The 3 C's

"Don't criticize, condemn, or complain." This is the first Golden Principle of Dale Carnegie. This is from his world famous book "How to Win Friends and Influence People." Try it for a week! I have a hard time not messing up after a couple of minutes. The idea is to communicate your point in a way that people see and accept your side of the argument. As salespeople (I won't leave that alone!), we have to begin to help by not putting someone on the defensive. Does this mean we can't disagree? Of course not. However, it sure is a lot more work to win someone over, get your point across, and have them willingly take action to benefit both of our goals.

Resumes

I don't value resumes as much as the career websites. However, a bad one will sink you! Here are some keys to remember. As I said in the older post, no one looks at your resume for more than 15 seconds (1 page only!). So what should your resume look like? First, put the most impressive towards the top. If your education is your most impressive feature, put that first. If your objective is the best, put that first. If your experience is the best, put that first. However, everything should be geared towards the potential job or company. Finally, put the resume away. Come back to it and give yourself 10 seconds to look at it. What do you think?

Understanding What is Most Important!

Most people spend their time spinning a wonderful web on their resume. STOP!!! The most important part of job searching (after hunting down the decision maker...remember don't let people tell you they will call you...ever heard of "check's in the mail?") is the INTERVIEW! The resume can only hurt you if it is a book. Every HR, recruiter, and career coach will tell you that they get hundreds of resumes. They spend less than 15 seconds looking at your resume. So all of that time searching for the right word and adding another page is meaningless. Save it for the interview. Try to give as little as possible till that interview. Initially, decision makers are looking for people who are easy to talk to and can communicate well while being a good listener. You will have plenty of time in the interview to give real world examples of your accomplishments or bring in samples of your work or accomplishments.

The Key for a Job Search!

We had a terrific class on the resume and interviewing skills. My philosophy will guide you into the perfect job. First, realize you are a salesperson. Whether you do budgets, IT, or answer phones, you are always "selling" what you do. The job search process is the same. You have to hunt down the decision maker on the job you want. Have short, quick, impressive points prepared to give when needed. Find out more about the position and the decision maker. Be confident and undersell yourself while answering the needs of the decision maker with your prepared points. Always set an appointment for the next contact (phone or face-to-face preferably!).