Folks, I’m writing this from my hometown of Fredonia, New York on a drizzly Sunday morning. Actually, as I’ve been writing this newsletter, the drizzle has turned to a spring snow (which brings to mind the old joke about how many seasons we have in Buffalo – “Two. Winter and the Fourth of July.”)
But, nonetheless, spring is upon us in most of the country, and it seems like a good time for me to share with you, once again, the basics of the $100k+ job hunt and what we’ve learned about it here at TheLadders.com.
We’re fortunate enough to have helped several million people through their job hunt over these past five years. And in that time, we’ve learned quite a bit about what makes a successful $100k+ job hunt and what areas still stump people like you. That is to say, smart, professional, successful people like you who are experts in their field, but who, quite understandably, have never had the inclination (or the misfortune) to develop an expertise in job hunting.
With that in mind, I’m going to go into some length this Monday morning on what I’ve learned about making your job hunt successful. So if it turns out that this newsletter is too long to read in one sitting, please keep it in your inbox, and when you’re looking to take a break from your tax forms this week, just pull it back out and distract yourself from Uncle Sam for a few minutes here.
Here’s an overview of what you should know about the $100k+ job hunt:
What are you looking for?
Why a logical progression is important.
More money?
Interviewing.
Do something!
What are you looking for? Well, let’s start at the beginning…
What are you really looking for in your next job? What’s important to you? I’m consistently amazed at how many of us start (and end) the whole job hunt process without a good idea of what we’re looking for and what is really going to make us better off.
Now, a lot of that is because, historically, it seemed like putting the cart before the horse. Since it was so difficult to find out what was available out there, there didn’t seem to be much sense in getting your hopes up or getting your heart set on any particular job ahead of time. For a long time, the standard operating procedure was to float your resume out there, or inquire discreetly in the industry, and then make your best choice from the available options.
Thankfully, that’s changed. For two reasons, really.
First, a greater and greater proportion of the workforce, and the overwhelming number of jobs created, are no longer in the biggest companies. It is the small, dynamic, growing companies of the economy that represent almost all, on a percentage basis, of the new positions created.
So while in the past, the options were limited to the two or three big companies in your industry, today there are dozens, and sometimes even hundreds or thousands of choices out there. And while that can seem daunting, fortunately along came…
Number two, the internet. As a means for collecting information from every nook and cranny of the country and then spreading that information far and wide, the internet as a medium far surpasses “old media.” What Monster and Careerbuilder have done in the middle-market jobs, what Jobing and SnagAJob have done in the hourly market, and what we here at TheLadders have done in the high-end, is to collect all of that widely dispersed information in one place, readily accessible to you, and provide the most comprehensive view for a job seeker of the options out there.
And what this means is that the power is now in your hands. But, remember, with that power comes responsibility. And in this case, that responsibility is to yourself.
You owe it to yourself to sit down and take stock before embarking on your job hunt and really think through what it is you are looking for. Is it career advancement? Is it more money? Is it a more collegial environment, a chance to work with ground-breaking technologies, the ability to spend more time with the kids while they’re still in high school, or a chance to give something back to the community?
The more time you spend upfront, thinking through these issues, the better you’ll be able to target your efforts while you’re actually job searching. It’s often overlooked, but one of the least understood facets of the job hunt is the level of fatigue it can produce -- when we meet with subscribers in focus groups they tell us over and over that the job hunt is, itself, a full-time job.
And the key to making effective use of your time in this additional, full-time job is to target your efforts and resources toward those jobs and companies that make the most sense for your goals.
With all the options now available to you in companies of every size across the country, and with the internet as a tool to understand all the information available in advance, it just makes sense to really and truly ask yourself, in your heart of hearts: “What am I looking for?”
Why a logical progression is important.
We periodically dig into the statistics on our site to try and answer the questions: “Who finds their next job on TheLadders.com and who doesn’t? Why? What can we learn, and what can we share with our subscribers about successful job hunts as a result?”
When we look at those people who have successfully found their next $100k+ job on TheLadders and compare them to those who haven’t, we invariably find that seeking a logical progression in job responsibilities is key.
Those people who a) have a clear background in their area, b) create a consistent set of search criteria that match that background, and c) persistently apply to jobs and reach out to recruiters over a period of several months, have the most success at TheLadders.com:
A sales manager finds her next job as a sales director; a director of marketing becomes a VP, Brand; a VP, Finance moves up to CFO; a VP, Development moves into the CTO role. They’ve applied to jobs that make sense given their past experience and have made contact with the recruiters (both company and outside recruiters) that use our site through our “Find Recruiters” tab. And they stick to it with perseverance, making consistent progress over the course of several months. Those are the traits we’ve found in people successfully placed through TheLadders.com.
And I suppose that’s no surprise: the recruiters and hiring managers that use TheLadders are looking for proven candidates that can fill their jobs today. Stick-to-it-ness always yields rewards. Rather than frittering away your scarce time on listings that just don’t make sense for you, you can spend more time, in a more focused way, on the opportunities that are right for you.
So for those of you who are looking to make a real, clear logical step in your career, congratulations, you’ve made it easy on yourselves (and us!) to help get you into your next job.
But how about those folks who are changing gears? Those of you who are looking to change industries and functions? These kinds of career moves don’t fit into the typical mold and so require special care.
The first thing you must understand is the mentality of the hiring manager or recruiter. While you know and understand all of your capabilities and prior obstacles overcome in the face of great adversity and why that speaks to your great intestinal fortitude, they are simply looking to fill their job with the most obvious candidate possible, and that means somebody who has done it before.
In a way, they are like the buyers of any product. They want something with proven past performance that will fit their current needs. They don’t want to take a risk that a new product will fail to meet their requirements.
In that way, it’s just like any brand extension. The company’s new product (or your new role) has to make sense in the context of its past.
Thus, Pepsi has been very successful in introducing Diet Pepsi, Diet Pepsi Cherry, and Diet Pepsi Decaffeinated. And they bombed when they stretched too far and tried to launch a lemon-lime flavored product called Crystal Pepsi – people weren’t ready for something called “Pepsi” to taste like that. (Though I’m told the product formulation has found a great new niche since it was launched as Sierra Mist.)
Similarly, Arm & Hammer Baking Soda, with its reputation for efficacy in cleanliness, has successfully broadened out into toothpaste and deodorant (it happens to be my brand and it is fantastic!)
And Apple has very, very successfully and logically extended from computers into computerized music players and mobile phones. But if they tried to launch, say, a toaster oven or washing machine, buyers wouldn’t quite understand how that fit in with their brand promise and what they’ve done in the past.
So, my advice for people who are changing gears is to make your next move look as much like a logical progression as possible; take baby steps, and try not to make a wholesale change that won’t make sense to the “buyers” of your product.
If you are looking to switch industries and professions, the best path for you to take is to take one step at a time.
For example, if you’re a technical director in financial services, it is a “bridge too far” to apply to marketing jobs in consumer packaged goods. It is far better to take one step – say, to marketing jobs in financial services, or technical jobs in CPG – than to try to make the double-jump all in one career move.
Whatever your field and industry, it is much better (and easier) to persuade a hiring manager that you can change your field within your industry, or your industry while staying in the same field, than trying to make them accept the likelihood of your success in leaping directly to a new industry and a new field at the same time.
The important thing is to remember that the buyer of your product, the hiring manager who is going to purchase “you” – your services and employment for the next several years – needs to be able to understand how your past performance makes you a sensible fit for this current job. And the one-step career change is a much easier case to make.
More money?
When we survey our subscribers, we consistently find that only 25% are primarily looking for more money in their next position. Factors such as work-life balance, meaningful work, or a better environment all rate higher.
But, inevitably, your job conversations are going to turn to compensation, and I’d like to see you get as much as you deserve, maybe even a bit more!
Because you are selling the most valuable thing you’ll likely ever own – your own human capital: the effort that you are going to put in at your career over the next several years – you really need to view this as a negotiation and a sale.
And, historically, when we are accepting new employment, we have been content to consider one offer at a time, and negotiate each one independently. But that’s not how you are going to get the best deal for this valuable asset.
When you’re selling a car, what’s the best way to get the best price? Is it to meet with potential buyers one at a time, over a period of several months? Well… not really. It’s to put an ad in the paper (or online) and have all the buyers show up at about the same time. That gets competitive juices flowing, and induces your prospects to fear that they might lose out on the opportunity by waiting. At least that’s the way my Uncle Jim used to do it, and it turned out to be a great way to get top dollar for your car.
And when you’re selling a house, what’s the best way to get the best price? Well, the open house is a popular tactic not only because it reduces the hassle of multiple showings but it sends the message that “see, there are a lot of other people interested in this place, so you’d better get out the checkbook and do something before somebody else snaps this one up.”
This list could go on – sports contract negotiations, the rising cost of newly minted Stanford computer science majors in Silicon Valley, etc.
So why, when it comes to your most valuable asset – you – should you be content to take a one-at-a-time approach to speaking with your “buyers?”
Rather, wouldn’t it be smart to get all of your potential prospects competing against each other for your services?
We’ve heard from subscribers who have used the information on TheLadders.com to get just this dynamic going. In fact, our database of jobs is at the size today that I’d even recommend that somebody who happened to have a great job offer that they found someplace other than TheLadders.com, should still sign up for the service to get accurate information about what “market price” is for your specialty and experience, and, even better, get competing offers so as to vastly improve your negotiating leverage.
Because when you have multiple companies competing for your services in a short period of time, that is the best way for you to get the best offer possible – the additional salary, the role negotiated in your favor, the broader set of responsibilities you are seeking. The fear of loss and the competitive dynamic that multiple, simultaneous offers creates can only work to your advantage.
It works for cars, houses, professional baseball players, and Silicon Valley computer scientists… why shouldn’t you put this powerful negotiating stratagem in your corner when it comes time to change your job?
Interviewing.
The interview can be one of those sweaty-hand inducing, stressful situations that make us feel like we’re back in high school. The power dynamics of the situation, the feeling that somebody is going to be judging us based on our performance in a one-hour interview with their questions on their turf, creates a lot of apprehension.
And when we talk to hiring managers, or we reflect on the people who interview for jobs here at TheLadders, it seems that that apprehension can get in the way of a great interview performance.
There are really three important considerations for you to keep in mind:
First, this is not an opportunity for therapy,
Second, this is not a Biography TV special on the “Life of Aron”, and
Third, you should walk into the interview with three key points you want to make, and regardless of the questions, you should ensure that you make them.
Look, the job hunt can be a lonely, frustrating, boring, alienating process. You can’t share your experiences with the people at work, you don’t want to burden your loved ones with the gritty details of your saga, and it can feel like you have this entire weight solely on your own shoulders.
The biggest mistake that I see people make is taking the opportunity of the interview to unload all of these fears, apprehensions, and frustrations on the interviewer. I know, believe me I know, how maddening a process this whole job hunt can be, but it is critically important that you not use the valuable time you have in an interview to relieve yourself of all your complicated feelings about this job hunt. You have only a half-hour or an hour to make your case, and time spent bemoaning your fate is only going to make it more likely that your job hunt is going to last even longer.
Your interviewer is not your therapist, job counselor, career advisor, or even a friendly ear to bend. They are the gatekeeper between you and your next job, and you need to use your time to persuade them about your fit, not abuse them with your fears.
You do need to get a support system – your college buddies, your family, your friends are all there to help you. And even though it can feel like you are burdening them, friends and family want to see you succeed. Get your frustrations out of your system before you step into the interview room.
Secondly, don’t recount your biography. The temptation can be to retell your life story – after all, you’ve lived it, and it is certainly quite a dramatic adventure to you! But an undifferentiated re-telling of your personal history doesn’t make the most effective use of your time. If you spend most of the interview in a chronological discussion of how you got to be the wonderful person that you are today, you’re eating up the time that can be better used making a much more important point – why I am the right person for the job that you are hiring for, Mr. or Ms. Hiring Manager. Which leads us to…
Third, walk into the interview room with three points you want to make. Based on the understandably limited knowledge you have about exactly what the company is looking for, make your best educated guess as to what they’re looking for, find the three most relevant points from your own background, and make those points.
Over the years, I’ve had geniuses and brilliant creative people and deadly effective sales mavens sit on the couch in my office. And while they’ve made compelling, wonderful stories out of their own experience, they haven’t always connected the dots from what they’ve done to what they can do for me or for their future employers. Make it simple for the interviewer to walk out of that room with the three bullet points they can share with their colleagues about why you have to be the candidate they hire.
If you’re applying for a sales manager position for an outside sales force in agricultural equipment, focus on sales management, outside sales strategies, and your ability to move agricultural equipment, not on your civic awards, excellence in restructuring during the last downturn, or your most recent contributions to improving call center management. While all are wonderful achievements, only the relevant ones help the interviewer understand how you can make their life easier by filling the position that they are hiring for today.
Even better, ask them at the beginning of the interview: “what are the three key things you are looking to do with this hire?” If they say, we’re looking for a marketing superstar who can build a direct marketing team, improve our gross margins, and revamp our franchisee co-op marketing program, then focus on the parts of your resume that highlight your abilities to do just that. Don’t go into a detailed discussion of your college test scores, your many awards for creative brilliance, or your long track record in turning around PR organizations.
It sounds awfully simple, and it is: focus your interview conversations on the three areas most likely to indicate that you are a match for this job. And don’t leave the room until you’ve made those three points loud and clear.
Do something!
Being in my hometown this weekend, I asked my Mom if she had any advice for all of you, our loyal subscribers, on your job hunts. And she said “Spring is here, the crocuses are blooming. Hitch up your britches and get going!”
OK, well, I don’t know what crocuses are, either, but we never go too wrong when we follow Mom’s advice, do we?
And sure enough, when we look at the people who have been successful using TheLadders.com, they hitched up their britches and got going. They re-wrote their resume, reached out to recruiters, and applied for jobs on the site.
I suppose not so surprisingly, when we studied those folks who hadn’t yet found their job on TheLadders.com, we discovered that many just weren’t using the system to full effect:
Their resumes were really just a list of past positions and responsibilities, rather than an effective marketing document showcasing their strengths.
They weren’t reaching out to recruiters posting in their industry or field.
And this was surprising to us – many weren’t applying for jobs! Or even clicking on all that many!
Folks, we’ve built an effective system for finding you your next $100k+ job, but it is a system that requires your commitment and dedication. You have to take some responsibility for reaching out to recruiters and putting your credentials in for the jobs that are right for you. Unfortunately, nobody has yet built the system that lets you just sit back and watch the job offers roll in.
So, let’s take Mom’s advice, hitch up those britches, and get going! Search through jobs, set up a search agent, get your resume re-written professionally or read through advice on how to do it yourself, and reach out to recruiters in your field.
It’s spring, and it’s time for the crocuses, and you, to bloom!
Thanks for taking the time to read through this rather lengthy missive, Readers. It really does sum up the best job hunt advice I have to give, and I hope you find it as useful to put into practice as I found it enjoyable to share with you.
Happy hunting!
Warmest Regards,
Marc Cenedella
Founder & CEO
TheLadders.com, Inc.
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