Shortcut 2
You may find it difficult to quantify your work in terms of dollars. You may even find it impossible. If so, try to come at it from a different angle.
Write down everything you"ve done to increase efficiency increase efficiency or or save time. save time. Time is literally money to employers. Perhaps you wrote an employee training manual, or created a way to back up data faster each night, or devised a way to speed up shipping out on the loading dock. Anything and everything is fair game here. Time is literally money to employers. Perhaps you wrote an employee training manual, or created a way to back up data faster each night, or devised a way to speed up shipping out on the loading dock. Anything and everything is fair game here.
The key is to figure out exactly how many hours you saved per week, then a.s.sign a dollar value to those hours. Then annualize that figure to get the highest, most impressive number. This requires you to do one very important thing: you must do the thinking do the thinking for the reader of your resume. It"s your responsibility as the author of your resume to connect the dots for the reader. Make it easy for the reader to picture you as an excellent employee without thinking. for the reader of your resume. It"s your responsibility as the author of your resume to connect the dots for the reader. Make it easy for the reader to picture you as an excellent employee without thinking.
For example, say you created a process that saves 10 hours a week. How much does your employer pay someone to do what you just automated? If it"s $10 an hour, add another 30 percent to cover insurance and other benefits, and you"ll get a figure of $13 an hour. Multiply that by 10 hours per week and you"ve just saved $130 per week, $520 per month, $27,040 per year.
So, you can write this eye-catching sentence in your resume: "Saved $27,040 annually by automating widget process."
Now, here"s the fun part. When you save $27,000 here and $27,000 there, pretty soon you"re talking real money. Include all these money totals in your Guerrilla Resume.
When you fill your Guerrilla Resume with specific achievements that are quantified in dollars, guess what? You turn yourself from just another job seeker, crying "Please give me a job!" to a walking, talking, blue-chip stock, who says: "Hire me at $50,000 and I can deliver a 400 percent return on your investment because I"ve routinely saved $200,000 annually at my prior jobs."
While ordinary job seekers are crying out, "Please give me a job!" your resume will be saying, "Hiring me is like buying money at a discount." Other job seekers come across as supplicants, begging for work, while you come across as a superhero minus the cape.
Put another way, you will put an immediate halt to the "apples versus apples" comparison that employers make when considering ordinary job seekers. It"s now "apples versus oranges"-and you"re the only orange. You"re changing the rules of the game and putting them in your favor-kind of like picking up a Monopoly board and tipping all the money, hotels, and houses into your lap.
Nice, eh? And it all starts when you stop thinking of yourself as an ordinary job seeker and start thinking of yourself as a living, breathing investment.
Here"s a final tip on how to uncover the dollar value for good things you"ve done on the job. It"s this: don"t be afraid to call up current and former coworkers to ask for help. You may not know how much money your top client brought in last year or what the budget was on the X-14 project you managed, but someone in the accounting or marketing department might. Leave no stone unturned in your search for accomplishments.
Let me reemphasize this critical point: when you do the thinking for the reader and include specific results in your Guerrilla Resume, good things will happen in your job search.
If you do nothing more than use the instructions in this chapter to come up with at least 3 solid, specific achievements for each job you"ve held, you will immediately improve your resume. You should start getting more calls from employers to interview. And you will have received full value for your purchase of this book.
But this is only the beginning. You"re not just going to improve your resume. You"re going to create an eye-popping Guerrilla Resume and cover letter that will produce rapid results in your job search in Chapter 5.
GUERRILLA INTELLIGENCE.
Social Media and the Guerrilla Job Hunter Dennis Smith
Why is our brand such an important part of our job-searching efforts? Because our personal brand creates a strong, consistent a.s.sociation between us and the perceived value we have to offer an employer.
And, like it or not, our brand precedes us in the interview process. That"s right. Think of it this way: long before the wide-eyed hunter focuses his scope on the ma.s.sive profile of the hairy beast, he hears the thumping sounds of the gorilla (Note: Gorilla, not Guerrilla) methodically beating his chest in the jungle. The gorilla-noise (and his reputation) precedes the inevitable meeting.
Similarly, you-like all job seekers-send signals to prospective employers. They precede you-by a jungle mile. However, the difference between the aimless job hunter and the guerrilla job hunter is this: a carefully crafted brand. a carefully crafted brand. It whets the appet.i.te of the potential employer, laying the foundation for a dynamic, chest-thumping interview supported by well-defined facts of goals smashed and lessons learned. It whets the appet.i.te of the potential employer, laying the foundation for a dynamic, chest-thumping interview supported by well-defined facts of goals smashed and lessons learned.
Besides a knock-your-socks-off Guerrilla Resume, Guerrilla Resume, there are few tools as compelling as social media to help the guerrilla job hunter spread the word about his or her carefully crafted brand. Spanning 29 countries and 17,000 Internet users, recent research by Universal McCann found that almost 60 percent of Internet users are members of an online community such as LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, or there are few tools as compelling as social media to help the guerrilla job hunter spread the word about his or her carefully crafted brand. Spanning 29 countries and 17,000 Internet users, recent research by Universal McCann found that almost 60 percent of Internet users are members of an online community such as LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, or WirelessJobs.com. Even more mind-blowing: 78 percent of Internet users read blogs (up from 66 percent in the previous study). No longer confined to the realm of the college set, today"s online social networks are an extremely powerful platform to connect with colleagues and industry professionals. As someone once said, "If you are not online, you don"t exist."
Chances are, then, long before you arrive for a personal interview, your hiring decision makers will look you up online. Will they find you? Will they find you? If so, what will they find? Are you sharing your knowledge in professional forums? Connecting with like-minded professionals who share your pa.s.sions? Establishing yourself as the resident expert in your profession? Is your resume up to date? Does it match the profiles you highlight in your social networks? Who is in your network? And most importantly, does your online persona really reflect the brand you"ve been working so hard to create? If so, what will they find? Are you sharing your knowledge in professional forums? Connecting with like-minded professionals who share your pa.s.sions? Establishing yourself as the resident expert in your profession? Is your resume up to date? Does it match the profiles you highlight in your social networks? Who is in your network? And most importantly, does your online persona really reflect the brand you"ve been working so hard to create?
A lot of questions-all worth asking. Undoubtedly, this information works together to represent your online digital footprint. More importantly, it contributes to how a potential employer "sees" you. As a savvy guerrilla job hunter, you understand this, and you can carefully position yourself to be "findable" online.
Need an easy place to start? Here are 10 social media activities that will help you-even if you are an Internet novice-join the online conversation and begin spreading the word about YOU: Online Networks 1. 1. Look for online networks that share your career focus, volunteer interests, geographical area, professional a.s.sociations, or alma mater. Join them, offer to guest post on their blogs, partic.i.p.ate in their forums, and share your expertise. Look for online networks that share your career focus, volunteer interests, geographical area, professional a.s.sociations, or alma mater. Join them, offer to guest post on their blogs, partic.i.p.ate in their forums, and share your expertise.2. Get a LinkedIn account for your professional network. Then, create a group on LinkedIn focused on your profession (e.g., "Wireless Jobs" group has 11k+ members). Invite the experts in your profession to join the group. Get a LinkedIn account for your professional network. Then, create a group on LinkedIn focused on your profession (e.g., "Wireless Jobs" group has 11k+ members). Invite the experts in your profession to join the group.3. Get a Facebook account (smart job hunters use the ma.s.sive demographics of Facebook [100M+] to their benefit). Ditto with Twitter (use it to follow the online conversations about your profession-your company-YOU). Get a Facebook account (smart job hunters use the ma.s.sive demographics of Facebook [100M+] to their benefit). Ditto with Twitter (use it to follow the online conversations about your profession-your company-YOU).4. Check out podcasts and iTunes and listen to thought leaders-not just in your professional arena, but in other areas as well. Check out podcasts and iTunes and listen to thought leaders-not just in your professional arena, but in other areas as well.5. Get a Get a StumbleUpon.com and/or and/or Digg.com account for voting, and a account for voting, and a del.icio.us del.icio.us account for social bookmarking. account for social bookmarking.
Blogs 6. 6. Create a blog and begin interacting with and reaching out to your target audience (e.g., Create a blog and begin interacting with and reaching out to your target audience (e.g., CrunchWireless.com).7. Comment on other people"s blogs. This is a great way for others to get to know you, especially when your ideas are pertinent and meaningful. Comment on other people"s blogs. This is a great way for others to get to know you, especially when your ideas are pertinent and meaningful.8. Promote others-their blogs, articles, and ideas-on your site. Promote others-their blogs, articles, and ideas-on your site.9. Don"t let your blog go static. Keep it fresh with a daily mix (or at a minimum, 3 times a week) of information, opinion, interviews, and lists. Throw in an occasional self-recorded YouTube video and you"ll cement your brand quickly in the eyes of your audience. Don"t let your blog go static. Keep it fresh with a daily mix (or at a minimum, 3 times a week) of information, opinion, interviews, and lists. Throw in an occasional self-recorded YouTube video and you"ll cement your brand quickly in the eyes of your audience.10. Subscribe to Google"s web-based feed reader to keep up with the blogs and news pertaining to your industry ( Subscribe to Google"s web-based feed reader to keep up with the blogs and news pertaining to your industry (reader.google.com).
Tim Sanders said, "In the twenty-first century, our success will be based on the people we know." Guerrilla job hunters get this-and because they understand that relationships serve as a predictor of our success, they include social media as a standard part of their job-search strategy.
Make no mistake-no other investment opportunity can compare with the global reach of the Internet in your efforts to evangelize the value of your brand. Social media will help you use the power of the network to gain opportunities and build relationships. In other words, it will help you get the attention-your brand in the crosshairs-of the people with whom you need to connect.
Dennis Smith web site address: www.WirelessJobs.com e-mail link: [email protected] e-mail link:
Okay, put the exercise and results away for now. We"ll be using them soon enough, but first let"s talk about what really matters most when you"re job hunting: att.i.tude.
ATt.i.tUDE CHECK
Employers want to hire positive people as much as they need to hire people who are competent. If you have both characteristics, the employer"s decision becomes obvious. Most employers I know, including yours truly, would rather have an employee with a great att.i.tude and some related work experience, than a more experienced one with a poor att.i.tude. Why is that, and how do you show it?
The Importance of a Can-Do Att.i.tude
Att.i.tude rates bigger than ever with interviewers these days because employers are facing a future of constantly accelerating change and need to look aggressively for ways to expand, grow, and stay in business. They are seeking job hunters who can have a positive impact on the company"s results. Employers want employees who: * Believe they can change the impossible into the possible.* Do things better, smarter, and faster as a natural force in their life.* Can find new ways to accomplish something without a map.* Will relentlessly search until they find a way.
Interviewers spot "can-do" people immediately. They"re the ones who can describe the obstacles they faced and how they overcame them-in fine detail. Can-doers are also quick to admit they haven"t been victorious every time, but they a.n.a.lyze each failure and take away valuable lessons from it. That"s what employers are hoping for, and they"ll make every effort to hire job hunters who can demonstrate that they have gone the extra mile, who are ready to shoulder a little more responsibility when needed, and who do not automatically expect to be rewarded for it.
Most employers have had the pleasant experience of hiring a job seeker who had something nebulous they couldn"t quite put their finger on, but that encouraged them to hire the inexperienced person with a bounce in his step, and a desire to win. Every employer who has done that is bound and determined to find the next diamond in the rough-where the rough is the experience, not the att.i.tude.
Employers hire people because they want to grow their business. If you approach your job search with a negative att.i.tude that conveys you just want a paycheck, employers will pick it up quickly and react accordingly.
Guerrillas leap tall buildings ... ... because their att.i.tude proclaims "can-do," and they do not let the naysayers of the world get them down. Pop singer Chris Daughtry sold 2.4 million of his self-t.i.tled alb.u.m after losing out to Taylor Hicks on season 5 of American Idol. He continued to push forward and found the success he wanted. Daughtry"s a role model for the can-do att.i.tude. because their att.i.tude proclaims "can-do," and they do not let the naysayers of the world get them down. Pop singer Chris Daughtry sold 2.4 million of his self-t.i.tled alb.u.m after losing out to Taylor Hicks on season 5 of American Idol. He continued to push forward and found the success he wanted. Daughtry"s a role model for the can-do att.i.tude.
You must decide right now to accept all setbacks as temporary. If you were good enough to be interviewed at a company, then you doubtless have what it takes to land a similar position with another company. It is your att.i.tude in reaction to an event that colors your success.
GUERRILLA INTELLIGENCE.
Job Hunting and Dating Dave Howlett, RHB
Looking for the perfect job is like searching for that perfect partner. Some of the best job and love matches are set-ups. So how on earth can you get people to say nice things about you when you aren"t in the room? How can you be confident they"ll smile and say, "Hey, I know someone who would be a great match!"
Recently I chatted with an executive a.s.sistant who works at a large wealth management firm. She told me she had been with the company 3 years. She confided that she had been referred by a friend who also worked there. I asked her if she also had friends she would also refer into the company.
"Some of them," she replied.
"Why wouldn"t you refer all of your friends?" I enquired.
She shrugged, "I guess some would embarra.s.s me."
You Need to Make Others Look Good Word-of-mouth and referrals happen when your friends know you aren"t going to embarra.s.s them. If you possess "an interesting personality," it"s likely your friends won"t bring up your name. Think about it; they can envision their friend (or boss) saying, "Who the heck referred this person?" The real issue is that your friends are too polite. They won"t tell you your pants are 1 inch above your ankles and that your jokes are offensive. So take some guerrilla control.
Memorize 2 questions and start asking them to everyone: "What is it I do well? If I could do one thing better, what would it be?" Keep a journal and look for trends. A client told me his greatest takeaway from one of my workshops was "Never turn down a breath mint." Remember, your friends have been interviewing you for years; they know exactly what you need to do to improve. You just need to get them to complain to your face.