Career Coach Office Hours October 25 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 (JobSearchTV.com channel). You can also message me on Linkedin before the show and I will answer it, too.
Branding and Networking for Digital Pros and Others
03:12
Why can’t most kids be more reasonable about their future jobs these days? There are already too many programmers. You know, you sound like a grumpy old guy. And more realistic? Hey, look, you’re not going to work forever. They want in and they’re excited about doing this. This isn’t about job conservation for them. It’s about ‘I got the rest of my life to live. I want to do this kind of work.’ What’s your problem? Why can’t they be more realistic about future jobs? Why do you have to be so limiting? Firms have trouble finding enough programmers to fill their positions. And you’re whining about why can’t these kids be more like we were? You know, acting like your way was the best way and there weren’t grumpy old people who were complaining about you moving into their jobs? Stop. Okay? Why can’t they be more realistic about their future jobs? Well, they are being realistic. You’re going to die, you’re going to get promoted. In the meantime, you’re going to move up. Your firm is going to need programmers. Every firm needs more programmers. It’s either the domestic US kids do or they get imported from overseas. Which one would you rather have? Nothing wrong with overseas workers in my book. And if they exist in the US, firms don’t have to go overseas. That’s the way it is.
04:55
Why can’t I record the LinkedIn intro for my job interview? What do you think you’re going to do? Record it on your phone and then play it for someone, right? No, like, what do you think is going to get communicated? How do you think this is going to work? You’re going to memorize and recite it. I know that’s what it is! You’re going to memorize it and recite it. Well, the problem with that really is, is that you’re going to give a canned speech, a soliloquy, and you’re not going to connect the dots between what they’re looking for and what you can do for them and what you’ve done. So memorizing your LinkedIn intro, your About section, I assume, for an interview. If you think you can just recite it, like, like a piece of Shakespeare, and have people listen to you, without connecting the dots between what they need and what you can do, you’re kidding yourself. It’s among some of the dumbest things I’ve ever heard. When firms hire, they’re not looking for generic answers– this is what I’ve done. And you should hire me because this is what I’ve done. No, they hire you, because this is what you’ve done, and it can help me solve my problem. And thus, you have to always connect the dots between your past and their needs. Memorizing your LinkedIn intro for an interview? Well, you can treat it is a framework, but you can treat that as the answer. It’s really that simple.
06:37
Can I retake my skill assessment test on LinkedIn to improve my score from 95 percentile to above. So if you’re in the top 95, you’ve got nothing to worry about. I’ll just say that you for if you haven’t gotten a badge, you can retake it. Let’s see. Now the exact quote is, and this comes from LinkedIn, “if you don’t earn a skill badge for a given skill, you can retake the exam once more within six months.” Those are their rules. Thus, you know how frequently you can do this. I did another Google search, what happens if you don’t pass the skills assessment on LinkedIn? It basically says much the same thing, you’ll be able to retake a skill assessment once more. This could be an excellent opportunity to brush up on your knowledge. The specific results won’t be shown to anyone else. So the long and the short of it is you have one more shot at passing and getting your badge. If you don’t get your badge, you’re out of luck.
07:57
I received two questions that were very similar. And I’m just going to paste both of them in the chat because I thought it was kind of funny that within a day of receiving the first one, I received the second one. So is 24 too old for a career ? It requires me to start from an entry-level position. Is it worth it? If you’re only looking at this from a financial standpoint, then you’re gonna have to take several steps backward, because I assume by the time you’re in your mid-30s, you’re receiving a decent compensation. Now you want to do something different. You have to figure out if the financial sacrifice involved is gonna be worth it for you. I also want you to look at it from the standpoint of, if you don’t like what you’re doing. If you don’t like the work that you’re doing, then you’re going to spend 30 years of your life doing work that you detest, and that doesn’t make sense to me. It doesn’t make sense, because you’re only going to receive a paycheck at some regular intervals and the money disappears pretty quickly, doesn’t it? But the work goes on every day. If you’re going to be doing work that you loathe, detest, or however you want to describe it, then don’t do it. Switch to something you do believe you’d enjoy. Now, I don’t want you to jump from the frying pan into the fire. You really need to do research to figure out whether this is work that you’d like to be doing before you commit to doing it. Because if you don’t, you can be making another mistake. So no, it’s not too late at 24 or in your 30s or 40s, or 50s, or as was my case, 60s to make a career change. That’s the fact of it. That’s my opinion.
Branding and Networking for Digital Pros and Others
10:14
I’ll just remind you folks, please put your questions about job search, hiring management, leadership career transitions. Or if you want advice about a particular workplace issue, put it into chat. So this way I can address it. Follow me or connect with me on linkedin@linkedin.com forward slash i n, forward slash the big game hunter. Visit my website, the big game hunter.us. To schedule time for a free discovery call a coaching session to visit my blog, which has more than 12,000 searchable posts. Find out about my courses, which right now are primarily about interviewing. But I know there’s one there about starting a new job well, I courses, books and guides, there’s a lot there to help you. And subscribe to job search TV in a variety of different places. Subscribe to no BS job search advice, radio, in Apple, podcasts, Spotify, Amazon music, Google Play wherever you listen to podcasts, okay.
11:22
I felt badly from this person. Let’s see if you do to the phone number on my resume for a job application had a typo. I’ve had the interview. And it’s been four days I was waiting for a callback and only just noticed it for I still got the job. And the answer was yes. They reached out to you to schedule you, and I’m going to assume probably by email, because they couldn’t text you because it’s the wrong number. And they couldn’t call you because there’s the wrong number. So my expectation is that if they were interested in proceeding further, they’ll contact you by email, at which point you can go ‘I am so embarrassed for making this more inconvenient for you. I had a fat finger and typed incorrectly my phone. I typed my phone number incorrectly. I apologize. Can I give you the correct number now?’ And just sound remorseful, it’ll be absolutely fine. This is not going to intrude upon you getting a job.
12:33
How would you react if you went to a professional job interview consisting of two interviewers and both of them kept their eyes completely closed whenever they addressed you. I’d be annoyed at the fact that I’d be annoyed. And once I started to notice this pattern. Before I answered the next question, I would say ‘Are you guys okay? You folks, okay?’ ‘Why? What is it? ‘ ‘Well, I notice when you’re speaking to me, when you’re addressing me, you two are keeping your eyes closed. So I’m concerned as to whether you’re okay, or if there’s something wrong.’ And they’ll say ‘no, no, no.’ And maybe they’ll deny it. But what you’ve done is call their attention to it. Closing their eyes may be indicative of they’ve had a busy work week and they’re exhausted, and they’re sitting still and getting tired. It can also be indicative of they listen intently to what you say. And they’re not trying to be distracted by how you conduct yourself. So closing your eyes may mean something. It may mean nothing. But most of the time, it means something. It’s about them, not you. So I would just simply start off with saying, ‘Are you guys okay? I noticed when I speak, you’re closing your eyes and I’m concerned I’m either boring the tears, you’re tired, not able to listen. Or would it be better to just schedule or reschedule this for another occasion? That’s really the best way to address it so that you’re not in a situation where you’re going to be disqualified for bogus reasons and thus, be rejected and lose out on opportunities. And I just want to be clear, that doesn’t happen very often. People don’t close their eyes to go to sleep.
14:40
How do recruiters use resumes? It’s really about how recruiter clients use resumes. And they use them to screen people out and decide who to evaluate for positions. Thus what a resume is, is a representation of you and your experience so that an employer can deduce whether or not you could solve their needs, at least on a superficial level, because a lot of people claim X expertise that they don’t really have. So what it does, what a recruiter uses it for is to screen people out and screen people in. And if it’s out, you wasted their time. If it’s to screen you in, then you’ll have an interview. So don’t sweat it. Just make sure you tailor your resume for each role that you interview for so that this way, you demonstrate your fit for a position
15:46
Why won’t someone give a recruiter their resume? I just want to change that word there. I apologize. And now put that in chat. Isn’t that looking for a job? So what’s the point? And if they say, ‘Well, I like to keep it on file for a future occasion. Why is that? So this way I could notify you about future positions. I don’t want to be notified about future positions at this point. Maybe a year from now I’ll feel differently. But you can find me on LinkedIn if my background really is that enticing. You found me on LinkedIn today, you’ll find me on LinkedIn then, too. So why won’t they give it because they don’t want to feel like they’re at risk of being bullied to go on interviews by someone who they don’t feel has they’re interest at heart. As a result, they remove the risk of being bullied, punished, humiliated, whatever term you want to choose to do something that they don’t want, that you don’t want to do, rather than do something that’s in your interest.
17:06
What jobs do recruiters do when they want a career change? The typical job that a recruiter does when they want to make a career change is they go into corporate. Now, I’m speaking of third party recruiters. They go into corporate recruiting, and thus they become a client of their company. Or they work with recruiters or they fill positions using tools and resources that are available to them at that employer. But what do corporate recruiters do is usually different. Very few of them go into the agency side because they have an appreciation for how awful that kind of work can be. They can sell insurance. They can go to grad school and do whatever. They can do anything they want to include and go back to school to learn something completely different, rather than use the baseline skills that they have from doing work in corporate. So for a third party recruiter, they go to to the company side, and they do recruiting for them. If they’re on the company side, there are a million careers that are available that people will choose to go into rather than continuing recruiting.
19:00
How can you tell if your resume will be rejected by an employer? Well, there’s a tool called Jobscan that can help you with that. Now, is it perfect? No, but it’s very good. I’m just gonna put a link to where you can check it out in the in the show notes in the chat. And it’s a URL from me. I do earn a few cents if you use it and sign up for the service. But what Jobscan does is you put a job description into one side,. Yyou put your resume into the other. It notices and gives you variables that will help you determine whether or not a company would interview you. If it’s a zero probability chance of an interview, what does that tell you you need to do? Either not apply or beef up your resume. Make the fit obvious. If it’s a much higher number, let’s say it’s a 95% probability of being interviewed, well, you probably don’t have to change your resume. So how can you tell if your resume will be rejected or whether there’s a likelihood of an interview? Jobscan will do it. Again, the link is in the show notes. And that’s it www.TheBigGameHunter.us/scan.
20:41
How do you deal with a boss who’s really political, and brings it into the workplace? So let me just simply say, politics can mean one or two things. Government, that kind of politics. It can also mean someone who’s vying for power and prestige within a firm, and thus is competing to get their way. Let me deal with the first one first. So how do you deal with a boss who’s really political? You can simply say, ‘Why are you bringing this up? How does this have to do with what you’ve asked me to do?’ And that’ll get their attention. Because you’re not just being a dish rag, listening to them pontificate? You’re basically pushing back and saying, ‘Hey, look, what does this have to do with me? Because that really is what you want to be doing is how does this have to deal with me? If they’ve got a good answer, you’ve got choices to make. And thus, you need to decide what’s most important to you at that next job or organization? What would you need to see you’re here to believe it’s a great choice for you, and thus work from there? So how do you deal with a pulp bosses really political? You look them square in the eye, and say, I’m not here to deal with politics, I’m here to deal with getting a job done. I don’t know why you think I care. I’m apolitical. Or if you’re on the opposing side of theirs, you can simply say, ‘I don’t think this is right in the workplace, that you’re trying to have political conversations with me and others that try and bully us into doing what . . . And use the word bully. ‘I’m not trying to bully!’ However you want to call it when you’re constantly badgering and pushing us to do something we don’t want to do, because we just want to do our job. You’re not doing the right thing. So back off, please.’ And that will slow down their freight train.
How To Use Video For Job Search and Personal Branding
24:08
Is it okay to have a two-page resume? Why or why not? The answer is, yes, it’s okay to have a two-page resume. Why? As you’re more experienced, you have more things to represent to the next firm that demonstrates how you might fit their job. Going through a second page gives you the space to do that. Now, if you’re a recent grad from high school or college, there is no reason to have a two-page resume . . . unless you’re in a research field. And in the research field, you’re in a position where you’ve co-authored articles or publications with someone or some group of people and want to include other publications that can seem to be taking you to two pages easily. So is it okay? Yes. As long as what you’re doing clearly represents you and your experience and your qualifications for a job.
25:29
Why would you want to continue to work with a boss, whom you don’t trust? I confess I did that at one point. Let me tell you my story. I was working in recruiting. I was working for a nut. I’m not going to go into details about what made him a nut but they were. And I did it because of the money. I was earning a lot. And in doing so, I didn’t want to be in a situation where I now had to reestablish myself at another firm, lower my income, and then work my way back up. My clients knew where to find me. That made it easy. And I didn’t want to be in a situation where I had to start messaging people to let them know how to get in touch with me. I didn’t want my corporate clients to have to be retrained to contact me at the new organization. So how, why did you do it? Why don’t I work for someone I didn’t trust because of the money. Also, because I didn’t want to re-establish, myself as a salesperson, as a recruiter at another firm or on my own. It was just easier to ride things out so that this way, I’d be able to continue to earn a living, even though I wasn’t happy. I never took it out on anyone at that firm. What I did very simply, was do something that served me. I’m sure there are many more reasons. Excuse me, but that’s one that I really relate to.
[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEFUmm4W-Ww[/svp]
Stupid Career Branding Mistakes: Who Knows About You?
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 2400 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.
Website: www.TheBigGameHunter.us
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/TheBigGameHunter
Courses: www.TheBigGameHunter.us/courses
Main YouTube: www.JobSearchTV.com
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Resume & LinkedIn Profile critiques
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