How Job Seekers Can Foil Employer Ploys

I sit on both sides of the table, so I too often see dubious and sometimes outright dishonest tactics from both the employer and the job seeker.

In the spirit of encouraging the best people to get hired by the most worthy employers, here are tactics I’ve often observed and how to preempt or counter them. Today’s Psychology Today article describes employer ploys and how to foil them. 

Tomorrow, I plan to post an article describing job-seeker ploys and how employers can foil them.

What Does Love Have to Do With Finding a Job?

Often, it’s irrational for an employer to hire a career changer. Why hire someone with no experience when a simple online ad can usually, for similar salary, yield someone experienced?

How can a career changer make an employer do the irrational? Make him or her fall in love with you. I’m not talking about romantic love (although that’s been known to work.)  I explain what I am talking about in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

My Latest Thoughts on Landing a Job and Finding Career Contentment

I like tweeting because it forces me to distill my ideas and it provides a permanent archive.

My PsychologyToday.com article today offers a revised version of my recent tweets related to career

Job Hunting Reinvented

Job seekers nor employers trust the hiring process.

A good candidate may worry that unless s/he gift-wraps herself in infographic or video resumes, fully primped interview coaching, and a professionally massaged resume, s/he'll lose out to a less competent but more packaged candidate.

Employers worry that resumes, cover letters, and interview responses may more reflect the candidate's willingness to dissemble and/or spend money on a hired gun than on the candidate's competence to do the job. And everyone gets good references but in too many cases, the accolades are inflated.

Job seekers that truly would be competent at their target job can offer themselves up in a way that will be more compelling.  I describe that approach in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

Planned Happenstance

It’s often said that we make our own luck. But how? 

One way is to use what Stanford professor John Krumboltz calls planned happenstance: putting yourself where good things are likely to happen and there, taking the right actions. In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I describe how to do that both in finding a better job and in meeting that special someone.

How to Land a Good Job in a Tough Market

It's ever harder even for good candidates to land a good job. Truly advanced strategies are often required.

So this Saturday, Feb. 1, the University of California Berkeley Extension has asked me back to lead an all-day bootcamp on landing a good job in a tough market.

It's open to the public. For details and registration, click HERE.

Job Hunting: Bah, Humbug!

The hiring process is a showcase of humankind's weaknesses, with. both employers and job hunters guilty. That's the topic of today's installment in my USNews.com "Bah, Humbug" series:  Job Hunting: Bah, Humbug!  HERE is the link. 

Video of Marty Nemko's UC Berkeley Talk, "Eight Career Truths That May Not Be So True"

I'm flattered that UC Berkeley Extension has posted both the complete video and a 3-minute highlight video of my recent talk there: Eight Career Truths That May Not Be So True. Both are below. And HERE is an augmented print transcript of the talk.

The full talk (It's an hour long.)


A 3 1/2-minute excerpt.  

Job Hunters: Job simulations are replacing standard interview questions

I've long advocated that employers use job simulations as a key tool for deciding whom to hire. The practice is taking off, including firms that corporations hire to create such simulations. One, HireArt, was touted recently in Thomas Friedman's New York Times column. Another, HireVue, was profiled in this month's Forbes.

Adam Grant, a currently hot employment guru wrote this, providing the intellectual underpinnings for replacing interviews with assessments. He particularly touts instruments that assess drive. 

The message to jobseekers: Especially if you're applying to large companies, be sure you're applying for jobs where you can demonstrate the skills to do the job  and not just try to get by with slick resume and cover letter language, and canned answers to standard interview questions like, "Tell me a problem you solved."

Making the Most of a Job Lead

You get a lead on a job but how do you make the most of it? That's the topic of my AOL article today. 

Much of the advice is applicable not only to job hunters but to anyone trying to maximize a lead's value: a sales lead, business development lead, even personal lead. 

The Hail Mary Cover Letter: For when you're a longshot job applicant

If you're a longshot job applicant it may be worth a Hail Mary resume and, the topic of my post today on USNews.com, a Hail Mary cover letter.

What's New in Finding a Job

My AOL post today is on some relatively new angles on using the internet in finding a job.

The Job Search Made Simple

My post today on AOL: the job-search simplified. I reduce it to the chart above. (Click on it to enlarge it.)

The post describes the four ways to land a job and offers advice on how to pick the ones that will most likely work for you.

Job Search Shortcuts

The process of looking for a job can be daunting. Sometimes there are shortcuts. My AOL post today offers shortcuts.

The World's Shortest Course on Finding a Job

My contribution today is one of the featured stories on AOL: Quickie descriptions of 13 effective strategies for finding a job.

To Find a Job, Break the Rules

Standard job-search techniques aren't working well.

My clients are having more success using the strategies I describe in To Find a Job, Break the Rules. It's published in the current issue of Bottom Line Personal.

How to Cold-Contact Employers...Even If You're Cold-Call Reluctant

The most potent way to land a job is cold contact. Here are my thoughts on how to do it and to overcome cold-call reluctance.

I Give a Talk Today: My Best Career Advice

A reminder. Today at 5:15 PM I kick off The Commonwealth Club's month on The Future of Work.

My talk's title: "What Every Career-Minded Person Should Know for 2013 and Beyond."

For info: click HERE.

The Job Search is Like a Four-Cylinder Engine

A job search is like a four-cylinder engine. The more cylinders firing well, the faster you'll land a job.

Cylinder 1: Answering want ads wisely

Apply only for well-matched jobs.  It's obvious, but don't burn out your energy applying for jobs you're not well-qualified for. Thanks to the Net, most decent jobs get dozens if not hundreds of applicants. If the employer wanted to hire someone marginal, he would have hired his cousin Gomer.

Write a dump-resistant cover letter. Sure, large employers use computers to screen resumes but if you pass that screening, your cover letter matters. This structure will boost your odds of getting asked to interview:

Dear Job Dangler,

I was excited to see the ad for a (insert job title)  because I feel I’m a good fit for the position.

Here are the main requirements listed in your ad and how I meet each. (Do that, ideally, showing that your work was excellent.)

Of course there’s more to me than can be explained in a chart, and I'm excited about the prospect of working for you because (insert a reason), so I’m hoping to have the opportunity to meet with you.

Sincerely,

Jane JobSeeker

The main reason that structure works well is that the employer, to winnow the pile of applicants, typically tells the admin, “I want to see only applicants that meet the qualifications." If  you state, point by point, how you meet the requirements, the admin is likely to put you forward.

The Put-Yourself-in-the-Employer's-Shoes Resume

Before writing each sentence, ask yourself, "Will this make the employer more likely to pick my resume from the pile?"

It's also helpful to include two or three 25-word PAR stories: PAR stands for Problem, Approach, Resolution: a problem you faced, the smart way you approached it, and its positive resolution.

Cylinder 2: Smart Networking

Make as long a list as you can (25 to 50 is good) of people who like you. Sure, ideally, they're in your field, but others can be helpful too--after all, people know other people. Next to each name, decide the wisest way to contact them: email, email invitation to coffee, invite to a party, whatever.

Use a five-second pitch. Not a 30-, a five. Why? If it's longer, they're more likely to forget what you're looking for, or you'll seem desperate.  Example: “I was a media strategist for the Big Whup Widget Co and I’ve topped out there, I’m looking for my next opportunity, something related to communications and with a social-responsibility component." That’s it:  what you’re looking for, why you’re looking if you're so good. If the person wants to know more, s/he'll ask. And each additional question increases the person's investment in you.

Add to your list of contacts by attending a meeting of a local chapter of your professional association, a workshop, or a conference of people in your field.

Show each contact your list of target employers (see below). If s/he knows someone with influence there, ask if s/he'd call be willing to set up a three-way meeting of introduction, ideally in-person, but skype or phone are okay. If not, ask if they'd call the person on your behalf or at least allow you to say they suggested you call.

Cylinder 3: Directly contact employers who are NOT advertising a job.

Make a list of 25-50 target employers, without regard to whether they're advertising a job. Whether or not your network gives you a contact there, use the call, email, call, call method to contact them:

Call:  After hours, leave a voicemail saying,  “I’m Harry Hotshot, I’m excited about the possibility of working for your company because _____. If you think we should talk to see how I might be able to help you or to offer advice on where I should turn, I’d love to hear from you. Here’s my phone number. I’ll be sending you my resume and a cover letter to reiterate this."

Email: As soon as you're off the phone, email a reiterating cover letter plus your resume.

Call: Seven days later, if you haven't heard from him, call again. Whether voice mail or the person, say something like, “Hi, this is Harry Hotshot. I called a week ago and haven’t heard from you. I'm assuming you're not interested but I know how things can fall between the cracks. So if you think we might get together to see how I might be of help to you or even to suggest where I might turn, I'd welcome hearing from you. Here's my number."

Call. Seven days later, if you still haven't heard from the employer, call again: “Hi this is Harry Hotshot again. I was reluctant to make this call because I don't want to be a pest, but I’m so intrigued about possibly working for you, I thought I’d call one more time. If you'd be willing to talk with me, I'd welcome it, but if not, I promise I won’t call you again. Here’s my phone number, and thanks a lot.”

That fourth phone call can make the difference---it shows you're unusually persistent, yet respectful.

Cylinder 4: Recruiters

If you are well-employed and looking to work for a competitor to your employer, contact recruiters. To find on-target ones, ask the human resources departments of target employers, "When you use a recruiter, who do you use?"

You'll note that I didn't include a "cylinder" for social media marketing---Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. Other than using LinkedIn and Facebook to find names of people to put on your list of people to contact, my  clients haven't found social media marketing sufficiently helpful to justify the time, for example, in becoming active on LinkedIn groups, and certainly in Facebooking a lot.

Fire on at least three of the above four cylinders and, like many of my clients, you'll soon have reached your job search's finish line.

This article is adapted from a section from my book, How to Do Life: What they didn't teach you in school. 

Finding a Job in Tough Times: Keynote address at Lighthouse for the Blind's annual conference

I gave the keynote address at the Lighthouse for the Blind's annual conference. Here is the video of it.

It contains as many lessons for the sighted as for the blind.

And I reveal quite a bit about me personally, including negatives.