You can (and will) do hard things in your job search

You can (and will) do hard things in your job search A few years ago my daughter was in a Shakespeare class that culminated in doing a play.  Before the culmination, they studied seventeen Shakespeare plays, memorized and recited lines (outside of the end-of-year play), had deep discussions about meanings, wrote papers, did presentations, and did group exercises that made them come out of their comfort zone. I know it was hard work, and she did stuff that I had never done, and didnt feel capable of doing.  But she plowed through, and loved it.  I remember her regular saying I can do hard things.  This is self-talk and affirmation that I dont remember having ever.  Not that I wasnt self-driven, or self-motivated, or one who would accomplish many things but for a 12 or 13 year old to regularly say I can do hard things, positively, and then work through the hard things where did that come from? It came from her Shakespeare mentors, who were reading a book on that very topic.  They brought that phrase to her, and she internalized it. I invite you to internalize I can do hard things right now.  You have been invited, by virtue of being in a job search, to do hard and uncomfortable things. Not many people like to pick up the phone and put their ego on the line, and be in a position of hope, want and need and let the whole world know it.  That is hard, for many people. Not many people want to disect themselves and their personal career, trying to figure out who they are, what makes them tick, what values they bring to the table, and how to word all of that.  That is HARD! Not many people want to be in a position worse than paycheck to paycheck that is, a position where they dont know where the next day of food is coming from. Not many people want to [ fill in this blank with whatever scares you in this job search! ] Im not saying that you want to be here, doing this, but heres what Im saying: YOU CAN DO HARD THINGS! Devote yourself, recommit yourself, and DO IT.  Step by step, task by task, DO IT. I know it looks hard, but once you get going it can be fun, and rewarding.  More than that, the personal growth youll see (or that others will see in you) can be a huge boost for the next steps in your career. You can (and will) do hard things in your job search A few years ago my daughter was in a Shakespeare class that culminated in doing a play.  Before the culmination, they studied seventeen Shakespeare plays, memorized and recited lines (outside of the end-of-year play), had deep discussions about meanings, wrote papers, did presentations, and did group exercises that made them come out of their comfort zone. I know it was hard work, and she did stuff that I had never done, and didnt feel capable of doing.  But she plowed through, and loved it.  I remember her regular saying I can do hard things.  This is self-talk and affirmation that I dont remember having ever.  Not that I wasnt self-driven, or self-motivated, or one who would accomplish many things but for a 12 or 13 year old to regularly say I can do hard things, positively, and then work through the hard things where did that come from? It came from her Shakespeare mentors, who were reading a book on that very topic.  They brought that phrase to her, and she internalized it. I invite you to internalize I can do hard things right now.  You have been invited, by virtue of being in a job search, to do hard and uncomfortable things. Not many people like to pick up the phone and put their ego on the line, and be in a position of hope, want and need and let the whole world know it.  That is hard, for many people. Not many people want to disect themselves and their personal career, trying to figure out who they are, what makes them tick, what values they bring to the table, and how to word all of that.  That is HARD! Not many people want to be in a position worse than paycheck to paycheck that is, a position where they dont know where the next day of food is coming from. Not many people want to [ fill in this blank with whatever scares you in this job search! ] Im not saying that you want to be here, doing this, but heres what Im saying: YOU CAN DO HARD THINGS! Devote yourself, recommit yourself, and DO IT.  Step by step, task by task, DO IT. I know it looks hard, but once you get going it can be fun, and rewarding.  More than that, the personal growth youll see (or that others will see in you) can be a huge boost for the next steps in your career.

Why Employer Branding Sucks ( What to Do About It)

Why Employer Branding Sucks ( What to Do About It) Whats all this buzz about employer branding? According to  Hung Lee, the founder of recruiting tech platform Workshape, it sucks. He says EB is broken and the candidate experience is currently pretty crappy. Struggling to attract the right types of high-quality talent? Read on for a summary of Hungs cold hard truths on where youre going wrong, and how to fix things. You can also listen to our full interview on iTunes  or  SoundCloud. Why is employer branding broken? I think if you take employer branding as part of a general sort of attempt to position the business and kind of a way to improve your brand presence, for instance, get customer awareness, get all those types of good stuff, then fantastic. I think, to a large extent, the investment that we put into employer branding largely misses the point. And whilst I think its one of those things where I think I value the sentiment, and I totally understand companies being very committed to, you know, presenting the right image, but I think it still doesnt generate great candidate experience on the other side if you think about it. You know, you get lots of companies spending a lot of money building their so-called employer brand, but the fundamental mechanics of how a person experiences that brand, as a candidate, hasnt changed. And that is still quite a negative and frustrating experience for the vast majority of people. Employer branding sucks? Ive mounted an attack on employer branding and I want just qualify that. You know, I dont think its wasted energy per se, but I think a large part, employer branding is designed to improve the experience of the candidate because how can you, you know, have great employer branding if you make your candidates miserable or the applicants miserable? But theres a lack of understanding that its actually the applicant flow itself that creates the negative experience. So, if companies could do a much better job focusing on how they deal with people that interact with their brand after theyve acquired them, thats how you would improve the experience overall. And the key to that is not to force them to apply. What should employers be should be doing instead? my biggest problem with employer branding is that its sort of the front end of what is the standard recruiting funnel. If you look at most, whatever companies do, however innovative it is, ultimately, the call to action is, Oh, apply to this job. And once that person applies to that job, you know what? Straight away, youre dropping in recruitment form on him or her, and that is literally a very processed and reductive activity which I think most people dont welcome. Now, I think you can get away with it when youve got an audience that is, you know, highly interested in job discovery. Where  do they start? So, caveat number one is every company is unique. So, youve gotta start internally. You know whenever you see a best practice blog or article out there, you always get kind of a tidal wave of negative response, no matter who actually produces it. And the reason why that is, is because best practice assumes that every company is kind of a venture same. And of course, they arent. So, first thing to do is to understand what your company is in terms of, you know, how interested you are in this activity. Youve gotta analyze, for instance, how many people youve got involved in managing recruiting. Like, is it a priority? Lots of companies say, you knowthe rhetoric is, Im sure, you know, everyone says, Oh, our people are the most important part of our business, but lets see whether that maps to reality. Is the budget there for this? Is there people in charge of talent on the top table of the business? You know, what is the commitment of it? What trends should we keep an eye on? 1. Artificial intelligence I think you need to look at artificial intelligence. And by this, I mean automated recruiters, automated job search agents. These are kind of little programs that are trying to solve the discovery problem in a totally different way. Its not about search, its not about ads, its not even about what we do, which is match. Its about basically empowering a digital agent to go out there and find what you want for you. Now, I think that is going to be a hugely interesting segment. 2. Blockchain if you like, a macro trend as to where we are is blockchain. I think a lot of people dont quite understand how blockchain tech applied to the world of work. But to kind of dumb it down to a level where it shouldnt go, but sort of for the sake of, you know, trying to do a quick explanation, blockchain is essentially the technology which allows you to track transaction but also protect the identity. So right now, its predominantly used for financial transactions, you can trade with it, bitcoins, etc. But of course, its clearly applied to the world of work. Imagine if youre in a situation where you produced a brilliant bit of copy, Jorgen. You ideally wanna track that copy wherever it might be replicated. Why could you not get a royalty for that? Right now, thats impossible for you to do. But with blockchain tech, that allows you to do it because its public ledger of the content that youve produced and the structure youve produced it. Suddenly, you can start seeing workers basically usi ng blockchain tech to validate that, Yes, I am the owner of this bit of labor and I should be paid for this labor. Thats gonna have huge, transformative effects society-wide, I suspect. 3. Digital predictions And the third major trend would probably be another application of AI. But rather than using agents, I think were gonna get to the point where we do have the ability to predict fit and performance based on what this persons behaviors and digital footprint might be. And this goes way back for you and I, Jorgen, when we were, you know, first looking at social media influencing and all of this type of stuff. And those signals at that point were very crude, you know? How many followers? was more or less the measure. But were getting to the point now where I think theres so much data that everyone produces, inevitably produces, that you know, were not even aware of.

The Truth Behind Passive Candidates

The Truth Behind Passive Candidates In recruiting the Holy Grail, the golden egg, the [insert whatever metaphor you choose for greatness here] is the passive candidate. Speak to a majority of recruiters, head hunters or HR folks and they will all tell you how great the passive candidate is, and I can’t really blame them. When you find someone who doesn’t have their resume on the job boards that means they are usually doing well in their current job. And ultimately who doesn’t want someone at the top of their game? That isn’t to suggest that all resumes on Monster or CareerBuilder are hacks. I know things happen that are out of our control, from layoffs to ownership changes to being caught in the wrong situation. However the typical thought process is that resumes on job boards just aren’t as attractive as traditionally “hunting” someone. Why third party recruiters thrive: One of the major reasons 3rd  party recruiting thrives, is that Hiring Managers and HR Individuals are looking for candidates they can’t locate on the job boards. As a 3rd  party recruiter, I’ve had countless conversations that either started or ended with: Why would I pay you when I can go on CareerBuilder myself? This is a valid point, however please do not trivialize my career like that assuming that is all I do. Sorry, that was a bit of a tangent I was about to go on. Let’s stay on topic. Passive candidates are best: That all being said it brings me back to my main point: the passive candidate is the crème de la crème. However, hiring is a two way street. Too many times people assume the interviewee should be lucky to just get an offer from the employer. And while in some cases that may be true, that is a very selfish way to look at hiring. Your position should be just as attractive to the candidate as the candidate’s background is to you the employer. What I would like to discuss is the way a passive candidate should be handled, because regardless of the thought process they aren’t for everyone. Mental aspect: First off, we need to understand that there is very much a mental aspect to hiring. Candidates need to be mentally prepared to leave their current job. Put yourself in a candidates shoes and think about it. You’ve spent the past year, 2 or more cultivating and developing a way of life. From your morning routine, to the friendships you’ve built to the weekly schedule you’ve gotten comfortable with both personally and professionally. By leaving this job you are about to shake all of that up and start all over. When you are actively looking for a new job you have mentally separated yourself from all of that. You realize the people you see on a regular basis are about to change and your normal routine is about to become a lot different. So if you receive a reasonable offer you have accepted change and are ready to move forward. As a passive candidate this situation is a lot different. You’re happy with your routine, you think those work relationships you’ve built are going to last forever, and as far as you are concerned there is no reason to disturb all that. So it doesn’t just come down to dollars and cents, for you it is about a lot more. So if you are sitting there with an open position and thinking you are going to be gunning for a passive candidate, your position better be worth it. If it isn’t at market value or you are working with outdated technology you aren’t even in the conversation with passive candidates. I pride myself in working with passive candidates. I’m not the foremost expert on it. But based on my own numbers from last year 85% of the candidates I worked with were not actively looking for a position when I approached them. So I can tell you from experience how difficult it can be to hire one. I have been told it all. For example one of my candidates was offered an 11K increase in salary and (in their own words) “upward career mobility” but still declined the offer because, as they as said to me, they “felt safe in their current job”. What motivates passive candidates? That’s what it comes down to: the candidate has to be mentally ready to make a move. And even if they are, your offer better be able to match their needs. Matching salary and a 401k just doesn’t do it for passive candidates. You need to really understand what motivates them. That’s why any time I speak with someone, passive or not, I don’t ever reveal company information at first. When you do that you are setting the tone for them to only focus on this position and not what works best for them. So it is my thought that you talk about the candidate first and then determine if any of your current openings make sense for them. Here are a few simple questions that I always ask: What would motivate you to leave your current role? Why is that you are willing to even discuss a new position? What is your total yearly earning and what would you need in a new role? Is commute a major deciding factor? If so what is ideal? What would you need to see in an offer for you to fully consider a new position? Have you been interviewing recently? The last question may not seem it, but it is probably the most important to ask. The reason is because it goes back to being mentally prepared to leave your current role. Unless the offer blows the candidate out of the water, they will usually not take the first offer, because that is the first time they are giving real thought to leaving. And they just aren’t ready yet. So if someone says they haven’t interviewed anywhere, red flags should go up. They need to have already started thinking about making a career change in order to accept an offer. Conclusions: Ultimately you should be learning all about what will motivate someone to make a move before even going over a job description. Anytime I have a passive candidate that has agreed to a phone call I will always ask them: there is a reason you took my call, what is it? When you get to the core of it, you will know what motivates that person to make a move. That is why your position better be qualified to fit those needs. Your position needs to be an advancement for that candidate in some way. Whether it’s money, responsibilities or your company is that much more innovative than its competitors it has to be something. If not, you don’t even belong on the phone with passive candidates.

Top 5 Job Search Aggregators for a Smarter Job Hunt

Top 5 Job Search Aggregators for a Smarter Job Hunt Some swear by them, some say they are a waste of time. Love them or loathe them, job boards is the natural first port of call for most job seekers. They are great for putting your finger on the job market pulse and to get an idea of what is out there. Too many job boards: The trouble with job boards is that you never know which one to use as new ones keep popping up on a daily basis. The barriers to entry in this industry are very low, as anyone with some technical knowledge can set up a free open-source powered job board and start posting positions tomorrow. This is part of the problem for the job seeker, as you will have to trawl through numerous sites every day and sometimes you have to sign up and upload a resume to apply as well. Remember when the Internet was new and you were on AltaVista, WebCrawler, Yahoo and whatever new search engine that came out. Then one day you discovered Google and you never looked back Enter the job search engines: The good news is that there are meta search job boards that aggregate job postings from other sites. Just like your typical search engines, these sites will compile jobs matching the skill and location that you enter. The results that come up will be pulled from all directions and will be with you in an instant. Traditional job boards such as Monster will charge their customers to post ads, the aggregators can’t do this as they are only linking to the original ad. Instead, they rely on advertising so you will have to put up with some Google Adsense next to your search results. Benefits of job board aggregators: The main reason for you to use an aggregator is that you will search through all jobs in one go. You will not find as many results from your search anywhere else. The comprehensive search will pull up results from job boards, newspaper’s job sections, company career pages, recruiter sites and more. The other reason to use a job search engine is that you save lots of time. Instead of hopping through 10 job boards per day, just use your favourite aggregator and rest assured that you have all bases covered. The time you save can be put to good use for the other aspects of your job search. Warning: lots of results and duplicates: For obvious reasons, the aggregated sites will render long lists of results from your search terms. You will want to be as specific as possible when searching to narrow down the findings. Enter not only your skill but sub-skill, not only your town but actual zip code to begin with to keep results more specific. The job search engines will also deliver a great deal of duplicate job postings. If a role is posted on three different sites (company, job board and recruiter), you are likely to get all three results from your search. Be aware of this and do not apply for the same job three times as it will not do you any favors. Here are the best aggregated job boards in order of size: Indeed:  Started out back in 2004 and was the trailblazer for all job search engines and is still the largest. Indeed keeps expanding globally and is now available in 19 different country-specific versions. SimplyHired:  Close runner-up to Indeed and definitely the great contender. It looks and feels just like Indeed but SimplyHired has more add-on applications that connects you to social media for easy sharing and research on the jobs you find. Available in 17 countries worldwide. CareerJet:  Again a very similar application to Indeed, CareerJet claims to scan over 58,000 websites daily, and it’s available in over 50 countries and in 20 languages. LinkedIn Jobs:  You may have heard about this professaional network, but did you realise it hosts a huge job board that scrapes career sites and job postings on the internet? Worth a click for sure. JobRobot:  The biggest German-language aggregator which is very useful for central European job opportunities. Final note Try these job search engines and work out which one works best for you. Hopefully, you will save both time and effort by using these aggregator services. As always, remember to work all other fronts as well: networking, social media and recruiters in order to get your next job. What is your favourite job board and why? Related: What Job Boards are Most Useful for Applicants?

Top Jobs That Are at The Most Risk to be Replaced by Robots CareerMetis.com

Top Jobs That Are at The Most Risk to be Replaced by Robots â€" CareerMetis.com Robots are coming for our jobs. Possibly all of them, eventually. Still, some jobs are going to go first and if you’re in one of those you’re going to need to start retooling your skillset.Because if you don’t, then you’ll end up with a lot of angry low-skilled people who realized too late that there are no more jobs for them in the modern world.evalTo that end, here are some of the jobs that we’ll see disappearing first.1) Truck DriversThe weakest link in almost all of our vehicles is the people behind the wheel. They make a bad decision, they get tired and then there are all those hormones rushing their veins. For that reason, the first job we’ll see go is long-distance driving â€" particularly trucks.These will be able to drive without needing to take rest breaks, won’t try to pass just because some other truck is driving two miles too slow Here you can think of sports results and basic write-ups of content. These are a great deal easier than actual high-quality stor ies. In fact, they’re rather formulaic with key phrases and numbers inserted into what in many other ways is simply the same text over and over again.And whenever that is the case, you can be absolutely sure that computers aren’t very far away at all to taking over. They’ll be able to do different reports, dissertation writings or researches faster than people usually do it.Of course, you’ll still need help from professional service afterward â€" at least initially. But that too will change soon enough. In other words, if you’re an editor, the tools to ease your life are getting better by the day.4) DoctorsMost people would prefer to interact with human doctors to robot ones. Most people are idiots. Sorry, but it’s true. Sure, a human doctor might be able to show you more empathy, but that’s about the end of it.evalAnd you know what computers and robots will be able to do way better? Diagnose whatever illness they have. This is because computers are far better at track ing a huge number of variables to work out what illness you’ve got that people are.What’s more, while doctors won’t know every illness that is out there Soon you’ll see robots in all kinds of places. For example, we’ll see robot chefs who always prepare it exactly the same way so that quality does not vary.We’ll see robots in supermarkets, where they’ll be able to stock shelves without complaint 24 hours a day.Robots are going to destroy a lot of jobs. Fortunately, it’s not all bad news. After all, technology has been destroying jobs since the industrial revolution. But it’s also created thousands more.All you need to do is make sure you have the skills to corner them and instead of seeing yourself unemployed you’ll be able to embrace entirely new opportunities. All you’ve got to do is keep your ear to the ground.

Giving Thanks - Taking Stock - Kathy Caprino

Giving Thanks - Taking Stock This Sunday, we buried my father-in-law. He died suddenly, out of the blue, in a matter of minutes. His body just shut down, and he left the planet. He had been in a nursing home for only 6 weeks.   As with any major event in one’s life, a death in the family creates a gap in space and time, in which you’re pushed to take stock, and look long and hard at your own life to see where it’s heading and the impact it’s having.   Watching the end point of life unfold, some things went through my mind about life, and what it is to live a “successful” one.   Here’s what came to me:   1) Our lives are a vast accumulation of all that we’ve said, done, made others feel, encouraged others to do, and of what we’ve left behind â€" fragments of energy and light that have made a mark.   2) Success in life can be determined by answering these questions â€" “Did you, by and large, experience joy, love and support, give it in return? Did you learn (and overcome) what you came here to learn? And did your life have a positive impact?   3) When you leave the planet, will you be missed? If so, it’s probably because of cherished qualities you helped others see in themselves (their beauty, value, brilliance, capability, goodness) that they couldn’t see on their own.   4) Finally, what’s the meaning of life? I certainly don’t have the answers, but I do know this…we have this precious chance, these 80 or so years, to live life full out, without regrets, without shame, without reservation to experience all of the life, love, joy, passion, and courage we can, and to be all that we came here to be.   I’m determined not to waste this chance.   Wishing you and yours a joyous Thanksgiving.

Are you saying one of my trigger words - When I Grow Up

Are you saying one of my trigger words - When I Grow Up As a certified life coach whos been at this for 7 years and change  (how did THAT happen?!), I have red flags in my head that shoot straight up when I hear my client say the words listed below. Now, these words arent  bad, per se, but they usually  do express  an internal battle that my client is going through. When I hear these 3 words, I know that my client is trying to mold themselves into something theyre not. Theyre holding themselves up to an ideal that, frankly, just isnt their truth and is not the way theyll ever thrive. Here are the words that send up those red flags: FOCUS.  When it comes to being a multi-passionate, creative woman, focus is our F-word. I know what my client means when she says she wants to focus (not feel disjointed, have an action plan, feel confident in following through, etc.), but usually focusing means I must pick one thing to do at a time until its done and I cant do anything else until then! and thats the worst damn thing we can do to ourselves. Thats like locking yourself in jail and throwing away the key. Its a surefire way to bring on Shiny Object Syndrome, and procrastinate, and feel stifled and uninspired. Ya know how many damn projects Im actively working on right now? Lets seemy podcast, my client work, Its Business Time,  my blog stuff, the upcoming Multi-Passionate Must-Haves sale and a new CreativeLive class. Six things! And while I know thats a little heavy for me right now and that some things are way more active than others, always  Im not only getting it all done, but Im happy jumping from one to the othe r each day. Its built-in variety, which allows me to thrive. I dont believe Id get anything done faster or better than if I said, Nope! Just gonna work with my clients and I cant do anything else until I stop working with clients! As a creative Renaissance Soul, that sounds sad and boring to me. Just know that you can get what you crave by wanting to focus without forcing yourself to Pick One Thing. My project management system helps a lot so that I know the next step(s) of each project and what I need to do each day. Ive also been successful in compartmentalizing my work, knowing Mondays and Tuesdays are for client sessions, Wednesday if for writing, Thursday is for project work and Friday is for admin stuff. It doesnt always work out that cleanly, but it allows me to not feel overwhelmed or close to a head explosion. SHOULD.  The S Word! Shoulds come from outside influences family, friends, Internet gurus, Societythey do  not come from our hearts. They do  not come from our guts. They do  not come from our personal wants, priorities, and goals. Stop the Shoulds and replace it with need or want instead. For example, turn I should make an online program into I need to make an online program. Is that true? I want to make an online program. Is that true?  If those statements  dont feel right, then strike that thing from your To Dos and know that its not the right thing for you to work on now. Feel free to put it in your Idea Book and know that you can always revisit it later. ENOUGH.  I inwardly have all the groans with this one. Usually, my clients arent talking about tangible things (i.e. I dont have enough blog readers). Instead, its about their feelings of inadequacy (i.e. Im not doing enough). I always follow up that statement with this question: Do you know what Enough would be? Theyre always stumped. Always. Theres nothing measurable in their heads that would actually show them what Enough is. Instead, its this very general and super fuzzy ideal that, frankly, theyll never reach because its undefined. Its when they give it some though, though, that we can clarify what Enough would look like to them how much theyre writing each week, or how much progress theyre making on their painting, or how many clients they want to work with each month.  Thats the measurable, tangible goals were looking to make, because we can easily see the progress as well as the finish line when itll be time to make new goals and find a new Enough. Do what you can to be aware of when these words come out of your mouth or show up on the page, and take a moment to shift your perspective, ask yourself some soul-searching questions, and re-direct your attention to needs, wants, tangible goals, and the And in your career. CreativeLive is rebroadcasting my  Create Your Dream Career class this weekend, which means you can watch for free starting at noon Eastern on Saturday! Click here at that date/time and youll be taken to  the right place.