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March 25, 2018 By Lynda Foster

Job or Client references – Make Sure They Help You Get the Gig

Did your references ruin your job offer?
By:  Courtland James, Executive Coach

During the job hunt you probably spent considerable time polishing your resume and rehearsing your interview skills, but you may have neglected to adequately develop a list of references for potential employers or clients to contact.  Sure, you have the phone number and email address of a couple of past supervisors that you can give out, so you’re all set, right?  I mean, do hiring managers even check references anymore?

Courtland James, Cortex LeadershipTurns out they do.  In a 2016 study conducted by the Society for Human Resources (SHRM), they found that references were in the top 3 selection criteria used to assess potential candidates for most positions.  This isn’t surprising, considering hiring is one of the most important functions a company performs, and if done poorly can lead to some major financial consequences for the company.  Hiring managers, therefore, want every available piece of data to ensure they are making the best decision with a candidate, and recommendations from past professional colleagues and supervisors carry a lot of weight.

The same rules will apply when you want a potential client or customer wants to check your references for reassurance that they are making the best choice.  Just like a good recommendation from a reference can secure a job offer or land you that perfect client, so too can a poor or generic recommendation cost you the offer.  Below are five tips to help you curate a reference list that will help you shine in your job search.

Note that many times clients will need references to do business with you or with your firm.  You can apply these tips to that situation as well.

  1. Develop a list of 5-7 references minimum. If you are just graduating from school and looking for your first job then it can be understandable if you can only come up with 3 references.  After a few years in the workforce, however, you need to maintain a list of 5-7 strong references who can speak to your strengths and past accomplishments.  You don’t need to provide every reference to every employer, but having a longer list can help you pick references that highlight specific attributes that may be attractive to a particular company and avoid using the same reference over and over if the job search takes longer than expected.  Remember they aren’t spending their days waiting for hiring managers to call them on your behalf so don’t overburden a reference with too many requests.
  2. Maintain your reference list separate from your resume. Your resume is probably already too long and the one-page rule definitely applies since hiring managers are looking at sometimes hundreds of resumes at one time.  The good news is you shouldn’t be putting your recommendations on their anyway.  Potential employers aren’t likely to call references until after an initial interview, which is usually where they will ask for references.  This is the perfect opportunity to provide them with a well-formatted reference list that includes each reference’s full name, company and position, professional email and phone number.  It will help you further stand out if you briefly note what skill or accomplishment that reference can speak to from your resume.
  3. Choose your references wisely. References should always be someone you have had a professional relationship or interaction within the past.  It’s best not to include family or friends unless they can specifically speak firsthand to your professional achievements.  Past supervisors, project team peers, former or current clients, school faculty, or volunteer work associates.  The important trait of a good reference is that they have firsthand knowledge of your performance and accomplishments and are willing to speak to this in a positive and honest light to potential employers.  This goes without saying, but don’t list a reference who was in a subordinate role or a direct report to you.
  4. Maintain a relationship with your references and communicate with them before you give out their information. If you list a reference from 10 years ago, it’s reasonable to assume they may have forgotten some of the details about you and your accomplishments from that time.  Keep an active list of good references and make it a point to maintain contact with them as you progress in your career.  It’s not only a good way to ensure they will be a good reference, but you never know when they may introduce you to your next opportunity.  Also, give your references a heads up before recruiters and hiring managers reach out to them.  It looks just as bad to an employer when a reference you gave them ignores and won’t return their calls as it does if the reference gave you a poor recommendation.
  5. Do a background check on your references. Hiring managers and recruiters these days love to use LinkedIn and Facebook to conduct their own background checks of their candidates.  You better believe they are checking out your references online presence as well, so you should too.  Make sure your reference’s social profiles are credible and present your reference as someone the potential employer can trust.  Also, asking for a recommendation on LinkedIn from your reference can give you a good preview of their communication skills and their ability to speak about specific, positive accomplishments that paint you in an attractive light.

For a list of common questions hiring managers and recruiters ask job references check out this article.  You can use these to do a mini-interview of your references and also during employee reviews to get some candid feedback on your performance even if you aren’t actively job hunting.

Bonus Tip:  If you suspect you may have gotten a bad review from a reference there are resources to help you screen your references.  Consulting firms like Allison & Taylor conduct reference screening services to help you determine if your references are giving bad reviews and preventing you from getting that job offer.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Cortex Leadership, courtland james, job, Leadership Coaching, Leadership Training, references, roanoke va

June 12, 2016 By Lynda Foster

Getting the job you really want

Getting the job you really want©

 

By:  Lynda McNutt Foster

Here are some scenarios that we commonly hear from our clients:

My daughter just graduated from college.  What’s the best path for her to take to get a good job?

My son has been living with us for about a year now and can’t seem to get a job.  Would you mind taking a look at his resume to let him how he can improve it?

My son has a job, but it’s not what he went to college for.  He’s had some interviews but doesn’t seem to be able to be offered any the jobs he would really want.

I have a job opening and can’t find anyone qualified to fill it.  I received more than 50 applications and none of them have the skills necessary to do the job.

The growth of our company is going to be limited this year because we can’t find workers with the skills we need to fill the positions we have.  The types of jobs we have just aren’t appealing to young people anymore.  The jobs pay well.  We have many workers in the positions we want to fill that make 50, 60, even 80 thousand dollars a year, but young people just don’t want to do the type of physical labor our jobs require.

Yes, there’s a gap in the marketplace between the jobs that are available and the skills that the job seekers have.  Sometimes, though, there is also a willing job seeker and an employer that needs that person and neither know a path to get to one another.  That is a common scenario as well that our clients are currently dealing with.  For this article, I thought we could start with the job seeker side of the equation.

 

Here are some tips that might be helpful that you can pass along to anyone desiring to secure some job offers in the coming months.  The better prepared, competent and confident job seekers are the more our clients will be able to employ them.

Focus on the facts:  In April 2016, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that there were 5,788,000 job openings.  The industries with the most job openings are high-skill sectors like information and finance.  Millennials are currently 32% of the workforce and in 15 years it is estimated that number will hit 75%.  Employers are poised to hire more new college graduates this year than last year.  In our region of Southwest Virginia recruiters like Coy Renick are reporting they about 75 more jobs than they have people that can fill them.  This is all positive and encouraging news for job seekers.

Where to look:  The fields that are estimated to grow the most are Advertising Account Executive, Civil Engineer, Computer Systems Analyst, Data Scientist, Financial Planner, Market Research Analyst, Physical Therapist, Social Media Manager, Software Engineer, and Statistician.  If you didn’t graduate with a degree in one of these fields you can still enter into them by taking jobs that support those types of jobs and learning what you need to on the job.  In today’s job marketplace, it’s about constantly upgrading your skills and abilities to match what companies need to grow and expand their businesses.  Be flexible.  Be creative in the way you present your talents and abilities to employers.  If you speak multiple languages that can easily convert to proving that you understand different cultures and can quickly adapt to new environments and learn the language of any corporate culture.  Say you graduated with a degree in public relations.  That training can easily convert to knowing how to attract new customers, ask great questions, build strong relationships, and manage social media.

It’s not just about what you went to school for.  It’s about how to sell yourself to employers in a way that fits what they need.

Own and know the process:  Parents or spouses can’t want you to find a job more than you want to.  Finding a job takes work.  Hard work.  Networking with people you don’t know already, searching social media sites for hints that a company is hiring, submitting resumes and applications, staying positive through rejection, gaining and practicing great interviewing skills, following up with potential employers, or building a new network that will net a potential freelance position.  According to research, 53 million Americans are freelancers and that number is only set to rise.  It’s possible that what you are looking for as far as work-life balance is something you will have to work hard to obtain and not something a job you are qualified to get is able to give to you right now.

It could take some time to find that perfect job.  Depending on factors like depth of experience and perceived salary requirements, your network (or lack thereof), geographical demand for your skills, time of year and yes, even age discrimination (on both sides of that graph) can play heavily into the time curve in starting to apply for and landing a job.  One firm estimates it could take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years.  It takes many companies to decide to hire someone, post the job, interview candidates, make an offer and then make the hire.

Due to our rapid growth, our firm, Cortex Leadership Consulting, is currently in the market for a new executive coach and know that although we have started our search now, the new hire will probably start with us in August or even September at the earliest.

When searching for a new job, it’s important to be connecting with companies that are currently hiring, but even more importantly so you can be ahead of a hiring curve for an organization, to be networking with companies that may experience growth in the next couple of years.  Connecting with executives with that company will allow you to be first in line when they do start hiring.

Tighten up your resume:  One of my favorite quotes is from Mark Twain who said, “If I had more time I would have written a shorter letter.”  It takes more time and effort to condense your thoughts than it does to pack a document full of unnecessary or irrelevant information to the reader.

Here are the best tips I could find on creating a winning resume. In that article, you will find things like enhance your contact information, make the page “pop”, ditch the objective statement and lead with a summary, guide the reader’s eye, use the right keywords, and weave your talents into your work experience.

Build and practice your interview skills: If you are wanting a company to hire you then you are going to need to be good at matching your value with their needs.  Learning how to position your talents effectively with the position and company or organization you want to work for is a skill you need to learn, develop and build if you want to get more job offers.  Many people tell me things like, “I am not good at selling myself.”  The keyword you want to double click on if you are one of those people is “selling”.  Few people like to “sell” anything much less themselves.  When you describe the process that way it’s not too hard find the cause of why people don’t build this needed skill.

Getting really good at matching your value with what people need will serve you in many situations.  Yes, people good at selling tend to be good at this skill.  Any effective executive is also good at this skill as well.  Many times, in your career, you will need to help bring others to understand and agree with the vision or idea you have.

The first step in getting good at this is accepting that you will need to in order to be successful throughout your career.  This skill of being able to “sell” yourself is highly important when you are up for a promotion at your current position as well.  The second step is reading some articles that can help you build the skill and eventually master it.  Start with some of these articles or books.  How to Sell Yourself,   How to Sell Yourself in a Job Interview, Sell Yourself: 14 Steps to Creating a Powerful Personal Brand.

You’re going to need to practice.  There’s no way around it.  You want to be poised and confident in a job interview.  To be confident, you will need to have practiced what you will say when answering questions that are common in today’s job interview process.

Here are some good job interview questions we recommend our clients ask to potential hires along with links to other resources regarding this topic.

Following up after the interview:  Employers want to know you want the job.  They want to hire people who want to work for them.  If they’ve asked you for something follow up as soon as is humanly possible to do so.  Don’t make them wait or wonder if you are going to supply what they need to potentially hire you.

Checking in with someone you interviewed with can let the person know you would like to work for them and are still interested.  Sending uncreative “check in” notes, more than every few weeks or so is not recommended.  If the interviewer does not mention when they will get back with you, during the interview, that is something you want to ask at the end of the interview so you know how long the hiring process might take with them.

Always send a “thank you” note, preferably the old fashioned kind through snail mail, quickly after the interview.

Here’s a quick checklist that Coy created for us that you can use during the job seeking process.

Last week, Ken Cronin and I were on WFXR’s Good Day Virginia discussing how to conduct an all-star interview.  It was a follow-up to Becky Freemal’s story last Sunday night, June 5, 2016.

THIS WEEK’S FEATURED EXPERT:  Our featured guest on Good Day Virginia will be Coy Renick tomorrow morning, June 13, 2016 at 7:40am on WFXR Fox 21/27.  Coy sold his recruiting and employment firm recently to Arevo Group where he now works as the Director of Business Development.  The topic we’ll be discussing is how to best prepare for a job interview.  To contact Coy’s company here is the contact information:

Workforce Unlimited Contact Information:

Samantha Linkous, Branch Manager
Workforce Unlimited
89 Summers Way, Suite 101
Roanoke, Virginia 24019
W:(540)591-3648
C:(540)765-9855
Website: http://wfunlimited.com/

OR

Coy Renick, Director of Business Development
Arevo Group
89 Summers Way Suite 101 Roanoke, VA 24019
Tel (540) 591-3678 Mobile (540) 556-4480
www.arevogroup.com

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Interview, interview skills, job, job seeking

June 12, 2016 By Lynda Foster

Seeking E-Learning Associate

cortex iconCortex Leadership Consulting is growing and currently looking to expand and diversify our team.  Due to our rapid growth, we are seeking an ambitious professional who has a background in digital platforms, e-learning, facilitation, leadership training, executive coaching, OR human resources who desires to grow into a position as an E-Learning Associate with our firm.  The candidate will enjoy working in a fast-paced environment.  The candidate should be detail oriented, a self-starter, and be able to work with minimal supervision.

Cortex offers the most contemporary and effective leadership training and coaching available which means that the new member will need to be willing to learn the proven techniques and methods we have developed to get the results were are tracking with the leaders and organizations we work with.  Operating in the beautiful, contemporary, environment of the Grandin CoLab, the candidate will enjoy a flexible schedule.

Qualified candidates will be proficient in Excel, Word, Google docs and PowerPoint and want to work their way up in the organization.  They will see technology as a tool for helping to create efficient work processes.  Candidate will be an effective communicator, strategic thinker, that enjoys managing multiple priorities and likes working in a fast-paced, energetic work environment that is constantly changing.

Salary, benefits, and terms of employment are negotiable.  The key factor will be whether the future team member has the desire and will make the necessary contributions to be a part of a profitable, fast growing, fun, and client centric organization.

Read what our team members are saying on Glassdoor about working at Cortex Leadership.

Contact Courtland James at [email protected] or call (434) 987-3898 for more information or to apply.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Cortex Leadership, executive coach, job, now hiring

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