|

|
|
In This Career Advice Edition
| |
Ask
the Employment Experts
In Employment Negotiations....
Packaging Your Resume
Five
Steps to a Better Career
|
Ask the Employment Experts
| |
Dear Steve and
Jon,
I have had
several second interviews but
nary an offer. What are the
most common reasons for people
blowing the second interview?
Signed, Never a
Bride
Steve
Hines,
consultant, career coach and
author of
Atlanta Jobs
Dear Never,
Very timely
question: I had an
applicant just last week who
made it past the second
interview and received an
email from the company
recruiter saying they had
chosen him partly because he
had obviously done more
research and demonstrated
it. They were especially
impressed with his knowledge
about the company executives
who interviewed him, which
he found through a simple
search on LinkedIn.com.
Show up with an article you
located on the Internet that
sheds light on information
from the previous
interview.
Better yet,
take an article from your
trade publication,
demonstrating that you keep
up with trends in your
industry.
You might also consider
asking a former vendor or
client to call the Hiring
Manager and give you a high
recommendation.
Jon
Harvill CPC,
consultant and recruiter
with
Professional
Search of Atlanta
1. At this
point, keep your focus on
getting the offer, not on
learning all you can about
the company, not negotiating
your salary, not learning
about benefits, nor
negotiating extra vacation.
Get the offer first.
2. Do your
homework. Review your notes
and have much better answers
than you had for the first
interview. If possible, use
some of the interim time to
interview some of their
employees to better
understand the bosses
challenges.
3. Show your
enthusiasm for the job.
Structure your answers to
verbally place yourself
already in the job. Be
confident but not cocky.
4. You have
competition. Do not beat
yourself up. Realistically
consider the odds. With 3-4
people in for the second
interview round; odds are
greater than 66% you will
not get an offer. But
prepare and perform to beat
the odds.
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
In Employment Negotiations - You Can Only Get What You Ask
For
| |
Everything is
negotiable,
or the opposite may be true,
nothing is negotiable,
depending on the situation, the
position, how flexible the
company is, the company’s
culture and your skills as a
negotiator. You have to be
perceptive enough to determine
your bounds, while remembering
that, you can only get what
you ask for. The it
being an extra $10,000 salary, a
30% bonus, a hiring bonus, an
extra week’s vacation,
reimbursement for your COBRA
expenses, a company car, or
other financial or non-financial
benefits
You
can do your homework and check
salary surveys, industry
practices and even interview
various company employees to
determine what practices they
are willing to share concerning
their own actual hiring
experience. When you get into
final negotiations, a lot may
depend upon whether you are
talking to the Human Resources
Representative or to the Hiring
Manager who has a need for which
hiring you may represent the
solution. HR will have an
interest in avoiding
non-standard employment
agreements and may not relate to
the financial value you are able
to bring to the company.
However, HR will likely know
what is feasible and what is
outside their control when it
comes to the timing of items
such as insurance coverage and
401k qualification.
‘Screening’ questions may be
asked of you early in the
process like, “The pay range for
this position is $X to $Y, is
this agreeable to you?”
Although no contract has been
signed, this does indicate
significant bounds have already
been set. Negotiations have
actually begun back even earlier
in the process with the job
advertisement or the job
description. If the job listing
indicates the potential salary
range, the title, the number of
people supervised, the dollar
responsibility---any of these
may represent difficult
obstacles to overcome.
Also
an important factor will be what
‘Edge’ you have to position
yourself favorably for the
negotiations, i.e., being
currently employed, possessing a
skill the company badly needs,
the company’s need to expand,
the rapport you have established
with the Hiring Manager or with
HR, your other viable job offers
which would allow you to walk
away from this opportunity.
What
is negotiable also varies by
management levels – the higher
the position the more that's
generally negotiable. You need
to gather information during the
interviewing process on the
company's standard practices
regarding certain items that are
typically negotiable. Get a
"read" on how flexible the
Hiring Manager and company
culture are during the
interviewing process to have a
feel for what they may be
willing to negotiate later.
For
successful results it is best to
accomplish much of the
negotiations after the decision
to extend the offer to you, but
before the formal offer is put
into writing. That way the list
of formal changes will not be as
extensive. You certainly want
to avoid overwhelming them.
Generally not negotiable:
·
Medical Insurance Effective Date
·
Entry date for Retirement/401(k)
and receiving company
contribution
·
Vesting date on qualified plans
(401(k), Profit Sharing,
Pension, Stock Option Plan.)
Commonly negotiated items,
varying with level of position:
·
Vacation amount higher than
standard accrual rate.
Specifically scheduled dates.
·
Bonus 1st year minimum
guarantee.
·
Early Pay Review.
·
Severance - 6-12 months.
Outplacement Services -# months
not $ cost.
·
Relocation Expenses.
·
Employment contract.
·
Car
or automobile allowance.
·
PDA,
Cell phone.
·
Home
office expenses, laptop,
internet connectivity.
·
Hiring bonus.
·
Educational assistance ahead of
schedule.
·
Stock options.
·
Professional association dues
·
Certification exam expense.
·
Reimbursement for COBRA
expenses.
·
Early or late start date.
·
Flexible working hours.
·
Telecommuting arrangements.
Recognize that a job offer can
be withdrawn at any time and
particularly at a point where it
is interpreted that the offer is
being turned down or when a
counter offer is put on the
table. This occurs if your
demands are considered beyond
the company’s range of
flexibility or if you just
become too much of a pain to
work with and they have
concluded that you will be too
much of a high maintenance
employee. So, keep your demands
few and easy to satisfy if you
want the job.
Jon
Harvill CPC, APICS Atlanta
Career Center Director, can be
contacted at 770 952-0009 or
visit Professional Search of
Atlanta’s website at
www.professionalsearchatlanta.com
.
|
|
|
|
Packaging Your Resume
| |
Think of your
résumé, not as a biography, but
as a marketing tool. To avoid
including a lot of data that you
may be very proud of but that
does not sell your suitability
for this particular position,
try to emotionally separate
yourself from the résumé writing
process. Imagine what an ad
agency would choose to include
and what they would choose to
leave out. Your résumé should
clearly show your employment
goal and give supporting
arguments in a powerful and
easily understood way, and leave
out most of the rest.
RÉSUMÉ
FORMATS - The use of one of a
couple of a traditional résumé
formats will make it easier for
the hiring official to quickly
read (or visually scan) and come
away with enough good reasons to
consider you further.
Because your
most resent employment is
typically the most important, an
Inverse Chronological
résumé puts that information
right up front and therefore is
used most frequently. It will
show each employers’ name, dates
of employment, your last title
there, your primary duties and
your major accomplishments.
Some reasons
to opt for a Functional résumé,
which lists your skills and
accomplishments first and then
lists only your former
employers’ names, your titles
and the periods of employment;
are the following: :
- a need
to play down the subject’s
age,
- to
disguise a job-hopping
pattern,
-
to show transferable skills
to support a change of
careers,
- to
disguise a lack of steady
advancement or consistent
career path.
With either
format, your résumé should
include complete contact
information, your educational
background (unless by omitting
your education you avoid calling
attention to your lack of a
degree), related honors and
certifications and, at least,
the most recent ten years of
professional experience. Your
résumé should be no longer than
two pages, preferably one, with
enough white space for an
interviewer to be able to make
notes in the margins.
A
"Profile/ Accomplishment/
Keyword" format is
sometimes used when catering to
the résumé-scanning software
that automatically screens
résumés and fills in databases
from the data and keywords found
in the résumé. This type of
software has gotten pretty
sophisticated and can handle
most résumés but may still have
difficulty processing overly
fancy formats and deciphering
résumés made up of tables,
floating text boxes, graphics
and embedded images.
Omit personal
information that is unrelated to
the job you are applying for.
Omit marital status, age,
height, weight, number of kids,
social organizations,
references, salary, reason for
leaving, religious
organizations, etc. There is
also no need to waste a résumé
line advising that, ”References
can be provided”.
ACCENTUATE
THE POSITIVES. Your résumé
should present your professional
background in the most positive
manner, and answer questions
without raising unnecessary new
ones. Use strong, confident
language to describe your
achievements, not just by
describing a feature you bring
but also spell out the benefit
the new employer can extrapolate
receiving. For example, "As the
chief manufacturing engineer, I
redesigned our assembly line
process, cutting production time
by 20 percent, increasing annual
profits by $2.3 million." Or,
"As senior account supervisor,
brought in seven new clients and
increased existing client
business by 25 percent. These
efforts boosted the agency's
profitability by more than 15
percent over the previous year."
Use strong
action words such as directed,
established, created, designed,
earned, saved, produced, took
control, accomplished, lead,
developed, installed and
implemented. For job pursuits
within most for-profit industry,
weaker words to avoid are
administered, documented,
liaison, participated,
attempted, tried, requested, and
coordinated.
For the
benefit of the résumé scanning
software, show keywords in all
their common forms, avoiding
proprietary nomenclature,
unexplained acronyms and
uncommon job titles (give more
commonly used titles in
parenthesis).
PERFECTION
COUNTS. Neatness counts and
typographical errors, poor
spelling and faulty grammar are
unacceptable It may take
several drafts to turn your
résumé into your ideal marketing
tool. Proofread it carefully.
Have someone else proofread it,
too. Get another opinion on its
content and presentation. Now
make sure it answers "yes" to
the following important
questions:
- Does it
effectively describe your
background?
- Does it
highlight your strong points
and accomplishments?
- Is it
honest and accurate?
- Is it
complete, yet concise?
- Is the
format clean and attractive?
- Is it a
successful marketing piece?
- Does it
focus on your value to your
previous employers?
- Does it
make you stand out from the
crowd?
Jon
Harvill CPC, APICS Atlanta
Career Center Director, can be
contacted at
770-952-0009,
JHarvill@professionalsearchatlanta.com
or Professional Search of
Atlanta's website at
professionalsearchatlanta.com |
|
|
|
Five Steps to a Better Career
| |
Step 1: Structure Your Job
Search
12
tools to make your job
search effective:
- A
well-written Resume.
- A
30-second verbal resume.
- Business
cards.
- Daily
planning and telephone log
or a Contact Management
software.
- Home
office or outplacement
office space.
- Internet
access for research and
email.
-
Telephone and answering
machine.
- A
personal support
organization.
- Action
Plans.
-
Thank-you note stationary.
- An
interview uniform.
- An
impressive list of favorable
reference
Read more
Step 2:
Resumé Tips
The resume
has one primary purpose: to lead
to getting a job interview! It
is a marketing piece, not a
personal history or
autobiography. The following
suggestions may help make it
more effective:
Read more
And, your
30-Second Resumé
How many
times have you been to a party,
seminar or networking group and
someone asked you "What do you
do?" or "Tell me about
yourself?" How did you respond?
Did you fumble for words or lose
your listener attention with a
long drawn out explanation
involving technical words that
they could not understand. The
conversation could have gone
much smoother if you had a short
oral resume prepared that
highlighted your background and
job objective, and still kept
your listeners attention.
Read more
Step 3:
Networking
Many of you
have heard my opinion of job
search priorities. In a job
search, your highest priority
activity is to be face-to-face
with a live person. If possible
that person should be in a
position to hire you, but more
likely they will just know
someone else who may need your
talents. During normal working
hours, when you are not
successful at being
face-to-face, you should be on
the phone trying to get
face-to-face. After hours is the
only time you can afford to work
the less effective methods such
as the job boards, internet
searches, newspaper help wanted
ads, emails and correspondence.
Read more
Step 4:
Interviewing Skills
Your physical
appearance is as important as
your interviewing skills and
credentials. Dress attractively,
but conservatively, even if you
tend to be more flamboyant
normally. Men should wear
well-tailored suits, preferably
dark blue or gray; solid neutral
shirts, striped or solid-colored
ties; dark, well-polished shoes
solid black or navy socks. And,
don't forget to get a good
haircut. Women should wear
business suits or tailored
dresses with jackets;
medium-heeled closed pumps; and
have your hair done in a
conservative style. Remember,
first impressions count.
Read more
Step 5:
Negotiations
Everything is
negotiable or nothing is
negotiable depending on the
company, the hiring official,
the situation, and the position.
You have to be perceptive enough
to determine your bounds.
Negotiations begin with the ad
or job listing. Serious
negotiations begin after the
initial offer is received. If
the job listing indicates the
potential salary range, the
title, the number of people
supervised, the dollar
responsibility---all of these
things are indicators of
rigidity or flexibility.
Read more |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|