Sirona Says

50 Practical tips to help job seekers find a job, including LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook advice.

One of my passions over the years has been trying to help job seekers with advice and direction with regards to finding new jobs. I have written many blog posts with advice from loads of different angles, but there has been one document that I keep getting asked for, over and over again.

Obviously everyone has heard of social media, and many job seekers are turning to it as a way of finding a job. The trouble is they are just not sure where to start. To that end I wrote a guide to help job seekers, entitled;

50 Top Tips for Job Seekers: 50 Practical Tips To Help You Find a Job

It covers:

Back to basics tips | Linkedin Tips | Facebook Tips | Twitter Tips | Key Job Seeker Reminders

It has been downloaded hundreds of times, but I keep getting asked where people can get it from, so here it is again - this time with a simple download from this blog - just click on the link below to download the great document.

Download 50 Top Tips for Job Seekers 2010

If there are people you know looking for work, please feel free to share the information with them as you act of Paying it Forward.

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The 30 sales interview questions you need to be able to answer, if you are a salesperson

 

Last week I posted a comprehensive list of interview questions. They proved to be popular, both with job seekers for interview help, and with recruiters and HR people for some interview question inspiration. So I have produced a couple of extra posts with some further questions - this one today is for sales interview questions, and another coming soon is for management positions.

So if you are in sales, and have an interview soon, or you recruit for sales people, I hope this series of Sales Interview questions proves useful to you. Or, if you are in sales and fancy a challenge, then try answering them to yourself (honestly of course!)

So here you go, see if you can answer all these sales interview questions:

Targets and Marketplace

What is your sales target and how is it established?
How much time do you spend developing new business?
How do you target new accounts for prospecting?
How do you acquire new sales leads?
Who are your major competitors and why?
What business trends do you see developing in the market?

Your approach to sales

What makes a successful sales person?
How do you define a new customer's needs and expectations?
What kind of problems do you have to solve as a salesperson?
How do you get a reading of people upon first meeting them?
How do you approach understanding your customer's needs?
How do you establish rapport with a stranger on the telephone?
What do you consider the most crucial part of your job?
What kind of rewards are most satisfying to you?

Should work-life balance be replaced with a new word - 'Weisure'?

Over the last week there has been much talk in the recruitment blogging community of work life balance, and what the reality actually is.

Ever one to have an idea, Bill Boorman, started the whole thing off with a video he posted on You Tube, aptly titled 'The work life balance'. in which he believes there are four areas of balance that are needed in todays busy and hectic lives; Work; Life; Life/Work; Me time. When you listen to it, he will confuse you by inverting work and life, but he has raised an interesting point around a hugely important subject.

If you spoke to my wife (feel free to do so on Twitter -@saraheadworth - by the way!), then she would tell you that my work - life balance is firmly entrenched on the work side! My Blackberry is always at my side, and while I do try to manage my time, it has become part of everyday life.
This means that my 'work brain' is very rarely turned off (much to the disgust of Sara!), and that I am continually considering something to do with work, both consciously and subconsciously. (Yes I know this isn't overly healthy!)
Now you may call this a little sad, especially if you are in a 9-5 job (do they actually exist anymore?) and go home at night, completely detached from work. But, the difference is that I run my own business - my business, by default, then becomes my life. If you then factor in the fact that I really enjoy what I do, then it really doesn't bode well for a solid demarcation line between work and play, does it?

The crux for me is that I enjoy what I do, and for me the social aspect of the web that has 'exploded' over the last couple of years has really added to this. Just in case you think I am a complete addict, I do know where the 'OFF' button is on my Blackberry - I just don't use it often enough!!

I was recently sent some information regarding a forum of 10 HR experts entitled Raging Debates in HR, and some key HR conversations they discussed between them. While reading through it, the subject of 'weisure' was covered by these HR guru's. It makes interesting reading, so I thought I would share some of the responses with you. The question they were asked was:

Is "weisure" good for business or do we need to maintain boundaries between work and leisure?

Peter Capelli: I think the idea that we have a new generation of workers that doesn’t care about boundaries between work and life outside of work is wrong.  It is probably true that many younger workers are willing to have most of their life absorbed by interesting career opportunities, especially when they are living in a new location and have no other ties there. That’s not particularly new.  Once people grow a little older, acquire families and other non-work interests and responsibilities, the intrusion of work into those spaces is an annoyance at best.
David Creelman: Too late.  Weisure is here. Personally I interweave business and pleasure—was that trip to Paris really just to maximize my net present value? But each individual has to find their own way of being.
Kris Dunn (Founder of Fistful of Talent): Unless you are an hourly worker in America, boundaries between work and leisure are dead. Work bleeds into life, and life bleeds into work. People have the smart phone, aka the "digital leash". Work will never be the same. It's already gone.
Richard Hadden: I don’t know if “weisure” is necessarily good for business or not, but I am reasonably convinced that it’s a part of life as we know it in the first decade of the 21st century. If a “weisure” lifestyle is here to stay, there should be limits within which both the employee and the employer should work. It takes organization, skill, discipline, and a measure of assertion, but I believe that the purposes of work and of leisure can be met simultaneously.
Lance Haun: I've fortunately never heard of this term but I don't think it is bad for business. Now it might be bad for the employee but a good employer should recognize the boundary issues and seek to define it for people that have trouble with the concept.
Sharlyn Lauby (President of ITM Group): I’m cool with the idea of weisure. Hate the name…maybe we can call it something else? Reminds me of the band Weezer. Businesses need to deal with work time, productivity and results in the high tech world.


And the last word goes to the lady of Punk Rock HR blog fame……


Laurie Ruettimann: Weisure is an offensive term. Boundaries are healthy and important to maintain. I'm more than just an extension of the company's brand. So are you. Take the day off.

So what do you think? Do you have set rules in place? Do you let you iPhone or Blackberry govern your social activities?

Ultimately Laurie is quite right when she tells us to 'take the day off', and it is a sentiment that my wife would definately echo, but come-on, it doesn't happen anymore does it?

Should job seekers be turning to their drama teachers to improve their interview chances?

With more people than ever going to job interviews with a need to succeed (thanks to the damned recession), has the time come for a new breed of coach to enter the stage? With so many people attending interviews for each job, it is now how you present and portray yourself at the interview, that is as likely to get you the job, as is the content of your CV. Is now the right time to tap up your old drama teacher for some hints and tips?

I am not talking about transforming yourself from Frodo the Hobbit into Brad Pitt; or from Hannah Montana into Kate Winslett. What I mean is improving the way you present yourself, and the delivery of your information at the interview itself.

The unspoken message that is transmitted through speech and body language is now as important as the content of your carefully presented presentation in interview. A growing number of people in business now are turning to drama and voice specialists to help them improve their delivery and boost their confidence when faced with a crucial presentation. So why don't job seekers look to this route as well? Well, this seems to be becoming more prevalent in the interview marketplace as more and more career coaches, life coaches and interview coaches are now turning to advise job seekers around the delivery of the interview more so than the content of the interview itself.

Personally, I've been doing some of this for year's with candidates, although some of its quite basic: don't mumble, speak clearly; don't stare at the ground; smile at the interviewer; make sure you have good eye contact. I guess you would call these things 'stating the obvious', but nevertheless, so many job seekers make these basic mistakes all the time.
Is now the right time to start considering talking to experts that teach drama, about how you present yourself an interview?  So many 'experts' - career coaches, interview coaches, career guidance etc -  focus on the content of an interview to make sure you say the right thing. While they might get you to say the right thing, many times it is the behavioral aspects of the actual interview that will be the real difference in deciding who gets the job. It could be what you have worn to the interview, the way you walked in the interview room, your handshake your own demeanor and your initial level of confidence that really make the difference in interview.

The top drama teacher Kenneth Rea who directs plays and teaches acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama has five tips for people who are terrified or who wants an extra confidence boosting when it comes to interviews:

1. Use positive body language, eye contact and a good firm handshake. Concentrate on giving off enthusiastic energy so you appear upbeat and confident.

2. Try to exude effortless authority: be animated that economical, without fidgety gestures or superfluous mannerisms.

3. Speak clearly with energy and variety. Loss of confidence comes out in a voice which trials away becomes a monotone as we stopped breathing. Consciously practice taking energy in the voice through to the end of a sentence.

4. Listen carefully to what is said. People like to talk about themselves, so focus on others not yourself, and to paraphrase President Kennedy "ask what you can do for people, not what they can do for you", an attitude that helps you build up a network of influence.

5. Put yourself in a positive frame of mind. If you feel down, this comes across in body language and voice and it's hard to listen to ideas expressed in a downbeat way. Enthusiasm is attractive and infectious so be positive. It's obvious that often hard to deliver in practice.

These are great tips from Kenneth Rea, but should job seekers really go all the way and engage voice or drama coaches to improve their chances? I for one think it is a brilliant idea - if people can afford to do it - as we all need to improve our delivery and presentation skills. can it be a bad thing to want to improve your interview chances?

The most common mistakes made on LinkedIn

As we all know LinkedIn, is a fantastic online networking site aimed solely at business people. But many people make many basic errors in trying to use the website.

While reading a couple of presentations on Slideshare, I came across a presentation by Daniel Alfon entitled "Advanced LinkedIn Guide for puzzled 2009 job seekers". While the presentation is very long at 115 slides, there is some great advice in there.

He has compiled a list of common mistakes broken down by number of connections, which is what I want to share with you:

Most common mistakes for LinkedIn users under 70 connections

1. Actions going against LinkedIn "behaviour"
2. Sloppy, off brand, halfbaked profile
3. Unsophisticated Tagline/current
4. Introductions sent to 3rd/4th degrees through weak connections
5. Duplicate accounts with a single (work) email address
6. Hysterical privacy-related misunderstandings (this one is a bit of a mystery to me, I must admit!)

Most common mistakes for LinkedIn users with 70-200 connections

1. Operation LinkedIn Vs LinkedIn seen as a process
2. Inconsistent Connection Policy
3. Little leveraging of Applications
4. Canned, unthoughtful invites and requests
5. Posting with little long term thought
6. Evangelising LinkedIn such as re inviting non-users, while ignoring other complimentary channels - such as offline networking and online with Twitter

Most common mistakes for LinkedIn users with 200+ connections

1. Low connection quality - little value other than the sheer number of your connections
2. Over updating status a-la-Twitter
3. Off-brand or outdated Application/Groups components
4. Seemingly spamming Answers / Groups with little value, often thinly disguised self-promotion messages

If after these you want a refresher on LinkedIn, my Beginners Guide to LinkedIn PDF is here Download LinkedIn for beginners

There are some great "oh yes" tips here, and it is a good reminder for LinkedIn users. For me though, there is still ONE BIG MISTAKE that many people make on LinkedIn - not completing your profile 100%. This is, as far as I am concerned, a cardinal sin that has to be rectified if you are going to use LinkedIn successfully!

What other tips, that you have found by experience to be crucial to being successful on LinkedIn?

And don't forget if we are not linked up on LinkedIn, please send me an invite to join your network - my profile is here.

Photo credit : Flickr

That's a bit harsh on recruitment consultants..........or is it?

Perception is a powerful word (you only have to look at the picture above to see that!) and for recruitment consultants it can be a bit of a problem!

Generically there are two types of readers of my blog - recruiters and non-recruiters (basically everyone that isn't in recruitment!) So it is going to be interesting to see your feedback to this post. You see this is one of those posts that you are going to find yourself agreeing with (to some extent), or disagreeing with (and probably start a stout verbal defence to anyone that will listen!)

Let me explain....

I have just finished a very good and insightful book called Cityboy by Geraint Anderson. In it he charts his rise through the ranks of the city trading rooms and his experiences in doing so. During this process he has cause to have involvement with recruitment consultants (or headhunters as he refers to them in the book). Below is his perception of them (in his words not mine, I might add here all you Manchester United fans!!)

"Headhunters make traffic wardens, estate agents and even Manchester United supporters seem relatively acceptable human beings. They are essentially parasites living in the bloated stomach of capitalism.
I know that they are just doing a job, but it is the way they are doing it that offends my sensibilities. Just like football agents who have a self interest in promoting as many transfers as possible, headhunters will tell you whatever lies are required to encourage you to switch jobs.
You may think that estate agents getting 2% of the value of your house just for finding a buyer is a complete p*ss-take, but headhunters often receive between 30 and 40% of a new recruit's first year's compensation. When you're dealing with city types who are sometimes earning seven figure salaries that can be discussed in huge amounts of money for essentially doing bugger all.

I've also noticed that these spongers often ring up to get your details just so they can pretend to be involved in a specific job placement even if they have diddly squat to do with it. If you then do switch jobs independently , a headhunter who was got your details can sometimes try and get some blood money by claiming involvement."

So as I said at the beginning of the post, his perception has had a strong bearing on his experience - because although he does go on to use a headhunter to find a job, he treats them with contempt and disrespect - which is obviously not the way that a candidate / consultant relationship should be!

Now I am sure you will have heard some of these 'phrases' describing recruitment consultants before - a liking to estate agents and second hand car sales people are usually the most obvious, but has Geraint got it right?

Is he being a bit harsh? Is this people's perception of recruitment consultants?

OK, so what DO you have to wear to the interview to get a job then?

Is it a sign of the times that 76% of British bosses will make a decision on your suitability for their job,  based on what you are wearing when you sit in front of them at the interview?

Is this really a surprise? I don't think, so as employers have been doing it for years. In candidate driven markets they have had to 'scale down' their expectations and would overlook dress codes (especially when recruiting gen Y'ers). But now the landscape as changed (albeit temporarily), and the hiring companies feel that they have the control back in the interview, which of course they do!

According to this recent Ladders survey of 500 senior bosses from UK companies, over a third of interviewers have cited bad interview appearance as a primary reason for candidate rejection!! Blimey!!

So what should you avoid wearing at an interview?

Ok Men here you go with your no-no's!

1. No tie (52% say fire)
2. No jacket (50% say fire)
3. Chinos (50% say fire)
4. Polo shirts (66% say fire)
5. Jeans (82% say fire)
6. T shirts (88% say fire)
7. Leather jackets (70% say fire)
    

Here you go ladies, don't feel left out...

1. Short skirt (60% say fire)
2. Low necklines (95% say fire)
3. Sports shoes (91% say fire)
4. Dangling jewellery (99% say fire)
5. Bare legs (94% say fire)
6. Big shoulder pads - ala 80's style - (97% of bosses say big shoulder pads are wrong for interview)

I haven't finished yet, as there are more no-no's.....

1. 59% of interviewers, stains and dirty marks will see you out of the interview room immediately
2. 36% of interviewers see co-ordination of colours and styles as an important indication of the candidate’s personality
3. 75% of interviewers will look at whether your clothes are “appropriate for the circumstances”
4. 33% of interviewers said they would consider whether the candidate’s style suited their organisation
5. 95% of interviewers said orange was an inappropriate colour to wear to an interview, with red (84%) and pink (83%) coming in closely behind orange

What have the interviewers got against the 80's? People did get jobs then even with the fashion mistakes you know!!

So after all that, what should you be wearing to your interview?

1. Tailored navy single breasted suit (51% hire)
2. White or blue long sleeved shirt (48% hire)
3. Black leather shoes (56% hire)
4. Black socks (77% hire) (too right here, seen white socks making a comeback again !!)
5. Low key tie (35% hire)
6. Cufflinks (37% hire)
7. and no handkerchief (35% hire) (Come on, who wears a handkerchief in the top pocket any more?)
8. A mid-length black skirt or dress (64% hire) (women, obviously....)
9. Long sleeved and collared shirt or blouse (42% hire)
10. Tights (94% hire)
11. High heels (69% hire)
12. Pearls (56% hire)

Well it seems that we have returned to traditional boring conservative Britain again!! 

The sooner the employment market gets back to normal, and the gen Y'ers can (and maybe the gen Z'ers) can start to break the mold the better! Seriously, do we all have to dress like shop dummies to get a new job?
Well obviously at the moment, while the companies have control, then I am afraid if you want your next job, you better get shopping!!

Do you know what happens to your CV when it arrives on an Employer's or a Recruitment Agency's desk?

As a job seeker looking for a new job, do you know what the primary purpose of your CV/Resume is?

Is it:
a)  Ammunition for the office 'bin basketball' competition?
b)  Paper airplane material?
c)  A guarantee of getting a job?
d)  Something to make the reader of your CV laugh out loud?
e)  A route to a work permit?

Well, if you hadn't already guessed, it is none of the above!

The primary purpose of a CV is to get you an interview with an employer. That's it!
The CV won't get you the job - YOU do that. It just gives you the opportunity to get a job.

As a job seeker, do not send another CV until that has sunk in, because it has massive implications on your job search. Your task in the CV is to just achieve this, so if some of the information on your 8 page CV could be classified as ' would this get them excited enough to invite me for an interview', then get rid of it now!

Here are some other important things to consider before you send your nice new shiny CV off to an employer or recruitment agency:

1. When an employer or recruitment agency is going through CV applications for a role, the average time spent on looking at a CV is no more than 10 seconds (and for many recruitment agencies it is, unbelievably, less). Tip one:First impressions count.
2. At the initial selection stage, your CV will only ever end up in two piles - 'reject' or 'read more'. You will only ever be filtered out at this stage, nothing else.  Tip two: Don't waste your time applying for jobs that just aren't suitable for what your CV says you do - otherwise your rejected applications will grow and grow!
3. Many companies(surprisingly) don't have skilled (and in some cases dedicated) staff carrying out the recruitment process. Tip three: Do all you can to help by making it very clear at the beginning of your CV what you do and what you want to do, in a well written profile.
4. The majority of recruitment staff (and this goes for both companies and recruitment agencies alike ) are not technically minded. So don't try and bamboozle them with technical data and gobbledy-crap - it won't work. Tip four: Explain in legible easy to read and accepted business speak, not techo-geek anachronisms.
5. Many recruitment consultants within recruitment agencies have become CV blind. They see literally 100's and 100's of CV's a day (both incoming and via their CV databases). For this reason they (understandably sometimes) miss good CV's due to the volume they receive. Tip five: If you have sent a CV for a job (making sure you can actually do the job in the first place), don't make the cardinal sin job seekers make by not following up the CV with a phone call.

In this current recessionary climate, there is no doubt that trying to find a job has become a numbers game - don't be under any illusions about that. You will suffer rejection again and again - the thing to remember is not to take it personally. The interviewer doesn't know you, hasn't yet spoken to you, doesn't even know anything about you. All they see is one or two paragraphs of your CV (more if you are lucky), and then they make a decision......the 'reject' or 'read more' pile. As I said it isn't personal!

If you would like any more of my 'words of wisdom', then you can get a free 12 pages pdf of valuable job seekers tips here.

So here are some of my tips for job seekers regarding sending CV applications, but what would you add? What other nuggets of advice would you suggest based on your experiences?

Why does society accept discrimination and yet it is outlawed in the workplace?

 

I feel like I am stepping into the lions den, writing this post today, as it is on the thorny subject of race discrimination - more directly, white vs black.
Within the world of recruitment / employment / job seeking etc the whole subject of discrimination is around us. We are now subject to many restrictions about what we can / can't say, what questions we can't ask because of the risk if inference for something else, and what we are allowed /not allowed to put on career websites etc.
Even with all these legal restrictions, companies still flout the law and blatantly discriminate. So much so that the DWP (Department of Work and Pensions), recently sent out 1000+ bogus applications for jobs, with similar CV's but with 'white' and 'non-white' sounding names. They were trying to prove discrimination is still rife in the employment market - with the (mad) end goal of having nameless CV's!. In my opinion I think that sets a dangerous precedent.

What I can't get my head around is the way that discrimination by skin colour can be so public with things like the MOBO's , Black Movie Awards and (unbelievably in my opinion) the Black Engineer of the Year Awards (and for all these awards ceremonies there is no comparative white awards), and yet in the workplace it is legally outlawed.
These seem to have become an 'accepted' part of society, but do you think that the flip side would be so true? Surely if there were 'White' only award ceremonies, there would be uproar from the 'non-white' community?

So returning to the workplace for a moment, is it any wonder that discrimination still goes on, when 'society' is still giving out very mixed messages to people in a very public way?

Arrgghh! Why are candidates still being muppets at interviews?

This a mini-rant is born out of frustration and disbelief! Yesterday I spent the day with a client during one of their interview events. What I witnessed at the actual interview stages, was both unforgivable and unbelievable - from the candidates being interviewed -  in this current climate of large amounts of unemployment.
As a 'recruitment dinosaur' (someone who has been in the industry for 20+ years!) I have briefed more candidates than I care to remember on interview techniques and expectation - you could say, I tend to overbrief candidates - although you can never give a candidate too much information! So when I sat there yesterday listening to the responses to some standard 'every interview has them' questions, I was completely stunned with the answers given....or rather lack of answers!! And bear in mind here, that 99% of the candidates interviewed all had 2:1 degrees and above, and all really wanted it as their dream job!

There were three questions that nearly every interview asks, and yesterday was no different:

1. What are your strengths and/or weaknesses?
2. What motivates you? (or What gets you out of bed in the morning?)
3. Why do you want this job?

The answers varied from bad to awful to zero (Yes! One graduate couldn't even unbelievably answer the second question!!)

So my message is a simple one - if you are attending interviews for a new job, make sure you PREPARE FOR THE INTERVIEW otherwise you are completely wasting both yours and the company's time by even attending in the first place. You might as well just go and sit on a park bench and talk to the ducks, for all the good it is going to do!

Don't be a muppet - you know these questions (and other obvious ones) will be asked of you, so make sure that have thought about it, and what you are going to say in reply. These are basic, bog-standard interview questions, they are not exactly a curve ball question - but many many people sitting in an interview screw them up time and time again!  If you are really stuck (or being really thick) then Google it - many others have written the perfect answers for these questions.

Answer them well, and it will impress the interviewer;  answer them badly and you can go back to talking to the ducks - again, again and again!!