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!