The Undercover Recruiter

How To Survive and Thrive in Your New Job [5 Useful Tactics]

surviving at the job

Drum roll, please! You have landed your first or new job. Congratulations! You are on your way to be career happy. But, wait, did you know that accepting an offer is only the tip of the iceberg? Recent research by Leadership IQ, a global leadership training and research company suggests that 46% new hires fail within the first 18 months while only 19% achieve success.

Raise the bar as you grow and begin this exciting journey of your life. I am going to share simple, practical ideas you can use right away to build career happiness on your first job. Consider it my gift to you as you begin a remarkable career!

Awesome Idea 1 – Be a savvy subordinate.

Observe, observe and observe some more. Then, ask intelligent questions that help you understand what matters to your boss and colleagues. Your job is to make your boss successful. Offer your skills to give superior work EACH time and ask for projects. What are some “hot buttons” for your boss?

FACT – 17% hires lack motivation to learn and excel.

Brilliant Idea 2 – Be likeable and approachable.

Image matters – dress sharply, learn unwritten rules of acceptable behaviors and build your career reputation with integrity and discipline. Approachable behaviors include being pleasant, managing emotions and taking the time to know your colleagues. Cheerfully accept unwelcome tasks. How do you handle disappointments?

FACT – 23% hires are unable to manage their emotions.

Grand Idea 3 – Be open to making mistakes.

You will make mistakes. Mistakes help you show ownership, create solutions and build skills. So, accept feedback with grace, take responsibility to make changes and don’t make the same mistake again, again and again. Recognize direct and indirect signals that people are giving you about your competence, skills, character and commitment. What might help you handle mistakes?

FACT – 26% hires can’t accept feedback.

Splendid Idea 4 – Be self-aware.

Continue to reflect on and assess your personal and work values as well as your interests and skills as it relates to the culture of the organization. If you suppress your personal values you can compromise who you are and what you can contribute to the organization—this will lead to career unhappiness. What criteria can you use to know what is going well for you and what is not?

FACT – 15% hires have the wrong temperament for the job.

Impressive Idea 5 – Be a life-long learner.

Build your knowledge and talent. Stay current with trends in your field. Be an early adopter of new technology, processes and skills. Share generously and build expertise. Invite new learning opportunities. Stretch your mind. Become involved in your professional organization. What kind of learner are you?

FACT – 11% hires lack necessary technical skills.

You are the person MOST invested in your future. Go ahead and own your career happiness – it is worth it! I wish you career abundance.

Image credit Victor1558

photo by: Victor1558

Sunitha Narayanan

Sunitha Narayanan is a certified career coach with a passion for connecting people and their talents to life and work opportunities. She is a co-active coach, empowering her clients to believe in their dreams, set actionable goals and actively create joy in their work lives. She is with OI Partners Promark Company, a firm that offers executive coaching, leadership development and outplacement services. Learn about her interests by visiting her LinkedIn profile.

Filed Under: Career Management Tagged With: Career Advice, new job, survive, tactics, thrive

7 Key Tips to Boost Your Chances of Getting a Job

Getting a job in today’s economy is no easy challenge. You may not be able to land a job even after weeks or months of job search. This is because most of the jobseekers are using specific strategies to stay ahead in the competition. If you don’t want to be left behind in the race, you too need to have an action-plan ready with you. The more time it takes to look for a job, the more frustrated you can become. So, you need to act now!

Given below are seven key tips that you can use to boost your job search and land a job before it’s really too late.

#1. Don’t Look for a Perfect Job

If you ask career experts, they’ll tell you that there’s nothing like a perfect job. You may not always be able to get all you want from a job in a single package, particularly when the going is really tough. Therefore, the first thing that you need to keep in mind while trying to get a new job is ‘let go of perfectionism’. You’ll always have time to find better opportunities when you’ve got a job already.

#2. Gear Up Really Well

Preparation is always the key, whether it’s submitting a resume, applying for a job, attending an interview or meeting with the employer. Make sure all your gears are in good order. Spend adequate time to create an impressive resume. Do remember to tailor your cover letter to the specific requirements of the employer you want to work with.

Take a look at How To Write a Resume – Feel the Employer Pain.

#3. Network Extensively (But not Blindly)

Social or professional networking can bring you amazing results. If you want to boost your chances of landing a job really quickly, you should try to connect with more and more influential people, both offline and online. Attend social and community events where you can get to know new people. Be active on popular social networking websites like Faceboo, Twitter and LinkedIn. In any case, don’t waste your time networking blinding. Always connect with those people who you think can bring you career benefits in some way or the other.

More at Top 10 Networking Books for Your Career Success.

#4. Don’t Let Rejections Discourage You

Getting rejected is just a part of the game. And it’s so easy to get frustrated when you see no results from your job search. Not every employer will want to hire you. Hiring managers will offer you a job only when they are fully convinced of your potential and how you can help their company with your skills. Even if you are rejected in your first few attempts, you need to continue with your job search. If it’s really taking longer than what you expected, you need to review your strategy and modify the action plan.

#5. Focus on Getting Your Foot in the Door First

If you really want to boost your chances of getting a job, you should first try to get your foot in the door. The first break is important. Unless you get your first break in the industry, you can’t build the work experience that you’ll need to negotiate better job or career opportunities.

#6. Also Target Regional Job Websites

Don’t make potential job search mistakes like many others do. While it’s always advisable to submit your resume to the major job boards, it’s also a useful recommendation not to ignore regional job sites. Try to find jobs in your own location by visiting job sites that focus on a specific region.

Have a look at the Riley Guide or Job-Hunt.org for job board directories.

#7. Don’t Ignore Temporary Jobs

Getting a temporary job is always better than sitting unemployed. Since these are really lean times, you shouldn’t completely ignore temporary jobs. Many companies hire candidates for temporarily. If it’s one with a potential employer, you should grab it quickly. Who knows when this temporary job can turn into a full-time job position. Just give your 100 percent to whatever job you take up and try to showcase your most essential and unique skills.

Finally, ensure you’re not making any mistakes by reading the Top 5 Job Search Blunders.

James Tomerson writes regularly on career, education and latest job trends. To read more from him, you can visit Jobdiagnosis.com, which also offers jobseekers a free career aptitude test to choose a career which is in tune with their career, aptitude and skills.

Image credit CEBImagery

Guest Blogger

This post is written by a guest blogger. If you are interested in submitting a guest post, check out our Guest Post Guidelines - we look forward to hearing from you!

Filed Under: Job Search Tagged With: James Tomerson, Job Boards, Job Hunting, mistakes, tactics, tips, tricks

10 Killer Interview Tactics You Ought to Know

Job interviews can be a mystery. But you can find success if you follow the right job interview strategies. The following 10 tips are the best job interview strategies to follow if you want to ace your next interview.

1. Study the company

One of the best job interview strategies that most candidates ignore is to study the current events of the company. Knowing what the current events of the company is important so that you can ask pertinent questions. Doing so will show the interviewer that you have done your homework, and also have a genuine interest in the company. This strategy will definitely help your job interview.

2. Know your resume

As a candidate, you should be very familiar with your resume. In any job interview, anything on your resume is at the interviewer’s disposal. Implementing this job interview strategy will help build credibility with your interviewer. It is your responsibility to convince the interviewer that you can come in and do the job. Speaking intelligently about each of your previous positions will help do this, and is one of the best job interview strategies to follow.

3. Prepare an interview emergency kit

Many candidates don’t properly prepare for a job interview. Getting together a “job interview kit” is a great job interview strategy to follow. Suggested items for the kit include extra copies of your resume, directions to the office, a bottle of water, eye drops, pens, and notepad. But you should only bring the extra copies of your resume into the office with you, preferably in a portfolio.

4. Study the job description

After landing an interview, you need to study the job description to truly understand what the interviewer is looking for. If the description calls for attentiveness to detail, you will want to tailor the discussion accordingly. Knowing this, you can navigate the interview and discuss examples from previous jobs that will exemplify this trait. Do this for all significant traits or qualities that you identify in the job description. This is one of the best job interview strategies I have used, and know that it can bring you success.

5. Build rapport

You know the saying, “There’s never a second chance to make a first impression?” That holds very true in the case of job interviews. That is why building rapport is such an important job interview strategy. Shake hands, make eye contact, and smile. Put those three together when you first meet your interviewer and it will set a positive tone for the rest of the interview.

6. Make eye contact

Making positive eye contact is one of the best job interview strategies to follow. Eye contact is one of the strongest forms of nonverbal communication. A person’s qualities and personality can be detected simply based on eye contact. Making direct eye contact communicates confidence and high self-esteem, two key qualities employers look for in candidates.

Thus, it is very important that you make eye contact when you first meet interviewer and shake hands. And during the interview, it is important to make eye contact, not only when you talk, but also as you listen. Simply doing this job interview strategy will greatly help your chances of success in an interview.

7. Body language

Just as eye contact speaks volumes about you, so does your body language. Proper body language conveys confidence and high self-esteem. During the interview, things like sitting up straight with your chest out and keeping a pleasant demeanor on your face will project confidence. The interviewer will be aware of this, and it will help you stand out in his/her mind.

8. Display your skills with concrete examples

When it comes to discussing their skills, many candidates make the mistake of “telling” instead of “showing.” One of the best job interview strategies is to use concrete examples to demonstrate their skills to the interviewer. For example, if one of your skills is successfully handling multiple tasks at once, providing an example of how you do that will help paint a picture for the interviewer. It also gives the interviewer something to “hold on to” once the interview is over, and helps him/her remember you when it comes to decision time.

9. Be yourself

By: Mary

A common mistake that many candidates make is not being themselves. Some feel that they need to fit a certain mold and act accordingly. This will only end up hurting both parties in the end when your “true” personality comes out. You will be surprised how easy it is to detect insincerity during an interview. Thus, it is important to be professional, but also maintain your true essence. When you do this, your sincerity and genuineness will be picked up by the interviewer. This is one of the best job interview strategies to implement, and will go a long way in determining your success.

10. Follow up quickly

After the job interview, send a thank you note to the interview. These days, an email is fine, but traditionally a handwritten card is sent. Whatever method you choose, do it promptly after the interview. The correspondence should be sent the next day after the interview. Many hiring decisions are made quickly these days, so timeliness is very important.

You now have 10 of the best job interview tactics to follow. There are many aspects of a successful job interview, but if you implement these 10 best job interview tactics listed above, your chances of success will skyrocket!

Guest Blogger

This post is written by a guest blogger. If you are interested in submitting a guest post, check out our Guest Post Guidelines - we look forward to hearing from you!

Filed Under: Interview Tips Tagged With: interview, Interviewing, job interview, tactics

Top 3 Job Hunting Tactics for the Recession

By: Rob Orthen

If you are looking for a job in the current economy, you are certainly not in an enviable situation. You have probably found that there are fewer jobs and more applicants out there. You might have found that the wheels of recruitment are sluggish at best and ground to a halt at worst. Desperate times call for desperate measures and in this article I will give you three ways in which to go about your job search in a slightly different manner than usual.

1. Networking at All Times

Networking has always been valuable, when looking for a job in a recession it’s a prerequisite. Your professional network is made up of the people you have worked with in your career such as past coworkers, managers, clients, suppliers, counterparts and even competitors.

You need to make calls and fire off emails to your network, tell everyone what your situation is and what type of work you are looking for. You will experience a great deal of help and assistance from people, especially as they know their number could be up next.

There will be opportunities for you to chat with people at trade shows or sponsored events, make the most of these and make sure you have your 30 second elevator pitch well rehearsed. You need to leave a lasting impression; you need to leave the person you speak to wanting more.

You also have to think beyond your professional network and grab any chance you get to sell yourself. Regard any interaction with people as an opportunity for you to network. Any interaction means striking up a conversation with people at your nephew’s birthday party or even in the line at the post office, you never know who they in turn might have in their network. By becoming something of a corporate village idiot you will extend your network, have more shots at getting a job and probably have a bit of fun as well.

2. Demonstrate Value – WIIFM

Networking is about spreading the word, this section is about what word you spread. At the moment there aren’t many vacancies out there, so what you need to do is to convince a company that they can make an exception for you.

Imagine you were the sales manager of a software business, sales figures are down and the competition is breathing down your neck. Along comes a random job seeker and clearly tells you exactly how much of your software he could sell, how much he would expect to get paid and what this would do for your bottom line. Do you think the sales manager will say there are no jobs going at the moment, or do you think he or she will be doing their damndest to get a hiring approval from their boss?

When you tune in to the company’s WIIFM, make it abundantly clear what you will do for them, how long it will take and how much money you will bring in (or costs you will cut). Think about how you can add value. Anyone in their right mind would listen to your proposition and some might actually bring about a hiring ticket and give you a chance. If the company is not interested in hearing you out, nevermind and move on. They are probably not worth the time anyway as they can’t spot an opportunity to create value even when it’s served on a plate.

3. Sleuthing and the Direct Approach

Before you can demonstrate your value, you have to find out whom to approach.

Applying for jobs online was never going to make you stand out, no matter what economy we are in. At the moment, HR managers are receiving hundreds of applications for one job posting, even if it’s only on the company website.

The clever job seeker will find a way to infiltrate the Politburo that is HR and find out who the hiring manager behind the vacancy is. They will do their research and somehow contact this manager direct with the view to attract attention and get on the shortlist.

The best recruiters out there know exactly how to do this, they will ask anyone from receptionists to IT support for help in homing in on the hiring manager’s name. You can do this as well, or to make it easier you can try online resources like LinkedIn or sometimes even the company’s own website. Once you have identified who the manager is, all you need to do now is make contact. Most people will send a courteous email to the manager outlining that they are interested in the opportunity, with their CV attached.

The brazen job seeker will ring up reception, get the manager on the phone and deliver their pitch. This could either impress or annoy the manager, probably depending on the line of work you are looking for. A salesperson doing this would get an immediate consideration, a data entry clerk maybe not.

Call to Action

By networking with everyone including strangers, demonstrating your value and WIIFM and calling up managers direct you will be noticed. Remember that companies like resourceful job seekers, as they make good resourceful employees. If you choose to go down this route, at least you know you have gone above and beyond the call of duty as a job seeker. Instead of a ribbon, you might just end up with a job.