Brilliant Job Search

Underemployment- How does it impact you?

Underemployment became the buzzword last week when the Labor Department reported, that eight million Americans, who would like to be working full time, are working part-time. This means that the real unemployment rate, according to the NY Times, is 13.5%. It's another sad statistic.

But what that statistic fails to include, is the number of individuals who have been forced to accept pay cuts or who are working at jobs, either outside of their professions, or for which they are over-qualified.

Is underemployment, in this regard, a wise choice for the individual?

In a different economy when the next appropriate opportunity might be only a few days/weeks away, I'd say no because it could take years to get your salary back up to an appropriate level.

Case and point: Some technology workers who were laid-off in 2001, and are working now, still aren't back to their pre-NASDAQ crash level pay, even if they've since changed jobs. Why? Because around 2005 companies began making job offers based on the previous year's earnings (and IRS-level proof is required.) Hopefully employers will amend their procedures when they begin to hire again.

All that being said, if you have an opportunity to change your status from unemployed, to under-employed (especially if it allows you to remain in your profession), do it; you will not only have an easier time paying your bills, but you'll be more attractive to your next employer.

If you have to take a job outside of your profession, say as a bartender or drug counselor, or in the state unemployment office (they ought to be hiring), seriously consider doing that. Why? Because unemployment can lead to drug and alcohol over-use and/or situational depression, and it's best not to go there.

How will you handle underemployment on your resume? Carefully.

If you have the good fortune of working with a headhunter, he/she can advise you on a case to case basis; they're in a position to predict how their client firm will react. If you're submitting to job boards, and the position in which you're underemployed doesn't enhance your qualifications for the job that you seek, leave it off. If the information becomes necessary, you'll be better-off discussing the matter in person.

One another note; if you're lucky enough to be underemployed in your profession, volunteer to do some pro bono work at your level. Doing that will make you more valuable to your employer and provide you with the means to keep your qualifications current.

Unemployed, under-employed shouldn't translate to uninspired

One of the things I like best about being both a recruiter and a journalist, is that in each role I get to meet/interview remarkable (def. worthy of notice or attention) people.

You see, remarkable people always have great stories to tell. And great stories, in case you've forgotten, always contain an element of conflict. People don't generally become great without having something to overcome.

So, if you're not yet great (or if you want to become even more great than you already are) AND if you're un/under-employed , this recession could be your precipice. Cliche as it may be to say, it's not what happens to you but how you respond to what happens to you, that is the differentiating factor.

Take MeetUp founder and CEO Scott Heiferman as an example.

He went from graduating from the University of Iowa, to a job at Sony, to founding i-traffic which he sold to agency.com, to becoming a 20-something dethroned dotcom ceo that went to work the counter at McDonald's.

Did he get a job as a counter-boy for the bucks? "I felt like working, but I didn't want to hang out with any lawyers or accountants or investment bankers anymore," said Heiferman.

And times weren't exactly jolly; a recession began in March 2001; then the September 11 attacks happened in New York City, where Heiferman lives. As he roamed the streets during the aftermath, he was struck by the sense of community he witnessed in the city's neighborhoods; "People looked up from their screens and faced one another," said Heiferman. It was through that realization that the idea for MeetUp was born.

Not too long after, Heiferman recruited a few under-employed friends, rented some space at the corner of Lafayette and Spring, and spent three months building a computer platform that would help people with similar interests find one another.

Their result? At last report, the well-known and frequently visited MeetUp.com boasted 5 million monthly visitors, 4.7 million members, 4,916 Meetup topics in more than 3601 different cities.

Bad Advice, Good Links

One of the reasons I began writing about jobs for the mainstream press is that there was so much ridiculous advice being handed out by otherwise credible people.

Want an example?

ABC News suggests that if you want a recession-proof job, you might want to be a funeral attendant. Is there a sudden call for them? Are funeral home jobs recession-proof anyway? Hats off to Matt Brown of the Worcester Business Journal who asked the question of a funeral home owner:

"That’s just a silly comment people make all the time,” said Jim Kelly, the second-generation owner of Kelly Funeral Home on Lincoln Street in Worcester.

"If you work for a funeral home, and expenses are going up, you can get laid off just like anyone else,” Kelly said. Owning a funeral home might be another story, but Kelly said expenses for things like fuel and taxes do put pressure on the business. Kelly avoids typical recession pitfalls with a policy that encourages the aggrieved not to overspend on merchandise. That’s helping him now, when “there is a trend of spending less on merchandise.”

That being said, ABC does offer some good links to information sources such as the Department of Labor funded CareerOneStop and the Economic Policy Institute calculator which helps you figure out what your unemployment check would look like.

If you feel locked-out of your industry and never loved your job anyway, check out Dan Pink's latest book Johnny Bunko. I picked it as one of 2008's top career books; the fact that it's in comic book form makes it a quick read. Better yet, you can download the first 64 pages for free.

The antidote to bad resume writing advice

Keep it simple. Keep it plain. Use a serif 12pt font.

End of post.

Not really, but if I had three things to say to people who have read the (well intended, but misinformed) advice of, self-proclaimed , resume experts, that would be it. Fancy fonts, graphics, and white space worries (unless you're a creative) should not be your concerns. You shouldn't stress too much about the length either. Your emphasis should be on the content.

So why not the pretty resume? Because it will more than likely be entered into a portal of some sort and all your fancy stuff could translate into something that looks like this:

Ixx^^^s&####a***xx%v^^^>>>>e>>>>d@*****a^^^^^d####>>>a^^^^^m{{{{{{{{{a/////n<>s>>>>l<<<<i*******f))))e

No one would ever know that your original resume said:

I saved a man's life.

And NEVER use shading. Remember, your resume is a web-based document, DO NOT THINK PAPER.

And while I'm incredibly tempted to provide links to, and to poke fun at, all the lousy advice in books (and on the web), I won't.

Now why am I so cocky as to think that I know better than the "experts"? Because I present resumes to hiring managers every day, just as I have for the past 20 some years. I hear their comments. I know that they can't be bothered with stuff they can't decipher or see. And, when a hiring manager is looking at your resume, he/she is the only expert that counts.

One more thing to keep in mind, limit it to 15,000 characters (with spaces); that's how many most portals will allow. In case you don't know how to check character count, when you click on "word count" in MS Word, it will reveal the number of characters.

Finally, don't use headers or footers, or anything that doesn't turn black when you hit "copy" in the edit column, many portals won't absorb that information. That being said, no PDFs either, unless that's the format requested. It doesn't matter how great your resume looks if it can't be read.

Got no job? Get a blog!

I had dinner a few weeks back with a real estate appraiser who, after 20 years with a big bank, was downsized; it's a sign of the times.

Though he got a decent layoff package, he was eager to get back to work. But with so few homes being sold and so few loans being given out by banks, he wasn't having an easy time of it. And though I often say that good people don't have trouble finding work, this is one time in which I'll make an exception.

That being in said, what advice did I have for this friend? I told him that he needed to establish and maintain his expertise beyond his resume; that he needed to stay current on his industry while he was benched and that he needed to stand out in a crowd of eager and well-qualified job seekers.

How could he accomplish this? By starting a blog. A blog would give him the opportunity to strut his stuff on  the web. It would allow him to show potential employers that he is articulate, passionate about his industry, and that he is more insightful than the average jobseeker.

What would it cost him? If he had a PC and web connection, only time.

What blogging programs are free? There's  Blogger, WordPress, and Windows Live to name a few. Typepad costs a few bucks.

Now you don't really want your blog to be about your job search. If you're a software engineer, you might want to have a blog like John Kominetz. After reading his posts not too many potential employers would doubt that he's smart, passionate about his industry, and that he knows what he's talking about. My appraiser friend might look at Kate Ford's mortgage blog, or Mike Shedlock's investment blog. Most of the hiring managers I know would invite these folks in for an interview.

So if you're out of, or looking for, work, where's your blog? Start one today; it will be more productive then perusing all the recycled jobs posted on the web. And, oh, after you've written ten exceptional blog posts, ping me. If they're exceptional, I might just find a way to help you get some attention!

Leverage Your Resources (Part one)

There are many, many smart, experienced people looking for work at the moment. Most of them have done nothing wrong, yet they're still unemployed. And sorry to say this, but their next job may not be out there at this very moment. I know that this statement won't be too popular, but that doesn't make it any less true. The world hasn't yet created its next economy.

So if you're one of those workers who needs to pay the mortgage/rent and put food on the table, what are you to do? Well, if you need financial advice, places like NYC actually have an Office of Financial Empowerment. And, yes, I know, that people like you aren't supposed to need this kind of help, but Wall Street wasn't supposed to collapse either, lenders weren't supposed to let borrowers borrow more than they can repay, and the bedrock on which our financial institutions were supposed to be built was supposed to be solid.

This country (and many others) has to build entirely new foundations in many sectors of the economy, and while it does, you may as well take a refresher course of your own and learn about all the resources available. Your tax dollars provided the funding, so leverage your investment. (And, if the resources prove to be worthless, let the government know. It's by staying silent when we see crazy that we end up in messes like this.)

A pinkslip could be your ticket

Dumped. Laid-off. Canned. Sacked. Call it what you will. Yesterday you had a job, a paid   vacation, and a company sponsored blackberry and today you’ve got the box of belongings you collected from your cubicle, a depressing 401 k statement and, well, maybe, a hangover. These are your returns for years of working overtime and going the extra mile. Quite frankly, it sucks.

“You’ve got mad skills,” one friend reminds you. “You’re linked-up,” says another. You can tell that they’ve been reading internet job site propaganda. Don’t they understand that jobs are disappearing from the economy and that you can’t just go out and get work if there’s very little to be had?

Next you’re mother calls and starts singing something from an old, annoying cereal commercial, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” You ask her how she thinks you’re going to pay your bills with the little chunk of change unemployment provides. She tells you that the Chinese symbol for crisis is made up of two characters, one means danger, the other means opportunity. “Go find yours,” she says, then hangs up.

And while a pink slip hardly looks like the key to opportunity, that’s exactly what it’s been for some New Yorkers who lost their jobs in the last recession. They each took a good hard look at the economic climate, their abilities and desires, and chose to bet on themselves rather than on a potential future employer.  

Want to meet them? Read my article in the  New York Post.

Moi? How can this be happening to me?

It sucks. There's really no better way to put it. More jobs were lost in November than in any single month since 1974. And though this may have shocked the Labor Department, it didn't shock me; I talk to at least 15 employers each day, and they've been telling me that they are making reductions in workforce(s).

And who gets caught in a RIF ? Many people think that the rule is last hired are the first fired , but that's not always true, either in theory or in practice. In an economy like this one, cuts are most often made according to job title or department, not performance. It's really not about you, though it affects you in a very big way.

Want an anecdotal example? A few years back, an ad agency president I'm friendly with, was working on consolidating operations between his firm and a company his firm had just acquired. I happened to be looking over his shoulder as  he was reviewing organizational charts and staff lists, and somewhat randomly selecting who to keep and who to let go. As can be expected, most of those who were being let go were employees of the acquired company.

"Why are you keeping this one Vs. that one?" I asked after a few minutes passed. "Do you know these people? You just bought the company. Shouldn't you, at the very least, review their CV's  or their most recent reviews?"

He shook his head and told me he didn't have the time. He only needed so many artistic directors, account managers, house photographers and media planners. Besides, he argued, he was sure that the employees of the company he had acquired were all good; he had, after all, purchased a company that operated in a lean, strong fashion.

As I watched him a while longer, I spotted the name of someone I casually knew on one of the lists. I'd known she was a site manager at an ad agency, but I didn't remember which one. "Hey," I said, as he was about to check-off her name in the layoff column, "I think I know her. Does she live in Montclair?"

He double-clicked. Her file came up. Yup; he was planning to can someone I knew. Someone who had told me how much she loved her job; someone who had been promoted three times in two years; someone who had thank-you notes from clients in her file.

"How can  you layoff someone like that?" I asked.

He argued that everyone's file probably looked that good. That he had purchased a company that had gotten rid of its "dead wood" six months earlier, that that's part of what made the firm an attractive takeover.

"But-" I said.

"I can keep her and lay someone else in the group off if it makes you happy?" he said.

I could tell that he didn't want to continue the conversation.

"Do that," I said, reasoning that what was "a no never mind" to him would be a significant event in the life of a woman I knew.

The ad agency prez and I never talked about the subject again. The woman I knew told me about the layoffs at her firm and how lucky she was to have kept her job.

"You don't know the half-of it," I said, then changed the subject.

So why did I tell this story? To explain, that if you've been dumped, (or kept for that matter) there's a good chance that it's not about you. What it is about, instead, is what you do, namely job function , and how many folks a paired-down firm can afford to have in that role; and these days, that's as few as possible.

Moral of the story: If you've been laid-off in 2008, it's probably not due to something you did (or failed to do), so give the would have, could have, should have game a rest.

If you're having trouble doing that, make a list of everything you did for that no-good firm that dumped you. We'll be able to out it to good use in the next post.

Be discerning

If you're searching for work (because you're unemployed), you're not alone; in fact, according to the New York Times, new jobless claims are at a 16-year high; more than 4 million of you are looking for jobs. If there's any good news for individuals in this position, it's that the Federal government has just extended unemployment claim eligibility to 46 weeks. If you don't know how unemployment benefits work (and I wouldn't, if I were to suddenly become unemployed) click here.

That being said, I doubt that the less than three hundred bucks per week you're entitled to, will keep either you, or those you support, (or help to support) very comfy.

Now you probably know that the primary job of the unemployed is finding a job. It's hard to do that in an economy where positions are being eliminated more quickly than they are being created.

So, how do you up the odds of finding a job at a time when very few are available? Telling you that is, more or less, the purpose of this blog.

I've already said quite a bit about topics such as the  construction and content of resumes (if you haven't yet read my posts on the topic, scroll down or hit this link ). That being said, there are a few intricacies I want to comment on or re-emphasize.

First of all, if you read (and took direction from) my post about composing your resume with a tool like emurse, it should be pretty easy to store its various renditions in various formats (Microsoft Word, PDF, and  txt).

If you're not going to use a web-based tool, here's how to create the various renditions yourself. The one point that I can't OVEREMPHASIZE is the naming convention you use.

You SHOULD NOT NAME YOUR RESUME FILE "RESUME".

Why? Because, while it may be one of only a few files named resume on YOUR computer, it may be one of thousand files named resume in a recruiter's computer or in a corporate file system. Not only that, but you're asking the recipient of your resume to jump through extra hoops when they don't even know who you are or what you're about. (And in this economy, there will be recruiters who will either be too busy to download resumes from strangers or who will forget to rename your file and won't be able to find it.) Talk about getting lost in the crowd!

The next thing you should do is be mindful of is what you do with your resume. DO NOT send it out to everyone and his brother, and do not post in on the web. You might think that the more resumes you have out, the better your chances of scoring an interview; but the opposite may be true.

Why? Because just as the Internet makes the world seem larger and more accessible, it also makes it more connected and smaller. You see, recruiters tend to e-know each other, respect each other (and each other's opinions), and talk about the jobs they're trying to fill with one another.

So, if you've applied to be a manager at my company and  told me that management is your passion; and if you've also applied to be an individual contributor at my colleague's firm, saying that management isn't your "thing" ; then if we chat about  you,  chances are that neither of us will want to interview you. Why? Because we'll think that you don't know what you want and that the chances of you being happy over the long term, in either role, are questionable. And what's the cost of a wrong hire ? It's more than most employers want to bear (especially in a recession).

There's something else to consider as well. Every time you apply for a position over the web, it's tracked. A manager at a Fortune 50 firm told me that he was going to bring someone in for an interview until a database query revealed that the individual had applied for eight different positions at his firm. He didn't want to hire the guy seven of his colleagues had rejected.

Finally, I will say this; last week I called a prospective candidate about a position he had applied for. "Which company and which job are you calling about?" he asked me. When it became obvious that he had applied to so many jobs that he couldn't verbalize his strong interest in any one, he apologized and told me that he had sent out more than 500 resumes that week. As soon as he said that, I was ready to hang up the phone.I did not want to know anything more about him; his actions spoke for him.

But I held on to the phone and explained why I was put off. I certainly understood that he had probably felt desperate- but who wants to hire a desperate man? Companies want to hire talent and value; they're having to do more with less, so each person has to excel.

Now I'm by no means suggesting that talent, value, and desperation can't co-exist, maybe they can; what I'm saying instead is that, in this market, most employers can't afford to throw caution to the wind to find out.

The bottom line is this: when you send your resume to anyone, be professional and respectful. Present yourself as valuable.  Apply to only those positions for which you are a strong fit. If a company you'd like to work for doesn't have a job open today that calls for your skill set, wait until it does. Be smart, use judgement, help companies discover you as a "strong match" rather than a retread!

It's a lot like Dancing with the Stars

Suppose you've never seen Dancing with the Stars and Emmit Smith comes into your dance studio looking for   work. After you exchange pleasantries, you start asking him the kind of questions you might ask a would-be dance instructor, such as:

You: Can you dance?

Fox: Sure

You: Can you do the fox trot?

Fox: Yes

You: Can you do the mambo?

Fox: I mambo.

You: Waltz?

Fox: I'm alright.

It goes on like this until you're out of questions. At the end of the interview, Fox feels pretty confident; he knows all the dances you need him to know. He smiled at you and you smiled back. He's pretty sure he's got the job. You're pretty sure you won't hire him. Why?

(Now remember you've never seen Dancing With the Stars and Fox didn't bring a resume) Because he didn't tell you how he learned to dance, how much time and effort he put into it, or that he won a contest. He didn't get up and do the cha-cha or demonstrate a proper dance frame. He did nothing other than say "Yes I can do that" without elaborating.

And where does this leave you? Wondering if this massive man can even do the two-step. He's not a likely hire. Why? Because he's failed to tell you WHY he's qualified to do the job.

Before your next interview, take the time to not only make a list of your skills but an elevator pitch that explains why you're the best and how they can't afford NOT to hire you.