Still Waiting for That "Hot" Job Opportunity to Come Through?

 Maybe you can relate with Joanne. Joanne was doing some contract work but really wanted a full-time gig. While she was considering what to do about her job search, a miracle happened (or at least it seemed like one at the time). She had a "hot" job prospect come up without even having to do anything for it. A colleague of hers got her an introduction for a coveted permanent position at a coveted firm she had been eyeing.

It was magical. So magical, in fact, that Joanne waited for 3 months for something to happen, 1 month after the end of her latest contract and 3 months beyond any other type of job search effort. In other words, she let her current contract end without lining up another one and she stalled her job search until she "saw this opportunity through."

In the small business world, we call this the "kiss of death" where that very nice-seeming "maybe" opportunity lulls us into a false sense of hope.

In Joanne's defense, she did have good reason for this hope: She had a very strong referral that resulted in 1 informal phone interview and 2 face-to-face interviews during that 3-month period. Everyone sounded positive, and so Joanne had no reason to doubt that something would come through.

But no offer came.

So, she thought, "well, I can probably line up another short-term contract for a month or two and wait on this some more. After all, they said it might take them a bit."

Then another two months go by, another contract ends, still no offer. After 5 months, Joanne is right back where she started.

Unfortunately, this scenario is all too common and typically ends with a lot of frustration on the part of the job seeker...and not without merit: It looked like this hot opportunity was going to come through.  

BUT  

A "maybe" is always, always a "no" until it isn't.

If you've ever had any experience with sales or business development you learn this lesson pretty quickly. People say a lot of things, and they might even mean what they say, but until there's a signed offer or a closed "deal," unfortunately, it's all just words.

You can be optimistic, hopeful even, but don't be fooled.

No matter how great the opportunity or even opportunities, if you are committed to making a career move, then you need to keep your search going despite all the "maybe" options that are out there.  

Also, if you do come across a hot opportunity like Joanne's, don't go at it with a mediocre approach.

Because Joanne had such a great referral, she thought that meant she didn't need to put much into her overall branding strategy (resume, LI profile, etc.). In fact, she did very little with them thinking they already "knew" her and didn't care about that stuff. In the end, though, that might have cost her a lot more, for despite the strong referral, the company hesitated and eventually failed to pull the trigger on hiring her. She didn't understand that although her referral got her in front of one level of decision maker, it didn't do much for those above (a common mistake candidates also make with the promotion process). She still needed to go in strong, especially on the second interview, but the false sense of hope she carried into this "maybe" made her believe that the second interview was just a formality.

Listen. The job search is a tough road. Sometimes we get lucky, and things move quickly and easily. Or maybe in the past it has always been pretty smooth sailing for us. But in today's market, more often than not, we do have to persevere. Companies are more discerning buyers these days. They like referrals, and they do want to work with people they "know." But even if you go in with all of that, it's still not a done deal until the offer is in hand.

 Besides, what kind of leverage do you have if you stall your job search to see this one through? You want to put yourself in the best position for negotiations, and you can't do that when you put all your eggs in one basket.  

 --About Stephen----

Stephen Van Vreede is not your average IT/technical résumé writer. He provides career strategy and concierge job search solutions for senior (15+ years) (ITtechExec) and up-and-coming (NoddlePlace) (5-15 years) tech and technical operations leaders. Stephen and his team focus on building simplified, targeted, and certain career move campaigns, be it an external search or an internal promotion. He is co-author of UNcommon with career development leader Brian Tracy (out June 11, 2015). Contact Stephen directly at Stephen@ittechexec.com or send him an invite at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenvanvreede. To see whether Stephen and his team are a good fit for you, take their free (and anonymous) 1-minute compatibility quiz, Is the ITtechExec Approach a Good Match for You? Also, feel free to take his complimentary resume self-assessment quiz, How Certain Can You Be About Your Technical Resume? You might be surprised by what you find out!

What Is a Job Search Agent Anyway?

[NOTE: This post was first published in October 2014. Since then, we've witnessed a major transformation in our business from a resume-only shop to a full-service job search solutions firm. I'm proud to say that we've played a pivotal role in helping our clients establish strategic connections that have led to numerous interviews and job offers all around the world. Recently, we celebrated with one of our clients who finally realized a dream of moving his family to England from the U.S. It wasn't a quick journey, but over the course of the past year, we helped him establish several key connections that led to interviews and finally an offer with a technology firm who didn't even have an open listing when we first approached them on our client's behalf! As our client remarked: "You helped me get focused, get connected, and stay motivated during this process. It wasn't easy, but together we persevered, and I know I would never have stuck with it if I had been on my own." Jeff S., IT Project Manager Experiences like this just continue to confirm for us the need for job search agent solutions in today's market and why there's no longer a need to "go it alone."]

 From October 2014: This whole thing started when I heard someone emphatically "yell" over social media that he "would NEVER EVER use job search services."  

(Note to self: When someone starts "yelling," and using extremes like "never" and "ever" (especially in all caps), that's a very good sign there's a need out there, probably more of one than you even realize....)

It has been my experience that we have the "kickers and screamers" of the world to thank for the rise and spread of innovation. And I get it. Change is not always a good thing...or it certainly doesn't seem like it is. What we deem as "innovation" is not always what's really best for us as individuals and as a society. So it's fitting that we should have someones who kick and scream about it. The problem is that the more they kick and scream, the more they expose the truth:

Change isn't just coming; it's already here, and we have to deal with "what is" and not "what ought to be."

So after my social media "friend" did his best to shout at the universe, going on to say that he knew everything that there was to know about job searching, that he was the best networker in the world, and that he was the master of Indeed.com, I knew then that I was on to something important. I had been looking at ways to move our company away from the traditional "resume-only" style of firm that could not really determine its ROI into one that could not just produce top-quality documentation but also play a part in the job search process for our client members. Maybe, sadly, I wasn't going to be able to help my social media friend here, but he did confirm for me that obviously there were other people I could help.  

That's when I met Sue.

(Well, actually, I already knew Sue, but I hadn't realized that our paths would cross in such a significant way. So maybe I should say that I "re-met" Sue.)

 If ever there were an answer to prayer, music to my ears, or a sight for sore eyes (you get the drift), Sue was it. Blending a unique background in managing both IT and telecom day-to-day operations with extensive hiring and recruitment experience for small/mid-sized organizations as well as for a prominent Fortune 1000 company, Sue has been up close and personal with HR, and has had to wade through layoffs, acquisitions, and corporate restructuring. (That means she's a veteran of the job market zoo and has been so deep in corporate goo that nothing surprises her anymore!)  

She was the exact person I was looking for to serve as our Job Search Agent at ITtechExec and NoddlePlace.

We had already transitioned to meet current job market demands with a successful "resume portfolio" approach. And after spending time as a career adviser to TechRepublic, Dice, and CIO.com, and seeing the confusion in the job search realm, especially when it came to tech, I knew we needed to develop solutions in that area to meet today's reality. Too many candidates were approaching the market from an outdated perspective.  

So even if they had great documents, they didn't have the proper job search approach to go with them.  
We needed to find ways to move candidates, active and passive, out of the job board addictions they were in and into more proactive approaches.

So, together, Sue and I started shaping 4 "NoNonsense" job search solutions that she conducts on behalf of our client members once their resume portfolios and brand messaging has been developed. In other words, she isn't there just to tell you how to do things (coach you); she actually participates in launching a portion of your job search on your behalf. Perhaps the best part is that the 4 solutions Sue conducts are all meant to make it simple for you to move beyond the comfortably, but largely ineffective and demeaning, world of job boards and online postings. Using a 3-step model for each solution, called Write the Vision, Make It Plain, and Run With It, she guides you by:

• Setting a strategic vision for your job search (putting together a practical, easy-to-follow plan for how/where to spend your time based on your goals and limitations. (Strategic Visioning Intro Session)
• Matching you with recruiters who are best suited for you and your goals and helping introduce you to those recruiters. (Recruiter Matching)
• Building strategic LinkedIn connections focused on your target industry and goals and helping you engage with those connections in a productive way. (LinkedIn Network Building)
• Profiling employers who meet specific parameters set up for you and reaching out to contacts at those employers on your behalf. (Employer Profiling)

It's been an amazing journey over the past year as we have successfully married our resume/brand messaging solutions to these job search "launch" solutions so that by the time you leave us not only do you have top-quality materials, but you also have some traction in your job search. Just over the past few weeks:

• I've witnessed two members get first and second interview invites for jobs NOT posted anywhere from our Employer Profiling solution.
• I've watched Sue make a strategic connection for another member at a high-profile tech company through our LI Network Building solution that he has been trying to get in with for a long time. He now has had a couple informal informational interviews with this connection and has met a couple other contacts as a result.
• And I've watched numerous others get connected with recruiters who are well aligned with their goals through the Recruiter Matching solution, not to mention the members who've walked away with a clear strategy for how they should spend their limited time and resources on their job search.

So although I know this post is a bit "promotional," please bear with me. We're all more than a bit excited! It's hard not to be when you see such progress being made. It's what's taken us from a traditional "resume-only" firm into a full-service job search firm that holds itself accountable for the work it does. We're measuring our ROI, comparing against national averages, and seeing amazing results. So although I wish my social media friend well with his "NEVER EVER" mantra, it's awesome to see our members becoming part of that 5% who recognizes the hiring "zoo" we're in and are willing to move out of the familiar and into today.  

--About Stephen----

 

Stephen Van Vreede is not your average IT/technical résumé writer. He provides career strategy and concierge job search solutions for senior (15+ years) (ITtechExec) and up-and-coming (NoddlePlace) (5-15 years) tech and technical operations leaders. Stephen and his team focus on building simplified, targeted, and certain career move campaigns, be it an external search or an internal promotion. He is co-author of UNcommon with career development leader Brian Tracy (out June 11, 2015). Contact Stephen directly at Stephen@ittechexec.com or send him an invite at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenvanvreede. To see whether Stephen and his team are a good fit for you, take their free (and anonymous) 1-minute compatibility quiz, Is the ITtechExec Approach a Good Match for You? Also, feel free to take his complimentary resume self-assessment quiz, How Certain Can You Be About Your Technical Resume? You might be surprised by what you find out!

4 Steps to Finding the Best Mentor for Your Career

If there’s one thing that separates wildly successful people from everybody else, it’s often the presence of a mentor.

In the IT and tech worlds as in life, we can’t do everything on our own. We need good advice, a sounding board, and the perspective of somebody who understands where we’re coming from. So why do so many people avoid mentor-mentee relationships?  

Because most people don’t understand how to get a mentor, if they realize they need one at all.
A great mentor is rarely handed to you. Sure, some people naturally fall into mentorships without making a concerted effort, but this isn’t something you want to leave to chance. In tech and IT, it’s imperative to be at the top of your game and to think like an entrepreneur. A mentor can help you make the most out of your job and show you how to turn it into your life’s work, not just another 9 to 5. However, there’s a catch: finding the right person for you. But don’t despair. Mentees have found their mentor matches for centuries, and you can, too. All it takes is a little work. How to Find Your Best Mentor  

First, you need to realize that most mentorship happens organically.

The words “will you be my mentor?” should ideally never come out of your mouth. That’s because good relationships develop naturally over time. In fact, you may already have a mentor if you seek the counsel of a trusted advisor regularly. Don’t discount any relationship just because the person in the mentor role isn’t in your exact field or industry. If he or she is valuable to your career, the person becomes your mentor as soon as you start thinking of them as such. No further acknowledgment is necessary.  

If you haven’t found your mentor yet, determine what traits and qualities an ideal mentor would have to be useful to your specific work life.

Does your mentor need to have taken your career path? Or would it be better to get an outsider’s perspective? Do they need to be senior-level, or would somebody with just a few extra years’ experience suffice? Remember that mentors can come from anywhere, so don’t set your sights too narrow.

Start or deepen a professional relationship with your would-be mentor.

If you’ve pinpointed a stranger as your ultimate mentor, do not start by asking him or her for mentorship. For new as well as old contacts, let them know that you value their knowledge and would appreciate their professional opinion. Invite them to coffee or lunch, and get to know them (or know them better). If and only if you feel that the relationship is comfortable for both of you, see if you can continue asking their advice in the future on an ongoing basis.  

Be the relationship’s maintenance person.

When you’re receiving the benefits of mentorship, make your gratitude known. Say please and thank you. Ask your mentor about his or her life, and offer your help. Mentorship might look from the outside like a one-way street, but nothing is further from the truth. It’s up to you to nurture the relationship — and eventually, to pay it forward by taking on a mentor of your own.
--About Stephen----

Stephen Van Vreede is not your average IT/technical résumé writer. He provides career strategy and concierge job search solutions for senior (15+ years) (ITtechExec) and up-and-coming (NoddlePlace) (5-15 years) tech and technical operations leaders. Stephen and his team focus on building simplified, targeted, and certain career move campaigns, be it an external search or an internal promotion. He is co-author of UNcommon with career development leader Brian Tracy (out June 11, 2015). Contact Stephen directly at Stephen@ittechexec.com or send him an invite at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenvanvreede. To see whether Stephen and his team are a good fit for you, take their free (and anonymous) 1-minute compatibility quiz, Is the ITtechExec Approach a Good Match for You? Also, feel free to take his complimentary resume self-assessment quiz, How Certain Can You Be About Your Technical Resume? You might be surprised by what you find out!

When the Going Gets Tough at Work, Sometimes All You Can Do Is ... Laugh

One of our client members contacted me the other day to tell me about a project he is running at his Fortune 500. The company made a big push last year to take on more of a "startup vibe" (aka...everyone now wears jeans to work...lol). Because I asked him to keep me up-to-date on how things were working out with this new vibe, he called to tell me about what he was experiencing in trying to get approval for his project initiatives.

Let's just say it wasn't too unlike the cartoon above, except that instead of sitting at a desk, they were all sipping lattes on video conferencing (and going round and round and round and round). :-)

Anyway, I thought I would share his story as I know my client is not alone in facing some of this corporate goo. As my client said, "Stephen, if you don't laugh, you'll cry."

If you are feeling that way too, hopefully, this cartoon gives you something to chuckle at today.
 --About Stephen----

Stephen Van Vreede is not your average IT/technical résumé writer. He provides career strategy and concierge job search solutions for senior (15+ years) (ITtechExec) and up-and-coming (NoddlePlace) (5-15 years) tech and technical operations leaders. Stephen and his team focus on building simplified, targeted, and certain career move campaigns, be it an external search or an internal promotion. He is co-author of UNcommon with career development leader Brian Tracy (out June 11, 2015). Contact Stephen directly at Stephen@ittechexec.com or send him an invite at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenvanvreede. To see whether Stephen and his team are a good fit for you, take their free (and anonymous) 1-minute compatibility quiz, Is the ITtechExec Approach a Good Match for You? Also, feel free to take his complimentary resume self-assessment quiz, How Certain Can You Be About Your Technical Resume? You might be surprised by what you find out!

The Great Vacation Debacle: Take 3

by Sheree Van Vreede (@rezlady)  

A couple of years ago, after being somewhat frustrated with myself for my inability to disconnect from work during my family vacation, I published the following post. Now each year I like to re-post it as a reminder of what a vacation is supposed to really mean:

As a career professional, I spend lots of time discussing benefits packages with my clients. What I've discovered is that the type of benefits package offered by a company can often trump salary for many people (or at least be a strong deciding factor). And although health care is a main topic of concern, perhaps the next biggest issue is vacation time.

I have witnessed many clients use vacation time as a bargaining chip when negotiating a work contract. I have witnessed many clients brag about the generous vacation packages offered by this company or that. I have even witnessed some clients leave companies over lack of vacation time (yes, it's true) or over demands that they "check in" while on vacation.

So without a doubt, vacation time matters...or so we say...

In a discussion on Twitter regarding Gen-Y work-related issues, participants were adamant that this next generation of workers will not stand for anything less than a proper work-life balance.

Period.

End of story.

They are not caving in, so companies better beware!

(It was all so very...romantic.)

To which, I say, "Phooey."

That's right. I don't believe it.

And here's why...

In today's work environment, taking a true vacation (you know, one where you disconnect and actually hang out with family and friends instead of, well, working) is getting harder, not easier, to do.

And it has nothing to do with the amount of vacation time you receive, and even less to do with the company's expectations that you "check in."

The truth is that we live in an age that no longer has the ability to understand what it means to "disconnect" (I mean, after all, we seem to want to keep all those high-school friends we were so anxious to shed 20 years ago now that we have Facebook) and we secretly (or maybe not so secretly) have disdain for people who do achieve total "disconnection" ("I texted you." "I e-mailed you." "I messaged you on Facebook." "And you took a week to respond to me!"). We've certainly lost touch with what a true emergency is. We just don't want to wait. (Remember when people used to respect "dinner time" or "business hours"?)  Frankly, we want people to be available to us 24x7 (not that we would say it like that, of course).

We also live in an age where people are clamoring to work for companies like Google that have turned their corporate compounds into playgrounds, complete with massage services and pool halls, not to mention fun activities for the rest of the family. I mean, it's vacation everyday there, right? Hmmm, I'm pretty sure Google still expects you to work. ("Hey, we'll let you relax; just don't go too far away or disconnect from us while you're doing it. See, we'll even let your kids come and hang out! They'll forget your working because they'll be having so much fun.")

For sure we don't like our companies telling us what to do, like to check in during vacation, and we despise it when the office calls us during our cruise ("How dare they?" We get so indignant), but there we are willingly doing it on our own anyway, sending all kinds of mixed signals.

"It's better if I clear out my e-mail before I go back. Otherwise, it will take the whole first day in the office to do it."

"It's no big deal if I just sit it on this one conference call."

"I'm not working; I'm just checking e-mail."

Now, I know, there are the true renegades out there. They are adamant that they are not available during their vacation or family time. But have you ever noticed how defiantly they have to state their case? "I'm on vacation, and I will NOT be disturbed!" The reason is because they know that even though everyone back at the office is going, "Oh Judy is on a well-deserved vacation, and she does not want to be disturbed," they also are just waiting for some type of "emergency" to crop up so they can do just that, disturb Judy. After all, they each took phone calls and answered e-mails when they were out. I mean, just who does Judy think she is, after all? Who can't respond to one little text?

As employees, we are a hot mess.

We demand our vacations and our family time, and then we let guilt or our sense of obligation (I mean, you did "promise" to see this project or that one all the way through, right?) linger during that precious time.

And companies know it.

(Why else do you think so many are so willing to offer up lots of vacation time and buy us shiny new iPhones? "What? You're willing to work from home? You're dedicated to sleeping with your iPhone? You're going to take your laptop on your European vacation? Sure! Take all the time off you need!")

Believe me, I am no better. I've caved more times than I can count, and although I have had some nice vacations, I have still worked through just about all of them...not really reaping the full benefit of what the vacation could offer me. I've never really disconnected. And although I have cried and moaned about why people won't leave me alone while I am away, there I am "checking in" here and there, afraid someone might need me. (Ah, maybe that's it! We need to be needed...)

So, no, I'm sorry, but achieving work-life balance is not likely for today's or tomorrow's young worker, especially a driven one, and neither is successfully disconnecting on vacation. It takes years of hard work and a thick skin to cultivate, and even then you're still wondering whether it's ever totally possible.

I mean, after all, there really is something to be said for clearing out all those e-mails before you go back to work. :-)

Tired of the Social Media Job Search?

Had it up to here with social media and all the talk about it? If so, it's understandable. Unless you've somehow managed to live under a rock the past couple years, the social media "experts" are everywhere and they've indoctrinated all your friends and family to believing they can't live without it.

Around here we use a lot of social media (or SoMe as us "gurus" like to call it). And I can honestly say, a lot of what makes up SoMe is pretty silly. Even LinkedIn, as "professional" as it tries to make you believe, has some silliness to it, like the endorsements feature that has perfectly rational people playing its game.

Having said that, I do think today's technical leaders need to be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Like it or not, social media is not going to go away, and it does (I promise) have some useful elements to it. If you'd like to hear more about it, I've put together the following post: How Social Media Can Revolutionize Your Job Search As always, feel free to share!  


--About Stephen----

Stephen Van Vreede is not your average IT/technical résumé writer. He provides career strategy and concierge job search solutions for senior (15+ years) (ITtechExec) and up-and-coming (NoddlePlace) (5-15 years) tech and technical operations leaders. Stephen and his team focus on building simplified, targeted, and certain career move campaigns, be it an external search or an internal promotion. He is co-author of UNcommon with career development leader Brian Tracy (out June 11, 2015). Contact Stephen directly at Stephen@ittechexec.com or send him an invite at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenvanvreede. To see whether Stephen and his team are a good fit for you, take their free (and anonymous) 1-minute compatibility quiz, Is the ITtechExec Approach a Good Match for You? Also, feel free to take his complimentary resume self-assessment quiz, How Certain Can You Be About Your Technical Resume? You might be surprised by what you find out!

Could This Be What Your Co-Workers Are Thinking?

A friend of mine knows how much I love office humor. After spending so many hours a day helping multiple professionals at a time maneuver through what I call corporate "goo", from hiring to promotion to salary negotiation and performance review, the state of today's internal corporate culture can be a bit, shall we say, over the top.

So if I don't find a way to laugh, I just might, well, cry. Knowing that, my friend forwarded to me the above cartoon. I use a lot of Randy's humor in developing our presentations, and I like the way he gets to the heart of things.

Perhaps you can relate...could this be what it's like in your office? Could this be what your co-workers are going around thinking? Could it be what you're thinking? 

Since one of my co-workers is my wife, I have no doubt this is running through her mind. :-) Anyway, hopefully, it gives you something to chuckle at today. Feel free to share!    --About Stephen----

Stephen Van Vreede is not your average IT/technical résumé writer. He provides career strategy and concierge job search solutions for senior (15+ years) (ITtechExec) and up-and-coming (NoddlePlace) (5-15 years) tech and technical operations leaders. Stephen and his team focus on building simplified, targeted, and certain career move campaigns, be it an external search or an internal promotion. He is co-author of UNcommon with career development leader Brian Tracy (out June 11, 2015). Contact Stephen directly at Stephen@ittechexec.com or send him an invite at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenvanvreede. To see whether Stephen and his team are a good fit for you, take their free (and anonymous) 1-minute compatibility quiz, Is the ITtechExec Approach a Good Match for You? Also, feel free to take his complimentary resume self-assessment quiz, How Certain Can You Be About Your Technical Resume? You might be surprised by what you find out!