THE DIRTY DOZEN
By Tom Wolfe, Career Coach
The interview is over. You are told to expect the results in two weeks. A letter arrives two weeks later and you open it and read the following. We regret to inform you that we are unable to offer you a position at this time. Although your background is impressive, your skill set is not compatible with our requirements and we have identified another candidate who is a better fit for our opening. We will keep your résumé on file and contact you in the event a more appropriate position becomes available. We enjoyed meeting you and wish you well...
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Express Lane to a New Job – Employee Referral
by Susan Joyce - Reprinted with permission;
www.workcoachcafe.com
A recent article in The New York Times
("In
Hiring, a Friend in Need is a Prospect Indeed") highlighted the
effectiveness of an internal referral by another employee, particularly in
comparison with applying through a job board with no connections inside of the
employer. According to studies quoted in the Times
article, being referred by an employee is the “express lane” to a new job.
A candidate who is referred is twice as likely to be interviewed, according ...
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States adding tools to help Veterans get Employed
By: Ron Rutherford, Business Development Manager, TAOnline
Arkansas joins the states of Washington and Minnesota, allowing employers to voluntarily give preference to veterans when hiring. This means if two candidates for a job have similar qualifications, an employer can choose the veteran, if for no other reason, than because he or she is a veteran. Washington was first with a voluntary veterans’ preference law in 2011. Minnesota added one ...
Read More
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1,000+ Veteran Hires = $2.6 Million in tax credits
Washington state businesses jump at savings
By: Ron Rutherford, Business Development Manager, TAOnline
If there was a question about whether the expanded tax credits for hiring veterans worked, the answers may be seen in Washington state. Businesses received more than $2.6-million in Federal tax credits for the 2011 tax-filing season. The Work Opportunity Tax Credit rewards employers Read More
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Click here for a complete list and description of organizations of TAOnline.com growing Partners!
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Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to Hire Over 800 Veterans as Peer Specialists and Peer Support Apprentices by December 31, 2013.
Make a difference in the lives of your fellow Veterans! VA is hiring over 800 Veterans to work as Peer Specialists and Peer Support Apprentices.
To qualify, you must be a United States Veteran who has recovered or is recovering from a mental health condition. Completion of an approved
peer specialist training program is also required. Click here
for more information and to apply.
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THE DIRTY DOZEN
© Tom Wolfe, author; all rights reserved; excerpts from Out of Uniform:
Your Guide to a Successful Military-to-Civilian Career Transition; used with the permission of the author and publisher,
www.potomacbooksinc.com.
The interview is over. You are told to expect the results in two weeks. A letter arrives two weeks later and you open it and read the following.
We regret to inform you that we are unable to offer you a position at this time. Although your background is impressive, your skill set is not compatible with our requirements and we have identified another candidate who is a better fit for our opening. We will keep your résumé on file and contact you in the event a more appropriate position becomes available. We enjoyed meeting you and wish you well.
The dreaded Dear John letter! You are disappointed and confused. You thought the interview had gone well and you would like to know what went wrong. Well, start with the language in the letter: your skill set is not compatible with our requirements . . . That must be the reason, correct? Probably not. Your résumé indicated the minimum skill set or the interview would have never happened. There must be another reason and identifying it would be a good lesson learned for future interviews.
Does the company owe you a more specific explanation? If so, will it be shared with you? No and no. In the past, companies were forthcoming with concrete reasons for rejection, but as our society has become increasingly litigious in nature, the willingness to share rejection feedback has all but vanished. Rather than risk a lawsuit for reasons that could be interpreted as discriminatory, a company will use the terminology above.
During my career in recruiting and placement, I kept track of the most common reasons for rejection. I refer to them as the Dirty Dozen and I will share them with you here.
- You failed to show sufficient interest in the position. This is a classic. Maybe you truly were not interested and it showed. Maybe you were very interested and failed to let it show. Regardless of how you feel, the perceptions of the interviewers become their reality.
- You are over-qualified for the position. This one is often used as a polite way of showing you the door—complimenting you as they send you on your way. Sometimes it is genuine. If the interviewer senses that the job will bore you or that you will become impatient, he or she can legitimately label you as overqualified or unqualified for the position.
- You are under-qualified. As important as a well-written résumé is in any successful job search, sometimes it can over-sell. Perhaps you presented your collection of qualifications accurately, but the interview exposed some problems in the depth of some of those qualifications. This does not necessarily mean that you misrepresented yourself. Sometimes the potential employer is guilty of a little wishful thinking when reading a résumé.
- They liked someone else better. This one gets used quite often. Why? It is cut and dried. How can you argue with it? People either like you or they do not. If they do not, there is nothing you can do to change it.
- You were beaten out for the position. As long as there are great jobs and great candidates for those jobs, you will have competition. As good as you know you are, it would be a mistake to assume that you are the only qualified candidate for the job.
- Although you did well, the yes votes were not unanimous. Rarely is the decision to offer or not in the hands of one person acting alone. In most cases there are many people in the interviewing process and they all have some input regarding the final decision. Whether they vote on or off the record, their votes will be counted. In some cases, consensus or a majority decision is enough. In other cases, it is all or nothing.
- You failed to sell yourself for the position. As you leave the interview, ask yourself what impressions you left in the minds of the interviewers. Do they see you in the job for which you are being considered, doing it well, and with a big smile on your face? If so, congratulations. If not, then Dear John.
- You displayed inappropriate behavior or breached interviewing etiquette. Were you on time? Dressed appropriately? Polite and courteous? Did you treat everyone you met with respect and courtesy, or just those people in the powerful positions?
- You were not prepared for the interview. How much homework did you do? Were you knowledgeable about the company? The industry? The position? The company’s competitors? Yourself?
- The position was filled before you got to the interview. This happens frequently. Many companies would rather go ahead with the interview than cancel out on you at the last minute. While it might be too late to recover most of the money they have already invested in the interview process, going forward with the interview does two things for them. First, they can file you away for future openings. Second, it's good for PR—although you will not be working for that company you are more likely to continue to use their products.
- You focused too much on you and not enough on them. Human beings are by nature selfish—they care about themselves, their needs, and the needs of their dependents. No one expects you to deny your selfish side, but you need to be time-sensitive about it. Showing that self-interest too early in the interviewing process will increase the odds of rejection. When is it safe to broach those selfish issues? After the job offer is on the table.
- You seemed more interested in the future than the present. Let’s say you asked twenty questions during the interview. Five of them concerned the position at hand and the rest were focused on the jobs to come. Sounds like you view the initial position as simply a stepping-stone. Is that the signal you meant to send?
Note that some of these are within your power to control, while many of them are not. With proper preparation, interviewing empathy, and strong self-knowledge, you can minimize the chances that they will be used against you. In most cases it is a combination of reasons that causes your downfall. So, what can you do? Learn from your mistakes, think positive, be prepared, control the controllable, and accept the fact that the rest is out of your hands. Nobody is perfect—you might get away with one or two of the above, especially if the interviewer likes you.
By Tom Wolfe, Career Coach
© Tom Wolfe is an author, columnist, career coach, veteran, and an expert in the field of military-to-civilian career transition.
During his career he assisted thousands of service members in their searches for employment, placing more than 3000 in their new jobs. Prior
to civilian life, he graduated from the U. S. Naval Academy and served as a surface warfare officer. He teaches transition courses, gives seminars
on career and job change, writes about the career transition process, and continues to counsel current and former military personnel. His book,
Out of Uniform: Your Guide to a Successful Military-to-Civilian Career Transition,
was published by Potomac Books in 2011. Tom lives on the North Carolina coast with his wife, Julie, and their Chesapeake Bay retriever, Maggie.
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Express Lane to a New Job – Employee Referral
by Susan Joyce - Reprinted with permission;
www.workcoachcafe.com
A recent article in The New York Times
("In
Hiring, a Friend in Need is a Prospect Indeed") highlighted the
effectiveness of an internal referral by another employee, particularly in
comparison with applying through a job board with no connections inside of the
employer.
According to studies quoted in the Times
article, being referred by an employee is the “express lane” to a new job.
- A candidate who is referred is twice as likely to be interviewed, according to a
study of one employer by 3 New York Federal Reserve bank economists.
- That same study also showed that referred candidates who are interviewed are 40%
more likely to be hired.
- A Sodexo study showed that Sodexo is ten times (10!) more likely to hire a
referred candidate than any other applicant!
Wow! While this data is impressive, anyone who has worked in HR has seen it in
action. This is why
many employers reward employees for recommending a new hire through
employee referral programs.
Employer Referrals=Your Network at Work in 7 Steps
How do you connect, or re-connect, with your network? Here's a 7-step process.
1. Attitude Change: Networking = Fun
Networking is not attending boring
meetings in large rooms filled with strangers. At least
not most of the time.
The reality is that you won't do much
networking if it isn't fun for you, unless you are incredibly disciplined or
desperate. So find a way to make it fun. Do things you enjoy as part
of your networking, whether it's taking a walk or a jog, eating at a restaurant,
or having a glass of your favorite wine (or fruit smoothie) at a bar (or a
McDonald's), taking a class, or…
OK, I know viewing networking as fun is
asking a lot of introverts and others who prefer their own company or the
company of a very few close friends. But the reality is that, in these
days of “economic readjustment” and layoffs, we all need to keep our networks
alive and thriving. It helps us succeed at our jobs, and it also clearly
makes a job hunt much easier.
I've heard so many job seekers refer to
networking as “using people.” If that's how you view it, you need to
change your approach and your attitude. Networking should be mutually
beneficial to all members. You help those in your network as much, if not
more, than they help you.
2. Make Networking a Daily Activity
Networking is much more effective if it
is done before you
need that referral, not when you are deeply into your job search. That
means it needs to be part of what you do every day. After a while, it
becomes easier (and more fun). Maybe it's only sending an email to an old
friend or calling an old friend to wish them happy birthday. Maybe it's
coffee with a new friend. Maybe it's attending a meeting or having lunch
with people you went to college with or former clients or former colleagues or…
3. Be a Giver
Networking is about helping people you
know and like to succeed. If you are just asking for help or requesting
favors without helping in return (or, better, first), you won't be a very
successful networker.
4. Identify Your Network
Who's in your network? The easy answer
is family and friends, including neighbors and former neighbors, people you grew
up with, people you have gone to school with, people you played sports with,
people you met in local social events (from your kid's school events to the
neighborhood or organizing Saturday cookouts), and on and on.
Your network also includes people you
work with now or have worked with in the past, plus current and former customers
or clients, current and former suppliers, current and former co-workers and
bosses and subordinates, people you met at professional and industry association
meetings, people you met in the pizza place in your building who work for the
employer down the hall or on a different floor, and so on.
5. Connect with Your Existing Network
These days, you can do much of it at
your computer via email or Skype. If you have lost track of members of
your network, use the Internet to track them down:
- Facebook. I am NOT a big fan of Facebook
(privacy!), but it has enabled me to connect with my older friends from grade
school, junior high, high school, and college. Just search on some names
from your past – people who were important to you and respected by you –
connect, and catch up on their lives since you last met.
- LinkedIn. Of course! I am a big fan of
LinkedIn, particularly the LinkedIn Groups. I belong to several “corporate
alumni” groups from several of my former employers plus, natually, college and
graduate school alumni groups. These Groups are gold mines for all kinds of
networking, including – of course! - job search. If you don't find one for
a former employer, start a Group. It's a great excuse to connect.
- Google. Find more corporate alumni groups
and long-lost friends using Google. Simply Google their names. With
luck Google will also show you their LinkedIn Profiles so you can see what they
are doing now, where they live and who they work for now, as well as their
former employers.
Once you have found some members of your
network, use Google or Superpages.com to find their current phone numbers and
reach out, if you cannot connect with them via Facebook or LinkedIn.
6. Add New Members to Your Network
All of your network members won't be
people from your past (you had to meet those people at some point too).
So, set out to meet new people
- Job search support groups. These meet in local places of worship,
public libraries, coffee shops and restaurants. Track them down through
local bulletin boards and community calendars. They are excellent for
networking and job search. Don't job hunt without one!
- Online news. Find local industry or professional
association meetings and other local events. Reconnect with people you
know and meet new people as well.
-
MeetUp.com. More local meetings can be found
here, or start up your own group
7. Be Patiently Persistent
Don't expect immediate results, and
don't give up. It usually takes a while for your network to come through for
you. Don't expect complete strangers to refer you for jobs with their
employers, unless they don't care about their own reputations at work (some
don't).
Networking Works!
I have spoken with so many people in new
jobs who were contacted by a former boss or former co-worker when an opportunity
became available, and had an inside track to a new job. I also
have witnessed former colleagues connect with new jobs at the funeral of a
former co-worker. We were all talking in line outside of the funeral home
and one mentioned that he had several jobs open and needed good people like us.
Bingo! Jobs filled; jobs landed; problems solved.
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States adding tools to help Veterans get Employed
By: Ron Rutherford, Business Development Manager, TAOnline
Arkansas joins the states of Washington and Minnesota, allowing employers to voluntarily give preference to veterans when hiring. This means if two candidates for a job have similar qualifications, an employer can choose the veteran, if for no other reason, than because he or she is a veteran.
Washington was first with a voluntary veterans’ preference law in 2011. Minnesota added one last year. The Arkansas legislation is similar, but adds a wrinkle to give veterans a further advantage.
Veterans who return to Arkansas will have access to a state registry listing employers who will provide the preference. Thomas Dunlap, a legislative director for the Arkansas Society of Human Resource Management, says the directory is under development and about six-months away from going online. But, he adds once active, it could be a very valuable tool for HR managers and veterans looking for work once they’ve transitioned to civilian life.
Dunlap believes the registry could make Arkansas attractive to veterans looking for work. While the new legislation gives veterans and employers a tool, it remains voluntary. In none of the states, no employer is required to participate. It is a voluntary process requiring no recordkeeping or justification for employment decisions.
One of the biggest concerns raised about veteran employment is translating and transferring skills from the military to the civilian workplace. Several states now have on the books, or are in the process of passing new legislation, easing the path for state licenses and certifications.
Georgia’s new law focuses primarily on construction and trades. Licenses for Electricians, Plumbers, and Contractors can be expedited, based on veterans’ military skills, training, and testing.
New Jersey certification and licensing boards can provide exemptions or waivers from licensure requirements when military training, education or experience is equivalent to state licensing requirements.
Montana and Maryland lawmakers are considering similar legislation. Meanwhile, New York, New Jersey, California and several other states have laws on the books to ease a veteran with ‘big-rig’ experience to gain their commercial CDL licenses.
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1,000+ Veteran Hires = $2.6 Million in tax credits
Washington state businesses jump at savings
By: Ron Rutherford, Business Development Manager, TAOnline
If there was a question about whether the expanded tax credits for hiring veterans worked, the answers may be seen in Washington state. Businesses received more than $2.6-million in Federal tax credits for the 2011 tax-filing season.
The Work Opportunity Tax Credit rewards employers who hire military veterans, the disabled, ex-inmates, food-stamp recipients and individuals receiving Supplemental Security Income. Tax credits range from $2,400 to $9,600 for each eligible hire.
In all, the state certified 25,300 hires for this credit, 4%, or 1,012 were veterans. To receive the credit, each new employee must work a minimum of 400 hours during the first year in the new job and earn at least $6,000 in wages.
To further assist with the hiring of Veterans, the President’s new budget proposal aims to make these tax credits permanent. Previously, Congress voted annually to renew or modify the Federal Tax Credits.
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