Run, Don’t Walk

Do you have an effective “Me In Thirty Seconds”? How about your Power Statements? Do you have any idea how to get past a gate keeper and reach a decision maker, and once you’ve reached the decision maker, do you know how to successfully request an interview? Once you have had a successful interview, do you know how to avoid the pitfalls of that dreaded salary question and successfully negotiate a more favorable salary for yourself? If your answer to any or all of these questions was “No,” or worse, “Huh?,” then run, don’t walk, to your nearest LDS Employment Resource Services center and schedule yourself for their fabulous job seeker course (The Career Workshop). The center is a service to the community, and its resources are free and open to all, both to those who are LDS and equally to those of other faiths, or no faith at all.

LDS Employment Resource Services was not always the place job seekers should look to for help and advice and a leg up on the competition. Instead, (at least in 2002, when I last tried their service) it used to feel remarkably close to a colossal waste of time. All of that has changed. The whole place has a remarkably different and efficient feel. The people there, while still all volunteer, are clearly people who have had successful careers, or are currently having them, to the point where they can afford to volunteer two full days a month—as was the case with the gentleman who led my career workshop session.

Topics covered in the workshop include: how to come up with a compelling  way to describe yourself, experience, and the value you add to a company in thirty seconds or less, and how to take an interviewer’s question and turn it into an opportunity to show how you have made a difference to a previous employer's bottom line. These “power statements” are key to making you stand out from the crowd and will help you be prepared for even the toughest interview questions. The Career Workshop even includes practice interview sessions with professional volunteers, where you can choose to be videotaped and review how you come across. Daunting, true, but very effective.  I strongly recommend it.

There are also classes on how to create killer resumes (you choose between the “8 second resume” and the “skills resume.” Even if you think you already have a great resume, you may be surprised by what you learn, and how much cleaner, crisper, and to the point your resume can look. It can spell the difference between a resume that gets tossed out in eight seconds (the average time spent by a hiring manager to make a keep/toss decision) and one that is placed in the keeper pile.

Other services provided at the LDS Employment Center include networking sessions where you can meet others who can provide you with leads, and even the services of a volunteer psychologist available one on one to help you work through your job search jitters. Also, did you know that there are over 2500 employers registered with the www.ldsjobs.org website who have committed to search the job seeker database there before advertising a position? Get your job seeker profile completed to ninety percent, and you become visible to the employers searching the database. And, there are many other services, all free, and all valuable.

If I have any complaint at all, it is that the existence of The Career Workshop seems to be something of a well-hidden secret, at least on the website. I only learned of this amazing course after visiting my local LDS Employment Resource Services center. Even knowing the course exists, I couldn’t locate it on the website while writing this article. All in all, if you are currently seeking employment, LDS Employment Resource Services is a resource you don’t want to miss.

“Sure,” you say, “Sounds great, but are you employed yet?” Truth is, the stars have yet to align properly, but I certainly feel more confident in my job search skills, and I have used the techniques I learned to unearth opportunities and even to obtain an interview that I otherwise would not have had. And while that interview has not yet led to full time employment, it was sufficient to place me on a list of free lancers to recommend to the interviewer’s clients. That’s success, any way you slice it. Elliott out.

Job Loss...and Fighting Back

Like a CIA spook tailing a Taliban operative through the streets of Kabul, it’s imperative you not get made. That means you’ve got to dress like the natives. Grow a beard and sport a turban. Mutter some greetings in Pashto. Maybe even (under duress), wear a burkha. The important thing, the only thing that matters, is to complete the mission. And that is, get that one crucial piece of intel, make that one connection, bridge that one gap in your current knowledge of a given company’s hiring needs to spell the difference in your own personal war—the war on unemployment. So you’ve got to look and sound like you already are employed. Employed people are relaxed and confident—house payment? No problem. Teenagers with big appetites? Got that covered.  And you’ve got to come across that same way. You’re not desperate to find a new job as quickly as possible, you’re looking to help a potential employer solve a problem . Theirs, not yours. You have just the skill set they need to increase productivity and boost sales. You are the difference that can take their division or the entire company to the next level.

Sure, you’ve got the jitters. Who doesn’t? And maybe you find yourself waking from a stress-wracked sleep at four a.m. of your fourth day without a job, brain zinging, the smell of ozone in your nostrils as you zig-zag through the obstacle course that is your house with the lights out, trying to avoid waking your spouse or stubbing your toe, on your way to locate your new laptop where you pound the keyboard feverishly, trying to capture the essence of the dream that woke you, that sparkling vision something tells you is it, the key to your future.

But that doesn’t mean you’re cracking up. It means you’re feeling inspired. You’ve got it. The idea. The one that can take your new unemployment, the Mother-of-all-Lemons, and turn it into the tastiest pitcher of lemonade ever, as you turn this mountain into a molehill, this obstacle into opportunity...all the clichés. Because this really is it. And you know it in your gut. So you take the risk. You invest yourself in this idea like it’s a sure fire success. And so, it will be. Because that’s what employers are looking for, inspired people with vision who seize the moment and forge ahead, even at the risk of stubbing a couple of toes. And when you take that same fire and pour it into your resume, and carry that confidence into your next interview, it’s going to go well. You will get that gig, the one that’s your new dream job. So trust yourself. Follow your gut. Confidence sells so much better than desperation.

Oh, and that new laptop mentioned above? The one that was a parting gift of the company you’d give anything to still be working for—you know, the one that closed its doors, not because it couldn’t innovate, not because it couldn’t react nimbly to a market “No,” then turn on a dime, and push out a Beta product (in one year no less) that had the industry big-boys shuffling their feet and pulling their forelocks like a bunch of country bumpkins trying to ask the prom queen for a dance. Yeah, that one. That super-cool, innovative place that STILL was forced to close....but that’s a tale for another day.  Elliott out.