Well it's a beautiful day today. The sun is out with a nice breeze, so sitting here on the porch I figured I'd throw a little more of my experience your way if it helps any.
You know I've tried many avenues and I've always made change when needed. You have to be ready to change at any given moment. The world has changed, but understand something. I know you need an income and you must pay taxes, but do know if you have any sort of income that you're paying taxes on all your unemployed techniques can be tax deductible. Meaning by claiming all the things you do like, buying paper for your resume, ink for your printer, minutes used on cell phones, trips to interviews, and many more you can claim this on your income tax reducing your total taxes you're required to pay. Sure it's percentages that you're allowed but it might just get you back a few needed dollars to get you through. Many people don't take this to heart and claim it. They simply just let it go and not worry about it. That's your dollars that you're not claiming and possible dollars you won't get back because you don't claim it. Claim everything you possibly can. You automatically get a standard deduction, so undoubtedly you have to claim more than your standard deduction or you'll just lose it. That has happened to me before. But knowing my standard deduction, I know what I have to work toward. Whichever is the most is what my accountant will use. But I give him everything just in case. Here's some ideas to help you along.
Office Supplies- Ink, paper, pencils, pens, staples. In some cases and yes I let the accountant know that I purchased my last laptop and accessories for the sole purpose of job searching. One might say yea but you're using it for blogging in this instance. Yes I am, but because I blog and I have evidence to show that people read my blogs listed under stats, can easily grab a potential employers interest in hiring me for a specific need based on what I might be blogging about.
Home Office - if you're using a home office, spare bedroom you might inquire how much of this are you allowed to claim, since it is your office area and you're using it for business, (ie, job searching). Percentages of electricity used, your long distance carrier, or your web provider bill that you pay to stay online on particular job sites searching. Ask about it.
Vehicle charges- gas, tires, oil, repairs. I let the accountant know about it all. He'll determine what can and cannot be claimed. As for as gas you have really one of two ways to claim it keeping each receipt showing each time you filled up or claim the standard deduction for fuel and wear and tear the IRS allows you to claim and I'm not quite sure the exact, but somewhere I believe around .71 cents per mile. Note though going this route includes tires, fuel, repairs, etc.
Interviews face to face and telephone. If you have to do the call-in, make sure you are tracking the time frame spent on the call, whom you're speaking to, the company name, etc. If using your cellular phone log the minutes and times talking. Even if they are calling you and you're using your minutes to answer you're using minutes toward job related affairs. Landlines the same way, but you can get this information off your monthly bill such as the number called, the amount in minutes you've spoke, the date, etc. Keep those bills. Face to face if you have to stop and eat, hotel expenses, etc. those items are used solely for job related affairs. However if the company you're interviewing with pays your interview expenses, you can't double claim unless you use your money and you are not reimbursed.
Check with your accountant you may also be able to claim such things like dry cleaning expenses to have suits and dresses cleaned to go to interviews.
Be proactive when it comes to listing items to claim. Look around,ask your tax preparer and you may be surprises what you're allowed to claim toward job relations.
Just a few areas of thought to help you possible get a few bucks back that might help you over the hump. Nothing here implies or suggest that I know anything about the tax codes or laws. Your accountant or tax preparer can assist you in the proper direction you might need to go, but it's worth talking with them.
OK not I've covered some of the IRS possibilities. One area I've focused on is questions and answers. Ever get hit with behavioral interviewing questions. Yes the old days of sitting down and just talking and getting to know someone is all but gone. Now you have to answer questions to be judged against. Here's several.
1- Tell me about yourself... the infamous question. This is not a question to take lightly. They are not saying tell me about your score from your golf game or how involved you are with your daughters dance class or son's baseball training or how much you enjoy fishing. Stick to the question on a professional job related experience. Whom have you worked for, what was your job or how long did you work for them. Include the roles you had and how you save the company $150,000 dollars on a project you were involved in.
2- Tell me a time when you had an unhappy client and what was the problem and what did you do to relinquish the problem.
3- How do you handle anger?
4- Tell me a time where you had a dispute between two workers, how did you handle it?
These are just some questions. If you Google and ask for "interview questions" you can find many questions that are asked typically including the top 100 questions asked during an interview.
My point here is learn the type of questions by researching them and applying your answers to them and know your answers. Preparation is key here. You don't want to be caught with a bunch of "UM's" and "a's". If you're ever asked a question that you don't know the answer clearly state, "I'm sorry, but I have no answer for this question". Don't give a bunch of "UM's". I always had suspected questions and answers available next to my phone when doing a telephone interview
You have to put forth a lot of effort to get a little bit of success out from your job search. From printing business cards, some possible advertising and marketing, learning to sell yourself, sales pitches(elevator pitch), beating the streets, working the job boards, employer sites, mailing off resumes, following up etc.
One think I've learned, don't get lazy with the computer and do everything through it. It's a great source but again part of your arsenal of tools. When you are finished with an interview, do you simply email a thank you response when you get home, or do you still mail a hard copy saying thanks. I do both. An email captures the "in the now" and set's the stage for remembering you. When the hard copy thank you comes it's an added icing on the cake so to speak. Make sure you tell the potential employer how much you enjoyed the interview and reiterate what you have to offer, but never forget to again ASK for the job. You don't have to take it once you've been selected and you've gone through everything they're offering you if it doesn't sit well with you, but always ask for the job. You may never ever get a second chance to say, "I'm interested".
One last thing, you should always be making contacts and NETWORK, NETWORK, NETWORK. Take advantage of job fairs, networking events. Anything that will put you out in the forefront of potential buyers. Buyers being employers who will purchase your product.... YOU!!!
Well, I think I've come to a stopping point in my unemployed experience. If I happen to think of more avenues and areas I have left out and need to add, I'll just add them in a future response as a new segment. I hope many of the things I've brought to light that has helped me, helps you or someone who sometimes needs a different edge on things. I do wish everyone well with hopes of obtaining a job in the near future. If you ever want to bounce something off someone, drop me a line, I'll be happy to tell you what I've done and possibly give you some more ideas! Wishing my readers the best!!!!
Showing posts with label interviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label interviews. Show all posts
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
My Unemployed Experience - Part 1
Many people have wrote publications, books, papers etc. on how to get a job; the things that are right and wrong, how to miss opportunity, what to write on a resume and so on. I am going to attempt to write what I went through, the things I did, my attitude, my experiences, etc. in hopes that instead of this being a "what should you do", to tips that have worked for me and where I've been and where I'm headed in hoping to give someone out there some sort of idea or ideas that might help them. No doubt this will be a longer post than most.
I hope to at least just give some ideas over the norm and just maybe someone will be lucky enough where this may help them succeed through their endeavor.
First off let me begin by saying I fell into the 13 million that have been unemployed that has been thought of as the rubbish that employers will not look at because you carry the title of unemployed. I was not laid off, nor did I get fired. I was not the rubbish of the pile if that is what people are thought of. I resigned my position after 10 years with a national company only to move back to my home state to aid in helping age and ailing parents. Someone has to help, and if that's says I'm one of the types that was gotten rid of then employers are really just labeling people at their own regard without any consideration or compassion to someone who is very loyal to their employer.
If you must call it unemployed I guess it must be said I've been for 19 months. I do not like to think of it as unemployed. I would rather think of it as an interim journey in my career path.
When all this began, I had started my search somewhat early. The things I began doing was becoming a member of several job boards like Monster.com, Career builder.com and had a membership with The Ladders. It was slow going because back around 2007 things were not as bad as they are today. But, I wanted my feelers out there. I had received numerous calls from several recruiters about certain positions in different geographical locations. I was pretty green about everything including telephone interviews. I remember getting a call from Ran-staff, one from a bug place in Houston, and one interview as far as Britain. I was ecstatic. Couldn't believe I was out there. Still being green, I probably messed those up and never heard back from them.
As my search started to make more sense to me, I began trying to keep up with recruiters on The Ladders. Now understand recruiters were not very prevalent when I started looking. I saw them, red the comments about them and how they looked for you and how to leave them comments, but I never ever worked with one. I thought it's the typical gambit but was very dumb to the system. I notice many were saving my profile, why I had no idea, but was intrigued.
From there I began searching many avenues on The Ladder to land my big job. I started adding myself to other job boards. I'll add a list of all the boards I've been on, many I'm still out there.
My key points at this time was ensuring I had a top resume that would grab attention. I worked many hours drawing different ones up and fine tuning them. I even had critiques from some sites and no one is ever the same. What one says is wrong, another said that's not the problem, this is. So I never paid anyone to ever do my resume. I spent many hours using older books I had and researching on the internet all about resumes. Some helped some was a waste of time.
After tuning my resume to what I thought was a winner I started posting it to all these boards. I was always following these boards, always fine tuning something or updating my resume and experiences on these sites.
About the time I came to having to resign, things became much more serious and much more involved. I had already many contacts from AOL, I spoke with from back home and around the country. Everyone was sending me ideas and places I need to get attached to. I followed and attached to local newspapers online. I made every possible attempt to make contact with anyone and everyone.
After moving back to Louisiana I started to make me a game plan. I had resumes printed out, standard cover letters, reference list made, hard copies of all my recommendations made, a brag book assembled of all my successes throughout my career. Everything ready and waiting for that big interview.
I do remember recruiters on LinkedIn as well as many people I spoke with how they suggested not to take temporary or minimum wage jobs. They indicated that temp jobs interfere with your worth and many employers will not look at anyone who is doing temp jobs since they look like job hoppers, can't keep a job, and it dummied you down and who in their right mind would hire someone who is in a starter job or fill-in job for a higher role. As we can see those thoughts have changed throughout the industry and now you're encouraged to have something no matter what it was. I had actually turned down a couple of very low jobs that came with no benefits, no full time opportunities, minimum wage etc. Hey I didn't want to look like an underachieving professional who's luck couldn't land him anything but the bottom of a pit.
LinkedIn became home. Although I stayed active on Career builder and Monster, I continued monitoring and changing constantly many job boards I was on. I was determined to be noticed. I received over time numerous calls and invites to interviews out of town which I went to. I remember the how I was told I'm still in the running, I'm still in the cross hairs but.... Yea buts. How depressing they did become since it appeared you were right on the line of being made an offer and at the end it was nothing more but a "but".
That didn't stop me though. I actually had the attitude of "wait, I can play that game also". So I did. As I continued going to interviews and speaking to people who would call over the telephone, their promises became nothing without a guarantee. I kept them on my cross hairs but unless they came through with more I became less concerned. I did all the traditional things from dressing appropriately as a professional, going to the interviews and acting professional, answering everything they asked, asking for the job, filling out email thank you's to those that I was able to obtain a business card from and sending out handwritten thank you cards once I returned from the interview. Following this got me close but no cigar.
As I continued to post and change things on several job boards to keep me floating to the top, I received many phone calls from our friends in India type recruiters, but after listening to their pitch if it could be understood, I never much fell prey to any of it and canceled such relations before they started.
Although many avenues I utilized from continuing seeking in newspapers, newspapers in areas geographically I wanted to be in and filling out and email and even mailing, yes USPS mail sending to various companies that would ask that it be mailed in. I have spent many long days in my job efforts. Seriously, getting up in the early morning at 5:00 AM and turning in around 10 or 12:00 at night. Giving all I have. You have to become serious about your search. Sure you can follow the adage of don't take life so serious, but when you're forced to find something because you have nothing serious becomes the name of the game.
As I indicated LinkedIn became an avenue I continued to grow and still do today. I have spoken to headhunters and recruiters on their take and suggestions during many discussions. I have alienated many with my way of handling things to making many see my way as not being so daunting just a different avenue I chose to follow. A long time friend as he became on LinkedIn Rick Farquar was a headhunter from the west coast, about 62 years old I believe spent many hours speaking with me over the telephone as well as in discussions talking about different avenues. He always had a favorite saying,"if you can't change something, then change yourself". Meaning if the current plan you have is not working, seek out new avenues. I guess that's where my way of thinking came into being. To heck with tradition let's play.
I went into a deep depression for about 7 months. No I wasn't sick, I was just losing ground thinking nothing will ever come to being. Over those 7 months I continued looking but the want was dieing out. I lost focus.I didn't speak to very many people, whether around me in life or the internet. One day I woke up and realized nothing will happen unless I make it happen. It took some time but I was coming out of my pity mode and started working again. I was pressing forward, returning to links and discussions and I was getting much needed support. I didn't feel I was out there alone.
As I began to continue to grow my contacts, I was back reviewing areas on Career and Monster again sending out my coveted resumes that I spent much time tweaking and fine tuning. I was getting interviews and phone interviews on an average of 1 to 2 a month. I learned what I was sending in needed to be better researched so following advice I started following an 80/20 rule. If I had 80% of what the job description entailed, I sent it in.
I started being more active in LinkedIn's discussion threads and began delving into the question and answer forums. One thing Rick was big on and I caught on to that quickly was, never bad mouth while on a thread. Whether it's your old boss, old company or even other posters. There are many people who sit out of the treads watching and you might be the one they're watching. They may be viewing you to see how you react to certain discussions and what your contribution might be and even as much as the way you type(talk) and your English as well as your punctuation skills. How knowledgeable are you in the discussion. How knowledgeable are you in the question and answer forum. I spend a lot of time researching topics for appropriate answers in the forum where I've achieved around 32% best answers including good answers. Now of course it is all subjective based on what the author of the question thinks is best, but it shows that you are contributing, socializing, being professional and being a part of the system. You fit in with the culture.
The bottom-line to this is make contact with folks, communicate, give answers, talk it up. Let people know you're out there. Keep yourself at the forefront of discussions taking interest in different discussions so people will get to know you. Who knows, it only takes one to recognize you and put you on the road to prosperity.
In our next segment I will discuss and lay out my plan that I have used over time that I continue tweaking and always putting out there. Again you never know who's going to be the right person that seeks you out.
I hope to at least just give some ideas over the norm and just maybe someone will be lucky enough where this may help them succeed through their endeavor.
First off let me begin by saying I fell into the 13 million that have been unemployed that has been thought of as the rubbish that employers will not look at because you carry the title of unemployed. I was not laid off, nor did I get fired. I was not the rubbish of the pile if that is what people are thought of. I resigned my position after 10 years with a national company only to move back to my home state to aid in helping age and ailing parents. Someone has to help, and if that's says I'm one of the types that was gotten rid of then employers are really just labeling people at their own regard without any consideration or compassion to someone who is very loyal to their employer.
If you must call it unemployed I guess it must be said I've been for 19 months. I do not like to think of it as unemployed. I would rather think of it as an interim journey in my career path.
When all this began, I had started my search somewhat early. The things I began doing was becoming a member of several job boards like Monster.com, Career builder.com and had a membership with The Ladders. It was slow going because back around 2007 things were not as bad as they are today. But, I wanted my feelers out there. I had received numerous calls from several recruiters about certain positions in different geographical locations. I was pretty green about everything including telephone interviews. I remember getting a call from Ran-staff, one from a bug place in Houston, and one interview as far as Britain. I was ecstatic. Couldn't believe I was out there. Still being green, I probably messed those up and never heard back from them.
As my search started to make more sense to me, I began trying to keep up with recruiters on The Ladders. Now understand recruiters were not very prevalent when I started looking. I saw them, red the comments about them and how they looked for you and how to leave them comments, but I never ever worked with one. I thought it's the typical gambit but was very dumb to the system. I notice many were saving my profile, why I had no idea, but was intrigued.
From there I began searching many avenues on The Ladder to land my big job. I started adding myself to other job boards. I'll add a list of all the boards I've been on, many I'm still out there.
My key points at this time was ensuring I had a top resume that would grab attention. I worked many hours drawing different ones up and fine tuning them. I even had critiques from some sites and no one is ever the same. What one says is wrong, another said that's not the problem, this is. So I never paid anyone to ever do my resume. I spent many hours using older books I had and researching on the internet all about resumes. Some helped some was a waste of time.
After tuning my resume to what I thought was a winner I started posting it to all these boards. I was always following these boards, always fine tuning something or updating my resume and experiences on these sites.
About the time I came to having to resign, things became much more serious and much more involved. I had already many contacts from AOL, I spoke with from back home and around the country. Everyone was sending me ideas and places I need to get attached to. I followed and attached to local newspapers online. I made every possible attempt to make contact with anyone and everyone.
After moving back to Louisiana I started to make me a game plan. I had resumes printed out, standard cover letters, reference list made, hard copies of all my recommendations made, a brag book assembled of all my successes throughout my career. Everything ready and waiting for that big interview.
I do remember recruiters on LinkedIn as well as many people I spoke with how they suggested not to take temporary or minimum wage jobs. They indicated that temp jobs interfere with your worth and many employers will not look at anyone who is doing temp jobs since they look like job hoppers, can't keep a job, and it dummied you down and who in their right mind would hire someone who is in a starter job or fill-in job for a higher role. As we can see those thoughts have changed throughout the industry and now you're encouraged to have something no matter what it was. I had actually turned down a couple of very low jobs that came with no benefits, no full time opportunities, minimum wage etc. Hey I didn't want to look like an underachieving professional who's luck couldn't land him anything but the bottom of a pit.
LinkedIn became home. Although I stayed active on Career builder and Monster, I continued monitoring and changing constantly many job boards I was on. I was determined to be noticed. I received over time numerous calls and invites to interviews out of town which I went to. I remember the how I was told I'm still in the running, I'm still in the cross hairs but.... Yea buts. How depressing they did become since it appeared you were right on the line of being made an offer and at the end it was nothing more but a "but".
That didn't stop me though. I actually had the attitude of "wait, I can play that game also". So I did. As I continued going to interviews and speaking to people who would call over the telephone, their promises became nothing without a guarantee. I kept them on my cross hairs but unless they came through with more I became less concerned. I did all the traditional things from dressing appropriately as a professional, going to the interviews and acting professional, answering everything they asked, asking for the job, filling out email thank you's to those that I was able to obtain a business card from and sending out handwritten thank you cards once I returned from the interview. Following this got me close but no cigar.
As I continued to post and change things on several job boards to keep me floating to the top, I received many phone calls from our friends in India type recruiters, but after listening to their pitch if it could be understood, I never much fell prey to any of it and canceled such relations before they started.
Although many avenues I utilized from continuing seeking in newspapers, newspapers in areas geographically I wanted to be in and filling out and email and even mailing, yes USPS mail sending to various companies that would ask that it be mailed in. I have spent many long days in my job efforts. Seriously, getting up in the early morning at 5:00 AM and turning in around 10 or 12:00 at night. Giving all I have. You have to become serious about your search. Sure you can follow the adage of don't take life so serious, but when you're forced to find something because you have nothing serious becomes the name of the game.
As I indicated LinkedIn became an avenue I continued to grow and still do today. I have spoken to headhunters and recruiters on their take and suggestions during many discussions. I have alienated many with my way of handling things to making many see my way as not being so daunting just a different avenue I chose to follow. A long time friend as he became on LinkedIn Rick Farquar was a headhunter from the west coast, about 62 years old I believe spent many hours speaking with me over the telephone as well as in discussions talking about different avenues. He always had a favorite saying,"if you can't change something, then change yourself". Meaning if the current plan you have is not working, seek out new avenues. I guess that's where my way of thinking came into being. To heck with tradition let's play.
I went into a deep depression for about 7 months. No I wasn't sick, I was just losing ground thinking nothing will ever come to being. Over those 7 months I continued looking but the want was dieing out. I lost focus.I didn't speak to very many people, whether around me in life or the internet. One day I woke up and realized nothing will happen unless I make it happen. It took some time but I was coming out of my pity mode and started working again. I was pressing forward, returning to links and discussions and I was getting much needed support. I didn't feel I was out there alone.
As I began to continue to grow my contacts, I was back reviewing areas on Career and Monster again sending out my coveted resumes that I spent much time tweaking and fine tuning. I was getting interviews and phone interviews on an average of 1 to 2 a month. I learned what I was sending in needed to be better researched so following advice I started following an 80/20 rule. If I had 80% of what the job description entailed, I sent it in.
I started being more active in LinkedIn's discussion threads and began delving into the question and answer forums. One thing Rick was big on and I caught on to that quickly was, never bad mouth while on a thread. Whether it's your old boss, old company or even other posters. There are many people who sit out of the treads watching and you might be the one they're watching. They may be viewing you to see how you react to certain discussions and what your contribution might be and even as much as the way you type(talk) and your English as well as your punctuation skills. How knowledgeable are you in the discussion. How knowledgeable are you in the question and answer forum. I spend a lot of time researching topics for appropriate answers in the forum where I've achieved around 32% best answers including good answers. Now of course it is all subjective based on what the author of the question thinks is best, but it shows that you are contributing, socializing, being professional and being a part of the system. You fit in with the culture.
The bottom-line to this is make contact with folks, communicate, give answers, talk it up. Let people know you're out there. Keep yourself at the forefront of discussions taking interest in different discussions so people will get to know you. Who knows, it only takes one to recognize you and put you on the road to prosperity.
In our next segment I will discuss and lay out my plan that I have used over time that I continue tweaking and always putting out there. Again you never know who's going to be the right person that seeks you out.
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