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September 8, 2014 Leave a Comment

Ask the Employment Specialist: Is Cold Calling REALLY Dead?

Drawing of a typewriter with the words "Dear Employment Specialist"Dear Joanna

I have been advised by my JVS Job Developer to start cold calling for a job, an information interview and/or co-op placement. I participated in a cold calling workshop and understand how this technique can be used to tap into the hidden job market and build a professional network.I am terrified to pick up the phone and talk to strangers. Is this an appropriate strategy for the job search?

Signed: Terrified of Calling (TC)


Dear TC,

In recent years, with the onset of social media, there have been countless articles positing that cold calling is dead. I am a big believer in learning and applying all the skills, techniques and strategies in a job search, including cold calling, but I disagree: cold calling is not dead. It’s just different in this complicated and competitive labour market.

Career coach Robert Hellman featured in Susan Adams’ article in Forbes, How Cold Calling Can Land You A Job has some fantastic advice on cold calling that I have combined with my recommendations, which I apply in my cold calling that I use to build my professional network and business in my role as a Job Developer at JVS Toronto.

1. Targeted and deep research.

Decide where you want to work and research the companies, the industry and best contacts there. Following a consultative sales model, I would identify (prospect) the employees with the decision-making power or hiring manager of the department where you wish to work. Use social media to research the profiles of these individuals. Understand their resumes, join their groups, and follow them on social media. Before you pick up that cold telephone or email, learn as much as you can about the targeted individuals and company’s hiring practices, the workplace culture and opportunities. I wouldn’t even say no to cold calling the president of the company as well regardless of where you are in the hierarchy of the organization work.

2. Use LinkedIn, Facebook, Google and the company website to get contact information.

Many people list their contact information on their LinkedIn or Facebook pages. Company websites frequently include directories. Switchboards will often give out direct dial numbers and extensions.

3. Write a specific subject line for your email.

Come up with a phrase or sentence that will make the reader want to open the email, like “discuss development and fundraising ,” or “your AdWeek article about sales strategies.” LinkedIn can also show you whether you have any contacts in common and those can produce good subject lines, like “we’re both connected to Susan Adams and Fred Allen.” (Check out an article in this blog about writing emails that get noticed for more information about this topic).

4. Focus on your value to the employer.

Prepare a bullet point list of your accomplishments in advance for the cold call or email. They should be quick and specifically explain their relevancy to the company and/or positions you are contacting. Think about how your work would apply to a potential employer. Focus on your value to them. Quantify your achievements with numbers, saying you boosted revenues by 27% in your first year or doubled market response within two years by adopting a new testing program, for example.

5. Follow up.

After you cold call, send the first email, wait three days. Then follow up by forwarding the original email with a short sentence saying something like, “Hi, I’m touching base about the email I sent. Would you be available to set up a meeting?” Leave only one voicemail. It’s a good idea to phone repeatedly but only leave one message. If you leave multiple voice mails, your target may feel stalked.

8. Boil your verbal pitch down to 15 seconds.

Research something special about the company or the person you are calling. Did they win an award? Were they featured in an interview on the radio of television? Did they write something interesting to your profession? Begin the pitch with something positive that you learned about them and/or their firm. Recognize their achievement. Share this information as a warm up. If you get through to a CEO or senior executive on the phone, you will need to make your point quickly, while asking for a 20 minute meeting. Don’t be disappointed if they turn you down. If you make a good impression, they will likely send your contact info to someone else. Most companies are on the hunt for good people.

9. Use the words “mutually beneficial” in your email and phone call.

Make it clear that your goal is to help the potential employer achieve their goals.

10. Send the resume only when asked.

Don’t attach your résumé to the email, unless you know there is a job opening for which you’d be well suited. Otherwise, focus on your stated goal, of helping the potential employer.

11. Ask for 20 minutes.

Most people can spare this amount of time and it’s enough of an interval for you to learn something about a company or institution. In your email and phone call, ask if the person can meet in person.

12. Express gratitude.

When you meet, emphasize what you can do for them. Spend the rest of the time listening to what they need so you can follow up with a thank-you note that emphasizes how you can contribute to solving their problems.

Good luck!

Joanna

By Donna Chabot Filed Under: Career Voice: Blog Tagged With: #coldcalling, co-op placement, cold calling, cold calling is dead, find work, hidden job market, information interview, job search, jobsearch

August 18, 2014 Leave a Comment

Ask the Employment Specialist: Am I Really Overqualified for the Job?

Portrait of pensive Asian businesswoman wearing costume standing in office holding coffee cup and looking out windowDear Joanna,

I was invited for a job interview last week for a senior accountant position and didn’t get a job offer. When I asked for feedback from the hiring manager, he said that I was “overqualified.” How can having too much experience and strong skills be negative? Also, it feels like they are belittling my credentials and experience that I worked so hard to get. Why did they invite me to an interview after reviewing my resume?

Please explain this mystery to me.

Signed: Unfair Feedback


Dear Unfair,

You’ll find some excellent thoughts behind such painful and unreasonable sounding feedback from bloggers J.T. O’Donnell and Toni Bowers.

1. The hidden agenda. Donnell is adamant that this overqualified feedback is merely a “catch-all excuse that hiring managers, recruiters and HR use to politely eliminate you from the candidate pool”, suggesting that if employers said what they were really passing on you for, it would seem silly, petty, or down-right discriminatory.

2. Your personality isn’t a match for the company culture. You were either too upbeat or too low-key and came across wrong. Your personality is perceived as rubbing an existing employee the wrong way and the employer doesn’t want to deal with the drama that hiring you would bring. Bowers suggests that the hiring manager might be really thinking: “I don’t like you, can’t see working with you every day, and I just don’t want to be rude.” You didn’t connect with the hiring manager, and maybe even annoyed them; employers assume that if they didn’t feel comfortable with you in the interview, it will only get worse over time.

3. You don’t look like you would fit in. Your attire indicated that you weren’t the type of person that would be a fit for the organization. (Yes, what you wear matters. People have been known to discriminate because of clothing!)

4. You seem like a slow worker. Your speech was slow and methodical, and gave off the impression that you wouldn’t be able to keep up with the pace of the work environment.

5. You are too expensive. You have too many degrees and/or were paid too much previously. Plus, there is an assumption that you will get bored quickly or quit when a better job comes along, leaving the employer to have to start looking again.

6. You didn’t seem reliable. Your answers to questions made it appear like you had health issues, personal life challenges, or attendance issues that would cause you to not be on-time and accountable.

7. You acted like a know-it-all in the interview. You said, “Well, at my old company, we did it this way...” one too many times. Plus, you oversold yourself. As a result, you gave off the impression that you weren’t ready to learn something new, nor ready to adapt to a different environment than the one you were in.

8. You didn’t seem like you really knew what you were talking about. You came across as not having as much expertise as your resume indicated. You didn’t answer questions in the way expected.

9. The employer had already found the candidate (s)he wanted, and interviewing you was just a formality. Some hiring managers, by law or company policy, have to post and interview for jobs. Many times, they already have who they want to hire. So, they just go through the process to cover their bases.

10. The hiring manager feels threatened by you. Sometimes, the hiring manager might feel afraid if the candidate seems more qualified for the position than they are, they might threaten their job. Bowers clarifies that if you are more qualified but can convey sincerely to the employer that you respect their position and don’t want it, you might overcome this challenge and get hired. In fact, I know many hiring managers who like to hire people whom they feel are smarter or more accomplished than them in certain areas as a way to strengthen their team.

11. There are organizational problems going on that the company does not want to share. The true reasons behind a verdict of “overqualified” could range from running out of money from the time the ad was placed to the time of your interview, to something more insidious, like the company doing interviews to gauge the market or “price shop” when it really has no intent of hiring anyone. In this scenario you will likely never get the truth, since few companies will admit they were wasting your time and giving false hope while trying to do market research.

Try to gather information and learn some lessons from the feedback. O’Donnell stresses the need to go to the source and ask for the reasons behind the verdict of “overqualified”. Make sure that you frame the discussion as an opportunity for personal improvement to try to improve your prospects, rather than a vindictive witch hunt. While this route is often successful, be prepared for the possibility of more vague feedback, since like most of us, hiring managers have their secrets. If you cannot get any constructive feedback, learn what you can from the interviewing process and move on to the next one. Beating yourself up will do nothing to help you move forward.

Joanna

By Donna Chabot Filed Under: Career Voice: Blog Tagged With: Discrimination, employment interview, find work, get hired, interviews, job interviewing, job search, overqualified for the job, rejection, unemployed

July 28, 2014 Leave a Comment

Ask the Employment Specialist: Should I look for The Perfect Job?

Business people shaking handsDear Joanna,

I am looking for work and although I have not had any luck so far, I insist on waiting for the perfect job that I know will provide me with happiness, a sufficient income and satisfaction. My friends, family and Employment Counsellor disagree with me. Based on their experiences, there is no such beast as a perfect job.

Is it a mistake to want the perfect job?

Signed: Waiting for Perfection


Dear Waiting,

In an informative article on this issue, Folker Wrage, an advertising consultant, suggested that “most of us keep looking for the perfect job for almost all of our careers, and never find it.”, suggesting that if we are set on such a position, perhaps we need to create that job or business ourselves. Gwen Knowles covers this topic as well, stressing a need to take action, open up your options and “dip in before you chose which route to pursue”.

Do not limit your search for that perfect job or career that closely match your skills and experience, advises Knowles; instead, she advises to aim for companies who might hire you, and not companies where you’d love to work.

Knowles presents four suggestions that will hopefully help you change your thinking and be more successful in your job search:

1. Embrace Exploration.

Instead of picking a single career path, why not sample a few? Consider this your invitation to the career ‘buffet’, where you can have a taste of an assortment of options available.

2. Try new things.

Take a risk rather than feel like your choices are all or nothing. Often job seekers have a feeling that they shouldn’t explore a career option unless they are sure it’s the right one, because they don’t want to make another mistake. This pressure can stop you before you start. The opposite is true. You aren’t committing to anything yet; you’re just exploring for a while, in a new direction (or ten!). What roles would you love to explore? What would be really fun to find out about? Some actions to consider might be job shadowing, create a basic website if you have an idea for a new business, and use friends as tester customers; participate in a relevant workshop or course to see if you really enjoy it; volunteer or conduct an information interview.

3. Don’t be afraid and learn from your failures.

There is tremendous pressure that you put on yourself to find that perfect job, especially when you aren’t sure what “right” looks like. Does the fear of failure hold you back from experimenting? Treat your career search as an experiment or creative project. Give yourself permission to try new things and delve into new areas.

4. Explore your passion and values.

Identify those hidden values, passions and skills. What are your hidden values, passions and skills that drive you? You’ll know them as the urges you have had throughout your life; fascination with a field of work, a desire to build particular skills, or a sense of joy at the thought of following a certain path. Your unique personal values stay with you throughout your life. Ask this question: If you give yourself permission to explore your heart’s desires, what fields of work would you be looking at now? What are the roles that you are really drawn to, no matter how far they are from your previous training and experience?

Allowing yourself to explore work that matches who you crave being inside is a huge leap towards finding work that fulfills you, instead of focusing on that perfect job.

Joanna

By Donna Chabot Filed Under: Career Voice: Blog Tagged With: creative job search, explore careers, find work, job search, learn from failures, perfect job, picky job seeker

June 30, 2014 1 Comment

Ask the Employment Specialist: Job Scams

Drawing of a typewriter with the words "Dear Employment Specialist"Dear Joanna,

This is a true story. I applied for a job posting on Craigslist for the position of customer service representative. I immediately received an email from the owner of the company with an employment contract attached for me to complete, sign and return by email. The form requested all of my personal details, including my social insurance number. I admit that I was excited to be offered a job, after a year of rejection and frustration with my hundreds of job applications. However, I am concerned about providing my personal details to a total stranger without an interview at least.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Signed: Fraud Alert (FA)


Dear FA,

I’m so glad you contacted me with this question. Do not email anyone your Social Insurance Number or personal details if you have no real evidence that the organization and person are for real. The question of how to determine if you are experiencing a job posting scam or a real job is important. Steffen Allen, Senior Recruiter at Brainhunter, provides some important warning signs and techniques to determine if the employment opportunity is legitimate or not:

1. Be very careful.

This is the first step when you are applying for jobs online, or even in person. There is no shortage of identity-theft, scams, rip-offs and illegitimate companies and job postings in the city and on the internet. It’s impossible to police so many people and places. I would always check out your concerns or the actual job posting with your mentor, job developer and/or employment counsellor before you apply, so you can prevent anything bad happening. You can learn about a standard job application process through our agency.

Allen warns never to NEVER EVER provide a social insurance number until a job offer is given, accepted and the company is verified. Companies will never send a job offer before an interview or phone conversation at the very minimal.

2. Research research research.

Is there a website for the company advertising their position? Can you Google the company and owner? If not, then it might be a scam. I only apply for jobs with legitimate and comprehensive websites with full disclosure of their company name, location, telephone, emails, and contact people lists. I would also Google the address to make sure it’s real. Look for any reports of negative news and reputations.

3. Analyze the job details.

Again, it’s important that the job description be transparent, clear and informative, with an idea of the compensation package. An actual amount might not be listed, but you should have an idea of the payment structure. For example, does the posting indicate a base and commission with the customer service role, or is it an hourly wage?

4. Asking for money and more.

The website Scam Warmers presents the following red flags that confirm that the job and company are frauds. DO NOT PAY A PENNY TO ANY EMPLOYER before getting the job. Avoid jobs that ask you to use your personal bank account, to open a new bank account, to use your credit card, mail, cash a check or money.

5. Check the company’s references.

You have every right to ask the company or employer for references. Request a list of other employees or customers. Then, contact the references to ask about the company. If the company refuses to provide references, then stay away from this opportunity.

6. Beware of quick rich fixes.

Any job that promises getting rich fast or guarantees tons of money is one that you should stay away from. Nothing happens by magic or quickly, whether it’s a job offer or losing weight. This all takes time and is a process.

I really hope that I have saved you from this scammer. You deserve to work for a legitimate and transparent company with fair compensation and a healthy workplace.

Joanna

By Donna Chabot Filed Under: Career Voice: Blog Tagged With: find work, fraud, job scams, job search, job search risks, scams

June 9, 2014 Leave a Comment

Ask the Employment Specialist: Do I Tell my Manager that I’m Looking for Work?

man conducting a job search onlineDear Joanna,

I am looking for another job. I have mentioned this in my social media profiles, especially LinkedIn. I feel like I have reached a glass ceiling in my current position and am looking for better and bigger opportunities to make more money and continue to grow in my career.

Should I tell my boss that I am trying to get another job?

Signed: Share The Search (STS)


[Read more…]

By Donna Chabot Filed Under: Career Voice: Blog Tagged With: boss, find work, job search, job search while working, tell manager

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