Winning at Job Hunting Manual

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Winning at Job Hunting

Mel Schnapper, Ph. D.
Successful Job Hunting, Inc.
2411 W. Fitch Ave., Suite #2C
Chicago, IL 60645
Ph/Fax: 773-973- 0791/0792
Melschnap1@aol.com

Mel Schnapper, Ph. D.

All rights reserved. No part of this workbook may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means now known or to be invented, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without written permission from the author, except for brief quotations in a review.

Printed in the United States of America

Acknowledgments

The first person to be acknowledged is you for having taken this workshop and for reading this manual. The concepts, exercises and experiences of others, as related herein, can and should have a very profound impact on your job-hunting. This manual will also improve your overall awareness, your behavior as a job hunter and other aspects of your life as well.

I also want to acknowledge the thousands of other individuals who have taken my workshops or been my private clients. It took courage to admit that you could benefit from the help of a professional career counselor and job hunting expert. I’ve learned a lot from you over the last twenty years. Lessons which will be of benefit to everyone I work with.

I’d also like to acknowledge my colleagues in the field of job hunting. Your willingness to share your experiences, provide feedback and offer support has enabled me to learn and grow, as well as fine-tune and perfect my own job hunting approach. I am grateful to you.

Table of Contents

1. Overview............................................................................................................6

Results of the Winning at Job Hunting Approach........................................................6

Guaranteed Employment...........................................................................................6

How to Use This Manual Most Effectively.................................................................7

Visible Leadership Role............................................................................................8

Managing Your Time................................................................................................9

Aggressiveness.......................................................................................................10

Sales......................................................................................................................10

New Identity..........................................................................................................11

The 5 Steps...........................................................................................................12

Step 1- Strategy.....................................................................................................13

Step 2 - The Package.............................................................................................13

Step 3 - Networking...............................................................................................14

Step 4 - Follow-up.................................................................................................14

Step 5 - The Interview............................................................................................14

Next Jobs...............................................................................................................14

2. The Package.....................................................................................................15

Work as Passion.....................................................................................................15

Transferring Your Skills...........................................................................................15

The Ideal Job..........................................................................................................17

Questions to Ask Yourself.......................................................................................18

3. The Accomplishment Form...............................................................................20

Life Accomplishments..............................................................................................20

Explanation of Accomplishment Form.......................................................................22

Blank Accomplishment Form....................................................................................23

Examples of Completed Accomplishment Form........................................................24

Skill Verbs...............................................................................................................26

Career Objective.....................................................................................................28

4. Developing the resume.....................................................................................29

Blank Resume Format..............................................................................................30

Examples of Resumes...............................................................................................31

5. Letters................................................................................................................34

Generic....................................................................................................................35

Old Colleague..........................................................................................................38

New Contacts..........................................................................................................39

Referral....................................................................................................................40

Ad Response............................................................................................................41

Recruiters.................................................................................................................43

Follow-up to Interviews............................................................................................44

Thank You Letter - For The Next Job.......................................................................45

6. Networking.........................................................................................................46

The Power of Numbers.............................................................................................46

Confronting Fear.......................................................................................................47

Support Groups........................................................................................................47

Leadership Roles......................................................................................................47

Getting Published......................................................................................................48

Presentations(Local, Regional and National)..............................................................49

Overall Benefits of Aggressive Networking................................................................49

Follow-up Mailings...................................................................................................49

Miscellaneous Suggestions on Mailings......................................................................50

Getting Interviews.....................................................................................................50

How to Get10 New Referrals From Every Meeting You Attend................................50

Hustling at Trade Shows...........................................................................................51

Telephoning..............................................................................................................53

7. The Interview.....................................................................................................54

What Interviewers Look For.....................................................................................54

Postures...................................................................................................................54

Interview Answers....................................................................................................55

Questions to Ask......................................................................................................58

Getting Referrals.......................................................................................................60

8. Negotiating.........................................................................................................61

What to Do When Salary Comes Up.........................................................................61

Items to Negotiate For..............................................................................................62

Responding to Job Offers..........................................................................................63

The Next Job............................................................................................................64

9. Special Topics.....................................................................................................65

Shopping For a Job Hunting Counselor......................................................................65

For the Female..........................................................................................................68

For the Single............................................................................................................69

For the Internationalist................................................................................................69

For Your Therapist....................................................................................................70

Asking For Help........................................................................................................70

Bragging....................................................................................................................70

Borrowing Money......................................................................................................71

Upgrading Appearance..............................................................................................71

Hustling.....................................................................................................................71

Personal Growth Issues.............................................................................................72

Depression................................................................................................................72

False Sense of Security.............................................................................................72

Other Job Hunting Books..........................................................................................72

For Additional Help..................................................................................................73

Conclusion...............................................................................................................73

1 OVERVIEW

Results of the Winning at Job Hunting Approach

My job hunting approach is uniquely aggressive and creative and the most effective and efficient in the market. By following the advice of this manual and doing the work involved you will:

• Define your career objective with total clarity.

• Increase the number of accomplishments you can include in your resume and discuss during the interview.

• Become a recognized leader within your local professional community.

• Develop a strategy that targets the primary individuals in your profession who can help you find a job.

• Develop a list of relevant referrals.

• Aggressively pursue your career objective with convincing, if not overwhelming, credentials.

• Create a whole new, powerful self concept

• Pursue colleagues for immediate high visibility by collecting a minimum of 10 business cards at every meeting you attend.

• Control the interview.

• Negotiate for more money and other benefits than you ever expected, or dreamed about.

Guaranteed Employment

As you read this manual, it is important that you understand why I am able to guarantee my contractual clients the job of their choice for which they are qualified. How can I do this? The answer is simple: When people work with me, they are making a commitment to follow the techniques and methods of my total job hunting system. When they do that, they will find their ideal job.

My approach works because of the almost mathematical equation represented by my job hunting strategy and because of the relationship I have with my clients. Clients realize by about our fourth session, as they move rapidly into networking, that they are achieving a dramatically different self-concept and are learning to be more aggressive in their job hunting behavior than they typically have been in any other aspect of their life. By committing to spend the required time and energy to do what is necessary and then do it more and more often, the job of their choice is a guaranteed outcome.

That’s why I can comfortably guarantee my clients the job they are looking for. By following my strategy for this job hunt and then maintaining portions of my strategy after they are employed, they will have conducted the last formal job hunt of their career. The next job will find them!

By doing what I tell them, clients learn how to collect a minimum of 10 to 15 business cards at every luncheon or business meeting they attend, instead of the usual 2 or 3; make as many phone calls as necessary to contact people who can help them; invest their time, money and energy in super efficient ways to broaden their network more thoroughly and quickly than they could have imagined.

Most importantly, they are able to tell me after getting the job of their choice, that the job was the least valuable thing they received out of their relationship with me.

What they learned of greatest use to them was to get absolute

clarity about what they wanted and to be relentless in pursuing it.

Not only had they learned a unique posture with regard to a critical goal (employment in this case), they had also learned concrete tangible behaviors (what to do and what to say) that they were applying to other aspects of their life.

I want to show in very specific terms what skills (specific behaviors) will help the successful job hunter land their ideal job effectively. I contend that in this market of the 90’s, the job hunter who can present and sell effectively has an advantage over the candidate who might be more technically qualified with greater accomplishments.

How To Use This Manual Most Effectively

First, if you only read this manual or only read the hundreds of other job hunting manuals on the market, it will be of marginal benefit. This manual has specific exercises with many forms and examples to help you. However, these exercises and examples will do you little or no good unless you read and practice them over and over, diligently, conscientiously and energetically. Your own efforts need to be considerable.

To make a truly committed effort, you will have to prioritize other aspects of your work, family and social life. If you are employed full time, the critical networking time and follow-up will have to be structured around your at-least-minimum-employment performance. (I am not advocating you try to get fired, but I am saying that if you are committed to finding a new job, you should do as little as possible at your current position and devote your primary emphasis to your job hunting.)

If you are unemployed, you will have to set up disciplinary structures that will give you a 40 to 60 hour job hunting week. Day time (business hours) are for people and meetings (except those held in the evenings), telephone follow-up and interviewing. Night time and weekends are for research, writing, record-keeping, and responding to ads. A rule of thumb is if you still have a voice left by 6 PM on any weekday, you haven’t been putting in the right kind of time.

Visible Leadership Role

There are two clich�s often heard in the context of job hunting. The first is:

"It’s not what you know but who you know."

The second is:

"It’s a matter of being in the right place at the right time."

Assuming both are true, for employment to be a guaranteed outcome you must get to know everyone and be everywhere all the time. Though both are impossible goals, they define the ideals to set the tempo of my job-hunting strategy.

Let’s take the first clich�. Given the "what" that you know, from the Accomplishments Form exercise (described later on) your accomplishments, will dramatically increase because of several processes that occur. The point for now is that no one fully appreciates all of the accomplishments he or she can take credit for.

In terms of the "who" that you know, it’s now a matter of getting to know everyone who can help you find the job of your choice. So if you were to know everyone, then it would follow that you would know the right person who could either give you a job or direct you to someone who could.

This then defines the essence of my strategy which is:

To achieve a highly visible leadership role in the professional community composed of those people who already have the job you want; could hire you for the job you want; or are networked well enough to hear about the job you want.

By visible leadership role, I mean a role that will keep your name (and face) before that professional community. As a job hunter, you want a role that gives you the most visibility for the least amount of effort.

In terms of professional communities, if you want to work in a real estate function for a major corporation in Chicago, you would join the Title and Conveyance Committee of the Chicago Bar Association. If you wanted to become director of a training and development function in a government agency, you would join the local chapter and national level of the American Society of Training and Development. If you wanted to become a sales and marketing executive, you would join the Association of Sales and Marketing Executives.

The point is this, in the United States there is probably an organization on a local, regional, or national level which you can join to achieve a visible leadership position. Once you have clarified your career objective, find your relevant professional society by looking at the Encyclopedia of Associations published by Gale Publishing Company, which is available in most libraries. Call the headquarters of the organization, find out about the local chapter and then go to meetings.

If there is no professional organization, there are a number of options you can pursue:

1. Start one, initially by setting up meetings (possibly in your home) and then generating free publicity through your local newspapers.

2. If there is a national chapter, but no local chapter, ask the national chapter for support in setting up a local or regional chapter.

3. If none of these approaches are viable or feasible, then your job search will be more conventional in that you will lead with a letter, instead of an interpersonal contact. However, your posture is still "employer benefit" and problem/solution which are covered later in this manual.

Managing Your Time

It is critical during your job hunting to manage your time and energy in the most efficient manner possible, even when it means greater expense. Since being everywhere all the time, is clearly impossible, you will be at meetings of the governing body of your organization as well as at the usual monthly chapter meetings. Here you will carry on the business of your leadership role and meet everyone of any consequence to your job hunting success.

Aggressiveness

My approach is uniquely aggressive. My clients have made up to 30 calls to one person to get an interview. One client who wanted to get into retail sales, took her resume and walked the streets of upper Michigan Ave. in Chicago demanding to see the manager of the most up-scale shops. She did this until she was hired within a few days. Whenever possible, control of the process is critical.

I maintain, the most effective way to job hunt is through an interpersonal process not a "blind" letter campaign that primarily just supports the US Post Office. And when you can’t reach someone the first time, you call again and again and again, until you do reach them or until they threaten to have you arrested for public harassment!

Most job hunters will try to call someone three or four times, some even six or seven times. If unable to reach someone after seven calls, most will stop calling, thinking they are making a nuisance of themselves or creating a bad impression.

In my approach, there is no limit to the number of times you call. I tell clients they have nothing to lose and everything to gain by being persistent. If you do not speak with a potential contact, you will never know if they could have helped you or not. And when you do reach a contact, you want them to think of you as that uniquely tenacious candidate who would not give up.

This way, you are already creating an impression of how you go about getting the job done. You pursue a task until completed. Many of my job hunters have won out over other more qualified candidates because they were more persistent and more aggressive during the interview process.

If you are to err, better to err on the aggressive side, than the passive. To err with passivity will certainly not get you what you want. To err with aggressiveness (which may turn off a few) will still place you far ahead in getting much more of whatever you’re after - interviews, referrals, and ultimately a job.

The reality of the job market is that there are more than enough qualified people. People get hired in part, because they are qualified (or even the most qualified) and also because they are the best and most aggressive job hunter.

I contend it is primarily job hunting skills that distinguishes between the employed and unemployed, not what they have accomplished or might accomplish for the employer.

Sales

Another critical part of my strategy is the realization that job hunting is the most pure form of sales - you are selling yourself. There is no third party getting in the way as in selling a product or service. You are selling you; your history, your accomplishments, how you present yourself and most importantly, the potential benefits you bring to your employer.

Empowerment

Though most people dread the prospect of job hunting (I don’t enjoy it myself), it can be very empowering. You can achieve a sense of power by learning that you have a tremendous amount of control in getting referrals. This also comes from your leadership roles and in managing the total strategy on your own within a structure that is totally of your own creation.

Many in this field of job hunting and outplacement provide their clients with mailing lists, offices, and secretarial support. I have deliberately chosen to make clients find all of these on their own so they can have the experience of setting up their "own business" from scratch just as an entrepreneur would. Your business is a job hunting service, serving yourself! Your sense of accomplishment can be tremendous, especially for those of you who have spent years or even decades luxuriating within the confines of corporate or organizational America.

New Identity

Through my job hunting approach and process, you will experience a very profound change in your self-concept, both professionally and personally.

You will learn how enormously competent, qualified and accomplished you are, how tenacious you can be and how comfortable you can be asking people (sometimes very well-known people) for help without any possibility of reciprocating to those individuals.

You will learn about benign exploitation at its best. That is, taking from someone all they have to offer and leaving them no less for it. Often you will leave the other person with a rewarding encounter with an energetic confident job hunter (you!) who is expert at utilizing the kind of help they rendered.

The 5 Steps

Having presented the conceptual framework of my strategy, here are the specific steps:

I. Strategy Based on Career Objective

A. Accomplishments inventory

1. Accomplishments

2. Skills

3. Results

4. Source of pride

B. Job Hunting Style

1. Asking for help

2. Bragging

3. Upgrading appearance

4. Hustling

II. The Package

A. The resume

B. Sales letters

III. Networking

A. The market

B. Leadership roles

C. Hustling at meetings/conferences

D. Networks/resources

1. Professional associations

2. Past employers

3. Colleagues

4. Potential employers

5. Recruiters

6. Employment agencies

7. Ads

8. Newsletters

9. Resume banks

E. Friends/relatives

IV. Follow-up

A. Mailings

B. Getting interviews

1. Telephoning

2. Referrals

3. Tickler system

V. Interviews

A. Negotiating

B. Unacceptance

C. Follow-up letter

D. Maintain options

E. Thank you letter

F. Maintaining leadership role

G. Revise resume

H. Maintenance interviewing

Step I - Strategy

Having an overall strategy will support all your efforts to achieve the following:

1. Maximize your investments of time, money and effort when you are engaged in your leadership role within your professional community.

2. Follow up leads gained from those you encounter.

3. Respond to the one or two ads during the length of the total campaign.

4. Perform ( yes, I said perform) an excellent interview (the most important part of the total campaign).

5. Sustain the intense effort of job hunting.

Make no mistake about this. Motivation to sustain a relentless campaign toward a successful conclusion is key. I meet too many people unhappily employed who have made numerous efforts to change jobs or career. Many get bogged down and quit for mostly one of these reasons - lack of focus, naivet� about the total process or inability to sustain the motivation.

Though my approach has all of the conventional steps of an orthodox job hunting campaign, it is implemented with an unorthodox degree of aggressiveness and commitment to short and long term objectives.

Career Objective - This is the most critical part of the strategy.

Without a razor sharp career objective you are not ready to make any calls, join any organization, follow up any leads or go on any interviews. Without a career objective, you will flounder and use your time, money and efforts wastefully, ineffectively, and frustratingly.

Step 2 - The Package

The package includes all those documents that anticipate and/or follow up every interpersonal encounter. To prepare these documents, the most important process is completing the Accomplishment Form.

Accomplishments - This is a necessary exercise to fully document in results-oriented terms, what you have already done for others and what you are capable of doing for your next employer. This "employer benefits" posture, which originates from the Accomplishments Form is the basis for all that follows, especially interviewing.

The Resume - One product produced by the Accomplishments exercise is the resume. The resume is a critical document because of the process my clients go through to produce it. And, believe me, they do most of the work. I simply provide a structure. The resume represents the most concise statement of qualified accomplishments to support your career objective.

Letters - Every interpersonal contact is followed up with a powerful letter that addresses the challenges, needs or problems of that particular industry or profession. You will also write to other professionals (known to you directly or indirectly through referrals). Each of these contacts is also followed up with a phone call.

Step 3 - Networking

This step is key to the whole campaign. I will constantly be dwelling on this in a way that is more aggressive than you'll find elsewhere.

Leadership roles - Though this step equates with the networking step of most approaches, it differs in its ability to accelerate your visibility within your professional community.

Step 4 - Follow-up

Mailings - My strategy requires relatively few letters during the course of the campaign. If there is to be an emphasis on a mailing campaign then its foundation is guided by steps 2 and 3.

Getting Interviews - Because of the sequential flow of this process, getting interviews is relatively easy. Interviews are a natural consequence of the contributions you are making as a leader in your professional community. This happens because of:

1. The credibility you have developed.

2. The feelings of obligation people have toward you.

3. Their indebtedness to third party referrals.

Step 5 - The Interview

This is where you close the sale, at best, or at worst, walk away with additional referrals.

Negotiating - Though most people are terribly uncomfortable negotiating for anything, I will show you a strategy that can pay off handsomely, once you have been made an offer. After that point, the power of the negotiation is on your side.

Next Jobs - This is the point where you can rest for a few months before you revise your resume and await the occasional interview which comes your way because you are so visible and so well connected within your network.

2 THE PACKAGE

Work as Passion

First of all, most of my clients are unhappily employed. Most people have drifted into their current occupation without a realization or even the concept that work can be a passionate affair.

I know when I am fulfilling my life’s purpose. I have moments, even daily, of amazement and/or gratitude that I am getting paid for what I am doing and would be happy to do what I do for nothing! How many people have ever had that sense while on the job? In short, work is a passion when you would consider doing it for nothing or in spite of income.

Transferring Your Skills

Many of my clients come to me because they are eager to make a change in the nature of their careers. Though highly developed in one area, they want to make a change and fear that the skills they have in one role may not be transferable to other areas. This is usually because they have thought of themselves in terms of labels, instead of as being in a role, in a certain setting, using a certain set of skills. Most often these are really quite transferable to another related role, in another setting, with a different label.

For instance, people who label themselves as "teachers" see their skills as "teaching" skills. After going through the Accomplishments Exercise described in the next sections, I am able to help them identify the non-teaching skills they have been using, but for which they don't give themselves credit. These might include conflict resolution, group management, decision making, budgeting, coordinating, conceptualizing, etc. The skills teachers use in the classroom are almost infinite and are the same as those used by persons with other titles like manager, supervisor, counselor, trainer and salesperson.

Similar cases can be made for almost any role, showing how readily transferable the actual skills are to a different role. Another way to learn about the transferability of skills, is to learn the vocabulary and jargon of skills used by people in the career to which you are attracted. This can be done by attending meetings, taking seminars or workshops, and reading the manuals and journals read by those in your targeted field.

After a while, you will see how much of what they do, you have always done. Only you didn’t call it that. Sometimes this kind of learning is simply re-naming what you already know.

Example # 1:

One excellent example of this are the teachers, therapists, government workers, social workers and others who take a course I teach called "Leader Effectiveness Training" which I offer to the public and to companies in-house. This is primarily a business course designed for and taught to managers and supervisors in the business community. Non-business people sometimes take it and learn that the skills they have been using, are exactly the same as those used by business people.

Example #2:

One of my clients was a fund raiser. In that role he met with many top corporate executives to help them part with some of their corporate assets. I helped him realize that fund raising was a particular application of highly developed sales skills. Though wanting to stay in the fund raising role, he could also see the potential for selling services and products to these same executives. Some examples of what he considered were pre-retirement packages, security systems for private residences, and financial investments. These expensive services and products were exactly what his contacts might buy from him. Another aspect of transferability for him was to see that he could sell completely different items to the population he’d come to know over many years.

Example #3:

A math teacher wanted to get out of teaching. After some informational interviewing, she readily saw the opportunity in industry of getting a role to upgrade the math skills of employees or utilizing her math skills in the business aspects of developing some sophisticated marketing projections.

The points these examples should make, is that a lot of the transferability issues of employment is a matter of learning how to:

1. Re-label yourself.

2. Identify your skills with different words.

3. Realize your specific skills that can be used for very different applications.

You must examine what it is you do that yields the results you are already able to produce in your work and in your life. You must see beneath the superficial label you have been carrying around. You must realize that in the world of work, how you get things done is more universally applicable than you had appreciated.

The Ideal Job

Many job hunters do not conceptualize what their ideal job would be and therefore do not have a reference point for evaluating the kinds of opportunities they encounter. A job has many considerations beyond pay, especially since most people will spend at least 40 hours a week doing it.

One way to begin defining the ideal job is to fantasize a role that is suitable for you and the kind of environment in which it would occur. Environment can have many different levels - office, city, climate, etc. Imagine yourself in this environment. What kind of people are you working with? What kind of assignments do you have? What kind of freedom do you have to make your own decisions about tasks, major projects, who you will work with, etc.? Add your own environmental issues.

Other questions you must answer: What kind of hours will you have? Can you stay late during the week so as not to work on weekends, or do you prefer to work on weekends so you can work fewer hours during the week? What kind of boss would be ideal for you, and is he/she very directive or one who leaves you alone and only holds you accountable for results?

Apart from the job hunting task, defining your ideal role can also help you within your present employment. There is surely some part of your ideal job that can be incorporated into your present role. The best way to make this happen is to write up your ideal job and share it with your present boss. Though this may have no immediate payoff, at least your boss knows what your ideal would be and can consider it in any future plans he/she has for the company.

Another benefit of defining the ideal job is to strategically plan your next moves so that each change is closer to the ideal than the one before. This will give you a lot more control over your life than you thought possible. It gives you something to broadcast to friends and colleagues, instead of current dissatisfactions and frustrations. In other words, you let the world know what you want, instead of what you don’t want.

My clients realize after some discussion and planning, that the ideal job is not that unrealistic after all. It just takes some support to facilitate clients having a clearer vision of their potential in the marketplace.

Once people are able to develop the concept of the ideal job, they can then develop ideas about the ideal relationship, vacation, project, etc. Starting with the ideal may not always guarantee your achieving the ideal, but it sure will help!

One client of mine fantasized being able to both manage and conduct research in the pharmaceutical industry combined with the living environment of woods and mountains. His wife also wanted to own her own dog kennel. Until seeing me, he had thought that the only jobs available would be in a big metropolitan area that would not allow the life-style he wanted.

Under my guidance, he researched his field and various areas of the country until he was able to locate a research lab in need of a manager some miles from Seattle…and, of course, the dog kennel is part of his immediate environment. Without the fantasy about his ideal job and environment in his head, I could not have directed him towards the appropriate research sources and his ideal job.

Questions to Ask Yourself

The questions on the following pages will furnish some of the data for the Accomplishment Exercise and develop awareness of what’s important to you. This works best if done with a spouse and/or other close friend(s).

Any of you who have ever kept a diary, have probably realized certain thoughts and feelings that you wrote down that would not likely have occurred to you if you had simply tried to think of them or about the situation.

That is why I urge clients to write out the answers to these questions and also for two more reasons. First, these questions are exactly like or approximate many common interview questions and second, these questions pose an exploration of various areas that most people give little thought to, but are of concern to any potential employer. Third, these questions make for particularly powerful answers when used in the feature/ benefit format explained later on. For each question, be sure to list all the issues you can think of:

Learning From The Present

1. What are you like to work with? Be sure to get negative, as well as positive feedback from your supervisor, co-workers and subordinates to be sure of a complete picture.

2. What kind of contributions are you currently making? Review your job functions (not tasks) in terms of how they fit into the organization and your contributions in terms of those functions.

3. How well did/do you enjoy working with the kind of people you did/do, the environment you’re in, etc.?

4. Was the last job or current job truly interesting and challenging? Did/does it really require all of your talents? Did/do you work up to your full capacity?

5. What were the advantages and disadvantages of the job? How did you view your future with that employer? Did it help you meet your long range career objective?

6. How well did you supervise? Do you want more or less management responsibility or more of doing the work itself?

7. Are you really committed to this field or would exploring other paths be useful? Would you choose this field today?

8. Is the compensation the kind that will give you the material and emotional well-being and security you want? If the job itself doesn’t do it, does it allow for other kinds of income?

9. How well does your job/profession and work conditions allow you to meet your various family/social and even spiritual commitments and obligations?

Your Goals

1. Should you stay in the same industry/profession?

2. Should you look into new fields?

3. What kind of organization do you like?

4. Where do you want to be in five to ten years?

5. What do you want in a job? (security, adventure, challenge, diversity, stability, etc.)

6. What really are your life and professional goals?

7. Has your previous experience helped you to develop the skills to achieve these goals?

8. What do others in your life want in terms of your goals? What are their perceptions and vested interests?

Your Competence

1. What are your real competencies?

2. You know you’re good, but what do others think?

3. Are you cooperative and sensitive?

4. What is your reputation among colleagues?

5. What makes you run? What turns you on and off?

6. What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Developing Your Career Now

1. Are you helping to increase productivity?

2. Are you saving your company money?

3. Have you instituted a new system or procedure in your organization?

4. Have you identified a problem that had been overlooked?

5. Have you ever been promoted?

6. Have you ever trained anyone?

7. Have you suggested any new procedures or programs that were put into effect?

8. Have you helped to establish any new goals or objectives for your department/unit?

3 ACCOMPLISHMENTS FORM

Life Accomplishments

The Accomplishment Form, as explained in the following pages, is the fundamental part of my total job hunting system. By filling out one Accomplishment Form for each of your life accomplishments, you will be revealing to yourself and ultimately to the employer, the many, many, accomplishments that make you more than qualified for the position you are pursuing.

The most critical outcome of the accomplishment exercise is the change in your self-concept as a job hunter. Other important outcomes will be a powerful accomplishments/results oriented resume, data for powerful sales letters, and more than adequate data for any interview question.

It is a rigorous exercise that may take from 5 to 10 hours, or longer, and is completely deserving of such attention. In addition to the data, the repetitious filling out of the form will re-orient your thinking to the important "employer benefit" posture that is further defined in the section on The Interview.

Remember these important points about the Accomplishment Form:

1. Put only one accomplishment on a sheet of paper, as these have to be manipulated later in the development of major areas of responsibility for your career objective and resume.

2. Be sure not to "rip yourself off" as you list your accomplishments. Most people do "rip themselves off" for at least some of their own accomplishments. Look at each accomplishment critically. If any of the tasks you list for one accomplishment required skilled actions and had their own results make sure to list these as separate accomplishments.

What follows is the blank form which you should copy or just re-write and then copy on regular size sheets of paper. In addition, we have included several examples of completed Accomplishment Forms, a skill verbs list and a description of the employer benefit component defining results. Refer to all of these when you fill in your own accomplishments and then when you develop your resume.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS FORM OBJECTIVE:

YOU SHOULD DEVELOP A MINIMUM OF

MINIMUM OF 30 TO 40 ACCOMPLISHMENTS

The object is to do as many as possible for both your professional accomplishments (those you did for money) and personal accomplishments (those for which you were not paid):

1. Recreational (ran a 10K race, entered an art contest, etc.)

2. Organizational (developed yearly calendar of activities for lodge, fraternity, raised funds for local little league team, etc.)

3. Social (helped a friend through a personal crisis, planned a surprise birthday party, committed my father to an alcohol treatment program, or son to drug abuse program, etc.)

Very often many of your "non-professional" accomplishments can significantly add to the supportive data for your career objective and may sometimes be more relevant to an inquiry or interview question than the professional accomplishments. The results/outcome section (#3) of the Form will have a variety of quantitative and qualitative measures. One is not intrinsically more valuable than the other. It depends on the accomplishments for how the results are measured.

If the accomplishment is team building, then the results are qualitative - more cooperation, clarity, improved morale; for cooking, improved, taste, nutrition, variety, etc. When the results are mostly quantitative, the measures will be in dollars, time, productivity, efficiency.

Dimensions Measures

Qualitative - Improved attractiveness of displays

- Established credibility of company - Improved work climate

Quantitative - Reduced labor costs by 20%

- Increased profit by 3%

- Expanded product line from 2 to 4

- Doubled size of territory

EXPLANATION OF ACCOMPLISHMENT FORM

(Write or type these out neatly so the material can be used efficiently and effectively.)

1. General statement of accomplishment - Use fewer than 10 words.

(Answers the interview question "What have you done in the area of...?")

2. Skill (which is a verb) (+) its immediate application.

(Answers the interview question "How did you do it?")

3. Results of accomplishment in terms of money, time, effort (when possible) as well as qualitative outcomes.)

(Answers the interview question "How did your employer benefit as a result?")

(This section only allows for two outcomes so you are forced to pick the two most valuable.

4. Why you are proud of this accomplishment - one reason only.

(Answers interview question "What was your greatest source of satisfaction?")

BLANK ACCOMPLISHMENT FORM

(Copy or re-create this form and then make enough copies so each one of your accomplishments is listed on a separate piece of paper.)

1. General statement of accomplishment - Use fewer than 10 words.

2. Skill (which is a verb) (+) its immediate application.

3. Results of accomplishment in terms of money, time, effort (when possible)

as well as qualitative outcomes.

4. Why you are proud of this accomplishment - one reason only.

EXAMPLE OF COMPLETED ACCOMPLISHMENT FORM

BUSINESS ACCOMPLISHMENT

1. General statement of accomplishment - Use fewer than 10 words.

a. Initiated management development programs at four production facilities.

2. Skill (which is a verb) (+) its immediate application.

a. Interviewed (+) plant managers and foremen.

b. Conducted meetings (+) to negotiate purpose and objectives.

c. Designed (+) unique program for each location.

d. Secured (+) corporate support.

e. Recruited (+) individuals from each location.

3. Results of accomplishment in terms of money, time, effort (when possible)

as well as qualitative outcomes.

a. Reduced friction between corporate and plant management

b. Saved $50,000 not spent on consultants

4. Why you are proud of this accomplishment- one reason only.

a. Initiated a systematic corporate-wide effort where none existed before.

PERSONAL ACCOMPLISHMENT

1. General statement of accomplishment-Use fewer than 10 words.

a. I planned my own wedding.

2. Skill (verb) (+) immediate application.

a. Analyzed (+) space and cost requirements

b. Procured (+) list of reception sites.

c. Selected (+) the site.

d. Created (+) the budget.

e. Negotiated (+) contracts with caterer, florist, band leader & photographer.

3. Results of accomplishment in terms of money, time, effort - when possible as well as qualitative outcomes.

a. Saved at least $1,000 without sacrificing quality.

b. Created a unique and personal marriage ceremony and celebration.

4. Why you are proud of this accomplishment - one reason only.

a. Got exactly what I wanted by designing and directing myself.

Skill Verbs

Now if you’re really ambitious, and I assume you’re reading this manual because you are, here is an exercise to make both your resume and interview responses really powerful. Complete one Accomplishments Form. For the #2 of your Accomplishments Form, use whatever skill verbs come to mind. Then compare the skill verbs you used to those on the following list.

You will get the most benefit by comparing each verb you used with the total list. Look for a verb on the list that describes the same skill, only at a more powerful level. Can you substitute the word "supervised" with "managed" or "directed;" the word "wrote" with "analyzed" or synthesized;" the word "presented" with "negotiated," or "persuaded" etc.

I am sure that when you read the list, you will know every word, but how many of them did you use in your Accomplishments Form and how many are you likely to use when asked how you did any of your accomplishments?

When you do each of your accomplishments, review the skill verbs list after you’ve finished each one, and then try to incorporate these words (without reference to the list) on your next accomplishment . . . and then compare.

The result of these repeated comparisons, will be you will start to use these words in your active vocabulary, first on the form, next in your resume and, finally, in responding to interview questions

Yes, this is like learning a new language - a language of greater power and skills to impress a potential employer!

Skill Verbs

abbreviated abetted accelerated accepted accommodate accomplished accrued accumulated achieved acquired activated actuated adapted addressed administered adopted advanced advised advocated affected

affirmed aided alerted allocated analyzed

applied appraised approved arranged assembled

assessed assisted assumed attained authorized

avoided awarded built calculate categorized clarified coached cogitated commanded commissioned committed communicated compared

completed composed computed conceived concurred condensed conducted conferred confirmed constructed consulted contracted contrived controlled convinced coordinated copied correlated counseled created decided defined delegated demonstrated designed detailed determined developed devised diagnosed directed discharged disciplined disclosed discovered distributed drafted

earned eliminated employed encouraged energized enforced enlarged equipped established estimated evaluated examined exchanged executed expanded expedited experimented explored facilitated familiarized forced forecasted formed formulated founded fulfilled generated governed grouped guided handled illustrated implemented improved increased indexed influenced initiated innovated inspected inspired installed instituted instructed integrated interpreted interviewed introduced invented investigated launched lead located maintained managed mastered mediated moderated motivated negotiated observed obtained organized originated perceived performed persuaded pinpointed pioneered planned practiced prepared presented presided prevented procured produced programmed projected promoted proposed proved provided publicized purposed recommended recorded recruited rectified reduced regulated reinforced reorganized researched resolved respected restructured retrieved revamped reviewed revised revised revived saved scheduled scrutinized searched secured served simplified

sold solved sorted stimulated streamlined strengthened structured substantiated succeeded summarized supervised supported surpassed synthesized systematized tailored taught trained transferred transformed translated traveled trimmed united upgraded validated ventured verified visualized

Once you have completed the Accomplishment Form, your accomplishments are handled one of two ways.

# 1 For those who know the kind of work (career objective) they want to do:

A. Identify two or three major categories of responsibility for that kind of work.

B. Sort appropriate accomplishments into those categories.

C. Rank order accomplishments from most to least impressive in each category.

D. Pick the three to five most impressive accomplishments per category for your resume. (The rest will be useful for interviews, letters, and job hunting encounters.)

#2. For those who don't know the kind of work (career objective) they want to do:

A. Identify each accomplishment for what it is i.e. athletic, social, organizational, supervisory, planning, logistics, etc.

B. Group similar accomplishments by category.

C. Combine like categories into one category wherever possible, (i.e. planning, managing, and supervising into management), so you wind up with no more than three or four total categories.

D. Identify the job role that requires those three or four categories as major areas of responsibility, (i.e. fund raising, managing and acting translated for one client into the role of business manager for a theater group. For another client, teaching, public speaking and writing translated into the role of corporate trainer.)

#1 When Career Objective is Known

CAREER OBJECTIVE (JOB ROLE/TITLE)

Area of Area of Area of

Responsibility Responsibility Responsibility

#2 When Career Objective is Not known

CAREER OBJECTIVE (JOB ROLE/TITLE)

Category of Category of Category of

Accomplishment Accomplishment Accomplishment

4 DEVELOPING THE RESUME

Before developing your resume, it is necessary to write out your career objective. (This holds true whether or not you knew the kind of work you wanted to do before beginning the Accomplishments Form.)

Your career objective is a statement of the role you are seeking, your qualifications, and the benefits you bring to an employer.

These "benefits" are derived from examining the #3 component of the Accomplishments Form, to determine the typical kind of results you can produce, and then listing those in a sentence beginning with, "Able to. . . " As you read the #3's of your various accomplishments, you will also identify a particular kind of result that is typical of what you produce.

Once your career objective is written, it becomes the opening paragraph of your resume.

Following the career objective, list the three primary categories of responsibility for your job role (as determined by the Accomplishments Form) and list your top three to five accomplishments under each, from most to least impressive.

The rest of the resume is fairly conventional and has the employment history working backwards chronologically, education, professional societies, publications, and in some cases, hobbies (when relevant to your career objective), awards, etc.

For those of you who prefer a chronological resume, list your employment, and then bullet your accomplishments under each position, instead of the functional resume format advocated here, where you group the accomplishments by categories.

BLANK RESUME FORMAT

Name Address Phone

Career Objective: A statement of the role you are seeking, why you are qualified, identification of your major categories of accomplishments and what benefits the employer will get when he/she hires you.

AREAS OF ACHIEVEMENT

ACCOMPLISHMENTS CATEGORY # 1

• Most impressive accomplishment within this category

• Next most impressive accomplishment within this category

ACCOMPLISHMENTS CATEGORY #2

• Three to five bullets as above in #1.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS CATEGORY #3

• Three to five bullets as above in #1.

Work Experience

(Listed by title, company, city, state, years of employment)

Published Articles

Education

Languages

Professional Associations Personal data, if relevant to your career objective

(On the following pages are sample resumes that follow this format.)

John Jobhunter 3333 Main Satisfaction, IL 89899 (234) 555-1212

CAREER OBJECTIVE: A management position with accountability for all marketing related functions, including promotion, advertising, product positioning, strategic planning and training. Able to create and manage aggressive strategies which produce immediate and dramatic increases in sales, exposure, credibility and profits.

AREAS OF ACHIEVEMENT

MARKETING

• Introduced new product that generated $27 million in sales the first four years.

• Repositioned products that achieved a 45% increase in placements in one year.

• Created service program that increased total company sales 22% in first year.

• Developed ad program that established company as best known in its category.

• Created retailer ad materials that increased usage of company name by 35%.

PROMOTIONS

• Created three month dealer promotion that generated $450,000 in profits.

• Developed consumer promotion that generated $2.3 million in sales.

• Initiated consumer rebate promotion that increased sales by $2.5 million.

• Developed retail incentive program that generated sales of $2.7 million.

• Initiated consumer direct mail program that increased sales by 15%.

MANAGEMENT

• Created merchandising program with 25% of 5 year goal reached first year.

• Developed error reduction system that saved $1.7 million over four years.

• Created newsletter that became most imitated educational source in industry.

• Developed program for ad agency that created 33% more leads first year.

• Revamped co-op program that eliminated over $750,000 in dealer abuses.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Vice President Advertising, M.S.E. & Partners Chicago, IL 1978 - Present.

Account Executive, Lerman & Associates, Chicago, IL 1977-78.

Account Executive, Silverman & Partners, Chicago, IL 1972 - 77.

Newspaper Advertising Coordinator, Stern's, Chicago, IL 1970 - 72

PUBLISHED ARTICLES

"Would you Buy From Your Own Store?" Trade Magazine, Winter, 1984.

"How to Increase Your Advertising Effectiveness," T.M. , August, 1986.

"Ingenuity Is First Step To Getting Disposable Income," Newsletter, June 1987.

EDUCATION BA, University of Wisconsin, 1970

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

American Marketing Association

Sales & Marketing Executives of Chicago

Joe Jobfinder 234 Career Dr. Employed MI 49494 (232)222-3456

Career Objective: Administrative Assistant with responsibilities including office management, accounting and all secretarial duties. Able to develop efficient office systems, work well with others and can respond productively to accomplish short and long term objectives.

AREAS OF ACHIEVEMENT

OFFICE MANAGEMENT

• Saved hundreds of dollars on supplies and equipment by developing systems and procedures to increase office efficiency.

• Created policies manual to familiarize new employees with company policies and procedures.

• Handled all aspects of office hiring and terminations. (Hired four individuals and terminated two at reduced cost and effort.)

• Managed all customer relations activities, including correspondence and customer activities to relieve manager of those tasks.

• Developed office recognition system that improved morale and created increased productivity.

ACCOUNTING

• Assisted in preparation of client tax returns relieving accountants of those tasks.

• Maintained general ledger for office expenditures of company resulting in more accurate records and improved purchasing.

SECRETARIAL

• Researched way to update company's word processing system and trained others in new system.

• Won "Secretary of the Year" competition in Chicago area.

WORK HISTORY

Office Manager, Simpson Aviation, Palatine, IL 1982-Present

Manager, Steak & Sandwich Restaurant, Hillside, IL 1979-1982

Legal Secretary, M.B.T. & Sons, Chicago, IL 1968-1979

EDUCATION

Northwest Business Academy, Chicago, IL 1964-1966

Wright Junior College, Chicago, IL 1966-1968

Joan Jobseeker 1444 Chase Chicago, IL 66666 h. (312)777-5555

CAREER OBJECTIVE: Personnel Generalist with responsibility for developing procedures and systems, training, and facilitation of decision making and problem solving. Able to create and manage a variety of human resource development systems which save money, improve the work environment, and support cooperation in all areas.

AREAS OF ACHIEVEMENT

GENERALIST

• Revised salary structure which provided a competitive, equitable, and legally defensible salary administration program.

• Prepared job descriptions for entire company which clarified job content and facilitated communication between management and employees.

• Established clear performance appraisal standards for entire company which resulted in a more equitable pay-for-performance plan.

• Coordinated layoff of 120 employees of a company in liquidation while business operations continued in a smooth and efficient manner.

SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT

• Developed hiring policy within the business environment of the company which resulted in a cost effective use of management time as well as company funds.

• Created company policy and procedures manual which led to efficient and productive implementation of company procedures.

• Developed an efficient office filing system which saved time and money as well as increasing productivity.

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

• Resolved employee/management disputes (sexual harassment, discrimination) which resulted in employee/management satisfaction and avoidance of costly legal action.

• Negotiated renewal of employee medical benefits which resulted in high benefit, cost efficient insurance.

• Conducted training programs in a variety of topics; business writing, history, performance and individual coaching.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Personnel Manager, Office of the Special Deputy, Chicago, IL 1984- present.

Reinsurance Analyst, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 1983-1984.

Assistant Professor of Music, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 11978-1985.

Instructor, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 1973-1977.

EDUCATION

PHR, Personnel Accreditation Institute, 1988

PH.D., Musicology, Indiana University, 1978 M.M.

Music Theory, Indiana University,1970 B.M.E.

Music Ed., Georgetown College, 1962

PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

Society for Human Resource Management

Society of Human Resource Professionals

5 LETTERS

Letters are a critical part of the entire campaign. To be effective, they must capture the reader’s attention immediately. People who read your letter may not bother to read your resume. Therefore, it is imperative that the letters all have your career objective and five or six of the accomplishments from your resume. These are selected to reflect the same emphasis as the categories in your career objective.

There are basically six letters:

1. The "Generic" letter which identifies a specific problem, challenge, need or opportunity of a company/organization for which you are a unique or, at least, a qualified solution. You will not send this letter very often, but it sets up the format for the rest of the letters that follow.

2. The "Old Colleague" letter you mail immediately to all past and current colleagues who may be able to help you.

3. The "New Contacts" letter sent to those you meet at the many meetings and conferences you attend.

4. The "Referral" letter that will enable you to use any contact to make at least two more contacts.

5. The "Ad Response" letter for the occasional ad that looks as though it matches perfectly with your resume.

6. The "Recruiter" letter which is the only one you do not follow up. Send a few dozen letters to recruiters only if your salary is $40,000 plus.

And remember: At no point are you asking for employment directly. You are asking for referrals to people and companies, to review your resume and then obtain additional referrals. If the recipient of the letter should have an appropriate opening, he/she will probably suggest you both discuss it.

TARGET OBJECTIVE - LETTERS

Initially, you should be sending out a minimum of 30 letters per month. This number will go up geometrically as your networking increases. However, never send out more letters than you can follow up within five to seven days.

Unlike other career counselors who advocate company by company research, I prefer a strategy defined by your career objective and profession. This represents an economy of effort so you can address the general concerns, problems, challenges of that particular company function (sales, purchasing, marketing, etc.) regardless of the industry.

Also, in my strategy you send very few if any "blind" letters. The letters you send are primarily to professional colleagues, follow-ups to encounters you have had at meetings, trade shows, conventions, etc. or are sent to those you are referred to. This increases the likelihood the recipient of your letter will help you.

1. "Generic" letter specialized to a problem/challenge:

This is the first letter to develop which makes a very simple yet, profound statement.

The first paragraph defines and describes in general terms the needs, problems, opportunities and challenges of a particular function within a given environment (business, education, government, etc.) This is followed by a statement that indicates your understanding of, or any experience with, that problem, and your ability to respond.

Paragraph #2 points out in general terms how qualified you are for tackling the problem/challenge/opportunity by stating your career objective (from the resume). Conclude with sentence, "Among my specific accomplishments are. . ."

In other words, the basic outline of the letter is paragraph #1 as a definition of the problem. The rest of the letter, introduced by paragraph #2, is why you are the solution. The balance of the letter is the proof.

Following paragraph #2, you bullet those accomplishments and results that provide this proof that you have already solved in the past the problem or challenge this employer is facing now.

Paragraph #3 adds additional information about your years in the field, education (if relevant), maturity or other personality traits that contribute to your success and concludes with the statement, "I will call you next week to discuss those people and companies you think I should contact in my search."

Outline of Generic Sales Letter

Paragraph #1 = The general problem, challenge, needs, and opportunities faced by your targeted market or professional area within an industry or market.

Paragraph #2 = Why you are the solution and inclusion of your career objective from your resume.

Three to four bulleted indented paragraphs - examples of relevant accomplishments with results

•

Paragraph #4 = Additional relevant information such as your years in the field, degrees you are pursuing, or unique personality traits that would contribute to your success. Conclude this paragraph with the last sentence of "I'll call you next week..."

What follows is a specific letter of a former client of mine. The name is removed to protect the successful!

Generic letter addressed to a problem of potential employer

Dear Mr. Smith:

In today's fast paced, ever-changing, manufacturing environment, it is becoming more and more challenging to ensure that your company's material needs are being effectively addressed in the areas of cost reduction, on-time vendor deliveries, and effective quality levels.

I am able to coordinate multi-departmental and company objectives, to minimize costs, ensure timely vendor deliveries, and effective quality levels. Among my specific accomplishments are:

• Restructured a $60,000,000 purchasing department resulting in a purchasing activity highly effective in cost reduction, quality improvement, and on-time deliveries.

• Managed a 12 person purchasing department resulting in highly effective responses to company material needs during high-growth period (300% year).

• Developed and implemented a manual material requirements planning system allowing the company to move from the manufacture of one simple product to five complex products in less than six weeks, saving the company $60,000.

• Negotiated the company's first $1,000,000 semi-conductor contract resulting in a $300,000 cost reduction and higher allocation status reducing material shortages by 70%.

In addition, I have 15 years of progressive experience and responsibility in high-tech, high-growth companies with design-to-order, build-to-order, build-to-forecast environments.

Please review my enclosed resume. I will call you next week to discuss those people and companies you think I should contact in my search. Thank you.

Sincerely yours,

John Doe

(With that general problem/solution letter finished, the other letters are easy. You only need to change the first and last sentences and a few minor alterations here and there. Here are the variations on that first letter.)

2. "Old Colleague," sent to members of your professional organization or those you know of in the same field.

Dear George,

As a colleague in the field of purchasing management, you are likely to know of people who might be interested in my availability. I am now looking for a position as purchasing manager with the management team of a high-tech, high- growth oriented electronics company with responsibility for total company procurement and inventory management. I am able to coordinate multi-departmental and company objectives, to minimize costs, ensure timely vendor deliveries, and effective quality levels. Among my specific accomplishments are:

• Restructured a $60,000,000 purchasing department resulting in a purchasing activity highly effective in cost reduction, quality improvement, and on-time deliveries.

• Managed a 12 person purchasing department resulting in highly effective responses to company material needs during high-growth period (300% year).

• Negotiated the company's first $1,000,000 semi-conductor contract resulting in a $300,000 cost reduction and higher allocation status reducing material shortages by 70%.

In addition, I have 15 years of progressive experience and responsibility in high-tech, high-growth companies with design-to-order, build-to-order, build-to-forecast environments.

Please review my enclosed resume. I will call you next week to discuss those people and companies you think I should contact in my search. Thank you.

Sincerely yours,

John Doe

3. "New Contacts," sent as follow-up to having met someone at a meeting, conference, etc. and of course, having told them that you were job hunting and would be sending them your resume and then calling for feedback, referrals, etc.

Dear George,

I enjoyed meeting you at the recent meeting of the Chicago Purchasing Management Association and hearing your discussion about current purchasing trends in the electronics industry.

As I indicated during our conversation, I am now looking for a position as purchasing manager with the management team of a high-tech, high-growth electronics company with responsibility for total company procurement and inventory management. I am able to coordinate multi-departmental and company objectives, to minimize costs, insure timely vendor deliveries, and effective quality levels. Among my specific accomplishments are:

• Restructured a $60,000,000 purchasing department resulting in a purchasing activity highly effective in cost reduction, quality improvement, and on-time deliveries.

• Managed a 12 person purchasing department resulting in highly effective responses to company material needs during high-growth period (300% year).

• Negotiated the company's first $1,000,000 semi-conductor contract resulting in a $300,000 cost reduction and higher allocation status reducing material shortages by 70%.

In addition, I have 15 years of progressive experience and responsibility in high-tech, high-growth companies with design-to-order, build-to-order, build-to-forecast environments.

Please review the enclosed resume, and I will call you next week to discuss those people and companies you think I should contact in my search.

Sincerely yours,

John Doe

4. "Referral," sent to someone you've not met who was referred to you by their friend/colleague.

Dear George,

Sam Jones suggested I talk to you about my search for the position of purchasing manager with the management team of a high-tech, high-growth electronics company with responsibility for total company procurement and inventory management. I am able to coordinate multi-departmental and company objectives, to minimize costs, insure timely vendor deliveries, and effective quality levels. Among my specific accomplishments are:

• Restructured a $60,000,000 purchasing department resulting in a purchasing activity highly effective in cost reduction, quality improvement, and on-time deliveries.

• Managed a 12 person purchasing department resulting in highly effective responses to company material needs during high-growth period (300% year).

• Negotiated the company's first $1,000,000 semi-conductor contract resulting in a $300,000 cost reduction and higher allocation status reducing material shortages by 70%.

In addition, I have 15 years of progressive experience and responsibility in high-tech, high-growth companies with design-to-order, build-to-order, build-to-forecast environments.

Please review my enclosed resume. I will call you next week to discuss those people and companies you think I should contact in my search. Thank you.

Sincerely yours,

John Doe

c: Sam Jones

5. "Ad Response," letter which responds to ads in the newspaper, which should be the least emphasized part of your efforts, because you have the least chance to get a job in this manner. However, with that in mind, I will spend a few paragraphs addressing the want ads.

Always look at the Sunday "Want Ads" of your local paper, the National Business Employment Weekly and any paper such as The Wall Street Journal with a regional version. If your search is national, then read the Sunday want ads of The New York Times, Washington Post or of whichever city has a potential interest for you.

You may also find ads for your field in the back of your industry's journals and trade papers. Also, the employment agencies there might be worth checking out.

The only ads my clients respond to are those that look copied from their resume. Bolles, in What Color is Your Parachute, has one of the most convincing arguments about why ads are a waste of time. If used as a component of your overall strategy, it should be an occasional task taking up no more than 2% of all job hunting time.

However, for the occasional ad, here is the format: Read the ad and determine if there is an overall theme ("rapidly expanding"), need ("to open Mid-West office"), personality ("youth oriented, energetic") or function ("frontier of waste management") and address this in the first paragraph as was stated in the generic sales letter.

Then list in a column on the left side of a piece of paper the items as they occur in the ad. These might be the skills, experience, education, accomplishments and other qualities that define the successful candidate. In a column on the right, match your accomplishments in the same sequence so they reflect the same hierarchy as the ad.

These accomplishments will then be bulleted in the same way as your general sales letter. Conclude the letter with the same generalizations about yourself that is relevant to the tone or focus of the ad.

One way that compromises this very specific response but saves time, is to develop a general ad response letter where you just fill in the title of the job being advertised. What you gain in economy of effort, you lose in being specifically responsive to the expressed needs of the ad.

This is a letter which shows the format to respond to the occasional blind ad, where follow-up is generally impossible.

Dear Sir/Madam:

In your search for a (put in title of ad) to assume all aspects of this area, you need someone who has already proven his abilities in corporate settings where he has been able to either start up and/or maintain existing programs that respond to all management level needs. I am looking for a role where I can contribute my maturity, skills, experience, and achievements to increase managerial and professional effectiveness, a role where

I am supporting and/or creating a total strategy to capitalize on human resources.

My 20 years of experience in this area more than qualify me for the role you are seeking to fill. Specifically:

• As a consultant to the XYZ Company, I created an organization-wide Management By Objectives program. MBO is now a solid part of their culture.

• As president of Consulting Partners, I have repeated the basic consulting role of identifying needs and priorities to develop programs and materials that meet these needs. Clients have been domestic and international and very diverse.

• As Corporate Director of Management Development at A.B.C. Partners, I conducted needs analyzes to develop and implement programs which increased productivity of the various businesses, divisions, and departments.

• As Manager of Organization and Individual Development at the N.O.P. Company, I had complete responsibility for starting up a new function which encompassed assessing needs of managers and supervisors at all levels across diverse functions, domestic and abroad.

Please review the enclosed resume to see how well my background and skills will meet your human resources development objectives. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely yours,

John Doe

6. "Recruiters," following up these letters with a call has limited utility as recruiters are either actively looking for a candidate like you, in which case they will call in response to your resume, or they are not, in which case they will not be able to help you.

Also, the only recruiters you should mail to are those who specialize in your field and most do not specialize at all. You can find these recruiters through your networking and some will advertise in your professional journals. Here's the format:

Dear Joe:

For your clients who are faced by today's fast paced, ever-changing, manufacturing environment, it is becoming more and more challenging to ensure that their company's material needs are being effectively addressed in the areas of cost reduction,

on-time vendor deliveries, and effective quality levels.

I am now looking for a position as purchasing manager with the management team of a high-tech, growth oriented electronics company with responsibility for total company procurement and inventory management. I am able to coordinate multi-departmental and company objectives, to minimize costs, insure timely vendor deliveries, and effective quality levels. Among my specific accomplishments are:

• Restructured a $60,000,000 purchasing department resulting in a purchasing activity highly effective in cost reduction, quality improvement, and on-time deliveries.

• Managed a 12 person purchasing department resulting in highly effective responses to company material needs during high-growth period (300% year).

• Negotiated the company's first $1,000,000 semi-conductor contract resulting in a $300,000 cost reduction and higher allocation status reducing material shortages by 70%.

In addition, I have 15 years of progressive experience and responsibility in high-tech, high-growth companies with design-to-order, build-to-order, build-to-forecast environments.

If my background and skills respond to your clients' current and future objectives, call me so we can discuss how my background and accomplishments can respond to your client's purchasing needs.

Sincerely yours,

John Doe

Follow-up to Interviews

Your immediate follow up (within two days) to every interview is critical. It will not only impress the individual you interviewed with, it will distinguish you from others who may have interviewed for the same job.

Here are some statistics: Of 10 interviewees, 5 won't send a follow-up letter; of the 5 who do, 4 will send it in 1 to 2 weeks. Their letter will be of the "thank you for your time" version. Yours will be the only one targeted to specific results you can achieve for the employer. These are the results you identified because of the questions you asked during the interview.

Dear Joe,

Thank you for considering me for the position of (title) at (name of company or department). Now that we have had an opportunity to discuss the position, your needs and my qualification, I would like to briefly review my unique qualifications which we agreed were:

• (specific qualifications most relevant to the job, e.g. over 10 years of experience designing ....);

• (able to motivate staff of....)

• (accomplishments that prove you have already done whatever the employer wants you to do):

• (etc.)

Be assured that I am very interested in the position as I believe that it would be a good fit between your immediate and long range needs and my skills, experience and career objective.

I look forward to hearing from you by next week, or I will call you by (specific date you agreed to at the end of your interview) to discuss any further details that will help you reach a decision about my candidacy for the position. Thank you.

Sincerely yours,

John Doe

Thank You Letter - For the Next Job.

This letter marks the beginning of your job hunting strategy for the job after this one. Basically, you want to thank people who helped you and even those who didn't. While job hunting, not everyone will be kind and gracious to you. No matter. Send them a thank you letter also because they will be even more impressed that you thought about them, especially if they don't even remember you!

Also, this will formally galvanize your network. As you continue your leadership roles and maintain your visibility, these are the people who will be your base for further extending your network.

I have sent out this thank you letter, on my new company's stationery with my business card paper-clipped to the upper left hand side of the letter. I even received several letters thanking me for my thank you letter and several people called me to wish me luck!

Dear Joe,

I have just secured a position at (name of employer) as (title). I will be working on (major projects) with responsibilities for:

• (Primary project/objectives/responsibilities and expected outcomes)

• (Secondary projects....)

• (One or two more projects....)

I would like to thank you for the help (be specific if you like) you gave me while I was job hunting. I really appreciate it.

If I can be of any assistance to you in the future, please let me know. I look forward to seeing you at the next meeting of (name of local professional network), or once I'm settled in, I'll give you a call and we'll get together to play catch-up.

Sincerely yours,

John Doe

6 NETWORKING

The Power of Numbers

The following figures show how important numbers are in the game of job hunting. Job hunting can take a lot of time, energy and money, especially if you are still employed and are conducting a national search. It takes a real commitment to maintain a high level of energy to go to one more meeting at night when you’d rather stay home after a hard day’s work, when you’d rather play golf over the weekend instead of working on some more sales letters or organizing the administrative aspects of your job hunting campaign.

Keep at it, the results are your ideal job and greater income, satisfaction and challenge.

Attending One Meeting Per Month

If you attend one meeting a month and meet 10 people, follow-up with a letter, resume and phone call, you should get another 20 leads or 2 from each contact. Remember, you’re not asking for employment, you’re asking for referrals. This will result in 30 new contacts per month.

Attending Two Meetings Per Month

If you attend two meetings a month and meet 20 people, (10 people at each meeting), follow-up with letter, resume and phone call, you should get another 40 leads or two from each contact. Remember, you’re not asking for employment, you’re asking for referrals. This will result in 60 new contacts per month.

Attending Three Meetings Per Month

If you attend three meetings a month and meet 30 people, (10 people at each meeting), follow-up with letter, resume and phone call, you should get another 60 leads or two from each contact. Remember, you’re not asking for employment, you’re asking for referrals. This will result in 90 new contacts per month.

Confronting Fear

Job hunting is not easy and involves all of the elements that make you human. One of these elements is fear. Many emotional reactions (varieties of fear) and other responses to these uniquely aggressive tactics are shared by most of your fellow human beings. It is because of these normal (though self-defeating) reactions, that much of the employed population is unhappily employed. Members of this population tolerate daily tedium, frustration and low self- esteem because they are paralyzed by these feelings.

Be assured that feelings of inadequacy, job hunting incompetence, fear of change, fear of being aggressive and selling yourself are felt by a vast majority of people. People, who on the job, are more than competent, qualified and otherwise able to be employed at a level that is challenging, fulfilling and exciting. So my approach will deal as much with your feelings as with a very strategic logical and calculating approach to the job market.

Support Groups

Every several months I have support group meetings consisting only of my current clients who are pursuing very different career objectives, but all seeking them in the same way. Though I start out the group by asking what clients want to discuss, usually recent job hunting experiences or concerns, my real focus is on their behavior with each other.

I look for behaviors such as how well they find out about each other for potential leads, how they ask for business cards and hand out their own, and especially their egocentric and selfish behavior with each other. I remind them again how this aggressive posture is appropriate for job hunting. I'm not advocating it for the many other roles they might play out in their lives, such as spouse, parent, friend, lover, etc.

Leadership Roles

Although assuming a visible leadership role in your professional community forms the essence of my strategy, not all leaderships roles have equal value for the job hunter. I have listed what I consider to be the best four roles in a typical professional group with my sense of a ratio of time put in relationship to the benefit you get from it as a job hunter.

In the parenthesis, I have listed the typical hours per month you will spend at each role on the left and the relative value (10 being the highest) of each role on the right.

Resume Bank (2/10) - This is my favorite role for job hunters, because you will be the first in your group to find out about any employment opportunities. Recruiters will contact you as will others who refer their candidate searches through you. And of course, you should definitely inform the rest of the group about any opportunities you don't want yourself! So what do you do if your professional organization does not have a Resume Bank? Start one!

Newsletter Editor (7/10) - Although writing/producing a newsletter can take quite a bit of time, it provides you with the opportunity to have a monthly column with your picture in every issue. One of my clients even put "Qualified and Job Hunting" underneath his name!

Activities Committee Chairperson (8/10) - This role is excellent because it allows you to call up any expert in the world and invite him/her to speak at an upcoming meeting. As chairperson, you can pick up this speaker at the airport, tell him/her you are job hunting, ask for referrals, etc.

Executive Position (15/9) - While executive positions are generally good for visibility, they typically are much too demanding time-wise to be appropriate for job hunters.

Getting Published

It's easy to get published and anyone can find something to write about. People who are published are assumed to be "experts" in their field which is why it is so important for job hunters to get published.

However, what job hunters typically fail to realize is that getting published doesn't always require a significant breakthrough or discovery of a new cosmos. It could be about a project that was done for less money, taking less time and effort or under unusual circumstances, with a unique twist, application or result.

If your experience offers none of this, then write about changes you'd like to see happen or a problem you'd like help with. You could write about some element of training or preparation that was missing in preparing you for your job, a particular project or working conditions. You could even write about a project that had no drama, but was simply a competent performance using some of the basics of your field.

I once wrote an article entitled "An Old Fashioned Way to Implement Management by Objectives." I had no new or significant techniques to discuss, no dramatic breakthroughs. I had simply completed a project using the basic technology that's been around for years. It was a solid job, well done, using basic steps that are most often neglected.

The easiest way to get published is to call the editor of the local newsletter or national magazine and discuss the idea you have and ask "What angle would your readership like to read about ?" The editor, most of whom are starving for articles, will tell you what to write about, the style, format, slant and length.

Since they have in effect, told you what and how to write, they will of course, think it's brilliant when they receive it. Because I always speak to the editor first, I have only had one article rejected. Also, be sure to tell the editor that you are open to rewriting it any way that will ensure its getting published.

Additionally, by publishing in the local newsletter first, you can make a modest investment of time and energy, get some local visibility, before expanding it for national publication. And always, have someone outside of your field read it for intelligibility. You want that lowest level of comprehension.

One of my clients was in transition from teaching to training and development. She contacted the editor of the local newsletter to discuss her article describing the process of this transition. Several weeks later, the editor contacted her because of a call she received from an employer looking for a trainer. Three phone calls and one trip later, she had the job. As far as I know, the article has never been completed.

Another client looking for a job as a general manager of a hotel, wrote an article entitled "How Does Your Hotel Sound." This was based on the responses he received in calling the top 10 hotels in Chicago, to determine how they would respond to basic questions about guest services, prices, availability, etc. This article is both very publishable and great data for an interview.

Presentations (Local, Regional and National)

Similar to publishing, the same strategy is appropriate for getting speaking engagements. Always talk to the chairperson of the event to see what topics they are looking for. I have spoken at local regional, national and international conferences using this tactic.

Overall Benefits of Aggressive Networking

Again the purpose of even a modest investment in all of this activity is to establish relationships, credibility and awareness with the top ranking members of your professional community who can either hire you or direct you to opportunities. The payoff is the current job you are seeking and the job after that.

Follow-up Mailings

In my strategy, your mailings will be a function of your networking. Over 90% of your letters will be to people you have already met, or to those who have been referred to you by people you have met. Either way, there is a greater likelihood the recipients of your letters will talk to you and help you when you call. Another benefit of this approach is you will have almost no cold calls.

Remember, first you meet people, then you send them a letter, then you call for referrals, then you call those referrals until you get interviews and then you send those you interviewed with a post interview letter until you get an offer.

This process repeated over and over and over again, will enable you to get the job of your choice for which you are qualified.

Miscellaneous Suggestions on Mailings

• When it comes to writing letters, my advice is send no more letters than you can follow up with a telephone call within five business days.

• If you are truly isolated and/or there are no societies for your profession where you live, then you will have to rely on the more traditional approach of mailings first, then calls, then meetings. Most traditional mailings that job hunters do are very wasteful. They are typically resumes with a cover letter sent to a title at a particular company.

• Once you have defined the kind of business you want to work for, use various directories to identify the key hiring manager and mail a sales letter directly to him/her without a resume and follow up with a phone call in 5 business days.

• When you send "blind" letters (because you have not met the individual first) do not include your resume. That is because many secretaries have been instructed to forward all resumes directly to personnel. A well-written sales letter, appealing to the needs of the potential employer and listing your accomplishments ("employer benefits") will be supportively presented by the secretary to the boss.

• Be sure that each letter is typed by a professional or on a computer or word processor. If possible, this work should be contracted out so you can save your energy and attention for the telephoning, interviewing and researching. Be sure to carefully proof each inside address and envelope. You will sabotage your efforts early on even with just one error.

• One suggestion is to use monarch size stationery and envelopes. This is slightly smaller than normal letterhead and has an executive look. Because the paper size is smaller, it is more seductive to be read immediately. If not read, at least remembered when you call, because it looked so outstanding.

Getting Interviews

As you know by now, attending meetings is the key to networking. Studies have shown that personal referrals generate 80% of all successful job leads. And because you will be networking so aggressively, most of your interviews will be a result of having met people or having been referred to others by those you've met.

So, what are the best ways to meet people?

How to Get 10 New Referrals from Every Meeting You Attend

First of all, never spend any time with people you already know or people you have already met who know you are job hunting. Only spend time meeting new people who can help you in your search. Here's what to do:

Before the meeting at the cash bar, go up to a group of strangers. Approach the oldest people in the room because they typically have the most senior positions.

Introduce yourself and talk about anything as long as one topic is that you are job hunting. If these individuals are of value stay with them until lunch. If not, excuse yourself and state that because you are job hunting, you wish to meet as many people as possible.

However, before leaving the group, ask each individual for a business card and say you'd like to send them a resume for feedback and referrals. Tell them you will follow that up with a phone call in a week. Approach another group of again, the oldest individuals you can find, and repeat the same procedure.

Continue approaching groups until you encounter individuals who will be of great benefit or they call for the luncheon seating. If those you are with are promising, stay with them as you sit down, If not, excuse yourself and look for a new group to sit with. Again, making sure to get business cards before you leave.

When you sit down, introduce yourself all around the table. It might even be appropriate to hand out your business card and this will prompt others to do likewise.

Try to introduce topics to the table (one of which of course is that you are job hunting!) that will stimulate everyone's involvement instead of settling for the small sub-groupings that occur.

During the speaker's presentation try to think of a question you can ask that relates one of your accomplishments to a point the speaker made. In addition, when you stand up to ask your question, also announce to the room that you are job hunting.

Example: My name is Mel Schnapper, and I'm currently job hunting. I enjoyed your comments about how to get employee morale high during times of lay-offs. When I was at Diamond Manufacturing, I used similar techniques and found them to be very effective. Could you give some more examples from your own history?

I realize that the above techniques require some sophistication and practice in learning how to manipulate individuals and groups. It's worth learning and the payoff is terrific.

Hustling at Trade Shows

Promoting yourself at trade shows, conventions or professional conferences, (local, regional or national) provide excellent opportunities to meet new people and generate referrals.

You can meet 40 to 50 people in one day who can help you find a good job where you want to live. Outside of attending a large meeting, you'd be lucky to accomplish this same feat in a month.

It can even be cost-effective for an unemployed executive who wants to remain in Chicago to go to a trade show in Hawaii. Many corporate decision makers don't go to their local trade or professional association meetings, but do attend the national meetings in more exotic locations.

Ideally, you should start preparing your job hunt for a show at least three months before the event. This allows time to become involved with the organization that is sponsoring the event.

Volunteer to be a host at one of the organization's hospitality suites to give yourself the opportunity to meet a couple of hundred people you might not have met otherwise.

An alternative is to offer to drive a speaker to or from an airport so you can have time alone with one of the most knowledgeable and best connected persons in your industry.

When you arrive at a conference, go to the seminars related to topics you know most about so your questions and comments will impress people.

Stand at the back of the seminar rooms so you can shake hands with potential contacts before and after the speech. Most importantly, after the speech, raise your hand to ask a question.

When you arrive at a convention, be sure to have a ton of resumes and business cards on you. For the unemployed, a business card should have your name, address and telephone number.

The best time to take your job hunt to a trade show floor is during the slowest periods. Don't start a conversation at a booth by saying you're a job hunter. Instead, begin by mentioning something about the company, the industry or the booth itself. Hold back on the "can you help me get a job?" question initially. It can set up resistance.

Soon after the conversation starts, the employee at the booth will ask who you represent. Then, you can say you're looking for a job. If the conversation is going well and the person you're speaking to isn't burdened with booth business, ask him to review your resume there. If the booth is getting busy, say you will send your resume to the person after the show and that a call will follow. In any case, ask for their business cards and hand out your own.

At a hospitality suite or other social setting, it's unnecessary to beat-around-the-bush that you are job hunting. You won't be the only one and your identification badge will be one of the few without a company name on it.

Job hunting at a conference is a 6:30 am to midnight job. Work every meal hour and stay at the main hotel until the wee hours. There's always one more person walking around.

And make sure you follow up any contacts. Most of what you will gain at a trade show aren't on-the-spot interviews, but referrals that can lead to interviews. Also, if you already have a job and you are using the conference as an opportunity to find something better, it can be too easy to become complacent after the hoopla of the event ends.

On your first day back, write letters to people you met. Lead off by recalling something that was said in your conversation, then list and "bullet" your accomplishments that are relevant to the company you're interested in.

Call the people later and ask if they've read your resume. Chances are they haven't. Reiterate your strengths and ask who they know who would hire someone like yourself.

The best place to find out about upcoming conventions and conferences is through your industry professional associations and trade journals.

If you don't know the local contact for the professional group of interest to you, call up their national headquarters. Again, the phone numbers can be found in The Encyclopedia of Associations published by Gale which is available in many libraries.

On a local basis for meetings, major urban papers have a calendar of business meetings in their business section, usually on Mondays.

Telephoning

All of this activity will include lots of telephoning. I always ask clients how often they would call someone after sending them a letter and/or resume when the recipient has not returned any of their calls. Typical answers are 3 to 4 times; some answer until they got hold of them, but when pushed admit that it would not exceed 6 or 7 times.

My answer to the question is that they are to:

Call until they reach the person or

are threatened with arrest for harassment.

I also tell them that the threat is not likely to occur, but will give them a conceptual limit for how many calls they must make to get what they want.

Making six or seven calls may be assertive.

Calling as often as you need to make contact is aggressive.

Be sure you've memorized your career objective from your resume in case you reach the person and your letter (with resume) hasn't reached him/her yet. If it hasn't, state, "I'm sure my resume will get to you in the next day or two, but since we're on the phone, may I take two minutes of your time and tell you why I wrote to you. . . ?" And when they say, "yes," go into your speech with your career objective first.

One exercise you might find useful is to have a friend pretend to answer your follow-up call and present you will different situations. For example:

Ring, ring - "Hello, my name is Mel Schnapper. Is Bill Johnson there?" "No, he left the company." "Where did he go and who has taken over his function?"

Ring, ring - "Hello, my name is Mel Schnapper. Is Bill Johnson there?" "No, he died yesterday." "I'm sorry to hear that. Could you tell me who took his place?"

Get the idea!!!!

7 INTERVIEWS

What Interviewers Look For

Regardless how good your verbal skills are, you must also look your best. Though the "Dress for Success" manuals can be helpful, I have all of my clients pay at least one visit to an image consultant. I suggest you find your local image consultant for at least one consultation. Remember, as a job hunter you want to look your best, maybe better than you’ve ever looked before.

Just to buttress my argument about how your style of appearance and interviewing is critical, Robert Half Inc., a New York based executive recruitment firm, showed that interviews are most influenced by candidate's personalities, experience and qualifications in that order!

In identifying which one factor is most influential to hiring a job applicant, 22% cite a candidate’s personality and demeanor during an interview. 19% feel that experience is most important. And 17% emphasize specific skills or qualifications.

Only 7% call "compatibility and ability to get along with coworkers-workers" the most important consideration, while 7% give top priority to intelligence. An additional 6% go on the candidate's appearance of "being a hard worker" and 4% cite communications skills. Lowest on the list of most influential factors is the resume.

Postures

There are three postures to use when you interview: employee, colleague or consultant. They differ radically from each other.

Employee: As an employee you will be cooperative, responsive and relatively conventional or passive. This is a low risk posture and is suitable for the entry level type candidate.

Colleague: This posture is for those who know as much as the interviewer about his/her own field. It assumes that you are active in similar professional organizations, have published and know a lot of people in common within the industry. You have had about 5 years or more of experience or can talk as though you did. The dynamics are give and take with your questioning being about equal to the questioning from the interviewer. It is a conversation between equals.

Consultant: In this posture you are not interviewing you are working! You approach the situation the way you would approach a needs analysis by finding out what the situation is all about and being quite in control during the interview.

Your intent is to actually give the interviewer an experience of how you work. You will offer solutions during the session or get enough data to propose solutions in your follow-up letter. In place of the bulleted past accomplishments, you will substitute proposed steps or solutions related to the problems, issues, challenges you discussed during the interview. This posture is very assertive and if is too overwhelming, then you can always retreat to the colleague and even employee posture. And who knows, if you do a good job, you may get a consulting contract out of it. I have.

Interview Answers

As I said when explaining the Accomplishment Form, the basic principle of job interviewing is to be "Employer Benefit" oriented.

Remember, the employer seldom has an opportunity to actually see you perform. He is almost completely dependent on you to describe how well you work. So, as an interviewee, you must communicate well, with enthusiasm and conviction and send the message that you not only want the job, but you are extremely qualified to fill it.

The most important part of any of your responses to questions is the response of "employer benefit." This means that almost any answer must convey how hiring you will have concrete benefits to the employer. Though not always possible, try to answer every question in terms of benefits to the employer in measurable terms of money, time, and effort. We will list several very typical questions and answers.

This is a focus on the #3 part of the Accomplishments Form - the results of any accomplishment. (How you get things done is taken from part 2 of the Accomplishments Form.) By now you have internalized more skill verbs as part of your active vocabulary.

1. Why do you want to work for us?

"Because I want to make a contribution to your company." The specifics of the contributions will be determined by the job you are interviewing for and what you know about the company, function, department, etc.

So for sales, the contribution is "Increase your sales of..." For purchasing, the contribution is "Reduce your inventory." For Labor Relations, "Reduce your number of union grievances."

Find out in specific terms how the company will benefit from your presence.

You already know from the Accomplishments Form the results (employer benefits) you have already produced for past employers.

2. What would you like to be doing in five years?

"In five years I would like to be in the same general area with increased challenges and responsibilities and an even greater opportunity to make an impact on the company, function or department."

3. What didn't you like about your last boss?

"I was often frustrated because he did not delegate enough work, give me enough freedom to be more creative, didn't take the opportunity to teach me enough about his job, so I could be more supportive, etc."

4. What are some of your weaknesses?

"I have a tendency to overwork and sometimes neglect my family," or "I get impatient when others don't get their work done on time," or "I get frustrated when others don't do as much as they are capable of."

5. How would you handle. . . ? and the interviewer describes a certain situation.

Before answering a question of this sort, start out by saying you would do some investigating to verify the facts of the situation and then describe what you would do, depending on the results of your investigation.

6. Tell me about yourself.

There are several responses to this. Ask the interviewer for more information about the job, "so my description can be immediately responsive to your needs," or describe yourself as a competent, task-oriented worker who's eager to do a good job.

7. Aren't you too old, (too young, too educated, too experienced, whatever) for this job?

"So you feel concerned that I might not have the youthful spirit to get along with your younger work force?" This response serves two purposes. One is to identify the feelings underlying the question. The other is to determine exactly what "too old" means. Does it relate to values, energy, spirit, looks, current employee concerns about older workers? The point I want to make is "too anything" doesn't really tell you what the underlying specific issue is. You must probe to find out.

8. What are some of your accomplishments?

This is where your Accomplishments Form preparation is directly responsive. As you answer, focus on the #3 part (outcomes/results) of the accomplishment.

9. What are some of your strengths?

Again, you produce results. Use the major skill verbs from #2 of the Form that contributed most to your results.

10. Which supervisors have you liked best and why?

The ones who were the most challenging and demanding, who helped you see how much you could produce.

11. Why are you leaving your current job?

You're frustrated at the level of challenge and opportunity to do more for the company and yourself!

12. What are some of your non-work activities?

Being an active leader in your professional community, in roles that require you to exercise leadership or are professionally relevant.

13. How long do you plan to stay here?

"For as long as I can make a significant contribution and/or accomplish the major project you're hiring me for, and/or to continue completing major projects that contribute to your company, the department, etc."

14. How long will it take you to make a contribution?

"When do I start?" or "As soon as I'm given the responsibility and authority to accomplish . . . "

15. What turns you on about our company?

"The opportunity to contribute in the area of . . . or to successfully complete . . . "

16. What salary are you looking for?

"I'm looking for the kind of salary that will compensate me for the level of contribution I make."

17. What turns you on about this field?

"This is a field where I can really make a difference in improving the . . . of . . . "

18. Who's one of your heroes and why?

Someone in your field who exhibits commitment and/or outside of your field whose traits are important to your job.

19. What's a major life's failure or crisis?

One that taught you a lot about yourself and your ability to withstand adversity and come out of it a more mature, self-aware person.

20. What kind of people do you like to work with?

"People who are equally committed to getting the job done in a way that addresses excellence, quality and breaking new barriers in the field."

21. Have you ever been fired?

"Yes, one job I had did not allow me any freedom to take risks and be creative and since I could do no less, I got fired for it. Would you like to know more?"

22. What is your current salary?

"I'm not sure how that relates to our discussion. I'd rather talk about the value this job has for you in terms of what I can contribute." If you need to know more about handling this question refer to Jack Chapman's manual, How To Make $1000 A Minute: Negotiating Your Salaries and Raises. You can order this excellent book by calling (312) 332-2760 Depart. 48.

23. What do you read?

"I usually read the major journals in my field such as . . . and occasionally manuals about . . . "

24. Will you relocate?

"For the right opportunity, I will work on the moon."

25. Can we check your references?

"Of course, but since I am actively job hunting, I would like you to wait until we are near an offer, so my references won't be bothered too much."

Questions To Ask

The key principle of asking questions is to convey your commitment to achieving results for your employer.

Too many job hunters maintain a passive attitude during the interview and ask very few questions about the job. Though many candidates have good answers, they usually don't have good questions. Good questions are those that:

1. Impress the interviewer,

2. Tell you what you want to know about the company.

I have had clients who had accepted a job without knowing enough about what they were getting into. One cynic has described the job interview as taking place between two liars: the interviewer lying about what a great place his company is and the interviewee lying about how competent he is!

I maintain, and cannot emphasize enough in the job hunting field, that the questions you ask are more important than the answers you give. After the interviewer has passed the baton to you, you have the greater opportunity to control the process, impress the interviewer and discover all the remaining information you want to know about the position and company. And, it is your opportunity to convince the interviewer that your primary focus is on getting the job done.

Another basic idea behind all of these questions is your getting the information that will ensure your effectiveness and success once you have the job. You can create this impression by asking the following questions:

1. What do you want me to accomplish my first year here?

(This in effect, is asking for your performance objectives.)

2. How do you reward excellent performance?

(Of course, you are only concerned about excellence.)

3. What are the career opportunities for someone who produces consistently excellent results?

4. Who has a vested interest in whoever gets this job, and what do they expect the person to achieve/deliver/improve? When can I interview them?

5. Why was the job created?

(Every job is someone's idea of a solution to a problem.)

6. What would you like me to do better than the incumbent or whoever had the job before? (If you are replacing someone.)

7. What is the most critical and helpful change I can make?

8. What does it take to be successful here?

9. What do you look for in an ideal subordinate?

10. What excites you about working here?

11. What are the career opportunities here for you?

12. How would you define the best results in this department?

13. Could we brainstorm some possible approaches to some of the issues you raised earlier?

14. For an interview going down the tubes, you at least want some referrals, so you say. "It seems that this isn't really the right match, so now that you know something about me, could you give me some names of other people and companies that might be more appropriate for me to talk to?"

(This will probably be an uncomfortable question to ask, the first few times you do it, but if you know there is no opportunity for you at this company, then you have nothing to lose. However, only ask this question when you are absolutely confident there is no possibly of getting a job offer.)

15. Why is your company successful and how can I contribute?

16. What makes for success in this company?

17. What do you expect of your subordinates?

18. What annoys you most about people that work for you?

19. How and how often, will I know how well I am doing?

20. What should I be most wary of during my first few months here?

Toward the end of the interview:

21. Are there any questions you expected me to ask which I didn't?

(Hopefully, you'll get a "no". If not, as soon as you're told what the question is, ask it.)

22. How can we maintain a relationship to ensure that I am totally supportive of your goals and objectives?

23. If you could hire me now, would you?

(You must ask a question that provokes feedback, so you'll have the opportunity during the interview to respond. Other ways of getting feedback are; "So how well do I fit your criteria for the position?" or "As one of your 3 candidates, how do I rank?" or "When do I start?"

24. Is there anything in my background or how I interviewed that gives you any concern?

(You must push for negative data since so many interviewers will not give it to you. Remember, you will not create negative data by asking for it. It's either there already, or it's not. I once pushed so hard for negative data after doing really well, that the recruiter asked "Did you ever kill anyone? )

25. Who should I contact and when?

(Do not leave the interview with ambiguity about your next steps. When you are told that the interviewer will get back to you on a certain date, repeat the date and your expectation that you will hear by then. And you won't. However you can then call the day after.)

Also, you will then use this date in the last sentence of your follow up letter. "As we agreed, I will hear from you by (the date) about my status for the position."

Getting Referrals

A minimum outcome of any interview is to get referrals that are relevant to your career objective. By networking, in addition to the leadership role, already discussed, I also mean the recruiting of people to actively help you with your job hunting effort.

After an interview, even when there seems to be potential, but no immediate offer, recruit the interviewer by saying something like this: " I’m really glad that there is an opportunity for me here and that you will get back to me. However, since you seem to be in no hurry to hire someone, and I’m eager to find employment, could you give me the names of some people and companies I could contact who should be aware of my potential contributions." Emphasize that this company is still your first choice, it’s just that you don’t want to wait around. They’ll appreciate that and it won’t turn them off.

8 NEGOTIATING

What To Do When Salary Comes Up

The whole issue of salary is one that makes most people nervous. It need not. Remember, the salary range of the position has already been determined by the market value of the job. Unique skills you have may increase the salary, or skills you lack may decrease the particular salary being offered. The employer's "desperate" need to fill the position is seldom a bargaining point during hiring.

When the question of salary comes up, you should try to defer it to a later time. The idea being that once you have decided you want the job and the employer has decided he wants to hire you, salary is a lesser issue.

Remember, whoever talks about money first loses. That is, do not allude to any concern about salary. You are there to make significant contributions to the company, the department and to the person interviewing you. So let the interviewer bring up the issue first.

When first asked about your salary requirements, your response should be something like, "Salary is an important consideration, but my primary interest is getting the right kind of career opportunity which offers tremendous growth and challenge with proper compensation," or "I am sure that once we both agree that my qualifications for the job are right, the salary will take care of itself."

If the interviewer becomes insistent about your salary requirements, try to respond with "What is the salary range of the position?" and if the range is acceptable to you, just reply, "That's within my range; let's continue talking."

One important point to remember is that you must determine your lowest acceptable salary. Having done this, you will be better able to negotiate for a job you really want, even though it may not pay what you really want. With careful planning, you will probably be able to narrow the gap after the first year on the job, if you negotiate properly before accepting the offer.

This gap can be narrowed by a bonus, larger than normal increases in salary, additional funds for professional and personal development, extra vacation and many other things that can be negotiated for, when the salary is recognized by both parties as below your market value. I have had several situations like this that netted me more than just my market value.

Do not make the mistake of getting hung up because the base salary is a little below your expectations. You can more than make up for it by shrewdly negotiating for additional benefits, or benefits that are worth cash to you and cost the employer little or nothing.

Here is a comprehensive list of other items to negotiate for:

Annual physical exam

Athletic club membership

Bonuses

Cafeteria

Company car or gas allowance

Compensatory time

Consulting fees after termination

Consumer product discounts

Cost of living increases

Country club membership

CPA and tax assistance

Credit cards

Day care

Deferred compensation

Dental plan

Disability pay

Education

Executive dining room privileges

Expense account

Financial planning assistance

Flexible work hours (rotating work week, 4 day work week)

Relocation related

closing costs

company purchase of your home

installation of appliances, drapes and carpets

lodging fees while between homes

mortgage funds

mortgage prepayment penalty

mortgage rate differential

real estate brokerage

shipping of boats and pets

trips for family to look for home

Hospitalization

Housing

Insurance benefits after termination

Legal assistance

Life insurance

Loan guarantees

Loans

Luncheon club membership

Matching contributions

Matching investment program

Medical insurance

Overseas travel

Pension plan

Product discount

Professional dues

Professional outplacement

Profit sharing

Raises - how much, accelerated

Retirement plan

Sales commission

Scholarship for children

Severance pay

Short term loans

Social activities (entertainment)

Stock option

Travel

Unemployment benefits

Vacation

Wholesale buying

The rule is, once you have been

offered a job, ask for everything.

The worst response to your requests is that some will be refused then and forever. The next worse is that you will be told that your request cannot be discussed now and should be raised again after you've been on the job 6 months to a year. Some of your requests will be given an immediate yes.

Responding to Job Offers

Even if it is the right job and the right salary offer, respond with "yes, but I would like some time to think it over." Then go over the list and decide what else to ask for. Then schedule the next meeting to make your acceptance and requests.

Remember, once you have been offered a job,

the power is on your side, because

they have told you they want you!

When you do get an offer, here are some considerations. You must decide whether this job is worth pursuing in more depth and if it is "The Job" for you. If your answer is "yes," then you must begin the important stage of contracting. This is a unique opportunity to negotiate for conditions which will enhance your effectiveness on the job, e.g. access to information, feedback on performance, adequate budget and support. It is most important to get your new employer's agreement on all of these matters as well as on your salary level. To save confusion or later questions, ask them to write down as much of this as possible.

Never say "no" to a job that might have some interest to you. Instead of "no" state the conditions under which the job would be acceptable to you, e.g. expanded responsibilities, better career potential, etc. Who knows, if they expressed some interest in you, you might be the candidate if this job changes or one more to your liking, is created.

The Next Job

My whole approach and strategy are based upon finding employment by being an aggressive and highly visible leader within your professional community. Because you are now part of that cadre, expect that you will hear about possibly attractive jobs. Now you're part of the "in-crowd" and privy to all of this information. So get ready. Revise your resume. Do well on your new job and continue to go after new employment opportunities. At worst, it won't be any better than what you already have. And it could be better!

If this approach sounds disloyal and unstable, you're right. Employment and satisfaction are something to pursue without regard to some old, traditional and now inappropriate values. But that's my opinion.

9 SPECIAL TOPICS

Shopping For a Job Hunting Counselor

For many, this manual and workshop may be all you will need. If you’re ever stuck, seek out a professional counselor who specializes in job huntin