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Have the long term unemployed become the lepers of the 21st century?

2010-11-22T23:18:00Z

Some friends asked me about the title of this blog, they thought it was a bit harsh, even inappropriate. Nope, I feel this is the attitude that many have toward the long term unemployed. Why the leper metaphor? Well everyone would prefer the long term unemployed to just go away and be invisible somewhere, they don't want to help them, and would rather not talk about it. But this must be discussed and attitudes must change.

42% of the unemployed today are "long term unemployed" (defined as over 26 weeks), today that figure is 6 million people. This is not unique to the US, in Europe 50% of the unemployed are long term unemployed. Current estimates, which I believe are very conservative, put the underemployment rate at 17% in the US and while in October 2010 159,000 jobs were added, the unemployment rate remains at 9.6%. The bottom line is that the recession left a hole 11 million jobs deep.

Why is it that no one wants to hire them or help the long term unemployed? Even congress begrudgingly extends unemployment benefits (only after they have expired for weeks) acting as if the unemployed have "other choices". What on earth do they think the unemployed are going to do - go out and magically get a job because unemployment benefits just ran out? Few people want to be unemployed and let's face it the pay isn't great, it is humiliating to most, and demoralizing to professionals. It sucks to be unemployed, especially if you were a professional or working in a good paying job.

There have been countless articles about the plight of the long term unemployed and how the longer they remain unemployed, the less likely it is that they will get a job... ever. Many have tossed around the hypothesis that this group are the hardest hit casualties from the "lost decade" and they may never recover financially or professionally.

I haven't seen anyone openly defend the practice of passing over a candidate that has been unemployed for say over a year, even two years, just because they are unemployed; yet everyone concedes that it is indeed happening. Now that is interesting, everyone is publicly outraged. Yet when it comes to hiring someone at their company or in their department; well that's different, we need someone with "fresh skills" or "current with technology" etc. or even secretly, "we want someone younger and cheaper" - yeah, silent discrimination still goes on and the most prevalent is age discrimination and that is a tough one to prove or change.

What is absolutely crazy about this is that highly qualified people are being passed over just because they have been unemployed during the worst job market in easily 50 years, and probably since the Great Depression, and somehow this is a reflection on their skills, capabilities, mojo, hustle, drive, whatever. Somehow this is their fault. This not only defies logic, it is cruel, short sighted, arrogant (to think that it won't or couldn't happen to you), and just outright a crappy thing to do (sorry could not think a better way to say that cleanly).

Here' what I suggest, ask, even plead with HR, Recruiters (I know it the clients making you do it, blah, blah, have some courage and do the right thing), and hiring managers to do:

Don't pass over highly qualified candidates because they are "over qualified" - give them a break, meet with them, take that extra time and you might find a great new employee!
Ignore the employment "gap" being unemployed anytime between 2007 and 2011 is normal, ask 15% to 20% of the population that are either unemployed or underemployed! That's 1 out of 5 people.
If you are working, be a good contact and be a good referral source for people that contact you looking for a job. It is amazing to me how many people are "too busy" to help friends when they are looking for a job.
Big companies - why not establish programs specifically to hire this group of people? Sound crazy? Not really. Think about all of the programs for interns and training. There is a HUGE pool of eager talent hungry for a good job - this is an opportunity.

And a couple for the government...

Tax credits for hiring unemployed - this has been discussed ad infinitum. I truly don't know why this is so hard to pass and why ANYONE would oppose it. Better to get people off unemployment and back to work PAYING taxes instead of collecting unemployment. Seems simple enough to me.
Tax outsourcing - end of story. Outsourcing is a great way for businesses to reduce overhead and save money. True and that's fine, their choice and may be a good business decision. But it is not necessarily good for the country, our economy, and it actually costs our country money in the form of lost taxes from payroll and spending from the employees - and let's face it, corporate taxes do not plug that gap! So tax outsourcing and use that to pay for the hiring tax credits - for my conservative friends
Preferential hiring for Gov jobs - give people that are qualified and have been unemployed for over 6 months a preference for government jobs. We need to break this cycle and get these people back to work. This almost sounds like affirmative action and maybe it is. But we need to break this cycle.

Sadly here is the reality of this. Even if hiring managers starting doing all of the above we are simply in a job market where there are a lot less jobs than there were a few years ago. It is like a game of musical chairs and 8 million chairs have been removed. So even if the long term unemployed do get a job, for now they are just trading places with someone else. There will still be 11 million chairs missing and that is truly a tragedy.

I wish I could end this on a more positive note. I suppose the bright side is that perhaps I can influence some to be more open to hiring people with employment gaps or to consider people that appear to be "over qualified" or maybe someone in congress will read my blog and have the courage to do something (I know, I am optimistic on that one).

As always I wish you the best and brightest future,

Bill Grunau, @own_your_future

Personal Brand Strategies and other BS

2010-10-27T01:46:00Z

Does all this talk about Personal Branding have you a bit confused? It all sounds really convincing, but after the babble from the "experts" ends what are your next steps. How do you develop a Personal Brand? I'll get to that below, but first I have to vent and rant a bit...

Personal Branding, Your Personal Brand, Branding, more Branding, blah, blah, blah has been run into the ground by career "experts" since the job market tanked, maybe even before. The talking heads drone on and on, but few ever really say anything and never seem to specify a course of action. Mostly they say, you have to have a personal brand to differentiate yourself, or personal branding is vital in today's job market, your personal brand makes you standout as a well qualified candidate, but they never outline or specify an actual course of action. Instead they talk in vague terms like a weatherman in Texas or Florida when it comes to the rain forecast.

Branding is important to companies and professionals, and this is a good idea, but what is their point. I have yet to see a blog post or expert cite solid examples of exactly what they mean or how to apply this.

So where does "branding" start? Before you start to develop a brand you have to have a Creative Brief. Every marketing campaign by a major company or marketing agency starts with this. It helps them define the audience, message, tone, etc. for the campaign. If you are going to develop a "Personal Brand" first you need to develop your creative brief. This is normally applied to corporate campaigns to sell everything from cars to toothpaste, but is it really that different for your job search? You are selling a product, and that product is you, so why not develop a Creative Brief. It will help you define your Personal Brand and figure out what you are selling. Frankly, without something like this to use as a starting point I don't know how you would define your Personal Brand.

Links to Creative Brief Templates:

How to Write a Creative Brief - Slide Share by True Digital - excellent overview and "how to"

Creative Brief Template - Elsie.com

How to Write a Creative Brief Smiley Cat.com

According to Personal Brand Strategy "experts"to have a success job search you have to have a really good line of BS (that's Brand Strategy, what were you thinking?). So here's my handy cross reference guide for Brand Strategy (BS) Terms:

Personal Brand Strategy: Personal BS
Brand Strategy: just BS
Career Brand Strategy: Career BS
Brand Strategist: BS'r

OK, I was just having some fun with that... Seriously I hope you find the Creative Brief examples and links helpful. The Creative Brief is THE starting point for a successful marketing campaign and can be helpful in defining your career marketing plans.

As always I wish you the best and brightest future

Bill Grunau, aka @own_your_future on Twitter

ExecuNet, the Inside Story and Response to My Blog

2010-09-28T00:28:00Z

Several weeks back I wrote a blog post titled, "Are ExecuNet and The Ladders Exclusive Job Boards or Scams?" . My blog was inspired by a spirited discussion on a LinkedIn group with over 140 comments about The Ladders and a several about ExecuNet. All of the comments about The Ladders were highly critical, some were outright caustic, and several were critical of ExecuNet as well.

So I wrote my blog and asked the question, are these websites/companies really exclusive job boards or scams and has anyone had good experience to share. My blog had a few negative comments, one very positive comment, and then a very unexpected, but welcome response. It turns out Dave Opton, Founder and CEO of Execunet, had been following the dialog on the LinkedIn group and also my blog. He took a proactive approach and contacted me, offered to give me a personal guided tour of the ExecuNet website and answer any questions I might have.

I took Dave up on the offer and he did as promised, walked me through the website, their services, and cleared up some misunderstandings about his company (I'll address those below). I really respect Dave for contacting me to clear this up and respond to my blog personally. He had he never spoken to me and for all he knew I could have been a hot-headed blogger with an ax to grind or a predisposed position and never given him a break. He was willing to take that chance and respond. This is a great example of how a company should respond to negative or critical PR, blogs, or comments on social networks (note that The Ladders has been completely silent to date, hmmm, we will let that speak for itself).

On to what I learned on the tour and from Dave.

Sources of Jobs Posted: This one the hottest issues being discussed on the LinkedIn group and on other blogs. One of the accusations and suspicions about both The Ladders and ExecuNet were that the jobs posted are not "exclusive" and are just scrapped or mined from public sites and newspapers. Dave assured me several times that ALL of the jobs posted on ExecuNet are received directly from the hiring authority (e.g. the hiring company or recruiter) and they do not scrap or mine ANY of their posted jobs. Some jobs may not be exclusive as the recruiter or company may opt to post it on other sites or advertise it, but all are sent directly to ExecuNet.
ExecuNet is not a Job Board: Yeah, this one blew me away too. My view was always that both ExecuNet and The Ladders were "exclusive" job boards where senior executives would find jobs that recruiters did not want to post on Monster.com or Careerbuilder.com Dave explained to me that they do post jobs and this is a big attraction for members, BUT it is not where he feels the real value of ExecuNet membership lies. He says the real value is in the networking, webinars, training, referrals, proprietary materials they offer members, and the community in general. From what I saw ExecuNet is working hard at this and they are providing some excellent materials. In my opinion, the social network aspect still has a long way to go and with that said that is a challenging task.
How many get jobs from ExecuNet: Dave was very frank about this, they simply do not have good data on this. They don't have data on how many people got a job and of those that do get hired how many credit it to ExecuNet. I believe that this data could be collected with some effort in a fashion similar to the way BizBuySell.com collects data when one of their advertised business is taken off, via an exit survey.
Networking: Something else came from this discussion above about where people landed jobs from. From Dave's perspective, the primary source of jobs is not and will likely never be the job postings. Consequently he really emphasizes networking.
Got a Question or Complaint - call them: This surprised me, but they actually talk to members. Yes, someone will answer the phone and if you are hot about something, call them. If you have a question, call them. Frankly I don't think any of the people complaining actually called them and I understand why. None of us expect anyone to answer the phone anymore.

The bottom Line:

Obviously I was impressed with Dave's candor and openness and he did change my mind about several aspects of ExecuNet. One thing I clearly understand though is that ExecuNet is not for everyone. I left the conversation with a new opinion and view of ExecuNet and I was truly impressed with all of the services they offer. My take on it is that it is worth exploring and if you have a question pick up the phone and call them. They really will answer the phone, which I still find mind blowing.

As always, I wish you the best and brightest future

Bill Grunau, aka @own_your_future on Twitter

Are Execunet and The Ladders Exclusive Job Boards or Scams?

2010-08-22T20:33:59Z

Over the last several weeks there has been an active discussion in the LinkedIn group Star Jobs Professional Career Center about The Ladders. It started with a simple question, "Anyone have positive results from Ladders.com ? How about their resume writing service?" This group has over 34,000 members and has some lively discussions within the group.

What struck me about this discussion was that as of today, there were 141 comments and only one was positive. The comments pretty much universally said the resume service was unimpressive and overpriced, giving out generic resume advice you could get for a better value elsewhere. Several stated that while The Ladders claims to have "exclusive" jobs that are not available on other sites, they found the same jobs, in fact more jobs, on Indeed.com and SimplyHired.com Several people also commented on Execunet with the same complaints.

One person out of the 139 comments did say he was happy with The Ladders, however, he had not found a job and it appeared he had not landed any interviews as a result of the site.

My favorite comment is one that was posted today. He said he had no results from The Ladders or ExecuNet and he tried The Ladders resume service (no comment from him on what he though of the result). Then he said that several months later he sent the resume The Ladders did for him back to them for comment. Their comment and advice was that it needed a lot of work! That is too funny and at the same time very telling about what is going on there. Bad enough that they trashed their own work, but worse that they didn't even bother to check to see if the person was a past customer. That is customer service and CRM 101, check the relationship history FIRST. Obviously the resume reviews are just being churned out with no real thought and just canned responses.

Both The Ladders and Execunet have been around for many years and both claim to be highly exclusive membership only sites for executives earning over $100,000 per year and with experience in senior level positions. Both sites post success stories and testimonials from happy users, however, I have never seen an statistics showing how many members actually get jobs, what the average job search time is for a member, what percentage of members are hired through their service, etc. These stats may be available, if so I have not seen them.

Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com and Jobfox.com have very low success rates for job seekers and I blogged about this in my blog "Why are You Wasting Your Time on Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com? I also blogged about JobFox in my blog "Jobfox, Exciting Concept, Disappointing So Far" Both blogs point out that relying on these sites as your primary job search strategy will yield poor results, if any at all.

I have always wondered if these sites were scams or for real. I used both several years ago and I have to admit that I never landed an interview or even received a call from either site, let alone a job. I was hesitant to blog about my experience alone, but when I saw 138 comments citing exactly what I experienced I felt it was worth posting and important to comment on.

I welcome your comments on The Ladders.com and Execunet.com and also welcome comments from both sites as well.

As always I wish you the best and brightest future,
Bill Grunau

Will Social Network Background Checks Turn Free Speech into Secret Speech?

2010-08-17T01:00:00Z

Many are very comfortable carrying on a spirited debate on Facebook, Twitter or via comments to a Blog post and it is a very effective way for people to share ideas. But, here’s the wrinkle… Companies are now using social networks and the Internet as part of their background screening process. On the surface this seems reasonable and logical, but this got me wondering, where could this ultimately go?

Well it turns out it is all ready well on its way. A Harris Poll cited in a NY Times Blog/article says that 45% of employers surveyed use Social Networks to check backgrounds on prospective employees and 35% decided not to offer a candidate a job based on information found on Social Networks.

I understand the need, even the responsibility, of an employer to do a reasonable background check on prospective employees. The need for this is pretty obvious, a company, school, church, or other organization has a responsibility to their customers, students, congregation, and employees to provide a safe environment and to hire well qualified employees, but can background checks go too far and even put the company at risk for litigation? (see links below to Blogs from labor law attorneys and HR professionals about this)

In the past a discussion amongst friends about politics, religion, immigration, gun control, healthcare, gay rights, gay marriage, sports, celebrities, and even jokes were verbal and therefore somewhat private since they were not accessible to the public at large. Today, social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and MySpace allow us to maintain our friendships across long distances, even across the globe. We use these networks to chat with our friends like we did years ago face to face or on the phone, but now the conversation is 24/7 spanning large distances, and much larger groups. All of this is great except for the fact that these conversations that seem private are not. Many of these conversations are effectively on a billboard (e.g. Twitter, Blogs, and LinkedIn groups) for the public to see if they only look in the right place and even conversations on Facebook amongst “Friends” are not strictly private and with some work can be found. In fact several companies are now offer social network background checks for as little as $24.95 .

There are other things about social networks that could be misused by employers, organizations, even the government.

What about your membership in Facebook fan pages, groups and LinkedIn groups?

What about the potential of monitoring blog comments, group comments, Facebook and Twitter posts?

So here are the burning questions…

How can there be “Free Speech” if employers and prospective employers are monitoring social networks?

How can there be a public debate if it may impact your job or career?

Can people speak freely under their own name knowing that their employer or prospective employer may be listening in? Will this drive people to publish comments under pen names?

Would joining a particular group on Facebook or LinkedIn cost you that job you just applied for?

How about your comments on some of the Blogs, Twitter, or Facebook, will that cost you your current job, promotion or next job?

Could social network background checks lead to “silent” discrimination?

George Orwell prophetically wrote about Big Brother in his classic book “1984”, the funny thing is that it may not be government or big business spying we have to worry about, the social networks we all willingly join and participate in just made just made everything public. Who needs spies!

Our laws about free speech, discrimination, hiring practices, etc. were written long before social networks were even contemplated and consequently do not address comments on social networks and group memberships. It is an interesting dilemma. On one hand, the information is public and therefore fair game for anyone to access. The question lies in how this information is used and when or even if it is appropriate for companies and organizations to use for hiring or employment decisions.

Is there a need for legislation to cover the use of social network information by employers, banks and credit card companies, retailers, and even the government? The information after all is public, but even public information can be misused. Attorneys are already Blogging about this and interestingly warning employers of the potential danger of litigation from improper use of information gathered through social networks.

What are your thoughts on Social Media turning Free Speech into Secret Speech? Can we really speak freely on social networks? Hmm, might this blog post cost me in the future? Who knows…

Links to other Blogs and articles on this:

Panel Discussion on Social Media, Background Checks and Employment Screening (HR Toolbox.com)

The Rise of the Social Media Background Check (Corra Daily Planet)

Yay or Nay on Social Media Background Checks (CrimCheck.com)

Social Networking Sites: Savvy Screening Tool or Legal Trap? (NY Labor & Employment Law Report)

Are Social Networking Sites Private? (Iowa Employment Law Blog)

I welcome comments on all sides of this issue and look forward to hearing from you (under your real name or a pen name).

As always I wish you the best and brightest future,

Bill Grunau

Generic Job Ads - A Waste of Time for Employers & Job Seekers

2010-04-11T21:19:00Z

Have you noticed that most ads on the job boards are virtually generic? I really think that about 70% of the content in these ads is identical. Most are loaded with generic bullet points and corporate speak jargon that says nothing about the actual job, the kind of person they want to hire, and most importantly what they actually want you to do. Far too many are "blind" ads that have no company information. While this frustrates job seekers to no end, what's the harm to the employers? What the heck, cast a broad net and let's see what we catch? Well there's a lot wrong with that thinking, it leads to countless hours of wasted time scanning resumes that are not even close to what you really want and could even lead to hiring the wrong person! Let's take a look at this in detail...

For example, how often have you seen these bullet points:

Able to work in fast paced environment (is this code for chaotic office & overloaded staff?)
Demonstrated (or proven) track record of ... (is a track record pretty much a given & standard expectation, would you want someone with no track record?)
Strong management & interpersonal skills (really, would you hire someone with "weak" management skills?)
Sense of urgency (I love this one, would they hire someone that does not think the business is important?)
Managing budget & setting goals
Excellent written & verbal skills (another great one, so would they hire someone that can't spell or spoke like a teenager?)
Exceptional and broad grasp of strategic planning
Manages the (blank) department (no kidding, that was a helpful nugget of information)
Aggressive & passionate leader (what does this really mean? A screaming lunatic? Someone that pushes all the time? This could mean a lot of things good or bad)
Exceptional business acumen (great word acumen, but how does it directly apply to the job? What specifically does this mean? Would a MBA school prof or a PhD in business be a good candidate?)
Hands on (love this one too, does that mean they micro manage or do they write their own proposals and do their own power points. Maybe it's an engineering manager that can't let go and still designs. Oh, not that hands on. So what did you mean?)
One of my personal favorites: computer literacy with MS Office products (this listed on executive or technology positions! I would really expect any sharp high school or first year college student to have these skills. Obviously written by someone that still sees MS Windows and Word as a wonder.)

These generalized bullet points don't tell the story of what the you are looking for in this position nor do they explain what you want the person to do. How do you expect to find the "perfect" person if you don't describe what you are looking for, what you want them to do (the results you want), and the environment (culture) in your company? Posting generic or generalized job ads is like posting a profile on a dating site with little or no information about you, what you like, and what you want in a companion and then wondering why you are getting responses from everyone from bikers to hikers, and intellectuals to idiots. You never specified what you wanted and did not explain who you are. Ditto for job postings.

An Almost Great Ad...
Last week I saw what I initially thought was a great job ad. The ad described in detail the corporate culture and environment, the size of the company, even described the daily work environment, how long the company had been in business, and even provided the name of the company. They explained it was a small company and everyone pitched in and did a lot of different jobs. They also explained what their goals are and what they wanted the new person in this position to do. I thought Wow, what a great job ad, I can use this as an example in my blog. When I went to the company website I got a real shock. The ad read corporate, but when I went to the website I found out it that while it is a private for profit business, it is a faith based company. Any of you that follow my Tweets, Own_Your_Future, know that I am very open and outgoing about my Christian faith. I have no problem with faith based organizations, the only problem here is that the ad made no mention of it and this is a vital piece of information. It is highly unlikely that someone from another faith, or agnostic, or atheist, would be comfortable working there and probably equally unlikely that they would hire them.

Vague and generalized job ads lead to hundreds of resumes from the "wrong" people and maybe a bad hire.
So in the end it was a great example for the blog. This is a great example of how one piece of information missing from an ad can result in hundreds of resumes and applications that are clearly not a fit. It is a waste of time for both the employer and the job seekers. And think about it, what if the missing information was not as clear cut as this and an otherwise well qualified candidate shows up, is a "skilled" interviewer, lands the job and then a few months later, to your surprise and theirs, the job is clearly not a fit for either of you.

Brad Remillard and Barry Deutsch of Impact Hiring Solutions recently wrote a book, "You're NOT the Person I hired". In their book Brad and Barry talk about their many experiences over 25 years as professional recruiters where companies made poor hiring choices that ultimately ended badly for both company and employee because the company did not really know or define exactly what they were looking for and did a poor job during the hiring process. On their site they list the Top Ten Hiring Mistakes. Barry and Brad strongly advise companies to clearly define what they want and expect from the person they hire, what the job and goals are (in detail), what defines success for the position/person, and they also recommend a comprehensive interviewing process (e.g. not the standard "tell me about your weaknesses" or "tell me about your successes" etc.). Obviously this is a complex topic and to much for this blog. For more information see their site and book.

So what's the bottom line here?
By now it's pretty apparent that my position is that a detailed and specific job ad is a vital first step in hiring the right person. I firmly believe that you should share as much information as possible about the company culture, work environment (be honest), what the position entails, what you want and expect (what would success look like), and if it is a management position what management style fits with your company.

One last thought...
With so many people on the job market there is a tendency to make laser focused experience requirements demanding that candidates come from exactly the same industry. I completely understand this as many industries like High Tech, Pharma, Medical, etc. are truly unique and it takes time to learn the industry. But consider this, in my career as a CEO and VP I worked primarily in the High Tech industry. With that said, I successfully switched from RF/microwave components, to semiconductors, to software, and then to industrial computers and LCDs. While all of these were high tech electronic companies, the technology was VERY different at each, add to that the fact that some were primarily military electronics and others were commercial (conventional wisdom is that one cannot cross these lines). I successfully led and turned around the companies I worked at, built great teams, and delivered excellent results. My point here is that strictly speaking, I never had the exact industry or product experience for any company I went to. What I brought was leadership and management skills and surprisingly this is seldom mentioned on job ads or position descriptions because everyone is so focused on "tangible" skills and experience.

Hmmm, maybe a future blog on leadership and management vs. "industry" experience requirements.

As always I wish you the best and brightest future
Bill Grunau

Is Your Job Search Strategy the Lotto Approach or Laser Focused

2010-04-03T20:03:00Z

A dilemma every job seeker using the Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com and other job boards faces is, which jobs do I apply for? Many job seekers go with the "shotgun" or Lottery approach and apply for anything and everything that is remotely close to what they are looking for. Is this your job search method, browse through the jobs on Monster and Careerbuilder and send in dozens of resumes every day? Is it working for you?

Wow, that was easy, OK, I'm just going to send my resume in for any job that is even close to what I want.
Monster and Careerbuilder have done a great job of making easy to search for jobs and to browse through hundreds of jobs fairly quickly. Both sites, in fact most job boards, allow you to save multiple copies (variations) of your resume and cover letter to "customize it for different jobs or industries.  With a few clicks you can pick one of your resumes, one of our cover letters, tweak the cover letter a bit, and BINGO in a few minutes you've applied for another job.

While it's great they offer these features and they are a great tool, there is one problem with it. The overwhelming temptation is that since it only takes a few minutes, what the heck, go ahead and apply for lots of jobs. If you're already on the page anyway, and it only takes a few minutes and a few clicks, why not send it in?

Here's the problem with that. Firstly you really are wasting your time and the prospective employer's time if you clearly do not meet at least the minimum requirements.  In today's job market I would say that if you are not a great fit for the position, don't bother! You will save yourself and the companies posting these jobs countless hours of work. Let's face it, there is a lot of talent on the market today. The company will certainly have a number of very well qualified candidates for the position and if you don't meet, I would even say exceed, the minimum requirements you are not going to make the first cut and will not get a call.

So why not go with the "shotgun" or Lotto approach and send lots of resumes?
While it only takes a few minutes to send in one of your saved resumes and tweak one of your saved cover letters, if you add this time up over dozens of jobs it turns into hours of your time wasted. Another problem is that after sending hundreds of resumes with few or even no responses, you will get burned out and discouraged. This is not going to help your mental attitude toward your job search. Going after hundreds of long shots is an act of desperation. It's like buying a bunch of Lotto tickets in expectation of winning in the next few weeks and then being disappointed because you spent all that time and money buying Lotto tickets and didn't win! The only winner when job seekers send in resumes to hundreds of positions is Monster and Careerbuilder because it helps their stats. They can show advertisers that millions of resumes are posted on their sites and tell them that they will receive hundreds of responses to their job ads.

Smart Job Searching on the Job Boards - Laser approach not Lotto approach
My recommendation is the following: Focus on the BEST jobs you find. I don't mean the highest paying or the highest level, I mean the best jobs for YOU. The jobs that YOU are exceptionally well qualified for, the ones where when you read the ad or job description, you say, WOW this is PERFECT for me! The ones where when you read the requirements you can put a check mark by each bullet saying that you have that experience. Since you aren't doing the job lottery and applying for dozens of long shot jobs, you can really focus on the few that you are a great fit for.

Of course this means you will be applying for a lot less jobs. Perhaps only a couple of jobs each day instead of dozens of long shots in the job lottery. This will open up more time for you to write a great cover letter and customize your resume, instead of just shot gunning the applications. It will also give you more time for networking which is often neglected in favor of blankly staring at computer screen applying for dozens of long shot jobs.

Here are some things I recommend when you find a job that you think is a great fit for you:

CAREFULLY read the ad and job description: A well written ad will specify what experience the company is looking for, and characteristics of the job and the person they want to hire. Print out a hard copy of the ad and highlight or underline these key points, keywords, characteristics, and experience.
Visit the company website: Some ads have the name of the company and a link to their website. If this is available your next click is to their website. Spend some time learning about the company to get some additional insight for your cover letter and resume. Granted, many ads are "blind" ads and there is no company information available, but if you are lucky enough to find one that does, take advantage of this. Many job seekers don't bother and this can give you an edge when you write your cover letter, not to mention when you get a phone call for a phone interview.
Write a custom cover letter: Since you are focusing on just the best job opportunities, the ones that are really a good fit for you, and you are a great candidate for the job, you will have the time to write a great cover letter that is PERFECT for this job. Start with one of your existing cover letters and then make sure you have addressed the important points in the ad. Make sure you clearly show you have the experience and qualifications for THIS job (the one they advertised). Be specific and make sure this letter is written to them and for them, just for this job.
Customize Your Resume: In a previous blog "Are You Resume OCD" I said that you should write a great resume and be done with it and not be OCD about writing the "perfect" resume. My point was that there isn't a perfect resume and you will never finish if you are trying to craft the ultimate resume. What I am referring to in that blog is your basic resume, the resume or resumes you use as your templates. It is a waste of time to perpetually rewrite your standard resume, BUT, it is a great investment to take that standard resume and tailor it to highlight the skills and qualifications you have that match the job you are applying for. By emphasizing your matching qualifications you greatly increase your chances of making the first cut and getting an interview. Remember, the person scanning your resume is going to give it a quick 15 second look; if they see the key qualifications and skills they are looking for, you go in the candidate folder and if not, it goes in the round file under their desk.
PROOF READ CAREFULLY: Before you hit the send button (remember, there is no un-do for that), make sure you carefully proof read the cover letter and resume. Double check your content: did you cover all of the key points for the position, does your cover letter and resume show how your qualifications match the position, does your cover letter hit the highlights and make them want more (eg read your resume)? Next double check your grammar and punctuation. If you have read enough of my blogs, you know by now that I frequently have grammar and spelling errors. It's easy to miss these and it can be death to your prospects of getting to the candidate folder. I suggest reading the cover letter and resume aloud or having someone else proof read both.
Save a copy or hard copy: Since you are writing a custom cover letter and resume you better have a copy hand for when you get a call. Let's face it, it would be embarrassing if they asked for another copy and you didn't have it, or if they asked a question on the phone and you could pull it up to discuss it with them.
Send: Now you are ready to send it. Granted you have spent much more time on responding to this one position, but you know it is a good fit for you, you are well qualified for the position, and by doing the steps above your chances of going to the next step are much higher.

Additional resources:

Impact Hiring Resources Blog - Brad & Barry have been professional recruiters for over 25 years. They post regularly here and have excellent tips on interviewing, cover letters, resumes etc.
Impact Hiring Solutions Website - Brad & Barry also offer free resources to job seekers as well as a very reasonably priced home study course packed with practical advice and their book "This is NOT the Position I Accepted" which is a great resource for job seekers and career development.
Help My Resume.org - has free resources and help for job seekers and they are really nice people too.
CareerXL.com - of course check out my website for free resume templates and other resources.

Jobfox, exciting concept, disappointing so far

2010-03-28T21:51:00Z

A while back I wrote a blog "Why Are You Wasting Your Time on Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com, Are You Crazy?". That blog pointed out that less than 6% of jobs found are as a result of an application from a job board. If you have read my blogs and Tweets, or those of any professional recruiter or career development professional you know that none of us are fans of any of the job boards.

So when I listened to an NPR story on "New Generation of Sites Refines Online Job Search" featuring Jobfox I got really excited about this new site.  NPR interviewed Rob McGovern, the founder of Jobfox who also created/founded Careerbuilder.com and two people using Jobfox in their job search.  As I listened I thought WOW, this is exactly what I have been wanting to do with CareerXL.com and have not had the money or time to do; and truthfully I also thought, oh no, there goes that opportunity, I was too slow and these guys are on it. The experiences of the two job seekers were mixed, one loved the site, the other was still waiting for results and not yet impressed with it. A sample of two people is not representative of how well a site like this may work, but their experiences are interesting feed back. One nice thing is that those annoying adds on Careerbuilder and Monster (and yes, this is the same guy that put those on Careerbuilder) are absent from this site - this is a HUGE improvement and benefit for job seekers and users.

So after listening to the NPR story I went to Jobfox and checked out his team - all of them are top notch people, browsed through the site, and it looked like it really might be a next generation career website. So I thought, OK, let's give this a test drive. I created an account, uploaded my resume and went through the whole registration process (yeah, it is a process and it takes a while to answer the endless questions). After my profile was finished Jobfox recommended jobs that are a match for my skills and experience. This is where it got interesting and ultimately disappointing. The Jobfox software made recommendations off my current position shown, but did not look at my overall background. This resulted in the software making poor recommendations that made little sense for me or the prospective employer. It totally missed the big picture of my experience and background.  This is a big concern I have with the matching software; let's say you lost your senior level position and took a lower level job to pay the bills until you can find a position more in line with your experience. Many people have done this and are continuing to do this. From my quick test drive it appears that the matching software is going to match you based on your current position and will ignore, or pay little attention to, your overall background.

The Jobfox profile asks questions about what type of company you want to work for and what type of environment, BUT it only allows one choice or all of the above - a bit crude.  This may work well for people early in their career with limited experience or people with career paths that have been linear, no detours or lane changes. And perhaps the software will evolve and improve over time. The bottom line is, it appears to be a very crude and superficial scan of the resume and experience and did not live up to the hype of matching skills, experience, and job environment desires to those of prospective employers.

Next was the free resume evaluation. The next day I received an email from Jobfox Senior Resume Consultant and Resume Expert Madeline Willis. The email was a template with links to the resume evaluation she said she did for my resume. I clicked on the links and realized it was a dynamic webpage that was automatically created. There is no way to know if Madeline or any human actually read my resume, but I can tell you that 90% of the content in that "letter" was generic and it was not very insightful. The letter was obviously created automatically by software that scanned my resume and applied some pretty good algorithms to come up with recommendations. The recommendations were generic with the exception of specific words and phrases the software pulled out of my resume, these recommendations could be made for ANY resume. In fact, some recommendations were actually out of context or incorrect. Madeline said that for $399 Jobfox will improve my resume and fix these glaring mistakes. Now what is interesting is that my resume has been reviewed by dozens of "resume experts" and recruiters and all of them really like it, in fact some have said it is one of the best they have seen; so I find it very interesting that Madeline found all of these glaring problems on my resume that she can fix for $399 or 6 payments of $62.96 per month.

After reading Madeline's review of my resume and the email to me that introduced her as a "resume expert" I wondered what her background was so I looked her up on LinkedIn. I was expecting to see an impressive LinkedIn profile with career development and resume writing experience, perhaps some recruiting or HR experience. Guess what, Madeline Willis is not on LinkedIn! And if she is I could not find her under that name through a LinkedIn search. So the next question is, is Madeline Willis a bot or a person, and if she is a person how can any "resume expert" or career expert not have a LinkedIn profile?

Jobfox also offers an Advantage membership for $19.99 per month. I didn't sign up for the Advantage membership so I can't comment on how effective it is. Jobfox says that the Advantage program offers introductions to employers, tracking for your resumes, being "featured to employers" (Careerbuilder offers something similar to this), a career webpage, expert advice, and insider alerts. If you are a Jobfox user and subscribe to the Advantage program I would like to hear about your experience with it and what your thoughts are about it.

So what do I think of Jobfox? Obviously I am disappointed, probably because I had high expectations. Jobfox is basically Careerbuilder 2.0, but not what I consider a Web 2.0 website. Jobfox is a long way from a career development community and to me feels a lot like Careerbuilder and Monster. Rob McGovern has taken his experience from Careerbuilder, applied it to a new website with some very basic improvements. I give him and his team credit for some very good software and algorithms that do a pretty good job on the resume review. And his vision of matching people and companies is dead on, but just not there yet. It may work for people at lower levels that have had linear career progression, but as I said it does not adapt well to career changes, hiccups, or senior level people. My take on Jobfox is that the organization is operating from an internal perspective where they are the job and career experts and know what is best for job seekers. That would be OK, but based on what I have seen on the site, and from looking at the backgrounds of the executive team, they really aren't in touch with what job seekers really need. They are on the right track and have good ideas, just not quite there yet.

If you are a Jobfox user and subscriber I would really like to hear your comments and experience with the site and if someone from Jobfox happens to read this blog, I welcome your responses and will certainly post them.

As always, I wish you the best and brightest future,
Bill Grunau
PS the bright side of this is that Jobfox has not come close to what I ultimately want to do with CareerXL!

Going Back to School, Becoming More Competitive in Your Career

2010-02-07T20:48:00Z

Here's an interesting alternative to a job search... Go back to school. Before you blow off this suggestion, consider this.

Having your BA or BS is not a big deal anymore, in fact for professional positions it is pretty much a minimum requirement. Most management positions, even mid-level management positions are now asking for an MBA and the senior positions often require it. One more thing to consider is the fact that many students have opted to stay in school to get their masters degree because they cannot find jobs and their student loan payments kick in if they aren't in school. While this keeps them out the work force for another couple of years, and in a since reduces the number of job seekers, think about this, when they graduate there is going to be a flood of young MBAs on the job market.

What's the impact of this? Well in a few years an MBA or Masters degree is going to more common, and if you don't have one, you may not be competitive in the job market. This doesn't mean you have to have a Masters for every profession. In many professional a Bachelors is fine. For example, in nursing a Bachelors is fine unless you want to move into management, then a Masters is a must.

Let's say you have your Bachelors degree and you are unemployed. You may well be looking at a 6 to 12 month job search (or longer) depending upon the level of the position you are looking for and quite frankly your age. Let's just go ahead and say it. If you are over 40 your job search will take longer than one for someone that is 30, and perish the thought, if you are over 50 like me then you could be looking at very long job search. If you are looking for a management position or an executive/senior management position and you are a Boomer, then your job search is really going to take some time. This has nothing to do with you, your capabilities, or experience, and has everything to do with the fact that the job market is flooded with people just like you and all of them have competitive skills and experience, just like you.

Let's change our thinking from jobs and careers and look at this as if we are running a company. If we have a product (you) and our competitors products (all of the other job seekers) have essentially the same features and benefits (job skills and experience) and there are a lot of competitors, what is going to happen in the market place? You probably guessed it. One, the price we can fetch for our product (your salary) is going to go down (and this is happening) and two, it is going to take longer to sell our product because there is much more competition.

If we were running a company in this scenario we would have a couple of choices. We could re-engineer our product to make it more competitive, with new features and benefits (bascially re-invent yourself), or we could cut the cost of the product and compete on price alone with nothing to differentiate our product. If you have ever been involved in a market where your product competes on price and delivery alone you know this is a tough position to be in. Your career is no different. You are selling a product and the product is you. If you have competitive skills you have an edge, if you do not then you are competing on price and delivery only and that is very tough in a tight job market.

If you go back to school you can finish your MBA in 18 to 24 months, sometimes faster. When you graduate you will have a fresh MBA on your resume. This will freshen up your experience, make your educational background more competitive, and there's one more benefit, you will develop new contacts and expand your network.

Another benefit of going back to school is that this is a socially acceptable form of unemployment that actually helps your career. Instead of saying "I'm looking for a job and I've been unemployed for a year now", you could say, "I'm working on my Masters" or "I decided to finish my Bachelors" or "I decided to change careers, I am getting my degree in...". This also plugs that awkward gap on your resume.

One obvious question and challenge is paying for it. Let's face it, when you are out of a job spending tens of thousands of dollars on getting an MBA or a BS in a different field is probably not at the top of your list of things to do. Your not going to run home and say, "honey I just lost my job, and I am going to go back to school, what do ya think!" As I said above, when you consider that you may be out of a job long enough to finish your degree anyway, this may not be such a crazy idea and if you can finance it with student loans you may actually be better off going back to school than sitting at home applying for jobs all day. Below are some links to sites with information on student loans.

Links to Student Loan Websites and Information:

Financial Aid 101 - EducationPlanner.com

SallieMae.com - Federal Student Loans for Grad School

Federal Student Aid - FAFSA

Stafford Loan Information - Graduate & Undergraduate Loans

Graduate Plus Loan Information

Gradloans.com - Information on Grad School Loans

Obviously this isn't a solution for everyone, but for many this may be a great alternative to spending a year or longer looking for a job and competing on price and delivery with thousands of job seekers with similar experience and capabilities.

As always I wish you the best and brightest future,
Bill Grunau

Who's Buying & Selling Your Resume, Resumes Posted on Job Boards are For Sale, Yours is Worth about a Buck

2010-02-01T20:45:00Z

Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com offer two choices for resume privacy; Public and Private. Both sites encourage you to select the Public option so prospective employers can find you. Sounds logical, I'm looking for a job, I want employers to be able to find me, OK, I should select Public so they can. But is the Public option really public? One would think that the Public setting means just that, the public, the world, can see your resume. Any prospective employer can go to Monster or Careerbuilder, do a search and find you. To me that's what a Public selection implies, visible to everyone (i.e. the public). After all, as a job seeker you want every prospective employer to be able to see your resume.

Well, that's not exactly what they mean by "public". What they really mean is that you are giving Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com permission to sell your resume. They don't actually make it available to the "public", it is ONLY available to people that pay a fee to download resumes (see the fees of 1/31/2010 at the bottom of this blog as and the link to their Resume Subscription fees). How much is your resume worth to Monster and Careerbuilder? About a buck, that's right about a $1, maybe a bit more depending on the subscription the "employer" selects.

So how does this all work? Your resume posting is free, that seems pretty cool. Everyone likes free. But how can it be free? It's free because you are effectively "inventory" to Monster and Careerbuilder. First, they need lots of active job seekers to attract companies to post job postings (ads) on their sites and the more they have the more they can charge. Second, the more resumes they have in their database the more they have to sell. That's why your public resume represents inventory. Your information is for sale to anyone willing to pay for access and yet it is not available to companies genuinely looking for employees - unless they are willing to pay for it. A more honest or transparent way for Monster and Careerbuilder to handle this would be by having Privacy settings like Facebook and allowing you to choose what they do with your information rather than this masquerade of making your resume available to the public if you select that option.

Think about this... in today's economy with record unemployment and under-employment, where employers and recruiters are inundated with resumes; who would pay to search or view resumes? That seems really dumb to pay for access to a resume database when you have too many resumes coming in already! So who would pay for that? You've probably already figured it out, people or companies that don't expect you to contact them. And who might that be? Well my experience both personally, and from talking to job seekers and recruiters, is that the companies that are paying for access to the resume database are MLMs, 100% commission based jobs like insurance and financial products, some private schools or training companies, and in some cases franchisors to sell franchise opportunities. Not exactly who you expected to be contacting you is it!

Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com Privacy Settings:

Public: Not really available to the public, you are giving them permission to sell your resume to their subscribers. See my comments above and the subscription fee schedules below.
Private: Not available to the public and they won't sell your resume or information via their resume database. You can only use your resume for responding to job postings.

Upgrading Your Resume for Improved "Visibility"
I think this is a real sham and Careerbuilder should be ashamed for even offering this! They promote the option of paying to "Upgrade Visibility" of your resume by putting it at the top of the search results in bold. We already discussed who is paying to subscribe to the database, why on earth would you pay to make it more visible to people that aren't really employers! And by the way, this is not cheap, they are asking as much as $150 (as of 1/31/2010, see link below) for 30 days at the "Titanium" level, $100 for the Platinum level, and down to $20 for the cooper level - I suspect most would almost be embarrassed to sign up for the cooper level. Great marketing ploy with the naming and levels.

Where Your Profile or Resume Really is Available to the Public
OK, so where can you post your resume where prospective employers can find it for FREE? You should know the answer to this, LinkedIn.com LinkedIn profiles are available to the public at no charge and while there are options to make your profile available only to premium members, they don't sell your data because it is already available to the world for free. While I would like to see privacy controls on LinkedIn like those on Facebook, it is the best networking forum around today. And by the way, LinkedIn has had a job board for quite some time now and lots of great jobs are posted there. LinkedIn also offers groups that you join and can participate in discussions with your peers (something Monster and Careerbuilder have yet to really figure out).

For More Information on Using LinkedIn on Your Job Search - see the CareerXL.com page on Using LinkedIn

The Bottom line
Here's my position on this, you decide for yourself...
My previous blog, "Why Are You Wasting Your Time on Monster and Careerbuilder, Are You Crazy?" discussed how few jobs are actually found on Monster and Careerbuilder. I do feel that you should use these sites as part of your job search, but you should not pin ALL of your hopes on getting a job from these sites. You have probably deduced that I am not in favor of making your resume "Public" on Monster or Careerbuilder. Many advise this to keep your privacy or to keep your search confidential or to make you look more "exclusive". My basis for this advice is more basic, the phone calls you get from a "Public" resume on Monster or Careerbuilder aren't going to be legitimate jobs anyway. If you are "open" to ALL kinds of opportunities then by all means select "Public" and be prepared for the interesting offers you will get. If you are only interested in a real job, then select "Private" and do the job hunting yourself, you pick who you will send your resume to.

Obviously I do recommend posting your profile on LinkedIn and actively networking on LinkedIn and I also highly recommend using the LinkedIn job search and job posting. There aren't nearly as many jobs posted there yet, but from what I have seen they seem to be legitimate and the LinkedIn job postings generally have you connecting to a real person and sending in your own resume as opposed to that ugly form Monster and Careerbuilder use (why do they think that is cool anyway? That's a whole other blog isn't it).

As always, I wish you the best and brightest future
Bill Grunau

Monster Resume Database Subscription Fees:
Ranges from $845 for two weeks of access in 100 mile radius and up to 400 resumes, to $5,200 for three months of access across the nation and up to 5,200 resumes.
See link below for details:
Monster.com Resume Database Subscription Fees

Careerbuilder Resume Database Subscription Fees:
Ranges from $600 for two weeks and up to 50 resumes per day, to $9,553 for 300 resumes per day for one year (that's a bunch of resumes!).
See link below for details:
Careerbuilder.com Resume Database Subscription Fees

Job Scams on Craigslist & Other Internet Job Sites, Simple Steps & Precautions for Job Seekers

2010-01-18T21:47:00Z

Most of us are well aware of Internet scams and can easily identify the obvious ones. Consequently scammers must evolve and develop more elaborate and convincing schemes to suck people in. So naturally during a time of record unemployment these soulless web-racketeers would start targeting job seekers, and they have. In fact there are a number of very convincing and elaborate job scams posted on Craigslist and other job boards right now. Do a quick Google search on job scams, you will be blown away by the number of scams out there.

While the most common job scams are work-from-home and personal assistant type ads, there have been some surprisingly sophisticated scams targeting executives and even attorneys. Then there are the job offers that aren't quite an outright scam, but they really aren't a job either. While these "jobs" won't directly rip you off in an outright fraudulent way, there are lots of job postings that are effectively Trojan Horses (yes, I am using that virus term intentionally). They are posted as a regular job, appearing to be a salaried or W2 type paid position, to build your hopes and interest, and get you to respond. Only after you apply do you find out that, oh by the way... this is commission only or an MLM (Multi Level Marketing) company, but it is a "great opportunity". This is an entire blog discussion of its own. For now let's just leave it at, beware of these and make sure you check them out very carefully. Some are legitimate, some aren't, and all of them oversell how easy it is to "make six figures from home", or whatever their pitch is.

As always, I wish you the best and brightest future,
Bill Grunau

Signs it is a Job Scam & Red Flags to watch for:

Too good to be true: OK, this sounds obvious, but it is THE most common trait in all scams, the job sounds GREAT, in fact too good be true! Well it probably is too good to be true, if you proceed do so with extreme caution.
Common themes and headlines: "Work from Home", "Make Money While You Sleep", "No Experience Necessary", Telecommute", etc. You get the idea. While there are legitimate jobs that may say work from home or telecommute, these are red flags you should watch for and be very careful of jobs like these. These are waters where the scammer sharks troll for their prey.
Generic or vague job title or description: Most scams keep the job description and title vague to attract as many people as possible - they don't want to disqualify anyone, scammers are equal opportunity employers!
Same job posted in multiple locations: This is common with scams and also popular with MLMs as well as outplacement firms and career consultants posing as a "recruiter" advertising a specific job that they do not actually have. Reputable career coaches and outplacement firms do not use this trojan horse technique to lure you in and then bait and switch you to their consulting services.
Employers or jobs with a gmail, yahoo, hotmail, or other free email account: Today, any reputable company is going to have its own website with a .com email address or their own domain name. Granted, some very small companies may not yet have their own website and domain name, but in general this is one of the first steps in starting a real business, so a free email address is a red flag for job postings. Free email addresses are also very easy to hide behind with false identities and equally easy to set up multiple accounts.
Anything involving moving money: Some outright ask for money from you, although this is becoming less common. The new and very shrewd method is where they send you a seemingly real check for you to deposit, run some errands, deduct something for your time (because they are paying you to be their personal assistant), and then you send a check (net of your pay) to someone else. Seems harmless, right, they are sending you money. Here's the scam, the check (although it looks real) is fake, will bounce and you are on the hook for the full amount! Often over $1,000 to $2,000 that you get stuck with!
Poor spelling, grammar, and punctuation: Most scammers are off shore and English is not their first language. The bad news is they are difficult (impossible) to prosecute, but the good news is their English is generally poor and an immediate giveaway of who they are.
If they respond immediately and you are hired immediately - watch out! Most legitimate employers are very busy and they typically take days, more commonly weeks to respond. If you are contacted immediately or the next day, and even more suspiciously are offered the job right away, odds are this is too good to be true and it is a scam. Think about it, would any legitimate employer hire anybody sight unseen based on a couple of emails.
Not all work at home and personal assistant jobs are scams: Now that I have imparted sufficient concern and caution on you, I want to make it clear that not all work at home, personal assistant, and MLM postings are scams. Unfortunately these are the favorite ones right now and these are the postings where you must be extra careful.
If you do run across a scam or suspected scam - REPORT IT: If you find an ad on one of the job boards, do everyone a favor, including the job board and report it. Craigslist does a commendable job of not only taking the scam jobs down immediately, they also go the extra step of posting warnings and even examples of the scams on their site. Unfortunately Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com are not the kind of stand up netizens that Craigslist is, they will take it down quietly and continue on in their daily state of denial that this goes on within their sites.

Steps to Avoid Scams and Save Job Searching

Antivirus & Security Software on Your PC: This seems like an odd first step, but you should not even begin browsing job boards and clicking on links unless you have some kind of antivirus & security software on your PC. Norton, McAffee and Trend Micro are all good, I have used all three in the past. I now use Trend Micro Internet Security Pro and love it. One nice feature is that when you do a search on say Google, known safe sites are highlighted in the search results with a ü and the entry is highlighted in green, unknown or sights that have not been screened have a ? and are gray, and known dangerous sites have a red X and are highlighted in red. This is a very handy feature, and surprisingly I have had dangerous sites show up on the first page of Google searches! That is a bit scary if you think about it. Scammers are getting really good at SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to get their phony sites ranked high. Hard to believe that as big as Google is and as smart as their team is they don't have something to identify dangerous or suspicious sites in the search results.
BEFORE you start your job search, read up on job scams (see info and links below). By reading up on the current scams you will save the time of unwittingly applying for a bogus job.
DO NOT include your home address on your resume: While having your home address on resumes was customary many years ago when snail mail and overnight delivery was used more prevalently, today it is sufficient to have just your name, phone and email address on your resume. In fact, it is to your advantage to leave your home address off the resume for both personal security and also so you are not disqualified because maybe the employer thinks you live too far away.
Delete suspicious emails - DO NOT OPEN: If you receive a suspicious email, just delete it. Some viruses can be launched by simply opening an email. Some may offer a link to "unsubscribe", while the unsubscribe feature is real with services like Constant Contact, scammers put this fake link in their emails to confirm that they have a valid email address. If you have up to date antivirus software installed and running this is an extra measure of protection.
Beware of completing generic forms: Some scammers will ask you to fill out a seemingly harmless form asking for basic information. Although the information itself may be harmless enough, it is just another step to convince you they are real and carefully "screening" applicants - they are not, they are just collecting information and this is the next step to reel you in. In some cases they get your address so they can send you that bogus check I discussed above. Think about it, does any legitimate employer immediately ask you to fill out a generic form sent via a gmail or yahoo email account. Some may have application forms, but they are on their corporate website, not sent via a crude text email.

Links to more information on Internet Job Scams
Craigslist does a commendable job of informing the community of current scams. They post a header and link at the top of job categories that tend to have more scams than others and they also have a link on their main navigation menu titled "Avoid Fraud & Scams". Great job Craigslist, they are doing their best to keep everyone informed.

Unfortunately the good netizenship stops there. Both CareerBuilder.com and Monster.com seem to be in a state of denial or corporate whitewashing. Both sites have done their best to bury this important link by putting it effectively hidden on the bottom of their homepage in tiny print. At least Careerbuilder gives it a recognizable name by calling the link "Fraud", Monster further buried it by putting the link under "Security" and then a second link on the Security page. They have worked hard to keep this out of site. I guess they figure if they don't admit there is a problem then it didn't happen. Sounds almost like a government agency.

6 Signs its a Job Scam - CNN and CareerBuilder

20 Sure Signs this is a Job Scam and Tips to Avoid Job Scams - Hubpages.com

How to Avoid Job Scams on Craigslist - eHow.com

This is the link to Craigslist Scam FAQ page, has current Scam info and warnings, unfortunately they take the old ones down pretty quickly so it is only what is going on right now. Probably a bit embarrassing to list them all.

CareerBuilder link to Fraud info - they buried it at the bottom of their home page in tiny print.

Link to Monster.com Security Center - buried at bottom of home page in fine print and no mention of Fraud or Scams.

Monster.com link to Avoiding Work at Home Scams - again, buried at bottom of their page under a link to Security and then this link.

New Year's Resolutions, or maybe Goals will be more effective

2010-01-01T20:06:00Z

Frankly I've never been a big fan of New Year's resolutions. I don't smoke, seldom drink, so my list of resolutions is generally pretty boring. Going back to the gym and losing a few pounds are always on my list, and like most I start off great and then fade as the year wears on. I was thinking about this new year of 2010 and last year, and let's face it, pretty much everyone agrees that 2009 really sucked for business, many careers, the economy, it just was a crummy year for most of us. Everyone I know is really hoping for a much better 2010 in so many ways. I was talking to my wife about this and she suggested that we set goals for 2010. After talking with her about it I realized that this is a really good idea, actually not just a good idea, honey, this is a great idea!

So Cerisa and I sat down and made a list of the things we want to accomplish in 2010. This was a great talk. Firstly it was great for us as a couple and it gave us a chance to discuss things we want to do, things we want to accomplish, and get in sync with our life plans. Secondly, as a result of this talk we came up with some firm plans for what we need to do in 2010 to achieve our goals. And thirdly, even after being married for 29 years, it was really good for us to just sit and talk about what we want to do, where we want to go, dream a bit, and talk about how we are going to get there.

Here's what I learned from this: Resolutions are really not much of a commitment, most of us say them and fully expect to fall short of them within a few weeks or months. But goals are different. If I set a goal to write at least 2 blogs per week - that is a commitment (yeah, I know, I missed that target toward the end of 2009). If I set a goal to add new pages to my website by March 2010 - that's a commitment. Setting a goal to increase our business at Circle of One Marketing by a specific amount, that's a goal and a commitment. And again, setting a goal to save to buy a new car, save a specific amount of money for our summer vacation and our daughter's graduation from law school - again, that's a commitment. In fact, these goals are commitments that lead to plans and plans lead to activity and execution.

Next week the entire staff at Circle of One Marketing is meeting to discuss our goals and plans for 2010, both for the company and personally. Each of us is going to do our own SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, & Threats) analysis for the company, discuss the results, and then discuss what our goals are for 2010.  Next we are going to discuss how each of us can contribute to these goals, make commitments for our contributions, and finally we are going to set personal growth and development goals.

So while New Year's Resolutions are, in my opinion, a hollow wish list of things we know we ought to do, but probably won't stick to, a New Year's list of Goals and Plans is something we might actually do.

            So here are my suggestion for MAKING 2010 a great year for you and your family...
            3 Steps to Setting Goals for 2010

Sit down with your spouse, business partner, or significant other and have an open discussion of what you want to accomplish in 2010. To start with this is like a brain storming session, so you may come up with a long list, but that's OK.
Refine your discussion into a list of specific goals you have for 2010 with dates.
Now identify what action you need to take, by when, to achieve each of these goals.

As always, I wish you the best and brightest future, a happy and prosperous New Year
Bill Grunau

Census Bureau is Hiring!

2009-11-16T15:50:00Z

A friend of mine just got a great job with the Census Bureau. It is a temporary position, but the pay is great and it is really putting his talent to work. He landed a management position overseeing several regional offices. When I spoke with him about his new position he told the Census Bureau is still hiring across the country and they are looking for a variety of positions.

Before you go to LinkedIn or contact me for a referral to my friend, don't bother. They have a very formal hiring procedure, so networking will have limited value here. The good news is that it is a level playing field and there are LOTS of jobs available across the country and at all kinds of levels. There are even part time positions available.

You can either call the number below to set up an test date or go to the website below.

Link to Census Bureau Jobs

Census Bureau Job Line 866-861-2010

As always, I wish you the best and brightest future
Bill Grunau

Opt Out of Your Corporate Job, Buy a business, it's easier than you think

2009-10-05T10:40:00Z

A very interesting and often overlooked alternative to getting a job is buying a business. Many professionals are deeply ingrained in the corporate world and have no idea what is available to them as an entrepreneur. When I was a senior executive I had exactly the same thinking; this is the only place I can make this kind of money, no way could I ever replace my corporate salary as a small business owner, and besides, I really didn't see myself working in a small retail business barely making ends meet.

Well when I started selling businesses as a broker I quickly learned a couple of things. First I was shocked at how much some of these small business owners actually make. I personally represented many businesses with earnings in the mid six figures and a few that earned over $1 million per year. In fact, it is fairly common for small business owners to earn well over $100,000 per year and many earn over $250,000. That's right, you can replace your corporate salary with a small business, and, in fact, many executives may even make more by buying a small business, especially if you consider the tax benefits of owning your own business. Secondly, I was also surprised at the wide range of small businesses and how interesting some of them are. If you take the time to really look into this there are some really interesting businesses for sale. Yes, there are a bunch of businesses for sale that don't make much money, and some that are not worth buying, but if you really dig into this there are good business for sale that could easily replace the income from your corporate job, yes you could "opt out" if you really want to.

Once you get past the myth that you can't replace your salary as a small business owner, the next hurdle that is fictional and a myth is "I don't have the money to buy a small business". Again, most executives in the corporate world are thinking in terms of acquisitions that involve millions or tens of millions of dollars. But what a minute; we are talking about small businesses here. These businesses sell for hundreds of thousands to maybe a few million. Next hurdle, I don't have a few hundred thousand in sitting around my checking account to buy a business. Well, very few people do, and very few deals are done as cash transactions. In fact I would never recommend doing a cash transaction. If you can't finance it, you should buy it, period.

Many business purchases can be financed through an SBA loan and also with a seller note and the bottom line is that you can buy a business with as little as 25% down. That means you could buy a business worth $500,000 with $100,000 down. This begs the question, "well great, if I had $100,000 for a down payment, and bought a business for $500,000, how much would I make?" Most businesses in this price range sell for between 2.2 X DE (Discretionary Earnings) and at most 3 X DE. Which means with $100,000 down you should be able to find a business with earnings (DE) between $160,000 and 225,000.

I know the next hurdle, "I don't have $100,000 of cash laying around". Again, few people do, but there are ways to raise this cash that you may not have considered. For instance, you may not know it but you can use your 401K or IRA funds to buy a business without paying taxes or penalties. Before you run off and withdraw your funds, there are some catches to this. There are some very specific IRS rules and guidelines that must be followed and you cannot simply withdraw the money and invest it in a business. You can visit www.ersop.com for more information on 401K rollovers into a business purchase. You can also use your home equity to raise capital or other lines of credit. There are lots of alternatives.

My book, "Own Your Future, Straight Talk About How to Buy a Business and Build Your Future" has detailed explanations of financing, business valuation, how to find a business to buy and business valuation & analysis examples. Additional resources and free business analysis tools are available at www.mybusinessbroker.com and you can buy the book through Amazon.com or from the home page of www.careerxl.com or www.mybusinessbroker.com

I won't sugar coat this, buying a business is work. It will take time and perseverance on your part in to accomplish this, but there can be a big pay off for you. If you are successful, you will take control of you life and your future and truly Own Your Future.

I wish all of you the best and brightest future,
Bill Grunau

Should You Un-Link some of your contacts on LinkedIn? Are they contacts or acquaintances?

2009-10-01T10:41:00Z

I'm thinking about doing something bold and rarely done. I am going to go through my LinkedIn account and un-link the people that are not really contacts! Sort of like un-friending someone on Facebook or un-following someone on Twitter. I didn't even know I could do this on LinkedIn until recently, and I suspect few people ever bother to do this.

Why am I thinking about doing do this? Well, I haven't pulled the trigger yet, but frankly I am tired of looking at some of these names that aren't really contacts; people I barely know, that I really don't think I can count on for a referral or any kind of real networking. What's the point of having them in my "network" if I can't really use them to network?

How did these contacts get on my list to begin with? OK, like many people, too often I saw a request from someone wanting to connect and I thought, "why not, may be they will turn into a contact". I accepted the invitation never to hear from them again. A couple of times I tried to use some of these loose acquaintances for introductions to people they know, and guess what, no response. So this has me wondering, why did they connect with me to begin with, and, more importantly, why am I still connected to them, it really is just a facade.

I've noticed some LinkedIn users have 500+ connections. Interestingly, most of my loose contacts, or acquaintances that I really am not all that connected to, are people in this category. This makes me wonder if there is some kind of merit badge for having a bunch of contacts. Seriously, does anyone have over 500 real contacts? Sure you can collect 500 names easily over time, but are these contacts or just names posted on your contact list to make you look like you are the man. Actually there are several groups on LinkedIn for "open networkers". While I applaud the concept of active networking, I remain unconvinced that connecting with a bunch of people you do not know has any real value. My opinion is that it demotes your LinkedIn contact list to basically a phone book of anyone willing to click on "accept" to your random invitation. Why not just use the phone book?

There is a real need for LinkedIn to set up contact levels or categories. It would be great to be able to classify people we are linked to by levels or category names relating to how well or closely we are connected - eg acquaintance, contact, friend, close friend, who is this person anyway, etc. It is a bit ironic that Facebook allows you to do this with your friends, and LinkedIn, a "professional" networking site does not. Funny that a social site is eclipsing a professional networking site for functionality and features.

And by the way, in closing. I am following my own advice and cleaning up my act. Today I received an invitation on LinkedIn from someone I do not know. He appears to be a friend of a friend, but I don't know him, so I sent a reply asking him how I know him and to give me a call. If he calls and he appears to be someone that will develop into a contact, then I will be happy to connect with him. If I don't hear from him I guess that answers the question of if he will be a good contact or not.

As always, I wish all of you the best and brightest future,
Bill Grunau
PS if you get un-linked by me don't take it personal, just shoot me an email or give me a call. We can always re-connect.

Career Placement Firm Advises Against Social Media, are they kidding? Get real guys!

2009-09-30T09:35:00Z

Yesterday I saw a Tweet that instantly caught my eye. It was posted by VirtualMarketer and said "Career Placement Firm Discourages Sr. Execs from using Social Networking Sites http://bit.ly/VNUR4 ". This really got my attention, I had to read this one, I was hooked and clicked on the link.

I read the article and was stunned that someone claiming to be a savvy career advisor would advise people against using social media. The article by David Werner said that LinkedIn has "marginal value" and it was clear that he just did not see the point of this social media stuff. The tone of the article was that an executive would be much better off limiting their use of potentially dangerous social media and using his firm to build an online presence for them (Oh, I get it, we are too stupid to figure out this social media stuff, better pay you to handle it for us and land us a job because it is way to complicated for mere mortals and we could screw it up). It was clear in the article that he thought that LinkedIn has "marginal value" and he did not see the benefit of it. Interesting that he did not even mention Twitter and only mentioned Facebook in passing saying that he nearly fell for some lame attempt to get his password. My take on it is that he is clearly out of touch and does not have a clue about social media, LinkedIn, Twitter (not even mentioned!), and Facebook.

In fairness to him, he does warn against posting personal activities that could prove embarrassing and states that your Facebook and LinkedIn comments may come back to haunt you when you are applying for a job, so professionals should be mindful of what they post. OK, I'll go with that and concede that point, but to suggest that social media is dangerous and that senior executives should limit their use of social media, is this guy a dinosaur or what?

So who is David Werner and David Werner International anyway? Well a Google search under just his name is not all that enlightening, in fact he does not have much of a web presence and not much popped up. I checked his LinkedIn profile (that was interesting), http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidwernerinternational and not much was there. I did another Google search under David Werner Scams and got some really interesting results, here are a few David Werner Ripoff Reports 22 Entries , David Werner Complaint Blog , and Pissed Consumer . Turns out David Werner's angry customers have a more dominant internet presence than he does! They dominate the first page of the Google search and he has 22 complaints on the Ripoff report from 2008 through June of 2009, quite a distinction.

A closer look at his LinkedIn profile was interesting. So this guy is supposed to be a career placement guru, right? He has 141 contacts on LinkedIn, (all of the recruiters I know have over 500), one recommendation (glad he found one person to do that for him), and almost no detail about his background. In summary he has a terrible LinkedIn profile. If he were a prospective job candidate this profile would rank in the totally unimpressive category right next to blah. And this guy is giving people advice about LinkedIn and how to get jobs!

I would like to suggest that David Werner read my webpage on Getting Started On LinkedIn and my page on Networking on the Web. He would learn a lot about the power of LinkedIn, Twitter and social media in the job search. Actually my guess is that he probably would not learn anything, but hopefully you will. I remain an advocate of social media in both the job search, for personal branding, and for career development. I also love using social media like LinkedIn and Twitter to develop new contacts, build relationships and maintain my existing relationships - that's why they call it social media David.

I think David Werner should pack up his Rolodex and plastic business card holder that he uses to manage his contacts and quietly go off into retirement and play some golf. Clearly he is no longer relevant in today's market, he is giving poor advice, and apparently he has really pissed off a lot of past clients. Good bye David, enjoy the golf, don't call us, we won't call you. One final thing, I have A LOT to say about career placement firms like David Werner International, I even used one myself one time. My next blog will talk about my experience with one of these firms and these firms in general (that will be fun).

As always, I wish you the best and brightest future,
Bill Grunau

Stop "Networking" and Start Connecting to Get a Job; the 7 Cs of Networking

2009-09-29T10:58:00Z

Have you been actively "networking" and getting zero results? Going to networking events, meeting people, handing out business cards, resumes, called old contacts, and getting no where? Maybe you need to stop "networking" and start connecting.

Brad Remillard, principal/partner at Impact Hiring Solutions hosts a weekly show Your Not The Person I Hired on LA Talk Radio. Recently he did a really interesting show on Stop Networking to Find a Job where he interviewed Dave Elliott who discussed how to convert networking contacts that forget about you, into a relationships that become advocates for you. Dave talks about the 7 Cs of networking: 1) Connecting (connecting with the people), 2) Chemistry, 3) Communication, 4) Common interests 5) Compatibility, 6) Confidence, and 7) Consistently staying in touch.

In my previous blog, The Half Life of Networking, I discussed how many contacts have a short Half Life, maybe only a few minutes or a few days and how to convert acquaintances with short Half Lifes into contacts with a long Half Life that turn into long term relationships. In another blog, You Can Get Anything You Want in Life If..., I talked about becoming a great contact in order to develop great contacts.

You've probably noticed there is a common theme here. To build a great network and solid contacts you have to be a great contact first and invest time in both networking and your contacts. This is not a spectator sport nor is it a multi-player game you can play on LinkedIn, this is a contact sport (so to speak) and you have to be involved.

As always, I wish you the best and brightest future,
Bill Grunau

Networking really works, two success stories with some irony

2009-09-28T10:57:00Z

My wife got great news this weekend. A good friend of ours got a job! She is a single mom and her unemployment benefits were about to run out. She had been out of work for nearly 2 1/2 years with only a couple of short "under-employment" gigs in between. We are truly happy she landed this job, this is a prayer (actually prayers) answered. It is a Director of IT position, which is the same title she had before and it sounds like it will be a great opportunity for her.

She had sent out countless resumes, been on dozens of interviews, had been on the short list several times, and never quite finished first. She is very well qualified, the problem is (as many of you well know), so are a few hundred of the other candidates applying for these positions!

So, how did she get the job? A friend of hers found out she was looking for a job, referred her to this company, made the introduction, and she got the job!

Awhile back a good friend of mine that is one of the leaders at the Saddleback Career Ministry where I volunteered when we lived in Orange County told me a similar story. A senior executive that was out of work for over a year landed a job that was referred to him by his neighbor. He was talking to his neighbor, mentioned he was out of work and looking for a job, and it turned out his neighbor knew of a great position for him. The neighbor made the introduction and he got the job.

So where is the irony in these stories. Well, the irony is that our friend was unemployed for nearly 2 1/2 years, the senior exec was unemployed for over one year, and the person that ultimately helped them get their job did not know they were looking for a job! This is like the story of two ships passing in the dark of night without seeing each other.

The lesson here is that networking really does work, but your contacts have to know you are looking for a job and you have to stay in touch with them. This doesn't mean you should become obnoxious and bug all of your friends asking them "do you know of any jobs" constantly, but it does mean you should let your network know you are looking for a position and what you are looking for!

Check out the Networking and Job Search videos and Building Your Personal Brand videos (which include more networking videos) on our site for some great networking tips.

As always, I wish you the best and brightest future,
Bill Grunau

Does Anybody Really Care About Cover Letters?

2009-09-22T11:08:00Z

Yesterday I was talking about Brad Remillard and Barry Duetsch's blog on Traditional Resumes are Worthless. Today I wanted to tie in another interesting blog from Brad and Barry about cover letters, Does Anybody Really Care About Cover Letters. In this blog they take some interesting positions on cover letters. First, they question if anyone even cares about them anymore!

As it turns out, many hiring managers like to see them (as a formality) even though they only glance at them, while most recruiters really don't care about them and don't pay much attention to them. Turns out recruiters go straight to the resume to see if it matches the requirements and they don't want to waste the time reading an extra document.

But here are two really interesting and important points they make.

Merge your cover letter into your resume file! I never thought of this, but if you send the cover letter and resume as separate files, guess what, the cover letter will almost certainly get lost along the way and won't get forwarded along with the resume.
Make sure ALL of the points made in your cover letter are detailed in the resume. If you make a point in your cover letter and it gets the attention of the recruiter, HR professional or hiring manager, don't leave them hanging, provide the details and back up in the resume. If you don't provide the details it looses its impact and lacks credibility. The two must tie together.

Our site has some great cover letter templates and videos on writing resumes and cover letters. Check them out, hopefully you will find them helpful.

As always, I wish you the best and brightest future,
Bill Grunau