YOU are the product

YOU are the product is the message we hear. It sounds good. Promoting yourself makes perfect sense in today's marketplace. Yet, when we sit down to actually put a marketing piece together for ourselves, it's one of the hardest tasks ever!

There's a process I've used that's helped a great deal. Every product has features. Think about your smart phone. It's features include: easy-to-read screen, small size, multi-functional, great connectivity. Those features are what the product does. Your phone also has benefits....that's what the product does for you. So, the features of your smart phone would be that it allows you to communicate on different media. You can work from anywhere and you are more productive.

So, what are your features? Your education, experience, industry knowledge. people skills, communication skills, special training and talents all qualify as features. What are the benefits of these features to an organization? Your educational benefits are that you have reasoning and decision-making skills. Your experience means you can "hit the ground running". Your industry knowledge means less on-the-job training. People and communication skills means you are a team player and can explain ideas.

So, sit down and write a list of your features and benefits and create your marketing piece. You're a great product and we need you!

New Year's Resolutions

Our guest blogger is Pam Waits. Pam is an HR executive who is passionate about her work. She's very good at it! Pam is expanding her reach through writing and as you'll discover she's an excellent writer as well. Enjoy!

This blog is directed to all of you employers out there and it’s from those of us who are seeking new employment.

There are a lot of us in the market and we have great ideas so please pay attention. The list is comprehensive and I invite you to take a few minutes to read these resolutions. They could help you discover an incredibly talented, loyal batch of new employees who will help you outpace your competition. Here goes.

I, Employer, will:

1. Treat you with respect. I will never lose sight of the fact that even if I don’t hire you, you could be my customer. And while I’m at it, I will be sure to treat the people who already work for me with respect, too.

2. Keep you the job seeker informed throughout the process. I know that your timetable is different than mine. You have a greater sense of urgency and I shouldn’t keep you hanging. Specifically, here is what I plan to do:

A. Acknowledge receipt of your resume/application. At the very least, I will use some form of auto response. I know that you often feel like you are sending information into a black hole and I want you to know that your effort has been successful.

B. Let you know after completing a phone interview if you are moving on to the next step or if it’s the end of the line. By doing this, we can both move on and you won’t need to take your time or that of my recruiters by leaving messages.

C. Provide as much information to you as I can if I decide to interview you face-to-face (e.g., job description, work environment, company culture). In return, I expect you to review this information before the interview and withdraw your candidacy if you aren’t qualified for or interested in working for me.

D. Provide you a status report if you go through face-to-face interviews. I will let you know if there’s another step, what that looks like, whether you will be participating and the expected timeframe.

E. I will notify you even if you didn’t get the job so you can move on. I will make every effort to do this on the phone instead of e-mail as a sign of my professionalism and respect for you. I think this will enhance my reputation as a top employer.

3. Return your calls and/or e-mails if I somehow fail to keep the lines of communication open. If nothing else, I will let you know that I got your message and that I don’t have an update to give you. This demonstrates that I am courteous and respect you. I expect you to show me that same courtesy and respect in return.

4. Start and end appointments (phone and face-to-face interviews) with you on time. If there is a schedule change, I will let you know as soon as I know.

5. Keep the interview process as simple as possible. If I need multiple interviews with you, I will only ask if you are one of my finalists.

6. Interview you only if I am interested in hiring you – not to tap into your expertise or benchmark your salary.

7. Not interview you until I have approval to fill a position or until I know what I want. I don’t want to waste my time or get your hopes up.

8. Not check your references unless I intend to make you an offer. To do otherwise wastes my time and the time of your references. It also sets an inaccurate expectation with you that I intend to make an offer and that just isn’t fair.

9. Consider you if you meet my qualifications, even if you don’t have experience in my industry. I will be open to the fact that you could bring a fresh perspective that would benefit my organization. I will even take that one step farther and start interviewing people from “outside the box” to see what new dynamism I can bring into my organization. I think I have been missing talent and opportunity by limiting myself given that many talented people are trying to transition to new careers and news areas of expertise.

10. Not discount you just because you are currently unemployed. I will be mindful that many people are out of work through no fault of their own and that the talent pool of the unemployed is very rich.

11. Not take advantage of the fact that you are unemployed. If I make you a job offer, I will compensate you fairly in line with your experience and qualifications.

12. Talk to you about my opportunity if I think there might be a fit, even if I think you are overqualified or the pay I am offering is too low. I will have an open discussion with you about my concerns and give you the opportunity to respond.

13. Vow to be realistic in my requirements and to make a decision. I won’t keep positions posted for months trying to find the candidate who “walks on water”. I will choose the candidate who meets my qualifications and will fit in with the culture of the organization.

14. Broaden my sources for filling positions to include networking (both formal and informal channels). I realize that in many cases posting jobs on Internet job sites only seems to create work for my HR staff. Many times the best candidates are found through referrals, not online.

Thanks to the people who contributed to and inspired this list of resolutions - may we inspire the employers who read it!

Staying Ahead of the Curve-Communicate

Our guest blogger is Pam Waits. Pam is an HR executive who is passionate about her work. She's very good at it! Pam is expanding her reach through writing and as you'll discover she's an excellent writer as well. Enjoy!

I love to read. Normally I read business books or fiction. But recently I took a detour and read Stan Romanek’s book entitled Messages: The World's Most Documented Extraterrestrial Contact Story.

In this book, Stan recounts his encounters of alien sightings, abductions, implants, and conspiracies. Understandably, Stan expresses fear over who the aliens are, what they want, and why they targeted him. There is no clear communication so he doesn’t understand what’s going on, let alone the rationale for what he is experiencing.

As I was reading his book, I thought that Stan’s story is very similar to many employees in today’s workplace:

· How many times have you felt that you didn’t know what was really going on?

· That you didn’t trust the messages that were being conveyed or the people who were communicating them?

· Have you ever learned important information about your company through the news or a customer and felt the company should have told you directly?

· You may not have personally experienced the feeling that you were being targeted, but I bet you know someone who has felt that way.

I doubt very many companies would take pride in comparing their workforce to Stan Romanek’s alien encounters.

So what can companies do to make sure employees don’t have a Stan Romanek encounter? Good communication! Sounds easy enough but is it? No! If it was easy, we wouldn’t talk about it so much.

I learned something early in my career that definitely helped me with communication and maybe it will help you, too. One of my former bosses asked a question in every staff meeting – “what rumors are you hearing?” The first few times he asked the question, no one was prepared. But we were a bright group and quickly started going out and talking to employees to see what was going on so we could report it to our boss. When the rumors were serious or pervasive enough, we would take action to address them. The simpler ones would be corrected on the spot – if they weren’t true. This practice helped us stay ahead of the curve.

If Stan had access to good information, he wouldn’t have been afraid, distrustful or suspicious and his book would likely have had a very different message. The same holds true for employees.

· Listen to your employees,

· Talk to them,

· Communicate information that you can, and

· Be honest with the information that you share.

It’s very easy to identify the need for good communication, but it’s not always easy to accomplish. Because we don’t listen as well as we should, important messages may have to be repeated.

Because we don’t listen as well as we should, important messages may have to be repeated. (Made you pay attention, didn’t it?)

With that in mind, I close with a quote from Robert McCloskey, an author and illustrator of children’s books:

“I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”

Moms, Birthdays, Parades & Costumes

My Mother's 85th birthday was November 16. The last "big birthday" she had was her 80th and my sister and I decided to hold a parade in our home town in her honor....of course we didn't tell her so when we showed up with a pickup truck, over-sized chair in the back of the truck and crown with a bouquet of roses, she was mortified. We had the police block off main street and all the local merchants had a little glass of schnapps for her as she drove by. The high school band played "Happy Birthday" and a huge football player kinda kid sang "When Irish Eyes are Smiling". The local newspaper came to take photos for the front page of the local paper. My Mother swore that she would never speak to us again. She did speak to us that night at dinner and explained that her reputation was ruined and her friends probably wouldn't speak to her again. They did. In fact, one of them called me a week before her 85th to see what we were doing this year....nobody wanted to miss the fun.

We did surprise her by coming home unannounced a few days before the big day. We had a murder mystery dinner and raided the local costume shop for our outfits. The party was fun...still I know she was waiting for that last big surprise. It's hard to top a parade, but this year's big surprise was excellent too - her granddaughter Maggie became engaged during our mystery crime dinner.

Happy Birthday Mom, We're already planning the 90th!!!!

Today’s Career Management Game is very different from that of just a couple of years ago. The social contract between employee and employer has been eroding for at least a decade, and the latest recession has been the last straw; companies have laid off 25-year veterans in droves.

One of my clients had been employed with his company for thirty-five years, lastly as CFO. It never crossed his mind that his job would be eliminated, but it was—and he was not remotely prepared to face the fact that he might never find another job. He didn’t have a current resume. His networking skills were non-existent. He hadn’t interviewed in twenty-five years. By the time he came to see me, he felt desperate, without a way to turn.

This is a classic example of how The Career Game is played today. My client felt that the company owed him a career because of his lengthy service. The company, in turn, felt that he was too expensive to keep and that they owed him nothing.

My client eventually went on to another CFO position fifteen months later, but not before learning some hard lessons and new strategies which we can summarize this way:

· Be prepared.

You can be prepared by staying on top of what’s happening in your industry and particularly your employer. Monitor the competition as well and follow trends like mergers and acquisitions, and customer buying patterns. If there are merger rumors within your organization check them out immediately. Waiting on the sidelines won’t position you to be picked up by another team.

· Keep your Playbook updated.

You will create your Playbook when you complete the exercises in this workbook. Your Playbook is then a guide to use and refer to throughout your career. As the marketplace changes, so will the play you’ll being executing. Your continued competitiveness depends on it! ·

· Stay in touch with your network.

Your network is your lifeline to the “outside” world. You may have a tendency to become very cocoon-like when you have a job. We all do this because we want to feel secure and just the thought of being laid off scares us. So, we forget about our network and let it die. Fight the urge to ignore your network. Set a goal to stay in touch with twenty-five of your “A” contacts. These contacts are former managers, colleagues, and search firm executives.

Today, the Career Management Game demands flexibility and courage. Flexibility is necessary because The Game changes quickly. Being flexible helps players change their game plan when necessary. It helps players change direction when situations call for it. It takes courage because we must now take ownership of our careers and our actions. Accountability takes courage. Are you ready for the challenge?

Waiting for Something to Happen

I used to spend hours waiting for"something to happen" in my life. I guess I thought I'd get a note from above saying "go write a book" or "be in Chicago in front of the John Hancock Building at 9AM-the answer will be there". I kept searching for the answer to what I was supposed to do next. I always looked for external signs-someone or something had the answer.

I've discovered it doesn't work that way-the answer has and is always been in me. I figured out that if I starting "listening" to myself....quietly and gently...the answers started coming. When I was agitated and negative or angry, I didn't get any information.

Try this....go to a quiet, peaceful, positive place in your mind. Pay attention to ideas that come to you. Notice what you're thinking about. What options start to appear? What people start coming into your life? Start asking for what you want. Ask for guidance. Remember that everything happens for a reason...nothing is happenstance -the universe is very orderly and has wonderful experiences waiting for us.

One last thought: using your personal power for positive results lifts the universe on the whole. We are all one. So when one of us contributes, all of us share!

Lessons Learned As a Job Seeker

Linda Sondgeroth is an HR professional with experience partnering with senior management of small to mid-sized companies to provide HR leadership that supports the goals and objectives of the organization.

As an HR professional I believed I understood the recruitment process. As a job seeker, I now know that I had no concept of how hard this part of my professional life would be. In the last year I have discovered that:

1. I’m not alone. I know a lot of very talented people who are in the job market through no fault of their own, and they have been in the market for extended periods of time.
2. I need a support network of friends, acquaintances and colleagues. And, I need to maintain these connections. I feel better and have a more positive attitude if I’ve been around other people.
3. I need to give my network permission to be honest. Tell me that my resume needs work and know that I will accept constructive criticism without taking it personally.
4. I need to pursue multiple avenues in my job search. The internet is only one tool. (See #2)
5. I need a professional identity. I have associated who I am with what I do for so long that I don’t feel whole without my professional identity. I’m filling this need by volunteering with my professional association and with a community group that let me practice my profession.
6. It’s not me, it’s them. When I apply for jobs and receive rejections, or worse, hear nothing I must remind myself that I’m not doing it wrong, there are just a lot of other people also doing it right. (See #1)
7. I can learn new things (new to me anyway!). My LinkedIn profile is 100%, but I keep refining it, adding connections and participating in groups. Heck, I’m even blogging!

There is a lot that’s good in my life. I need to focus on the positives; my health; my family and friends; and, the value I bring to my relationships. When I focus on the good, the loss of one job doesn’t seem quite as important. (Although, I still want another job!)
It’s not all about the job search. I need to do something productive every day, but it might not take 8 hours every day. As long as I have done everything I can do that day, it’s OK to spend time on other things too.

My hope is that the lessons learned from this job seeker experience translate into transferable skills that will make me a better HR professional the next time I’m recruiting.