Don't Let Age Hinder Your Job Search

Sunday, March 23, 2008

President John F. Kennedy once said of Walt Rostow, his former deputy special assistant for National Security Affairs, "Walt is a fountain of ideas; perhaps one in 10 of them is absolutely brilliant. Unfortunately, six or seven are not merely unsound, but dangerously so."

In that statement, Kennedy reminds us good ideas are more important than new ones, highlighting the value of judgment honed through experience. Yet, in a society that seems obsessed with whatever is new, it can be hard to sell the value of hiring an older employee. But there are many things a seasoned worker can do to overcome society's stereotypes and a hiring manager's potential bias.

"There is experience and then there is diversity of experience," says Thomas Fuller, general managing partner of Epsen, Fuller IMD International Search Group, an executive search firm based in Morristown. The quality of the experience is what matters, he says.

If you're an older job candidate, focus on your accomplishments, so a prospective employer recognizes what you'll bring to the organization. Describe that experience in a way that matches the business needs of the organization.

Jack Miller, (no relation to me), author of "Simply Success: How to Start, Build and Grow a Multimillion Dollar Business the Old-Fashioned Way," started a new career at age 69. After selling a previous business to retailer Staples, he became Chairman of Successories, a business-to-business mail-order firm.

Miller suggests older employees show how their experience will have an immediate effect on a company. He says veterans bring much to the work force: They tend to have a strong work ethic, are less likely to job hop and will not have the challenges of balancing work and the obligations of raising young children, factors that can be pointed out to a prospective employer.

Here are some other factors that will help older workers land a job:

Push past stereotypes that hiring managers have about older workers. Stay energetic, work out regularly and demonstrate enthusiasm for your work. It will go a long way toward getting a prospective employer to view you as an attractive candidate.

Demonstrate that you are not only computer literate, but also comfortable with learning new technology.

Create a presence on the internet via a personal web page, blog, articles published online or a profile posted on a professional networking website. During an interview, discuss trends in technology that might be relevant to the job you are seeking. This will also eliminate any lingering doubts about your ability to adapt to rapidly changing technology.

Do your home work. Most job candidates don't prepare for job interviews and are not sufficiently knowledgeable about the organizations they seek to join, says Milburn resident Brian Drum, who is president of the executive recruiting firm Drum Associates. Displaying your knowledge of a company exhibits your interest and will often impress the hiring manager.

A good job candidate "should have at least one significant job accomplishment for each year of employment," Drum says. Concrete examples of how you have successfully made transitions to new situations and stories about how you achieved significant results should give you an edge in the hiring process.

Employers almost always seek a candidate with relevant experience -- just ask any student seeking his or her first job. Experience, however, does not preclude new ideas. Whether the candidate of experience triumphs over the candidate of new ideas, often has to do with how experience is presented.

Veteran candidates wishing to be selected ahead of talented younger prospects should demonstrate to a potential employer that they can apply their experience in a rapidly changing business environment.

A veteran human resources executive, Lee E. Miller is the author of "UP: Influence Power and the U Perspective -- The Art of Getting What You Want," and the co-founder of YourCareerDoctors.com, a website devoted to career success. Mail questions to Lee@YourCareerDoctors.com.

GETTING AHEAD BY UNDERSTANDING THE PEOPLE YOU NEED TO INFLUENCE

What determines why one person is selected for a job or a promotion and another is not? Most people believe that the answer to that question lies with the qualifications of the individuals being considered. If, like most people, you answered that the candidate with the most relevant skills and experience gets the job, you would be wrong. If someone is able to obtain a job interview or is being considered for a promotion, they are likely to be qualified to do the job. However, so are all the other candidates being considered for the position. The key to being selected is to distinguish yourself from all of the other qualified candidates.

Standing out from the crowd has more to do with your understanding of the employer’s U Perspective than it does with your qualifications. An employer’s U Perspective is ‘what they care about.” Employers are not looking for the candidate with the best qualifications because there is no such thing as the “best qualified candidate” in the abstract. There is only the best candidate for a particular job as the person or persons making the decision see it. To show that you are the right person for the position you are seeking requires understanding the U Perspective of the people involved in making the decision to hire or promote you.

While in most organizations there are a common set of shared values referred to as the organization’s culture, you don’t interview with an organization. You interview with individuals. For most jobs, you will have to interview with more than one person. Each person who interviews you sees the job somewhat differently. They define the perfect candidate as the perfect candidate for them. To convince an interviewer that you are the right person for the job, you need to figure out what the interviewer cares about.

How each person defines that ideal candidate usually can be found in the answer to the question “What can this candidate do for me?” Individuals tend to see the answer to that question differently depending on their role in the organization. Someone from Human Resources will have a different U Perspective than someone in Finance and both will differ from what your future boss will be looking for in a job candidate.

Typically a Human Resources executive is looking for the obvious choice -- someone who will be readily accepted by everyone involved. That way the Human Resources executive can fill the position quickly, satisfy his or her clients and move on to other work. He or she also needs to be able to the articulate reasons why you are the best candidate for the job. If a candidate has all the right skills and experience, and fails, no one will blame the Human Resources executive for recruiting someone who was clearly wrong for the job. On the other hand, if that individual favors someone who doesn’t fit the job specifications’ exactly, even if the candidate is otherwise outstanding, and it doesn’t work out, the Human Resources executive is likely to face criticism. So, when you interview with a Human Resources executive demonstrate how you meet all the important qualifications for the job. Be prepared with specific examples of things that you have done in the past that relate to the types of problems the company is currently facing.

Sometimes a Finance executive will be involved in the hiring process. What is their U Perspective? The Finance executive wants someone who they will be able to work with -- someone who knows how to stay on budget and help reduce expenses or generate revenues. Those are the skills you want to emphasize if you happen to be interviewing with a Finance executive.

The hiring manager, your future boss, is looking for someone who can help solve his or her most pressing problems, whatever they are. Even Human Resources and Finance executives will have a different U Perspective when hiring or promoting someone who will work for them than when they are recruiting for someone else. The hiring manager has immediate needs and wants someone to help take care of those needs. Hiring managers are most likely to be focused on whatever they deem to be the most significant problem they face at that moment. They want someone that can have an immediate impact. Therefore, the most important question you can ask your prospective boss is, “What is it at work that keeps you up at night?” The answer to that question will help you determine the hiring manager’s U Perspective. That is what you should focus on. If you can help the interviewer deal with those issues, you have gone a long way toward getting the job.

While you are the same person, with the same skills, experience and personal qualities no matter who is interviewing you, what you chose to emphasize makes all the difference in the world. Remember each person with whom you interview views the job being filled slightly differently based on how they interact with that position. That is why it is their U Perspective. When you are talking about your ability to do the job, how you are seen by the interviewer depends on what you choose to emphasize. Focus on what is most important to the person interviewing you.

Don't wear blinders about possible layoff

Sunday, March 09, 2008

"I should have seen it coming" is a common lament from those who end up laid off as a result of corporate downsizings and restructurings.

There usually are ample warning signs a layoff is coming, and that you are likely to be among the victims. When faced with that inevitability, though, "a lot of people choose to shut their eyes to the obvious signals," says Susan Ascher, chief executive of the Ascher Group, a human resources staffing firm in Roseland. That can be a costly mistake.

No one is immune from layoffs. A recent survey of 126 U.S. employers conducted by Mercer Consulting found 33 percent are considering hiring freezes or downsizing. In our rapidly changing world, odds are, sooner or later, most people will find themselves, often through no fault of their own, out of work. So it makes sense to learn how to recognize the warning signs. That way, you will be able to take steps to increase your survival, or be better positioned to deal with losing your job.

Companies that show signs of financial stress often find it necessary to resort to layoffs. So, if your company is slow paying its bills, is discussing outsourcing of various functions, has discontinued products or lost key customers, is cutting budgets or is the subject of takeover rumors, there is a good chance of a layoff.

You can reduce your chances of being laid off by getting involved in activities that are critical to the company's future. Keep your skills current, present yourself as someone who goes above and beyond expectations. Whether you will be among the victims of a downsizing depends on many things, some of which are completely outside of your control.

Walter Sonyi, executive vice president of Gateway International Group, an outplacement firm in Parsippany, offers these key indicators as signs of a layoff:

You stop being invited to meetings or being copied on e-mails.

Your boss or colleagues avoid looking you in the eyes.

When you approach, people stop talking or abruptly change the topic.

You are discouraged from joining professional associations or going to conferences.

Some of your job duties are reassigned.

Your colleagues seem to know more about what is going on than you do.

If you think you are likely to be laid off, it is always best to be proactive. While it may already be too late to change the outcome, it can't hurt to try to demonstrate your value.

The best response, Ascher advises, is to "be visible, be valuable, be positive and be knowledgeable." Make sure your boss knows about your recent successes, increase your visibility on projects viewed as critical to the organization's future and be willing to volunteer to take on added responsibilities. When times are tough, a positive "can-do" attitude is always highly prized.

Do not, however, ignore the possibility that your fate may already have been sealed. Make a concerted effort to focus on career-sustaining activities you may have let slip due to the press of other responsibilities. They include:

Updating your résumé.

Staying in touch with your professional network.

Increasing your involvement in professional associations and activities.

Enhancing your skills and industry knowledge.

Getting your finances in order.

Being ready to begin a job search if necessary.

It is never too soon to start preparing for the possibility that, this time, your number will be up.

A veteran human resources executive, Lee E. Miller is the author of "UP: Influence Power and the U Perspective -- The Art of Getting What You Want," and the co-founder of YourCareerDoctors.com, a website devoted to career success. Mail questions to Lee@YourCareerDoctors.com.

INFLUENCING THROUGH OTHERS

Influencing through others can produce impressive results. If presented properly, a message delivered by someone other than yourself carries additional weight. Having someone else exert influence on your behalf is tricky to pull off because it requires understanding, and appealing to, not only the U Perspective· what someone else cares about· of a third person whom you do not have the opportunity to interact with directly but also that of the person who will be delivering the message for you. In addition to having to motivate the person delivering the message you have to make sure that the message they deliver is the one that you actually want to convey. Moreover because you are not there to gauge how people react, you are unable to adjust the message if it does not have the intended effect.

Sometimes you will want someone else to deliver your message because they have greater legitimacy with the person you are seeking to influence. For example, the Executive Director of a major Non-Governmental Organization ("NGO") was trying to make certain changes in the organization. One of the individuals whose support she needed while giving "lip service" to the proposed changes, she was not doing anything to implement them. The Executive Director did not have direct authority over this individual who was employed by a university that worked with the organization and, despite her best efforts, was unable to gain this person's support. So Barbara Jackson, a well respected consultant and executive coach, was brought into help.

Barbara was asked to create a strategy for implementing the proposed changes and to develop standards, against which to measure the progress that was being made. By bringing in an expert that had credibility with the organization to develop standards for those individuals working on the initiative, the Executive Director was able to get the resisting individual to do what was required of her. While this individual could ignore the Executive Director, she could not ignore a respected consultant retained with the approval orthe organization's Board of Directors.

Legitimacy is the aura of authority someone creates when they deliver their message. It adds credibility to the positions being advocated. Because people tend to defer to authority, individuals perceived to have legitimacy are better able to exert influence. Understanding that psychological imperative is critical to increasing one's ability to win people over. While there are a number or ways a person can enhance their legitimacy. It is easier, and often more effective. to use someone who already has a great deal of legitimacy with those you seek to influence. That is why experts are brought in to help persuade.

People with whom someone has had previous positive dealings, people in positions of power, people with recognized expertise, celebrities, as well as individuals perceived to have a certain status, all carry legitimacy. Selecting the right person to deliver your message can insure that it produces the desired results. In addition to using credible individuals to leverage the power or your message, sometimes you need to exert influence through someone else simply because you cannot be everywhere and do everything yourself. When you are busy or seeking to persuade someone that resides a great distance away it is often necessary to influence through someone else. Perhaps you will choose to do so through a person that works for you, a local agent or someone who works in your organization at a nearby location.

When you seek to substitute someone for you that has not been selected because they already have legitimacy, you need to provide a reason for people to want to work with that individual. If that person's position is the same level as yours or at a higher level, that will probably be sufficient. If not, however, you will need to promote your designee as an expert in some aspect of the transaction so as to confer sufficient status to encourage people to want to work with him or her. Otherwise they will wonder why you are not dealing with them directly. It is essential, moreover, that you keep checking in with your representative to ensure that he or she is proceeding in the right direction. Once you have conferred sufficient status on that person it is virtually impossible for them to change their position once they make a commitment without threatening the relationship.

Working through others is an approach to influencing that can be used with great success in a variety of different circumstances for an assortment of reasons. How best to exert influence through others, depends on the reason why you are doing so. Properly utilized, however, influencing through others is one of the tools that every executive should have in their arsenal.

Want to be Found; Create An Internet Presence

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Yogi Berra, former Yankee great and longtime Mont clair resident, once commented about a particularly popular restaurant: "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." The same might be said of how the Internet is generally used to find jobs.

Most people use the Internet when they are actively seeking a new position by searching listed job openings or by posting their résumés on various job boards, such as Monster.com. Individuals do, in fact, find jobs that way.

Although, according to the Department of Labor, the number who do amount to less than 10 percent of job seekers, it doesn't hurt to use those job boards unless you are concerned your current employer might find out. Because Internet job postings usually result in employers having to sort through large numbers of responses from unqualified candidates just to find a few qualified individuals to consider, recruiters have started using the Internet in other ways.

Recruiters, like Jill Krumholz of Charleston Partners in Rumson, are using the Internet to identify the best candidates for open positions, including those who may not be looking for a job at the moment. Recently, for example, she was conducting a search for a senior benefits professional at a large global technology company.

"The first thing I did was to Google the term 'global benefits conference,'" Krumholz said. By looking at the conference presenters, she was able to identify several candidates for the position. After doing further research, she contacted a few of those individuals and was able to find a well-qualified candidate to present to her client.

To take advantage of these recruiting trends, savvy careerists are creating an Internet presence instead of just looking for a new job on the Internet. That means the next great job opportunity, and the people who can help them get it, will find them. In that way, their names will pop up when recruiters and prospective employers are looking to fill a position for which they would be appropriate, even when they are not actively in the market.

That Internet presence starts with an online profile, one that describes who you are professionally. Web sites such as myspa ce.com and facebook.com allow you to post profiles that are both social and professional, while oth ers like linkedin.com focus only on professional profiles. In addi tion to helping those seeking to fill positions discover you, having a professional profile online facilitates networking with other professionals.

Be certain that wherever someone finds you on the Internet, what they see portrays you in the way you want to be de picted.

"Employers are now routinely running Web searches of candi dates' names and all known e- mail addresses before they consider someone for a promotion or a new job," says Lena West, author of the e-book "The Blogos phere Cluebook" and chief strategist at XynoMedia Technology, a Westchester, N.Y., firm. "They want to see how you represent yourself online."

West advises: "While photos of your family are acceptable on social (but not on professional) net working sites, pictures of you drinking with your friends or with body paint at the Giants game are not."

There are a number of ways to increase your professional stature on the Internet beyond posting a profile:

Use the Web to develop a business network for yourself by joining professional organizations and participating in online discussions of topics on their Web sites. Offer insights on the impor tant issues facing your profession. Ask and answer questions. Offer help to others where appropriate.

Have something to say that is insightful about the industry online. Write a blog that comments on current issues facing your industry. If you don't have the time to write a blog, write comments on the blogs of others in your field. You can also answer industry-related questions on Web sites that post questions, such as "Yahoo! Answers."

Write reviews on Amazon.com about books being read by people in your field.

Laurie Murphy, chief executive of PeopleAreKey, an executive search firm in Cranford, says "passive candidate-recruiting techniques" are now commonly used by recruiters to identify job candidates. This includes using search engines like Zoomin fo.com, which pulls together information about individuals from Web sites across the Internet.

With companies reducing hir ing in anticipation of a tougher economic climate, it is even more important today to create a Web presence. Once the economy starts to improve, there will be a need to fill jobs quickly. Having your name appear where people doing the hiring are likely to look is important if you want to be found.

A veteran human resources executive, Lee E. Miller is the author of "UP: Influence Power and the U Perspective -- The Art of Getting What You Want" and the co-founder of YourCareerDoctors.com, a Web site devoted to career success. Mail questions to Lee@YourCareerDoctor s.com.

Read It and Weep: No Tears At Work

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Does Hillary Clinton's recent teary-eyed performance in New Hampshire send the wrong message to working women: that it's acceptable to cry at work?

For years, women have been told to avoid displays of emotion at the office for fear of looking weak. While crying in the workplace may be equally damaging to a man's rise in the business world, the issue is of greater importance to women because "women cry four times as often as men do," according to William Frey II, a biochemist doing research at the St. Paul-Ramsey Medical Center and author of "Crying: The Mystery of Tears" (Winston PR, 1985).

The disparity in frequency arises not just because boys are conditioned while growing up not to cry, but also as a result of physical differences between men and women, Frey says. The "tear glands of men and women develop differently, resulting in a greater propensity for women to shed tears."

I asked several workplace experts if the Clinton episode made it acceptable to cry at work. The response was an unequivocal "No." Here is a sampling of the responses I received:

"It is simply not acceptable to cry at work, except perhaps if someone has passed away," says Colleen Rickenbacher, business etiquette expert and author of "Be on Your Best Business Behavior: How to Avoid Social And Professional Faux Pas" (Brown Books, $11.45).

"In this instance, Hillary Clinton's show of emotions worked in her favor, but that's politics, not the workplace," says Susan Shapiro Barash, a native of Beach Haven Park, who teaches gender studies at Sarah Lawrence College and is the author of "Tripping the Prom Queen: The Truth About Women and Rivalry" (Reed Business Information, $13.95).

"Never cry at work. It will not be forgotten the next time you are being considered for a promotion," says Jean Otte, who lives in Little Silver and is chief executive of Women Unlimited, a national organization dedicated to developing women as business leaders.

While turning on the tears may momentarily help you out of a difficult situation, it can have detrimental long-term consequences, as Christie Whitman, a personal empowerment coach in Philadelphia, learned when she was employed at Pepsi. (Whitman is no relation to the former New Jersey governor.)

Whitman said she worked for a difficult boss who assigned her near-impossible tasks and belittled her when she made even the smallest mistakes. One day, she "couldn't take it any more," and started to cry. Her boss immediately backed off and ceased being so tough on her.

His changed behavior, however, came at a heavy price. She said he shared the incident with her male co-workers, who, from that day forward, demeaned her and constantly made jokes about her crying. She wasn't able to overcome the loss of credibility until a new manager took over and dealt with the situation.

Crying continues to be viewed by most managers as a sign of weakness and lack of self-control. Although research suggests the only way to prevent crying on the job is through conditioning yourself not to do so over a long period of time, you can reduce the emotional triggers creating the urge to cry.

If you expect a situation is likely to become emotional and are prepared to respond, you are less likely to react emotionally. You can also reduce the likelihood of shedding tears by changing the topic, thinking about something else or by distancing yourself from your feelings. If you can't stop yourself from crying, though, don't do it in front of anyone. Don't just leave the room; leave the building.

Although much has changed in the workplace, crying continues to be a career-limiting move that has the potential to damage future prospects. To paraphrase the baseball coach portrayed by Tom Hanks in "A League of Their Own:" "There is no crying in business."

For those hoping Clinton's crying in New Hampshire had ushered in a new era of authentic leadership, where women are freer to show emotions at work, consider this: Her behavior, Frey says, was "typical of how a man, conditioned to hide his emotions, would react. Rather than tears running down her cheeks, Clinton's eyes moistened, her voice choked up and then she quickly regained her composure and got back to business."

A veteran human resources executive, Lee E. Miller is the author of "UP: Influence Power and the U Perspective -- The Art of Getting What You Want," and the co-founder of YourCareerDoctors.com, a Web site devoted to career success. Mail questions to Lee@

YourCareerDoctors.com.

Influencing without Authority

During the siege of Toulon, a young French officer needed to man an artillery position that was so vulnerable that the soldiers manning the guns had little chance of surviving. So dangerous was the assignment that the officer’s superiors feared his men would refuse to follow an order to take up that position. Instead of invoking his authority to order his men to staff the battery, he chose to place a sign at the fortification that read: “The Battery of the Men without Fear.” Rather than seeking to avoid this dangerous duty, the men in his platoon fought for the honor of manning that post. The young officer who instinctively knew that you could better motivate people by appealing to what they care about than through the exercise of authority was Napoleon, who went on to become Emperor of France and conquer most of Europe.

It is relatively easy to get people to do what you want when you are their boss. Because of your position, your authority, your ability to reward them through salary increases, bonuses and promotions, the people who work for you will usually do what you ask them to do, although they may not do so enthusiastically. What if you are not the boss though? Say you need information from a peer in another department in order to complete an analysis that is due next week or you are seeking to get a client pay an outstanding bill that he is upset about? How do you influence people when you have no authority over them? That is where what we refer to as the “U Perspective” comes into play.The U Perspective allows you to use what other people care about to motivate them.

Most people simply assume that everyone sees the world the way they do. Even when we recognize that someone else may see a situation differently than we do, our first instinct usually is to try to persuade them to see things our way. The U Perspective takes the opposite approach. Its effectiveness is not rooted in the ability to convince others to change their views or adopt different values. Instead, its power comes from recognizing what others already believe and want. The U Perspective allows you to get what you want by working with another person’s belief system, not challenging it.

To influence someone without authority, you need to discover what is important to person you are trying to influence. You need to learn to see things through their eyes. Once you understand how they see a situation you have the ability to construct, and present, options in a way that more effectively influences what they do.Understanding someone’s U Perspective means being able to predict what they will do because they are who they are - given how they have behaved in the past and how they see the situation facing them. Of course, money can be used to get people to do things. Sometimes however you don’t have enough money or the exchange of money would not be appropriate. At other times money simply is not the best way to motivate someone.

People are motivated by many things other than money. Recognition, friendship, a shared purpose, status, time, ease, helping others, fairness, teamwork, family and challenge are all values that you can appeal to when you seek to gain someone’s help or support. Even a desire for fame can be a motivator for some people. What motivates each of us is different depending on the situation and the other people involved. Showing how what you want helps further what the people whose help you need care about, makes it easy to gain their support.

While intellectually we can accept that others may see things differently than we do, it is human nature to believe that our views are correct and that views that differ from our own are somehow less valid. This leads to ineffective, and often counterproductive, efforts to get people to change how they see a situation and what their natural inclinations. Generally, we assume that people who view a situation differently than we do simply do not have as much, or as accurate, information as we have. We believe, therefore, that if only we provide more information or explain our position more clearly, we can change their mind. More often than not they see the situation differently because they have had different life experiences and different training. No amount of additional information will negate how those experiences impact upon how someone evaluates a situation. Training also has a bearing on how we see the world. Engineers tend to look at things differently than do salespeople. Both tend to see things differently than accountants. Taking advantage of the U Perspective also requires getting past our assumption that we know what motivates others - i.e. the same things that motivate us.

Understanding someone’s U Perspective will instruct you as to what you need to do to gain their support. Perhaps you can appeal to friendship with someone with whom you have a good working relationship. Alternatively, the offer of future assistance may suffice with a person that you have helped in the past and who may need your help in the future. A suggestion that you will recognize, by way of an e-mail to their boss, the importance of their contribution to a project or the fear of a similar e-mail from your boss to theirs detailing a lack of support might be enough to carry the day. Influencing without authority starts with understanding all the possible ways you might invoke the things the person you are seeking to influence cares about.

When Lisa Caputo, now an executive at Citigroup, was Press Secretary for then First Lady Hillary Clinton, she appealed to the val­ues of the journalists covering the White House to convince them to respect Chelsea Clinton’s privacy. In early 1993, Mike Myers did a skit on Saturday Night Live making fun of Chelsea who was only thirteen years old at the time. Lisa contacted NBC, but rather than trying to threaten or bully them, she appealed to their U Perspective as parents, “Chelsea is just a kid,’ she said She did not run for office. She deserved as normal a childhood as possible under the circum­stances. That is what you would want for your chil­dren, wouldn’t you?” Although this issue arose peri­odically throughout the Clinton Presidency, by and large, this sort of appeal to their values as parents and as decent human beings worked with the mem­bers of the press. As to Mike Myers, he sent a letter apology and the network basically left Chelsea alone remainder of the Clintons’ years in the White House.

Once you discover someone’s U Perspective, influencing that person’s behavior is a fairly straight forward matter. Unleashing the power of the U Perspective does not require that you share someone else’s values, only that you recognize them and take them into account. While it is extremely difficult to change anyone’s U Perspective, fortunately, you don’t need to do so in order to affect their behavior. What you may need to vary is your approach, depending on what is to each person under the circumstance; that is the only part of the influencing equation that you have complete control over.