Does the following description sound like you? Enthusiastic with lots of diverse passions and interests Get fascinated with something new, every few days Come up with new, sparky ideas Like starting things, but not finishing them Have a bunch of tabs open on your web browser at any one time (what, just one webpage at…
What if you could talk to four hiring professionals and ask them what they REALLY wanted to see in your resume? Do you think that might give you an advantage in your job search? I spoke to recruiters and career experts from across America and convinced them to share their best advice with you. So,…
I get a surprising amount of between-jobs people coming to me and saying the following:
JOBHUNTER: ‘No one’s hiring in my field so I’m looking for admin work – just as something to do for a while’.
Caring Career Coach: ‘And how does admin work fit with your background?”
JOBHUNTER: ‘I’ve spent the last 10 years as a senior ad sales manager’
Caring Career Coach: ‘Hmm, so no actual admin experience…’
JOBHUNTER: ‘No. And I don’t actually want to do admin work, but I know it’ll be easy to get because it’s just filing and making tea, and I’ve done much bigger and better jobs so they’ll just fall over themselves for me’
Caring Career Coach: ‘You’re a self-absorbed idiot. That’s why you don’t have a job. Bye!’
Just joking of course! (I don’t say that sort of thing until at least our second meeting)
But seriously, there are a lot of experienced, smart professionals out there thinking that they can ‘always pick up admin work’.
Because I do care, and I don’t want you to waste your valuable job hunting time, here’s why you should put the admin fantasy to one side and focus on something more ‘you’, right now:
Put yourself in the shoes of an admin hiring manager:
HIRING MANAGER: “I need someone who is experienced enough to cover for my PA who is going on maternity leave. My PA is really important – she runs my life and this office, so make sure the replacement knows their stuff”
HR: “Great, I have the CV of a guy who has spent the last 5 years as a banking lawyer and enjoys hunting whelks in the Antarctic. Oh, and the CVs of 20,000 experienced PAs”
HIRING MANAGER: “Screw the PAs, bring in the whelk murdering banking lawyer! How lucky are we to have him! PAs have no actual skills do they? I’ll happily spend the next 3 months showing him the ropes. Incidentally I’m on holiday next week and my Shitzu puppy is filling in for me on the teleconference with New York”.
Admin roles may not always need the levels of experience of a really great PA – yes, some of them do revolve around filing. However they are still roles that need to be done efficiently, and where people with the right experience, and who are most likely to fit into that environment, are likely to be have an advantage in getting the job.
They are not an easy fallback.
In this environment Admin roles are SWAMPED with applicants. Really swamped. Because so many people are thinking like Ms Ad Sales or Mr Banking Lawyer above.
If you are 100% serious that admin is what you want/need to do right now, then by all means spend all your jobhunting energy on revamping yourself and your CV to stand out from the hundreds of admin experienced applicants.
If you do it right, and if you do have the necessary skills, then yes, you’re in with a chance. But don’t kid yourself that these roles are open to just anyone with office experience and a CV – like any role, you need to present yourself properly.
What else can you do?
If you’re only looking for admin work halfheartedly (hello to most of you!), then you will be better off using your time to think outside the box in terms of:
A) job options which value some of your skills, strengths and experience
B) how you present yourself.
This does not mean only going for roles identical to those you have already done.
It means capitalizing on your specific skills and figuring out where they will be valued. In doing so, you cut out the thousands of people who haven’t thought like this, only thought they had generic ‘office skills’ and so just apply for admin jobs… and are probably still applying fruitlessly today.
Related: 5 Ways To Find a New Job After Being Laid Off.
Marianne Cantwell is a Free Range Human, and a career change expert. She helps mid-career professionals figure out what they REALLY want to do with the rest of their lives. Marianne gets her clients thinking outside the box, excited and motivated to create remarkable, awesome, simply wonderful careers they truly love. Visit Marianne’s site Free Range Humans and be sure to follow her on Twitter @FreeRangeHumans
Even the most confident, social and outgoing among us may find the prospect of both personal and professional networking daunting at times. From an early age we’re taught “don’t talk to strangers” but when we grow up, we suddenly find ourselves thrust into situations, be it at parties or business events, where we’re expected to initiate conversation with random individuals who we’ve never seen before, don’t know and have nothing to do with.
Not only that, but we’re expected to get tangible results out of such encounters. Be it our matchmaking friend or our sales manager, they expect you to leave that party or conference with a date or a business card.
The issue here is that networking, as well as being a social skill, also counts as a career skill and the majority of us have had no formal career (or social) skills training. However, building up such skills can be an essential part of building your career, so it’s worth investing time in
yourself to learn these skills.
Good, old-fashioned, paper-not-digital books are one of a number of ways to start self-training. Here are ten of the most rated books on networking; a good mixture of classics and newer titles.
Click: Ten Truths for Building Extraordinary Relationships George Fraser
If even the word ‘networking’ fills you with dread and you just find the whole concept too contrived, this book is for you. In it, George Fraser explains he prefers the term ‘connecting’ to ‘networking’ and encourages us to be sincere. It’s not wishy-washy vagueness though-each chapter is packed with practical, ‘takeaway’ advice.
Networking like a Pro: Turning Contacts into Connections Ivan Misner
On the theme of ‘connecting’, have you ever felt like you’re just amassing contacts without forging any type of close connection with them? This book shows you how to resolve this by breaking down a number of networking techniques, illustrated by real life examples.
Breakthrough Networking: Building Relationships that Last Lillian D. Bjorseth
Here’s another book focusing on the long-term nurturing of your network. It guides you through the process from meeting new people to establishing them as close and valued contacts within your inner circle. Like many of the best career guides, Bjorseth has corporate experience herself, so she knows what she’s talking about.
The Networking Survival Guide: Get the Success you want by tapping into the People you Know Diane Darling
At Position Ignition we believe in not ignoring your existing contacts but instead finding out what you can do for them and what they can do for you by getting to know them properly. This book echoes these values, although it also explains how to strike up conversations with new
people and how to network anywhere-even on planes!
[url=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Networking-Career-Success-McGraw-Hill-Professional/dp/0071456031″>Diane Darling
Although this is by the same author, it has a slightly different objective in that it focuses more on getting to know new people than getting closer to the ones you know. Just as valid a lesson-if we never got to know anyone new, we’d never have anyone to get closer to!
Make your Contacts Count: Networking Know-How for Business and Career Success Anne Baber & Lynne Waymon
This is as interactive as a traditional book can get, with various quizzes, assessments and step-by-step plans to guide the reader through all the stages of professional networking relationships. A useful read for all, from entrepreneurs to job seekers.
Highly Effective Networking: Meet the Right People and get a Great Job Orville Pierson
Networking as part of our job search is certainly useful, but a haphazard, confused approach can render it counterproductive. This book helps untangle matters by laying out the steps for a straightforward, targeted approach. Pierson is also honest about the time and perseverance required to get the job we really want.
The Fine Art of Small Talk: How to Start a Conversation, Keep it Going, Build Networking Skills-and Leave a Positive Impression! Debra Fine
What about books for those of us who aren’t even comfortable with starting a conversation when it comes to networking? This one starts right from the start, even providing a list of icebreakers. There’s an accompanying cassette so all in all it’s a varied learning experience!
Savvy Networking: 118 Fast & Effective Tips for Business Success Andrea Nierenberg
This is ideal if you don’t have much spare time for reading, or if you don’t enjoy reading long passages! The advice for business networkers is broken down into takeaway tips, flavoured with some real-life illustrations for variation.
How to Win Friends and Influence People Dale Carnegie
This well-known classic from the 1930s is still relevant to networkers today. Networking is not only about meeting people and getting to know them, but also about treating people in the right way. Chapters like ‘Six ways to make people like you’ may sound a bit ‘high school’ and clumsy but that doesn’t totally invalidate the sentiments behind them. Let’s face it, if someone doesn’t like you, they’re not going to help you, no matter how good a networker you are.
It seems there’s a networking book out there for all of us, no matter what stage of our career-or career transition-we’re at. Books are just one useful tool in building up skills like networking. Try asking friends about their own experiences, seeking out specific training and, of course, getting out there and trying out these books’ tips for yourself. Practice makes perfect!
Related: 5 Great Ways NOT to Network.
Nisa Chitakasem is the founder of Position Ignition – a careers company dedicated to taking you to the next step in your career. Nisa is passionate about helping individuals find the right career path for them whether it involves finding a more rewarding career, making a career change, figuring out the right career plan or being creative about career directions.
For free advice, guidance and information on careers visit the Position Ignition Career Blog or find her on Twitter [url=http://www.twitter.com/posignition”>@PosIgnition
Categories
Top 20 Career-Enhancing iPhone Apps
These days, if you’re not implementing technology to help you be more productive, organized, and successful, you’re probably behind the curve. Never fear, the career-minded bloggers at Pounding the Pavement have developed a list of apps that will help you get more out of your smart phone than you previously thought possible. Here they are, the absolute finest of the latest career-boosting applications, ready for you to peruse and enjoy!
Apps for the Job Search
- JobFinder. One of the most highly-praised new applications is Job Finder; the easy-to-use system basically does all the work for you when it comes to finding fresh new
job leads. The program scours the internet in order to bring all the latest job
offers appropriate to your search easily to your reach. - . Should you be wishing to tailor your search for employment to the fields of engineering and / or technology, look no further than TechCareers.com. To do such savvy searching on the go, grab the site’s fun application for your iPhone.
- [url=http://iphone.wareseeker.com/high-paying-jobs-1.0.2246.app/42e9a0d707″>High Paying Jobs. Those looking for a minimum-wage gig need look elsewhere. This
app is only made for those looking to find the most lucrative positions available for them to chase, and hopefully land.
- SalesForce Mobile. This application empowers your iPhone with cloud computing, which juggles a multitude of services and programs for you, in order to bring about the best information that will lead to your highest sales yet.
- Intelligent Investing by Forbes. The business whizzes and aficionados in the know at
Forbes magazine compile and streamline their knowledge and tips for you, at your fingertips, in this exceptional and exciting application. - Business Building Secrets. 100 such secret tips and more are ready and available for
you on the spot with this app. It boasts that “you’ll never run out of ideas to make money online or off” when you use BBS.
Apps for Effortless Social Networking
- Nimbuzz. When you’re out of coins to call your friends, let Nimbuzz ring up your closest for you. This application harnesses the Internet to dial internationally at no cost to you. It’s one of the most fun social networking applications around.
- [url=http://rmbrme.com”>BeamMe
touch with those who are local, and potentially beneficial, to you.- Yammer. Ah, if only Facebook or Twitter could be adapted to businesses, or professionals. Wish officially granted, thanks to Yammer. Updates to your company’s profile are made simple and up-to-date with this neat application.
Apps for Organizing Your Life
- . This app is, to put it simply, like a Post-It made electronic and Internet- savvy. It allows users to “capture everything” via typed note of text, a pic, or a screenshot. Very nifty, and very recommended.
- Top Android Apps for Your Career in case you’re using one, and if you have a BlackBerry we recommend you upgrade 🙂
Jeff Norman is a student at Stanford and a guest blogger for
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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