Saturday, July 28, 2012

Résumé [Re] Construction: 5 Points to Ponder Before You DIY


Doing a résumé [re]construction project yourself could be a huge money saver.  Then again, it could be an unmitigated disaster.  These days it has never been easier to find free résumé [CV] templates and samples that can be downloaded or used from the Internet, and, unfortunately, many job seekers who have used them were woefully disappointed by the lack of positive results. While we all have unique skills, these tips will help you decide when to DIY your résumé [re]construction project and/or when to decide to hire a pro.
So, how do you know when to go it alone or go with a pro?  Here is a checklist:
  1. Does the project require specialized knowledge?
Some projects take more than practice. If the project you are considering requires a special skill or inside knowledge, i.e. [re] constructing a résumé, that you don’t possess, hire a professional.
  1. Will you need special tools?
To [re] construct a résumé, or a CV, it is unlikely that you will need anything more than good word processing software; however, it is critical that you fully understand the nuances of the software you are using.  HINT:  Leave the ‘fancy stuff’ to the professionals.
  1. Will your project end up in a highly visible area?
Will you be sending the final document to prospective employers only?  Will you be posting the document on your own personal website?  Will the document be ‘searchable’ by Internet ‘crawlers’ and/or prospective employers?
  1. What would a professional recommend?
This is where your personal aptitude for resourcefulness comes in.  At this stage you have a number of options:
  • Ask someone you know and trust to review your document
  • Ask your network to refer you to a professional
  • Search the Internet for those who specialize in what you need -  HINT: Check for recommendations.
  1. Will the savings be worth your time and trouble?
At some point, you will need to address the ROI [Return on Investment] of your résumé [re] construction project.  If you spend a week on a project, i.e. doing research and tweaking your final product, and it saves you $200, i.e. the average cost of having a résumé created for you by a professional, is that a good use of your time?
$200 / 37.5 hours = $5.33 per hour

In your final analysis, the only calculation you have to make is, “What is your ‘real’ cost of DIW [Doing it Wrong]?”  Perhaps you should consider it’s time to apply the ‘Priceless’ advertising slogan used by MasterCard:  

"There are some things money can't buy.  For everything else, there is MasterCard.”


Copyright © 2012, Career Matters. All Rights Reserved. Permission to Reprint: This article may be reprinted, provided it appears in its entirety with the following attribution: Copyright © 2012, Career Matters. Reprinted by permission of the author, Mary Salvino. “Career Matters” is a blog authored by Mary Salvino, Senior Consultant for SMART Career Planning.com that is dedicated to those who are seeking advice on managing their career and future job opportunities. We welcome readers to share their experiences, post their comments or ask questions about career related matters. This blog is also dedicated to those who stand a little taller each time they picked themselves up after failing and those who gained the wisdom and humility from those experiences to help others do the same. For any questions or comments that are better addressed privately, please feel free to e-mail Mary directly at Mary.Salvino@shaw.ca

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Mining for Platinum in the ‘Gretto’ - Think Moneyball!



-        An editorial by Mary Salvino

To:       Prospective Employers
From:   Grettozied Job Seekers
 
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game is a book by written by Michael Lewis that was published in 2003 and turned into a movie in 2011.  It is about the Oakland Athletics baseball team and its General Manager, Billy Beane. The book/movie is based upon a true story wherein the General Manager of the Oakland A’s was forced to reinvent his team due to budgetary constraints.

The story begins with an innocent question: How did one of the poorest teams in baseball, the Oakland Athletics, win so many games?  The story is about a small group of undervalued professional baseball players and executives, many of whom had been rejected as unfit for the big leagues, who turned themselves into one of the most successful franchises in Major League Baseball.
 
Moneyball is an illustrative quest for something as elusive as the Holy Grail, something that money apparently can't buy: the secret of success in baseball, and logically, there is no reason why that methodology for success cannot be applied to the world of business.

In baseball, the logical places to look for players would be the front offices of major league teams, and the dugouts, the minor leagues and perhaps even in the minds of the players themselves. In business, the logical places to look for talent would be the offices of your competition, new graduates, the ‘Grey Ghetto’ and perhaps even the minds of the people who are already working for the company.

What these geek numbers show—no, prove—is that the traditional yardsticks of success for players and teams are fatally flawed. Even the box score misleads us by ignoring the crucial importance of the humble base-on-balls. This information has been around for years, and nobody inside Major League Baseball paid it any mind.

Billy Beane, the GM for the Oakland A’s had the second lowest payroll in baseball at his disposal.   The book/movie book records his astonishing experiment in finding and fielding a team that nobody else wanted. The story of Moneyball is set before the 2002 baseball season opens, at a time when the Oakland team  needed to relinquish its three most prominent, and expensive, players.  The team, who was written off by just about everyone, then came roaring back to challenge the American League record for consecutive wins.

In the narrative, Michael Lewis shows us how and why the new baseball knowledge works and this system can also be applied to world of business when hiring managers take the time and effort to suss out talent in the Grey Ghetto [Gretto]. 

There are four very distinct groups of people present in the workplace today:
·            Platinum a.k.a. the Traditionalists (born before 1946)
·            Gold a.k.a. the Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964)
·            Silver a.k.a. Generation X (born 1965-1980)
·            Stainless Steel a.k.a. Generation Y or the Millennium Generation (born after 1980)

The most successful companies have a workforce that is made up of employees from all four of the groups listed above.  When you have a workforce that consists of four generations and each generation has different values, different ideas, different ways of communicating, and different ways of getting things done, you are setting yourself up for success.

To help illustrate the perspective, look at the following scenario. If you were to ask any member of the above-listed groups to recall how and where Kennedy died, those from the Platinum and Gold group would probably say J.F. Kennedy [Jack], 35th  President of the United States was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald on Friday, November 22, 1963 at 12:30 pm. in Dallas, The Silver group of employees would probably say John F, Kennedy Jr. [John-John], the eldest son of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, American socialite, lawyer, pilot and editor ‘George’ magazine, died in a plane crash near Martha’s Vineyard on July 16, 1999.  The Stainless Steel Generation would probably say “Kennedy who?”

Currently, there are fewer Platinum and Gold employees in the workplace than there were a few years ago, but that is not necessarily a good thing.  Even though each generation has a distinct communication style, attitude, work-ethic, set of behaviours, habits, and expectations, organizations should endeavour to create systems and processes that are useful to employees of all ages
In societies past, those unruly whitish colour hairs crowning the heads of the more senior members of the social order were viewed as a sign of wisdom; those who displayed them had fought through the challenges of life and earned their glittering badge of honour.

To help ensure success for your company or organization, it is critical to search for and hire those who have earned those silver ribbons. For they are the ones we you can count upon to find understanding in many of the things that vex you. They are precious.

Many employees believe that the correct way, and the only way, is their way; despite what they believe, that is not true. In business, to work effectively and efficiently, to increase productivity, and to improve performance, organizations and employees need to employ and understand generational characteristics that each group ‘brings to the table’ to ensure their continued success.

The ‘Gretto’ [Grey Ghetto] is alive, thriving and closer than you think.  Smart employers are perfectly poised to mine that platinum and also reap all of the benefits.

What do you think?

Noun: GRETTO (grettos, grettoes) gre-tow
  1. A segregated mode of living or working that results from bias or stereotyping
  2. A densely populated pool of unemployed or underemployed chronologically older job candidates who are still able to contribute in a positive fashion to the bottom line of any organization
  3. A particular segment of the population, i.e. job pool of candidates, that is predominantly occupied by this particular group because of business culture, social stigma, economic issues, or, because they have been forced to live under those conditions
Etymology:
            ‘Gretto’ [Grey Ghetto] - Term was first coined in 2012 by career and business strategist M. Salvino.

Derived:
Verb: Grettoized

History:
The growth and development of grettos is closely associated with different waves of unemployment throughout the world.

Additional information:
Grettoyte: A reluctant inhabitant of the ‘Grey Ghetto’
Grettophobe:  Someone who fears ‘grettoytes
Grettophobic: Someone who fears becoming a ‘grettoyte
Grettoism: Any cultural, social, economic, political movement or doctrine aimed at achieving such a society
Grettoist: Anyone who promotes the cultural, social, economic, political movement or doctrine aimed at achieving such a society


Copyright © 2012, Career Matters. All Rights Reserved. Permission to Reprint: This article may be reprinted, provided it appears in its entirety with the following attribution: Copyright © 2012, Career Matters. Reprinted by permission of the author, Mary Salvino. “Career Matters” is a blog authored by Mary Salvino, Senior Consultant for SMART Career Planning.com that is dedicated to those who are seeking advice on managing their career and future job opportunities. We welcome readers to share their experiences, post their comments or ask questions about career related matters. This blog is also dedicated to those who stand a little taller each time they picked themselves up after failing and those who gained the wisdom and humility from those experiences to help others do the same. For any questions or comments that are better addressed privately, please feel free to e-mail Mary directly at Mary.Salvino@shaw.ca

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Insufferable Bosses

Has this ever happened to you?

I got a phone call from a colleague the other day. It was one of the best ‘rants’ that I have heard in a very long time. I believe that the rant was fuelled by the controversy over what happened on the late show, Conan VS Leno,  line-up on NBC in 2010. My client envied the talk show hosts and their ability to air their views on national television. “I would give anything to have a national forum to vent my woes about my boss!” Her boss, who is apparently ‘The Don’ of all dreadful bosses and will henceforth be only referred to as ‘Dr. Dread’, claims to be the best at executing strategic plans for large government organizations with very deep pockets. My colleague then shared with me that what Dr. Dread is truly the best at executing is his ability to bully his employees and threaten them with lawsuits when they try to quit. What a NIGHTMARE!

As my colleague was interested in some advice about what to do about the situation as well as the opportunity to vent, I shared my thoughts on the situation. As always, there are only two things anyone can do about any particular situation:

a) Ignore it
b) Deal with it

Regardless of the choice, you will have to live with the consequences. By choosing ‘a’ you run the possibility of the problem getting even worse. If the situation is not unbearable yet, it may soon become so therefore it is in your best interest to opt for ‘b’ and deal with it.

Please note that there are also a couple of options under the ‘b’ category:

1. Cut your loses, get rid of the grief and, if necessary, sue him before he sues you.

2. Vent to all of your friends so that you can at least get a sympathetic ear until you come to the conclusion that you need to do “1”.  Furthermore, if your vent to the 'correct degree', you can get your friend to write about your situation in her blog.

Tell me friends, “Have you ever had to deal with an insufferable dud[e] as a boss?” Curious minds want to know!  N.B. Don't forget to speak in generalizations and change the names.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Job Seeker Olympics

In 1996, Philip Knight, founder of Nike, rewrote the rule of marketing with the ad campaign that featured the slogan, “You don’t win silver; you lose gold.”  While it is true that Nike had become a symbol for bad sportsmanship almost overnight, Knight, believed the ads were an honest reflection of the competitive nature of athletes.  As a job seeker, you have a lot in common with Olympic athletes.

Winning the silver and losing the gold is difficult when you have been training for your next career opportunity.  Second place can make you feel sad, unworthy, frustrated, defeated and feeling badly that there is one more person out there who doesn’t really like you or want you.  Everyone hates rejection.  And, when you have been rejected in a hard copy black and white form letter via snail mail, or, more expediently, via e-mail, it still stings.

After receiving a rejection letter, the natural tendency is to stay away from the company, the people associated with that company and perhaps even that type of job.  Rejection letters have the power to change your behaviour and, not necessarily, in a manner that serves you well.

What does a rejection letter really mean?

  1. You made it through the screening process
  2. You are well qualified for the position
  3. You are doing a lot of things right when it comes to your job search

A rejection letter also means that the following:
·        The hiring manager for the company thought well enough of you to spend some time and effort trying to get to know you better
·        The hiring manager felt that another candidate was a ‘better fit’ for the organization
·        The hiring manager left more aligned with another candidate
·        The company is well run - If they think well enough of their candidates to do this level of follow up, you should want to keep them on your radar
·        The company has changed their mind about filling the position - They have decided to have the position absorbed [cut up residrtibuted to employees already working within the organization] or they have decided to postpone filling the position due to budgetary reasons


A rejection letter does not mean the following:
·        That you were a poor candidate
·        That the door for future opportunities is closed - In fact, they now know more about you and are likely to consider you for other opportunities within the company for which you are suited, as it will save them the time and effort related to advertising for this ‘new’ opportunity.  N.B.  You are now closer to being a company ‘insider’.

Now what?
  • Send a note of thanks to the hiring manager for their time and consideration
  • If you loved the position, hiring manager, and company then keep working at getting hired for a position or another position within the company - Think of, ‘The thin edge of the wedge’ strategy.
  • You now have a list of “insider” contacts that you can use to your advantage
  • After you let the dust settle, circle back around with your contacts and let them know you want to be considered for other positions now or in the future - Showing some spunk and confidence is both alluring and memorable.
Closing thoughts:
  • Keep your perspective about what receiving a rejection letter really means
  • Accept the fact that you are going to feel rejected for a while
  • Do something to indulge yourself today
  • Keep doing all the right things that got you this far
You ARE Awesome!




Copyright © 2012, Career Matters. All Rights Reserved. Permission to Reprint: This article may be reprinted, provided it appears in its entirety with the following attribution: Copyright © 2012, Career Matters. Reprinted by permission of the author, Mary Salvino. “Career Matters” is a blog authored by Mary Salvino, Senior Consultant for SMART Career Planning.com that is dedicated to those who are seeking advice on managing their career and future job opportunities. We welcome readers to share their experiences, post their comments or ask questions about career related matters. This blog is also dedicated to those who stand a little taller each time they picked themselves up after failing and those who gained the wisdom and humility from those experiences to help others do the same. For any questions or comments that are better addressed privately, please feel free to e-mail Mary directly at Mary.Salvino@shaw.ca