business, when you’re passionate and positive about what you do and what your organisation does, when you operate at level 10 energy, then there is no chance that you will be on someone’s exit list! All organisations need highly engaged people to make them successful, particularly in crisis times!

Ask yourself these questions, honestly. On a scale of 1 – 10, 10 being highest, where are you right now?
• I love my job/work. I jump out of bed 95% of the time, looking forward to the day
• I am passionate about what I do, it’s my calling
• I love this organisation and want it to be successful
• I operate with level 10 energy, everyday to get the best possible outcomes
• I go all out, including extra hours to get the job done, because it’s important to me
• I continuously come up with smarter ways of working
• I continuously come up with great ideas to make this organisation more successful

If you answered less than a 7 to any of the above, you have some serious self reflection to be doing! Because the facts are, if you did not, you are not fully engaged with your job nor your organisation. And if that is the case, you may risk being put on the exit lounge list.

Assess what you can do. How can you re-engage? What do you need to do to get back in the game? How can you get yourself fired up?

Top Tip 7: Invest in yourself

What constantly amazes me is the number of people who leave their careers and livelihoods in the hands of others. If you do not have a strong independent Career and Development plan, then you are consciously or unconsciously assuming someone else will take care of this for you.

The facts of life are that you create your reality! Sure some organisations invest a lot in their people, but many do not! More importantly, and very unfortunately, in times of crisis, training and development budgets are the first thing to be cut. The last thing on your boss or the executive team’s mind is your career and your development.

People often find career coaching very powerful and it is certainly a proactive investment in Brand You! Don’t leave your brand or your future in someone else’s hands. Take charge NOW! Review your development needs. What do you need to do? By When? Come up with an action plan and implement it.

The secret to most successful people/high performers- They invest heavily in themselves and keep themselves top of their game and field. As a minimum, a professional should invest an average of 100 hours per annum on professional development, and be prepared to spend at least $3,500 in developing your skills, knowledge and competencies. It is no coincidence that people who employ coaches are highly successful!

Good luck!

Remember, Life is not about finding yourself...

Life is about creating yourself!