The 9-To-5 MakeoverBlog

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Should you dive into rewriting your resume' as the first step to yourjob search? Mary weighs in. #The9to5makeover #careermaestra #jobsearch

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Why should I consider contract or temporary employment?

Mary discusses the benefits of working on a contract or temporary work situation.

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I'm a soon-to-be foreign student graduate looking for a job in the US. Any advice?

Mary shares her thoughts on the easiest way to secure eligibility to work in the US if you are graduating from a university soon.

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A word about job etiquette

How you interact with a future employer even outside of the interview process can speak volumes about you. Mary talks about recent interactions of a candidat...

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How many pages should my resume be?

Mary gives thoughts on how lengthy your resume should be.

How many pages should my resume be?

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Background checks: What can companies access about me?

Mary talks about a candidate's recent experience when a background check was conducted.

Background checks: What can companies access about me?

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Do cover letters even matter anymore?

Mary talks about cover letters and whether they are worth your time in the job seeking process.

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References & Securing Your Job Offer

 Think the job offer is in the bag? Don't shoot yourself with a so-so reference. https://youtu.be/h0q9lP6o7mE

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Is it a good idea to name-drop at the interview?

Mary responds to whether you should mention who you know at a company while interviewing there.

Is it a good idea to name-drop at the interview?

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Manners Make a Difference

Everyone likes a winner. Smart, bright, talented – these are qualities that interviewers look for in their selection process. While most people know that top skills and strong experience attract the attention of employers, did you know that hiring decisions often come down to a simple question? It's a matter of likability. It's true. While a person might have a stellar grade point average, or amazing technical skills, how that individual presents himself as a candidate worthy of being part of the team has a lot to do with whether they feel comfortable rapport can be established. Candidates hate it when I say this, but I often remind them to show their best personas when at the interview.  It seems like a no-brainer type of move, right?  A lot of times, candidates ask me what do I mean by their 'best persona'?  Quite often, it's all of the subtle stuff you learned from your parents or whoever raised you when thinking about things like manners, being polite, and any other interactions with other human beings.  They are the behaviors and indicators that show you have character, integrity, and concern for others. While it is about the dog and pony show of presenting your best self from a professional accomplishment point of view, the interview is a chance for you to show if you're the type of person your potential teammates want to be around. Showing this quality often comes to light in ways we take for granted -- for example, if your interviewer comes out to greet you walking with crutches, do you offer to hold the door open for her, or don't even bother? Or, when asked if you'd like something to drink before the interview, do you refrain from clarifying that you prefer sparkling water over flat, and with a wedge of lemon and not lime, or... do you simply accept what is offered with simple gratitude?   It's in the simple behaviors we exude that paint a picture of how it might be to be around us. This is no exception to the interview process. So, when the boss drops an unrealistic deadline of getting a full marketing campaign out in less than 12 hours, for example, would your co-workers feel that you'd be working alongside them, into the wee hours of the night, a reasonably pleasant experience? Or, would they fear you'd be complaining all night? They likely had a clue of which person you'd be from your interactions at the interview.

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The Lost Art of Negotiation

Just what is negotiation? Is it asking someone for what you want, with the hopes they give it to you? Or, perhaps, it's sharing your demands and seeing how people react to it? Many people think they know what it is, and by extension, believe they are good at it. But are they? Effective negotiation is one of the most important skills to have. While many embark on discussions involving the art of negotiation with confidence to ask for all they wish, few are able to successfully do in job offer situations, we often talk about negotiation in terms of salary.  Quite simply, candidates and their prospective employers have ideas about what an appropriate salary is but the two sides are typically not a match on this number in the beginning. Many candidates ask me what they should do these situations. Should they ask for their ideal number, or even, higher than what they want? Or, perhaps, should they just be happy to have an offer and keep their mouths shut?

While not a self-proclaimed expert in this arena, I have learned quite a bit of helpful tips over the years from my profession. I have acted on behalf of others to negotiate salaries but also have respected when candidates give it a go directly with a potential employers.  I have learned, however, three things that have served well in negotiations that many candidates overlook:

1. Ask for your optimal salary... and make sure that it is based not on misinformed ideals.

People ask me if they should ask for their ideal salary on the 'high' end of the scale. I say, absolutely. But before all of this, I ask them what that number is, and more importantly, how did they arrive at it?  Generally speaking, people should always ask more for what they'd minimally be satisfied with when talking about the offer. However, if you ask for a salary that is much, much higher than market averages, or that you can't quite justify with reasonable data points, you should reconsider. I had a candidate in the past year tell me he asked for a salary that was $15,000 more than what I had recommended he propose a potential employer because he just felt like he deserved every penny of it.  You want to base your 'ask' on trusted, validated sources -- not that it might fill a hole within your ego. Such sources might include internet research from social sites like Glassdoor, reaching out to friends who work or have interviewed at the company, or recruiters who work with such companies & industries often.

2.Make it short and sweet. That means, quite frankly, to shut up.  

Many candidates prepare an elaborate statement of what their preferred offer should be, and list all the reasons behind it. They even continue, within the same breath, to volunteer that they're flexible on salary, implying they will take something lower than what they are asking.  

Getting a case of verbal diarrhea is something most people need to get over quickly.  To be effective in the negotiation process, ask confidently what you want and do it succinctly.  Take a breath, pause, and enjoy the silence. Wait for what the other side will say.   A former boss of mine told me that silence is something that adds to your favor when negotiating salaries – don't muck it up by sharing too much information about your position. While it might be true that you will take the salary that the company offered to you right out of the gate, they don't need to know that right away.  If you can share solid reasons why you are looking for more, state why and keep it focused on that point.  

3.Respect that it takes two to tango. 

This advice goes with the first point I discussed. Yes, generally, asking for more is a good thing.  However, you should know your potential company well enough to decide if your request will be taken favorably or if it will tick them off. If you don't know the answer to that, talk it through with a trusted person in your circle (spouse, friend, co-worker, or hey, your recruiter!) to get a balanced opinion on the matter. Have a favorite negotiation tip? Share your thoughts now.

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Topic: I am qualified for the job. Why are they not calling to interview me?

Mary answers a question posed recently by a candidate.

I am qualified for the job. Why are they not calling to interview me?

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The Subtle sides of Awesomeness

Why is it that most people hate to talk about the very things in which they excel? Outside of champion athletes or famous people known for being top performers in their field, this question holds true to the average person, I believe. Just think about the myriads of interview questions that demand you state why you should be hired over the guy with the exact same credentials. It forces you to share why you are indeed the BEST and to provide the supporting evidence as to why.   Many candidates say to me, “Mary, I don’t want to come across as a conceited bastard.” I disagree that it has to be perceived that way. Tooting your horn doesn’t have to equate with an exercise in arrogance. Rather, think about it as a chance where you can show how you’re able to solve a problem quicker, better, more effectively than anyone else. With many behaviourally-based or open-ended interview questions, you’ll be given the opportunity to share whatever past situation you’d like.

When you’re talking to people, don’t think you’re dazzling them with a rundown of all the awards you’ve won, or that you’ve exceeded quota for multiple quarters in a row.  They should already see the tangible data supporting your accomplishments on your resume` or CV.  However, face to face conversations need to persuade others of your brilliance.  Just remember you’re picking the example from your history that best showcases a rare display of excellence -- I recommend to candidates that they want to prepare ahead of time and think about the accomplishments in their work history that shows them at the very best. Remember, what you talk about doesn’t have to be about tangible things they see already on the resume.  

In fact, I recommend to people to have at least 2 examples that they can refer to when talking to interviewers to showcase their strengths.  One of the examples can expand on any tangible data driven samples given on your resume, sharing more details about your involvement. The other example, however, should focus on the intangibles… or soft skills. These are qualities such as your exceptional interpersonal skills, superb delivery of customer service, and incredible leadership under pressure or unmatched analytical ability when interpreting data. Having both examples will serve the purpose of confirming what interviewers probably suspect about you as a top candidate, while also giving an example of something they may not expect of you.

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Free Food? Cool People?  Short Commute? -- Why should people want to work at your company?

As recruiters constantly tell their candidates they should be well acquainted with their own ‘elevator pitch’ when talking about the best attributes about their professional selves, companies are not immune to the advice.  Think they fare as well to prepare the primary talking points of why they ought to be considered top of mind as the employer of choice to job seekers in their industry?

Some, including large corporations - with their well-equipped and staffed marketing and HR departments -- typically do. However, a good many do not.I recently talked to a prospective client to answer this question.  I asked why would people want to work for them, say, instead of their top competitor or anyone else?  The owner sat quietly for a bit, thinking.  He emerged from the silence to offer that insurance for their employees would be the main reason why job seekers would want to work with them.  Because the company worked in an industry relatively new to me, I held back judgment in thinking that he had given a very weak reply and said nothing. I continued to listen, hearing that workers are pretty appreciative that they get medical insurance because most do not in his industry.  If you follow my blog or have worked with me in the past, you typically know that I’m all about people being familiar with their strengths -- and in particular, using their unique, superlative examples as their best selling points.  And this was no exception to this potential client. I wasn’t that impressed, jumped in and said, “Well, say everyone in your industry offered benefits. Why would people want to get out of bed to work for your company than any other one?”  He struggled a bit and started to name attributes that were not necessarily unique footprints of their organization like them being situated close to the downtown area, making it a close commute for many people looking for work.

I stopped him and asked him to consider the question from another angle. Think about all the best things about working at your company and why you’d want to share that with other people? I broke it down a bit more, saying it didn’t have to be the tangible things -like benefits or, even, compensation, for that matter.  I continued to say that he should name what he was proud of as an employee of the company -- after all,he had mentioned earlier our visit that he had worked for his company for almost a decade.

He shared that for the entire time he had worked at the company, saying that he had first come in as an assistant,and then worked his way up through promotions to learn different aspects of the business. He enjoyed the variety and felt that workers nowadays don’t really have opportunities to learn more shown to them and that he appreciated his experiences for career development a lot.

He even shared that he had been offered more money at competitors along the way, but the level of contribution & the active role he played in the business wouldn’t be met at other places.

He also talked a time when a co-worker’s mom was involved in a car accident, and had to be away from the job a few days a week to attend to doctor visits, planning care for arrival at home, and other things. People in his department came together to figure out a way that their co-worker could spend time with her mom for at least half of the work-day to get things situated, even though her absence posed a huge customer service issue for the company.  He remarked that people felt very supportive of the co-worker, and that they all wanted to do more for her during this traumatic time.  With the people in the department, they worked out a temporary plan for everyone to help cover her work while she was out, resulting in that these customer service activities could be met. These were things not normally in people’s typical job description, but they rallied together because e felt they really had a caring environment for his teammates there.

He stopped talking, grinning at me.  He then said, “Ohhh. Now I see what you mean.” I nodded and continued to say that his personal experiences and motivation of why he stayed would be an excellent place to start when thinking about the key selling points about his company to prospective employees.  While they weren’t the ones to offer the highest in salaries and yes, they did offer benefits to people, their compelling selling points were best served by his example of how employees were treated there.  It was easy to find more attributes that stood out as unique and desirable to make their company be seen as an employer of choice.All they needed to do was focus on the aspects that made him and others feel proud of why they worked there. Digging deep to find your organization’s best and one-of-a-kind ways to shine should be among the reasons in your elevator pitch to candidates, and customers.

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The Interviewer is cursing at me, and just invited me back for Round 2. What should I do?

Time to time, I get requests from people I may not know personally about  various questions on interviewing. They want me to give my take on how they should handle the situation, or , in fact, if I think they've handled the situations correctly.  Recently, someone told me of an interview he had gone on where one of the interviewers had started to use foul language while keeping an aggressive, adversarial style of questioning with him.  He mentioned that from the moment they sat down, the interviewer seemed annoyed by him and appeared to challenge or belittle him on everything – where he went to school, what he studied, where he worked previously, etc. He thought that his shot of working at this company was over and felt that he was treated unfairly as he didn't believe he said anything controversial or offensive in his responses to warrant the interviewer's reaction. The candidate asked me, "Mary, was he trying to tell me I stink, or was this a real test to see if I'd be rattled?. I felt so helpless."

Frankly, this was a hard one for me to answer. Not knowing anything about the company interviewing this candidate, I had to think about the facts presented in front of me. There are employers out there that deliberately utilize a 'good cop'/'bad cop' interview strategy. While it is typically a pleasant and fun experience for interviewees when speaking to the amenable interviewer, the bad cop interviewer tests how the person handles stress, negative situations on the spot. Generally, you see this for roles where overcoming challenges, objections, or skepticism is a paramount ability. However, the candidate had interviewed for a role that didn't interact with customers or external people too much, so I had felt that there might have been a huge chip on the interviewer's shoulder and had been out of line.  The candidate, however, wrote me a few days after his first email and said he was called back for a 2nd interview.   I was in disbelief at first. But, the more I thought about it, I was convinced that a bad cop interview tactic had been employed due to a very challenging work environment this role would likely face. The challenge wouldn't be from customers but rather the manager or someone in a role of authority. I asked the candidate how did he respond to the interviewer -- did he start cursing back at him? Or, did he politely tell him to stop talking that way. The candidate said he was very polite and acted as if the man had been pleasant to him the entire time.   I had heard everything I needed to know about whether I'd recommend he continue the interview process.  Frankly, I wanted to recommend he stop interviewing with them but I was curious to get his take on why they'd bring him back after feeling like he was so helpless during the interview.  He took a few days to reply back, and when he did, he said it was probably because didn't put  up a fuss when being criticized. "What do you think that says about their expectations of this role?" I asked. I continued to say that they were probably looking for a Yes man, or someone who could put up with unnecessary or outrageous levels of expectations without batting an eye.  He was shocked. I continued to say that if he did choose to go on the interview, he should ask them very pointed, direct questions about their team history -- namely, how many times they've had to replace the role in the past 2 years. The candidate read between the lines of what I was implying, didn't feel comfortable with that, and thanked me for me time.  I didn't know if he were planning to visit that company for the next phase of interviewing as he didn't contact me back. Fast forward four months,  I got a hand-written note in the mail from the candidate saying that my observations were correct. He had gone on that second interview and decided to ask deeper questions of what I suggested previously. He said that, in response, the interviewer called him a  'f&*k(ng baby' and ended the interview abruptly.   I think there is a lesson to this keep in mind with this story. Even though you might try your hardest to get into that special club, it's not worth if it makes you feel inferior or disrespected. Feeling helpless as your first impression is a sign you should not ignore... and it's one that tells you to steer clear of the impending mess.

[mkydy]

Thoughts On The Open Letter

I read the Open Letter to the CEO of Yelp that Talia Jane wrote recently. I have to say that I have mixed feelings on this. While I think Jane writes very well and stirs some empathy within me -- she does bring up compelling reasons of why companies ought to examine their pay philosophy when it comes to certain kinds of workers -- I honestly can't say I feel too sorry for her. 

While I don't align myself with the snarky retorts from critics,  it makes me wonder about people today. Specifically – it makes me wonder if society has turned 'soft', or perhaps, as others label it, is secure with a sense of entitlement. Sure, it is not an ideal situation to work in a job that does not pay you what you desire – after all, the workplace is one place where you will spend most of your waking hours. However, there are reasonable alternatives that exist to contemplate such a situation for the better. For example, I think about all the underpaid people in the world who seek a second job or gigs on the side to improve their financial situation.  I look at several family and close friends who came from much dire circumstances than Jane, with the responsibility of young children to support or older parents to take care of on that minimum wage salary. They hustled, worked multiple jobs to make it happen. Instead of getting stuck in the debate of pay scales and their fairness, or that this shouldn't happen to people with college degrees, they clocked in  to work with all the  sweat equity they had to focus on the simple fact that they needed to make it work. Furthermore, people throughout time have recognized this phase of low pay during your early career years as a time to put in your dues. You think you're the only one who has been paid a low wage? People have, pardon my French, sucked it up because they chose to see some value, some point to what they were doing while finding comfort in knowing it would not be forever.   It reminds me a bit of a time a few years back when I interviewed a candidate who graduated from a top, well-known university in Southern California, and who shared her ideas around what her first job should be paying. She confidently mentioned that as she had completed her bachelor's degree in Sociology, she thought that a minimum salary to expect would be no lower than $55,000. Taken aback by the comment, I asked her how she arrived at that number.  She scoffed, saying that she had graduated from a university with a great, high-profile reputation and besides,  it's one that 'everybody knows because we are always on TV because of our football team'. She didn't like when I asked her what made her different from everyone else who have bachelor degrees, and who've graduated with higher GPAs with relevant work experience. It's important to note that she spent more time talking about the unfairness of certain graduates getting higher pay if from a different college rather than answering why she was more qualified and deserving on skills or talents.

I feel that despite the accomplishments reached via education, you really show what you're made of from the intangibles -- drive, innovation, curiosity, strength & grit, determination. And... How you choose to respond speaks volumes about you. You can choose to juggle two or  three jobs or perhaps turn a hobby into a revenue-generating endeavor to create an improved financial  situation for yourself. Or, as Jane did, post links to her personal Paypal and Square accounts so that people could help her out after being fired from her job.

[mkydy]

What I learned in my first job.

I love when LinkedIn features stories about famous people pertaining to the lessons learned in a first job. I came across some posts recently and that motivated me to think about this. I thought this was such an excellent idea, especially now, as a professional some 18 years out from college graduation.  It made me reflect on the lessons that I've learned throughout my professional journey, and appreciate the saying out there stating that the first job often influences the trajectory of your career.  

My first job after college was working as a phone-based representative for an HR/Benefits Call Center rep for a large, global public consulting and outsourcing company based in the Chicago area. I was super psyched to have an actual full-time job; I didn't really care that it didn't pay as high as some of the roles my peers who graduated from college had. And I could care less about family elders who kept telling my parents that the type of job I got after college didn't really require a degree.   I was just so excited to have a full-time position, with an annual salary of $21,000, benefits, and more importantly, the opportunity to move away from the prospect of having to move back home with my parents.  There were so many great things I learned in that first job -- for example, the discipline of going to a job, on time, each day, was a big deal for me as a transitioning, night-owl, slacker liberal arts major who deliberately scheduled no classes for Friday or Monday in her last four semesters of school. The best lesson I learned from my first job was to learn how to communicate & interact well with people not like myself.  Sounds a rather odd thing to cherish, right?  Well, of all the things I enjoyed the most of this first professional experience was that I would have a chance to meet (albeit, on the phone) different kinds of people.  I was psyched because I grew restless of the same types of people I had been around my whole life. Although I had attended a large public university in Illinois that boasted a highly diverse student population, I was rather nestled securely around people like me -- college educated, from the greater Chicago area, from families where the routine of graduating from school, then getting a good job was the norm.  My first job put me in direct line to people making minimum wage, or on the other end of the spectrum, millionaires who shared one thing in common --they had some sort of issue with their benefits.  

 I was able to sharpen my communication and interpersonal skills when dealing with a wide cross-section of employees who worked for a client to whom I was assigned to support. Advising hourly textile workers in the factories throughout Georgia and Alabama to the technically trained expatriate engineers on assignment in Asia, I became well-versed in healthcare, life insurance and retirement plan benefits for a company and had to be the bearer of not-so-great news to people when errors in enrollment or calculations occurred,  and work on a plan for resolution.  It made me realize that I had been very comfortable my whole life up until that point to take the back seat and have other people talk first, while I would sheeply chime in when necessary.  

 In some ways, it made me realize that I had never been truly challenged to assert myself as a leader or a person to take charge and resolve problems.  Similarly, I had also noticed I had never put myself in a position where I could be critiqued on the way I handled a conversation or interacted with people previously.  Fielding 75+ calls a day from upset customers helped me develop a tough skin quickly. However,  more importantly I learned one thing I hold dear to my heart today.   My first job gave me the first real sense of responsibility for others and that I had the confidence to bust out of the mold of letting others speak for me. I learned how to have my own voice and eventually be comfortable with my communication style.  I also realized that even though I had technically armed myself with the best tool for professional success in the form of the college degree, I had much to learn from life and other people. As I look back on that first job today, it had set the stage for my true calling of becoming a recruiter, with its challenge of developing rapport with people from all walks of life and taking an active role to find the right kind of connections and environments to be in.