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Job Seekers Should Consider What Their Online, In-Person and On-Paper Personas Say about Them

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals ArticleA potential employer takes just a moment or two to size up a potential candidate, leaving job seekers little room for error when trying to make a positive first impression. Whether presenting themselves online, in-person, or on paper, job seekers relay a lot of information to a potential employer in the first few minutes. Employers quickly assess confidence, energy level and professionalism – all key traits that tell the employer what a candidate might bring to the workplace. As a result, it’s very important to present yourself in the best possible light.

Job seekers need to focus on their accomplishments and fit for the role first and foremost, which can make them feel pressured. But, there ARE steps they can take to ensure another interview or – better – a job offer.

Here are suggestions for making the best first impression:

  • Long resumes are a turn-off. It’s perfectly acceptable for executives to have a resume that’s as much as three pages long, but longer than that is overkill and employees looking for more junior positions should shorten their resumes even further. There is no reason to offer every detail in your resume.
  • Make sure the resume is up to date and written to highlight your relevant skills and experience that fit your current search.. Most people merely update their old resume. It’s important to write a new resume from scratch with each new job search, because typically you are interviewing at more senior levels. For example, five years ago you might have written about your individual contributions to a team; today you need to emphasize your management experience and what you have done to lead the team.
  • Resume style matters. Don’t overlook how the resume is organized and presented visually with regard to fonts and layout.
  • Make sure your online presence puts you in the best possible light. Keep your LinkedIn profile updated at all times. Clean up your Facebook page of anything that might raise an eyebrow to recruiters or an employer.
  • Dress for your environment. Dress for an interview in accordance with the employer’s office dress code, whenever possible. If it’s a suit-and-tie environment, dress the part. If it’s business casual, then it’s perfectly acceptable to forgo the jacket. There is a risk in overdressing; you need to demonstrate that you understand and fit the workplace culture.. When in doubt, ask the recruiter how you should dress for the interview.
  • Be aware of your speech patterns. Don’t speak too quickly or too slowly, too quietly or too loudly. Employers will consider this when they envision having to speak with you or be present in meetings with you daily.
  • Other physical cues. Always use a firm handshake and make eye contact with the interviewer. Sit up straight in your chair. Those rules have and will always apply.
  • Be mindful of your energy level. People gravitate to others with a good energy level because they look forward to working alongside them every day. Be enthusiastic but not over the top.
  • Don’t patronize a younger interviewer. Just because someone is younger or less experienced than you are does not mean they lack the authority to put a halt to your interview process. Further, it is good form to show anyone that interviews you the due respect they deserve.
  • Make them notice your accomplishments. Minimize distractions such as excessive jewelry or makeup and pull back very long hair.
  • Keep your answers to the point. Avoid going into too much unnecessary detail in your answers, but always offer to provide additional detail to your interviewer if they are interested in knowing more.
  • Don’t dress like you don’t need the job. Always dress like you achieved career success but leave your fur coats and very expensive jewelry at home. You never want to look like you don’t need the job.

The rules about only having a few moments to make the right impression still apply. Today, though, it’s about making sure you put your best foot forward in multiple media, including the Internet. But promoting yourself through multiple channels should be the catalyst to prompt a prospective employer to take the next step.

About the Author

Kathy HarrisKathy Harris is Managing Partner of New York City-based Harris Allied, an executive search firm specializing in Technology, UX/UI Design and Quant Analyst placement services in the Financial Services, Professional Services, Consumer Products, Digital Media and Tech Industries For more information, visit www.harrisallied.com. Contact Kathy Harris at [email protected].

Key Strategic Action Questions

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Leaders can sometimes get sidelined and stuck in a rut by focusing too much on tactics rather than strategies, and on what happened yesterday rather than what needs to happen tomorrow and the many tomorrows to come. Here are some questions to answer when you are thinking about Strategic Action. You might want to rate yourself on the questions including – how often and how well do you ask yourself and your people these questions?

Questions to Answer

1. Mission – the organization’s core work; reason/purpose for being

  • Why does this organization exist?
  • Whom does it serve?
  • What distinguishes it from other organizations?
  • What do you do that gives the organization meaning?

2. Vision – an inspiring, passionate, image of what the organization needs to and will become; a mental, even visual, model of the future; what success looks like

  • What kind of organization do you want to become?
  • What legacy do you want to leave?
  • How do you want to be perceived in the world? Be known for?
  • What does your ideal world look like?
  • What’s organizational culture do you want to create and how do you expect that culture will help you achieve your vision and strategic goals?

3. Values – the behaviors and actions that create the culture in the organization, the beliefs that drive decisions about people and work

  • What are the principles that guide your decision-making?
  • What can your stakeholders rely on in terms of the quality of programs/services/products delivered?
  • What do you stand for and how do you show that to each other?

When MVV are established and clear, you can begin to align people and work in significant and meaningful ways. Everything you do should align with your Mission, advance you toward your Vision, and be in harmony with your Values.

4. Strategies – These FEW BIG things will define how the organization will get where it wants to go. The overarching approach that will significantly advance the Vision and stay true to the Mission and Values.

5. Tactics – Those actions/activities/work, that when accomplished, will align with and advance the Strategies

  • What are the specific areas of work you want to address?
  • What do you want to have completed and by when in these various areas?
  • How will your goals advance your desired strategic outcomes?

6. Objectives – Fall within the Tactics. This is the work each person’s can identify with personally and can link to the organizational strategy, vision and mission

  • What specifically is the work that will advance the strategy and tactics?
  • Who are the right people to have this objective on their ‘plate?’
  • Who’s responsible for making it happen?
  • What are the deliverables, milestones, and time lines?
  • What resources (people, time, money, space, other) are required to make this happen and happen well?
  • What processes need to be in place (i.e. project management, change process, structure) to ensure a positive outcome?

Remember, it IS the leaders’ job to establish the mission and vision. Values should be developed with input and buy in from those who must live by them.

A vision is only a true vision when it has longevity, is not person dependent, and can stand the test of time.

Organizations need a FEW SIGNIFICANT and CLEAR, MEASUREABLE strategies to help advance the larger Vision.

About the Author

Roxi HewertsonLeadership authority Roxana (Roxi) Hewertson is a no-nonsense business veteran revered for her nuts-and-bolts, tell-it-like-it-is approach and practical, out-of-the-box insights that help both emerging and expert managers, executives and owners boost quantifiable job performance in various mission critical facets of business. Through AskRoxi.com, Roxi — “the Dear Abby of Leadership” — imparts invaluable free advice to managers and leaders at all levels, from the bullpen to the boardroom, to help them solve problems, become more effective and realize a higher measure of business and career success.

How can you make the leadership leap gracefully? Well, learning and practicing effective leadership skills is a good place to begin. When you read Roxi’s book you’ll be well on your way! Click here to learn more.

Branding vs. Marketing

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Many believe that a brand is a function of marketing. Or more specifically, brand building. Marketers and marketing departments love ‘branding campaigns’ or ‘brand-building programs,’ because they are sexier and more exciting than their less attractive cousin, the product campaign. Agencies love them because they think it means big budgets and mass media.

But a brand is much more than a component of marketing. A brand is the promise a business makes to its customers and this promise is often communicated via marketing, but the fulfillment of the promise rests on every aspect of the enterprise. From the CEO to the frontline worker, it’s everyone’s responsibility to make that promise real, top-down and bottom-up, from 60,000 feet to where the rubber meets the road.

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About the Author

JD NormanJD Norman is Executive VP, Strategy and Innovation, at Black Ink. He has nearly 20 years of marketing experience and expertise. His clients served include Fidelity Investments, John Hancock, Maytag, KPMG, Pella Corporation, BestBuy, Iowa Department of Economic Development, Huntington Bank, University Hospitals Health System of Cleveland, Moen and more. Agency experience includes Leo Burnett, MMB, The Integer Group/TBWA, and Ten United.

The Big Picture of Business – Cut the Weeds: Focus on Priorities and Strategy, Avoid the Time Zappers

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One of the by-products of being high-profile is that you get hangers-on. Most mean well and want to associate with someone successful. Some are groupies, and some are outright users. The art is to discern and marginalize the weeds from your path.

One mean-weller kept hounding me. He wanted to introduce me to people to form “strategic partnerships.” Turns out that they were people with their hands out, thinking that somebody (anybody) could magically open doors for them. I tried to set boundaries with that person. He would not respect perimeters.

One of his ‘strategic partners’ called me and conferenced in the introducer. This was not a scheduled conference call, and I felt blind-sighted. Neither one asked if this was a good time to talk or apologized for calling with no warning. In a rapid-fire sales delivery, he proceeded to talk, starting out selling stock in a venture, then shifting from one idea to the next. I patiently listened and tried to get away. This person had already called me weeks before but could not remember who I was or what I was all about. This was a ‘dial and smile’ sales call, and it was one-sided and self-focused, all about him.

The caller then announced that he had a time commitment and that I had one minute to state my case. I explained that they had called me and that I could not tell my ‘story’ in one minute. I said that if he did not remember talking to me before, then that was the problem. He challenged that it was my obligation to ‘make a difference,’ defined as me giving time and money to his pet causes. I suggested that they turn their attentions elsewhere. The caller then got hyper and talked all over me. I stated that I wasn’t interested in his projects and needed to end the call.

People who hound and use you in business are out for whatever they can get, from whomever they can get it. If you resist, they will go on to the next warm body. This is why I have a problem with networking: some are users and others are used by them, while others don’t know what they are doing.

One must be resolute in protecting their most valuable and limited commodities: time, knowledge and resources. Weeds are everywhere, crying ‘gimme.’ One can never cut all of the weeds down because they re-grow elsewhere. I’ve learned the hard way the value of prioritizing time and focusing on the people and projects that matter.

Questions to Ask About Weeds and Networking

  • Is the person making the request a true friend, a business associate or just an acquaintance? Who are they to you, and what would you like for them to be?
  • Will there be outcomes or paybacks for the other person? Will there be outcomes or paybacks for you? If there’s a discrepancy in these answers, how do you feel about it?
  • Are there networking situations which are beneficial for all parties? If so, analyze and align with those situations, rather than with the fruitless ones.
  • What types of ‘wild goose chases’ have you pursued in your networking career? Analyze them by category, to see patterns.
  • Is the person requesting something of you willing to offer something first?
  • Are the people truly communicating when they network? Or, are hidden agendas the reason for networking? Without communicating wants, it is tough to achieve outcomes.
  • How much time away from business can you take? How does it compare with the business you can or will generate?

Cut the weeds by seeing your time for networking and volunteering as a commodity. Budget it each year. Examine and benchmark the reasons and results. Set boundaries, and offer your time on an ‘a la carte’ basis. Associate with those who feel similarly. Show and demonstrate respect for each other’s time. Be careful not to pro-bono yourself to death.

About the Author

Hank MoorePower Stars to Light the Business Flame, by Hank Moore, encompasses a full-scope business perspective, invaluable for the corporate and small business markets. It is a compendium book, containing quotes and extrapolations into business culture, arranged in 76 business categories.

Hank’s latest book functions as a ‘PDR of business,’ a view of Big Picture strategies, methodologies and recommendations. This is a creative way of re-treading old knowledge to enable executives to master change rather than feel as they’re victims of it.

Power Stars to Light the Business Flame is now out in all three e-book formats: iTunes, Kindle, and Nook.

Lead Like it Matters… Because it Does, part 4 of 4

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Lead Like it Matters… Because it DoesWe asked Roxi Hewertson about the 8 overarching leadership insights that kick off her new book Lead Like it Matters…Because it Does hitting the stores in just a few weeks. She agreed to share them with us as a four-part series. This is Part 4 of 4.

Insight 7: Most Change Efforts Fail and They Don’t Have To

Charles Darwin did not say “It’s all about survival of the fittest.” Someone else decided to interpret his words and really screwed things up for a lot of us, including having people use that phrase to justify a lot of bad behavior. And that’s not how life truly works. What Darwin actually said is, “It’s not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

People are naturally inclined to resist change. The irony is… what you resist will persist. When change is ‘top-down’ and those impacted feel they have no voice, people resist it even more. The wasted human energy and other resources that go down the big black sink-hole of most change initiatives is truly astounding.

Do we learn from our mistakes? Sometimes – but too often not a lot, and nearly always, not enough. Leader need to be able to lead change – there’s no getting around it. How well you do that part of your job will make or break your organization and maybe even you.

Here are 4 suggestions to lead change initiatives that go well and actually stick instead of being dead on arrival:

  • Have and USE a change process
  • Empower and engage those affected by the change process
  • PULL don’t PUSH change
  • Communicate, communicate, then do it again and again

Insight 8: Leaders Create and Destroy Cultures!

I love this quote from John Mackey of Whole Foods, “If you are lucky enough to be someone’s employer, then you have a moral obligation to make sure people DO look forward to coming to work in the morning.”

Indeed, you have responsibility for your workplace culture wherever your ‘responsibility pond’ may be, wherever your sphere of influence resides. It is your number one role to create, model, and support a workplace culture where the intended culture will thrive and the desired results will occur. It can take a lot of work to build and sustain a positive and productive workplace. And it can take a ‘heartbeat’ for one ineffective, bad, or lousy leader to destroy it. This IS your ecosystem and how healthy or toxic it is matters and you are the keeper of your ‘responsibility pond’ no matter how big or small it may be.

The leadership revolution I want to see happen in my lifetime would mean that we each are committed to building healthy ecosystems within our workplaces for generations to come.

Here are 4 suggestions you can do to help make that happen:

  • Know that the culture in your ‘pond’ IS your responsibility
  • Articulate your mission, values, and vision
  • Assess, correct, assess
  • Celebrate your people and your success

About the Author

Roxi HewertsonLeadership authority Roxana (Roxi) Hewertson is a no-nonsense business veteran revered for her nuts-and-bolts, tell-it-like-it-is approach and practical, out-of-the-box insights that help both emerging and expert managers, executives and owners boost quantifiable job performance in various mission critical facets of business. Through AskRoxi.com, Roxi — “the Dear Abby of Leadership” — imparts invaluable free advice to managers and leaders at all levels, from the bullpen to the boardroom, to help them solve problems, become more effective and realize a higher measure of business and career success.

How can you make the leadership leap gracefully? Well, learning and practicing effective leadership skills is a good place to begin. When you read Roxi’s book you’ll be well on your way! Click here to learn more.

The StrategyDriven website was created to provide members of our community with insights to the actions that help create the shared vision, focus, and commitment needed to improve organizational alignment and accountability for the achievement of superior results. We look forward to answering your strategic planning and tactical business execution questions. Please email your questions to [email protected].