In today’s job market employers are playing it safe by on-boarding employees on a temporary basis (“temping”) with the hope of keeping a flexible workforce. This accordion model of employee workforce gives them the flexibility and saves the added burden of having to pay the benefits owed a full-time (there are no permanent jobs anymore!) counterpart. Employees in such cases have to suffer the added uncertainty, carry the burden of paying their own medical and other costs, and often subject themselves to being treated as second-class citizens (rare invitations to office parties). Over time, this can be demoralizing.

You can protect yourself with some strategic actions so that your chances of moving from a temporary to full-time position are promising. The following suggestions are worth some thought and effort:

1. Before applying for a position or as early in the process as possible find out if the offered position is project-based or is an ongoing functional task. Avoid getting too excited about a short-term, project-based assignment. Keep looking.
2. Find out during the interview process if the position was eliminated or is a newly identified position that the company wants to test out. If it is the latter then your chances of moving yourself to a permanent position are brighter. If it’s the former, you just have to try harder to get yourself that full-time offer later on when you establish your credentials.
3. During the interview ask the hiring manager if they intend to make the position a full-time job and under what circumstances. Carefully make a mental note of the conditions for that conversion.
4. Upon on-boarding assess the full scope of the job first-hand. Job descriptions are often based on perceptions and stale job postings from the bygone era. You can pretty much fashion the job (upwards) based on your drive, skills, and interest.
5. Once ensconced in the job, meet with your manager and identify what needs to happen to make your manager look better to their boss. Hammer out a plan so that you can go above and beyond what was originally expected from your performance. Also remember the discussion during #3 above.
6. As you uncover opportunities that you can exploit and that can improve things at work, write a letter to the manager spelling out what you see and how you intend to make things better. This is over and above your daily assignments and what your manager expects from you. Make it all look easy and do not burn the midnight oil doing all this. Do not complain, do not explain.
7. As you get settled in your “temp” job continue looking for other opportunities and do not slack off on your campaign that got you this job. Carefully select those employers that may offer you a comparable or better position. This is your leverage. Now that you have a paying job you can be more selective even in applying for such jobs.
8. In about 90 days after you come on board review with the manager your progress and suggest that you are very interested in a full-time position and that you enjoy working for them. If your ongoing pursuits have resulted in another job, especially a full-time job (even if it is just a “C” job, they don’t have to know that), you can leverage that advantage into getting yourself a full-time job offer (hopefully you are already in an “A” job, except for your status).
9. If the manager does not entertain the idea, politely suggest that you already have another offer (even though it may be yet another temp job) with better prospects for a full-time job (they do not have to know all the details).
10. Continue doing a great job and keep the manager in the loop with all your achievements.

If you do this right you should be able to become a full-time employee in about six months.

Be honest, be authentic, and be forthright. Don’t play any games.

Good luck!

Bravo, Katie!

Now, what about you?

We, as professionals, come to similar realizations throughout our career. Many do not admit that they have reached their end of shelf life at their job, as they get growingly comfortable in their own situation. A job becomes stale, a career becomes stalled, or one fails to see beyond the next promotion to where their career is headed. It is easy to be seduced by the “security” of your job, the ongoing increases in salary, and even an occasional promise of a promotion to keep your nose to the grindstone. Over the past decade, the job market has become increasingly volatile and jobs are getting re-defined, Banglored, and even eliminated resulting in an increasingly nervous job market. So, what is one to do to keep their career momentum on track and to keep themselves productively employed?

The following prescription may help those who are determined to keep their career on track and their job engagement fresh:

1. Look back in your current job and see how you have grown in the past two or so years. If you are not getting a new perspective and are not learning something new every day, then you are not fresh in your job anymore; you have reached the end of your shelf life.
2. Do not confuse the annual reviews and the raises you get with the learning and growth that you derive from your job. If you do what is assigned to you with your eyes closed, then your company is obviously impressed by your performance. So, merely getting high marks on your annual review does not mean that you are deriving the personal and professional growth that is critical to your ongoing marketability.
3. Look around and see what opportunities your company is missing out on and identify how you can re-scope your job or even re-define it, by sitting down with your manager and making it work for you. If your manager is not willing to give you that latitude, find other areas in your company that can use your initiative and skills to make a better name for itself in the marketplace. In such endeavors, having a first-hand customer input can be a selling point.
4. Look at the job openings in your industry and see how your competitors are filling similar positions. If comparable jobs require skills that you do not have, then you must learn those skills in your current job and make yourself more marketable.
5. Write your resume to address the skills that are required at other companies and then seek assignments that make those entries a reality. This is a proactive approach to career management.
6. Once you have identified the work that you want to be doing to continue your growth at your own company, it can take several months to realize that assignment. Each passing month makes you that much more stale in your current job. So, do not wait.
7. If you are gutsy, go ahead and position yourself beyond what is logically feasible. So, if you are manager in your job with enough savvy, but not the required experience, to fill a director-level position, go ahead and apply to where such an opportunity exists. Even if you do not meet all the requirements, neutralize the objections by presenting in your cover letter, forward-looking job skills that you bring to the position and ace that opportunity.

   In one example, my client, a senior IT professional, who was not quite “ready” for a CIO’s job, sent her resume with a cover letter addressing how the emerging trend of Software As a Service (SaaS) was going to change IT’s role in the next two years. She was able to articulate how IT’s role was going to shift with this change and how the company needed to prepare itself to empower the line and business managers to deal with this reality. She got invited to the interviews and the selection process is currently underway. Without such a message in the cover letter, she may have been passed over for the selection process because she lacked the number of years required at the executive position.

8. Do not let your “friends” undermine you in your pursuits. If you believe that you have the abilities to claim a job that is a step up from where you are now, go ahead and claim the job. You’d be surprised how, having a single-minded focus and determination can conspire to deliver the outcomes that you desire.
9. The only limit to how far you can go is your own limiting beliefs. So, if you are feeling stuck in your current position, check your limiting beliefs.
10. Do not be afraid to fail or get a setback. This is a good sign; it means that you have discovered when you have gone too far. As Emerson said, “Your reach should be greater than your grasp.” Do not confuse a setback with an obstacle; a setback can be a stepping stone. Only when you give up trying after a setback it becomes a failure.

Managing your own career today is mostly in your hands and you must proactively look for opportunities that may not be apparent to many around you. You must act as an entrepreneur in today’s environment and realize what others are missing.

Katie Couric’s evening news is not doing very well these days, after the initial fanfare wore off. Yet, she continues to re-invent how the evening news can be presented to the audience, with a soupcon of raillery and entertainment. Is she going to bounce back in her ratings? No one knows, but Katie is having the time of her life. And, so can you!

]]> http://blog.dilipsaraf.com/2009/06/katie-couric-and-your-job%e2%80%99s-shelf-life/feed/ 0 http://blog.dilipsaraf.com/2009/02/how-to-keep-yourself-marketable/ http://blog.dilipsaraf.com/2009/02/how-to-keep-yourself-marketable/#comments Fri, 13 Feb 2009 05:37:12 +0000 Dilip Saraf http://blog.dilipsaraf.com/?p=69 Keeping one’s ongoing market value high and one’s name in the forefront of decision makers is no mean feat in today’s job market. Yet, with the constant change in the way jobs get defined and the way the job market is emerging, especially in high-tech, one must learn how to be a career acrobat. To most, this may sound like a daunting task, yet there are some fundamental rules that can help those who want to stay on the leading edge of their profession and who want to remain a high-demand rara avis:

1. Be clear what you want to be. A hands-on technical contributor, a team lead, or a manager (including an executive). Each role has its pros and cons. There is no utopian panacea in the career space. But there still are dream jobs to he had.
2. Most managers fail to understand the basic nature of their role. Just because you were promoted to a managerial job for being a great individual contributor, does not mean that you will do well in that role. Being a manager requires a very different skill set: a good balance between managing technology and leading people. Nearly 80 percent of the managers do not know how to do this effectively.
3. Regardless of what track you want to pursue you must master one domain of your expertise. This is your personal mastery; your Major. As you decide to climb the ranks you must develop expertise in leadership skills–this now becomes your Minor.
4. If you decide to climb the management ranks you must learn how to switch your Major and Minor. As you move up, you must focus more on leadership, relationships, and the business (previously your Minor) and less on technology (previously your Major) that drives the business. This is also a difficult transition for many. Focusing on conceptual skills accelerates this development. As you rise it is these skills that give you the edge.
5. Proactively manage your career. This is done by constantly keeping your attention on the emerging jobs (inside and outside your own company) and actively seeking assignments that keep your résumé marketable. Use the forward-looking approach to career management by proactively managing your résumé.
6. When looking for a new job, instead of approaching it as a hireling, position yourself as a must-hire candidate for the few selected companies that interest you. You can do this by focusing on your value proposition that goes beyond just your technical abilities; show how you will impact their business and forcefully articulate it throughout your campaign.
7. Make the interview process a two-way street. Find out as much about the company as those from the inside are trying to find out about you. Talk to customers, suppliers, and stakeholders. Use this information to develop insights that will simply blow them away.
8. Once you are on-board prepare a “100-Day Plan” and get going on bringing your (and your boss’s) agenda on track. Relentlessly get plugged into the tissue of the organization.
9. If you have a misstep, admit to it, own it, and learn from it: “Success consists of jumping from failure to failure without admitting defeat.”—Winston Churchill

Good luck to you!

Recruiters come in two flavors: Retained and Contingent. A retained recruiter is paid by their client company to fill an open position even if they are unable to fill that position. This position may or may not be known to the outsiders at large. If a company is trying to fill a position without openly admitting that the incumbent is going to be replaced, it wants to be discreet about how it executes this process. A retained recruiter is ideal in this role for such a company. Senior executives or highly specialized candidates are typically handled by a retained recruiter. Another reason may be that a company wants to poach its competitor for certain talent. Again, who better to help this company than a well-connected recruiter? An inside company recruiter can be seen as a retained recruiter.

A contingent recruiter, on the other hand, is a person who has a number of clients (companies) that hire from them and gets paid only on a successful placement. Middle management ranks and even some individual contributor positions are often filled through contingent recruiters. These recruiters have a good knowledge of who is hiring and where the action is.

Although recruiters are a value-added benefit for their clients (those who pay their bills) they play a different role from the perspective of the job seeker. This becomes clear when one looks at their business model (how they make their money). Many job seekers approach a recruiter to get some help in their positioning or reinvention. This is not a recruiter’s job. Since their job is to fill an open position with the best available talent with the least amount of time and effort, they will go after such talent to meet their immediate need than to work with someone who does not exactly fit the requirements. Recruiters are more concerned about their transactional success and keeping their clients happy than to work with job seekers to keep them happy; this is their secondary mission. Remember that there are far fewer employers than there are job seekers! In this respect, recruiters can be analogized to matchmakers. If a good match does not already exist, they will not go out of their way to develop it.

While all this discussion about a contingent-and even a retained- recruiter may appear cautionary, it is intended to provide a perspective that job seekers could benefit from. It is not uncommon for a job seeker to start their job search by first contacting a recruiter with the hope of landing a quick and rewarding position. Although this can happen, a more productive approach is to do some groundwork yourself and then leverage a recruiter as just one element of your marketing campaign. This strategy will always put you ahead of the curve and benefit you the most during your transition. The following guidelines may be helpful in your overall transition:

1. Be clear about your positioning, message, and how you want to leverage your career momentum before you begin your marketing. Do not expect a recruiter to provide you that insight. A career coach or counselor is better equipped to provide this insight than a recruiter.
2. Look at the market and, using the best knowledge of the current conditions, prepare your resume to accurately capture your value proposition. Making a forward-looking resume to reflect where you want to go with your background and the momentum are central to this step. Most job seekers prepare their resume that reflects a backward-looking message and that do not showcase their background in a leveraged way. For example, someone with an entrepreneurial background may shy away from showcasing that experience as a positive feature of their resume. Recruiters will often suggest burying your entrepreneurial past. Nothing could be further from the truth. A properly showcased background can be invaluable in a leveraged positioning. It just requires a different perspective and a packaging skill that is not common.
3. Identify where you want to work. This can be defined in your “A,” B,” and “C” companies’ list that define your targeting universe. Do not be concerned about some “A” companies not having open positions that you are after. You can always get their attention by sending a prospect letter that identifies ignored or missed opportunities. Sending a prospect letter without a resume can work effectively in such cases.
4. Organize a marketing campaign with your message. If you post your resume on one of the job boards (do this with some caution) you will be approached by recruiters. They frequently access these boards to recruit job seekers, make them part of their stable of job seekers, and then place them. Screen them after asking some key questions (Retained vs. Contingent) and how they work. Ask for references. Check them out. A recruiter will typically preempt you from targeting a company, especially if it is one of their clients. Many companies will not entertain your resume if you are working with a recruiter.
5. Set the boundaries of your marketing campaign with your recruiter. If you work with them be very selective and keep in touch with how they are progressing and where they are targeting you.
6. Continue marketing yourself where you have a clear marketing advantage. Companies would rather not pay the placement fees recruiters typically charge (20% of annual salary).
7. Clearly differentiate your resume that goes through the recruiter by keeping track of versions. If there is a conflict between how you entered a target company the version control should be unambiguous.
8. Keep your recruiter apprised of your progress. If you are getting close to an offer, let them know so that they can generate additional action based on your progress.
9. Do not rely on the recruiter to generate action. You must actively participate in your own marketing. Network as much as you can during your active search.
10. If you are unemployed recruiters will treat you accordingly. They typically go after employed candidates for their placement. If you are being laid off, see if you can “stay” in your company while you look for a job and let a recruiter help you (along with your helping yourself as presented here) in this transition. Some companies will let their laid-off employees use their affiliation for a period beyond physical termination. But, you must ask for this consideration.
11. Throughout your transition you must stay in charge of your campaign. Merely relying on a recruiter can disadvantage you.

Now that you know the parameters which define the recruiters’ role during your transition, you are better equipped to deal with it in a way that best serves your needs. Good luck!

So, getting a call for an interview is a big deal! No one is hired without going through an interview process, which can vary from something that you would see on Seinfeld, to one that can be quite prolonged and grueling! So, what are some of the strategies that give you a better chance at making your case for being hired at the end of the process? Well, the answer depends on how well you are able to master the interviewing process and how well you make your case. Sometimes, making your case after the interview is what gets you the job and not during!

This article focuses on not the everyday recommendations that abound on this topic (research the employer, get your facts right, etc), but on how to manage the interview process once you have done all the work prior to appearing for the interview. The following suggestions may help develop a better outcome if you follow them:

Your Attitude and Appearance:

Before you enter the interview space how you appear and how you carry yourself are important in making the first impression. Having a fresh-looking wardrobe that is appropriate for the interview is critical, but more important, how confidently you present yourself during the first few moments can set the tone for how the interview moves from then on. The final touch on your appearance is not just the straightening of your hair, but a confident smile on your face and an assuring manner. You do not want to overwhelm the interviewer, either, in such situations. Remember, the interviewer is often as nervous about the interview as you are about it. A pleasant smile can override the feeling of fear and anxiety; the two mortal enemies of a good interview.

Taking Control

After entering the room where the interview is taking place, you do not know how the interview is going to be conducted. Ideally, there is a dialog between the two and a good exchange takes place that gets both the information that is required to assess the mutual fit.

Sometimes you run into a poor interviewer or someone who may be nervous and you end up listening to them for the entire duration of the interview, without getting a chance to present your case or even to explore a fit by asking key questions you brought to the event. Unfortunately, with such people it is often too late before you discover that you have lost control over the process.

One way to avoid this situation is to set the ground rules before the interview begins. This may appear presumptuous or even arrogant to some, but it works! The best way to bring this up is to start by asking how much time is scheduled for the interview as you settle down after the initial handshake. This is a good time to say that you have some questions to ask about the job and about the company to explore your fit for the job and that you need some of that time to achieve that objective. You may also want to state that you prefer to ask these questions throughout the exchange rather than at the end. “Will this work for you?” is how you take control of the interview.

If this fails and the interviewer goes on with their logorrheic binge, then one way to get back on track is to detect this early and to stop the interviewer at an appropriate time early and to explore if making a physical break in the surrounding will give you the chance to recover from this situation. “Can we go and take a look at the QA Test area, please? I am curious to see how the work is organized and carried out.” If they take you up on it then you get another chance to ask questions about what you are observing during the tour and use that opportunity to getting back on track.

From your side, one way to manager your time is to mentally envision a “traffic light analogy.” If you start speaking, imagine as if the “Green” light is on for about 60 seconds. The “Orange” light goes on for 15 seconds after that and the “Red” light comes on at 90 seconds. You must stop on Red! Now the interviewer talks!

Another strategy that works is not to assume what is described in the job posting as what is expected of you once you are selected for that job. The best way to explore this is to say (about one third of the way into the interview), I have read the job description and I understand what the job entails in broad terms, but could you please tell me the three most important parameters that will make the incumbent a clear winner? Listening to the response to this question is important, and taking notes of the key items mentioned in that response will give you a way to position yourself as the candidate for the job.

Following up:

Once the interview is over, the best next step to make up for any deficiencies that surfaced during the interview is to send a great thank-you note. The main purpose of this note is not to just thank the interviewer, but, more importantly, is to provide a stronger answer to questions where you could have done better. A short paragraph that starts with, As I was driving back from the interview I realized that another way to address the customer issue is to sit down with the customer face-to-face and to explore what it would take to get their business back, etc. Showing first-hand experience having done this goes a long way in making your recovery answer credible. It also shows that you are willing to go the extra mile to make things right.

In most cases making a cut in an interview has more to do with Chemistry, Competency, and Compatibility (the Three Cs) than anything else. Some of the Competency is already vetted through how you presented your resume and the cover letter. So, focusing on the two other Cs can help shift the tipping point in your favor.

Good luck!

]]> http://blog.dilipsaraf.com/2008/11/winning-interview-strategies/feed/ 0 http://blog.dilipsaraf.com/2008/11/the-networking-paradox/ http://blog.dilipsaraf.com/2008/11/the-networking-paradox/#comments Fri, 14 Nov 2008 11:04:11 +0000 Dilip Saraf http://blog.dilipsaraf.com/?p=283 Summary

In a job search or your professional success networking is critical. It allows you not only to know others and to identify opportunities, but also to get inside information about an organization of interest. This has always been true, but what has brought networking into focus is how many do not know how to network effectively. So, they focus on expanding their network. Those learning to increase their networking impact, however, often are unaware that there is yet another dimension to increasing their impact: how they present their value message, not just at the beginning, but also throughout their campaign. This two-dimensional space in the networking and the messaging domains creates a paradox. This article demystifies this paradox and provides a prescription on how to leverage networking with a compelling value message.

Introduction

In today’s job market much is said about networking. As more and more desperate job seekers resort to flooding the employers’ mailboxes with irrelevant résumés, for them, too, networking provides a convenient and productive alternative to speed up things. Additionally, about 50 percent of job openings are not advertised or publicly known. The only source of such jobs is through social networks. Companies encourage its employees to network, too! Why? It is much more effective for a company to hire someone coming through their own employee referrals.

This article is aimed at showing job seekers that although networking helps, many underestimate the power of a well-presented communication that includes a compelling résumé, a cogent cover letter, and an overall message that differentiates. Networking may provide the initial access; it does not provide sustained differentiation because what you leave behind looks mediocre. If what is suggested here is leveraged with a good networking strategy, the odds of landing a dream job are enhanced greatly.

Networking

A social network is a universe that can be broken into two main types:

• Transactional Networks
• Relationship Networks

Transactional networks are opportunistic and transient. They arise out of immediate need people feel, and they meet that need by finding opportunities and events in which to participate. What come out of these events are person-to-person exchanges. The information exchanged can be that of jobs available, people contacts, and company intelligence. All those bits of information tend to be transient in nature and have significance only for a limited time, not only because of the nature of the need, but also because of the transient nature of the information itself! It is somewhat analogous to a stock market tip!

Using names and connections from transactional networks are not as useful as most believe. Why? The leverage available from this type of networking is useful only for making the initial connection. From then on, what help the jobseekers are the underlying value proposition, the perceived fit, and the employer’s assessment of ongoing ability to be a valuable contributor. The escalating interplay between the two can be seen as a dynamic created by the power of the initial connection, and how the jobseeker captures subsequent employer interest, based on their ability to create value. The crossover between these two forces happens quickly in a transactional networking contact.

If enough of these bits of information are exchanged through constant networking, the chances of hitting the target and landing a job are increased greatly, compared to those who merely rely on their résumé to do this work for them; here statistical odds play in the networked jobseeker’s favor!

This is why having a compelling value proposition is even more critical in leveraging the contact from a transactional networking source.

The relationship network, on the other hand, plays on a different dynamic. Here the person with whom you have a relationship of a certain standing can take you beyond just making the initial connection. In this context, even the initial connection can be more confident because how it came about. In the transactional networks, in comparison, the initial connection is precarious; someone casually handing out a name to a person seeking it, and then that person contacting the target as a “cold call.” Because of the power of the initial connection in relationship networks, the jobseeker has more opportunities to present a compelling value proposition. In some cases, they may even get help from those whom they are soliciting in preparing a compelling and aligned value proposition, although going in with a well-thought-out message always helps!

It is easy to see that only your closest inner-circle contacts can belong to the relationship domain. Although the nature of relationships with those in the outer circle can change over time with your diligent efforts, with their becoming your relationship contacts, the actual status of any one of the contacts is irrelevant for the discussion presented here.

Implications

What does this mean in a job search? Networking is king; no doubt! It is priceless in finding hidden jobs, making connections, and getting inside company information. The irony is that, often, jobseekers become complacent once they get an inside track on job leads or they get continued sources of inside information about companies in which they are interested. They rely too much on what they come to know or whom they know to propel them forward, rather than merely using this advantage to leverage their position with a powerful message.

For this reason, to leverage leads available through networking, it is important to have a first-rate résumé for openers, along with a well-articulated Positioning Statement, and a polished presentation of the value proposition in the context of the target employer. After researching the open position and the company, it is a good idea to develop a message for a positive response and then managing the campaign for a successful outcome.

Thus, conceptually there are two orthogonal axes: one with the networking power and another with the messaging power. The weaker side of the networking power is the transactional network, with the relationship networking on its opposite pole. Similarly, on the messaging axis, a weak message is on the one end and a strong one on the other. This is a four-box model that shows how the two parameters can manifest their power with four different outcomes. Clearly having a relationship-based networking connection and a strong message are important to pursuing a dream job.

Strategy

What does this mean for those who are in the job market, either looking for a job or switching from an existing job and making a change? The implications are obvious: Before you start leveraging your networking contacts, it is prudent to make sure that your value proposition, messaging, and presentation to potential employers are confident and solid. Once you have vetted your messaging, using that message to round up the networking contacts can help not only get the right contacts, but also for those who are offering to be your networks target your message correctly. Let us now examine each of the four categories of job seekers.

Dream Catchers

Dream catchers have a strong message–not just a strong background–and a strong network. Those in this category usually have a good idea what they are looking for in their pursuits and it is articulated forcefully. Some know it from the get-go, some recognize it after they embark on their job-search campaign, working diligently to develop their value proposition and honing it until they get excited about what they have to offer. Often this convergence on a compelling value proposition can result from iteratively searching for the right opportunity and reflecting on one’s past, and then deciding how to best package a forward-looking message. One approach to communicating compelling value, at least initially, is to develop a forward-looking résumé with a strong value message.

The other dimension the Dream Catchers bring to the equation is their ability to network in a leveraged way. They have a broad spectrum of networking relationships. They are also keenly aware of how to leverage each segment of their networking universe to their own end in the most effective way. Additionally, Dream Catchers sustain the habit of cultivating their networks and expanding their pool of contacts in each zone.

Dream Catchers target their opportunities carefully, research their targets, and hone their message to get a target’s attention and then find someone who can give them the needed audience. Their messaging skills, interviewing techniques, and job-search process knowledge is highly evolved. This is not an inborn skill; they constantly learn new techniques and make a habit of taking risk trying out what works! This results in their getting their dream job in a relatively short time. Dream catchers are also masters of their own careers; they usually get what they are envisioning, regardless of the job market, economy, or other conditions.

Dream Chasers

Dream Chasers have strong networking skills but their messaging is weak. Their résumés are typically backward looking, unfocused, and their professional accomplishments are presented more in a Task/Responsibility format, showing little or no leadership presence in their storytelling. In fact their storytelling is limited to some statistics and assignments that describe their roles (“As a manager increased sales 15 percent”). Despite their weak messaging, their strong networking skills allow them to generate much activity and land interviews. But their lack of focus and compelling leadership messages prevent them from getting beyond the first round of interview. This is often because what they leave behind (their proxy) as their message does not make the same impact on others as they were personally able to make in the one-on-one interview. They are thus hamstrung by their message (résumé and other proxies left behind).

Job Chasers

A strong message but a weak network makes for a job chaser. For those in this category, they are seeking a fantasy. A fantasy is different from a mirage (see below). A mirage is an illusion; whereas a fantasy is a concoction of improbable (not impossible) events conjured up by the optimistic minds. Job Chasers also suffer a fate similar to those in Mirage Chasers. Why? Perhaps because they have limited contacts and networks, their message, despite being strong, gets lost in the statistical jungle of probabilities. Because they send their compelling message using mass methods as emailed résumés or mass mailings or even résumé blasting, getting their message read is left to chance. But, once they are able to get someone’s attention, their compelling message gets action, albeit from those at random and not the ones they intended or would have chosen to have their message read and acted on! Job chasers inevitably end up taking jobs that may not otherwise take, primarily because of their limited options in a tough job market.

Mirage Chasers

A weak message and a weak network lead to mirage chasing. A mirage is an illusion. It is a manifestation caused by a combination of circumstances that conspire to create an ongoing perception of something worth going after. Those in this category need no elaboration. They do not take the trouble to strengthen their résumé, either because of their unawareness of it, or lack the motivation to create a compelling résumé. Sometimes it is a resource problem. Because of their limited writing skills they do not see the need to invest in getting professional help to make their résumé and other outgoing messages compelling.

Those in this category are also called the “Terminally Unemployed” because if they are out looking for a job, they remain in that state for prolonged periods of time and they do not change their behaviors despite repeated and predictable defeats. Those already working and looking for a change because they intensely dislike what they do, suffer the same fate. Despite this repeated and predictable outcome pattern, they continue doing more of the same. Sometimes when they get rewarded for where they are–not for what they do–as their company’s stock going up and their getting a monetary benefit from it, they hibernate and rationalize how good things are for them, and, when conditions go back to where they were, they restart their job-search efforts. Once again the same way as before!

The networking skills or motivation to “go social” on the job-search front does not appeal to them. They shy away from networking events because they perceive that they have nothing to give or that they feel that they would be imposing on others.  Some are even embarrassed to admit that they are looking for a job. The phrase “Mirage Chasers” is coined to convey that in a tough market their efforts to job search are fruitless to point of being feckless. And yet, they often take solace in diligently sending résumés to open positions as a matter of duty. As a result they remain unemployed for a long time. If the economic conditions are good, they often languish in a job that they do not enjoy.

A Prescription

In a given population of jobseekers, the Dream Catchers are a minority. As the job market gets tough, most resign to the reality that, since there are fewer jobs, they must wait longer, take what they can, and work harder at the process of job search. Nothing could be further from the truth. When conditions get tougher and economy gets challenging, there are fewer jobs, but there are more opportunities. Those who can identify these opportunities and find articulate ways to create messages that capture the attention of the employers will have an edge. Finding the right networks, leveraging the contacts, and then acing the process to land the dream job further enhance this edge.

The following prescription is offered to anyone who wants to be a Dream Catcher:

1. Review your message: Résumé, Positioning Statement, Cover Letter, and everything that is transmitted, including your verbal messaging, in the campaign.
2. Do not rely on what you intend to convey and how you translate that into verbal messages to actually convey it. Show your message to others who can critically vet its impact. Keep checking the validity of the message until it conveys what you intended in the first place. Keep checking on ways to improve the message.
3. The written message, the oral message, your body language, and everything else you communicate in your campaign have to be in harmony. It is difficult for people to look at themselves as deliverers of messages, especially about themselves, and realize the misalignments. Others can spot them quickly, especially during an interview and other critical interactions. But, by then it is too late to change, even if you knew what it was that you must change.
4. During an interview nearly 90 percent of what is communicated is nonverbal. With so much of what is communicated is unknown, most fail to understand how it is that after giving all the correct responses to interview questions, they failed to make the cut. Find someone to coach you in the interviewing process. In a tough economy getting an interview is rare. Protect your investment by making the effort to learn what you should be doing differently.
5. Network to find information about companies that are hiring. Then use that information to research and develop messages that allow you to leverage that attention-getting contact into a winning interview to land a job.
6. Learn about the person you are interviewing as much you do about the company, its competitors, and the job. Getting a job offer has as much to do with your Competence as it has about your Chemistry and Compatibility (the Three Cs).
7. If you do not have a ready answer to an interview question, fortify the answer you already provided when you send the Thank you note after the interview. Such a response shows that you are willing to come up with the right answer, given time, rather than someone who gives whatever is available.

Landing a dream job is not only for dream catchers, it is for anyone who has a dream. Have your own dream and catch it; now you know how!