Billie Sucher Blog

Trick or Treat: Halloween Monday for Job Seekers

What are you afraid of as it relates to finding a new job?

What spooks you about changing careers?

What lurks in your professional background?

What do you most dread about looking for a new opportunity?

What is your biggest fear about your job or the job hunt?

What freaks you out about the job search process?

What’s the scariest thing you can think of about changing jobs?

What, if anything, about your professional past haunts you?

What is the creepiest thing you have ever experienced in a job interview?

What, if any, demons are dancing around your job hunt?

What’s the weirdest situation you have ever encountered during your search for new employment?

What hair-raising tales can you share about your career transition?

Are you walking around like a zombie doing your job search tasks?

What frightens you most about looking for work or starting a new business?

What, if any, job search tricks have worked for you in securing a job offer treat?

Swing Batta Batta Swing: Resilience and the Job Hunt Game

Maybe you stayed up late last night watching the Cards and the Rangers. I had planned on the game being over around 10 – um, not so fast – to be continued this evening. As I watched that World Series game, I thought about this word: resilience. For me, resilience as it relates to job seekers, seems to be a whole lot like the game of baseball:

To fight your way back.

To charge your way through.

To find your way forward.

To give more than you ever knew you had.

To keep the faith even when the facts aren’t in your favor.

To see possibilities when many would pack it up and go home.

To not let distractions distract you.

To rely on your team to see you through.

To keep your eye on the ball when you rip it or you don’t.

To not think you’ve won when you’re but one strike away.

To want it more than the opposition does.

To be in the moment en route to the goal.

To keep your cool when you don’t like the call.

To view rejection as a reason to keep going, not an end result.

To do whatever it takes to stay in the game:  walk, run, slide, sprint, dive, drive and maybe even play hurt.

To get up faster than you fell down.

To not let up in good times or bad.

To not be deterred by bad calls or low balls.

To add excellence into each and every move you make.

To keep your head in the game, no matter how loud the noise.

To keep on trying when quitting would be easier.

To swing hard when it’s your turn to shine.

To step up to the challenge with confidence and courage.

To sustain a winning spirit when nothing is going your way.

To convince yourself that you can’t win if you don’t play.

To carry on with confidence when you screw up, or when someone screws it up for you.

To sustain a respectful demeanor no matter the stats on the scoreboard.

To be ready for what’s coming at you, be it curve balls, back door sliders or change-ups.

To keep on playing, even if you have to go for extra innings.

It ain’t over till it’s over ~ Yogi Berra

We Can Work It Out

You can get it wrong and still you think that it’s all right.

~ John Lennon, Paul McCartney

Are you looking for a job? Are you holding on to the job you have, yet can’t stand going to work? Did you get fired from your job recently? Have you been unemployed for two months or maybe even two years? 

When I listen to people, be it my clients, a speaker, a colleague, a friend, or one of our children, I am always listening for the essence, the takeaway, the nugget of what they are saying. The other day, I was listening to a speaker talk about working things out, whatever it might be in life. And the main message I took away from his presentation: “We can work it out.”

What in your job search would be well, wise and worth it for you to work out?

Do you need to work out how you are going to pay your bills to keep things afloat until you can find new employment?

Do you need to work out how you are going to start that business you’ve always talked about doing?

Do you need to work out how you are going to interact with a boss or co-worker you do not like until you can find a new job elsewhere?

Do you need to work out how you are going to write a résumé when you have held seven different jobs in the past five years?

Do you need to work out how to speak about yourself and your brand before you go to market and explore new opportunities?

Do you need to work out how to stay motivated and energized, up and on after being rejected 15, 20, or more times?  

Do you need to work out how to learn more about social media and how it could be another valuable tool for you?

Do you need to work out how to juggle unemployment and part-time work and who will watch the kids?

Do you need to work out how to talk to your spouse, partner or loved one how you’re going to ‘get through this’ together instead of apart?

Do you need to work out how you are going to explain to a Hiring Manager why you are between jobs?

Do you need to work out how you are going to tell your family that you are really struggling with being out of work?

Do you need to work out how to renew, rebuild and repair relationships with the people in your life who really matter?

Do you need to work out a way to forgive yourself, stop blaming yourself and resist the temptation of seeing yourself as a failure?

Do you need to work out a way to let someone know that you are sorry for what you said?

Do you need to promise yourself that you will do whatever it takes to hustle, to stay focused and to leave no stone unturned in making changes that need to be made to work out your life?

Do you need to work out in your mind and heart that you buy-in to the concept of we can work it out?

Life is very short, and there’s no time

For fussing and fighting, my friend.

~ John Lennon, Paul McCartney 

Crickets

In conversation today with a recruiter, he said a word that caught my attention.

He used the word “crickets”.

I wasn’t sure what he meant, so I asked him to say more about his word choice: crickets.

And he offered:  You know, when you are talking with a job seeker and ask them what they want to do?

And all you hear……crickets. There’s nothing there to hear but the crickets because the job seeker doesn’t have an answer for what they want to do.

How about it, job seekers? When you go to an interview and a Hiring Manager or corporate recruiter asks you this question:  what are you interested in doing, what do you say?

Does the listener hear crickets – chirp, chirp, chirp -- or does the listener hear a well-thought out response from you?

Homework Exercise:  Before you go to your next job interview, write your very best answers to the following questions:

What type of job are you interested in?

Why would you be the best candidate to do this job? Please give us three good reasons:

1.

2.

3.

 

So How's That Résumé Working for You?

Looking for a job with a résumé that isn’t working to your advantage?  

How about applying the genius of Steve Jobs’ brilliant thinking to it?

Simplify, modify and beautify the design.

Ask yourself these three simple questions:

Does my résumé contain relevant content to provide evidence that I am qualified without question to do the target job? Yes___ No___

Has my résumé been modified to meet the specific needs of the employer?  Yes___ No___

Is my résumé beautiful, stunning and eye-catching? Yes___ No ___

While you may not be a legendary designer, marketer  or visionary, you are indeed a valuable product for sale in an intensely competitive market.  If you are not happy with the results your existing résumé is producing, here’s an idea to consider: 

SIMPLIFY:  Design an efficient, easy-to-read résumé that users will want to experience first-hand. Integrate simplicity into its form and function to deliver value and excellence at first glance.

MODIFY:  Create a branded story that will entice your reader to connect with you immediately. Write your résumé using compelling content to prove how your unique credentials align with the buyer’s distinct needs.  

BEAUTIFY:  Build a résumé design that delivers an attractive, inviting look to the stranger who knows nothing about you. Do your best to capture and keep the attention of your audience. Convince them the first time that you are the one and only brand of choice.  

Simplify, modify, beautify.

iYou.

Life After Getting the Boot

I remember when I lost my job.

While at the time I was shocked and devastated and overwhelmed and confused and _______________ (fill-in-the-blank), I was also immensely relieved. Immensely! I could breathe again!

I was relieved because I did not have to go to that place anymore. I did not have to do that job anymore. I did not have to encounter any personal brands that started with the first letter of the alphabet and ended with its fifth. I did not have to worry about Sunday night rolling around when I would feel myself getting stressed. I did not have to respond to the president of the company’s buzzer anymore. I cannot tell you how happy all of these things I did not have to do anymore made me. Relieved. Immensely!

As a Baby Boomer, I was taught over and over again, get a job, keep your nose clean, and you will always be taken care of.

Fortunately, that particular line of thinking was challenged when I was canned early in my career. The insubordination kind of canned, mind you.

All over one silly dime. My immediate supervisor (the president of the company) gave me a nickel an hour raise. Five cents.  (All the while he told me repeatedly that I was the most competent individual who had ever worked for him in 50+ years – go figure!) After working up much courage, I asked for a dime and that is the single, simple reason I got the boot.

One thin dime did me in. Asking for what I thought was fair and reasonable did me in.

I found out later when the same guy that gave me the boot wanted to rehire me that the reason for my demise was “crossing the line” (his exact words) hence my “‘insubordination.” I crossed-the-line by asking for more money and it cost me my job. That is the reason I was given, straight from the horse’s mouth. And the reality is, had I not been terminated from that job, I don’t think I would have ever found the courage, at that time, to leave. Someone did me a favor and set my life on a better, truer path.

When I lost my job, I had no idea how I would pay the rent, buy groceries, live, pay a very large student loan, forget going out – I just knew that it would all work out. I don’t know how I knew it, I just knew it.

IT WILL ALL WORK OUT.

That’s what I’d been told throughout my ‘growing up’ years by my parents, grandparents, friends, teachers, and other people I respected and trusted.

IT WILL ALL WORK OUT.

And here, these many years later as a career transition consultant, what do I find myself saying to job seekers when I can find no other words that seem right at the moment…I say what many someone’s said to me a long while ago,

IT WILL ALL WORK OUT.

Maybe not the way you thought. Maybe not the way you intended. Maybe not the way you planned. Maybe not with the strategy you so perfectly designed and executed. Maybe not with the people you thought. Maybe not in the city or state you thought. Maybe not doing the thing you ever thought you would do. Maybe not as fast as you thought. Maybe not with the outcome you had hoped for. And maybe better than you could ever imagine. And maybe more incredible than you could ever dream. And maybe the best thing that ever happened to you. Maybe, maybe, maybe…

IT WILL ALL WORK OUT!

 

Gleaning This, Gleaning That In Your Job Hunt

Over the week-end, we took a drive to see the beautiful fall countryside here in the Midwest. About 10 miles out of town, we noticed a soybean field that had been harvested and now occupied by a gaggle of geese. The geese appeared to be dining on harvest remnants – the leftovers that found their way to the ground instead of the harvester.

One of the passengers in the vehicle said….The geese are gleaning the fields.

Though you may be well-versed in the above definition of gleaning, it was new to me. While I have always known the word glean to mean: a : to gather (as information) bit by bit b : to pick over in search of relevant material <gleaning old files for information>, I was intrigued by the above application to gleaning the fields.

As a job seeker, are you picking over blogs and tweets and career-related books to glean the best information available to help, support and guide your job hunt?

Are you gathering career information bit by bit?

Are you spending countless hours assembling multiple resources to help you compete for a job in today’s intensely competitive market?

Are you collecting ideas from whatever source you can uncover and discover?

Are you tenacious in investing time to learn 2011 best tips, tricks and tactics to snag a job?

Are you scraping together the pieces of the job search puzzle?

Are you curious about what you might do differently today to find work tomorrow?

What will you glean this day?

Four Words

Obituary. Cemetery. Crematory. Funeral.

Four words. Four words I have never liked. Not fond of. Wish other words could be used.

I get it.

I have dealt with all of the above words. With family members. With close friends. With clients. With professional colleagues.

Up close and personal.

Not afraid of saying the words.

Not afraid of talking about the words.

Not afraid of dealing with the words.

That said, I just don’t like the sound of the four previously-stated words.

Never have.

Never will.

With the death of Steve Jobs, I was once again reminded of how much I do not like those four words.

This word, though – eulogy – seems to me to be a bit more palatable.

In one of my favorite career reads – In Transition From the Harvard Business School Club of New York’s Career Management Seminar – there is an exercise that invites the reader to write an essay about “My Eulogy: How I Want to Be Remembered.”

I love this particular exercise in the book and I love it because it reminds me of how to live a life. It reminds me of Stephen Covey’s “Begin With the End In Mind.” It reminds me of how precious this day is and how I wish to live it with intention and purpose and mindfulness and gusto while I am here and while I can. And while I can do so with friends, family, clients, colleagues. And readers who by chance stumble upon this post.

Steve Jobs. Icon. Visionary. Ideas. Transformational. Genius. Change-maker of the world. Defining figure. Brilliant. Profound. Insanely great. A permanent dent in the universe. Legendary brand. Legend. Marvel.

I like these words.

Celebration of Life.

Memorial Gardens.

Remembrances.

Memories.

And words.

That last – forever.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” - Steve Jobs’ Stanford Commencement Address 

Job Loss Don'ts

Just in case you lost your job today, yesterday, or recently, here are some job search don'ts for you to consider:

~ Don't do something today that you will most certainly regret tomorrow.

~ Don't refuse to tell those you love (and like) the most that you no longer have a job.

~ Don't expect that the employer will realize 'they made a mistake' and will want to 'take you back.' In my 26 years in the business, I recall a mere three instances where a terminated employee was rehired.

~ Don't blame yourself for decisions made over which you had no control.

~ Don't think that there 'must be something wrong with me' or I would still be there.

~ Don't put yourself down, blame yourself, or view yourself as a 'failure' or a 'loser.' Change happens. It's constant in 2011.

~ Don't stay in bed until noon tomorrow and the next day and the day after that if you lost your job today. Stay in a routine. Your new job is to find a job and it will require and demand your full-time attention.

~ Don't shy away from gatherings of friends and family. Talking about 'the situation' will help you see that you are not alone and the support of others can make a difference, as long as the support is of the positive variety.

~ Don't badmouth your former employer, boss or co-workers who 'still have a job.'

~ Don't accept job interviews until you know you are ready to speak with confidence, clarity and calmness about yourself and your brand.

~ Don't think of yourself as unemployed. Right now and in the coming days and weeks, you will be the driver behind one of the most important and influential projects you've ever managed -- yourself! Move forward with grace, style, confidence and success! You can do this!

~ Don't give up on yourself and the search -- even on your worst day -- even when the cat or dog or roommate or partner or spouse or friend want nothing to do with you and your brand! Remember that old saying: this too shall pass!

~ Don't expect someone 'out there' to find you a J O B! You are in charge of finding the next opportunity. You are the captain of your ship. You are the driver of the cart! Stay focused and relentless in pursuit of new work opportunities.

~ Don't be reluctant (or afraid) to invite others to help you as you move forward in the transition process. If certain people are not interested in supporting you or helping you, or are too busy, let them tell you and show you that they are...don't make the decision for them.

~ Don't let rejection stand in the way of getting on down the road to your new tomorrow which is waiting for you to take action and do something productive today! Rejection is a word, not a way of life.

~ Don't be too hard on yourself. Life is tough. The market is tough. The competition is tough. Just keep telling yourself that you are made of 'mental toughness' and that you can and you will get through this period of career transition.

~ Don't try to 'go it alone' -- get help immediately from a competent professional with expertise in career transitions. Help is everywhere. You can also do a Google search such as this: Career Transition Services + Chicago, Illinois (your local area) if you wish to work with a pro in person. Talk to three providers and listen to their program offerings before pulling out the plastic or forking over the green stuff.

~ Don't be too hard on yourself. Every now and then, remind yourself that you are one of the best!

~ Don't forget to say 'thank you' to anyone and everyone who helps you along the way.

 

 

 

 

Tend To Your Own Knittin'

As a job seeker, do you find yourself caught up in the comparison game? You know how it goes because you have heard it all before…

~ he has a VP title now

~ she has her MBA

~ he’s an industry leader

~ she has charisma

~ he has youth on his side

~ she has such wisdom

~ he has good looks

~ she’s got brains

~ he drives a Range Rover

~ he has a degree

~ she knows technology

~ he got another promotion

~ she got a big raise

~ he’s really connected

~ she’s knows the right people

~ he travels the world

~ she found a job 

And on and on and on it goes. Do you ever find yourself in a comparison game with other job seekers? If you do, I would invite you at this very moment to stop -- stop comparing yourself to other people. And do yourself a big favor and do so now instead of later. Why? Because it is exhausting. It is overwhelming. It is mind-boggling. And, as my client so succinctly put it:

“The comparison thing is one of life’s absolute energy sucks.” 

You are you. You are not Ben or Tom or Jessica or Denise. You have gifts. You have talents. Many of them. You have your own wonderful qualities. You have your own assets. And as it goes in the job hunt world, along with your assets, you no doubt have some liabilities. I’ve met but a handful of people in my years as a career management professional who described themselves as a perfect 10.  As a job seeker in today's intensely competitive market, it is vitally important to identify both your brand's pluses -- and minuses -- so you know exactly what you are dealing with as you embark upon the career transition process.

The next time you find yourself wandering over into the comparison pasture, simply stop in your tracks and repeat: I will take this comparison energy and invest it fully into my own life and continued career success. I will not dwell on matters that serve no useful purpose for me, my family and my future. 

The next time you find yourself caught up in the comparison game, perhaps you will reflect upon the following words from one of the best teachers I ever had:

Tend to your own knitting. 

Five simple words.

27 characters.

For you. 

Today.

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