By Larry Goldsmith, CWDP, P.E.T.

Congratulations to my very talented and accomplished wife, Lori.   This week Lori was honored by being selected as the HR Florida Volunteer of the year.  Lori volunteers as the State Certification Director to the HR Florida State Council.  A few months ago Lori volunteered to become ’Chair’ of the program committee too for the HR Florida state conference when the Program Chair stepped down suddenly.*   Over 1,200 HR representatives attended the conference.  Prior to Lori’s appointment to the State Council, Lori served on the board of HRTampa (the local branch of SHRM) as Director, Education/ Certification 2001-2006.
* Lori abides by the insightful words of Susan Corey, my Workforce Development Colleague from Michigan who says, “Leadership occurs wherever you are.”
Lori is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources by the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI). She is an active member of the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM). SHRM is the world’s largest association committed to advancing the human resource profession to ensure that HR is an essential and effective partner in developing and executing organizational strategy.  Beyond her HR volunteering, Lori serves the community as a volunteer/ambassador with H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center.  And lastly, Lori volunteers as a Beginning Instructor for the Taoist Tai Chi Society.  Taoist Tai Chi™ internal art of taijiquan incorporates stretching and turning into a sequence of movements that improve the health of body, mind and spirit.  It is a slow-paced, low-impact flowing form of exercise that builds strength, increases flexibility and enhances balance.

By Larry Goldsmith, CWDP, P.E.T.

How practicable is the question as to the average length of a job search anyway?  Not much.  There are too many variables for a quick and easy answer.  The hiring process can be as brief as one day or drawn over a period of many months.  There is not one response.  These variables range from day labor to senior management to security clearances and all the compulsory rational as defined by the job analysis that accompany each level.  And so many are of these variables have influences beyond your control.  We have listed a number of these variables below.

But this will always be a hypothetical question.  Whatever duration you affix to your search, you will need to match your skills and strength or weaknesses to these influences.  Then on the other hand, how do you measure this length if the job seeker took a position with a large pay cut at a less skilled position

Factors (not listed in a particular order of strength)

1)     Quality of Résumé
2)     Income requirements
3)     Strength of professional contacts
4)     Level of position or occupational title you are leaving
5)     Level of position or occupational title you seek
6)     Your past employment history. Is a strength or a hindrance?
7)     Willingness or ability to move or travel
8)     Level of Education
9)     Background checks including credit, drug, employment, driving,
10)   Age Factors
11)   Interview skills
12)   How many positions you have applied
13)   Economic condition of economy, i.e, high energy cost, weather, change in housing market
14)   Strength of industry
15)   Public confidence in the economy
16)   HR process for the position you seek requires more time
17)  Are you searching for a position while current employed
18)  Time of the year, spring, summer, fall, winter,- during the holidays
19)  Willing to relocation

So how do you speed the process  of finding a job?  Take control of factors in which you have the power.  Put a plan in effect.  Understand much of the power of a successful job search sits squarely on your shoulders.  Do not lay the responsibility on anyone else including the employer and the economy.

http://jaazle.com/resources/

By Larry Goldsmith, CWDP, P.E.T.

Your voicemail greeting can make or break your job search.  It is essential your greeting be clear and coherent as it may be your first ‘personal’ contact with a potential employer.  This is not the time to be cute either.  Stay professional. No creative messaging by family members.  Don’t have a blue joke, or your 3 year old singing a nursery rhyme or something with a religious theme.  The shrill voice of a three year child is as inappropriate or beginning your message with three bars of 100 bottles of beer on the wall is wrong.  Same holds true for promoting where you stand politically. You are looking for a job. Employers will be calling.  Maintain a professional business correctness during the time you are in your job search mode.

Prepare your greeting by writing it out first.  This is not the time to shoot from the hip and ad lib.  Read your greeting out loud.  Let someone else critique it.  Practice your greeting several times before you attempt to create your message.  Be brief.  Get to the point quickly. Your message should be straight forth and to the point.  For example:

Hi, this is Larry Goldsmith.  I am not available. Please leave your message.  Thank you for calling.  I will be back in touch as quickly as I can.

There is not just one voice mail message.   Modify your message according to your personality and style.  Give you name.  Provide a general idea of your status. For example, Out of the office, at a meeting, on another site, on another call but be brief and to the point.  Let the caller know when they can expect a return call back. Being on vacation is not good enough.  Telling the employer this will probably cost you the interview. They may not wait for you but just move on to another candidate.   Better to monitor your calls or have someone do it for you.

Have you ever listened to what you sound like and how you speak?  Something as simple as the sound of your voice, words you use or the pattern of your speech may be working against you in the job search.  Call your greeting when you are all done.  How does it sound to you?  Are you professional?  Would you bring that candidate into an interview?  There is nothing wrong recording a greeting several times until you feel it is right.  listen to other messages  for ideas when you can someone and have to leave a message.  Your message should short, clear, and to the point ending with “leave your message please.”  Tape your message and critique it.  Ask someone else give you feedback.  This holds true for both your voice message and the voice mail message you leave on the employer’s voice mail system.   This is the time to use your professional voice.

Be prepared.  Keep a mirror by your telephone when answering the phone. Do not pick up your phone without smiling. Equally important too is keep a résumé, a pen and paper next to the phone.  Do not answer your telephone if you are not ready for a telephone interview.  A baby crying, a child’s birthday party or a barking dog is not the first impression you want to give. Let your machine or voice mail pick up the call. You can make the return call when you are mentally ready and your confidence is shining through. Even set some standard for how your telephone will be answer during your job search.  For example, set a rule in effect that, “children cannot pick up the telephone during a job search unless they are trained properly.”

Be ready when your telephone rings.  Keep these points in mind.  You never know when it might be an employer calling to discuss an job opportunity with you.

By Larry Goldsmith, CWDP, P.E.T.

Most job seekers focus only on job openings. Of course you might ask, “What else would you focus?” Successful job seekers take an opposite view. They direct their focus to companies and organizations which employ people with your skill set. Improve your odds. Go to companies and organizations that employ people with your skill set. There are many more jobs out there than job openings. While many position openings are posted and advertised; many more are not.

We read a lot about the percentages of posted job openings. Even if we added together all the print and Internet posted jobs together, it is unlike that total would account for more than 50% of the available jobs. We know from reading numerous accounts about the total amount of positions advertised in the newspapers that this number accounts for less than 2% of all jobs available.

Sadly however, that many job seekers are not aware (or ignore) these statistics. Many other are aware but any for number of reasons make the newspaper and/or the internet their only source of employment information.

The most effective job search demands focusing on employers and industries that are hiring your particular occupational skills, and not focusing on the actual job openings. Seek out companies and organizations or industries that employ people with skills similar to yours or that hire people with similar job titles to yours. A job search focused in this manner will generate more opportunities, better quality jobs at higher salaries than if you focus your attention on jobs rather than job openings.

Don’t discount or ignore the number of advertised positions posted out there in the marketplace. But success may be more evident if you focus most of your attention on the positions that are not advertised