So You've Been Out Of Work For How Long?

For the past 6 months, I have been supporting a family member in his search to locate a new job. He has been seeking employment for close to a year. The mental, emotional, financial, and physical toll of his search for employment has been deep. Sadly, he is not alone. There are numerous stories of people within the KnowledgeStaff network that have been on the hunt for a new job for as long and longer. None of these people I mention are dead wood, poorly skilled or problem employees. They are all struggling job seekers, members of a fraternity that none chose to join.

But there are promising signs out there. Slowly, I am hearing stories of people landing new jobs or assignments. At KnowledgeStaff our activity with full-time placements has picked up noticeably. Predictions of a slow economic recovery seem to be on target.

A question that I get asked frequently is “How do I explain being out of work for so long?” with the follow-up question “How do I let this potential employer know that I am not damaged goods?’ These are not easy questions but the best answers to these questions may come from dissecting the concerns of the potential employers that are behind these questions.

It is important to remember that employers are readily aware of the job market and economy. In many cases they too have experienced downsizings. Unlike other market downturns they are clear that many very qualified people lost their jobs and that layoffs went much deeper than just eliminating the poor performers or dead wood.

The most frequent concerns that I hear from employers when considering candidates that have been out of work for a while are:

• Why so long? They basically want to know the story behind the story. What were the circumstances that caused you to be out of work and why have you not secured a position to date? What they are listening for is sincerity and to be sure that there is no remaining bitterness. They want to hear that you are in a mood of resolve and excitement about beginning a new position and making a contribution to that organizations' success. A small dose of humility can also go a long way.

• How have you been spending your time? Has the job search been a full-out endeavor? Have you been volunteering your time or done any consulting work? Candidates that appear to have been sitting on the sidelines or putting out anything less than a full-out effort may raise concerns about work ethic and commitment.

• Have you made any investments (time or money) to improve your skill set and marketability? If the answer is no, there is still time. Take an online course, read some books or download a free trial version of a software tool that will enhance your marketability.

• How much? We are all aware that there is a new reality when it comes to compensation. The law of supply and demand is just not in the favor of job seekers. Candidates that show a willingness to consider positions at a significantly lower level that what they are accustomed raises serious retention concerns for the employer. The best answer that I have heard presented by a candidate was to offer to commit to remain with the new employer for a period of time (12-24 months seems reasonable). Please note that the employer may not raise their concerns about retention - just know that it is most probably there and any answers that you can provide during the interview to stress your commitment and the fact that you are not a job-hopper can only help.

Human Capital Management: Opportunity or Threat?

Senior level Learning and Development professionals interested in ongoing career development are often faced with the question, "What's Next?" Within the corporate sector, the primary goal is to attain the role that sets the overall strategy and direction for learning within an organization. In the best of all worlds, the position is afforded C-level status in the form of a Chief Learning Officer role.

Over the past several years, Human Capital Management (HCM) and Talent Management have garnered significant press and corporate investment. This hire to retire approach incorporates:

• Organization design which involves the strategic alignment, competency development of people and associated HR strategies
• Workforce planning and deployment encompassing skills inventories, career pathing, and succession planning
• Recruitment and selection
• Professional development covering both hard and soft skills learning and development
• Knowledge management for harnessing and leveraging the intellectual capital of an organization
• Performance management and measurement

HCM seems to represent an opportunity for Learning and Development professionals to move beyond the traditional boundaries and responsibilities. HCM may serve as a new answer to the "What's Next? question. At the same time HCM should be provoking some real questions:

• Do I have the qualification for this role?
• How do I acquire the skills to grow into this role?
• Am I best qualified?
• Will HCM limit my sphere of influence within the organization?

I think that the jury is still out with many unanswered questions. Will the person that leads HCM come from the Human Resources world? Will someone with an Organization Development or Organization Effectiveness orientation be tapped to lead this type of initiative? How can a traditional Learning and Development professional gain the skills to move in this direction?

I invite your thoughts, comments, and suggestions...

Your Resume and the 10 Second Rule

During my career I have read hundreds and probably thousands of resumes. I have come to realize that I tend to make my initial assessments on a person and their experience in about 5 seconds but never more than 10 seconds. Normally when I am reviewing a resume there is a job requirement that I am looking to fill. So my initial scan is to see how many of those specific skills are reflected in the resume. This is even more the case when I am reviewing the resumes of candidates that have responded to a particular job posting.

I am not alone in this thinking. In speaking with colleagues, other recruiters and some hiring managers, many agree that their initial assessments are made very quickly. Depending on how busy I am at a given moment will determine just how deeply I get into a resume. For people that still rely on a cover letter to answer the question “Why should I invite you in for an interview?” I have bad news. I rarely read cover letters – in fact I don’t remember the last one that I did read.

I am not claiming that all HR reps, recruiters and hiring managers deal with resumes the same way that I do but I do believe that there are a large percentage that do. So your resume needs to produce an assessment within the first 10 seconds that it is worthy of further review.

The simplest way to accomplish this is to customize a Summary section at the beginning of the resume. The Summary section should list 4 or 5 bullet items that convey your value proposition for the position that you are applying for and basically state your case for why you should be called in for an interview. In writing your Summary section (and the rest of your resume) be sure to use words and phrases as they are used in the job description. Your description for each job that you have held should support these 4 or 5 bullet items. Remember, that while employers may care about other skills and experience, you can be sure that they DO care about the experience and skills indicated on the job description.

Give this suggestion a try. I would be surprised if you do not see an increase in the number of interviews you are able to generate.

2009-2010 Employment Opportunities and Speculations

While the employment marketplace remains relatively slow, there are signs of a gradual improvement. Recent economic indicators reflect an increase in consumer confidence which is normally a leading indicator of an improving employment climate. Whether these initial positive signs continue is anyone’s guess however this is a good time to try to pinpoint segments of the employment marketplace that may rebound first or represent new opportunities. Based on our reading of the economy and recent government actions and conversations with clients, here are just a few to consider:

Learning and development to reflect new ways of doing business – the recent collapse of the financial services sector has resulted in new rules and regulations for how these corporations will function going forward. Some of these new practices are in direct response to new and yet to be announced government edicts, others will be required based on corporate operations improvement initiatives. Either way, both front and back office personnel will need to be trained in the new ways that business will be conducted.

Learning and development to ensure that these new ways of doing business are being followed – look for corporate ethics and compliance areas to undertake major learning and development initiatives to ensure that operating units are complying with government and corporate standards and guidelines.

Learning and development within the healthcare sector – it remains to be seen how the healthcare reform movement will actually take hold however some type of healthcare reform seems inevitable. With reform comes new learning and development requirements and opportunities. We are keeping a close eye on areas that address billing and claims and the electronic health records (EHR) and electronic medical records (EMR) groups.

Learning and development within the clean energy sector – all signs point to increased spending and focus on clean energy. This should result in greater employment within this market sector which will create learning and development opportunities. Additionally, I envision corporations in this sector needing to invest in community outreach and client education programs to aid in building market awareness and demand.

Salary Flexibility: Is it Enough?

Scenario: You are out of work and come across a job that you are clearly overqualified for. In fact this looks just like a position that you held five years ago. The salary that is posted is close to $20,000 less than what you were making in your last position. You have been out of work for close to three months and quite frankly, you would accept that salary. You hit the send button and forward your resume to the company.

So what happens now? In most cases, experienced recruiters will quickly review your resume and not call you in for an interview. The reason is pretty simple. While you are clearly qualified for the position, you represent a huge retention risk. The investment corporations make in training and orienting a new employee is considerable. In most cases the return on their hiring investment occurs sometime between year 1 and year 2. Recruiting professionals and hiring managers recognize that once the market rebounds (and the market WILL rebound), jobs will become more plentiful and employees that are underpaid will most likely leave.

There are other employers that will recognize these very points, but instead will look to maximize their investment by hopefully having a more productive and experienced employee on board for as long as they can. They are basically willing to accept the retention risk.

In speaking with a candidate today, he presented some compelling arguments that he wanted me to convey to my client. Here are some of those arguments and a few other suggestions you may want to consider using:

1. Stress the increased productivity that they will receive by having a more experienced person on staff.
2. Discuss any additional value that you may be able to offer that a lesser skilled hire could not provide. If this additional value is relevant to the employer, it may open their eyes to a new way of thinking.
3. Make some guarantee regarding the minimum length of employment that you are willing to commit to.
4. Offer a short trial period where the employer can see you and your experience in action. At the successful conclusion of this trial, employment could continue, roles and responsibilities potentially expanded, or salary revisited.

Corporations that are hiring in this marketplace recognize the difficulties that job seekers are facing. Ultimately their hiring decisions are based on the perceived value that prospective candidates offer. And therein lies your challenge…

Facebook and other online references – a word of warning

I have always taken pride in being an early adopter of new technologies and trends however I must admit that I am only now getting into Facebook. I am not sure if I truly get what this Facebook thing is all about. People leaving innocuous ditties about their lives, links to causes I have never heard about, hour by hour reflections on the weather and their health. With all of the unlimited phone plans is there any reason why people just don’t pick up the phone anymore? Don’t get me started on text messaging. Has anyone thought to do a study to find out what the impact will be on our society given that people are speaking with one another less and less frequently?

The only thing that worries me about the questions I raise is that I am starting to sound more and more like my parents. I actually made my son get a haircut when he got home from college this winter. I’m not sure if that was in reaction to his sloppy appearance or some hidden desire to have his hair length more in line with my rapidly receding hairline (OK I will admit it – it is more than just my hairline that is rapidly receding).

To bring this all back to some business relevance, here is a word of caution. Be careful what you post online. More and more of this information can be viewed by more and more people. If potential employers notice posts that raise questions or worse yet, red flags, it could endanger your employment opportunities. I always encourage people to google their names just to see what is out there. Once it appears on the Internet it can be very difficult to remove.

See you all on Facebook.

When Malware Strikes…

There are computer viruses and then there are computer viruses. My family computer was recently infected with the Spyguard 2008 virus and let me tell you – this is one nasty virus that takes over your Internet browser and can also forward password information to remote computers.

I tend to take these viruses as a challenge and resolve to personally rid these viruses from my computer. I ran Spybot. I ran Ad-Aware. I ran my anti-virus software. I did this in Normal mode, Safe mode, and Safe mode with Networking. No luck.

I researched this virus and found several postings with supposed tools that would remove Spyguard 2008. The only thing that these postings did not mention was that the Spyguard 2008 virus redirects any attempts to download these tools or access their web sites. Again, no luck.

I then found that there are anti-malware forums dedicated to help and in most cases, these forums and their forum staff provide their service at NO CHARGE.

I went to www.bleepingcomputer.com and followed the instructions on how to post my issue and then waited for a reply (4 days later). My knight in shining armor was from the Netherlands and was incredibly thorough and knowledgeable. Over the course of the next day and a half, I used 7 different tools and followed 18 different steps to rid my computer of this virus.

If you ever find yourself in a similar position keep the following web sites in mind:

www.bleepingcomputer.com
www.malwareremoval.com
www.geekstogo.com
www.majorgeeks.com