BEST OF ARTICLES FOR JOB CANDIDATES
Fish where the fish are, says Richard Bolles, author of the legendary job-hunting bible, What Color Is Your Parachute?
"Whenever events like September 11th occur, they cause the equivalent of an earthquake in the job-market. Whole industries go on 'life-support' and are not fruitful places for the job-hunter to look. But at the same time, whole industries come off 'life support' and flourish. If, in the wake of September 11th, your industry went on life-support, do not beat yourself up by restricting your job-search to just finding a job in your old industry. It may not be there.
"Instead, notice what other industries are flourishing. If you are out of work, you do well to pay huge attention to which stocks are flourishing, and which are languishing. That often is a clue as to who is hiring. You also do well to pay huge attention to the newspapers and the news on TV, radio, or the Internet, to notice which products or services are suddenly feeling a ground-swell of demand. They also offer clues as to who is likely hiring.
"Go to the job-posting sites on the Internet, not just to look for particular jobs, but - as a part of your research - to notice which industries are now appearing on the job-boards again and again."
Richard Bolles, "Job-Hunting After September 11th"
(June 2002)
Over 1 million nonprofit board seats become available each year. These positions may not pay, but they can boost your morale, develop your skills in new areas and strengthen valuable connections. One organization that matches up candidates with nonprofits is BoardnetUSA (see http://www.boardnetusa.org/public/home.asp).
It's best to start working with a nonprofit when you're employed, but worth the effort even if you're not. "Serving on a board is networking with people who may be able to hire you directly or recommend you to someone else," says David King, a consultant to nonprofits. "Hiring is often a risk. You see [someone] on paper and check references, but you're going on faith. If you've served on a board with someone, you have actual and direct experience with how they get things done. That can be beneficial."
"Nonprofit-Board Work Can Boost Your Career," Vault and CareerJournal
http://www.vault.com/nr/newsmain.jsp?nr_page=3&ch_id=321&article_id=19299171
(September 2003)
From a Reveries.com interview with Steve Gundersen, marketing recruiter. Reveries is a digizine about "what drives marketing people."
Reveries: If you had to pick one thing that trips up people in their careers more than anything else, what would that be?
Gundersen: The ones who make mistakes do so because they aren't honest and realistic with themselves about their real skills or lack of skills. They set themselves up for failure by putting themselves in the wrong kind of environments, doing the wrong kinds of things.
It's amazing to me how many people fail at a job and go back right into the fire at the very same kind of job. Even though they've heard these deficiencies articulated to them, they ignore it and go right back into the same kind of situation again.
Reveries.com
http://www.reveries.com/coolnews/
(March 1998)
http://www.myreferences.com/
Curious if some of your employment references are actually working against you? Retain MyReferences.com to check out what they're saying. If your references are being evasive, you'll learn that too, but MyReferences.com doesn't give up easy. "Our staff always applies pressure to every reference that is checked, in an attempt to gain as much information as is possible." Fees are $59 for a basic reference check, $79 for a professional check, and $99 for an executive check.
There are hazards in this field. Not all customers are satisfied with their reference-checking firm. One service, Documented Reference Check of Diamond Bar, CA, has racked up over a dozen complaints at the BBB of Southern California. One customer complained of paying $87.95 but receiving no report. Conclusion: When choosing your service, ask for references.
"Reference-Check Firms Flourish, But Complaints About Some Rise," The Wall Street Journal (click to subscribe), 3/5/02
(June 2000 and May 2002)
Before you take a company up on its great job offer, check for signs of potential trouble. Career consultants Stybel Peabody give examples:
• The Board of Directors lacks true outside members
• The auditing firm is obscure
• The CEO spends money ostentatiously
• The company is overly dependent on one or two individuals, product lines or customers
• Compensation incentives are dangerously focused on short-term results
• The company's financial and legal structure is overly complex relative to its peers
• Switching vendors. The company recently changed its bank, law firm, CPA firm, etc.
Stybel Peabody & Associates, How To Spot Corporate Shenanigans
http://www.stybelpeabody.com/shenanigans.htm
(February 1999)
Career counselor William Frank has heard them all. Now when a client launches into why he can't move his job search off the dime, Frank shows them his excuse collection. Here's a few:
• I'm engaged to be married; once I'm married my problems will all be solved.
• I can't take rejection.
• I'm registered with a temp service (or, employment agency, or union, or major employer) and they haven't called me yet.
• I'm not a morning person.
• I'm a rock musician (or, poet, or writer, or painter). I haven't got any gigs yet, but I have to be free when they call.
• I'm not feeling well.
• The boss will start talking some trash, and I'll lose my temper and get fired again, so why bother?
• I'm worth more than they could afford to pay me.
• I've got a "thing" about traveling on public buses.
• I don't want to drive two hours for a one-hour meeting.
CareerLab, 101 Excuses for Not Getting a Job
http://www.careerlab.com/art_excuses.htm
(August 1999)
Freelancer Lynn Wasnak has compiled the going rates for every conceivable kind of freelance writing work. Within the section for Advertising, Copywriting & PR, rates are broken out for ad copywriting, campaign development, catalog copywriting, direct mail copywriting, email copywriting, event promotions, political campaigns and press kits. There are dozens of categories in all. Great starting place for any negotiation.
"How Much Should I Charge?" WritersMarket.com
(November 2003)
http://www.asja.org/cw/cw.php
This free service advises authors on terms and negotiations in print and electronic publishing. Regular updates report on the latest wrinkles. Feisty attitude enlivens a dry subject. "At the risk of a generalization, most writers are poor at negotiating.... To put it more plainly, go through the damned contract - with help, if necessary - and ask for everything you can think of. You are at your strongest negotiating point when the editor wants your story, and if the publication won't negotiate at all, maybe doing business with it is a bad idea."
(February 2004)
6 CRIPPLING JOB SEARCH MISTAKES
Now that jobs are harder to get, recruiters say certain tactics are keeping some workers unemployed. These include:
1) Obvious mass emails of your cover letter and resume
2) Unnecessary personal details in cover letter
3) Pursuing unrealistic positions even in the face of repeated rejection
4) Showing up at the reception desk uninvited in the hope of seeing the recruiter
5) Going around a recruiter to contact the hiring manager directly
6) Criticizing a former boss
There's more. Click the link below for the full article.
"Eagerness to Find Job Can Lead Unemployed to Thwart Own Efforts," The Wall Street Journal, 9/24/02
http://wsj.emailthis.clickability.com/et/emailThis?clickMap=viewThis&etMailToID=2079441428
(October 2002)
GET YOUR HEAD HUNTED RIGHT
Business 2.0 suggests ways to score points with recruiters:
1) If a recruiter has a position you don't want, help them identify people who might
2) Tell recruiters which firms might suit you. See if they have contacts there
3) Follow up with monthly calls after meeting a recruiter
To make sure you know all the recruiters who serve your field, consider investing $40 in Kennedy Information's definitive Directory of Executive Recruiters. The 2003 edition indexes its nearly 15,000 profiles by industry, function, location and specialty.
The Directory of Executive Recruiters (2003 Edition)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1885922949/winningwriter-20
"Hunting for a Headhunter," Business 2.0, February 2003
http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,46177,00.html
(March 2003)
WHY YOU CAN'T GET A JOB THROUGH PERSONNEL
Infoworld columnist Bob Lewis has some words for Human Resources:
"Ideally, HR should act as a go-between that connects the applicants who are most likely to succeed with the hiring managers who need them. Far too often, though, HR screens out the very people that are the most likely to succeed: people who are stretching, who want a new challenge, who haven't done the job you're posting but are willing to do whatever it takes to succeed at it.
"What's the problem? In most companies, HR has an unstated mission, and that is to keep the company out of court. It accomplishes this in any number of ways: ensuring the company's compliance with employment laws; creating personnel handbooks; helping managers define positions in terms of "objective" evaluation criteria; and screening resumes to ensure that hiring is done by strict skill-to-task matching (which now is an automated process, give me strength!).
"Keeping the company out of court is a good thing. Of course, people will sue you anyway, and in the meantime you've hired and promoted a lot of the wrong people, thus damaging your company's ability to compete."
Infoworld, May 26, 1997
http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayArchive.pl?/97/21/o05-21.68.htm
(January 1998)
EXECUTIVE RECRUITERS EARN LITTLE FROM INTERNAL PROMOTIONS
Many recruiting companies have added "executive assessments" to their repertoire. Companies hire them to evaluate their executives and see whether any are ready to move up. This work pays about $5,000 per evaluation. Problem is, recruiters get much more when they fill a position from the outside. The typical finders fee amounts to one-third of the new hire's first-year compensation. In some situations, recruiters have a large incentive to find a company's present executives wanting.
"Executive Recruiters Raise Concerns with Assessments" and "Executive Recruiters Recognize Potential for Conflicts of Interest," The Wall Street Journal, 10/14/02 and 10/17/02
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1034553538425728476,00.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1034874522737189388,00.html
(November 2002)
LETTER TO INTERNS
Sage advice from the American Press Institute. Tips include:
• Keep notes about the professional contacts you make. When you encounter folks later, you can remind them of your first meeting. People love to be remembered
• Bosses will forgive mistakes, if you're not afraid to work hard
• Keep your personal email separate from your work email. People have been fired for having inappropriate messages going through their work account
• Praise in public, criticize in private
• Don't rush to judge your co-workers. A reliable worker can be as or more valuable than a brilliant one
• Be nice to the IT guys.
"Letter to Interns," American Press Institute, 10/26/00
http://americanpressinstitute.org/news.cfm?id=92&rid=10002&pg=1
(August 2002)
READ HR'S MIND AT THE ELECTRONIC RECRUITING EXCHANGE
Intended for HR consumption, these articles can help candidates anticipate how recruiters think. Three samples:
Two Critical Interviewing Questions
"Why do you want to work here?" is a good question. Another question that is never asked but should be is: "Why do you work?"
http://www.erexchange.com/articles/db/8C0172DE032044C58558A96A05F28531.asp
The Best Interviewing Question of All Time
...If you were allowed to ask only one question during the course of the interview, this would be it: "Please think about your most significant accomplishment. Now, could you tell me all about it?"
http://www.erexchange.com/articles/db/652B83B36BAC11D582F900105A12D660.asp
Recruiters, Are You Ready for These Bone-Chilling Questions?
Superstar candidates can ask tough questions of their own. Here is number 21 of 25:
"What is the best/toughest question I could ask you to find out about the worst aspects of this job? How would you answer it?"
http://www.erexchange.com/articles/db/BEB83037B6B94A3DB550A888FFC6F082.asp
Electronic Recruiting Exchange
http://www.erexchange.com/
(January 2003)
MAKE YOUR RESUME 'BOT FRIENDLY
Today's front-line resume screener may well be a computer scanner. Here's some hints to make sure "Inhuman Resources" doesn't ding you from the get-go:
• Use plain white paper
• No bold, no underlining
• No bullets
• Consider putting a keyword block at the top of the resume, possibly mimicking the words a company put in its help-wanted ad
• Use up-to-date industry buzzwords and jargon
The Wall Street Journal (click to subscribe), July 30, 1998
(September 1998)
SCANNABLE RESUMES, PART II
Noting our resume tips above, Dr. Randall Hansen kindly offers additional advice at his site. Here is a sampling of tips that relate to scannability:
• Use a normal type size such as 11-14 points
• Left-justify text
• For multipage resumes, put your name at the top of each additional page
• Avoid dot matrix printing. Use a good laser or inkjet printer
• Send original copies
• Avoid folding or stapling the resume. Mail the resume flat
Dr. Randall Hansen, Quintessential Careers
http://www.quintcareers.com/scannable_resumes.html
(October 1998)
WSA HELPS YOU BLAST-MAIL EXECUTIVES FOR BIG-DOLLAR JOBS
Spending $30,000 on your job search may seem a bit high, but not if you land a $350,000 job. WSA has nearly 11 million companies in its database - a majority of all US firms plus top non-US companies. They will help you prepare your resume ($500-$1,000) and mail it to executives at the companies you select. Each letter costs $2.25 plus postage, with a 500-letter minimum. WSA's letters are good models for all jobseekers:
• Laser printed
• Signed in medium blue ink
• Personally addressed to an executive, preferably the CEO
• Names and titles are spelled out - abbreviations avoided
WSACorp
(March 2001)
BERNARD SHIFMAN IS A MORON SPAMMER
"My name is Bernard Shifman and I'm a computer consultant. I'm interested in contract work..." If you've seen this message, you're not alone. Apparently Mr. Shifman has spammed his resume around the globe, recently extending to Argentine message boards and Yahoo groups about ghosts. He has attracted the ire of Neil Schwartzman, publisher of SpamNews.com. Schwartzman has made it his mission to humiliate an unrepentant Shifman on the web and in media interviews. Shifman, says Pam Dixon, author of Job Searching Online for Dummies and quoted on BSIAMS, is "a terrific example of everything jobseekers should avoid doing...at all costs."
(February 2002)
FAKE JOB POSTINGS TRICK CANDIDATES
Major job boards like Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com and HotJobs.com are warning their members about an emerging risk to their personal information. Scammers are posting fake jobs to start a dialogue with candidates and collect their Social Security numbers, banking information and other sensitive data. International postings warrant special care.
"A Smart Job Search Is a Safe Job Search," Monster.com
http://help.monster.com/besafe/
"Monster.com Warns Job Seekers of ID Theft," The New York Times, 2/28/03
http://www.nytimes.com/
(March 2003)
CAN THIS COMPANY SURVIVE? 6 TESTS
1) Does the company have enough cash on hand to last at least a year? Check its quarterly report
2) Have important customers been loyal? Are those customers healthy themselves?
3) Has important talent been loyal? CFO, senior engineers hanging in there? Accounting firm not recently changed?
4) Is the company careful with money? Avoided building a big new HQ?
5) Are insiders hanging on to their stock, even if it has fallen to $3?
6) Has the company been able to avoid going to investors of last resort, private equity investors like Promethean Asset Management?
"Is That Busted Super-Growth Stock You're Holding Down for Good?" Business 2.0, November 2001
http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,17436,FF.html
(December 2001)
ONE-TIME CHARGES MAY HERALD BIG-TIME WOES
In recent years, companies got adept at bundling losses and write-downs into big one-time charges. This allows "operating earnings" to look rosy even when true net income took a hit. The pace of write-offs picked up dramatically in 2001. S&P 500 companies announced $165 billion in special charges during the year, more than the entire total for 1996-2000. Wall Street analysts often tell investors to have no fear. The companies are 'cleaning house,' 'restructuring,' 'reserving for future expenses.' But the reality is that many companies take big charges because they suffer from poorly performing assets or legal troubles. Excite At Home took a $684.2 million charge in 2000 for the decline in the value of Bluemountain.com, the greeting card service it bought in 1999. It was a sign the Bluemountain division was generating little revenue. Enron took a $1.01 billion charge in October to write down its own bad investments. Both Excite and Enron are of course today bankrupt. Investors and job candidates beware.
"Stock Gurus Disregard Most Big Write-Offs, But They Often Hold Vital Clues to Outlook," The Wall Street Journal, 12/31/01
(January 2002)
THE RED GUIDE TO TEMP AGENCIES IN NEW YORK
http://www.panix.com/~grvsmth/redguide/
Valuable scuttlebutt about 81 temp agencies in the New York City area. Temps can read the postings to avoid low-paying, uncaring agencies. Employers can avoid low-quality agencies. Tips for temps page.
(August 2000, revised August 2003)
BACKGROUND CHECK GATEWAY
http://www.BackgroundCheckGateway.com/
Need to vet a candidate (or an employer)? Rely on Background Check Gateway's massive free directory of public records sites. Verify personal data, learn about criminal records, lawsuits, assets, military service, medical issues revealed in public records and much more. It's not all push-button automated. Sometimes, as BCG makes clear, it's better to call an agency rather than try to navigate its Web site.
(June 2001)
HEYDAY OF THE ENTREPRENEUR...IS JUST AHEAD
Entrepreneurs were the heroes of the late 90s, but their numbers are actually expected to swell during the current recession. Laid-off talent, unable to find new jobs easily, are starting their own businesses. They're aided by lower costs for business essentials, like office space and raw materials. Recessions typically see more people self-employed than during boom times. As their start-ups grow, they help the economy recover. Many famous companies such as Disney, Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft date from recessions.
"Bad Times Spawn Great Start-Ups," USA Today, 12/18/01
http://www.usatoday.com/money/covers/2001-12-18-bcovtue.htm
(January 2002)
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