Guerrillas (Job Hunters, That Is) In Our Midst

There's a recent book out that I would recommend you consider if you're hitting road blocks aplenty in your job search. It's called Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters. Quite a handful of tips for breaking through the clutter.

Here's a sample:
#6: Send a letter stating you are over qualified
Send your resume and a cover letter which states “It’ll appear obvious from my resume that I’m over-qualified for the job you advertised, so let me tell you why you should interview me and consider “super-sizing” your opportunity”.

The advice is provided by famed American marketer Jay Conrad Levinson, along with our very own Ottawa-based David Perry, Managing Partner at Perry-Martel International Inc. Be prepared to feel like a slug by comparison when you read about David's achievements. His Linked-In profile alone had me calling my mom to reassure me I hadn't disappointed her. (She withheld comment, by the way).

While I don't necessarily agree with or endorse every one of the 400 tips they provide in their book (e.g. you don't want to try Tactic #47: Sell yourself on eBay, if you're the shy and retiring type), as a career coach I appreciate their advice to think outside the box and go the extra mile whenever possible. Reading through their free list of 50 ideas on Perry's Blog might just stimulate you to do something you've never thought of before, or at a minimum give you a clear idea if this book is for you.

"Employer Branding" as it really ought to be

I read this kind of boring article yesterday about how employers can improve their image by treating themselves as a "brand." This is all the rage. But it was mostly the usual platitudes and stuff. So I livened things up by making some suggestions on how an employer can really differentiate themselves.

Here's the suggestions in full:

Here are a few more ideas to truly differentiate an employer in a positive way, especially to the newer generations:

- Be among the first to incorporate "ethical behaviour" as part of your annual performance review process. Start at the top and report semi-annually on what senior management has done to ensure that unethical behaviour is not tolerated. Reward employees financially for doing their jobs well while not "doing evil." Punish those who succeed wildly at the expense of honesty, decency, fairness, sustainability, etc. (I know this sounds unreasonable these days - yet how appealing this is to the 'best and brightest' who are fed up with having to compromise their core principles just to make a reasonable living).

- Fire assholes. Seriously. Don't tolerate bullies, liars, thieves, demoralizers, and other insidious performers, even if they do eek out a bit more revenue than others. You want morale to soar through the ceiling? Publicly turf out the worst offenders and watch as your employees burst into choruses of "Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead!"

- Trumpet your "sustainability" and community enhancing efforts. Make sustainability part of your internal culture and processes by going green where possible.

- Find ways to creatively retain employees who are positive contributors even when they are going through troubled times. Job sharing, reduced workloads and extended leaves with guaranteed return to employment are ways to start.

- Oh, and maybe even have better compensation packages than your competitors; promote employee development in areas that are actually of interest to each individual (e.g. tuition reimbursement, paid association memberships, sponsored courses and magazine subscriptions, etc.).

- Provide an excellent externally-sourced Employee Assistance Plan and actually boast about it instead of suppressing its existence to save a buck or two.

- Put in policies that promote the taking of full vacation entitlement without penalty (perceived or real). Make senior managers take two week at a time vacations so that others know they can actually do likewise, without being viewed as weak, traitorous, lazy, not a team player, etc.

- Encourage things like flex-time, telecommuting, family leave and other worklife balance programs

Now really, isn't this better than all the smoke and mirror efforts too many supposedly "Top Employers" use to lure in employees? Heck, with all the incremental productivity you'll generate, all the loyalty that will reduce expensive turnover, the healthier employees that will require fewer days off and use less of their health benefits...you might actually increase profits while gaining a genuinely deserved reputation as a "best employer."

Just saying.

Don't be evil for your boss - so says the Globe and Mail

Nice article today about how some people make the hard choice of leaving an employer whose ethics they no longer agree with. Tough to do without another job lined up for most people, and finances often trump morality these days. How about you - have you been struggling with an ethical dilemma at work? Or maybe know of a friend or colleague who is? Check out some of my articles on this topic and see what you think.

In the end it comes down to holding true to your values as best you can, in spite of pressures to abandon your beliefs and become another cog in the big machine. No one said making moral choices is necessarily easy. However living with yourself and being proud of your decisions is worth one heck of a lot!

Immigrant Blues

Is Canada fair to its recent immigrants? I wonder about this because of so many complaints I hear from recent arrivals in our country, many of them highly trained professionals, who get here and begin spending their savings when it turns out that their credentials aren't recognized, they're discriminated against because they lack "Canadian experience," and otherwise find it difficult to adjust.

I write about some solutions in three articles of mine on my homepage, under the heading "Newcomers and Immigrants." But reality can be harsh for those we invite, supposedly to this land of opportunity. And I worry about what might happen as our economy starts to slow down from the U.S. overspill of bad economic news.

Any suggestions from those with practical experience on helping newcomer job hunters will be gladly shared on this blog, and on my homepage too. You'll remain anonymous if you like. Thanks!

Ouchies - The American Recession Has Started

It's unofficial [correction: as of Jan 24, with Bank of Montreal declaring it], but plain as day here: the U.S. has entered a recessionary period, by any measure of the imagination. Housing starts down 24% over the last year. Interest rates dropping in order to stimulate the economy, even though inflation is rising because of (ridiculously inflated) oil prices. Job growth is stalled or declining. Wages aren't rising. And the stock market is reacting downwards.

Today the U.S. government announced it will intervene with a "short term economic boost" (read: rescue plan to rescue the plan that didn't work).

Also as for now the Canadian federal government is refusing to bail out the automakers. Which means Ontario is facing headwinds too.

I think that in times like these, with a Canadian slowdown more imminent, it makes sense to practice "safe careering." That is, to review your personal financial position, to make sure that you are getting your credit facilities ready, to think twice about job hopping (a little bit of extra security now could go a long way in the next few years), and to generally plan as if things are going to get worse for a while - and how this might affect you.

Career Fear: When Speaking Out Is "Career Limiting"

The Toronto District School Board has been outed. A damning report reveals that incidents of crime have gone underreported, with big-time negative consequences for students and staff:

"A school safety panel revealed yesterday that employees of the Toronto District School Board told them they feared that revealing school safety issues or anything that would reflect negatively on the board would be "a career-limiting move." (emphasis added)

As a result, hundreds of incidents that should have been reported were not. This 'culture of fear' led to a failure of the system and its overseers to protect students from violence, including robberies and sexual assault, on school grounds, the report said."

Culture of fear. Career limiting move. What are we to do when we want to keep our jobs but also do the right thing? I do have some advice, such as my article on how to Whistleblow The Right Way, and Push Back When Asked to Do Wrong. But we all know it's not easy to do the right thing all the time, and the cost of doing so can be sometimes be brutal.

Still, letting innocent kids get hurt so you can continue to enjoy your perks? It's not how I want to have my children educated.

Take a Leave Of Absence. Unpaid. Please!

Extra vacation: who wouldn't want it? If you work for Sears Canada, your employer is encouraging you to take it. One little catch though, you won't be paid for it. Also you might have to forgo some of those doggone retirement benefits you've been counting on for the last few decades or so. Welcome to the new Sears. And Hudson's Bay is making moves to cut costs too. That's what a Globe and Mail article says today.

"Sears Canada Inc., which is controlled by U.S. hedge fund financier Edward Lampert, is encouraging its employees to take unpaid leaves. It's also snipping some staff discounts and eliminating postretirement benefits. This fall the retailer demanded that some suppliers fork over retroactive payments of as much as 10 per cent on past orders, tied to the stronger loonie."

All I can say is thank goodness the economy is zipping along at a rip roaring pace, right? Can you imagine if things were to slow down?

Why Don't Employers Get Work/Life Balance Yet?

New study out today that reveals, yet again, our employers keep talking the talk, but are unwilling (afraid? bound by tradition? sadistic? still ruled at the top by folks who think all workers are 24/7 androids since they are too?), so it seems, to walk the walk.

Here's an outtake from the Ottawa Sun article:

"While it seems many Canadians would prefer their kitchen table to the boardroom table any day, many feel their employer doesn't care about work-life balance.

A study published yesterday by Desjardins Financial Security finds that while 25% of Canadians are assured their employer "walks the talk" when it comes to work-life balance, only 29% feel their employer truly cares about them having it in their lives.

Released in advance of the Canadian Mental Health Association's National Mental Health Week (May 7-13), the survey also suggests 65% feel their personal and employer values are not in sync -- despite the fact many companies are implementing programs to promote balance. "

So like, what gives, Mr. and Mrs. bossy-pants? Happy to torture your staff till they drop? Oh yeah, it must be that "globalization" thing that was supposed to bring us all the benefits of worldwide barrier-freeness. Maybe they should read about the "Results Only Work Environment." Or is holding your employees prisoner to face-time just too satisfying to let go of?

More Down and Dirty Predicting from the Bank of Canada

Alright, call me a pessimist if you must, but in fact I'm a pragmatist optimist. What else can I do but pass on warnings from the best in the prognostication business? This time it's our very own Bank of Canada Governor, David Dodge, (how I love his last name - so suitable for how he handles our nation's financial affairs).

His latest crystal ball pronouncement? “The downside risks to Canada from slower U.S. growth in the first half of 2008 are probably greater than we estimated in October,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland.

Eloquently understated, but what would you expect the guy to say, 'we're headed for a kick in the economic groin soon but if I say so you'll all freak out and stop buying consumer goods thus expediting the inevitable slowdown'? Not likely.

Anyhoo, for those with good jobs now might be a good time to review your spending priorities, maybe sock a few bucks away for if the storm moves our way. And job seekers, keep looking as hard and persistently as you can for now. There is still plenty of hiring going on in Canada. I'll try to direct you to some hotspots over the next while, where job creation is hopping.

Meanwhile, happy new year and success to all of you!

I read a little book the other day while at Chapters, called "The Dip." It's by marketing guru Seth Godin. Normally this isn't the kind of thing that would appeal to me because, frankly I find that too many business authors sound like they've extracted common wisdom from over the ages and repackaged it into something catchy and slick. (Present company excluded, of course).

Not that this almost-booklet by Seth escaped my skepticism. But I was with my daughter, she chose to hunker down and do some reading, and so I joined her and happened to see "The Dip" in a book aisle within easy grasp.

And within easy read too, as it turned out. Consumed about 1/2 of it before heading over with with my daughter for some double whipped hot chocolates with mucho whipped cream and smattered mocha sprinklies on top.

I actually really liked the message - which, no offense to Seth - could have been distilled into a good three page essay. The central theme, as I took it to be, is this: any time you try to do something that is not easy, you will hit a point where you might feel like giving up, which is where you should examine if you're pursuing the right goal or if you should proceed anyway. Those who pursue the right goal and stick things out through the hardest parts win.

Well, doesn't sound to profound when stripped to the basics.

However this is very applicable to the job search and career change process. When the going gets tough, it's a good time to:
- examine whether you're going after the right employment
- examine your techniques and methods to ensure they're the right ones

And if the above are on target, then you've got to plow ahead and tough it through the miserable parts. Those who do have the best chance of finding satisfying employment.

Anyway, you can read Seth's Blog here for more.