Not everyone climbs up the corporate ladder

Dear Liz,

I've bounced around at various ho-hum jobs beneath my ability, and although I
went willingly into each of them for various reasons, it gets tiring explaining
my job history to new people I meet, especially when they are executives with
big titles and responsibilities.

Sometimes they look at me strangely or with pity, and truly, these reactions
make me want to stop going to parties and meeting new people. It can be hard on
my self-esteem to tell my story, because people always want to know, "Since you
have these fairly menial jobs, you must be a playwright or a sculptor on the
side, right?" I'm not anything like that.

On top of that issue, I expect to lose my current job in the new year because of
cutbacks, and I have to muster some confidence to go out on the job market. Any
suggestions?

Thanks, Foster

Dear Foster,

I wouldn't assume that people who are quizzical about your
not-up-the-corporate-ladder career path are judging you. They may be sincerely
curious about your career choices.

There is a chance that some of the loftily titled people you meet have
second-guessed their own choices, at least once -- most us have done that!

When we have big positions, staffs and budgets, we may wonder "Have I sold out?
Is this what I was meant to do?" When we are at the other end of the spectrum,
not earning as much as we're worth, we wonder "Should I have taken that
internship at IBM years ago, after all?"

I wouldn't waste your energy competing with anyone else. You're not in the
infamous Rat Race, so you don't have to worry about what the racing rats think
about your career decisions.

Focus on what makes you happy and sustains you. When people work at low-level
jobs to support a sculpting or filmmaking passion, just to take two examples, we
instantly understand the equation. Their passion is in the nights-and-weekends
job.

I'd ask yourself: What is my passion? It is never too late to begin to push for
that answer. Comedian Rodney Dangerfield sold shoes and aluminum siding well
into his 40s, and the actor Danny Aiello didn't get his break in films until he
was about the same age.

Maybe the next job change will be the one that brings you a step closer to the
work you are meant to do.

Read the full story here.

Ask Liz Ryan: jazz up my resume bullets?

Dear Liz,

I'm happy with my resume Summary but my bullets are boring and don't bring out
my abilities. Any suggestions? thanks,

Grace

----------------------- LIZ'S REPLY---------------------------------

Dear Grace,

Your bullets -- and everything else beneath the Summary on your resume -- make
up the meat-and-potatoes of your job-search brand. This is the information that
will let an employer know you're up for the challenge s/he is trying to
surmount. Let's take a few of your resume bullets and re-write them to get
across more of your power.

Here's what you sent me:

XYZ MANUFACTURING
Burlington, VT
Marketing Manager
2003 - 2008

- Oversaw Marketing functions including PR, marketing communications, trade
shows and product management.
- Supervised staff of three.
- Negotiated with and managed outside vendors including PR firm, ad agency and
website design firm.
- Maintained Marketing roadmap and calendar.

---------

These are not the world's greatest bullets; they are boring, and they don't
convey anything in particular that you launched, drove or improved upon. Taken
together, the four bullets say to the reader, "Here's what I did every day in
this job, exactly what anyone else would have done." That's not you, so we need
to pump up the energy level!

We can bring out a lot more of your talent and track record. Let's start with
the description of XYZ Manufacturing. We don't live in Burlington, so we've
never heard of these guys. We want to know - what sort of company is XYZ? How
large are they? Let's re-write the XYZ section of your this way:

XYZ MANUFACTURING
Burlington, Vermont
Marketing Manager
2003 - 2008

Family-owned XYZ is New England's second-larger distributor of maple syrup,
candies and flavorings with revenues of $58M/year. I led the Marketing/Product
Management charge, overseeing distribution, pricing, Marcom and sales support.

-----------------

Now, for the bullets. We've used up a bit more space with the two new 'framing
sentences' above than we used in your old resume, so we'll need to use our
bullet-space wisely. Let's focus on the problem at hand (what was going on when
you arrived) and your results:

- Arriving in 2003 after six years of flat sales, I cranked up the Marketing
engine to increase revenue 40% by 2006.
- Built a customer 'pull' loyalty program that increased online sales 85% in 18
months, and upped retail sales 14% in the same period.
- Launched our first social-networking strategy, attracting 4500 Facebook and
LinkedIn group members and 3750 loyalty-card-holders.


Your new bullets improve upon the old bullets in six important ways:

1) Reading the second version, we know the context for your job at XYZ - what
the company was about and what it was up against.
2) We know some of the things that you got done in that job.
3) We know that you understand the business impact of your accomplishments.
4) We get to learn some of the 'how' as well as the 'what' - for example, that
you grew the loyalty program via social networking tools.
5) We get a stronger sense of the human being behind the resume (for instance,
through your use of the vernacular 'cranked up' and 'upped').
6) Your new bullets are a million times more confident than the old, boilerplate
ones.

Hurrah! You can re-write your whole resume the same way.

Cheers -- Liz

No Employer Callback a Diss?

Dear Liz,

My husband attended one of your seminars where he said that you said that it's a
good idea to keep calling an employer until you've heard a definite "No" from
them. The idea was that your fourth or tenth follow-up call may get you in the
door. I attended another seminar of yours where you were emphatic that there are
times to walk away from an opportunity because you've been treated badly. Isn't
radio silence from an employer the kind of red flag that should send you
running?

Thanks,

Margaret


Dear Margaret,

Great question! If you had been to an interview with an employer and didn't hear
back from them, then yes - definitely - it's time to hit the road! That is a
sure sign that, if they are interested in you at all and bother to call you back
one day, your talents will be wasted on them.

At the workshop your husband attended, we were speaking about following up on a
sent resume. Here, the story is a little different. Surprisingly often, our
persistence can pay off in this situation, because when a hiring manager looks
at an initial batch of resumes and isn't overwhelmed (or when s/he interviews an
initial batch of candidates and likewise, isn't bowled over) the search can go
dormant.

It happens all the time. After a first flurry of activity, the search slows to a
halt. If your follow-up call (whether it's your first, or third, or seventh or
nineteenth repetition) hits the hiring manager's voicemail on the day when s/he
is frustrated at the lack of progress and the volume of work that's piling up,
you may get the interview -- and the job.

Is the failure to hear back from an employer after sending a resume, a diss in
its own right? I wouldn't say so. It is easy to tell ourselves "I sent a resume
and heard nothing - they hate me - - they hate my resume" but of course, that is
just the kind of 'head trash' that gets in a job-seeker's way. I would love it
if every employer acknowledged every resume that came its way, but that isn't
the standard these days, and it's enough of a challenge to keep up with the bona
fide slights and disses in our lives -- we don't have to react to the imaginary
ones.

Best of luck Margaret! yours ---

Liz

Job-seekers, connect the dots

Dear Liz,
I was laid off from a local company where I had a senior-level, cross-functional role overseeing projects with significant executive-team interaction. The job had a six-figure salary, participation in executive leadership meetings and a large staff.

Since I left, I have had few interviews and no offers. I have a huge skillset, a strategic approach and a great deal of high-level international experience with frequent transatlantic travel. I am a Six Sigma Black Belt with numerous certifications. Why can't employers see the transferability of my skills?

Thanks, Colin


Dear Colin,

I am sympathetic. The job market has shifted dramatically during the past few years.

"Look at my skills, my Black Belt and the large jobs I've held in the past" is not a powerful job-search slogan anymore. These days, it's "Here's how my background and knowledge can help (you, my next employer) surmount your business obstacles."

We have to connect the dots to show prospective employers why they should care about what we've done.

If you're looking at mid-market employers, your big-company experience could be more negative than positive for you. If your resume screams "Ivory tower, staffy guy who loves to sit in meetings and brainstorm about new cross-functional initiatives," CEOs of smaller organizations may toss it in the circular file.

They may fear dyed-in-the-wool big-company types, and who can blame them? They need managers who can jump in and solve immediate, painful business problems without Powerpoint decks or months of discussion.

On the job market, no one cares about the big staffs we've managed and the titles and salaries we've commanded in the past. This job market is all about value -- and that's in the eye of the beholder. Can you re-craft your resume and your pitch to emphasize the concrete and relevant business problems you've solved?

As you think through your approach to employers who need help right now, take care to get rid of phrases like "I have a strategic approach" that might be hiding out in your resume. The people reading our resumes aren't likely to believe a statement like that.

Use your resume to tell us what you improved at your past job and why that mattered. Get rid of abstractions like "I have a strategic approach." Anyone can say that, so it doesn't carry any weight.

When you can make the case that you're someone who has thrived by spotting problems early and avoiding or resolving them, you'll be way ahead of the game.

Keep your resume heavy on accomplishments and light on trophies -- things like the size of your staff and title, the executives you hobnobbed with and the number of transcontinental miles you logged.

To read the full story, please jump here.

In a Job Search? Look for the Pain

Last week we talked about why the black hole is your worst-odds job-search channel. We won’t get a job by pitching resumes into the Black Hole. We’ve got to find ‘our’ hiring manager, and reach out to him or her directly.

If the employer you’re targeting is on the small side, with a few hundred employees or fewer, your target decision-maker may be the head of your function. If the employer is larger, your decision-maker may be a few layers down from that functional VP.

How to Find A Decision-Maker’s Name:

If you’re targeting the VP of your function, the odds are good that you’ll find that person on the company’s website. Piece of cake! If you’re looking for someone a bit further down in the organization, here are four ways to find the name of your very-possibly next boss:
•Conduct a LinkedIn search on the company’s name and your target person’s most likely title.

•Use ZoomInfo.com to find the manager you’re looking for.

•Google the company name plus the title — ‘your’ manager’s name may pop up in a search result.

It’s easy to find a mailing address for your manager, once you’ve got a name. If you check LinkedIn and check with your three-dimensional network and can’t find a conduit person (someone who knows your hiring manager, who’d be willing to make an introduction for you) then your best bet is to send a snail mail letter straight to the decision-maker’s desk.

Now, Spot the Pain
Finding the decision-maker’s name is fairly easy, unless your target organization is a huge company like IBM. After you’ve got a name and a street address, your next job is to spot the pain the employer is facing — that is, the reason for the job opening.
Every job opening springs from some sort of business pain. If there’s no pain, there’s no opening. If things were working perfectly, why would the CFO approve a job opening? Your job is to spot the business pain and show the decision-maker how you’ve surmounted a similar problem in the past.

To read the full story please jump here.

Addressing a company scandal during a job interview

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I'm interviewing at a company that underwent major scandals due to its former CEO (i.e. nepotism, fraudulent financial activity, ethics issues). All of these scandals were reported in the press about five years ago. How can I address these issues in the interview? I would (delicately) like to know if the company has bounced back from this turmoil or if it is still working its way out of muddy waters. Since I'm interviewing for a PR position, I feel it would be remiss not to mention these issues. However, I don't want to offend the hiring managers. Any advice would be much appreciated!

Thank you,
Jackson



Dear Jackson,

Since you're a PR person, the hiring manager will expect you to determine on your own whether the company's image has bounced back sufficiently well for you to consider joining them. I'd suggest that you begin by assuming they've recovered brilliantly, and ask them how they did it. For instance:

THEY: So, any other questions, Jackson?
YOU: Yes -- as a PR person with a bit of experience in crisis PR, I'm very interested in your take on the company's journey from the incident five years ago, up to today. Can you share with me how you navigated those waters, and perhaps the most important strategic moves that allowed you to surmount the challenge? I'm sure there is a great story there!

This way, you're complimenting the PR manager. In the unlikely event that s/he says "We just forgot about it and hoped everyone else would, too," you may think twice about the job, but more likely you'll get the inside scoop on how the company managed its way back from PR Hell.

Best of luck! Liz

Explaining a big salary cut

Hi Liz,

I am currently conducting a job search and have run into a problem that I am unsure how to talk through on interviews. Most of my over 18 years experience has been in Purchasing, however my current position is a commissioned sales position for a luxury linen store. I have been at my current position over two years. I made this career change because I thought I wanted to be an interior designer. Most of my clients are interior designers. I thought it would help me decide if that is what I wanted to do. During this two years, I took a few classes in interior design, as well. As you can guess, I don't want to be an interior designer through these experiences. I did take a large paycut to do this. I do have a supportive husband, who agreed with my decision. I am having a hard time having employers understanding how I could have taken a large paycut to do this. I would appreciate any advice on how I can talk through this with confidence. Thanks!

Alana

Dear Alana,

There are two ways to think about a career change like this. One approach is fear-based and the other is confidence-based.

An interviewer may think, "Oh, Alana probably HAD to take that job, why else would she do it?" Very confidently you can say, "After 18 years on the buying side, I wanted to try something new and I knew my reputation and my resume could easily withstand whatever learning - easy or difficult - my first commissioned sales job brought with it."

It is the American Dream, in a sense, to get to a point in your career where you can take risks. That's just what you did!

You can say "I wanted to learn the interior design business, and I wanted to get experience selling. I accomplished both of those things and I'm delighted -- and more clear than ever that my calling is X."

Let people believe that you're independently wealthy! The more confident, breezy and stalwart you are in an interview, the more quickly this issue will fade away. Let's say you get the direct (rude!) question, "How could you afford to take such a large pay cut?"

Your answer will be a pleasant-but-quizzical mini-smile and the reply, "You know, as I made my career-shift plan, finances were not a concern, but the prospect of losing steam in my previous career worried me a bit. Two years later, though, the benefits of logging some time and hundreds of phone calls in the sales arena are clear to me." (Big smile.)

Take care -- Liz