March 2017 |
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Thou Shalt Not...© 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. (Part 1 of 2) Following these Commandments will lead you to a promised land called Interview Success. Here are the First through Fifth Commandments. 1. The First Commandment: Thou shalt not be late. There is no excuse for being late to an interview. Even a legitimate excuse will do you no good, unless you have contacted the interviewer well in advance and explained a cause which was unforeseen and beyond your control. That seems unfair and a bit harsh, doesn’t it? Well, maybe so, but think about this—assuming that everyone else interviewing for that job managed to show up on time, what does that say about you? Show up late and there will be a gray cloud hovering above your head. What’s in that cloud? Lack of preparation? Inability to problem solve? Failure to plan and anticipate? Lack of courtesy? Questionable reliability? Even if none of that is true, it will not matter. Perception is reality. By the way, this commandment applies equally to both face-to-face and telephone interviews. 2. The Second Commandment: Thou shalt not ask too few or inappropriate questions. At the most basic level an interview is nothing more than a Q & A session. Both parties check each other out and find out what they need to know by asking and answering questions. For you, the job seeker, your questions are the most powerful tool in your military-to-civilian career transition toolbox. There are two reasons for this power, one fairly obvious and one frequently overlooked. The overt reason for asking questions is to get answers. This is how you learn about the organization, the job, the opportunity, the culture, the environment, and the people. The second reason? Asking the right questions will contribute greatly to your ability to express interest in the company. This gets tricky. Your questions must be about them, not you. Save the self-serving questions (salary, benefits, vacation, holidays, etc.) until after the job offer is on the table. 3. The Third Commandment: Thou shalt not exhibit improper body language. Interviewing is a combination of listening and talking. It all comes down to communication and language and there are two components to language—verbal and non-verbal. Although solid verbal communication skills are critical to interview success, the non-verbal component—i.e., body language—is equally important. Body language comes in many forms and presents itself from the second you walk into the interview until you walk back out that door. It starts and ends with a unique form of body language, the only one that involves touching—the handshake. A handshake says much about a person’s style and self-confidence. It needs to be firm, but not too firm. Duration is also important. No more than a second in length. Either party can initiate it, but do not wait too long before you stick out your hand and introduce yourself. Do not vary your approach based on the gender of the interviewer. Many men, especially military men, will shake a woman’s hand differently—bad idea. Limp handshakes and sweaty palms are notorious for killing interviews. Accompanying that handshake is another form of body language—eye contact. Solid eye contact sends a signal of self-confidence, interest, and situational comfort. Bad eye contact sends the opposite signal. Many people do fine with eye contact when they are speaking but not so well when the other person in speaking. Think about the signal that sends. Additional expressions of body language include the way you sit in the chair, placement of your hands, crossing your legs, facial expressions, hand gestures, fidgeting, and nervous habits. Do yourself a favor and ask a friend or colleague to observe and evaluate your body language and adjust or modify as needed. 4. The Fourth Commandment: Thou shalt not dress inappropriately. Many military-to-civilian job seekers relish the thought of never again having to wear a uniform and/or concern themselves with being in the appropriate uniform of the day. Being out-of-uniform will no longer be a bad thing. Not so fast. Although you may choose to avoid the many civilian jobs where uniforms are required and the organizations with strict dress codes, there is one more uniform of the day that you have no choice but to wear—appropriate interviewing attire. One key to interview success is being memorable. You and your competition are alike in so many ways and the interviewer meets so many candidates it can be hard for that interviewer to remember who is who. It is obvious your goal is to be remembered for positive reasons but it would be a mistake to think that your interviewing wardrobe will contribute to that goal. The premise here is that you and your competition will all dress appropriately and interviewing attire becomes a common denominator among all the candidates. If however you are remembered for what you wore to the interview I guarantee it was because of how inappropriate it was. Do yourself a favor and find out in advance what you should wear. Sometimes it will be the traditional interview suit. Other times it could be coveralls and work boots. Sometimes you will need more than one outfit. Regardless, do your best to be memorable for the right reasons rather than what you wore that day. 5. The Fifth Commandment: Thou shalt not lack self-knowledge. Here’s a quick and foolproof way to determine whether or not your interview was successful. As soon as you leave the room, pull out your IMVGs (Interviewer Mind Vision Goggles) and take a look at the picture you created in the mind of the interviewer. What do you see? Maybe nothing—that is as bad as it gets. Perhaps there is a vision, but it is fuzzy or indistinct—again, not good. There is a chance you will see a picture of you doing a job, but not the one for which you were being considered. That too is problematic. How about this one: the interviewer sees you in the job, being productive, but with a frown on your face. Or, maybe you are smiling but doing the job poorly. One last shot—there you are, in the job, doing it well with a high level of job satisfaction. Congratulations! How do you create that vision? With a well-developed level of self-knowledge it’s not hard. Without it, it’s impossible. What are your strengths? Talents? Attributes? Skills? Motivators? Wants? Needs? What really matters to you? By arming yourself with the answers to those questions and by knowing the particulars of the job, and you can present yourself in such a way that the interviewer has no choice but to see you in the job, successful and happy. Remember this—you most certainly have competition for that job. There are almost always more good candidates than there are good jobs. The interviewer needs to narrow down the field and he or she can afford to be picky. You have a choice here—disobey one or more of those Commandments and make it easy for him or her to cross you off the list. Or, make the interviewer work hard to find a reason to reject you. As the interviewer digs deeper and deeper and gets to know you better and better, things will start to change. Unable to find reasons to say NO, he or she will start to focus on reasons to say YES and that leads to interview success. For an in-depth look at this information and much more, visit www.out-of-uniform.com. Join me again next time and we will take a look at Commandments Six through Ten. © 2017; 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. |
Federal hiring freeze could cause more disruptions to military services
by Corey Dickstein Reprinted with permission ©
Stars and Stripes WASHINGTON — Officials are warning that military families could see more disruptions in services as a result of President Donald Trump's temporary federal hiring freeze. Staff shortages have already forced cutbacks in some child care services at U.S. military installations in the wake of Trump's hiring freeze, which bans the Defense Department from hiring replacements for most employees who quit their jobs. In addition to child care issues, commissaries and exchanges around the world report longer-than-usual lines. Some facilities have been forced to close or curb operating hours due to a shortage of employees, according to spokesmen for the organizations that run the on-post stores. Thousands of jobs at the Defense Commissary Agency's stores and hundreds of service-run exchanges cannot be filled until the 90-day hiring freeze that Trump ordered Jan. 23 is lifted.
It is difficult to track down exactly how many jobs have been impacted by the hiring freeze, even in specific categories such as child care. Defense Department spokesman Johnny Michael said the department is in the process of collecting data from across its force to assess the hiring freeze's impact on the military. But even weeks after that process began, he said the Defense Department had no specific information it could provide. The freeze has come at an already-difficult time for some of these programs, including the Army's Morale, Welfare and Recreation programs that have in recent years faced restructuring and budget cuts from sequestration among other factors, said Nate Allen, a spokesman for the Army's Installation Management Command based in San Antonio, Texas. Morale, Welfare and Recreation provides Army installations a variety of services including child care, physical fitness facilities, libraries and youth recreational sports. "It has accelerated issues for hiring and filling vacancies and staffing across the board," Allen said Friday. He added it also complicates the restructuring process because, during the hiring freeze, the Army cannot move civilian employees from one installation to another to fill demand. "So one installation may have an abundance of people in one particular occupational specialty, while at another [installation] there may be a great need for that same position – we cannot move those people to fit those demands," Allen said. It also has the potential to impact funding for Morale, Welfare and Recreation programs, which are funded in part by profits from on-post businesses, he said. If those services are forced to reduce hours because of smaller staffs, it would mean less money pouring into the MWR programs designed to aid families with the challenges of military life. "It all ties together," Allen said. More than a handful of U.S. military installations announced last week that they had altered child care services due to a shortage of staff. Those installations have been able to maintain the Defense Department-mandated full day care programs, but reductions in hourly day care services have occurred at the Marine Corps' Camp Lejeune in North Carolina as well as at the Army's Fort Drum in New York, Fort Knox in Kentucky and at several posts in Germany, including in Kaiserslautern and Wiesbaden. Though a Defense Department memo on Feb. 1 addressing Trump's hiring freeze specifically exempts 16 categories of federal workers from the hiring freeze, including child care providers, those positions must still be approved by a commander before they can be filled. Still, filling child care positions can be an especially tedious process, even without the addition of command approval, Allen said. It typically takes between 80 and 120 days to hire a child care provider because of the stringent background check process and other necessary certifications. But other family services have not been exempted from the freeze. Officials for military commissaries and exchanges, which have high turnover rates, often in the 20 to 30 percent per year range, have applied for exemptions with the Defense Department. It is not clear whether commissaries and exchanges will receive permission to fill any jobs during the hiring freeze. The Pentagon is considering "concerns raised regarding commissaries and exchanges to determine if exemptions should be granted," said Michael, the Defense Department spokesman. At Camp Lejeune and nearby Marine Corps Air Station New River operating hours have been cut at two on-base convenience stores and additional convenience stores and other facilities, including one of its fitness centers, are expected to face operating hours reductions in the coming days, officials announced last week. "The hiring freeze affecting all government employees is now affecting our ability to conduct business as usual," a Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Community Services statement announcing the changes read. "Our highly transient workforce … requires us to constantly hire in order to maintain adequately staffed programs and facilities at standard level. As we continue to be included in the hiring freeze, and our current staffing levels continue to be reduced, it has become necessary to alter our current operations, either by temporarily consolidating services, curtailing hours of operation, suspending programs or closing facilities." Officials at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona and Fort Bliss in Texas reported similar service reductions. "The exchange is dealing with the impact by increasing hours of associates, reducing hours of operation as needed and delaying planned openings of some new [shops]," said Chris Ward, a spokesman for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, which provides tax-free goods to servicemembers, their families and veterans. "Reductions in hours and closures are not something that we take lightly and are a means of last resort." Navy exchanges and the Defense Commissary Agency have so far avoided reducing service hours at their stores, officials said. But Navy exchanges have faced behind-the-scenes "strains" from jobs in merchandising and distribution impacted by the hiring freeze, said Kristine Sturkie, a spokeswoman for Navy Exchange Service Command. "At this point, we have been able to minimize the impacts to the customer experience while accepting some risks in the back of the house operations," she said. "A prolonged hiring freeze could change this situation." Kevin Robinson, a spokesman for the Defense Commissary Agency, said with more than 1,600 vacant positions subject to the freeze, including 83 in management, part-time commissary employees have been forced to work longer hours at many of the agency's 283 stores. Commissaries, by law, provide servicemembers and their families groceries at cost plus five percent. "We are beginning to see longer lines in at the cash register in a few locations," Robinson said. "If the hiring freeze continues for an extended duration, we may eventually be forced to temporarily cut services or reduce days or hours, if staffing problems occur." The Defense Department is operating with the assumption that Trump's hiring freeze will end at the conclusion of the 90 days, said Michael, the Pentagon spokesman. But the wording in the executive order leaves the exact end date of the hiring freeze somewhat flexible. It states the hiring freeze will "expire" once the director of the Office of Management and Budget implements "a long-term plan to reduce the size of the federal government's workforce through attrition." If the hiring freeze does continue past late April, it could drag into the military's typical permanent change of station season, when thousands of servicemembers change assignments during the summer months while schools are out. That would likely mean more job vacancies – in the thousands – left by servicemembers' spouses, who fill on-post jobs that are not exempt from the freeze, Allen said. It could also add to the families' burdens if those servicemembers' spouses cannot find work at their new home station. "That [permanent change of station] factor is a major issue for commanders who have to plan how to deal with the empty positions and for the families," he said. "When PCS season roles out, if this freeze is still in place, it will add an additional layer of difficulty for everyone."
dickstein.corey@stripes.com |
5 Ways to Connect with Hiring Managers© Copyright, 2017, Susan P. Joyce. All rights reserved. Bringing yourself to the attention of hiring managers, who have the ability to hire you, is a very good way to connect with a job. With social media and the Internet, we have excellent sources of information and methods to connect with those hiring managers when we approach the project methodically. 5 Ways to Connect with Hiring ManagersIdeally, an employee (not on the HR staff) hands the hiring manager – or her boss – a copy of your resume. Here are 5 ways to find that Very Important Person who helps you make that connection to the right job for you.
1. Networking Through Your High School, College, University, Graduate School, and / or Technical Training ProviderRegardless of how long ago you attended the school, most colleges and universities have alumni associations, often with career services and other alumni support. Look for fellow alums who are working in your target profession, industry, and/or for your target employers. A quick way to find them is through LinkedIn. Simply search on the school name or the technical training name, like a certification, in LinkedIn to find other alums. Also search through Facebook, and check out LinkedIn Groups and Facebook Groups for your schools.
2. Networking Through Former Colleagues and Other Former Employees of Current and / or Former EmployersAnother excellent source, particularly if you have worked for a large employer, are “corporate alumni” groups. These are networks, often with directories, meetings, and websites, of people who have worked for the same employer at some point in their career. They don’t all know each other, but they do have the common experience of working in the same large organizatio Find these former colleagues through social media and in face-to-face meetings like professional/industry association gatherings or corporate alumni reunions. Like school alums, there is a common ground for discussion and connection among people who worked for the same employer, even years apart. Sometimes these groups are sponsored by the employer, and even include current employees, because they can be an excellent source of “boomerang” hires. Again, search through LinkedIn and Facebook to find these organizations.
3. Networking Through Professional or Industry AssociationsThese can be gold mines for both professional growth and networking! Many associations have (no surprise) LinkedIn Groups where information is shared, events are promoted, and jobs are even posted. Attend local events – bold job seekers who are experts on some relevant topic may speak at an event. Less bold job seekers can join the program committee to help plan programs, meet other committee members, and grow their network. Many, if not most, professional associations have job boards connected to their websites. Usually, these job boards are free for both members and non-members to use, and the jobs posted there may not be widely posted elsewhere.
4. Networking Through Informational InterviewsThis is often a misunderstood and badly used method, but it is so successful when done correctly, as originally described by Dick Bolles, author of What Color Is Your Parachute? Like an industry or professional association, information interviews can be an opportunity to learn and to network at the same time. Informational interviewing can also help a job seeker avoid a mistake – like working in the wrong job or for the wrong employer. Remember, this is research, not a job interview. Do not hand over a resume during an informational interview I have spoken to several job seekers who practiced Dick’s classic approach to great success. They learned a great deal and made connections that ended up helping them land a job.
If the person being interviewed asks for a resume, offer to email or send it later. Also consider asking about connecting via LinkedIn. Read How to Do Successful Informational Interviews for more details.
5. Networking Through Other Local GroupsSee the earlier post, Better Than a Job Board: Local Networking Groups, for additional sources, like MeetUp.com and more. Attend more than one meeting, and introduce yourself to other meeting attendees. Help other members, and become known as a reliable source of good information. A fast and painless way to meet other members, particularly if you consider yourself shy or introverted, is to become a volunteer, helping the group. My favorite job is checking people in for meetings. In that job, I get to meet everyone and welcome them to the meeting as I hand them their name tags which makes it much easier to talk with them during the meeting.
Bottom LineNetworking is the most effective way to land a job. Job boards have millions of job postings available today, but the best way to use them is for research – what jobs are growing in demand, who is hiring what, where. More About Successful NetworkingBetter Than a Job Board: Local Networking Groups How to Do Successful Informational Interviews How to Become a Boomerang Employee Job Search Networking Like a Headhunter About the Author… Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce Online job search expert Susan P. Joyce has been observing the online job search world and teaching online job search skills since 1995. Susan is a two-time layoff “graduate” who has worked in human resources at Harvard University and in a compensation consulting firm. In 2011, NETability purchased WorkCoachCafe.com, and Susan has been editor and publisher of WorkCoach since then. Susan also edits and publishes Job-Hunt.org, is a Visiting Scholar at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and a columnist on HuffingtonPost. Follow Susan on Twitter at @jobhuntorg and on Google+ |
Cover Letters Get a Bad Rapby HRNASTY.COM ©2017 all rights reserved Reprinted with Permission Cover letters get a bad rap. It’s unfortunate, because I would say that most of the folks that are hired include cover letters. Don’t get me wrong, I throw out a lot of cover letters. It isn’t because of a rule that states “Cover Letters are never read, so don’t write a cover letter”. That rule is a lie, don’t listen to the haters. I make it a rule to NOT read cover letters which list skills irrelevant to the job posting, use the phrase “I am perfect for the job” or fill an entire page. That is the gospel. No candidate was ever offered a job based on the cover letter so let’s start with the following premise. The cover letter is not a resume and it is not going to land us a job offer. The cover letter is the introductory announcement that gets the hiring manager excited to read the resume. It is not a narrative of the resume. FULL STOP. Based on the 1000’s of cover letters and resumes I have read over the years, I am convinced that most candidates create their cover letters and resumes with the wrong goal in mind. I know for a fact that most of these documents are not accomplishing what they set out to do because after reading most of them, I am NOT interested in reading the resume. Honestly, I get bored, pissed or both. A lot of readers are thinking I am on my high horse and I get that. After reading 5 – 10 cover letters a few patterns start to surface. I am going to share those patterns with you so you don’t fall into the trap and YOU CAN write a compelling cover letter. The number 1 goal of the cover letter is to tease the reader so they are interested in the resume. The cover letters should not be lengthy. When was the last time you proofed a cover letter or resume for a friend and were given the job posting of the targeted position? I bet it has never happened. It is tough to proof a cover letter if we don’t know the desired position. So, let me put it into terms we all understand. Even if we are not dating, we understand the concept of attracting a potential +1. Requisite dating analogy: SWF looking for SWM, aka, recruiter looking for qualified candidate. We are looking for a match.
SWF: Single woman looking for a +1. Attractive and is a professional. She posts a dating ad on the dating site of the month and waits for the responses to roll in. Recruiter: The recruiter is looking to fill a position. She works for a company with a great brand and good benefits. Our recruiter posts a job description on Indeed.com and waits for the responses to roll in.
SWF and BFF: This is not single woman’s first rodeo. SWF knows what she is looking for. She worked with her BFF to put the ad together and they didn’t just bang something out in two minutes. They agonized over the phrasing and the words chosen. They both have a specific vision of Mr. Right. (Like, OMG, I am not high maintenance. I can’t help it if I happen to know what I want and have high standards. Fer reals though!) Yes, the headshot got a LOT OF RESPONSES. Recruiter and Hiring Manager: This is not the recruiters first rodeo. The recruiter and hiring manager know exactly what they are looking for because they pitched the position and skill set to their VP and requested a specific budget. They worked together on a job description. Because the company is a well-known brand, the recruiter received A LOT OF RESPONSES.
SWF: Our single woman is nice, has a great sense of style, and a headshot that shows she knows how to have fun. Her inbox is flooded with responses. Recruiter: Our recruiter wrote an interesting ad that talks about a great company culture, opportunity for growth and a cool product. Her inbox is flooded with responses.
SWF: Single Male comes along and responds to the SWF dating ad. He sends an email and attaches his own headshot showing he knows how to have fun. Recruiter: Unemployed Candidate is interested in the posted job and responds with an email. His email contains his cover letter, and attached resume.
SWF: Because nice single woman has more responses than she can handle, she is NOT able to read each and every response line by line. She reads the first half dozen, but soon sees a pattern. She opens each response and within the first three lines she knows if she is interested or not. If she is interested, she reads on. If she isn’t interested, she moves on. Recruiter: Because the recruiter has more responses than she can handle, she will only sift through the responses. She will open each email, which contains the cover letter, but she doesn’t read each and every response line by line. She knows within the first three lines if she has a qualified candidate, or not. Some candidates apply without a cover letter and she thinks:
SWF: After reading the first three lines of the response, nice single female forms an opinion and a mental picture of the potential suitor. Misspelled words just keep Single Guy single. SWF talked about Yoga, red wine and walks along the beach. If Single Guy talks about Football tailgating and NASCAR, we just don’t have a fit peoples. No need to read further. Recruiter: After reading the first three lines of the response the recruiter / hiring manger has formed an opinion on our unemployed candidate. If the position is for a bank teller and we are talking about our experience as a chef, plumber, product manager or real estate agent the search continues. Our recruiter is looking for a bank teller or an accounting major.
SWF: If the response was interesting and relevant, nice single girl reads the entire email and is getting excited about opening the attached photo. The email uses proper grammar so she is hopeful our potential Mr. Right paid attention in school and has half a brain. He isn’t vulgar so she imagines he is a gentleman. Single guy lets her know that he has future goals and she can already see herself making a life with him. She is hoping that she is in the suitors league. If he talks about how he is into physical fitness and enjoys Red wine all the better. She is getting hopeful. Recruiter: The absence of misspelled words, proper business letter format, and bulleted accomplishments will make the email easy to read. After reading the first three lines of the response, the recruiter / hiring manager is already hopeful about us as a candidate. Yes, we may have a player! I hope I can afford this candidate and yes getting hopeful. Write an effective cover letter and the resume will be reviewed with intent. If the online dating ad is looking for Yoga and Red wine, you respond with Downward Dog and Burgundy. If you don’t want a response, list Yogi Berra and Red Bull in your cover letter.
Think bad appetizer, bad conversation and uninspiring movie trailer. What are we mentally and emotionally expecting after all three? Bad, Bad and Uninspiring. For a cover letter format that is simple to write and effective, see my earlier post here and here. See you at the after party, HRNasty |
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