0:14 good afternoon and welcome to the way to wow show people making money i am your host kevin bemel and today i don't have a guest but i'm going to be talking about a subject that i think will help you all out as you consider your professional prospects whether you're you know going to be graduated from college soon or maybe graduated from college recently getting out of the military active duty soon or you're a mid-career professional and you're looking to make a job change or maybe unfortunately
0:49 needing to make a job change i i can i can relate if you uh saw my uh um colleague leia siegel's show uh let's see it would have been two weeks ago i think when i was on it we talked about um unexpected uh um you know things that come up in life that uh um can impact you your professional life so anyway any of those things um you know we end up finding ourselves job hunting perhaps unexpectedly um and even in these days when employ the employment rate is very low
1:25 and there's a lot of jobs out there my observation has been that the the the jobs that typically are going lacking tend to be in lower paying positions so whether it's in the restaurant industry the hospitality industry or you know those kinds of businesses retail restaurant um there's there's tons and tons of jobs in in those industries but in general you know those those typically are either entry level jobs or
2:01 like i say they tend to be lower paying jobs i think that's one of the reasons why they may be having some difficulties attracting people back into the job market um one of the reasons why uh the employment rate is so low is the the the job market particip or the job participation rate is also down um i think about at least about a percent um from what it was in 2019 or beginning of 2020 anyway so for anyone who's looking for you know a good paying job while there are lots of them around
2:36 especially in the tech industry uh it's still a competitive environment um you know companies like like apple and facebook they everybody wants to work for them right so you still need to have a competitive edge in order to uh find yourself uh successful in that kind of job job hunt and that's true as well for really any other industry um the competition may not be as stiff the competition the compensation may not be as high as it is in the tech world but nonetheless
3:12 it's it's it's you know very competitive um when you start getting into higher paying jobs which you know if presumably that that's your aim that's one of the reasons why you're you're looking at ideas for professional growth and so quite a while ago well not quite a while ago a few years ago i did a research project now this this project targeted specifically um military active duty military and veterans who either were in the process of transitioning to civilian life or were already in civilian life and were
3:47 job hunting for various periods of time up to uh 20 years as a matter of fact and i did lengthy interviews with i believe is about 120 people so i'm not saying that this was a you know scientific survey um in in that sense um but but what i found was um having spent anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half speaking to these people there were some definite patterns that emerged about why they were struggling to find
4:22 the job that they wanted and as i was looking at those uh well so eventually what i did is i create i uh wrote a blog post and i call it the eight deadly sins of job hunting now some of you may know wait a minute there's only seven deadly sins and you are correct there are only seven deadly sins um of course you know when you're talking about military people we like to over achieve so we're gonna we're gonna slam that eighth deadly sin in there and that's kind of my you know a little bit tongue-in-cheek joke there what i realized in looking at them uh
4:58 recently was they apply uh to people who aren't in the military with one exception so so maybe i should have called this the seven deadly sins of job hunting for everyone and an eighth one for people you know who have been in the military um nonetheless i i think it will be very useful to talk about these these eight and and kind of get behind why they hold us back and what we can do to not let them become the impediments that they could be
5:35 you know as we pursue our job hunt and look for that that high paying job that will give us the kind of satisfaction we want in our professional life so let me go ahead and share my screen yes here it is it's always so suspenseful you know oh there it goes okay great so um if you if you see at the top of the screen right here these are the eight deadly sins of job hunting now this is an excerpt from the
6:10 book that i wrote uh back a few years ago it's called the eight deadly sins of job hunting and it gives you a five-step process basically for finding a job that will help you avoid any of these uh common mistakes um and as an aside so i don't in case i forget to say it uh later in the show if you would like a pdf copy of the book uh feel free to get in touch with me if you're um you know on live now um just uh shoot me a a a a message using social media or you can
6:46 always go to the show's website the way to wow show.com there's a contact uh function there and you can send me uh your email just let me know you'd like a you know a free copy of um of my uh of of my um uh a free pdf copy of my book well you know apple watch is a great thing and when it starts buzzing on your arm it can throw you off so um here are the uh eight deadly sins of job hunting and i'm just gonna i'm gonna go through them
7:22 first and then after i go through them we'll go back and kind of take them one at a time and and and expand on them but to kind of get the full scope uh because i think that that's that's important so number one is thinking you're entitled to a job and it's corollary that your job search is only about you okay first first and the top probably the top deadly sin of job hunting second is and this this one applies i think not i think this one applies really just to military people treating civilians as liars when they say they support veterans
7:57 three believing it is or should be about having the right skills four not having clear enough objectives for your search five applying for a job at a company where you don't have an internal advocate six considering what you post on social media to be off limits from employers seven thinking all you have to do is post your resume on job boards and ain't not asking for the job if you want it or following up properly or at
8:33 all so that that when you're in a meeting or talking to the especially talking to the hiring manager all right so those are the eight deadly sins of job hunting and and um i i hope you won't just dismiss them out of hand i never do these things um yeah i wrote them and and i can tell you that some of these things i find myself falling into doing uh a couple of them they they're just i think they're just sort of endemic to
9:08 human nature and so we really have to be on our guard to to not fall into these traps and and to make sure that we're we're keeping the the proper perspective as we're out there um in the job market so um let's let's now take them individually and kind of dig into them a little bit more more deeply hang on one second i just want to see nope okay the person who called me um i thought he might have been calling me about something in the broadcast but but uh evidently not okay so number one
9:43 thinking you're entitled to a job and it's corollary that your job search is only about you now i i i don't get into politics on the show as you know so i'm not talking about this from a political standpoint okay i'm talking about it from a human to human standpoint so think about when someone approaches you and they say to you something that makes you feel like you owe them something how does that motivate you to help them
10:19 and i suspect it doesn't motivate you in fact i suspect sometimes maybe often it makes you feel just the opposite like oh you're demanding this from me no no you're one thing you're not getting is this from me right it's it's it's just i don't know it's the way human nature works there's a there's a kind of a hebrew or dafta that that it talks about our our sort of inclination to do the opposite of of what we're being told to do so if we approach a potential employer and make him feel that you know we're
10:54 entitled to that job by right we're really pushing that person away and we're making them think that this is not someone they want to work with because if if we're demanding at that point how are we going to be once we actually are working for the company how are we going to be in working with our other with our colleagues right if we're working on a a team project and and different people are handing different parts are we going to be projecting this attitude of i'm entitled to get your work or something like that that's not i don't think that's how we want to be we want to work in a
11:30 collegial atmosphere okay so so what so you know when we when we but by the way that's not to say that we want to appear needy right oh please please give me this job no that's not going to work either okay what we want to do is approach it in a professional way i have knowledge skills and experience that i think will fit the job that's open and you have a job that you need to be filled
12:06 let's discuss if if we can come to a mutually beneficial arrangement so that's not me being entitled but it's also not me being needy it's it's me working on a professional level with the people uh who are handling the job the hiring process and and that's where we really want to be coming from so let's talk about this corollary for a minute your job search is only about you this is a this is the trap that i sometimes fall into um not necessarily
12:41 in a job search but just in sort of you know day-to-day life it's it's it's hard to sort of climb out of our own heads right so if we're working on something you know we're very focused on what we need to get done um what we may be getting out of this and and that's all good and well and i'm not saying we should ignore our own needs and and and all of that however a job search isn't about isn't only about our needs and from the employers potential employers standpoint
13:17 while they recognize if someone is applying for a job they they need a job or at least want a job they have an equal need and that is to have someone competent filling the position who can actually do the work well and help the company advance its mission or at least you know what the company does may not be a mission based company of course but so the company has needs too and again think about you know talking to another person if all you if if all of your conversations are only about what the
13:53 other person needs is that relationship really developing is that someone you really want to spend time with i suspect the answer is no there needs to be a give and take so while it's important that the potential employer understand what it is you're looking for in a job and and and what your needs are in terms of employment uh at least on the professional level it's equally important for us to understand what does the company need okay
14:28 what do they need done what kind of skills what kind of knowledge what kind of experience does the company need in this position and so if we approach any kind of applications or resumes we send in any kind of meetings interviews we have with them from the standpoint of company you know potential employer what are your needs okay here's how i see filling them based on my bank of knowledge skills and
15:04 experience you have this need here's how i filled it before do you see how powerful that is so it's it's it's not a matter of i want i want i want it's a matter of i can genuinely help you i i can i've done it before for other companies i can help you meet your needs that's powerful and that's what employers typically are looking for okay so as we as we start shaping up how we're going to deal with a job hunt the first thought on our minds should always be
15:40 how can i deliver value to this potential employer that that is the key right i mean i would argue we should be thinking about that just about life in general in our in a marriage in a a parent-child relationship among friends we should be keyed into how can i deliver value to these other people uh if we're working for a non-profit how can i develop how can i deliver value to this organization help it me help it meet its mission right if we if we think in that way generally speaking
16:16 our needs will get met okay because there will come a time to discuss them so if the company decides that you're the right person for the job then you're going to get an opportunity to discuss compensation package you know base salary bonuses vacation benefits work where you're going to work how you're going to work all those kind of things are still up for discussion but the first step is to remember that the focus should be on how can i deliver value to the organization now we're talking about this in a job
16:52 context what if you're the job you want is to have your own business wait wait kevin i thought this was just about job hunting well okay but but but job today is a very broad categories right so you could be a gig worker and your job is gig worker right uh maybe you drive for uber okay or maybe you want to start your own business maybe you have an etsy business uh or or something like that so the same question applies in this case you don't have one potential employer you have hopefully lots and lots and
17:28 lots of potential employers that we would call clients or customers the focus is still the same how can i deliver value to this customer or client right so um i can shoot i can't remember her name there's a woman in in the uk who makes um uh they're fezzes you know what a fez is it's it's it's kind of a round hat with a flat top and a little tap a little uh tassel that comes off to the side right so i have a smoking jacket and i thought it would be fun to have a fez that matched it right and i looked all online all
18:04 over the place couldn't find anything and i was on etsy uh one day and i said oh i'm just gonna you know smoking cap i typed it in and and and lo and behold this uh this site came up with this etsy you know posting came up and this this woman in england she makes them individually by hand it cost i think was about 50 i think and they're exquisite she clearly knows how to satisfy
18:39 her customers and i like the one she did for me so much i got i got a couple more um you know to wear with different colors or whatever there's so much fun to wear in the evening especially when it's cold to keep your head warm right so here's a woman in business who understands that it's not about her it's about how does she deliver value to her customers and she does that so well i anytime i have an opportunity to talk about you know smoking caps or fezzes uh you know i rave about this woman and i can't believe i forgot her name if if you want her name please send me a
19:15 message i will be happy to give you your name i think it's lisa oh shoot i i think it's lisa something anyway she fantastic uh craftswoman and and and and really understands this idea of we want to we want to be as concerned with what you know our employer in this case our customers want as we do with what our what we want what our needs are okay so that's that's the first uh deadly sin of job hunting so number two treating civilians as liars when they say they support veterans again this is real this just really is for for military people
19:51 i'm not going to spend a lot of time on it um but but but you know who you are right i had a conversation with one fellow um i won't tell you what branch of the service he's from because i was in that branch and he was having a devil of a time finding a job and we started talking about you know what he was doing and and and why he thought um he wasn't getting any traction in the civilian job market and he's at one point he said well you know these people talk a big game about wanting to help out veterans but in the end they don't really want to
20:26 so i said to him hmm let me ask you a question if you were a recruiter for the military and someone came in to see you and all they did was give you the feeling that they didn't think the military people were very good people would you want to recruit them into the military was that is that a colleague you'd want you know you know protecting your back you know in battle i mean and he said uh well no i said well so why would civilians want to hire somebody who frankly
21:03 has a bad attitude toward them the guy said well because i'm right you know i i i i ended up telling if i said i think you need an attitude adjustment i will tell you uh those of us who have been in the military are very very fortunate to have been in the military during a time when the vast vast majority of our fellow citizens really respect that we joined the military and they will help us
21:38 if they can and when they say thank you for your service they are sincere here's this here's the challenge most of our fellow citizens don't really know how to help us we speak a language that's somewhat foreign to them all this sort of military lingo they don't know what that means you know think about going to i don't want to say china um think about going to uh india you know well india every species everyone speaks english in india that's a bad example think of going to a
22:14 country where they don't speak english and trying to find a job by speaking english they're going to look at you with a sort of a look on their of their face of i don't know what you're saying right so civilians want to help us they want to help military people out but we've got to help them help us out we're going to have to take that extra step remember we're we are less less than two percent of the american population so for us to say well you know the other 98 has to learn how to help us out that's i think that's frankly pretty
22:49 arrogant so we've got to come to the table prepared to help civilians understand how they can help us and and if we put a a way on the table for them to really help us out most of them are going to do it in fact most of them i think are going to bend over backwards to do it because they truly are grateful for what we're doing you know they they didn't have to do it because we did or however you know however they might be looking at it so so we've got to meet them a little bit
23:24 more than halfway okay because in a way you know we're kind of the foreigners we've been out especially if you've been out of civilian you know life for a long time coming back in it's very very different than military life it's much more uh chaotic and people have many many more responsibilities than than we than we might have in the military especially like when you're on a ship life is really basic right you do your work you eat you sleep you do your laundry that's that's like that's pretty much it right you're not dealing with kids you're not dealing
23:59 with a spouse and you're not dealing with all these other things so okay so civilians are not liars when they say they want to help us and for those of you who are civilians the only thing i can say about this is if you get us if you get kind of a feeling of pushback from a veteran understand that it probably isn't anything personal per se it's coming from a place of frustration and and just not having the knowledge of civilian life that you probably have
24:34 and and and an inability to communicate that you know in a way that brings about mutual understanding right so and you know if we can if we can engage with a you know no chips on our shoulders and in a spirit of collegiality again i think that one can be conquered okay number three believing it is or should be about having the right skills now the fact of the matter is for a low-skilled job especially these days
25:10 yeah all it takes is convincing the person who's hiring that you know you you have the ability to learn how to work uh you know a a point of sale terminal or um you know organize clothing on a rack or you know quickly cook food or whatever it is okay um and by the way i'm not saying that cooking is a low skill job by the way depending on what's being cooked it can be very complicated but those those kind of jobs that are very plentiful right now yes those are having the right skills is and and and
25:47 you know the ability to show up on time right that's probably all you need but for any kind of higher paying job having the right skills is just the price of entry that is not what's going to get you the job because there's a lot of people who have the right skills so what differentiates you who have the right skills from the other whatever it is three four five ten two hundred applicants who also have the right skills
26:22 do you see what i'm saying so we've got to move beyond just having the right skills and when i say skills i mean that fairly broadly knowledge skills and experience okay those are important they're very important we shouldn't in reality we should not be applying for a job if we don't have those three things we're wasting the companies the potential employers time if we don't have those those three things that i'm summarizing his skills but that's not the only thing that counts okay there are other things we need to
26:58 be concerned about and we're and those are going to come up uh you know as we as we continue through uh the you know the other uh five uh deadly sins okay so so thinking that what look i can do the job okay good okay but if you're of the mindset that because you can do the job you should get the job now you're shooting yourself in the foot okay because you know basically you're it it's it's a it's a very
27:33 selfish perspective right why should you get the job just because you have the right skills when there's all these other people who also have the right skills why you that's still the question waiting to be answered and that that is what you've got to figure out okay what would you say if there were three of you in the room and and you all have the same skills why should they pick you okay and by the way part of this i think is sometimes we we don't want to seem egotistical right so it's it's easier to say well i
28:09 have the right skills how come i didn't get picked well i don't know what else is the company looking for okay do you fit into the company culture okay i mean that's very important do they have the perception that you can work in the kind of atmosphere that maybe they're very team oriented okay you say well team orientation is a skill perhaps perhaps
28:44 but it's something very important okay what about if the organization is very hierarchical do you have the ability to work in a very stressful high intensity hierarchical organization and be successful okay those are very very different and so the sense that they get about you is going to be at least as important as whether you have the right skills knowledge skills and experience okay so it's not only about having the right
29:19 skills there are other things employers are looking for before they they decide on a you know a specific candidate as the person to offer the job to okay all right number four not having clear objectives for your search okay so if you are on a job hunt and you cannot succinctly in about one to two minutes explain what kind of job you're looking for in what kind of industry at what level
29:55 honestly you're not clear enough in your job search if if you are searching for jobs across multiple industries think about what you're saying to a potential employer you're saying you have depth of knowledge across the entire economy i guess such that you can be effective in manufacturing in services in technology in you know agriculture i
30:32 mean not not possible in today's world it's just not there's too much specialized knowledge industry by industry to be able to do that okay so while when you're doing informational informational interviews and figuring out where you want to focus your job hunt that you want to do broadly because you're not hunting for a job at that point you're figuring out what you want and so i would cast your net as as broadly as your mind can conceive it
31:10 but when you get into your actual job hunt you need to focus down what are you really looking for okay because the higher you go up the job ladder the more you need to know about the specifics of the particular industry or sub industry that you're looking to work in okay so keep that in mind you want your uh you want the the objectives for your job hunt to be as crystal clear
31:46 as you can possibly make them okay and then once those objectives are clear what do you have about you that backs up why an employer should hire you to meet that objective so let's say you're you're aiming for a c-suite job vice president for example okay what in your background says to a potential employer this is vice president material maybe you were an assistant vice
32:21 president at your last job and the reason you want to leave is you want to grow professionally and you did a bang-up job as an avp great okay in your last job if you were a line worker and you want to be a vp now how do you do that how do you convince someone that that's a valid objective or have you set your objective too high maybe you should be aiming to be a
32:56 foreman or a supervisor and take that next step up the hierarchy right so as much as you want to have clear objectives you also want to have evidence that those objectives are realistic and it makes sense for the potential employer to meet those objectives okay if you want to switch industries okay perfectly valid thing to do by the way in fact i was just talking to somebody earlier this morning and he's he's focused on a particular industry right
33:31 now and we talked about how he was going to be working this particular in this case it's a business not not a job but this particular business and one of the things i recommended to him is that he considered doing it in a particular way so that the knowledge skills and experience he continues to build will be more easily transferable between industries because of what they are okay so in this case his industry knowledge is the ability to do certain things
34:09 that maybe not all but most companies would need no matter what their particular industry is okay so that's another way of looking at it as well and that that uh helped him hone down what his objectives should be okay so again the more diffuse your objectives the harder a potential employer the harder a hiring manager the harder time he or she is going to have in figuring out you know are you really the right person for this for this job okay if if if they're
34:46 asking that that if they're asking that question on a real fundamental basis so you know the answer is probably going to end up being no especially if there are if there are other viable candidates so when they when you talk to them when you when they ask themselves the question is is this person a valuable employee you want them to be able to go yes immediately like is this a person viable candidate yes okay good proceed okay that comes from having clear objectives now by the way um and we'll we'll talk about uh
35:21 meetings to discuss the job toward the end you may get part through part way through the hiring process and realize this company is not for you it is perfectly valid to tell them you know what having gone through part of the process this this is not the right situation for me i i really appreciate your taking the time to talk to me or review my you know credentials or whatever whatever you know point you're at but this i can see that this isn't going to meet my objectives
35:57 and so rather than we wasting each other's time any further i just want to thank you and and and wish you good luck and and if i find some if i happen to know of someone or find come across someone who i think would you know have similar objectives to what could be fulfilled in the shop would you like me to refer them to you nice thing to offer they may say no we have plenty of candidates okay um by the way being honest with them about that has two benefits at least two benefits one as i mentioned already you're not gonna waste each
36:32 other's time and for a lot of people that's a very precious thing time and so if if you're not the right person you're not sort of a 110 percent fired up about it it's good for them to know and they're not going to begrudge you that but the second thing is they may so respect the fact that you're willing to be honest they may come back to you and say wow it sounds like you really know what you want you're very focused directed and we like
37:09 that talk to me about what your objectives are maybe we can change this position around or maybe there's another position within our organization that would meet your objectives okay because in the end that's what this is about it's about meeting your objectives your skills and your abilities your experience your knowledge with what the needs of the company are the company's objectives the company's mission and needs right we're trying to merge those together into a cohesive
37:46 whole okay so the fact that you would say this just doesn't seem to be a position that's going to meet my objectives that's that's a good thing to say okay you can move on to the next potential opera the next opportunity all right number five um you know in talking to people who are job hunting i would say this is the most uh one of the most common mistakes they make applying for a job at a company where you don't have an internal advocate
38:21 if you are looking to get to get any kind of substantial job in terms of high paying you know that you know above kind of the line employee you need to have someone in the company who is helping you get that job here's why especially if the job has been posted publicly on a job board or something it is not unusual
38:56 for employers to get between i believe it's 160 and 210 applicants for a single job see one of the misnomers that job hunters have is that the internet has made job hunting easier and while it has made the flow of information easier it has made job hunting harder because prior to the internet your competitors for the job
39:32 typically were in a fairly limited area it might be the city in which the company was located or or maybe a slightly larger area now for very top top positions maybe it was nationwide but that's probably it nowadays literally anybody around the world with internet access can apply for any job so even for you know mid-level jobs your competitors are literally everyone else in the world
40:07 okay so how do you clear through all the noise okay well one way is to be mindful of keywords and that kind of thing because i'm sure you can appreciate it a lot of companies do not have a live person looking at each you know application resume submitted they have um an automated uh system that does that it looks for certain keywords and such and it you know probably um you know knocks out probably 80 90 of them right off the bat okay but even when you're down to that smaller group so then how do
40:45 how do you break through and the reality is the vast vast majority of jobs go to someone who has been who is either already in the company or has been referred in by somebody who's already in the company without that backing your chances of getting the job i believe are one and six i could be wrong about that statistic but it's around there okay so you're you're and it's not like oh one and six so if i apply for six jobs i
41:20 should get one of them no that's not how statistics work okay that means each job you apply for you have a one in six chance of getting it and you can consistently be one of the five that doesn't over and over and over again okay so when you are applying for a job you need to connect with people who are already in the company or better yet be recruited by someone in the company and have them say hey you know give me give me your resume or i'll have the hiring manager take a look at your facebook not your facebook sorry i'll
41:55 have the hiring manager look at your linkedin profile okay that's going to give you a step up immediately because you're you're you're coming in it's i don't want to say your family per se but it's more like your family okay and and and and so you've got that you know in premature right from the get-go and that is going to make a big big difference okay and when i say an internal advocate i mean someone who will you know periodically pick up them and say hey you know i i think um somebody i know kevin bemel applied for
42:31 the such and such job what do you think you know yadda yadda oh oh really okay well you know if it's okay i i i'd like to give him that feedback because i think maybe there's been a misperception there or something like that or oh you haven't talked to him yet really i would encourage you to talk to him he's a great candidate right that's what i mean by an advocate not just someone who who's who says uh you know hey bill i know this guy kevin he gave me his resume here it is that's not an advocate i mean it's better than nothing i suppose but but frankly not
43:07 much better right so you know you want their endorsement and and their follow-up okay all right next consider what you post considering what you post on social media to be off limits from employers okay many times before an employer will even call you they will google your name and they'll see what comes up okay now almost for sure they're going to look at your linkedin profile and we talked about i talked about linkedin profiles in a previous episode so i
43:42 refer you to um the marketing episodes that i did it was uh two different episodes i talked about marketing i refer you to those in order to understand how to uh really make your linkedin profile a truly effective job hunting tool setting that aside i mean they will look at your facebook page they will look at your twitter page so if you've got you know pictures from that you know drunken weekend in cancun you know they're gonna see it you know if if you are um tweeting
44:17 very you know inflammatory things on twitter they're gonna see it now you may say well i have a right of free speech absolutely i agree you have a right of free speech so do employers okay and if the speech that you're saying doesn't comport with the image they want to project for their company they're going to rule you out okay all i'm saying is don't kid yourself about that they're not going to do that
44:53 and just if if you know putting those things out there is super important to you just understand that that could have a negative impact on your job hunt now by the way to be you know 100 you know logical i suppose it may have a positive effect because you know someone at a company may look at you go wow i really like this person's point of view um and and and you may be tempted to even try and play that game um i i i don't think it's i don't think that that's the way to go to be honest
45:29 that that's my that is my sincere advice okay and that's not to say that you should feel like you can't ever express yourself politically or or about you know difficult topics or you know post fun pictures about your vacation um you you certainly can but i think we need to take a close look at what we do in that regard um and make sure that it's you know we used to have this concept called tasteful uh you know when i when i was a kid right it's tasteful it's it's uh appropriate um and it's it's not
46:06 um you know attacking other people at least not needlessly okay or egregiously that's that's what i would recommend uh everybody's gotta make their own decision about that but but do know this that whatever is on social media about you a potential employer is is gonna see it okay and so if if you don't get the job because of that um just know that that's a decision you've made make the decision consciously um and don't be upset if if that is the case okay enough said all right number seven thinking all you have to do
46:43 is post your resume on job boards so uh when i was doing all those uh interviews i mentioned at the beginning um one of the people i talked to says oh i i submit a hundred applications a day i said a hundred a day he said yeah i said so 500 a week yeah roughly 2 000 a month yeah i said how many jobs have you gotten none ah i mean didn't surprise me at all
47:20 i don't think there's any way anybody can be applying for that many jobs and have any idea whether there are appropriate fits whether i mean it's it's he's just he was just spamming employers and that is not an effective job hunting strategy at all first of all each application for a job that you make needs to be um i just lost the word
47:55 it needs to be developed specifically for that employer okay so although you may have a a a basic resume you're going to need to make at least some tweaks to it for each person to whom it's submitted okay that's how the job market is today okay especially when you get into the mid level and higher level jobs they're not looking for cookie cutters okay that's one of the reasons why they
48:30 have a an employee search process okay because they're they're looking for more than a cookie cutter and so if you if you want to be competitive and have a a strong chance at you know getting through the process you've got to target your job hunt very laser focused and very specific to individual potential employers okay that's what it takes you can post on job or you can you know
49:06 post your resume on job boards all you want you can you know hit click um you know to submit a resume all you want if you haven't done your research if you don't really understand whether you're an appropriate fit for that company you're wasting your time okay this is another reason why the internet has been somewhat misleading in this idea that it makes job hunting easier it makes job hunting activities easier but it doesn't make job hunting easier okay so the flow of information with
49:41 pdfs and you know and online submission portals and all that kind of stuff yeah that makes that kind of stuff is a lot easier generally sometimes those portals are really hard to figure out um what isn't easier is the competition which is much greater now okay and so we've got to be smart about how we do our job hunts and make sure that we're really being focused and targeted when we when we submit when we apply for a job okay so that was number seven number eight not asking for the job if you want it or
50:18 following up property properly or at all now in general this is going to apply when you're at you know the final interview or or at least what you perceive to be you know the final the final meeting to discuss the job so you'll hear me use both of those terms to be honest i i don't like the term interview because it it has this sort of connotation that you know it's like oh you know if you've ever seen you know oliver twist oh please sir may i have a job you know so especially in the middle and higher levels i i don't think that's the right
50:53 approach that's why i like to call it a meeting to discuss a job because that meeting is about two two things one are you right for the employer two is the employer right for you so if you are in a meeting with the hiring manager and you're not asking questions to determine whether that's an appropriate place for you to work oftentimes that will be a red flag to the hiring manager that you are not the right person because they'll they may interpret that as you're not being thoughtful
51:28 about where you want to work indeed they may interpret it as you're just so desperate for a job you will work anywhere you get an offer okay and for middle and higher level jobs they have choices don't be fooled you know with the low unemployment rate and all of that into thinking oh they're so hard up for workers you know they're just waiting to hire me not at these levels there's lots of people at these levels okay lots of lots of choices for employers at these levels okay so if you if you're in a meeting for it to discuss a job okay
52:03 you're asking questions and giving answers back and forth okay and now it's wrapping up thank you so much for coming in and you know really appreciate it and you know we will certain you know we're certainly going to give serious consideration to um all of the candidates and you know we'll let you know okay so rather than saying thank you i look forward to hearing from you i recommend you say something like this now now if you um if you've ever read um what color is my parachute uh one of the best books on job hunting and this language is i don't think it's it's
52:38 identical to what um the author suggests but it's it's it's kind of an adaptation of it but basically you want to say something in the lines of you know thank you so much i i enjoyed meeting with meeting with you and and talking about the company and learning about it and having an opportunity to you know share information about myself so knowing all that you've learned in this meeting about me my knowledge skills and experience and and uh my interest in the job are you prepared to give me an answer
53:13 now and then shut up in sales that's what we call a close you're closing okay so just you know sit quietly with a pleasant look on your face and let the person mull it over if you say anything before they speak um you're taking the pressure off them and and that is the gut instinct and it can be a you can feel some tension in the room when you do this
53:49 that tension isn't necessarily bad okay it's the person figuring out wow obviously this person really wants this job i hope they wouldn't have asked me if they're going to get it if they don't really want it okay [Music] have any of the other candidates shown me this kind of desire okay that could be one thing that's going on in their head and that's very positive for you okay so just let them have their time to digest that statement now they may come back to you and say
54:24 we really have you know several good candidates and we're going to have to uh take some time to think this over and i i can't give you i can't give you an answer now nor can i give you a definite deadline okay thank you very much and i look forward to hearing from you okay nothing nothing lost okay by the way if asking them that simple question causes them to say oh i don't think you're the right fit for us think about this how are they going to respond if you had gotten the job how are they going to
55:00 respond a year later when you come to them and say based on my performance for the last year and the benefits i've given to the company what kind of increase in base pay are you willing to give me i mean i'm just saying right it should be a perfectly askable question if if a company is that wary of having an employee who
55:35 you know is willing to sort of take the bull by the horns that may not be the place for you to be because they're going to always want you to feel in a sort of a cowled position and it's going to be very hard to advance there okay now i want to just mention one more thing here for number eight because we're talking about asking for the job okay and by the way if they can't give you an answer you want to make sure you you send a thank you note uh a handwritten one is is absolutely the you know the gold standard um but at least an email and you do want to follow
56:10 up in fact you may ask the person very you know that sounds fine would it be appropriate for me to follow up with you a week from today okay no well we're going to be looking at this over a 10-day period okay great well then i'll get in touch with you then so you know get a sense of when it would be appropriate to follow up and then follow up make sure you follow up follow through okay now so the thing i wanted to add is if you've completed a meeting to discuss a job and you've decided this is not the right place for me
56:45 there is nothing wrong in saying this is not the right opportunity for me okay just like we were talking about earlier in the in the show if it's not the right place for you it it's you're you don't have to take it okay if they don't like that well why would they want to hire an employee who doesn't want to work for them you know and that's that's crazy and again it may if they if it may end up you may end up having a conversation about wow you know i i didn't see that coming i thought i think you're such a great candidate i i
57:21 think he would really fill this job well and say well you know then be open with them why isn't it the right situation for you say well you know i'm concerned about you know these two things or these three things talk about first of all maybe you misunderstood something second of all maybe those two or three things can be changed and maybe they're willing to do that for you okay this is this is how we find professional satisfaction right by being honest with ourselves about what we really want and then being willing to have those conversations the tendencies think oh if i make any kind of objection they're going to say
57:56 no here's the reality for any kind of mid to high level job there's a lot of competition okay and by their nature those jobs require us to be able to communicate and communicate in difficult situations if we can demonstrate an ability to do that from the get-go then we are actually advancing our chances of getting the job okay so we've got to be our own best advocates even as we keep in mind what i said in the very beginning the primary issue is keep is thinking about how can
58:33 i use my knowledge skills and experience to help this organization meet its goals meet its mission okay all right well we're almost out of time here so um normally i talk about um the episode coming up next week um but in fact um i'm gonna be on vacation next week so uh i will be taking the week off and you know what i i don't remember who's coming the week after that here let's take a look at this real quickly um where is the is this it no should have this ready right okay here
59:09 we go and computer go go go go i'm not sure why it's not coming up let's see oh it's because it's already up okay so oh yes in two weeks um we will be talking to debbie simon uh debbie simon is uh a business appraiser former investment banker a fantastic businesswoman i know you will learn a lot from hearing her story
59:45 and so uh i i i hope you enjoyed and found what we talked about today useful um if you have let's see i gotta do my standard things here right so if if you have a remarkable way of making a living and think you would be a good guest on the way to wow making people making money drop me a a note let me know about it uh go to the website the way to wow show.com go to our youtube channel uh and put a put a comment in and i will get in touch with you be happy to talk to you about that or if you know somebody you think would be a good guest let me know about that person i'd be happy to um you know hear hear about it
60:22 and and uh and perhaps you'll you know you or your or the person you're referring to will will be on the show other than that thank you very very much for watching this episode of the way to wow people making money and as i usually do i just want to remind you about my friend marie you are still my bell darling thanks again folks and we will see you in two weeks