Do you smoke? Do you know how it affects your career?

Why do companies post executive jobs on job boards?

Are you really overqualified or do you just not know how to work the system?

Can you learn to interview better?

Do you know a proper metric for a good Job Search Engine (NOT job board).

Here’s where you can find links to research tools.

Fed up with recruiters who misbehave?

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Each complained of overly long job searches and expressed they had no clue what is going on.  They wondered:  Blacklisted?  Are the jobs real?

Nope.  Your writing is so poor your credentials are not being considered.  Seriously, if you can’t write a decent email or cover letter how can you be expected to speak  well and represent the company?

It’s too easy to assume follow-up didn’t occur because of age, too many applicants or other spurious reasons.

Fact is, most cover letters, emails and even blog post responses demonstrate very poor written communications.  No matter how informal the correspondence, it must demonstrate you are literate and educated.  Never say, “It’s just an email.”

Be especially mindful of use of advice/advise and never use exclamation points in business correspondence.  If what you say is important and true, you don’t need to call attention with punctuation.

Don’t get cute or use smiley faces.  Read your missive aloud to ascertain proper sentence structure and word usage.  Still not sure?  Let someone proof your work.

Job Search is stressful and mistakes are easily made. Don’t let your writing mistakes prevent you from making it to the next step.

Your LinkedIn profile is often the first thing people see about you.  Tear yours apart for grammar and sentence structure.  Does every line convey a compelling message?  Can the reader immediately see what you can do for them and why you are exceptional?

Make certain your writing is excellent and you will increase the success of your job search.  Just last week two of my clients received compliments from hiring authorities on the organization and flow of their resumes and cover letter.  People notice. Make certain your communications are being noticed for all the right reasons.

Need help evaluating your LinkedIn profile?  Is your resume getting complements? Do you have a compelling elevator pitch?  Check out my web site for information on Coaching to fix those elements…

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I wore my jeans to interview

’cause that’s what they all wear

My job coach told me not to

but I really didn’t care

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I waited in the Lobby

what seemed a very long time

no one offered eye contact

a wall I sought to climb

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I thought I was invisible

worst fears of the night

no one took me seriously

could it be the coach was right?

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Next time there was an interview

I definitely suited up

The receptionist’s eyes told me

my apparel said, “not pup.”

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The next advice I passed on

with an even worse result

I gave too much information

from childhood to adult

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I saw the eyes glaze over

no way that she could listen

I kept on giving bio

though I knew I’d blown my mission

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They asked me about money

and I evaded an actual answer

she glared at me with venom

as if I’d promised her cancer

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Coach told me to give a number

and not negotiate sans offer

but I argued most effectively

imagining an empty coffer

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The interview ended quickly

and I was not called back

I guess I didn’t listen

my future looked quite black

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Why did I pay her money

and then not take her heed

if I knew how to do a job search

I’d have a damned job already.

Original Poem by Rita Ashley, Job Search Coach

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Now this client has hired dozens of people in his career, executives and individual contributors, yet he was puzzled about what a standard format should look like.  I suppose that shows how little attention one pays to format when it is exactly what is expected.

Use 11 or 12 point font and one inch margins.  Only two pages allowed and forget colored papers.

Let the content be the surprise; the enticement, not the format.  Here’s the tried and true that has worked for executives and technology leaders for decades:

• Name: Centered and in bold with a larger font than the body.
• City, State: Below Name
• Phone and Email below that.
• Objective:  What do you want to do.
• Summary:  Proof you have done it with bulleted remarks about accomplishments
• Experience: Name of company, Title and Dates including month/year.
• Mention responsibility and create bullets for deliverables with metrics
• Education:  Institution, Degree and Major

OBJECTIVE: Develop and implement compelling marketing communications strategies and tactics that enable an organization to enlarge marketshare, expand their audience and surpass its competition.

SUMMARY:

• Created advertising and communications strategies and tactics that measurably lifted brand recognition by one-third in first year.
• Produced suite of sales force communications tools that focused efforts on specific referral-source audiences to maximize sales funnel, increase close ratios by 35%.
• Repeatedly delivered marketing outcomes praised by internal and external clients through effective collaboration, precise planning, timely execution and superior communications.

EXPERIENCE:

Washington Employee

Directed targeted marketing collateral programs for xxx Channel. Developed materials through collaboration with internal and external partners. Migrated 300+ marketing materials to two new intranet platforms, managing content revisions in tandem with technical conversion of PDF templates. Monitored mortgage industry updates to shift marketing strategy plans to capture new sales opportunities.

• Collaborated with eight peers across three teams to simultaneously update content and migrate 200+ collateral items over seven months to a new, more powerful system.
• Content and technology improvements yielded 10% higher average sales nationwide for 2,000+ loan consultants..
• Built sales force self-paced training presentations and event planners for loan consultants to host real estate agent networking sessions to cultivate mutual relationships for warm leads.
• Managed 100+ item catalog of direct mail, customizable items for campaigns-on-demand marketing system in compliance with federal direct mail laws and secured brand integrity; interfaced with assigned agencies to implement ongoing enhancements, monthly reporting analysis.
• Created 11% lift in direct mail usage by sales staff. Metrics for key campaigns netted $24+ million new loans.

EDUCATION:

University of Memphis, Memphis, 6/2002 TN Bachelor of Business Administration | Major: Marketing Management

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Why executives should avoid being part of the herd

Would you use the lottery as your investment strategy?  Are the odds appealing?  Do you feel lucky, well, do you?

That’s exactly what you do career-wise when you submit your resume to random recruiters and recruiter groups; play the job-search lottery.

Recruiters post appeals for resumes every where from LinkedIn groups to Craigslist.  They frequent sites trolling for resumes to add to their stash.  Do you have any idea how they use them?  Do you know what happens to your contact information?

Chances are the job you want is local. Chances are the recruiter representing the company you want to work for is also local.  Why then, would you seek representation of random recruiters in distant locations, perhaps even distant countries?  And why would you seek representation along with a herd of others from across the country?

Doesn’t it make more sense to stand out from the crowd with personal contact?  As a hiring authority yourself, were you not always more interested in people to whom you were introduced rather than a faceless resume that found its way to your desk?  Who would you invite for an interview?  Someone who made the effort to find you, learn about your company and the opportunity or someone who simply sent in a resume through a random recruiter?

Hiring authorities tend to spurn unsolicited resumes submitted by recruiters; and that is what most of the cattle-call recruiters do.  They collect resumes and submit them anywhere they know there are openings.  They don’t necessarily have the job search, they are playing the placement lottery with your resume.

While that seems appealing at first blush, it is actually quite damaging to your search.  Once a resume lands in a company through a recruiter, whether the company invited submission or not, no other recruiter and certainly not the individual, can submit credentials.  You are effectively locked out of any jobs from that company because they chose not to deal with that recruiter.  And there is no way for you to stand out from the crowd; in fact you rarely know where they have sent your resume.

Once a recruiter has your resume they retain the right to earn money if you are placed where they present your credentials.  That is why some recruiters submit your resume to various job boards with their own contact information instead of yours.  You have lost control over your resume and wound up in the hands of someone who knows neither how to represent you nor how to represent the job opportunity.

If you are a sales executive the affects of bad representation are doubly damming.  You are expected to get to the right people with the right message.  What message do you send when a recruiter unknown to the company slings your resume about?

Why run the risk of being shut out, ignored or scammed when there are recruiters who actually have searches for jobs for which you qualify?   Don’t take the line of least resistance, you are not a lazy executive, so don’t be a take-the easy-way-out candidate.

The good news is, there are many reputable recruiters who do not engage in such opportunistic activities.  Learn to connect with the right recruiters.  There are many types of recruiters and the ones you want are established, respected by their clients and typically, looking for you through their network.  Learn how to be found.  No matter how compelling your resume, without an introduction, the best recruiters will ignore you.

Executives: Retain control over your resume; send it not to cattle-calls or any public forum. Participate, network but don’t expose your resume.  Use your LinkedIn profile to attract attention.

Ready to deconstruct your job search?  Use Job Search Debugged to remove the obstacles.  Learn how to vet recruiters to connect with the one that will place you.

Time to revitalize your network?  Read Networking Debugged to improve your results.  Learn how to connect with the right recruiters.

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DIGITAL JOB SEARCH AND PERSONAL BRANDING

Installment number two

“Your brand is the promise you make to employers on what you bring to them.” Shivonne Byrne, Director of Brand and Content at Microsoft.

All the noise in the media on personal brand can lead you to think creating and maintaining your brand is an arcane art. Nothing could be further from the truth. While there are books and webinars dedicated to the proposition that personal brand requires expert guidance, there is much you can accomplish on your own, free.

How do I discover my Brand? It pays to ask people, “What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of me in the workplace?” The answer may surprise you. Your brand may be completely different from what you think it is.

Examples: George P. believed he was seen as the go-to guy for all things technical both within his company and on the street. Turns out, he is perceived by most as a person who simplifies technology so it is accessible to anyone. That is not only a rare characteristic; the trait is highly desirable in most IT organizations. Once he accepted his brand he was able to revise both his elevator pitch and the accomplishments section of his resume and he distinguished himself from all the other highly competent technology professionals with whom he competed for key jobs.

Lorelei T. knows she is a brilliant technical marketer.  She is able to get products into the hands of the customers in record time.  She brands herself as an effective marketer who gets products to market quickly. After she queried her references she discovered she was most valued because she was able to keep communications between marketing, sales and development open and crisis free.  Lorelei’s actual brand was more valuable to prospective employers than the one she believed.

The brand statement is a concise description of the essence of your brand. Whether Paul H. is heading sales, creating alliances or running a company,  he connects with people and makes them feel part of the team. Paul is Senior Vice President of Partners and Alliances, but he doesn’t position himself as a Vice President. Instead, he positions himself as a successful senior executive and relationship builder; an important attribute for success in his role. His brand statement is “Community Builder.”

Many executives feel they need to conform to business norms when they go to work. But this prevents building a brand. In the world of work, those who stand out succeed, so put your brand on everything you do. Whether you’re making a presentation, in a meeting or writing a report, ask yourself how you can connect your brand to every situation.

Click here to learn why your brand is critical to your job search Installment One

Click here for installment two on Digital Job Search and Branding.

For discussion of how to discover how the world sees you: installment three.

Click here for installment four to discover your current identity.

Click here to start your branding efforts for your job search installment five

For other resources, click here. Return soon for more installments on personal branding…or better yet, join my blog.

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Based on responses to recent blogs and LinkedIn threads I wrote, I learned there is a lot of anger and vitriol directed at recruiters.  When I was a recruiter, I was a valued member of the business community who worked with investors and executives to build their companies and departments.  They consulted with me, dined with me treated me with respect. We worked together on boards, forums and industry events.

When I hear horror stories about how some recruiters behave and conduct their business and the resulting anger their behaviors provoke, I am disheartened.

Folks in job search mode need the best resources available; that includes recruiters known to be reliable, honest and effective.  Considering the hundreds of recruiter-bashing comments I read, I decided to help folks make a good effort to weed out the good from the bad and suggest a few warning signs to help  avoid getting involved with a recruiter who will not help you cross the finish line.

Good recruiters are part of the business community and how you treat them may have an affect on your opportunities.  Always be courteous regardless of your interest in the job they call about.  Statistics vary but the estimated range of executive level placements made by recruiters is between 25% – 35%.  Learn to spot the good ones.

Ask these questions:

1. Is this a search you have been invited to conduct?
2. Who is your contact within the company?
3. Have you worked on behalf of this company before?
4. What sort of searches?  When?
5. What part of my experience tells you I’d be a fit?
6. Do you have a job description?
7. What will you do with my resume?
8. What is the name of the hiring company?
9. What is the name and contact information of your company?
10. Will you supply references to me?
11. May I see the job description with which you are working?
12. Is there a charge to me for your services?

Notice the kinds of questions the recruiter asks.  Is she fishing?  Are his comments too general?  Does she understand the job description and how your background relates?

Warnings:

1. They ask names of your bosses or direct reports
2. They charge for representing you
3. They ask for personal information not pertinent to the job
4. They have no idea what you do

If you are not satisfied with the answers, be polite and end the conversation.  If you are satisfied and want to proceed get the basics.

Your best protection against disreputable and inexperienced recruiters is to avoid the job boards; their favorite hunting grounds.

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If you are a six figure income job seeker, every word you use to describe your background is a marketing opportunity.  The resume Objective section is required to entice the hiring authority to read your employment history.  It sets the hook and tells readers what to expect and why reading on is a good use of their time.

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Greg Demming, VP Sales with a comprehensive resume says, “As a reader of thousands…no, let me rephrase. As a skimmer of thousands of resumes, and a reader of hundreds I would suggest you find a coach to seek out help. Not one of those factories that promise to rewrite and distribute your resume. The resume has to spark curiousity, interest and a desire to find out more. The Objective is just the start.”

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Use your Objective to form the basis of your resume; prove your Objective in each bullet.  If the entry doesn’t work to prove your promise, it doesn’t belong on the resume.

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To write an excellent resume Objective you must first know the job description or at least the top priorities for the position.  Aim your Objective at satisfying the most important need.

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Most resume Objectives are generic and therefore a waste of space.  The hiring authority is always looking for someone who stands out from the crowd so reading a statement with no supporting data isn’t especially effective.  Below are sample resume objective examples:

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Poor:

Objective:  Director of Marketing position where I can continue to grow and provide excellent leadership.

Better:

Objective:  Provide marketing leadership to bring new wireless products and services to an expanding audience.

Best:

Objective:  Expand and enhance wireless product line offerings and target markets through customer polling, research, franchise efforts and web site enhancement.

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The ‘best’ resume Objective above answers the question, “What can you do for me?”  It encourages the reader to discover how you have succeeded in enhancing product lines, polling customers and web site enhancement.  You have told them what to look for based on their needs and they will read on.

*Special thanks to Shivonne Byrne, Director of Brand & Content; Microsoft, my go-to person on branding, for characterizing brand as promise.  I stole the concept for the elevator pitch and resume Objective because they express your brand.

For more field tested advice to create your best resume, purchase:  Job Search Debugged, second edition.

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There is so much stealth mode activity going on, no one can accurately predict a technology employment outlook.

Read on for resources and companies.   For even more current info on who is hiring visit Seattle Examiner.com and  the WTIA job board.

And for those of you who insist you are going to tweet your way to a job, check out the Twitter listings for Seattle and follow SeattleTechJob.

Suit up. Find every reason to visit companies, friends and HR departments.  Talk to sales people, connect with vendors who service the companies you are interested in.  Don’t forget to go to trade shows.

Raoul Encinas, Technology, Services, & Project Executive, posted comments on LinkedIn every job seeker should consider.

“This will sound contrarian but thousands of companies are hiring in the Greater Metro Atlanta area right now. The reason you perceive that this is not the case is for 2 reasons: the mythical ‘hiring freeze’ and the way we hear about news.

It’s easy to write headlines and read about certain types of news stories, especially those that are negative. Here’s the obvious example – we all know what happened on the Hudson River recently with a US Airways plane. If there’s ANY commercial plane crash at all, you will hear about it.

When was the last time you saw or read a news report that ‘OVER 1000 PLANES LANDED SAFELY YESTERDAY’ at your local airport? Why is that not newsworthy?

That analogy, when applied to job search, helps you as follows. Keep in mind there are several million productive employed adults in your metro area. Consequently, many hundreds of companies employ large numbers of people, and even in difficult times such as these, VOLUNTARY turnover at those companies numbers 15%-25%. The reasons for these numbers are that ‘life happens.’ People get married, get divorced, move, die, just quit, go back to school, are sick of their boss, etc.

Take a random company with 1000 employees that experiences 20% turnover, and that company – EVEN IN A HIRING FREEZE – will very quietly be hiring about 3-4 people per week just to maintain existing levels of service and productivity.

Hiring freeze, for most companies, means net new adds. Incremental hiring. Growth/expansion-related hiring.   So don’t get hung up on who is hiring the MOST or REALLY hiring – lots of companies are. Focus more on identifying 20-40 target companies, and network your way directly into those companies so that you are on their radar. Figure out who typically is a decision-maker for your level and build that relationship.”

I couldn’t say it better myself.  Thanks Raoul.

If you know of job openings, let me know so I can post them here.  Send them to coach at jobsearchdebugged dot com or post through the comments section below.  Don’t forget to look at jobs posted on LinkedIn.  This list is about companies that are hiring, not recruiters or job boards.  Check back frequently as new companies are added.

1. Rafe Needleman of WebWare offers an ongoing list of companies hiring technical professionals.  Check his site periodically.  This list is impressive and real.
2. Big Fish Games has 35 openings in Seattle.
3. This link to Fortune’s list of companies that are hiring. is a good place to start.
4. Companies in Chicago that are hiring.
5. Elaina Dulaney, a PR and MarCom professional says she finds leads on craigslist.com.
6. Hundreds of consulting and temp positions are listed on Sologig.  Most are through agencies, but many are not.  You can search by geographic region.  By-pass the ‘offers’ to get to the search area.  Click here for a Seattle example.
7. Katarina Kibbon contribues this bit of job search info:  VisualCV is hosting a virtual job fair on February 3rd from 10-3 EST where 20+ employers from the DC/MD/VA area will be hiring for 200+ opportunities from account manager to senior management. Anyone interested can register for free at www.visualcvjobfairs.com.
8. VisialCV also lists companies they believe are hiring.  Katarina assures me the list is current; it is a good list.
9. Darrell DiZoglio submitted names of companies that are hiring: He believes they represent over 600 openings: Amazon, Schering Plough, British Petroleum, Booz Allen, TIAA-CREF and Kinetic Concepts.
10. Darrell suggests reading The Investors Business Daily .
11. Both Classmates.com and Redfin are rumored to be hiring in Seattle.
12. Check out Expedia for jobs in Seattle.
13. Don’t forget about Amazon in Seattle.  They always have critical needs for top techs.
14. Amanda Fletcher from Stonehenge says they have openings for consulting engineers in Tulsa area. Currently hiring for Project Managers, COGNOS developers, Web and Application Developers, Business Analysts and others.
15. Web designers may find jobs here.
16. 13 more companies hiring.
17. Mona Mcaldok of Vertaphone sumitted a link,: www.vertafore.com or contact Mona Valdok, Senior Recruiter at mvaldok@vertafore.com to learn about several open recs.
18. From Elizabeth Smith, Internal Recruiter for Avery Dennison: Avery Dennison is definitely looking for talent in key areas. Elizabeth can be contacted: elizabeth.smith@averydennison.com.  Contact her directly if you have questions..
19. Big Fish - Seattle game company has 35 openings
20. Amazon is hiring hoards of people in all sections of the company
21. Google is looking for product focused social networking pros
22. Shopzilla is hiring in L.A.

Check back to this blog location for ideas on how to conduct your search in a tight job market.  Learn to be the Meryl and Susan of job search.  For other resources check www.newjobinabox.com.

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• Did you know that less than 1 percent of executive level jobs are filled using job boards?  Ever wonder why you can’t find statistics on their close rate?  And that is the metric you want.  I discovered the number when I had a not-for-publication interview with a former VP from a major outplacement firm.
• The majority of jobs are landed through networking introductions.  MonsterTrak states:  Between 60 and 80 percent of all jobs are landed through networking. My personal experience keeps that number for executives closer to the 80% mark.

For more details on the failure of job boards click here to read the statistics and comments from the job board’s executives.  Nick Corcodilos of AskTheHeadhunter wrote several informative blogs on the topic and his site is a ‘must read’ for anyone considering using a job board.

Anne Fisher reports in Fortune Magazine, “TheLadders.com, another job board for managers in the $100,000-a-year-and-up category, reported that more than 400 employers and recruiters signed on in the last three months of the year, looking to hire executives.”  While that is good news in terms of the job market, and Anne’s column is a must read to understand why you can be optimistic, the fact that the listings exist does not mean they will be filled using the job board.

What is not reported is there were thousands of job seekers reading and responding to those listings; most of whom will neither hear back nor be considered.  And for those few who may be considered, referred candidates will get preferential treatment.  You are more likely to be contacted about a multi-level marketing opportunity than a real job.  So, even if you do get a response, it is incumbent on you to vet the employer before you respond.

Recruiters give preference to referred candidates and employers prefer to talk to referred candidates so much, many companies place a bounty on heads referred by employees. Job board ExecuNet conducted a survey of recruiting firms and found that networking was the source for 63 percent of all candidates that the recruiters placed in executive job openings.

So, why are you wasting your time using job boards?

Want more information?  Ask the Headhunter reviews TheLadders in detail on his blog and newsletter.  He quotes actual conversations with Ladder’s employees who reveal they do not vet jobs or candidates for salary. That makes The Ladders a very expensive Monster.

But wait, there’s more. Readers of this blog site will remember I caution about revealing contact information on job boards because of spam, bogus job offers and multilevel marketing schemes.  Last week Monster’s database was hacked and all contact information was stolen.  Just wait for the pshing to begin.

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