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FIND YOURSELF, FIND A PAYCHECK

Whether you’re just coming out of school or are mid-career, searching for employment in the professional world is more challenging than any assignment you’ll be given on the job. Not only do you have to decide exactly what to look for, but you also have to find a way in the door—and make that doorstop hold until you have an offer in hand. Fortunately, as in any game with rules, job hunting has its loopholes. In this chapter, I’ll discuss how to take advantage of them as you’re surveying the field, meeting contacts, preparing your promotional materials, interviewing, and negotiating.

The Panic Button

For me, preparing to enter the business world was a lot like being reborn. At the end of my senior year of college, I felt the same sense of discomfort that a baby must feel when leaving the safety of its mother’s womb. I freaked out about being unemployed and having to move back home, so I stormed my university’s career center and wreaked havoc on every job database I could get my hands on. I needed a job ASAP, and I was willing to take anything I could get, regardless of whether or not I was interested in the occupation. After all, it was only my first job, right? The media reinforced my belief that because I was twenty-two, I wasn’t supposed to have a clue. Around that time, Alexandra Robbins and Abby Wilner, authors of Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties, first defined a quarterlife crisis as the “overwhelming instability, self-doubt, and sense of panicked helplessness faced by twenty-somethings as a result of constant change and too many choices.” I became complacent, thinking that because I’d inevitably change my mind a million times, I might as well put off the soul-searching.

Even if this approach seems perfectly legitimate to you, I don’t recommend it. First of all, prospective employers don’t like unfocused candidates; they want to believe that you’ve been preparing to work for them forever. Also, switching careers multiple times just for the hell of it sounds like a lot of work to me. You need a lot of training and experience to become proficient in a career, and once you have a family to support, will you be able to afford to pursue the job you love at a $40,000 entry-level salary? Along those same lines, your twenties are the best time to get to a respectable level on the ladder. During these years, you don’t have competing responsibilities and you are accountable to no one but yourself.

Given these factors, wouldn’t it be much easier to make the smartest career choice you can now? Don’t get me wrong—discovering your true calling is not an exact science, and it’s impossible to know what you will want to do ten or twenty years from now. Some futurists even predict that people currently in their twenties will have several careers in their lifetimes that haven’t been invented yet. Therefore, all of the self-reflection in the world will probably not result in a bulletproof career plan for the rest of your life. It’s also possible that you will try a field you’ve researched and think is interesting, but will realize you hate it after a few months on the job. However, by doing a complete self-assessment while you’re still in school or shortly thereafter, you will be able to decide on a path that provides the core skills and experience you need to take you wherever you want to go in the future.

The Self-Assessment Journey

Start with a blank slate. This is easier said than done when everyone you know—especially your parents—has an opinion on what you should do now that you’re all grown up. You also have to get past the issue of your college major. You might think that because you studied economics you have to pursue a career as a financial consultant. The truth is, even a business-related major will not adequately prepare you for the professional world, so why let it pigeonhole you?

Forget what you studied in school for a moment and make a list of your skills—otherwise known as the things you do better than most of your friends. Skills can be general or specific. (An example of a general skill is communicating well with people, and an example of a corresponding specific skill is that you present well in front of groups.) Next, sit down for a brief philosophical journey and reflect on the following questions:

Use the answers to these questions to develop what Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, calls a personal mission statement. To paraphrase Covey, the personal mission statement is your own big picture. It should include what you hope to accomplish in your career and it should reflect the type of person you want to become. By thinking about what’s really important to you and where you want to go in life, your efforts and energy will be directed toward a common purpose. Along with your list of skills, your personal mission statement should provide clues about fields to research.

Now go online and pore over material about occupations that correspond to your skills, interests, and personal mission. Once you make a list of potential careers, ask the career center at your college or university to help you set up informational interviews with alumni so that you can learn more about each job field you are interested in. In these meetings, don’t be afraid to ask specific questions about training requirements, responsibilities, salary, work environment, and opportunities for advancement. As long as you are polite, no one will fault you for wanting the real scoop. Plus, if a job is not as glamorous as it sounds, you will want to know before investing more of your time and energy. If possible, take courses related to the careers that interest you, apply for internships in your target occupations, or visit prospective companies so that you can get a real feel for the field you will pursue.

If you’ve already been in the business world a few years, I suggest a healthy reality check before you jump over to another job. Revise or develop your personal mission statement and ask yourself if you’re on the right track. Why aren’t you happy in your current position? Is it your career choice, your work situation, or you? If it’s the second or third scenario, read on. Hopefully this book will help you. If it’s your career choice, this might be a good time to make an appointment with a career counselor, take a personality inventory such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or read a classic career assessment book such as What Color Is Your Parachute? by Richard Nelson Bolles or New Job, New You by yours truly. Even if you’re mid-career, you can still find a job that works for you.

When you collect enough data to make an informed decision about a particular field, imagine your career path over the next five or ten years. Suppose you land a dream job in your chosen field. You’ll want to set some preliminary goals for what you hope to accomplish once you get there. In determining aspirations and time frames, try to be realistic. If your objective is to be a millionaire by age thirty, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. (For more information on setting goals, see Chapter 4.) You should also have a backup plan. What will you do if you can’t find a job or if you don’t succeed in your first career choice? Knowing you have something to fall back on will only increase your confidence level as you hold your nose and dive in.

No matter what direction you choose, you’ll have to cope with some doubt and uncertainty. But don’t let indecisiveness get the best of you. Staying unemployed for too long while you consider the perfect career move will drive you crazy and make prospective employers squirm. Make the best decision you can, act confidently, and never look back. If you do what you think is best, the pieces will most likely fall into place.

Your Professional Persona

In life, we get many chances to reinvent ourselves. Remember when you first arrived on campus for your freshman year of college? The most exciting thing about it was that no one knew what a [insert negative adjective of choice here] you were in high school. You taught yourself new habits and hobbies, and you bought yourself a new wardrobe. Maybe you even picked a new nickname. You had the chance to start over, as if your previous life had never existed.

Graduating from college is a similar opportunity, and understandably, you probably want to spend the next few years figuring out who you are and what you want out of life. Should you decide to pursue a career in business, however, developing a professional persona will unquestionably serve you well. By professional persona, I mean the mature, competent, and friendly face you project to the work world. It doesn’t matter what type of person you are in real life; just think of yourself as an actor playing a role while you are at work. So what if you still play drinking games on Friday nights or prefer a book to human company? You can still have a professional persona.

How will this help you? Quite simply, a marketable professional persona positively influences people’s perceptions of you so that you can ultimately succeed in the world of work. I’m sure you’ve heard of big-time publicists who get paid megabucks to promote celebrities and make them look like the coolest people on earth. You can be like those PR folks, only you have just one client to promote: you. It’s pretty easy, but there is a catch: you must first learn to toot your own horn. Although there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance, learning to capitalize on your skills and assert your achievements is a must for career success. If you don’t do it, no one else will, and you’ll be out-promoted by people who know how to leverage their own contributions. In the end, it will pay off almost as handsomely for you as it does for the wealthiest of publicists.

Growing and maintaining a professional persona is hard work because everything you say and do affects it. The best way to make your persona stick is to clearly establish it at the beginning of your relationship with a company and consistently sustain it during the early phases of a new job.

You can start online. The first step is to do a Google search of your name—and alternate spellings of your name—and see what comes up. A lot of factors influence which pages appear first in a particular search engine, but you can help your cause by purchasing your name from a web domain company, such as GoDaddy (GoDaddy.com), and housing a professional biography, other credentials, and current contact information on a simple and clean website. If you find yourself competing with other people who have the same name, you can increase your share of online real estate by writing industry articles for third-party association websites or social networks.

Speaking of which, your social media presence should enhance, rather than detract from your professional persona. By now you are hopefully aware that even the newest social networks are not the private havens for friends that they used to be. You can pretty much count on the fact that your boss, senior managers, colleagues, and potential employers are looking at all your online sites—privacy controls or no privacy controls. That’s not to say that you can’t have a little fun by including content that demonstrates you’re a human being, but beware of getting too personal. Upload photos of friends, but leave out those of last weekend’s drunken soirée.

If you love posting real-time updates on Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook, think very carefully before you send messages, photos, and videos out into the world. Trust me: your boss will find out that you’re posting from a Cubs game when you’re supposed to be out sick, or that you’ve been conversing on Twitter all morning when you have a critical deadline to meet.

All of your online profiles should be consistent, updated frequently, and crafted to portray the attributes that encompass a strong professional persona: trustworthiness, sincerity, reliability, enthusiasm, self-sufficiency, and loyalty. Keeping the idea of the professional persona in mind, let’s move on to the mechanics of finding a job.

Scope the Field

Getting a good job in today’s economy requires more than just graduating from a good college and hanging out at the still-ubiquitous job fair. You have to set yourself apart, get their attention, and make them want you.

You probably don’t have a lot of time to make this happen. If you’re unemployed, you might be cashing in the last of your savings bonds to make your rent, and you need a job ASAP. If you already have a job and are looking for another, you have only so many hours to inconspicuously surf online before your boss figures out what’s going on. When you’re in your twenties, employment is a catch-22: you need experience to get a job, but you must have a job in order to get that experience. Our forefathers relied on temp agencies to float them through the job-search process. Unfortunately, we don’t have that luxury. These days, temp firms are more crowded than a Beyonce concert. You’ll sit in their plush waiting rooms for hours answering personality inventories on your smartphone and proving that you’re Windows 10 compliant on an old Wi-Fi-challenged desktop.

Don’t despair, though. Landing a job in the business world is quite achievable with a little ingenuity and preparation. Don’t give them a reason to hire you; dare them to find a reason not to. This is where the concept of the professional persona comes in. Every interaction you have with a company—from your first written communication to your salary negotiation—should exude maturity, professionalism, and competency. You want the employer to say, “Wow, I’ve never seen a more together candidate. So what if the company is in a hiring freeze? I have to get her on board.”

So where do you start? A good first step is to scout out openings commensurate with your level of experience. Here are some places to try:

Keep in mind that most job openings aren’t advertised because a lot of businesses prefer to hire from within the company or through word of mouth. If you’re coming in from off the street, you could be out of luck. My friend Jake once tore through New York City in search of a job. In a week, he dropped 200 resumes at a career expo, signed with five recruiting firms, and answered dozens of online job postings. Boy, was he bitter when he was still unemployed after his month-long assault on the New York job market. Jake learned that, unfortunately, being proactive is sometimes not enough. Instead of working harder, work smarter. Use online resources, such as Glassdoor.com, and business trade publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Fast Company, Forbes, Fortune, BusinessWeek, Business Insider, and SmartBrief to target desirable companies in your geographic area. Then, prepare to infiltrate these companies by making the transition from outsider to insider. Here’s how:

Using a combination of these approaches, you are much more likely to gain access to unadvertised job openings in the companies you desire. However, it probably won’t happen overnight. Be persistent and don’t get lazy, even if you’re not seeing immediate results. Keep your expectations realistic and remind yourself of the end goal every day. Above all, don’t doubt your own abilities. Ignore all of the folks who tell you that the market sucks and that you should take any available job, even if it’s not what you want or need. Learn to take rejection with a grain of salt; it’s all part of the process. If you take the right action patiently and efficiently, an opportunity will come along that’s a good fit for your skill set.

Write an Irresistible Resume

The purpose of a resume is to land an interview. Amazon has a million books about the best way to write a resume so you can achieve that goal. In my opinion, though, writing an impressive resume is simple if you keep a few things in mind. First, employers never read a resume in its entirety, and I’m willing to bet that the average resume gets read in about five seconds.

My father once told me that employers like numbers and statistics—hard facts that show how a candidate is directly responsible for making a company more profitable. Now let’s be real here. If you’re in your early twenties, the chances are not very good that you are at a high enough level to have had sole ownership of a project. However, the chances are excellent that you have had some measurable impact along the way. Did you help with a project that drove company revenue? Was there any piece of the project that you alone were responsible for? Let’s examine how this strategy might work for a candidate who is pursuing her first corporate job and for someone who has worked in the business world before.

First Corporate Job

Let’s say you didn’t have corporate internships while you were in college, but you did sell ice cream at Baskin-Robbins for four summers. Maybe while you were there you helped the manager execute a campaign to draw in customers from a nearby shopping mall.

See why the power statement is better? The original statement makes it look as though you were just a passive body handing out coupons, and the reader is probably thinking that anyone could have done the job. The power statement, however, reads as though you made a significant contribution to the Baskin-Robbins corporation by creating an innovative marketing campaign. Note that the wording of the power statement is still effective even if you didn’t make the flyer all by yourself. If you had any creative input whatsoever, saying that you designed it bolsters the perception of ownership. The “Snack on Us” labeling also suggests that you were responsible for branding the campaign. With one statement, you completely changed the reader’s perception of your role from ice cream shop cashier to small business entrepreneur.

Early Career Move

Suppose you worked as an administrative assistant in a large consulting firm. You were a member of a team that serviced a healthcare account worth $250,000 in monthly fees. Perhaps most of the real account work was left to the senior individuals on the team, but you were responsible for creating and managing the budget spreadsheets.

Maybe your contribution to this account was solely administrative. The first statement reads this way. The power statement, however, makes a reader think that you were responsible for managing an enormous amount of company revenue. It says to me that you are extremely trustworthy and that you have a head for complicated finances.

The words you use to communicate your experience make all the difference in whether your resume is considered average or fantastic. In public relations, we call this strategy spinning, and if you don’t think it will work for you, sleep on it. With a little creativity and positive positioning, the most mundane tidbits of experience can become resume jewels.

Spinning is one thing, but you should never lie outright on your resume or fake credentials. Employers are always on high alert, and the risks far outweigh the potential benefits. Here are some other tips that may help your resume get through the door.

Online services such as VisualCV (visualcv.com) allow you to take your resume information to a more sophisticated level, but don’t let too many bells and whistles detract from the basics. Make sure that all forms of your resume have up-to-date contact information, including a cell phone number and email address. And you need a voice mail greeting for your phone that is tailored to your most important audience: your potential employer. (See Chapter 5 for voice mail greeting tips.)

The Myth of Cover Letters

Burning the midnight oil to write a spectacular cover letter to send with your resume is not the best use of your time. Why? It’s critical that the right people read your materials, and that won’t happen with a traditional cover letter and resume addressed to a human resources manager. Your resume could be better than Elon Musk’s, but if it sits in Mr. HR’s inbox for six months, it’s useless.

A few years back, when I was looking for a job, I read two resume-writing books cover to cover. After I applied to a bunch of jobs using their advice, I received form letters from 20 percent of the companies and no response at all from the other 80 percent. Desperate, I tried the following method—and got a job offer the first time.

No matter what the recruiters say, the best way to land a job is to communicate directly with the individual who can hire you. It’s easier than you think. The first step is to ask everyone you talk to if they know someone at your target company. Inevitably, you’ll chat with someone at a party and will find out that her sister-in-law works for Fab Company. Should you find yourself in this situation, don’t waste time reflecting on the coincidental nature of the world. It’s your lucky day! A lot of experts say that the best way to proceed is to ask your party friend if she would feel comfortable introducing you to her sister-in-law. I agree that this is a good idea in principle. The only trouble is, you have to rely on the party friend to follow through. Instead, maintain control over the process by getting the sister-in-law’s name and ask your party friend if she’d mind if you emailed her sister-in-law. She’ll probably accept your request because most people like to help someone out. Thank her profusely, and then go home and draft a cordial message resembling the one below.

Use an email address from your own personal domain (such as [email protected]) and not something unprofessional (in other words, not [email protected]). Mention the name of the person you met at the party in the subject line so that your contact will open the message instead of deleting it. The tone of the message should not be wishy-washy or vague. Keep it short and sweet, ask for what you want up front, and be specific. Include a signature line with full contact information at the bottom.

What happens if you shouted Fab Company’s name from the rooftops and you still can’t make a connection? The situation is not hopeless, but you have to do a little more digging. Call around, look online (LinkedIn is a goldmine), and query trade associations to find the names of people who work in your department. You don’t need to locate a senior manager; anybody with a similar job function will do. If you found a name but not a corresponding email address, check the company website or call the reception desk to get the format for email addresses at that organization. You’ll find they are usually [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected]. Google the person to find out as much about him as you can, and then craft a short, friendly email introducing yourself and explaining what you’re looking for. Here’s an example:

Do not ask Mr. Smith for a job in your initial communication. Rather, gently probe him for information about career opportunities when you talk on the phone or meet in person. The point is to establish a personal relationship with Mr. Smith because, even if he’s not the person who would ask you for an interview, you’ve now made it inside the company. Mr. Smith probably has the internal contacts to introduce you to the person who can hire you. Perhaps he will forward your information directly, or mention to several of his colleagues that you’ll be contacting them.

Even if you obtain an important person’s phone number, don’t call until you exchange a few communications via email. For one thing, the chances of getting a higher-level executive on the phone are pretty slim. If the exec doesn’t know you, getting past her assistant will be like robbing a casino. Also, leaving a voice mail message has the unsavory intrusiveness of a cold sales call. In the beginning, stick to email. It really is your best opportunity to knock the socks off someone who matters.

Polished Interviews

The key to stress-free interviewing is to prepare, but not too much. You want to do just enough research so that you know what to expect and can speak intelligently on the points related to your job function. It also helps to jot down a few “wow ’em” facts about the company that you would never know unless you did your homework; however, don’t spend so much time on the company’s website that you end up sounding like Wikipedia.

It’s in your best interests to find out as much as you can about the person or people interviewing you. A Google search will prove helpful in this regard. Determine in advance what type of interview you’ll have so that you aren’t caught off guard. Will the meeting be one-on-one, or will you be sitting in front of an executive panel? Will you be asked to consider a real-life business problem? Will any type of written or computer test be required while you’re there?

I also recommend putting together an interview portfolio. A portfolio is an online and/or physical display of your business achievements that shows your level of commitment to previous positions. For example, as a marketing communications executive, my portfolio included press releases and business plans I wrote, magazine articles I contributed to, and print advertising campaigns I helped develop. A neat and professional portfolio can be an excellent tool to refer to during an interview. Most people outside of creative fields don’t bother to create anything like this, but it really does speak volumes about your ability to package yourself.

Although it’s a good idea to be conversational during an interview, be careful how much personal information you divulge. There is never a good reason to bad-mouth your previous employer, even if everything you say is justified. While he is listening to your sob story, your prospective employer is thinking how in a year you will be sitting in front of another interviewer complaining about his company. Don’t be fooled by an interviewer who seems compassionate. Remember, the two of you are not friends, and the interviewer’s first loyalty is to the company he’s hiring for. If you are asked why you left a job, answer with a neutral statement, such as, “The commute didn’t allow me to spend enough time with my family,” or “I wanted to gain experience working in a different industry.” Here are some other things to keep in mind as you undergo the interview process.

The Pre-Interview

Familiarize yourself with basic interview questions such as, “Can you tell me about yourself.” Don’t forget doozy interview questions such as, “What is your worst quality?” Consider these tips as well:

The Day of the Interview

Dress in neat, formal business attire. Men should wear a dark suit, solid or pinstripe, with socks that match the pants and a belt that matches the shoes. Women should pair a dark suit with tasteful accessories and nonscuffed heels of a reasonable height.

After the Interview

Even though the interview is over, there are a couple things you can do to follow through with the interviewer. Just a couple of simple acts on your end can make all the differene on their end.

Know What You’re Getting Into

Many companies have their human resources representatives conduct interviews, but you should try to meet with—or at least speak with—the person who will be your official manager. The reason behind this is simple: if your personalities clash or if you have fundamental differences in the way you work, you need to know immediately so that you can determine if you want to pursue the opportunity further. I’m not saying that one conversation will accurately reflect how your boss will act on the job or that problems won’t arise later that were impossible to predict. However, if you dislike the person immediately, you should consider whether it’s a smart move to work for her.

While you’re interviewing, you should also talk to current employees at the company—preferably those in the department you want to work for. Tactfully learn as much as you can about the organizational culture, or the working environment and politics. Think seriously about whether you could fit in, because you won’t have a happy and fruitful career in a place that makes you uncomfortable or doesn’t meet your individual needs. Get a sense of the overall mood and morale of the employees, and listen carefully to what they say—and what they don’t say. If you think that every employee is going to sing the company’s praises just because you came up from HR, you might be surprised. I interviewed at a technology company that really impressed me until two of my potential colleagues told me to leave “before I got sucked in.” I didn’t take the offer, but I might have if I hadn’t taken the time to get the insider’s view.

A quick word about interview thank-you notes: Some people think email thank-you letters are enough, but I disagree. If you want the company to think you are a “go the extra mile” type of person, spend an extra minute to snail mail physical cards.

Airtight References

You just had a successful interview, the employer is about to make you an offer, and then he asks for a few references to reassure himself that he wants to hire you. The operative word here is reassure. By the time employers get to the reference stage, their minds are usually made up, and they are just doing their due diligence. That said, you must assume that your references will be called and, subsequently, grilled about your work experience. So, yes, your references have to be real people, and the contact information you provide must be accurate and up to date.

The best references are not your best friend’s mother or your favorite elementary school teacher. They also do not include your current boss. I don’t care how chummy the two of you are, you don’t want your manager to know you’re looking for another position. If you never had a job, you might ask an internship supervisor or a professor you’ve worked with to be a reference. If you have been employed in the past, a friend you worked with or a former boss from a job you left under good circumstances are good choices. Do not give out reference names and contact information without talking to them first. Contact potential references at the beginning of your job search and debrief each one on the types of opportunities you’re looking for. If they agree to be references, speak to them again immediately after you give their names to an employer. Let them know that the employer is going to call and give them as many specifics about the position as you can. Is there an aspect of your personality, background, or experience that your references should emphasize in order to better your chances? If so, be sure to tell them. Providing your references with the key points you want them to mention will make it easier for them to help you.

Follow up with your references to determine if the employer called them. If they were called, get the rundown on the conversations, and then send each reference a thank-you note. If they weren’t, don’t freak out. I’ve heard of employers who ask for references just to make sure you have them, but they have no intention of actually speaking with anyone. At any rate, send your references thank-you notes whether they were called or not. You never know when you might need them again.

One last point: It’s not necessary to put “References Available Upon Request” on the bottom of your resume. If an employer needs references to hire you, she’ll ask for them.

Negotiation Prowess

The key to a successful salary negotiation is to avoid getting screwed and come out smelling like a rose in the process. You also want to make sure you get the most money possible up front because once you are inside a company, salary increases are few and far between. In order to make this happen, you need to plan ahead. Before you go on an interview, you should have a good idea of what you—and the target job—are worth. If you just graduated from college, you might not have much choice but to accept whatever entry-level salary the firm pays. If you’re scouting for a new job, however, you should check Internet salary sites (for example, salary.com and payscale.com) to see how much you can command given your level of expertise, your geographic location, and your years of experience. Next, call the target company’s human resources department to find out the salary range of the available position. When I was researching for the original version of this book in 2004, I spoke with David Gordon, then a director of internship studies at Columbia College of Chicago. He suggested a few questions to ask prior to discussing your salary with a prospective employer, which I still recommend to this day:

Gordon also notes that you should prepare for objections to your request for more money, including:

Think about how you would respond to these objections in a way that continues the discussion on a positive note. Prepare to phrase your comments in the form of questions, keeping in mind that the end goal is to reach an agreement with which both parties are happy.

Try not to be the first one to mention money in the interview and avoid giving your salary range, if possible. When the interviewer asks you about your salary, keep your response vague, or ask what the company has budgeted for the position. If you must reveal what you’re currently making, inflate the number slightly to account for bonuses, perks, or if you’re due for a raise in the near future. You should never lie outright about your salary, though, as this can come back to bite you.

After the employer makes an offer, remember to ask about other benefits that might add weight, such as stock options, bonuses, and vacation time. If you’re happy with the total package, communicate that to the employer, and ask him if you can have twenty-four hours to consider it. Next, politely ask for the offer in writing. If you feel you need to negotiate for a higher salary, tread carefully.

For example, you might say, “I’m really excited about this position, and I think I’m a great fit for the company, but I don’t think I could afford to take less than my minimum of $70,000. I have several other opportunities that are in my range, but I’d really prefer to work for you. Is there any way we could work this out?”

Remember, salary ranges are rarely fixed, and once the interviewer has decided she wants to hire you, she will usually meet your request for more money. However, occasionally you might find that great career moves come with a lower price tag. You might be wise to accept an offer that is less money initially, yet pays greater dividends in terms of growth and experience.

What I Wish I’d Known

Take-Home Points