Career Coach Office Hours: November 11 2022 | JobSearchTV.com
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
I answered questions about job search, hiring staff, management, career transition, as well as workplace issues. Join me at 1 PM Eastern on Tuesdays and Fridays on LinkedIn or YouTube (youtube.com/@)jobsearchtv). You can also message me on Linkedin before the show and I will answer it, too.
03:33 What does it mean when at a job interview, the hiring manager puts a star on your application and gives you a tour of the work area? Am I a top
candidate for the job?
04:51 How do I evaluate candidates based on their resume and cover letter?
07:53 What should I answer if HR asks me “You already have an offer, why are you still looking for a change?”
09:36 How can you be a good manager if you have no authority (for example, one team member always skips you, and goes to your manager for everything, because the employee was not hired by you)?
13:03 How do you reject a job offer that’s not the original job position you applied for? The job position they are offering is not what you like to do at all.
16:36 As a new tech lead in an organization, is it okay to seek your manager’s feedback on technical decisions involving cross-functional teams or would it make it look like you aren’t ready for the role?
18:21 Why do you think people are frequently afraid to negotiate a better job offer during an interview process?
20:43 What can we do to actually accurately reflect the work of customer service representatives to applicants, and interviewees?
23:33 How can leaders better develop their employees?
26:42 I’m turning 65. Things at the current gig are okay. However, thinking about contingencies, I’d welcome your thoughts on approaching the search.
03:33
What does it mean when at a job interview, the hiring manager puts a star on your application and gives you a tour of the work area? Am I the top candidate for the job? Can’t really tell. Probably, but no guarantee. So they don’t want to completely raise your hopes. Normally, they don’t tour the workplace if they’re not interested in you. If they introduced you to anyone, that’s certainly a good sign because they wouldn’t do that unless they were thinking of bringing you in. The star on the application. Why are they dealing with paper applications anyway? But that’s a different conversation. But, you know, certainly, it’s not a bad sign. But to me, there isn’t enough there to go on because the fact of the matter is, for all we know she or he does that with everyone. So I don’t want to make an assumption that this means you’re a top candidate, but it certainly doesn’t seem like you were rejected summarily, based upon what took place before. So good luck on this one. Let me know how it turns out.
04:51
How do I evaluate candidates based on their resume and cover letter? So you’re a hiring manager, I’m assuming, or you’re in HR. If you receive the resume from someone, you received the cover letter, let’s focus on the resume first. The resume should be able to convince you that they are qualified for the job that they apply to, or that you are recruiting for. Now, they could be different. You know, a job that they applied for, you may be recruiting for more than one position, and they chose one. You see them for another one, particularly if you’re in HR doing recruiting or talent acquisition, certainly that’s possible. So the result winds up being you start off with their resume to validate that they’re qualified for this job. How do their skills match up with the requirements of the position? That’s really what it comes down to. Now, the cover letter, to me is about making a case for why you’re qualified, calling attention to things that they’ve done, that relates to the job that you’re recruiting for. Now, I would also look at the cover letter as a way to determine whether or not they write well, in whatever language you’re reading this. I’m going to speak as someone in the US here, that they communicate in US English (well, it could be British English, it could be African English), but you want to see how well they write. And thus how they communicate. Because if there’s something different about how they do it in the cover letter versus on the resume, well, they could have paid them someone to write the resume. Not a bad thing. But they may have not done that for the cover letter. So I’d want to know how they write and express themselves through the cover letter in order to determine whether or not US English is a first language for them. If it isn’t, how well do they write. So again, because a person has a foreign name, doesn’t mean that they speak badly. I do this with people 
who look as though they’ve lived in the United States for long, long periods of time, because, frankly, a lot of Native US-born people don’t write particularly well. And when I did recruiting, I would use that as a way of ruling them out because my clients wanted people who had great oral and written communication skills. But you’re asking about how you should look at the resume and cover letter. Think of it from the context of you’re qualifying people for a job. How do they match up. And the interview assigned to affirm that, for the purposes of whether they actually are qualified for this position? Do they express themselves well, etcetera, etcetera.
4 Things to Consider When Changing Careers
07:53
What should I answer if HR asks me, ‘you already have an offer.? Why are you still looking for a change?’ ‘Well, I haven’t committed to accepting that offer.’ ‘Well, why haven’t you?’ ‘I’m not completely sold on it. And frankly, I’ve been very interested in your firm and your organization.’ ‘Why is that?’ Now the next thing you tell them is how you’re going to sell to you that you should join them if that’s what’s going to happen. But this question isn’t designed to put you on the defensive, necessarily. What it’s designed to do is to understand why you haven’t taken this other offer. And, yes, money may be a factor. You may say to them, ‘and frankly, one of the things I’m going to weigh in this is money. They’ve offered me a position.’ ‘How much did they offer you?’ ‘I don’t think that’s particularly relevant or fair. If the goal here is, you’re going to increase your offer by $200, to come in higher than theirs. You know, I think it’s more appropriate for you to value me as you believe I am and make that offer based upon that so that I don’t want you thinking about it, go back with your offer to them, and then make them increase their offer and then come back to you for more money. So the long and the short of it is I’m still weighing my options. I haven’t committed to joining. And as such, I wanted to finish my interview cycle with your organization so that this way, I could make a good decision because I am very interested in your firm.’
09:36
This is a classic scenario. How can you be a good manager if you have no authority? For example, one team member always skips you and goes to your manager for everything, because the employee was not hired by you. In other words, you’re mad. The person who hired them got promoted. You report to them. This person reports to you. You report to them and the result winds up being, they’re skipping over you, and just trying to get that other person to make a decision. Now you could talk to this person, but I don’t think that’s the best way to go. I think the best way to go, frankly, is, if you go to your manager, the one that they’re going to, and basically saying, ‘I’m a little confused here. I keep hearing about (I’m gonna make up a name here) Gerry, going to you directly for decisions rather than come to me.’ ‘Yeah, she’s been doing that a lot.’ ‘Why don’t you send her back to me?’ ‘Well, I like her. I hired her.’ ‘Well, let me help you out here for a second. For you to be successful in your role, you should be doing things other than dealing with people who report to someone who reports to you. You should be doing the work that you were brought on to do and your role and let me do my job, which is to manage her and the other people that I’m responsible for. When you do this, it tells her and it tells the others that I manage that I’m not important in this equation. And that has an effect on my ability to be effective. It affects my ability to manage, frankly, affects you affects your ability to lead. So I want to encourage you, if she comes to you again for a decision, you point her back to me, and basically say, This isn’t my job anymore. Why haven’t you asked Jeff. (I’m gonna use my myself here) what he thinks and for his input on the decision, instead of coming to me. Because I’m not your manager anymore. So go to him, and let him make the call. And if you don’t like it, he made the decision. That’s his job– to make the decision that he believes is best. Stop coming to me, please. I’ve got another job and all you’re doing is circumventing his authority.’ So that’s who you need to talk with. It’s not the mythical Gerry I just made up there. It’s your manager who keeps putting you in this awkward position where it impacts your ability to manage effectively.
13:01
How do you reject a job offer that’s not the original job position you applied for? The job position they’re offering is not what you’d like to do at all. Now, first, I’m going to have a conversation with you and talk to you personally, before I answer the question. Why did you continue to interview for a role you weren’t interested in when you were going to turn down an offer that they made? Now, I understand the first time that you might have done this. But the long and the short of it is, once you continue to have conversations, they got the idea that you might be interested. At the end of the first conversation about this
alternate role, I would have turned around and said, ‘Thanks. That’s not the position I applied for, nor is it the one that I’m particularly interested in. I want to interview for the first position.’ ‘Well, we don’t really see you as being qualified for that one.’ ‘How did you make that decision? After all, we hadn’t spoken about my qualifications for that job.’ ‘Well, we saw is a better fit for this one.’ ‘But it’s not one that I’m interested in. I’m interested in the first position.’ And that’s what you could have done then. But you chose to continue on and now you need to turn it down. Here’s how you do it. You basically respond and simply say, ‘I’m not interested in this job. I’ve talked to any number of people about the role and responsibilities for it. I’m not bringing money into the equation here. I’m just dealing with the work. I applied for such and such position. You thought I could be served better in this other role. It’s not one that I want to do. So I’d like to interview for the first position, the one that I actually applied for, and see whether or not I can get that job. But the fact is, I’m not going to accept an offer for this position. It just doesn’t interest me like the first job.’ ‘Or is it the money? Can we give you more money?’ ‘It’s really about the work. I don’t want to do that kind of work. If I gave you the idea that I was interested, I apologize. But you kept telling me that this was gonna be a great position. I don’t really see it that way. The manager’s a nice woman, man, whomever but it’s not work that I want to do. So I want to encourage you let me interview for the first role, the one that I actually apply for.’ ‘We closed that job.’ ‘Let me know when something like it reopens because I don’t want to do that kind of work. Okay?’ And that’s the way you respond and turn it down. You’re very gracious. You’re very polite. And I’ll simply say, folks, this happens pretty regularly. So by all means, talk to them as an honest person. Tell them that you’re not going to take the job. And say, I’d like to interview for the first role. But use as much of that language as you can remember, or you can watch it again on YouTube. And you can pick up the language from there.
16:36
As a new tech leader in an organization, is it okay to seek your manager’s feedback on technical decisions involving cross-functional teams? Will it make it look like you aren’t ready for the role? Who said you’re supposed to know everything? How did you get that idea? Don’t you think your manager when he or she was in a similar situation, don’t you think that they asked for advice at times? Here’s how you go to them. You turn around, you set up an appointment with them and say, ‘can I get 15 minutes with you?’ ‘Sure. What’s up?’ This is what I’m contending with now and this is what I’m thinking of doing.’ Notice, what you’re doing is saying this is what I’m thinking of doing? ‘I’m not sure whether this is the right way to go about it. Could you give me some ideas? What do you think? I’d appreciate your support here.’ Because the one thing you don’t want to do of course is make a mistake that proves costly and that might actually be catastrophic to the project, or to what you’ve been charged with doing. So instead of doing something like that, ask for advice. But start off with ‘this is the situation. This is what I’m thinking of doing. What do you think?’ That becomes the way to approach this situation. And that actually demonstrates that you are ready for a leadership role, rather than not ready?
18:21
Why do you think people are frequently afraid to negotiate a better job offer during the interview? That’s because they’re afraid of losing the job offer. They think that if you negotiate, the company will get annoyed at you, and they’ll rescind the offer. And if they do I must in all honestly say you dodged a bullet. You avoided a problem and an organization that basically operates with ‘Take it or leave it’ attitudes. So I’ll just say the best way to go about this is to be able to say to yourself, let me start negotiating here and let me get as much as I can. Is this a job that I would take if they improved the money or some aspect of the job that’s critical to you? If the answer’s no, don’t bother. Just turn down the offer. But the question is, why are they afraid to negotiate? Because they don’t want to lose it. Parents tell kids ‘don’t get into trouble. You might make them . . . they could take the offer away. And then where would you be? Nonsense. So they do it’s because they’re afraid. And even if they say yes, they’re afraid that they did something bad, and that they’re going to be seen as someone who is, you guessed it, BAD and no one wants to be seen as being bad, right? So they wind up being good boys and good girls, and basically go, (Goody Voice) ‘okay, I’ll take the offer. And it’s not the right situation for them. It’s not the right money. It may not be the right benefits. May not be the right work hours. May be the wrong location, because they didn’t have to commute too much. And they want them there at 830 in the morning. it’s a two-hour trip each way. They basically nod their head and say yes, so it’s important to negotiate. Don’t be afraid to negotiate because if they rescind an offer because you attempted to negotiate, you just really dodged a bullet.
20:43
What can we do to actually accurately reflect the work of customer service representatives to applicants, and interviewees? Okay, this is a hiring manager talking. How do we reflect the work of the customer service reps, to applicants, and interviewees? This is really easy. ‘We hire customer service reps to . . . ‘ and then finish that sentence. We hire customer service reps to . . . and then explain what their responsibilities will be. ‘We measure their effectiveness and their success by . . . ” and then you explain how you evaluate and assess people in two sentences. You’re being remarkably clear. You’re telling them exactly what you’ll want them to do, and how you’re going to evaluate their performance. That’s golden. For you, as a manager, that should be a breeze. You’ve got a job description that you wrote, or you’re utilizing. Look at it. We hire customer reps to . . . ‘make the people who call our call center happy. We want them to professionally and with care, take care of people without giving away the fort, without giving away the house. We evaluate them based on a couple of things.’ And then you lay out the criteria for how they’re evaluated so that this way they know exactly how they’re going to be seen, how they’re going to be evaluated, and what the what the benchmark is for current success.
4 Things to Consider When Changing Careers
23:08
How can leaders better develop their employees? And the answer is, to hire better to start off with because you can’t hire motivation. You can’t cultivate motivation, or inspiration. What you can do is, very simply, hire exceptional people who care, then remove friction from their path so that in this way, they’re not running into roadblocks every two minutes. Part of your job as a manager is to tell them what they’re walking into. Who are the A performers in the group? Who are the less than A and what you’re going to be doing to evaluate them? Like I said to the question before this, what you do is you say, you know, ‘we hire people to . . . ‘and you explain what the job is. ‘And we evaluate them based upon such and such.’ Now to develop or cultivate your people once you have them on board, bumber one, remove friction from their path. And number two is give them opportunities that stretch them, to give them a chance to be successful in something new, and observe how they handle it. Support them but don’t do their job for them. Say, you know, I want you to be checking in with me with some regularity. But this is your project. Let’s see how you do with it. And we’ll learn from one another and I’ll give you feedback.’ And when you give feedback, do not rip them apart. Start off by saying, ‘Well, I’m noticing you’re doing well at such and such. Now, I have picked up on one or two areas, I think he can do better with. You talk about those one or two areas, and you speak as casually with them as I am now. Because if you speak to them with intensity, and you sound like you’re punishing them, well, they’re going to feel punished and that’s not what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to encourage them and inspire them and give them chances to learn and grow. And then from there, you wrap up by saying, ‘And at the same time, I want to be clear, these are growth areas for you. And you’re doing a great job overall. But I would encourage you to consider doing this going forward. And let’s talk again in two to three days. Okay?’ And start your conversations with them, ‘How do you feel you’re doing? What do you think? How do you think you’re doing? And listen to them first, and then affirm them by saying, ‘as I said, before, you know, I really see that you’re doing a good job. You know, as you mentioned, you’ve done this, that, this. that. And at the same time, I also want to point out that, I think you’d recognize there are a couple of growth areas for you. And one or two things I’ve picked up on . . . Don’t give them a lengthy list. All you’re gonna do is cut them off at the knees and they’re going to feel like they’re stabbed in the back by you. But help them learn and grow so they can get back to you.
26:42
So you’re turning 65. Things at the current gig are okay. However, thinking about contingencies, I’d welcome your thoughts on approaching the search. Okay. So this is, I’m recording this, on November 11 2022. We’re about to enter the easiest time of the year to network. So it’s time to cultivate your network. Again, if you haven’t been doing that, up until this point, I say it’s the easiest time of the year because between Thanksgiving and mid-January, are the
holiday periods, where people tend to be in a more mellow mood. And they don’t view the contacts as being ‘he’s looking for a job. He’s gonna hit me up for a job.’ No, it’s not about that especially if you say, ‘you know, as we approach the holidays, your name popped into my mind so I thought I would reach out and see how you were. Maybe we can get together on a call or resume or, or in person, and just chat for a little bit and get caught up because I’d love to hear how your family’s doing.’ and you do the friendly person call rather than the ‘I’m thinking about changing jobs’ call. Because no one wants to feel like you just put a move on them to try and get a job. So make this purely about reconnecting. And then after the new year starts, sometime later in January, start saying, ‘you know, I’ve been thinking about . . . and maybe this might be . . . and you reach out to them this time, related to work, because they will have told you about what they’re doing. The two of you get caught up with people, places and things from your past. You reach out to everyone. Start with the ones who are in your phone. People who you can text. Start right after Thanksgiving, because that’s really when the runway starts, for the best time of the year. Get your resume ready. Get your LinkedIn profile up to date, so that people will see you and get a sense of what you’re capable of, or what you’ve been doing. Now, the magic thing that most people get worried about as they get older is age discrimination. So let me address that because you mentioned turning 65. And one of the realities of life is people get fearful of age discrimination. And it exists. And one of the reasons it exists is a lot of older professionals kind of go into interviews and wing it. And they act like they were 23. And ‘yeah, I know this stuff. No problem. I can figure it out as I go along.’ And that’s what amateurs do. Professionals practice and rehearse for interviews. And one of the things I’ve got a course on my website called The Ultimate Job Interview Framework. It’s available at TheBigGameHunter.us/courses, and you can rent it or buy it and it’ll teach you how to interview differently than most people. And that becomes a way that you can get a refresher on interviewing, and then you practice. One of the things in practicing interviewing is getting yourself in a position where you’re comfortable answering all the basic questions. But there’s a lot more to thecourse than just that. It’s a framework for interviewing that will help you perform better. The other thing is, yes, get your resume written, get your LinkedIn profile ready. With the LinkedIn profile, make it easy for people to contact you, by putting your email address in the About area so that this way, they don’t have to send you an InMail and spend $15 to do that You’re just giving them the email address for them to message you. I don’t want to put a phone number there because you don’t want phone calls at the wrong time and you never know who’s skimming this kind of stuff. By the way, I didn’t mention and I should have– the email address in your About area. If you’re concerned about spam emails, have a job-searching email address set up that forwards to the real one. And then when the search is over, you can separate the two accounts so it doesn’t forward to the new one. All of it stays there in the job search one. But those are the basic things to start off. Start connecting with people. Yeah, you could apply for jobs but, and firms certainly by early December, know what their budget is and start thinking in terms of hiring for January. But the statistics are that 60% of positions are filled as a result of networking. Linkedin says it’s 80%, I don’t think it’s that high. Let’s split the difference. 70% of positions are filled as a result of that. 70% of them or 49%, are filled as a result of introductions to people that your network knows who you doubt. So networking is the primary way to start off so that this way, you start extending your reach because applying for jobs is not the way to go. Now, let’s go the extra step. We’re entering, or are in recessionary times. The job market has remained good. I also want to encourage you make sure your energy level is high for interviews, because one thing that gets older professionals knocked out of consideration is they act like older professionals, which means low energy know at alls. So ‘I know better than you.’ And people don’t listen. They talk at the interviewers, rather than . . . and I don’t know if this is you. We haven’t spoken in years, John. . . But the fact is, we’re older professionals, run into ageism. And I also believe older individuals cop to ageism, much too soon because it’s easier to blame other people than look in the mirror and blame themselves for their jobs search and interview performance failures. So those are a couple of quick thoughts that I hope are helpful to you. If you want to review these later, it’s on YouTube. My channel is JobSearchTV.com. Go to the tab that says Live. And then look for the video Career Coach Office Hours for November 11 2022.
[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L7zjibsbdo[/svp]
Roadblocks. Perseverance. Adversity. Resilience. Determination.
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. He is hired to provide No BS Career Advice globally. That can involve job search, hiring staff, management, leadership, career transition and advice about resolving workplace issues. Schedule a discovery call at my website, www.TheBigGameHunter.us
He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 2500 episodes.
I do a livestream on LinkedIn, and YouTube (on the JobSearchTV.com account) 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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