Career Coach Office Hours: August 30 2022 | JobSearchTV.com
I answered questions about #jobsearch #hiringstaff #management #leadership #workplace issues. Join me at 1 PM Eastern on Tuesdays and Fridays. You can also message me on Linkedin before the show and I will answer it, too. #careercoachofficehours #careercoaching #careercoach #jobsearchtips #jobsearchadvice #interviews #hiring #managingpeople #leadershipskills #linkedinlive #linkedinlivestreams
You can also message me on Linkedin before the show and I will answer it, too. #careercoachofficehours #careercoaching #careercoach #jobsearchtips #jobsearchadvice #interviews #hiring #managingpeople #leadershipskills #linkedinlive #linkedinlivestreams
I Keep Sending Out Resumes, Following Up and Getting No Results
Do employers look at your LinkedIn profile when considering hiring you for a position or are they more interested in your resume and cover letter? I’m not sure I didn’t answer that last show. But let me cover it again. I think what they do more than anything is it depends upon how they’re hearing about you. If they’re recruiting and they’re on LinkedIn, your profile is the primary place and the resume and cover letter back it up. If you’re applying for a job and you’re uploading a resume to an applicant tracking system, well that’s different. It’s the resume that carries the weight. If the resume is the lead item, then often they go to the LinkedIn profile in order to confirm and see if it’s congruent with your with your resume. So understand that they should complement one another. The information there should be pretty congruent, not identical, congruent, look up the word C-O-N-G-R-U-E-N-T if you don’t know what it means, and from there, what you’re able to do is, the profile leads the way when they’re recruiting on the platform. The resume and cover letter lead the way if you’re applying, if a job board, or you’re sending your resume in
through LinkedIn or any other service, hope that answers your question.
What would you do when a job seeker wants to talk with human resources, but the line manager rejected the applicant? I thought about this for a couple of minutes because it reminded me of something. And what it reminded me was that when I did recruiting, I had two instances where people I’d submitted for interviews at different firms, each had an incident occur, that I believe, should have been escalated. One was a woman, one was a man, and there was inappropriate contact with each. I’m not going to go into the specifics; it’s not important. So I escalated by contacting the president of each of the two firms. I didn’t know them. But I indicated that who I was, and what my relation what my why I was contacting them. And that I thought it was appropriate that they know what I had been told. Although I could have contacted the Human Resources organization, that was a different time, pre #metoo movement, where I just thought it was better to escalate to the highest level. And I’ll just simply say it was the right decision on my part. However, I know, people are tempted to say, why should we have them talk to HR? The line manager turned them down? I think the first thing that someone should do is to ask this person by email, what’s the intention of wanting to speak with HR? If it is the typical situation, where it’s, ‘I think they made the wrong choice. I wasn’t asked anything about such and such. And I should have been interviewed, and I should be hired,’ well, then you can kill it off right then in there. You can basically tell the person that HR is not going to have this conversation. You’ve been rejected by the decision maker. And let’s bring this to a polite conclusion. But I still stand by what I said earlier. You have to understand why it is they want to speak with HR before summarily dismissing them because there are just too many incidents where people wind up in bad conditions, and have a bad experience. And you don’t want to be one of those companies that miss hearing that so that you have a chance to respond, rather than reading about it online, or in a newspaper.
What does it mean if your interviewer says, ‘I’m not going to lie’ at the beginning of the interview? There was a book I read when I was in high school. I don’t recall what its title is. But it told the story of a Butler, who learned a number of lessons waiting on a particular family. And one of the lessons is when someone tells you you’re not going to lie, the next thing you’re going to be told is a lie. So I’ll just simply say, rather than accept that statement at face value, and I hope it’s true, but rather than just accepted at face value, I want to ensure that at some point, you’re in a situation where you can test the integrity of their answer, the honesty of the answer, since they made the point of telling you ‘I’m not going to lie to you.’ Test it out. And if they have lied to you? Well, I’d simply say don’t confront them with it, because you may have missed some of the texture in the question, or in their answer that might cause their answer to you to be technically correct, but not exactly truthful. I’m not going to go into details about what I mean by that. I’ll just simply say I’ve always told Job Hunters, there are three lies in the in finding work. The first one is, how can you tell if a company is lying to you? The answer is their lips are moving. Everyone in the process is posturing for advantage. And thus, they try to be really dramatic and say ‘I’m not gonna lie,’ but they may embellish the truth a little bit, tell a white lie, and think that they’re being honest. Don’t accept the statement at face value. Maybe their intention is not to lie. But sometimes unpleasant truths occur.
Should you hire people who are better or smarter than you? Well, the first question is, are you capable enough to allow them to be great, to be their fullest self or are you going to micromanage them and turn them into obedient slaves in order to put in order to control them? And no one likes to be controlled. You’ve hired them because they’re better than you; smarter is irrelevant, but better at the work that you need them to do. For example, a manager may not be able to write code anymore. A CFO may not be able to do some accounting functions that they could do many years ago. But it’s been a long time, and they’re going to be rusty. So just understand, you want to be hiring people who are better than you , and who aspire to great things. And you want to support them as they go on their path, so that they do become better, and are more successful. It’s kind of like one of your jobs is to be like a parent who wants to have a child have a better life than they did. Well, you want a subordinate that you hire, who you think is really smart and at that level in life is even better than you ever were. You want to help them get better. You don’t want to micromanage them into oblivion, because then what you’re doing is crushing them. You’re crushing their spirit. And that defeats the purpose of 
hiring someone better than you. So remember, there should always be limits as to what you do. And yes, you should be hiring people better than you.
How do companies try to assess the personalities of people who are applying for jobs? There are a few ways that they try to do it. And one is the industrial psychology test where they ask you a series of questions that are politely called industrial psychology questions that are designed to get a sense of who you are, and how you behave under certain circumstances. That’s the primary one. The second one is in the interview, they want to get a sense of your personality. And thus, the reason they do it is they want us to get an idea of whether you’d fit into the organization. I don’t think doing it that way works. But they think it does. It’s seat of the pants too often. It’s Mickey Mouse, to be blunt. It’s really a childlike way of doing it, and not ideal. So they do it in those two ways– some version of testing, or in the course of the interview, they want to get a flavor of you as a human being. And then from there, they make a choice about whether you fit.
What should I do if my manager does not value me even though I do my job well at work? I don’t know what you mean by ‘value.’ What do you mean by ‘value me?’ So the question again, is what should I do if the manager does not value me, even though I do my job well at work? So I don’t know how experienced you are, or inexperienced you are. But I might sit and meet with them and say something very simple to them. I get the idea that I don’t want to say you don’t appreciate me, but you don’t really value the amount of time I put into this. I don’t think you really value the amount of effort I put into this and how difficult some of these assignments have been.’ And from there, you shut up because you don’t want to go over the deep end because you’re not going to get anywhere from that. All that’s going to happen is they’re going to resent you. They’re going to be hurt by the statement, and you’re not going to get anything more out of them. Once they’ve defended their position, what you’re able to do is say, ‘Thank you. I feel better. Thank you.’ And look sincerely at them, feeling as though, what you’ve done is, make sure that they hear you, and that there is some version of communication between you and your manager. So, the simplest thing I would say is you’ve got to talk to your boss and get a clear handle on what they think about your work. That’s it.
In a job interview, how do we know whether our answer was too long or short? Well, the answer to that’s pretty specific. And that is, you start to notice that they’re not listening. Their eyes basically say they’re thinking about something else, and they’re not focused on you. So the way you deal with this is that all your answers should be about a minute to a minute and 15 seconds in length. Why? After that, people find it difficult to keep listening. We live in an ADHD culture, right? Everyone’s ping ponging between things. Lots of stuff to do; not enough time. And the result winds up being you have a limited attention span. I’ve observed and been able to verify a minute to a minute 15 is probably about as far as a lot of people can listen uninterrupted. So the way you deal with it, is by keeping your answer to a minute to a minute, 15. And then pausing and going, ‘you know, I can go into more depth if you like. But that’s up to you. If you want me more details, I’m happy to provide them.’ And they may follow up with ‘No. No. No. That was great.’ Or, ‘yeah, I really appreciate it. And thus can move on from there.
My manager doesn’t listen to feedback from me about anything I’m quitting, should I tell him the real reason or just saying nothing? You’ll know what the right answer to that is in the room. Generally, I lean towards saying nothing. You’re leaving. That’s it? You know, what do you expect they’re going to do? ‘I’m sorry, I’ll change,’ and beg you to stay on board. No, that’s not going to happen. So what you want to be doing is have a conversation with them, saying, ‘I’m feeling frustrated. And when I get feedback from you, you know, basically, it’s not useful. So I want to encourage you to to compliment me on the spot when you think I’m doing something well, and bring me into an office and talk with me if there’s something you don’t think I’m doing well. I’m good with that. That’s a real good approach that deals with my response to stuff. So that’s really the way to handle things.
Standing Out on an Interview
What are the differences between a cover letter and an offer letter? So you’re right. They both are forms of letters. And a cover letter is something that used to exist pre-technology when we used to mail resumes, and this letter sat on top of the resume that you sent and talked about how your background fits the role as you understood it. And the offer letter on the other hand is ‘we’re going to hire her, we’re going to hire him. YAY! They’ve made the decision to hire and the offer letter spells out the terms and conditions under which he’d be working, and how serious they are about their financial offer. So that’s it in a nutshell.
Can an employee really get fired for standing up for themselves, while getting berated unfairly by the management? Happens all the time. Happens all the time. And thus, people are berated and left bewildered very regularly. So don’t fall into the trap. And if you wind up in a situation where you are being pushed around, and you’re in a situation where emotionally, you’re at risk, speak up. Make your your feelings heard, and go from there. No one wants to be berated. No one wants to be verbally abused. No one wants to ever be in that kind of situation. So can you wind up in a situation where you’re fired for standing up for yourself? You betcha. I remember, again, I had an employee working for me. Ilon was someone who was difficult. And I was the holdout on him staying. My partner wanted him fired. I held out until one day I forget what his mistake was. But he made a mistake, and he started attacking me. And without going into the details, I fired him on the spot. So yes, they can get fired for standing up for themselves. While getting berated on this unfairly by the management. I wouldn’t say that I was I treated him unfairly. But what I did do is make it clear that such behavior was not tolerable. And then once I made that decision for him to go, he was gone. That was it. So yes, an employee can get fired for standing up for themselves, while getting graded unfairly by the management of a firm. Yes, it can happen and should happen.
Do recruiters really care about eye contact? Yes. And they care about eye contact because it’s a connection with people. I don’t care if it’s on video; don’t care if it’s in-person. Obviously, on a phone call, they can’t see you. But in the course of speaking with you, you always want to be in a position where you’re making eye contact with people because that allows you to connect with them. It’s one of the reasons I love video. As much as I like podcasting, I love video, because you’re able to see the person who has asked you the question, who is considering hiring you. You can make eye contact with them. It really does work. So yes, they do care about eye contact. And yeah, they care about eye contact, because it’s a connection with the person.
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter is a coach who worked as a recruiter for what seems like one hundred years. His work involves career coaching, as well as executive job search coaching, job coaching, and interview coaching. He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 2400 episodes.
Are you interested in 1:1 coaching, interview coaching, advice about networking more effectively, how to negotiate your offer or leadership coaching? People hire me to provide No BS career advice whether that is about a job search, hiring better, leadership, management or support with a workplace issue. Schedule a discovery call at my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us
My courses are available on my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us/courses The courses include ones about Informational Interviews, Interviewing, final interview preparation, salary negotiation mistakes to avoid, the top 10 questions to prepare for on any job interview, and starting a new job.
I do a livestream on LinkedIn, YouTube (on the JobSearchTV.com account) and on Facebook (on the Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter page) Tuesdays and Fridays at 1 PM Eastern. You can send your questions about job search, hiring better, management, leadership or to get advice about a workplace issue to me via messaging on LinkedIn or in chat during the approximately 30 minute show.
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