Career Coach Office Hours: October 7 2022

Career Coach Office Hours October 7 2022

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 (Job Search TV channel). You can also message me on Linkedin before the show and I will answer it, too.

Job Interviews Falling Flat? Your Attitude May Be To Blame

03:47

If recruiters are anonymizing my CV or resume which contains a picture and removing that, shall I apply without them? No. No. Let me go an extra thing here and simply say, you learned about a job from them. You learned about a position vacancy from them? Why are you stealing their information and trying to cut them out of it? Don’t you think they have bills to pay? Don’t you think that they’ve got kids who need clothes, or rent or mortgage, food that they’ve got to buy for their families or themselves? And you’re going to try and cheat them out of this only because they took your picture off and removed it. Now in the US pictures are a turnoff. Maybe in your part of the world it isn’t. No, you shouldn’t apply without them. Your stealing. You’re stealing their information and using it for your own benefit. And you may not agree with me. That’s okay. But let me ask you this. If I took something from you without your permission and used it for my benefit, you wouldn’t be happy about out that, right? Like, you know, let me use the example of a car. I go to a car dealer. ‘I want to think about it.’ They say, ‘I want you to just fill out the form here.’ And maybe I can just put it and get a pre-approved.  You say, ‘Thanks.’ So what you wind up doing is taking the car the next day and not paying them for it. Is that the right thing? No. And I’m stretching the point there. I’m just trying to give an example that you might relate to. But the fact of the matter is, they gave you information that related to a position they had available for which they’re paid if you go to work at that firm that they represent. And the fact that they took off your picture is a justification in your mind for stealing that resume and applying? Don’t do it. Really? Don’t do it. You’re being a thief. Don’t be a thief. It’s bad news.

 

06:15

How do I leave dependency on coffee during work? I find that hard to work without coffee. Oh boy, I find it hard to work without coffee, too. I would start by weaning myself off of it. I don’t know how many cups you drink of coffee. But start with one cup less or start with a weaker coffee. I know there was a point where I had to wean myself off of coffee. I’m back on. But this was maybe 10, 12 years ago. There’s a medical reason why I had to do it. And I weaned myself off of coffee by purchasing a coffee that was less strong. And I started to drink decaf  and that helped a little bit. But the idea was drinking less coffee, weaker coffee. And then what I did was I bought the most disgusting flavor of coffee imaginable– like a big can of coffee or a can of coffee. And once that was done, my commitment to myself was to stop drinking coffee. I gave myself weeks to do this, because I wanted to wean myself off of the caffeine. And it appears you can have caffeine headaches, some drink less. Pick a time of day that you’re not going to have coffee. For example, I gave myself permission to have coffee initially while I commuted. That was a two-hour trip I was doing commuting. And when I got to the office, I’d have to take two hours off. And that started to work for me to break some of my dependency on coffee during work. So I hope that’s helpful to you. Drink weaker coffee, drink less coffee. Block out times of the day. Let me give you an analogy that I experienced. I stopped smoking. I haven’t smoked in many, many, many years. And when I learned to stop smoking, the first thing they had me do was change brands. Change brands to anything you think you might like, okay. And I changed to a different brand. That was for a week. Then the next week, I was changed to something I didn’t like where I thought I wouldn’t like. In my case, I started smoking menthol cigarettes. Frankly, by the end of the week, I kind of liked menthol. The next week, it was to a certain level of nicotine or less I want to say .7 milligrams of nicotine. And then the final week, it was .1 milligrams of nicotine. And there were one or two brands that had that set up. The fifth week I stopped smoking altogether. I also was told smoke as much as you want. Enjoy yourself. However, I want you to record each time you take a cigarette and I also want you to mark down whether you think any of them were particularly good. The final thing was I couldn’t smoke for an hour after I had lunch, during which time I had to brush my teeth and gargle with Lavoris that could work for you too. Drink as much as you like, change to a different brand of coffee. If you used to go into Starbucks, go to a different chain, or go to a diner coffee, which will be weaker than what you’re used to. And the goal becomes to change some of the habits, and then follow the model I laid out earlier. It may be helpful to us. It was for me when I stopped drinking coffee.

 

10:31

How can you motivate and engage your employees most effectively? Well, I’ll just simply say, there’s a difference between motivation and inspiration. Motivation is lighting a fire underneath someone. Inspiration is lighting a fire within someone. The fact that you have to do things to get people to do their work indicates one of two things, or both. Number one is you don’t really know how to interview and evaluate people. A lot of managers think they do but they’re getting results like you are. They have to kick people in the butt to do their job. You talk about needing to engage your employees more effectively. That suggests to me that they’re disengaged. And that’s a pretty common scenario, which to me comes out of one of two things–you hire the wrong person, or they didn’t know about some of the friction that exists in the environment, that keeps them from being able to do the job that they’re being hired to do. It’s a sad thing. But a lot of managers misrepresent opportunities to people. They become frustrated. They start developing a pity party at work. And then the long and the short of it winds up being, they’re disengaged, they’re turned off, they’re not motivated anymore. They’re not inspired to do great work anymore because they’re frustrated. When you interview people, you should talk about a couple of things. One thing you want to talk about is why people leave because they do leave your organization, right? They do leave your team. Why do they leave? Well, what you’re doing is warning people off who can’t handle it. Right? So I just simply say, the problem isn’t that you have to motivate. The problem is you’re hiring the wrong people, misrepresenting positions to them, and not clearing away some of the institutional friction that exists, that keeps people from being able to do a job well, or some combination thereof. So I’ll just simply say, clean this up. Really, clean this up, because you’re gonna keep losing people and create a revolving door in your group. Better to warn people in advance of some of the problems than just simply pretend they don’t exist, and then losing them in a short period of time.

Tough Interview Questions for Managers: How Do You Delegate to Your Team?

13:20

What if a company tells you after three rounds of interviews, they’re holding the hiring for the time being? The answer is you’re not getting hired. Right now,  there’s a hold on.  The follow up question should be ‘Do you have a sense of how long this will last?’ ‘Oh, I don’t really know.’ ‘In the past, how long was it lasted?’ ‘A month or so.’ ‘Great.’ So, like in two months, if I haven’t heard anything from you, is it okay, to follow up?’ ‘Yeah, sure.’ ‘Great’ You have an idea of when to follow up. But the fact that three rounds have already occurred, irrelevant. Business could be sour right now, as it is with a lot of firms. You know, they’re trying to conserve capital. They’re cutting back on projects. as they sense a recession coming on. There’s a lot of reasons they don’t want to bring someone on board. So you know, what if a company tells you after three rounds that they are holding the hiring for the time being? Well, find out how long they expect this hiring freeze to last and then follow up with them at that time.

 

15:05

I’m being demoted in an organization because of internal restructuring. I have the same salary and terms but at a lower tier with staff responsibilities removed? How should I respond? So what I’m hearing you say is you don’t have to accept this. What’s the consequence? If you don’t are going to be fired? Then you have a choice to make. Is it that you’re going to be at a lower level making more money than other people at this level? Seems to read that way.  It seems to read this way. But the the real question is, were you demoted because of performance? Was that the internal restructuring to get you out of this job because you’re failing? If that’s the case, talk to your boss, talk to your manager, and find out what you can do to improve and how you should improve. And what might happen if you did improve? Could you get your old job back? Could you get to manage people again? Whatever it is that’s been taken away from you, can you have it reinstated so that this way, you have an opportunity to get back to the right level institutionally? If not, I’d get the heck out of there. I’d get the heck out of there and when asked the question, ‘Why are you looking to leave,’ there are stories about internal restructuring and I don’t want to ride through that.’ That’s what you tell employers so that this way, you’re not saying I’ve been demoted and I’m leaving. But you can wind up being in a situation where you’re explaining about restructuring and using that as the explanation for why you’re looking to go.

What Recruiters Know That You Don’t: The Importance of Connection

17:39

Why don’t people dumb down their resumes? I got lots of candidates. Most of them are overqualified when I see their resumes. So I don’t know if you’re a corporate or a third party recruiter. And what you have is the typical scenario of a manager applying for staff position. So why don’t they dumb down their resume?They’re hoping you’re looking for someone with their background because they’re seeing something similar. Or they’re using technology, searching, finding up with search terms, but not really looking at what you’re advertising for. So why don’t they dumb down their resume? The answer is, they don’t want to do a lesser job. Seriously, they don’t want to do a lesser job. Why would they? I’ll just simply say, folks, don’t spam your resume to people. And I understand you’re sometimes being hopeful in doing so. But all you’re doing is wasting someone’s time that doesn’t have a position available. Don’t do it?

 

18:57

What is the employer’s motivation for asking job candidates if they have any questions? Thank you for an easy question. What they’re trying to do is they’re hoping to get to the point where they want to hire you. And everyone has questions about the role, responsibilities, what they’re going to be expected to accomplish in what period of time, a lot of things related to the work. So what’s their motivation in asking questions, right, asking candidates, if they have any questions, or resolve any doubts in their mind. Not everyone apparently is like you who doesn’t think that way. You want to be in a situation where they want to hire people who want to work for them. And if you’re not interested in their job, or you think the work will be boring, or the people there are uninteresting, you’re not going to take the job no matter what they offer you. . . Probably. The long and the short is in trying to resolve any sort of doubts or issues you might have when they’re looking at your background.

Answering Either/Or Questions9 Ways People Sabotage Themselves on Interviews

20:12

Should you use open to work on your LinkedIn profile to attract recruiters? Yes. Yes, by all means, why not? Why would you not use that? Well, they might see that I’m looking. Now I want you to message the help function on LinkedIn and ask them, if I implemented open to work on my profile, will people at my current company see that I’m looking? They’ll probably say no, because I think that is the default these days, that they’re not going to see that you’re looking at if you work at the same organization and that’s designed to keep your confidentiality in place. So I’ll just say, folks, if you have a concern about being found out, and I’d be very happy to help.

 

21:40

Is it okay to search for a job when you’re already in one? Of course! Of course it is. Don’t think twice about it. Don’t take off unnecessary amounts of time. Be respectful in that regard. Yes, you can do that. It’s quite all right. Go ahead.

[svp]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CW-sa3CsDE[/svp]

9 Ways People Sabotage Themselves on Interviews

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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Podcast: anchor.fm/nobsjobsearchadviceradio

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Resume & LinkedIn Profile critiques