Needle, Meet Haystack

We’ve all got our own routines designed to help us maximize our time and become more efficient.  And there are many methods to chose from.  Unfortunately, there are lots of counterproductive things that many people do without realizing it, creating problems for their careers, job searches and personal lives.  Here are five of them.

1. Using job boards.  Recently, Dan Schawbel wrote a post in which he discusses why using job boards is not practical.  And while it’s true that the amount of people hired from online applications has gone up considerably (I recall a figure from six years ago citing the average as 6%, Dan cites 12%), a lack of responses from employers, potential subscriptions and all of the problems that they entail, the odds of your application even being seen and dozens of other problems make job boards a time-waster.  Instead, try some of Dan’s suggestions, which include the most successful method that leads to employment: networking.
2. Using social networks poorly.  There are many articles and websites dedicated to the abuse of social networking sites.  Whether it’s a lack of self-censorship, not using privacy settings or general stupidity, a lack of concern for one’s personal brand through social media can lead to a host of problems.  But if used properly, the sites can be a great boon to individuals and businesses.
3. Forgetting social barriers.  Web 2.0 has made people more informal with each other, but the degree to which casual relationships are used is becoming absurd.  Sure, it might be fine to friend someone you sat near at lunch in 7th grade but never talked to, but playing on your social networks without an established interpersonal relationship is never a good idea.  What’s even worse is treating one’s superiors and co-workers in a non-professional way.  Not only does it lower the respect others have for you, but it can do damage to your reputation and personal brand both within the company and outside of it.  As unappealing as it might seem, show respect and restraint for others at the office, and if it helps, pretend that there’s a generation gap to blame for this.
4. Forgetting how to plan.  Communication in the modern world is instantaneous.  Internet and cell phones have made almost anyone available for contact at almost any time.  But a lack of foresight when it comes to scheduling can cost you dearly.  Try going low-tech and prepare your agenda days or even weeks in advance.
5. Ignoring history.  If you turn on the news and listen to the discussions about the economy, you’ll find a lot of comparisons to earlier economic downturns.  So shouldn’t this foresight have helped prevent the current slump?  And if you’re having trouble finding work or with a project that’s similar to a situation that you (or others) have been in before, shouldn’t you be using that experience to make your current problems more manageable?  As much as we’d like to think that things are always new and exciting, there’s usually enough patterns and repetition that exists to help us come up with a solution without reinventing the wheel.  So if you’re stuck in the present, don’t forget to take a look in the past before you stretch yourself too far into the future.

Sure, there are lots of mistakes that thousands of people unwittingly make every day.  But with a little self-awareness and planning, you won’t be one of them.

Click the link to read the original post about interviews from the interviewer’s perspective.

Yesterday, I gave an interview of a different sort: for a freelance (re: temporary) position.  Since the criteria, competencies and job itself are different from a more permanent position (that was discussed in part 1), this post is to serve as a reference point for those wondering what their interviewers may be thinking during an interview for a contract job.  Here are a series of tips based on what I found out during the interviews:

• Asking more questions is a good thing, but don’t steer the conversation.  Since the position is time-sensitive and there are a lot of details that you need to know about quickly, it’s all right to start asking questions almost immediately.  But if you start trying to steer the conversation, it might go in a direction that you don’t want it to.
• You can bring up money on the first interview, but back up your numbers.  If you are pitching for a job of a certain type and ask how much the competition is charging, your interviewer may give you a large range (ours had a difference of over $100,000 from lowest to highest bids) that won’t really help you determine how much to ask for.  But if you are throwing out a number, use facts, previous projects, client testimonials and any materials at your disposal to show that you are worth your asking price, or else you may come across as cocky and overpriced.
• Be prepared to get an offer for something you didn’t come to meet about.  My company has several projects in the pipeline, and we found that one of our candidates was better-suited to working on a different project than the one he came to interview about.  Despite changing the conversation to reflect the other position, he kept clinging to the first project, and lost out on actually getting the job we could have hired him for.
• Don’t make assumptions about your employer’s business, especially if you haven’t done your research.  The same interviewee had not bothered to look up any information about our company, and jumped right into his assessment of a project that we were showing him – but that project was completed months ago, and was actually quite successful.  He put his foot in his mouth so severely that it left a bad taste on the rest of the interview.
• Speaking of that, make sure to do your research.  It helps if you know what a company does, has done, what its competencies are, what its limits are, and so on.  This way, you can tailor your approach (and payment figure) to the specifications that will make you seem more attractive, qualified and employable to interviewers.
• Speaking “business” is not as essential, but make sure you sound socially competent.  A number of interviewees for the position are technical workers, and as such, did not understand much business jargon or many of the results-driven terms that were used during the interview.  But that’s okay – it’s almost like speaking another language.  However, being able to understand what your interviewer is asking you (and what they want the person they eventually hire to do) is critical, so ask for clarification if you need it.
• Don’t make your knowledge gaps apparent.  If you start trying to lead the conversation, the interviewer may touch on certain points that expose weaknesses in your experience or knowledge.  If asked if you know something, or about it, at least show more interest or learning potential than saying “no.”  That makes you seem unpleasant and unwilling to compromise.
• Leave a great last impression.  I was one of two interviewers yesterday, and although I did not do the majority of the talking (the other interviewer did, as he understands technical stuff better), my assessment is still a part of determining if someone is hired.  When one candidate left, they forgot to acknowledge me or shake my hand, doing so only with the other interviewer.  As a result, I was less impressed with this candidate.

If you’re going to enter the freelancer’s world, make sure that you are armed with the right knowledge to get the best results from your interviews as possible.  The tactics that work when applying for full-time positions don’t necessarily apply.

I feel old.

Physically, I’m young.  But when I realize that the shows I loved as a kid are “retro” today, and that some of them haven’t been on the air for the past 15 years (except in syndication), I get the nagging urge to buy some ribbon candy and listen to old records on my gramophone.

It doesn’t help that one of the touchstones of the Saturday morning TV block (which doesn’t exist anymore, another sign of age) has been stirring up a lukewarm bit of controversy.  Or more precisely, Screech from Saved By The Bell is trying to ruin my childhood.

Dustin Diamond doesn’t have it out for me personally.  But when he decided to ditch out on the cast reunion, I had to wonder what’s changed for him.

In this 2002 interview, Diamond seemed to have made peace with his child star past.  But his attitudes in recent years have soured.  When he came to perform at my university in 2007, he became upset and enraged when people would shout out his character’s name or mention the show.  Then again, he’s gone on to follow the former child star path pretty well over the past few years (reality TV, adult film, tell-all book).

Whatever you may feel about his post-SBTB pursuits, Diamond’s actions are an exaggeration of a more common affliction found in those with a fear of being pigeonholed in a certain role, destined to only be remembered for one thing.  And while it’s important to have marketable skills, especially some sort of specialized ones, it’s vital that you not let yourself become defined by those skills.

Rather, you need to continue to cultivate and evolve your professional image and, if possible, continue on the successful path that you’ve started.  Your past experiences have helped shape who you are, but if you let them control you, for good or bad, you will never be able to move on to greater acclaim and success.

If you read Diamond’s old interview, it seemed that he was content with becoming well-known in the chess world and was happy to have the chance to establish himself musically.  Instead, he has chosen to regress to what made him popular in the worst way possible.  When dealing with your professional image and personal brand, you should only use your past as a springboard to the future, not a crutch to hamper your development.

If you want to see a positive example of reconciling your past with your current life and projects, take a look at what another Bayside alum did.

It’s 10 PM on a Sunday.  You and your team have a presentation on Monday at 9 AM, and yet, you’re the only person working on it.  The rest of your team, if they’re physically present, is not mentally “there”.  And come Monday, no one will know that you did the lion’s share of the work.  It’s not fair…or is it?

Group members will  never completely function at the same level of competency or productivity.  But when one member is doing most, if not all of the work, there’s something very wrong with the group dynamic.

Or it could be that your group is composed of selfish, lazy stupid jerkholes (except for you), but for the sake of argument, let’s assume that that’s not the case.

Regardless of the touchy-feely lessons you may have been taught in your youth, everyone is not equal.  We each have particular strengths and weaknesses that characterize us as achievers in certain areas and failures in others.  And as such, some of us excel at organization, leadership and self-motivation, while others do not.  So if you find yourself in the position of being the sole organizer and motivator for your group, perhaps you need to step into a leadership role as well.

No one sets out to be disruptive when they have something big to (lose or) gain by (not) participating.  We don’t want to procrastinate and be counterproductive, but if our accomplishments and contributions are overlooked, indifference and laziness begin to seep in.  And while this may not be true in all cases, it’s a better way to start looking at the actions of one’s teammates.

Regardless of if you can do something better than the others on your team, you should still make sure that everyone has individual responsibilities and duties to perform.  In addition to ensuring that everyone feels that their contribution is essential, you’re taking the stress off of doing everything (in addition to organizing and leading) off of yourself.  After all, successful leadership is more about delegation than doing things for others.

So if you find yourself in a situation where you’re doing all of the work for your team, it might be time to rethink how to work with them to get better work results.  Who knows?  You might pull off that rare balancing act known as “teamwork.”

Riddle me this: what do the most common question asked at a dinner party, the biggest defeatist sigh of a generation, and the greatest quagmire of all time have in common?

They’re all bad questions.

We’ve already discussed the dinner party question and how it’s more of an invitation for a statement.  The greatest quagmire of all time (“What is the meaning of life?”) took a whole movie to answer.   And the defeatist sigh?  You know you’ve heard it over and over again.

Why can’t I get a job?

I know that there’s no such thing as a stupid question, but MAN does this one come close.  You can give yourself any number of reasons why you can’t get a job, and not one of them will change the situation.  What you should be asking is, “What can I do to get a job?”  or “What can I do to get a job that I haven’t done already?”

Moping around doesn’t help.  Instead, come up with proactive questions that can help you find the answer.

I hate to blame the Internet (again!), but with the instant answer-getting abilities of the World-Wide Web at our fingertips, it is easier than ever to find answers to just about anything.  But while asking questions can be easy, answering them correctly can be more difficult.

You might have to dig deeper and ask more questions to really get an answer to your personal unemployment conundrum: What steps have you not taken to get a job?  Are you keeping your search too narrow?  Only using two or three search sites?  Limiting your applications to one communication method?  Not preparing for an interview?

So why can’t you get a job?  It’s because you asked the wrong question.

The news cycle was abuzz last week with the story of a boy who accidentally flew off in his father’s experimental balloon.  He was chased for hours by rescue teams until the balloon landed, but he wasn’t inside.  It was then discovered that he was hiding in the garage the entire time.

Really.

Of course, there were some later reports that the whole thing was staged, but the why of the situation isn’t that important.  What is important is this: when looking for the child, his parents forgot to look in every room of the house.

Think about when you’re filling out a job application.  Do the details mentioned in the job description show in your resume and cover letter?  Do you follow all submission guidelines and make sure that you have everything spelled correctly?  Is the letter addressed to the right person at the correct company?

Sometimes, in the panic to get a job (or find your child who may or may not be in your experimental hot air balloon), important details can be overlooked.  Take a minute to breathe normally, think about your situation, and make sure that you have checked for all potential problems.  Not only will your chances of getting a job increase, but you will be less likely to create a national incident because of it.

I can’t think of a single person who actually enjoys junk email.  Regular junk mail, maybe.  But not the digital kind.  All of the messages are impersonal, generic and boring.  You can spot a junk message miles away, and most of us are equipped with spam filters to help block them out.

But many job seekers send out spam email to employers.

Instead of taking the time to do much more than change a name, company and address on a cover letter, a generic message might be mailed or emailed to hundreds of different employers.  And there might be a few hits.  But they’ll be discarded for the same reason that one would get rid of spam emails.  After all, they’re impersonal, generic and boring.

Even if the average time spent by an employer on a cover letter and resume might be ten seconds, that’s no reason not to make a personal message or put a few minutes of extra effort into a cover letter and resume.  The special touches might get you noticed more, and at the very least, will probably get you some sort of response beyond your application being moved to the trash.

Continuing from where we left off yesterday, here’s a few more tales of dumb mistakes that common sense could have easily resolved:

1. Figure out your commute time before you start the job. Because I neglected to properly judge how much time and money I was going to be spending on public transportation, I ended up spending about 15 hours (and around $45) per week getting to and from work.  My employers did not compensate me for these costs, and had I considered how much I would lose by taking the job, I might have re-evaluated that decision.  On the plus side, I had enough time to finish about a book per day.
2. Make sure you’re aware of how much compensation you’ll be getting. Since the job I had just finished gave me time-and-a-half for overtime, I had assumed that the next one would follow suit.  Instead, it took three weeks to find out that I was not receiving any compensation for any work done over the 20-hour weekly limit.
3. Give your supervisor project updates. While working on a particularly intense project for a large client, the project manager decided to be more hands-off and focus on other things.  As she was not around to supervise or comment on our work, when we finally did show her the project (at 10 PM the night before the presentation), we ended up having to redo almost the entire thing.
4. Leaders don’t have to be friends. When I was put in charge of a team that was about twice the size of the largest team I had managed before that point, I panicked.  Rather than establishing ground rules and authority, I instead acquiesced to my team’s requests, focused on a small group instead of all of the people I had at my disposal, and tried to do too much myself to alleviate the strain on others.  Instead of being a leader and delegating things (which I eventually did), I started out soft and lenient making the project more difficult for everyone.
5. Quality beats quantity every time. A friend told me about a former co-worker of his at an old job who, starting with his first day, came in before everyone else and left after everyone else in the hopes of catching his boss’ attention and being rewarded for being a diligent worker.  After a month of this, his boss approached him one evening after most of the office had gone home.  ”I’ve noticed that you come in early and stay late every day,” the boss began.  ”Why can’t you finish your work on time like everyone else?”  The co-worker was fired a week later (for stealing office supplies).

It’s easy to place blame for your mistakes on external sources, or to look back and mock your inexperienced past self.  But if you learn from your mistakes, you will become a more efficient and experienced worker.  Provided you don’t repeat them, of course.

We’ve all been there: something so exciting, so emotionally gratifying, so absolutely nerve-wrackingly terrific happens, and all common sense goes out the window.  Or at least gets shoved into the storage shed in the backyard.  And at no time will you have more occasions to misplace your logical brain than when you’re looking for or getting work.  Here’s a few lessons that I remembered a bit too late:

1. Remember your interviewer’s name. I suppose I could blame it on the receptionist’s thick accent when the interview was set up over the phone, but I didn’t bother to check with her, and on the day of the interview, his name was nowhere to be found!  Not on the door to his office, not on his desk…if not for subjective personal pronouns, I would have been in trouble!  However, one of his employees popped in and mentioned his name several times during a quick conversation.
2. Ask if there’s a dress code. After three rounds of interviews and getting the job, I thought that I had asked all there was to ask about the position.  But after a month in the office, my boss finally took me aside and said, “You do know that you can wear jeans and sneakers, right?”  Even though over dressing can be fine in some situations, it was making some of my co-workers a bit uncomfortable.
3. Take care of personal business before you go in for an interview. Living in the southwestern US means that summers can be especially brutal, so I tend to drink plenty of water to stay well-hydrated.  Although I was early for my interview, I ignored the warning signs from my bladder, and by the time I decided to go, I was called in.  After 30 of the most uncomfortable minutes of my life, the interview had ended (it was a preliminary one) and I was finally able to escape.
4. Have questions for your interviewers ready. “So, do you have any questions for me?” the manager asked.  I blanked.  I had no idea what to say, so I blurted out the first question that came to my mind.  ”What kind of toppings do you like on your pizza?”  I began.  ”Because, I, um, read something about how that reflects…personality type?”  Amazingly, this tactic stalled him for a couple of minutes while I was able to come up with some real questions to ask him.
5. Make sure you get important stuff in writing. After being hired on a Friday, I started work on Monday.  I continued at that job for a few months, but when the paychecks started coming later and later at improperly low levels and the work assignments moved farther away from what I was hired to do, I decided to consult my contract.  Until I realized that there had never been an official employment contract.  Soon after, I quit, only to be fired by my boss seconds later.

Of course, these aren’t the only boneheaded mistakes I made.  But more on that tomorrow.

When it comes to things I regret, answering yes to the question, “Do you want to donate a dollar to help fight muscular dystrophy?” shouldn’t be among the top contenders.  But it is.

I’ve mentioned before that volunteering your time to charity is a good way to help others and add to your resume during a jobless slump.  But donating money is something else entirely.

From that single dollar, I have been sent requests for more money that, counting postage, must have cost at least $15.  This also happened when I made donations to other organizations as well.  I imagine that hundreds of dollars of donations have gone towards sending me mailings to donate more.  And I have requested several times to be removed from such lists, but to no avail.

Since then, I’ve shifted focus.  Donations of canned goods, toys, school supplies and so on are still made, but monetary donations have been cut out.  And if I ever feel the need to do more, I volunteer.  This way I know that my donation will be used to help those who need it.