The “Right” Way to Follow Up by Lily Z Winsaft

Job Search Tips That Matter 

Human beings have a natural tendency to want to do things “right.” We want to do what is expected and normal. In our need to be liked, we actively seek the approval of our peers by behaving in ways that will elicit acceptance. We can all relate to how good it feels when we are received favorably and, conversely, the anxiety ignited at even the thought of being rejected in any situation. So when it comes to the ever important and potentially life altering event that looking for work is, it isn’t fun to be passed on for another candidate and many take it personally when they are given the thumbs down. To avoid rejection job seekers are consumed with making sure they are doing everything just right. They want to know: Do I have the right resume? Is this the right outfit for this interview? Did I handle those questions the right way? What’s the right way to follow up? Why was I not the right fit for that position?

Feedback is critical to get when you are involved in an interview process with a potential employer; getting it is another story. It’s important because you need to know where you stand or where you can improve on your presentation. Feedback is the only way to know if you clinched the interview, if there is something else you can do to boost your candidacy, or if it is time to move on to the next prospect. Sometimes it is difficult enough to get feedback when you’ve done well in an interview, never mind if you haven’t. But many companies are reluctant to discuss the real reasons why they are passing on you because they are afraid to be misconstrued and become a target for litigious action. Most often, though, lack of feedback is due to the hectic schedules of decision makers or human resources personnel having way too much on their plate.

Successful job seekers (just like top notch sales professionals) make it their business to follow up and maintain as much control over the interview (sales) process as possible. This goes for both working through a recruiter or directly with the employer. Of course, recruiters aren’t much help if they are untrained and don’t know how to extract proper feedback from their clients or if they simply don’t feel comfortable telling you what you need to know rather than what you want to hear. Proper follow up on your part is the key to understanding your candidacy’s strengths and weaknesses (notice I didn’t say your strengths and weaknesses), your candidacy’s positioning versus your competition’s, what your next actions should be, and when it’s time to let go of an opportunity. Follow up is absolutely a must, it is the professional thing to do, companies expect it, and it is what makes sense so you can get a handle on how you’re doing in the interview process.

In the 15+ years that I’ve experienced the field of recruiting, and having presented literally thousands of candidates, managed hundreds of interview processes and placements, I have seen and heard it all. From following up too soon (or following up too much), to having typos on a follow up note, even misspelling the name of the prospective employer, to threatening to sue an employer or placing a restraining order on a candidate, I have come to know how critical it is for you to get the skinny on the right way to follow up. It is a question that comes up consistently when I speak on job search panels or conduct career-coaching sessions. That’s why I decided to write this article…to help you clinch the interview process. This means finding out if you’ve got a chance at getting the position or not. Hanging out in limbo is not a good thing. It’s my guess that for some of you, this information may be coming just in the knick of time.

One of my favorite questions, which I hear quite often is, “At what point does following up become stalking?” My standard answer is, “If you think you’re stalking, you probably are.” Intuition is your best weapon when it comes to knowing how best to follow up. But since most of us aren’t as intuitive as we’d like to be, I have created a list of sort of Do’s and Don’ts as a guideline that will keep you relatively safe in this territory. Still, it is always the wisest thing to use common sense and do a gut check before you proceed. My recommendation is for you to ask yourself the question, “What makes sense right now, in this moment, given what I know about the situation? What’s the best way for me to proceed powerfully?”

Tips for following up in your job search:

• Follow up after an interview within 24 hours but not sooner than 8 hours. I heard a story once of a candidate that sent a thank you email from his handheld while in the elevator as he exited the office where he interviewed. The hiring manager was very turned off by this as the candidate came across anxious and desperate, perhaps a little anal too. He did not get the job.
• Use electronic mail and save snail mail for a future follow up. Everyone loves getting a special hand-written card in the mail but it can take 2-3 days for it to be delivered and you need to get that thank you message in their hands within a day, just as your competition is most likely doing.
• Make sure your spelling and grammar are impeccable. If you’re not confident about your written language skills, get someone to proofread it for you. We once represented a candidate that sent a thank you note with 3 typos in it and one of those was the misspelled name of the prospective employer! She definitely did not get the job. Something like that is actually unforgivable.
• To minimize the chances that your email will end up in a junk folder, put your name on the subject line, the title of the position you interviewed for and the words “Thank You.” Don’t expect to hear back from anyone regarding your thank you note. Make sure you sent it to the right email address and assume it got there.
• Be original! Do not use cookie cutter or formatted language. 95% of the thank you notes I receive start with… “Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to meet with me…” Ugh!
• Be authentic and use your own language. Recently a candidate sent me a thank you note that had very impressive and elegant language. The problem was that she had plucked it off a website designed to help people create wonderful letters but accidentally included the links to the site on the thank you note! It’s always best to come through as yourself and not an imitation of someone else.
• Make sure to include at least 2-3 reasons why you are a fit for the position you just interviewed for and make it a point to allude to at least 1 thing that you learned about the company, or the interviewer, that you didn’t already know and which, by the way, fascinated you. Again, be authentic and genuine about this!
• If you interview with several individuals, send them each a different thank you notes. You must customize it. I’ve often seen candidates send the exact thank you note to up to 5 people at a company, changing only the name it was addressed to. Sorry, but this is lame. Do they think these folks aren’t talking to each other about the candidates? Again, be original!
• Before you leave an interview session, ask how you should follow up (this is a “closing” question) and then stick to those instructions. If you don’t ask, you’ll just have to wing it, which means you should follow up in 2-3 days (after you’ve sent a thank you note within 24 hours). If you’re basically told, “Don’t call us, we’ll call you,” you probably didn’t make the best impression. Still, in this case, you should follow up within a week if you haven’t heard back from them by then.
• Each time you follow up you should ask how you should follow up next and stick to those instructions. If they are vague or aren’t calling you back, it’s OK to get creative. Use faxing, or snail mail or an artistic email, or something that would capture their attention.
• The main purpose in following up (excluding the original thank you note) is to determine if there is a “yes” or a “no” on your candidacy. So it’s important to give people the permission to reject you. It’s better to be rejected than to be left in limbo. If you can get a definitive “no” on your candidacy, you can then move on to the next prospect. But sometimes a “no” is merely a “not right now” so you have to get back with them down the road if it is a company that you are deeply interested in.
• Follow up at least 7 times; this is a magical number. It has been demonstrated that the average buyer makes the decision to purchase a product or service once they’ve seen or heard the name of the product a minimum of 7 times. That’s why advertising is so useful and successful. Most sales people give up after the third or fourth rejection. They are missing out on the sale simply because they are not following up with the customer enough times. Let them hear your name and the position you are applying for several times and in several ways…voice mail, email, snail mail, fax, etc.
• Space out your follow-ups so that you are not coming across as if you have nothing else to do or as if you have all your eggs in one basket. Again, use common sense. Each time you follow up let them know one key thing about you that is critical for the job you are interested in. Allow your sense of humor to shine through in your communications.
• Give people the benefit of the doubt and don’t assume the worst scenario. If you are not hearing back from them, be patient, and maintain your professionalism. Once, we represented a candidate that fell apart at the seams because we weren’t hearing back from the client and she had already had 2 successful interviews so she thought she was going to get the job. She became unprofessional and even nasty. Turns out, the company had experienced the death of a key employee and there was a lot of scrambling going on. We took her out of the running because of her attitude; another candidate got the offer.

 

Like sales, finding a job is a number’s game. The more calls you make the closer you’ll be to finding the right fit. The more strategic you are in your approach, the less frustrating the process will be for you. A successful job search means you receive an offer you want (close the sale) and it requires focus, enthusiasm, passion and determination. You’ve worked hard to get in front of the prospective employer; don’t let the lack of proper follow up keep you from clinching the deal.

The Right Tool for The Job by Robyn Cobb

Let’s suppose for a moment that we are builders, who follow the latest trends. We learn of a new saw. And news reports, bloggers, the home improvement stores, and shows are all clamoring about this saw.  We decide we have to get this saw; it’s going to “revolutionize” our business. This supposed saw, will allow us to cut corners, and can do many things more than just simply cut wood. So…we meet and decide that although we are not trained carpenters, we can use saw ourselves to build the entire house. Our shiny new toy is the answer to everything.  We are so excited about our new shiny object, we decide to go over to the building site and just start building without any plans. And after a day or so, when things do not go the way the media promised, or the way we expected we abandon the saw casting it aside forever.

By now you are probably thinking: a) I have lost my mind, b) this is far too extreme. However in essence this is the way many businesses approach social media. It is the shiny new tool that is not integrated into the marketing toolbox, rather it becomes the toolbox. Many businesses choosing this approach have the shiny new tool, but no plan on how to use it, safety guidelines, or even training.  And quite frankly, it should be no surprise when their efforts do not deliver in the way they had hoped.

There is no denying social media is the shiny new tool for many businesses, yet it should not be the only tool in the toolbox.  As you start to consider adding social media to your marketing mix here are a few things you might want to consider:

1)      Just as you would not build a house without a blueprint, you need a strategy for your social media.

2)      Social media is the right tool for the right job. A shiny powerful saw is the right tool for cutting different types of materials, but it is not the right tool for laying concrete.

3)      Social media is more like a socket wrench you need the right fitting to tighten the nuts and bolts. It’s important you what medium (Facebook, Twitter, blogging, etc) is right for your intended audience.

4)      Patience, just as building a house takes time and patience so does building a smart social media campaign.

5)      Finally, with the right strategy, tools, people and training you can build anything.

As marketers, I believe we are also builders; it’s just the end product that is different.  And to that end, just as a home builder carefully chooses their strategy, tools, and team, we should be just as intentional about how we approach social media. Social media is the shiny tool but we should not forget our other tools. Our job is to deliver the right message, in the right time, to the right people, and I would add, via the right medium.  So embrace the new shiny tool, learn all you can about it and use it wisely, but do not forsake your other tools as that could prove costly and disappointing for you and your customers.

Robyn Cobb, a marketing visionary with more than 15 years experience, is a proven leader in corporate and personal branding, marketing strategy and the visioneering of creative strategies and programs that deliver immediate results. Robyn is an avid proponent of social media, she believes that new media and social networks are critical elements in building the strategy to develop irresistible brands, engaging with community, and creating online relationships.

Meet Robyn at her Blog Chasing Goodness

Social Media Is Really Social Business by Brandon Sutton

Most everyone is aware of the field of Social Media by now, whether or not they truly realize what it is or not.  You can hardly turn on a television or see an ad without some reference to the popular social channels popping up.  But in my opinion, the field of social media is still vastly misunderstood and underutilized by brands and other organizations of all kinds.  Specifically, social media tends to be looked at as tool to be used by the Marketing, PR, or in some cases the Customer Service departments without truly understanding its potential to benefit the business as a whole. 

The majority of branded pages, accounts, etc. are treated as just another (largely) one-way broadcast channel.  I see this all the time in my research for clients.  I do a good bit of competitive analysis for my clients, and it is by far the exception, not the rule when I run across a brand or organization that truly ‘gets it’ and engages beyond just blasting out messages to their fans, followers, likes, etc.  Beyond the marketing implications of this approach however are other key opportunities that get missed.  I believe that in order for companies, brands, etc. to step into the new world dominated by social sharing and customer feedback, the entire organization should become social.  What do I mean by this?  I mean that instead of just looking at social media as an outbound communication channel, it must be looked at as one of the threads that run throughout the organization. This requires a significant cultural shift in order to truly adapt to this new reality.  

One aspect of this is with internal social networking that enables staff members in every department to collaborate, share insights, learn more about the organization, etc.  This might involve private micro-blogging tools such as Yammer, Socialtext and others, intranets with collaborative tools and areas for employee input, and other methods for internal sharing.  The tools are not as important as the strategic use of them.  Equally as important is encouraging the whole team to participate in social media, not just the Marketing department.  How often do we read about companies that ban sites like Facebook and Twitter from the workplace?  Far too often in my opinion.  Allowing the team to jump in and participate in the spaces where the customers are already congregating is a natural fit and encouraging this behavior can have tremendous benefits to the organization that far outweigh the risks of lost productivity. 

With the recent moves by Facebook and their Open Graph initiative, there can be no doubt that the world is becoming more social, not less.  And fast!  I’m fond of saying that ‘we can’t put the genie back in the bottle,’ so companies and their employees must learn to adapt to this new business reality or be left in the dust.  This doesn’t mean that it should be a free-for-all online during work hours, and common sense must come into play in order to keep the organization on track, but these aspects can be dealt with without an overly heavy-handed approach.  It’s up to each company to come up with solutions that work for its specific situation, but in the end, the trend towards more social sharing seems unstoppable. 

If you’re one of the many individuals in the job market today, think about how you can provide value to your next employer through your participation in social media.  Do you like the idea of collaborating across departments in a large organization, or do you like working in a more structured environment with clear directives and reporting matrices?  Are you the type that would walk up to the CEO after a company meeting and share your thoughts, or would you keep them to yourself, or maybe channel them to your direct supervisor afterward?  Rest assured that prospective employers are checking you out on the social web to get an idea of who you are and how you present yourself and communicate online.  What do you want them to see?  Do you want to show that you’re a team player that likes sharing information with your networks, or are you more comfortable flying below the radar?  Regardless of which side of this you land on, these are questions that I believe we should all be asking ourselves if we are going to be successful in our careers.  Knowing how the company you are applying with views this topic is important to know ahead of time so you know what type of culture you’re joining.

For hiring managers, does your company want to incorporate more social activity and embrace this type of thinking across the organization?   Does management believe that insights can come from anyone on the team, and do they encourage collaboration amongst staff from every department?  Are they ready to open up and have this conversation out in full view with the public?  If so, think about the implications that your hiring decisions will make on the ability of the company to lead in this area.  Remember that those who are graduating now or who have graduated in recent years have grown up with ‘social’ being default.  These individuals are the future leaders that will be steering the ship in the years to come, and they are used to open communication and social sharing as part of their daily lives.  If you want to attract strong talent amongst this generation, think about how the company’s approach with social media and social business overall will affect your ability to get the most energetic and excited individuals onboard. 

The genie isn’t going back in the bottle.  It’s time to lead, follow, or get out of the way.  Where do you stand?

Brandon Sutton – Social Media Consultant

http://www.brandonsutton.com.

Does your company have a Social Media Policy? by Amy Chorew

It’s 10 o’clock Monday morning – do you know where your company’s reputation is? As sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook become intertwined with business uses, companies need to establish guidelines and best practices.

Whether we want to admit it or not, companies are learning that social networking, used properly, can be an effective business tool. We know by experience that having your sales associates involved in the community can enhance your company’s reputation and bring in more business. We are now embracing the concept that our sales associates can blog, tweet, and participate in forums and social sites and also increase  business — so long as it’s done right.

But how do you monitor the conversation? You need a social media policy that explicitly lays out what is and isn’t permissible, both on the company’s network and outside of it. This is so important if sales associates present themselves as representatives of the company.

How to get started
Consider creating a task force with people in your company who understand policy and procedures and others who are responsibly using social media. Together they can create a company platform. As always, before you can develop a policy, you need to define the company’s overall attitude toward social networking.  A well executed social media strategy helps consumers and company associates follow an online dialogue protocol that shows promise of a successful outcome for consumers in any service or product transactions. Create a statement that reflects the company’s mission statement and commitment to the consumer.

Do you know what your people are doing on the web?

• Do you have a checklist to monitor their web presence to make sure they are incompliance with the Code of Ethics and your company brand?

Copyright Dos and Don’ts

• Do you recommend that they only use photos, music, graphics that they have permission to use
• Only use royalty free images from sites like http://www.istockphoto.com or http://www.Flickr.com.
• Do not copy someone else’s content and put in on your site.

Logos and Company Names –

• Who has the authority to start an Online Group using a Registered Trade Name?

Blogs and Q & A Platforms – Are they generating leads in the discussion thread, or are you putting your company at risk?

• Associates should not disparage or make negative comments about other individuals or entities in related field.
• The blog of an associate should not be used as a medium to criticize, comment or assess any competition.

Social Media Tools To Monitor and Maintain Reputation Management Controls
Educate your associates and sales force in the correct use of tools to avoid problems and pitfalls and engage consumers in a fashion that will BUILD and ENHANCE a company’s reputation online.

Remember to always reward responsible interaction on line.  If you can show examples of online fires doused, as well as positive examples of building reputation online your company associates will be better informed.

Management needs to learn how to use tools to MONITOR their online presence.

Start by using some of the free tools. Top of my list are Google Alerts.
Set up alerts based on your companies name, principals names, etc. These alerts will send you an email every time one of your search words is found by the search engines.

Visit http://www.google.com/alerts , put in your search terms. You can set up as many as you like. When Google finds your terms they are delivered via email into your inbox.

Here is a great Ebook about Google Alerts. Download it here: www.amychorew.com/handout. It is called “Google Alert Primer: 50 Tips, Techniques & Workarounds.

It covers:

• Setting up Google Alerts
• Single Word Search
• Multiple Word Search
• Matching complete words in a URL
• Searching for inbound and outbound links
• Searching for URLS in Blogs

This ebook is written by Adam Green is the CEO of AlertRank.com, an online blog relationship management application. He blogs at AlertRank.com/MrGoogleAlerts. Please feel free to contact Adam with any questions or comments you might have about this eBook. His email address is Adam@AlertRank.com.

Amy Chorew is a national real estate trainer highly experienced at helping managers and agents maximize the infinite opportunities that technology offers them. Her knowledge of the industry and the latest technologies available along with her unique ability to translate it all into easy to understand language make her a consistently top-rated trainer throughout the country. Her expertise in the area of Social Networking and the tremendous impact it is having on the industry has given agents and brokers the tools to move from traditional marketing to Web 2.0. Amy is Director of Learning for SMMInstitute.com who have classes to teach agents and brokers how to use Social Media ethically and responsibly.

You can reach her at amy@amychorew.com,  or (860) 325-0101 or visit her blog at www.amychorew.com. Her technology coaching series is available at http://www.thetechbyte.com and the SMMI courses available at http://www.smminstitute.com

Is it OK to “Make Up” a Title on Your Resume? By Lily Z. Winsaft, CEO Aldebaran Associates

Job-hunting is not fun, especially when you don’t have the right resume. But then again, what is the right resume? It seems there are hundreds of opinions as to what your resume should look like. No wonder would-be employees are so frustrated!

Today we’re going to tackle one common enigma about resume writing…what can you do when you’ve had job titles that don’t reflect the job you actually performed? Our coaching clients struggle with this problem quite often. Usually, what we find is that the job seeker doesn’t know how to articulate what they want to do and what they’re good at. They may not be connecting with their career passion or vision. Many are pretty sure about what they don’t want in their career but not what they do want.

Since titles are only meaningful in context to the what, where and when of a job, it is important to know where you’re headed so you can determine what to do with your titles, if that is a concern for you. Titles are important because they let the reader know a lot about you. If the title was incorrect, that’s a problem. You can’t do much about the past or what has already happened. But you certainly can do something about your future. That’s why we always say that it is critical for you to put the future into your resume.

Let us explain first what we mean by context by giving you some examples. A controller at a $1M company with 20 employees is performing a much different job than a controller at a $100M company with 200 employees. An IT Project Manager in 1983 is doing a different job than an IT Project Manager in 2009. And, my favorite; an Account Executive working at a Madison Avenue advertising agency in Manhattan, NY is exposed to a very different corporate culture than an Account Executive at a Madison Avenue advertising agency in Atlanta, Georgia.

Here are five basic guidelines regarding titles on resumes:

1. There are few true rules in the game of resume writing, so the first thing to know is that you have a lot more flexibility with your creative approach than you might think.

2. Know who you are and where you want to go. Titles mean different things in different companies, so don’t get hung up on the title; make sure you know what kind of job you are looking for so that your resume is tailored to that end. If you don’t know who you are, get a coach to help you find out!

Recently we coached a client that had titles on her resume such as Information Architect, Project Manager, Technical Writer and Documentation Specialist. Turns out, she is all these things, but neither title is what she wants for her future position. What we found out through her coaching session is that she needed help properly contextualizing who she is as to her previous job experience with where she is looking to go and what she wants to create in her current job search. We discovered that her expertise (who she is) is in the area of User Experience, a role that is in high demand and in short supply.

Unlike “Project Manager,” a title that can be found everywhere, “Director of User Experience” will set her apart from her competition. We suggested that she use this “made up” title at the beginning of her resume as part of her Career Vision or Professional Summary. It’s perfectly OK to make up a title in this way.

3. Regarding your past and chronological career history, you have to use the actual titles that you were given by your previous employers – this is a must! Human Resources and/or hiring managers do keep this information as a matter of record on your employee files. Therefore, when references are conducted, your actual title can be exposed. The last thing you want is to have to explain why you changed the title on your resume. Let me take that back. You’ll never get the chance to explain, you simply will not get the job!

4. However, you can be creative by adding a slash (/) or putting into parenthesis the title that better describes what you actually did. For example, if you had a title of Marketing Manager, but what you really did was sales, you could do the following: Marketing Manager/Sales Consultant or you could put Marketing Manager (company equivalent to sales representative). Once you do this, you must illustrate through your bullet points under that role the achievements that support the sales aspect, in this example.

5. Regardless of what titles you’ve had, it’s important to understand that your task is to have a resume that is the least confusing to the reader. If someone has to try to figure out who you are professionally, they are not going to be captivated by your resume long enough to want to call you and invite you for an interview. Clarity and communicating it effectively is KEY.

A candidate that we recently interviewed struggled with titles on his resume that did not match either what he did or what he wanted to do. We steered him towards redesigning a resume that more clearly identified what his strengths were. Through coaching, he discovered how to use his titles while connecting his areas of expertise with what he is passionate about and design a resume that more clearly illustrates what he brings to the table.

If you’re having a hard time designing your resume to be a true reflection of who you are, talk to us about our specialty coaching services. We will customize a session for you to help you identify your areas of passion, assist you in creating a vision for your career and matching these with the most inspired version of yourself possible. We’ll teach you how to distinguish yourself so you can be more competitive in this tough market place. In so doing, you’ll be creating the best possible scenario for working in the profession of your choice while aligning with the position that best represents and expresses the joy of who you are.

Tapping into this type of focus and energy will bring your job search to an exceptional level greatly enhancing your results and the potentials therein.