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Today’s Tip: Got An Offer? You Can Still Negotiate For More – Even In This Economy!
Companies feel that "talent" is on sale right now, and thus try to save additional dollars by offering candidates a lower salary than they have in previous years. However, unlike popular opinion, there are not many #2 or #3 candidates waiting in the wings. What most companies don't want you to know is that you are probably the only candidate that they feel comfortable making an offer to. Thus, you still have some negotiating power when that offer is placed on the table. Just like good poker players, you gotta know when to raise the stakes!Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying that an "All-in" is the right strategy, I am just saying I don't want you to call (or except) their first "bet" just because you are pleased to have an offer on the table and are afraid to lose it if you start "gambling".
As a general rule, I think you can get 10% more than their initial offer. If they offer 60k, then asking for 66k is reasonable. If successful, you just earned an immediate 10% raise! This is much better than what your expected raise will be one year from now. The lucky employees are getting around 3% in their annual reviews. So, you just negotiated 3 years of raises before you even started. And believe me, now is the only time you are allowed to have this negotiating power. Once you're an employee, you fall into a pre-determined set of matrix raises.
As long as you negotiate in a professional manner, you will not have to worry about them rescinding an offer because you asked for a little more salary. Most companies even EXPECT a little negotiation and when you don't ask for it, there is no easy way for a recruiter or Hiring Manager to suggest giving you more!
P.S. When you ask for more salary, make sure you hit on all your selling points that got you the offer in the first place. Make sure they see that you are an investment, and not a line item expense.
Today’s Tip: Step Right Up and Win a Prize (a Career)
Unlike the carnival carnies who try to entice you to come play their games that you cannot possibly win, I am looking for ONE volunteer to be my "player" and prove to the world that my job search techniques work.I am taking "applications" from job seekers to partner with me and allow me to coach them and guide their job search efforts 100%. Before "raising your hand", there are some guidelines that I would like to impose:
- This is going to take a lot of your time, so you must be able to invest 40 hours per week
- I need you to try all of my recommendations, so you must be comfortable going "outside the box"
- You need to keep a diary on your progress and be willing to share with others
Thus, if you want to try your luck and win a career, let me know. I will conduct a brief 5-10 minute interview with each applicant.
P.S. This is free coaching and I will not ask you to buy anything expensive. For example, if you do not have business cards that I approve of, I will ask that you get them through Vistaprint and thus, a minor investment is needed.
I will pick a "winner" on October 31, 2010.
Today’s Tip: It’s All In The Name
Naming things is a big part of our society. We name our pets. We name our stuffed animals. We name inanimate objects like our boats and cars. We even have nicknames for our loved ones (and no, I wasn't thinking of "old lady"). And even though we think of very creative names for the above mentioned, we drop the ball when it comes to naming our resume.It is a lost opportunity to "brand" yourself when you have a generic name for your resume. After all, this is your marketing and sales document. It is one of the most important documents in getting you an interview. Yet, most job seekers, will call their resume things like, "Resume", "Kevin Crews Resume", "Resume - Version 6" (ouch, that is just the wrong thing to do), "KCResume", etc...
You have up to 255 characters to use in the naming of this file, and although I do not recommend using all 255 characters, I do think a descriptive naming convention is appropriate. Some ideas that I would recommend are to put your main skill-set, job title, industry terminology, certifications, education, and even your branding statement. This will start the reader off in the right mindset and if they are impressed with something in the title and do not initially see it in their 30-second review of your resume, then maybe they will go looking for it and give you more "eyeball" time than one of your competitors.
So go ahead and get creative with the naming of your resume. Write a reply to this blog entry and let others see what you came up with...
Note: My resume is titled: "Resume for Kevin Crews (MBA) - Senior Recruiting Expert and Sourcing Specialist - 6 AIRS Certifications"
Today’s Tip: Measure Results Via a “Customized” E-mail Address
With the increase use of technology to screen candidates, a lot of corporations are sending pre-screening questions to your e-mail address. If you are like a lot of job seekers, you probably have your resume posted in a variety of places. How do you know which ones are beneficial and getting you recognized? A smart job seeker should continually measure the success of their efforts. One way, is to ask the recruiter where they saw your resume (this might not be the best use of one of your questions to the recruiter - I can think of many more impressive questions to ask them). Another way is to have a unique e-mail address for each place you post your resume (this is just laborious). I have a better solution.The best way is to provide your e-mail address with a "custom note" attached to it telling you where it was found. So how do you accomplish this? Very easy. Let me give you an example: my e-mail address is kevincrews@hotmail.com. I want to post my resume on Monster, and know when a recruiter sends me e-mail communications that it came from Monster. So here's what I do. On my resume that I uploaded to Monster, I say that my e-mail is kevincrews+monster@hotmail.com. However, the +monster is just a comment (or note). The message will be sent to kevincrews@hotmail.com and in the To: field, I will see that it is coming to kevincrews+monster@hotmail.com. Thus, I will know that the recruiter has read the resume that I have posted on Monster (I don't need to ask the recruiter where they saw it). You can even simplify this further by not making it so obvious. I could have my Monster resume read kevincrews+m@hotmail.com (the +m will be my code for Monster).
I think this is just one more way to help you manage your job search. A well organized job seeker is just one step closer to getting that dream job.
Today’s Tip: The Economy Moved Your Cheese. What Are You Going To Do About It?
For those of you that are not aware of the best selling business book of all time, it's called, "Who Moved My Cheese?", by Spencer Johnson. It's all about dealing with change. It's a pretty entertaining book and I would recommend it to job seekers. One of the learning points in the book is "When you change what you believe, you change what you do". Do you have the confidence necessary to believe that a position is out there for you? Or better yet, that a position needs to be opened up because you networked with the right person; the person that can't live without your skill-set? So, I ask you today, are you going to change your job search habits and attitude? Are you still expecting the cheese (job) to come to you? Are you doing everything possible to go out and find the cheese (job) yourself? I encourage you to take the steps necessary to put yourself in the best scenario to succeed, and to have a positive attitude that you CAN achieve what you dream. It just takes some effort.P.S. And speaking of change, I have decided to move my blogs to a Tuesday and Thursday schedule (starting today).
Today’s Tip: Outplacement Services – Friend Or Foe?
For those of you that have been laid off from a corporation, have you found the Outplacement Services to be a valuable resource in getting you back to work? Or at least, have they properly prepared you to tackle the economy and beat the odds? Or, did they just make you feel "temporarily good" after your former company showed you the pink slip? And within a few weeks of completing the outplacement program, does that "thankful" feeling start to evaporate since you feel your lifeline has not saved you?I am planning to take a blog vacation, and I would like to hear from you during my short hiatus. Please comment on your experience with Outplacement Services. If you haven't gone through an outplacement program, what is your perception of them?
P.S. The more comments I receive, the quicker I will return... deal?
Today’s Tip: Get Yourself Checked Out!
Are you worried that your past employers are saying things (to people checking your references) that are preventing you from receiving offers? If so, are you going to do anything about it? My suggestion is you get that checked out before it causes any further amputations!I would ask a real close recruiter or HR friend to call into your former employers and do a reference check on you. You will be surprised what information you hear (and don't hear) from each company. The stuff you hear is in direct correlation with the companies policies and the competence level of the person providing the information at your previous company.
If possible, have the person checking your references do a 3-way call where you are listening in to the conversation (but obviously being quite or on mute).
So what information does a smart company (one that doesn't have a pile of lawsuits in their history) say to those checking references? It's pretty short: start date, end date and title. That's it! Now if every company just gave out those 3 pieces of information, I wouldn't have to write this post. But as you can imagine, some give out way too much information.
Here is a partial list of the information that I would try to pull out of them:
- Start date, end date, title
- Compensation
- Performance ratings
- Reason for leaving
- Supervisor's name and contact information
- Re-hirable? Y/N
- Level of responsibility
- Any performance issues
- Attendance problems
- Attitude
- Skills used on the job
- and many more...
I ask a question, then no matter what the answer is, I probe them trying to get something negative out. If they are good, they will deflect my bullet and move me on to the next question.
Caution: A lot of companies will give an answer that will kill your chances of getting hired and they are doing it unintentionally! Let me explain. When I ask the company the "reason for leaving", some companies will answer, "He was terminated". Wow, this is not good! However, I know that there is more to this story than meets the eye. This is just HR talk. "Terminated" can mean a whole bunch of things. So, (as a smart recruiter), I would say, "What was the reason for the termination?" and their answer is, "He was part of a company-wide reduction in force (layoff)". Wow, big change in the end result here... A few minutes ago, I might not have hired this person, but now, no worries! Moral of story, if you learn that your former company says "terminated", you will need to coach the person checking your references to "probe" about the reason for that termination.
I hope you you get checked out before being bumped out! Let me know how this goes for you (leave a comment).
Today’s Tip: Do You Have a Job Search Plan?
How many of you have shown up at the airport and said to the airlines, "I would like to go somewhere, where do you fly to?" How many of you were able to "wing-it" on a big project at your last employer? You wouldn't take a vacation without some kind of plan, nor would you work on a 6-month project at your employer without a detailed project plan that contained deliverables, milestones, and contingencies. So why would you embark on something as critical as a job search without having a plan? Drop everything and make a plan!Some things to consider in your job search plan (obviously this is not an exhaustive list; it's just some ideas to get you started):
- your current financial situation
- how long can you support your family
- when does my savings run out
- can I sell anything
- when do I sell my possessions
- when do I apply for a loan from my 201k
- what is my dream job
- how long can I wait for that dream job before it is necessary to lower my expectations
- what am I skilled to do
- what skills are needed in the marketplace
- my education level - is it where it needs to be
- who can help me get my next opportunity
- what resources should I use to help me in my search
- should I spend any money on these resources, or just use the free ones,
- how many interviews do I need to strive to have in the next 'X' months
- when do I start to entertain relocation
- what networking clubs should I attend and why
- should I join an accountability group
- where do I post my resume
Did I get the juices flowing? I hope you will take some to time to craft your Job Search Plan. The premise behind the plan is that what gets written down and monitored, gets measured and completed. If it remains only in your mind, that little "procrastinating bug" creeps in and wins every time.
Send me your plan and I will offer a free critique!
Today’s Tip: These ARE the Good Ole Days
I am going out on a limb here by declaring that these are the good old days RIGHT NOW! Before everyone thinks that I am smoking the wacky weed, let me explain. I am aware that things are really bad right now, but unfortunately, they are going to get worse. We will look back in 5-10 years from now and long for these days (the good ole days of 2010).Everyone just assumes that the US economy must improve over time. Where is this rule written? In fact, I look back just 25 years ago to the neighborhood where I grew up and it is definitely not improving. In fact, it is far from it. Shops and restaurants have closed and no new development is occurring. It has been on a downward trend for quite some time now and I don't see anything in the works to turn that around.
We have gotten ourselves into such a mess, that it is going to take actions that we (as a society) are probably not comfortable taking; and probably won't. Thus, just like my childhood hometown, we are going to continue down this broken road with very little hope of turning over a new leaf.
To further see some of the reasons why I believe this to be true, please click on the following 2 links for some eye-opening beliefs about our future.
Can we pay off the national debt?
The health of the US economy
