We Have Met The Enemy

"We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us" - Walt Kelly, creator of Pogo.

In the last blog entry on strategy, I mentioned that the job hunter's greatest Enemy is the Self.

Let's look at that more closely.

Take the following test. The twelve items below represent twelve key ingredients in an effective job search. The more times you answer Yes, the more likely you will successfully land. The more No answers, the more likely you are sabotaging yourself.

For each of the following statements, answer Yes or No.

1. My job search is my full time job now.

2. I have a clear Objective for my job search.

3. I understand that I am now in a Sales & Marketing role, and that my Product is Me.

4. I am NOT going it alone; rather, I am reaching out to others to support me.

5. I am on LinkedIn.

6. I am busy networking every day, with everyone.

7. I have Target Companies that I am researching and pursuing.

8. I am NOT waiting for the phone to ring.

9. I have joined at least one local networking group.

10. I believe in myself.

11. I know my strengths (i.e. my skills and accomplishments).

12. I am developing a strategy to attain my career goals.

How did you do? Are you your best ally? or your worst enemy?

Posted by Terrence Seamon, July 2, 2009

Be Sure You Have A Strategy

How many business people have a strategy? My guess would be: Not Many.

It's not for lack of appreciating the value of having a strategy. No, it's mostly because people do not know what a strategy really is.

There is a very helpful article called "Are You Sure You Have A Strategy?" by Donald Hambrick and James Fredrickson, published in the Academy of Management Executive, 2001, Vol. 15, No. 4.

The authors remind us that the term strategy comes from the Greek strategos meaning "the art of the general." In a war, a general has an objective and a strategy for achieving it. Hambrick and Fredrickson identify several key elements of a strategy. Here's my take on their model:

- The Arena: Where will the action take place?

- The Enemy: Who are our competitors?

- The Vehicles: How will we get there?

- The Weapons: How will we win?

- The Staging: What will be our speed? What will be our sequence of moves?

- The Measure: How will we obtain our returns?

How might this apply to a job hunter?

First, a job hunter must have an Objective. Everything else in the strategy depends upon that.

The Arena is Where the job hunter wants to land. Ideally, the job hunter has identified Target Companies to pursue proactively.

The Enemy is the Self. A job hunter will defeat himself more surely than any external competitor. (More on this in a future blog entry.)

The Vehicle of choice for job hunters is Networking.

The Weapons are Self-Awareness (especially about one's own Skills and Accomplishments), Self-Belief, and Persistence.

The Staging involves Sequence of Moves as well as Speed. The warrior job hunter does not wait for the phone to ring. Instead, she makes her own moves and makes things happen, keeping a high level of activity each week of her search.

The Measure is three-fold: Interviews, Offers, and Starts. Until the job hunter gets an interview, there is no chance of an offer, and no way to start.

Now that you know the elements of a strategy, it's time to map one out. What's your Objective? How will you attain it?

Posted by Terrence Seamon, July 1, 2009

You Are the Solution

Someone sent me the link today to a good piece on resumes by Alison Green where she asks: What is the Number One question your resume should answer?

The question Green has in mind is: What did you accomplish in this job that someone else wouldn't have?

What Green is saying is, What has made you special so far in your career? What's your differentiator?

The clue is in the word accomplish. In an excellent resume, you tell a compelling story, about your skills and past achievements, that says to prospective employers, Here's what I can accomplish for you.

So, if the ultimate question in a job search is, Why should I hire you?, the answer is, Because I am the solution to your problem.

How do you become the solution and not just another dreary job hunter? The key is a mental adjustment, from pushing a Product to presenting a Solution to a Need.

Posted by Terrence Seamon, June 30, 2009

What Draws You In?

With the help of sitemeter, I can view the locations of people who visit this blog. They come from all over; for example:

- Israel
- Japan
- Ireland
- Canada
- Norway
- Russia
- Palestine
- Netherlands
- South Africa
- Germany
- Spain
- India
and all over the United States

My wife asked me, What are they looking for?

Good question.

According to Google Analytics, the Top Content that my visitors look at includes:

- the series on Organization Development
- the series on Employee Engagement
- the post on 70-20-10
- the post on RASCI
- the post on "sense of agency"
- the post on the 3 things you like most about your job


What draws you in?

Posted by Terrence Seamon, June 29, 2009

Your Interview Dashboard - Part 2

In Part 1 of this series called Your Interview Dashboard, we started designing a "mental dashboard" that a job hunter can install in his or her head for use during interviews in order to smoothly steer through the challenging waters of the interview.

Here are a couple more gauges:

- Your Answers Part 3: Are you conveying your Skills and Accomplishments? To do so clearly, succinctly, and powerfully, tell CAR Stories, using the Challenge - Action - Results format. Start with describing the challenge or problem you faced; then describe the actions you took; then detail the results you achieved.

- Your Energy & Pace: If you have ever taken a training class on Presentation Skills, you probably learned that How you speak is as important, if not more than, What you say. This How is comprised of many facets, including Pace and Energy, both of which are important in an interview. Let's look at each element.

Each of us has a natural pace that manifests in our movement and in our speech. Some of us are fast moving, fast talking. Others more methodical, slower in moving, slower in speaking.

In an interview, it's important to find a balance between being yourself and matching the pace of the interviewer. It's like a dance and you don't want to drag your partner down, nor step on your partner's toes.

Participating in an interview is stressful, demanding an energetic performance from you. You may find as the interview goes along, that your energy level varies. If your energy is draining away from you, so will your enthusiasm. It's important to monitor your energy level so that you boost it as needed to energize your answers.

An interview can run as long as an hour or more. And it's not unusual for an employer to string several interviews together in one day. By the end, you could be wiped out. How do you maintain your energy level throughout such a grueling course?

The best thing you can do is train. Like a runner. If you are a job hunter, get in shape. Start training. Practice and rehearsal are key.

Posted by Terrence Seamon, June 28, 2009