Tips For Job Seekers – Take Your Time

The process of looking for a job can be exciting, overwhelming, scary, painful, and rewarding.  All those emotions put you in a tough position when the moment occurs that a job offer is made to you.

You’ve heard about a job and submitted your resume and waited, interviewed and waited, maybe interviewed another round (or two or three) and waited, provided a list of people for your reference checking and waited, heard you were selected and waited, and then presented an offer…

And all you want to do is take the offer and be done with this job search and get working.

But hold on.

This is the one point where you have the ability to make demands.  Through all of the process up to this point, you had to be where you were needed when you were needed.  You had to answer all the questions thrown at you and sell yourself – they should hire you because you are terrific – and you need to make that known.

Now they know it.  Now they are making the offer and they have invested time and they want you to say yes and come on board and show your stuff.

This moment only comes once.  Take your time, think about everything they’ve offered and everything you’ve wanted.  If there is something that does not fit your needs or desires, talk about it.  Don’t threaten, don’t disrespect anyone, just talk about it.  Know your goal and find a way to ask for it.  Think through your words carefully, write them down and practice them, and then have the discussion.  Be willing to bend and listen to their words too.  You want to make sure you are happy with the overall offer including the role, the boss, and the compensation.

Once you have agreed to terms, sign the paper and smile.  Then celebrate because soon you will be working at the new great job you landed.

 

Tips For Job Seekers – Waiting is hard

There are a lot of things you wait for while in the middle of a job search.  Waiting to hear if you have an interview, if you were shortlisted after the interview, what your references have said, is the offer coming, can you agree on terms.

Most of the waiting is hard.

You need to stay motivated and confident each step of the way.  There are many things you can do to help yourself with this.

1. Stay busy – don’t spend all day wondering when the phone will ring
2. Stay focused – you don’t have the job until you have the job, so you need to keep working on the job search in case this one falls through
3. Stay confident – if you feel you are starting to doubt yourself, call up a friend or colleague and ask them to list 3 of your strengths and then reflect on these
4. Stay positive – this is not the end of the world, you know you are qualified and you will find the right role if you know what you are looking for
5. Plan free time – if you plan to take the day off of your job search for personal rejuvenation or a trip with the family, be honest with yourself about it and declare a vacation day just like if you were working
6. Try to enjoy yourself – in a job search, if you keep yourself busy and focused you can meet some terrific people through networking and boost your confidence as you talk about your skills and experience

Good luck to all those job searching.  And have fun out there!

Some advice for organizing your job search – http://www.mechanicshub.com/testing/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=19:career-and-skills-news&id=435:organize-your-job-search&Itemid=84

 

Tips For Job Seekers – Reference Checks

It’s an interesting world when reference checking begins.  It is a good sign because an Executive Recruiter doesn’t typically do reference checks until you have been shortlisted or the company is preparing to make an offer.

This can be a difficult situation when you have a) left your job because you don’t like working for your boss or b) been let go by said boss.

You can have 100 other references, but they are going to check you out with your current/previous boss.  This is yet another reason you never, ever say anything bad about, or to, the previous company or boss.  This person you have decided to leave or who has made the decision it is time for you to leave will be giving their opinion of you as an employee to the recruiter who is deciding if you pass the criteria for the new job where you have just wow’ed them in your interviews.

You can complain and say it’s not fair, it doesn’t make sense, or you should get to pick the names to give references for you.  But that won’t change the fact.

Be professional at every step.  It’s important.

The day I got let go and my boss said “it’s nothing personal, we are downsizing”, I had the presence of mind to ask “so I guess that means you would be comfortable providing a reference for me for a new job?” and he said yes.  That took away my worry for the moment the recruiter would say “we are going to call your previous boss”.

Read here for tips on how to request references and the power of personal references.