The New Job Hunting Norm

Skype.  Online.  Face to face.  What to say and to whom?  How do I even find the right person to speak with at a company I think would be a good fit? Networking: all my associates are sick of it.

These are questions all job seekers are facing in what has been and may continue to be the most difficult job market in the past 30 years.  Especially for those of you who have already been out of work and looking for a period of greater than six months.

Just a short three years ago, the market was hot, recruiters were calling and companies were hiring great talent even if it meant there was a learning curve.  Not today.  One must be a subject matter expert, have direct experience in the industry in which you are seeking work, demonstrate a track record of success and have all the intangibles to be a fit with the new culture.  Anyone of these missing or perceived less than ideal and the company thinks the right person is next.  Even if this means taking longer to fill the job.

A recent example was a senior staff executive from the consumer goods industry trying to make a transition into a leadership role in a entirely different industry.  This professional progressed all the way through the process to the final two only to be rejected because he lacked industry expertise.  Which was clearly evident day one.

Job seekers who do best are those who can explain how their role added to company profitability, reduced cost or helped manage risk. 

-Keith Mullin, CEO of Mullin & Associates

Book of the Week: What Color Is Your Parachute?

Our book of the week is What Color Is Your Parachute? 2011: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers by Richard N. Bolles. First printed in 1970, and updated as the times (and the methods of job hunting) have changed, this book is the quintessential classic for job-hunters everywhere.  It begins by asking you what you're doing in your job search: are you planning to do a traditional job hunt or a life-changing job hunt?  Both, he explains, have pros and cons.  The traditional job hunt comes when you simply lose your job or need to leave for a certain reason, but still want to work in essentially the same job.  A life-changing job hunt, on the other hand, is when you reevaluate your life goals and realize that you would be happier in a different line of work completely.

From what job hunting methods work the best, to how to create a more effective resume, to how to discover your dream job, if you're looking for a job (or even thinking about starting to look for a job), then this book is the perfect starting point.

Once you get an interview, the book provides great tips on how to excel at interviewing, and if you're offered the job, there's even a section on salary negotiation.  And for those of you in the market for life-changing jobs, Bolles spends a lot of the book talking about how to soul search and figure out what it is that you really want to do, and then, how to do it.  The book, originally written over 40 years ago and updated regularly (the newest version is 2011) does still have some excellent 70's-esque illustrations and writing styles (including some flowcharts!), which make it a fun read, despite the length and the seriousness of the subject matter.

Keith Mullin, the CEO of Mullin and Associates, highly recommends this book to all of his candidates as a great way to show them an overview of the job-hunting process.  If you're thinking about switching careers, or find yourself looking for a new job, What Color Is Your Parachute? is a wonderful starting point.

See some of Richard Bolles's job hunting tips in this video:

Visit http://www.jobhuntersbible.com/ for more advice, tips, tricks and great places to go on the web to work on your job hunt!

Speaking of job hunting, a big congratulations to the 70 Mullin & Associates candidates who were reemployed in the first quarter! The average length of search was 16 weeks with an average salary of $150,885.00. Our candidates landed in a wide variety of companies that include JPMorgan Chase, Estee Lauder and Yahoo! to name a few.

Wall Street Journal Today: What Companies Want in an Executive

Today's Wall Street Journal features a great story on the hottest executives today. As time permits, you may find this of great interest as the article says what Companies want and what is most marketable is your ability to partner and collaborate with peers, bosses and subordinates while adding profitability or growth or improving process.

Full article here

Book of the Week: Never Eat Alone

“Your network is your net worth. This book shows you how to add to your personal bottom line with better networking and bigger relationships…Buy this book!” – Tim Sanders, author of Love Is The Kill App
 
In the Digital Age we live in now, networking has never been easier.  However, it's also easier to forget the personal touch that makes networking effective.  If you have 4000 connections on LinkedIn, that's great, but if you don't actually know any of them or haven't really communicated with them, are you really "connected" to them at all?

If you're not a networker by nature- and most of us aren't- then this book is for you.  Never Eat Alone and Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time by Keith Ferrazzi is one of the most helpful books you'll ever read.

He speaks from experience, as a man who wanted to run companies, run for office, touch people's lives, and generally get to know everyone and anyone around him.  That's his secret: network by helping others, and it will, in turn, help you.  "I learned that real networking was about finding ways to make other people more successful. It was about working hard to give more than you get."  The people that you help will want to help you later, so it benefits you to help them now.

The book is chock-full of advice and Ferrazzi's own personal stories about his life and how he ascended to where he is today: Ferrazzi launched his career as the youngest Chief Marketing Officer in the Fortune 500 at Deloitte Consulting, and was later the CMO at Starwood Hotels, and now is considered one of the world’s foremost experts in professional relationship development. 

One of the most fascinating parts about reading his book is the apparent sincerity behind his networking: Ferrazzi clearly loves what he does.  He credits his success to actually enjoying what he's doing, whether it's meeting people at conferences or hosting small dinner parties at his house (and yes, he offers some great advice on throwing a dinner party in an informal and inexpensive way!)  This isn't a networking book that just suggests meeting as many people as possible- it's a book on how to be the kind of person that people will flock to, and how to get there with an optimistic attitude.  He means the book title literally- he firmly believes that mealtime- like every other time of day- is prime time for getting together with people, for business or pleasure, or a combination of the two. 

He doesn't, however, reject any of the digital advances in networking.  Ferrazzi is an avid fan of Twitter, and email is one of his preferred methods of communication, so he certainly doesn't believe that you need to see someone in person or speak to them on the phone to be effective.  Rather, he stresses making a personal connection rather than sending form emails to people on LinkedIn.  Meet at a conference?  Email with a follow up question about a discussion you had, or mention a shared hobby that you had discussed.  Networking, he believes, fails when it's done insincerely.

Some of his most valuable advice?

• Don't keep score: It's never simply about getting what you want. It's about getting what you want and making sure that the people who are important to you get what they want, too.
• "Ping" constantly: The Ins and Outs of reaching out to those in your circle of contacts all the time--not just when you need something. (My personal favorite bit of advice is when he suggests that, if you're pressed for time but want to let someone know you're thinking of them, you call them when you're almost certain to get their voicemail, thereby leaving them a reminder that you care, without taking up much time.)
• Never eat alone: The dynamics of status are the same whether you're working at a corporation or attending a society event-- "invisibility" is a fate worse than failure. (He offers great, practical tips for networking effectively at large conferences- hint: tossing business cards at everyone that comes within 5 feet of you is likely going to be ineffective.)

Watch a video of Keith Ferrazzi speaking on how to get started with networking.

 

Book description: Do you want to get ahead in life? Climb the ladder to personal success? The secret, master networker Keith Ferrazzi claims, is in reaching out to other people. As Ferrazzi discovered early in life, what distinguishes highly successful people from everyone else is the way they use the power of relationships--so that everyone wins. In "Never Eat Alone," Ferrazzi lays out the specific steps--and inner mindset--he uses to reach out to connect with the thousands of colleagues, friends, and associates in his address book, people he has helped and who have helped him.

Buy it here.
More on Keith Ferrazzi here.

Mullin Alum Marlo in Chase Commercial

Mullin alum Marlo Scott of NYC cupcake fame (she owns Sweet Revenge, the go to place for beer and cupcakes in the city) is featured in a Chase banking commercial for their small business card, Ink. 


"I was doing the corporate grind like everyone else, but to be successful I knew I had to be different." -Marlo Scott

It's great to see an entrepreneur be successful doing what she loves to do!

Book of the Week: The Three Laws of Performance

 According to Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan, the Three Laws of Performance are as follows:

1.  How people perform correlates to how situations occur to them

2.  How a situation occurs arises in language

3.  Future-based language transforms how situations occur to people

Sound confusing?  At first glance, it appears to be leadership/business buzzwords mixed together to create an idea that, while it may be effective on paper, can never be translated into action.  However, that surface assumption is absolutely incorrect.  Instead, the book is chock full of insightful ways of looking at how our language predisposes us to certain actions, how we can target actions that we want to see happen in the future by re-structuring the way we define ourselves and our future, and finally, how to be an effective leader by changing the way that you use language.

Language doesn't necessarily mean how you speak or gestures that you make.  The authors explain that the book is about how "conversations" between individuals are what make corporations run, and as such, we need to look at how these conversations are being framed.

If a company's workers are all under the impression- or using the language- of believing that the company is going to fail, production will decrease, employees will remain unmotivated, and their predictions will eventually become a reality.  But what if the language changed?  By reestablishing a new vision of the future of that company, suddenly, the actual future of the company can changed. 

A few great excerpts:

On leaders: "Leaders listen for a future that inspires them... Their power comes not from their personalities but from the future that is their mandate, their guide, and their reason for being."

On life: "Aristotle said every play has three acts: a beginning, a middle, and an end.  The first act of the play called My Life or My Company is your past.  The second act is the present.  The third act is your future."

On self-discovery: "If you want to transform who you are- how you occur too yourself- then you need to create a crisis of identity, one in which the only way out is transformation."

This book is based on transformation of our psyche: change your perception, and it will change your life.  What makes people do what they do is how a situation "occurs" to them, so if we change the way that situation "occurs" through using positive future-based language in a meaningful way (motivational speeches with no backbone don't count), then we can transform that future. The authors are quick to remind their readers that without action to back up the words, language won't change anything.  But changing the phrasing in order to transform to create a more positive future, now that's something!

Find out more

Buy it here

"This book filled with insights, real-life encounters and experiences shows us how we may do the work of transformation. Steve and Dave have written an inspiring, practical book, applicable in the corporate, labour, political, and civil society sectors, that will assist all who seek to rewrite the future of our world." -Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Laureate, Former General Secretary, South African Council of Churches