Master Career Counselor

  
Infographic by U.S. News University Directory, your source for the Best Allied Health Programs Online.

The greatest predator of today's job seeker is the roaring lion of discouragement.   It slowly feeds on the carcass of  non-existent feedback from potential employers. It soon becomes the king in a den of bitterness. No employer response. No call back. No indication of connection. No return email. No interview follow-up.  


Like a devastating storm, certain variables easily converge forming a turbulent self-defeating mindset earnestly believing no employer is hiring.  The pattern is the same: 


1. See a posted opening.
2. Apply online.
3. Wait for employer response.


Soon, there is a decrease in motivation, focus, engagement and follow-through. The anxiety of being chased by failure is palpable. 


How exactly do you break free? 


Create a positive climate for success


The number #1 reason for discouragement is no reciprocal contact from a potential employer. Let me illustrate the point in this all too common scenario.


Jane was down-sized and has been looking earnestly for employment over six months.  
She searches the yellow pages and finds a career counselor. In a moment of intense exasperation, defeat and self-doubt, she expresses her raw emotions.



"I've never had to look for a job in my life! I put together a resume, applied for openings and have tried to get hired for over 100 openings.  Not one single call from an employer!  What is wrong with me?"  It is depressing and humiliating to get laid off.  Finding work is even worse."


Jane represents a lot of today's unemployed workers. Many feel the bite of betrayal, deep anger and discouragement.  They rhetorically ask, "How can you invest your life in a company for so long, do great work and still be let go?"


There is no simple answer to this question.  It is a consequece of an emerging economy that demands productivity and doesn't validate perpetual longevity. It demands knowledge and a short term relationship of high productivity.


Job-seekers like Jane can send 1,000 resumes to employers and never hear a word.  It isn't that they aren't hiring.  


The obvious gaps:


1. Jane's mode of job search is obsolete.
2. Jane needs to know the effective method and embrace it.
3. Jane needs to know somebody does have a need for her core competencies of a strong work ethic and organizational expertise.


Yet, before Jane experiences job search success, she must first slay the lion of pessimism and discouragement with her bare hands of optimism and endurance.
In the next post, I'll tell you how.

The most successful job search strategy begins when you're not seeking employment.   It is the simple, yet critical skill of developing interdependent relationships that are mutually beneficial. This type of relationship gives and takes in an equal exchange of ideas and common bonds.  No small talk.  No synthetic animation. No fake conversations. Just real relationship building.


The degree (strong or weak) of this relational connectivity is directly correlated to your job search success. Think about it.  The smaller the circle of relationships, the fewer opportunities to job leads.  The greater and broader the circle of connection, the more likely you are to land the interview that gets the job. 


BRUTAL HONESTY


For some people, a long and depressing job search is a consequence of not being intentional and available for relationship building.  Isolation and loneliness are the greatest barriers to overcome when seeking employment. It is never too late to connect and express care. Just being available to respond and develop a relationship with others could change your life and get you to work.


We get so busy and think relationships can wait.  Next month.  Next year.  And of course before we know it, an unexpected job loss has us reeling in a sea of pure despair.  It is then we recognize the island we've become. To make matters worse,  the awkwardness of not knowing where to begin is downright overwhelming.


WHAT TO DO?


Start from scratch.  Make that call.  Build the relationships you were meant for.  Here are a few simple ways to connect:

• Cook dinner for a neighbor and take it to them including a note of appreciation 
• Join a book club
• Attend a neighborhood association gathering and meet who lives around you
• Attend an alumni event of your high school or college
• Visit the career center of your college and ask for help
• Join the board of a local charity you are passion about
• Volunteer at your local school to tutor
• Have people who are acquaintances over for dinner at least monthly

I can't tell you how many times I experience the following conversation with a client:


Job-seeker: "It is terrible out there in my search for employment. I can't seem to land a single interview.  How awful it is that who you know gets you the job.  It just isn't fair."


Me: "Tell me about your personal relationships with friends, community and former colleagues..."


Job-seeker:"What do you mean?  Like, how many people do I know?"


Me: "Yes, tell me about how you're connected to other people through friendships, organizations, and the neighborhood you live in."


Job-seeker: "When I worked, I was too busy to make friends a priority.  I've never volunteered and I went home after work too tired to socialize.  Now, I'm too busy applying online to see people. To tell you the truth, I don't know where to begin."


This conversation expands from an imperative dialogue challenging the assumption that connections get you the job (they don't) to an intense regret of not making the time for what is truly important.


Your connections will likely get you the interview.  You get you the job.


Without these connections, how will you know what jobs are available?


The greatest success finding a job is within the context of interdependent relationships.  The person too busy to build them sees just how important they are when a pink slip is in their hand.


The next step for you is to terminate your belief that relationships take too much time.  

The reality is not building them is detrimental.


In the next blog, I'll discuss in detail the most successful strategy employers use to find new hires.  Now, go call somebody and have lunch together.

Finding employment after losing a job can be isolating, discouraging and downright terrifying for many people. Being down-sized and tossed into the sea of joblessness can be daunting and overwhelming.

But, there is GREAT news for those who don't want to go it alone.

There is a power strip of job search success you can plug into.

The surge of energy and connection meet to empower you when you attend a job club.

A job club is a supportive group and environment that helps overcome the challenges of fierce competition by providing feedback as you prepare to search, interview and land a job.


The Job Club Power Surge

Read this recent article about Eastern Kentucky Job Clubs. It is a proven fact that jobseekers find employment faster with a supportive group.  Here is a job club video piece from Kentucky (you have to tolerate a short commercial).

Typical job clubs are held weekly and bring together jobseekers to share leads, network and provide feedback to one another.

Job clubs are the job attainment power strip with relational sockets that attach you to employers, community resources and vital encouragement. The power of job clubs is when multiple jobseekers receive energy from a single source of support: themselves.  It is an incredible help to know that you are not alone in your search.

If you're looking for employment, first find a job club near you to hasten the process and make a daunting challenge much more manageable. In my home state of Kentucky, The Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program does it right.

If you want your job search to surge with success, then find a job club now.  It is the convergence of energy and connection.

I recently had lunch with the most influential teacher of my life. Mrs. Oatley, a music teacher, entered the profession 40 years ago when I was in fourth grade.  She went on to become an elementary school principal and has made a huge contribution in the educational field. Now a consultant, she thrives in a life of great faith and love.

For me, she has always been a steady influence as I entered high school, then college and then into the complicated life of adulthood. I taught alongside her for five years as a colleague in my early teaching career.

She hasn't been in my life on a daily basis, but the lessons I learned from her are with me everyday.

• Music is a sacred gift that reaches the soul when nothing else can
• Faith is the central tenet of living because anything is possible
• Love what you do and do it to the best of your ability
• If you make a difference in one person's life then you lived well

For those who had Mrs. Oatley as a teacher, surely you remember her beauty and charm. She walked into the classroom with a smile everyday. 
Today, she is just as beautiful and her smile resonates as it did so many years ago. One of my business colleagues stopped by our table and took this picture:

Teachers like Mrs. Oatley take the burning iron of education and brand these words in the hearts of students:

YOUR GOD GIVEN TALENT WILL TAKE YOU AS FAR AS YOU'RE WILLING TO GO. DON'T SHRINK BACK.  FULLY GRASP THE POTENTIAL YOU HAVE.  I PROMISE NOT TO STAND IN YOUR WAY.  

Make sure to join our national Twitter chat called #Schools2Life with me and Edward Colozzi. It takes place on the 2nd and 4th Thursday evenings of each month at 8:00pm EST. 

http://tweetchat.com/room/schools2life

I wonder what life would be like if I had the raw and determined courage to overcome what I fear most.
When used correctly, fear is my best friend in an unanticipated moment like walking in a dark and eery parking lot alone. It quickens my senses to be on guard.   However, when fear is the default setting in my mind to anything or anyone pushing me outside the boundaries of comfort,  fear becomes a downright bully.
Life is a classroom and the most demanding teacher is time. Professor chronology waits on no one and if the bully of fear sits at the desk with my name on it; the classroom goes silent and every teaching opportunity is paused.  That is, everything but the clock on the wall.  It ticks right on.
Our own mortality is the principal of the school called "life". We all have a meeting someday in that office. In complete honesty, I'm more afraid of the principal than the bully.
 I know someday and in one moment, my summons to exit the premises will occur.  Class time will be over and my teacher will retire. I don't know the exact moment the intercom will blare my name but it is inevitable.
 I will exit never to return.
 Lately, I've been more aware of other people exiting life's classroom much too early. I also have a favorite classmate, my 93 year old grandmother who is restless at her desk not wanting to leave but not wanting to stay either.
So here are the questions on the powerpoint slide of my classroom:
1. Will I meet my principal with a diploma in my hand? It isn't based on grades, achievements or advanced placement courses. It is the syllabus containing all the course objectives of my life that I embraced or ignored.
 2. Will I graduate with honors? The honors are relationships I've been entrusted to nurture, develop and enrich. The irony is what I'm entrusted to nurture is the very thing that causes me to grow.
 3. Will I meet my principal as a petrified drop-out, illiterate in perseverance and hope?
4. Did I excuse myself from fields trips because I couldn't muster signing the permission slip?
5. Did I take advantage of periodic recesses or have lunch at the table of  community? 
6. Did I participate in the endless opportunities for extra curricular activities that expanded my skills or connected me to people I wouldn't have met?

How about you? Do you wonder what  your career or life would be like if you had the raw courage to punch the face of fear?  Living life can be summed up in three major points.

Death is as much a part of life as living is.

I dedicate this blog post to Chris Edmonds, an amazing voice for effective leadership. As I sit next to him in the Twitter classroom #LeadFromWithin he has become a great blessing in my life.

Quick review!

1.  Most if not all companies have one of three types of culture you need to know as your resume is developed.  Your formation style speaks the language of a culture by the words you use.
Read that post here.

2. The hallmark indicators of each culture is critical to understand in today's job market. Read explanation here.

Yes, these three cultures of heritage, contemporary and progressive may seem broad.

However, company preferences can be divulged in their job description and relished when reading your resume.


READ THAT LAST SENTENCE AGAIN.

My premise:

Understanding the link between company culture and resume formation is the first step in igniting the chemical reaction that results in an interview.

This post reveals the effective strategies you can implement to attract the employer you desire or repel the one you don't.


The Heritage Employer

1.  The resume is used by this employer to weed you out.  It is a rake to pull you away.  Many look for why not to interview you.  They instantly find your gaps and inconsistencies.  So if your resume is functional, you don't have a prayer. Only a chronological resume is considered on white or cream-colored paper.  They may prefer that you fax it or send a hard copy through postal delivery.

2. High value on key words emphasizing depth and length:

Dedicated
Devoted
Adheres to rules
Knows policy and procedures
Respects authority
Loyal
Long work history
Qualifications
Strong work ethic

3. They prefer headings such as:

Career Objective
Summary of Qualifications
Work History
Employment
Relevant Experience
Work History
Education
References

Most often used job description words:

Duties
Responsibilities
As assigned

They want to know what you have and haven't done in the past.

The Contemporary Employer

1.  Typically, the resume is reviewed for less than 15 seconds to place your document in one of two piles. Many contemporary employers use software to screen the multitude of resumes they receive on a daily basis. They search for a match to their need.   They instantly look how you fill their gap with your consistent results.

Goal
Skill-Set Highlights






Goal
Business Expertise
Knowledge
Aptitude
Industry Recognition