Are you frustrated with your job or has your workplace become unbearable because of your overly-demanding, demeaning, controlling, intrusive, ineffective, criticizing and ultimately bad boss?
Bad bosses or managers are those that create a divide within the team, intimidate, bully, mistrust or disrespect employees and are the main culprit for job dissatisfaction and low morale.
These behaviours are defeating and demoralizing, eroding employee self-esteem, physical and psychological wellbeing, and lead us to question and doubt our self-worth, personal and professional skills and aptitudes.
However, although bad bosses can loosely fit into two categories: those who know they are bad and continue the behaviour intentionally and those who are oblivious to just how bad they are – it is not always easy to bring up into discussion how our boss’s behaviour or leadership style is affecting us, inside and outside the workplace.
But what are some leadership styles and how do employees respond to these?
The laissez-faire leadership
This is one that embraces a hands-off approach. Bosses and managers that adopt this way of working tend to fail to provide employees with any direction and underemphasise the importance of performance and progress feedback. These bosses and managers often fail to empower their employees and expect them to thrive or succeed with minimal management support or involvement.
Sales and marketing are a vital part in any business. Because of this, opportunities in sales and marketing will never run dry. These jobs would always be available no matter how bad the economy gets. But getting into this career is not always easy. For highly specialized technical sales positions, certain qualifications are required for you to get the job. So, if you want to apply for a these kinds of opportunities, revise your resume a bit to help you get the job.
These are the things your resume should focus on:
Business Development Skills
Employers are not only on the lookout for people who can sell. Expanding the business is just as important. Detail in your resume and cover letter what skills you have in networking, lead generation, sourcing and probing/pre-qualifying, as well as any experiences you have had organizing events in your previous jobs.
Numbers
It’s all about the numbers! Employers and recruiters scanning your resume will be keeping an eye out for any figures included in your resume. Highlight increases in sales, relevant industry rankings you have attained, number of years or months it took you to bring a certain amount of profit, percentage of increase in customers or product sales, costs you have reduced (if not eliminated), and other pertinent contributions.
Accounts Managed
Name the products or services you have promoted and sold (especially the complex ones). No matter how big or small the brand is, they count. Big brands are often accompanied by demanding decision makers, so highlight the abilities you used to win them over and deliver on your promise. Previous experience though not lengthy is still experience and is definitive proof that you can do the job.
Advertising Skills
If you have good advertising skills, then that’s considered a bonus to your already stellar resume! Copywriting talents and a knack for creating promotional materials tell employers that you can effectively execute their marketing strategies and reach the target audience for the products or services assigned to you.
Training
Some say that selling is an art. Because of this, a certain degree of education and training can be helpful to get into a job in sales and marketing. If you have taken courses for enhancing abilities in negotiation and closing, probing, presentation, account management, strategic marketing, print and other media advertising, then by all means include them in your resume. This tells employers and recruiters you have the tools to help you perform on the job and contribute to the bottom line.
A proven track record is often the requirement for a job in sales and marketing. However, the ability to manage multiple accounts, to communicate and interact with people are also of great value. So get to work and make sure that resume and cover letter sells the best things about you!
Today I had a chat with David Cherry, who is a senior international in-house recruiter for McAfee, and an old colleague of mine based in London. He shared very insightful tips for job seekers and his thoughts on the changing career industry, all kept very secret until now!
What do you do at McAfee David?
Currently I’m a Senior Recruitment Business Partner working in the internal Talent Acquisition Team for McAfee, my day is taken up recruiting (across various functions) throughout Southern and Central Europe and our Emerging Markets region. I am also heavily involved in social media using tools like Facebook and Twitter.
Tell us about your background
My first job was actually as a QA Engineer for a small software company – I’ve always been interested in technology and being 19 years old, building servers and programming modems was (at the time) the best thing ever! Unfortunately I was made redundant after 9 months, so I did what every does and uploaded my CV on to Monster’s database – this was how I ended up in recruitment and have been working in the industry now for over 10 years, always with a focus on technology,
To begin with I joined a small recruitment company in London and began focusing on networking and telecoms recruitment in the UK. Through the relationships I had built I had the opportunity to work for one of my clients (Ochre House) who provide outsourced recruitment and HR solutions, and one of their clients was McAfee, after 3.5 yrs working on site at McAfee I was given the opportunity to move in-house in to a permanent position.
What is the job market like in your region (EMEA)?
You can get so many different answers to this question depending on who you speak to. Personally I think the job market is increasing and gaining strength every day. At the same time businesses are being more cautious and only recruiting positions which are deemed as critical hires. There are a lot of jobs out there but unfortunately due to the downtown there are even more people looking for those jobs which increases the competition.
What’s it like recruiting across so many countries?
It’s the most interesting part of my job, I have recruited in at least 30 different countries in my career and whilst it does mean I am incredibly busy every day I really enjoy working with different people, making new contacts and learning about new countries and cultures.
What are McAfee typically looking for in a candidate?
There’s no silver bullet to this question and every manager and every client I have recruited for will look for something different but being passionate and motivated is a great starting point.
What are you 3 best tips for job seekers?
Be honest
Spell check your CV/resume
Be prepared for an interview / have your own questions
How important are CVs and cover letters nowadays?
CVs are crucial; this is the document that gets you in the door, the document that holds the key to speaking to someone or securing that interview!
Covering letters; myself I’m not as interested in these and would tend to go straight to the CV but I do like to see a covering email explaining why someone is applying, their current situation etc… Just not something that’s 5 pages long! The more effort a candidate puts in to their application the more effort you will find a company will put into their response.
Any horror stories?
Several I can think of, but none I can repeat!
I did interview someone a few weeks for a customer facing position; I asked a fairly straight forward question ‘What are your main strengths as a communicator?’ to which I got the reply ‘I’m not very good at communicating’ – Moral of the story think about your answers before speaking.
Success stories?
I’ve seen many in my current position, the best are when you’re involved in hiring someone at the beginning of their career and then over the next few years you’re able to interview them again and, in some case again. Before you know it they become a manager and you start working with them to help build their own team.
What are the social media trends in the career industry?
Social media is gaining momentum all the time and there are a lot of different options for an employer to take advantage of. When thinking about a social media strategy you should start thinking about the finish line and what you want to achieve – you will then be able to choose the right media and platforms to suit your objectives.
Are recruiters, as brokers, threatened by LinkedIn?
I would say no, there will always be the need for someone to facilitate, technology and automation can be fantastic and can assist with the speed of a hire but there is a danger to removing the human element and this could just damage your brand as an employer.
What is your favourite social media tool?
Has to be Twitter – it’s one of the most responsive on the market today. You can get your message instantly to wider audience, it has the ability to snowball very quickly. You do, of course have to be careful what you tweet about – what goes on the internet, stays on the internet! You can, of course, follow me on Twitter.
What does David have in the pipeline?
I’m going to be at the Undercover Recruiter Meetup in London on the 15th September, I will be talking about CV writing, interview tips, job hunting, what are the good and bad things you can do to enhance your chance of success.
What’s the one thing people can do to help you?
Candidates can help themselves by keeping their profile up to date on LinkedIn or any other online media they are using for job hunting. If it’s not there is a huge risk that a recruiter would just overlook the profile and move on to the next.
Also in my current role as an internal recruiter I would suggest to approach companies directly there is a big push, particularly with the larger organisation to reduce recruiting costs, which means reducing reliance on external recruitment companies.
Final words of wisdom?
What did you want to do when you were growing up? Are you doing it? If not, why?
David Cherry has over 10 years experience in recruitment focused on head hunting and executive search and works across both sales & technical positions in Europe. As part of the internal Talent Acquisition Team at McAfee, David started in a technical recruiting role responsible for engineering and technical support in the UK and Israel.
David is currently responsible for supporting the management team in Southern Europe, Central Europe and our Emerging Markets across all levels and functions, with the main focus on sales and sales related positions.
Connect with David on LinkedIn and be sure to follow him on Twitter [url=https://twitter.com/davidcherry4″>@DavidCherry4
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