Guest post by Ashley Lipman Career change is rarely simple. While the fantasy of what a new career entails can make the change seem awfully easy, the reality is often different, and how different fantasy and reality are depends on the person making the change and on the career option that person has chosen. One option that has become surprisingly attractive in recent years is the chance to live life as a chef. What’s behind that choice? For one thing, quite a few of us can cook, at least as amateurs, and perhaps we’ve gotten a fair number of compliments on our efforts. Why not take that talent public? For another, we live in the age of the celebrity chef, and it’s hard to escape the picture of the chef as culinary artist, well paid and well respected, presiding majestically over the world of the commercial kitchen as a start, but also over the world of well-heeled diners hanging on chef’s every morsel, every recipe and every word. Those two factors combine glamour and familiarity, an enticing combination, but whatever the reason behind the chefly ambition, anyone thinking of donning the toque blanche (the chef’s traditional white hat) should consider how the fantasy of life as a renowned culinary artist compares to the real life of a working chef. And choosing to become a chef is not terribly different from making any career move. A big change always involves a step into the unknown. It’s a step that takes preparation, so it’s worth asking: What exactly are we looking at when the dream of ruling the kitchen becomes reality? What’s really involved in life as a chef? What qualities does it call on? As it turns out, the career of chef involves a combination of art and science. It’s intellectually, physically and even emotionally demanding, and it’s not the easiest road to fame and fortune. Here are five must-have skills for a successful chef. Leadership and Management You may well start at the bottom – even the most famous chefs have been there – but, as you rise through the ranks you’ll be in charge of a lot of people in a fast-paced environment. To thrive in your role, you must be able to oversee staff so that everything stays on schedule and expectations are managed. And you need to do more than manage; you need to lead. Those are two different skill sets that you’ll need to synthesize to foster productivity and communication in the kitchen. Innovation When you’re a cook in a low to a mid-range restaurant, you have the luxury of following other people’s recipes. When you’re a high-end chef, you’re expected to be able to think outside the box and present new and exciting dishes to your audience. To do this, you must be innovative and able to bring creativity to bear when planning, preparing and plating dishes. At the lower end of the industry, the work of a chef may be routine, but at the higher end a chef’s creativity must be fueled by something more than technical skill. It takes an abiding passion for the culinary arts. Dedication and Drive To be a professional chef, you need to have dedication, drive, and more than a little grit. Your days will be long and exhausting, spent on your feet handling sharp knives and hot plates. You’ll manage an array of different personalities coming to you for advice or criticism, an array that includes difficult employees, disgruntled customers and suppliers who try your patience. You need to be willing to practice in your downtime, perfecting your offerings and testing new ideas. You need to have the determination to continue down this path for years in order to become successful, working under other chefs and perfecting your craft. Business Savvy While your level of autonomy will vary depending on whether you open your own restaurant or work for someone else, you will always need to understand the ins and outs of the restaurant business to make it to the top. Regardless of milieu, from the lowliest dive to the poshest of high-end spaces, and including every kind of institutional food service under the sun, you need to understand the budget you’re working with when creating dishes and the economics of supply and demand. You have to know how to manage your menu to maximize revenue during busy times and seasons, and how to assess processes and recipes to take a cost-effective approach to cooking without sacrificing quality. No commercial kitchen can ignore the fact that it must function as a business before it can be a temple of gastronomy – and the restaurant business in particular is a notoriously tough road to travel profitably. Stress Management With a demanding schedule and long shifts with little downtime, a chef is always at risk for burnout. In the long run, you must be able to manage your stress in a practical way so that your performance doesn’t suffer. That means rest and recuperation during your downtime and cultivating strong coping skills during a shift. This is a career that takes its toll on mind and body, and it’s important to create self-care routines for yourself both at work and at home, and to be as disciplined in caring for your needs outside of work as you are when you’re behind the stove. The life of a chef is a marathon that can make short work of those who only know how to sprint. Building a Career There are myriad skills that help a chef advance. Time management, multitasking, organizational skills, decision-making abilities and meticulousness all come into play and, as is so often the case, what seems at first like a highly specialized career calls upon a wide array of talents and competencies. In the end, a career change that leads to life as a chef is not that different from any big career move. In every case, what really matters is that you get past the fantasy and come to grips with the reality of what’s in store. Far from being a discouraging perspective, it’s the perspective most likely to yield a successful and satisfying life in any new identity. You won’t know if you can stand the heat until you’re actually in the kitchen, but going in with eyes wide open is the one sign that you’re in a good place to start. Ready to get strategic about your career? Let’s talk.

A job search is an exercise in analysis. You must analyze yourself and also the employer you hope will hire you. Ask not what the employer can do for you; ask what you can do for the employer. Keep that thought in mind throughout your job search, especially during interviews. The better you know yourself, the easier it will be to figure out what’s right for you. A useful piece of advice comes from a man who managed to make a successful career in theater and never had to resort to waiting tables: This above all, to thine own self be true, Shakespeare told his many readers. This advice is great, except he left out one step. The first order of business is to find out what your “own self” is. How can you be true to something if you don’t quite know what that something is? To find the answer, you have to ask some questions. What are you really like? What do you hate? What do you really like? Where have you been happy? Where have you been miserable, bored, or stressed? Where have you dreaded going into work or couldn’t wait to leave? Give some thought to those questions. You might start with a bit of personal history, a look at the places you’ve been and what they’ve meant to you. This is not just about past jobs. If you’re still in school, consider classes you’ve taken and projects you’ve done. We want to figure out the characteristics that have made one situation good and another bad. We want to understand what the good ones had in common and what made the bad ones bad. Then you need to get into the heads of the employers and interviewers. One shortcut to the interviewers’ psyche is to put yourself in their shoes. Picture this: You’re running a business that has one employee, one product, and only one goal. In this exercise, you’re the employee. You’re also the product, and the sole goal of the business is to mount a job search that ends in an offer. So far, then, we’re talking about a situation that’s not hypothetical in the least, but we’ll add one further circumstance. After some efforts at searching on your own, you’ve decided to get some help. You’re going to hire someone to take charge of this operation. You’ve advertised, describing the job and asking for resumes. You’ve narrowed the field to three, and you’re going to meet with each one before making a decision. Obviously, you want to hire the person most likely to give you the most help. They all look good on paper. How will you decide? Here are a few things you, the interviewer, may want to know: Where, if at all, do paper and reality diverge? This person looks very successful on paper, but he’s probably making himself look as good as possible and leaving out his less successful moments. How does he cope when things aren’t going well? Regardless of the success this person has had on behalf of others, how do I know he’ll do the job for me? My one-man company is a special company. It’s not like the others. It has its own culture. Will this candidate’s success translate to this unique environment? What if the search drags on? Will he be there for the long haul, or will he ditch me in a heartbeat if a better offer comes along? Does this person seem to have the knowledge I need? Does he know what makes a good resume? Is he well-versed in the different styles of interviews? Does he understand what aspects of my background I should emphasize in the search? Does he seem to get the idea that the point of all this is to get me hired? Is he looking hard at helping me reach my goals? Has he come prepared with workable strategies? What would it be like working with him on a project of such great personal importance? We bring our own inner natures to the search, and some of us are more naturally resilient or optimistic than others. The job search is grueling for almost everyone, but the fault lies in the process and has nothing to do with you personally. Ready to get strategic about your career? Let’s talk.

Whether you’re looking for your first job or trying to find a new job, the process might be as consuming as a full-time job. In fact, if you’re currently unemployed, you could find yourself spending as much as 30 or more hours a week on job search-related activities. If you’re already working, you might only have 5 to 10 hours to spare. No matter how much time you have to devote to the process, you can streamline and simplify by using good time management skills. As an added bonus, your newly acquired time management skills can translate over into better workplace skills once you do get your dream job. In honor of William Penn, who said, “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst,” here are: Five Time Management Skills You Need to Get More Out of Your Job Search 1. Identify your goals. You’re searching for a job, which will help you reach your goals, but how clear are those goals in the first place? Identifying your goals will help you know exactly where you stand and give you specific objectives to reach. Clearly setting goals will also help you focus on the specific results you want, which can help you find the kind of company you want to work with, how you’ll fit in with or enhance the company, and narrow down potential job offers. Once your goals are clear, it’s time to prioritize. List the tasks that need to be completed first, and then add in those that aren’t so time-sensitive. A daily to-do list can help you stay focused and on-task and avoid unnecessary time wasters. Mark off each task as you complete it so that you have visible evidence of your progress and stay motivated by all your successes. 2. Keep a schedule, and be strategic. Settling into ruts is easy, and it can be counterproductive to a job search. When you get into a comfortable groove, you might find yourself wasting time on habits rather than productive activities. Creating a schedule based on your goals and to-do list will help you avoid those wasteful time-sucks. For example, you don’t need to send out dozens of applications: That’s wasteful and inefficient. Instead, focus your efforts where they’ll be most effective. Research indicates that job searches are most fruitful when you network, so make networking a priority followed closely by researching prospects, talking to recruiters and checking out career fairs. Be mindful when sending out resumes and applications to ensure they’re targeted only to your most desirable prospects. Scheduling combined with careful strategizing will help you move forward in your search. Don’t make excuses: Stick with your schedule, and hold yourself accountable. 3. Ditch the distractions. Distractions can be a huge time waster, especially if you tend to get distracted easily. You might not be able to get rid of all distractions either at home or work, but you can create a workspace that’s more conducive to productivity. Set deadlines to keep yourself on task, and keep an eye on how long it takes to complete various tasks so that you can spot potential time-wasters long before they swallow your day. Keep clutter to a minimum, and organize your space so that everything you need is within easy reach. Use email, chats or video conferencing to stay in touch with potential employers, and track deadlines and more with sticky notes in easy-to-see locations. Set your phone to “do not disturb,” if necessary, and set a specific time to check emails so that you’re not getting bogged down in unimportant details. If you’re really finding your attention lagging, download a program or plug-in that helps you avoid certain sites, like news sites or social networking, during your job search times. 4. Stay focused, and be precise. Throwing everything at the wall and hoping something sticks might work in a small percentage of cases, but only rarely will you find the best job for you that way. Worse, it takes a lot of time to do all that legwork only to end up with poor or no prospects. You’ve got your goals written down, so it might be a good time to revisit them and narrow your focus so that you can get more out of your search. Instead of applying for all 200 open jobs in your field, take the time to really identify the jobs that are the best match for you. What types of projects do you enjoy? What type of people do you like working with? What’s your preferred working environment? What jobs have you enjoyed in the past, and what jobs have you hated? Keep your job search narrowly focused to help you find only the most appropriate potential employers and to avoid wasting your time and theirs. Using your schedule and your goals, you can pace yourself more effectively, focusing only on those searches that are most likely to yield the results you want. 5. Don’t forget the downtime. It’s easy to approach your job search as a full-time job especially if you’re currently unemployed. However, spending all your time looking for a new job is a good way to end up burned out, and when you’re burned out, you’ll spend a lot more time spinning your wheels with your mind wandering. You need to schedule periodic downtime. Stepping away from your job search will make it easier to come back to it refreshed, renewed and ready to hit the pavement once again. Searching for a job can be stressful, but incorporating these time-management tips into your routine can help you get more out of each day. You’ll have clear goals that will help you stay focused, a positive and work-friendly routine, and an energized attitude that can help you network and tackle new leads more effectively. Ready to get strategic about your career? Let’s talk.

Updating and improving your LinkedIn profile should be at the top of your career improvement resolution list. So should learning to use LinkedIns useful features. Let me explain. Do you want recruiters to find you? They will find you if you have a stand-out LinkedIn profile. Recruiters are spending millions of dollars on LinkedIn. What about impressing a hiring manager to a great job? It’s standard process for hiring managers to look at your LinkedIn profile once they see your resume. Sometimes they will see your LinkedIn profile first. Need more reasons to optimize your LinkedIn profile? How about identifying and getting a meeting with a red-hot job lead? As the largest professional network LinkedIn is a natural place to look for industry connections. Before you start that search, take some time to make the most of your LinkedIn profile. When you contact someone through the site, your profile is the first place they’ll look. LinkedIn does not treat all your contacts the same. You can easily message people with whom you are directly connected, called 1st-degree connections in the LinkedIn taxonomy. People who are connected to those connections are your 2nd-degree connections, and you can invite them to connect. Your 3rd-degree connections are connected to that 2nd-degree group, and the availability of opportunities for you to invite them to connect varies. The bottom line is that not everyone is instantly available for you to contact, but there are two options that can help. First, LinkedIn provides a system of groups that its members can join, including industry-specific, corporate, alumni, and trade groups. Members of any group you join automatically become part of your LinkedIn network. This can be a key first step in landing some of your most important informational interviews. So, this is the time to make sure that your LinkedIn profile is targeting the next step in your career. More on this next time! Ready to get strategic about your career? Let’s talk.

Your LinkedIn profile is an essential job search tool to attract companies. You want your resume and your LinkedIn profile to tell a consistent story. However, while you can modify your resume for each job that you apply to, your LinkedIn profile remains constant. That’s why it is so important that your profile is focused on your future career aspirations. To accomplish this goal, you want to understand as much as possible about what employers are looking for in the general types of position that you are looking for. You also want to leverage some basic SEO knowledge. Use Appropriate Keywords The best way to be found by employers is to use keywords that they are most likely to search for. If your profile doesn't come up in search results, you may be losing out on job opportunities. These keywords should be scattered throughout your profile to tell the LinkedIn search engine that they are among the most relevant. Most of your keyword choices will be based on nothing more than common sense and your knowledge of a given industry. But study job descriptions carefully just the same to see the skills and responsibilities that are relevant in the jobs you are seeking. List Skills that are Relevant to a Future Employer Instead of simply listing the skills that you use in your current job, it’s advantageous to include skills that are most relevant to your job search. For instance, if you are looking to become a software developer, you should point out that you have experience with Agile development or understand the concept behind it. If you have this knowledge, you want to mention it, even if you haven’t used it in your previous job. Of course, you won't want to list any skills that are obsolete or that an employer in your chosen field wouldn't find to be valuable. Overcome Job Title Confusion Some job titles are company specific and won’t be understood by the hiring managers or recruiters you want to reach. Titles like Customer Evangelist or Viceroy of Research may be fun. But they are not brilliant SEO titles. As long as you are not exaggerating your actual position, select a job title that accurately reflects the job you have. When in doubt, you can place both your literal title and the title you want to communicate in parentheses. I don’t care if your company considers you an “HR Ninja,” if you are performing the job of HR Manager, you should put that in your LinkedIn profile. When you talk about your previous experience, emphasize why that role makes you a good candidate for a targeted job opening. For instance, if you were the sales manager at a firm, focus more on what you did to increase sales in the way that job descriptions are seeking. Spending time to refine and craft a targeted LinkedIn profile improves your odds of connecting with the right employers. Optimizing your LinkedIn profile may result in helping recruiters and hiring managers reach out to you more often. Ready to get strategic about your career? Let’s talk.

When you have to include a salary One of the more delicate questions for job applicants, and the one that attracts conflicted opinions from the experts, is the one posed by job postings that require applicants to specify their desired salaries. When that happens, the applicant’s dilemma is all too clear. Of the three choices available, not one is obviously correct: Aim too low and you’re liable to leave money on the table. Alternatively, employers might conclude that your low expectations mean you’re not at the level of the job in question. Ask for too much, on the other hand, and you’ll price yourself out of the job entirely. Refuse to answer and it will be held against you. If the posting made salary expectations an explicit requirement, you’ve proven yourself incapable of following instructions. That’s reason enough to toss your application without a second thought, especially for hiring managers who are looking for ways to cut the applicant pool to a manageable size. Don’t make that job easier for them. There’s no ideal solution, no approach that’s right for everyone in every job, so the decision comes down to an assessment of your individual situation and this particular job opening. If there’s anything that applies across the board, however, it’s that it’s never wise to ignore the employer’s request entirely. At the very least, the decision to withhold the information should be made in the full knowledge that it may disqualify your application. If you balk at including dollars and cents, consider a line that shows you read the instructions. “My salary range is flexible, depending on total compensation and specific job responsibilities.” That won’t solve the problem, but it’s better than nothing. If you’re willing to delve into the world of numbers, use a range instead of a specific salary. At the low end of the range, use the salary that you’d reasonably need to take the job should an offer be made. At the other end, use the salary that’s the maximum typically paid for the position. Here, some research is in order. You can find salary information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, from job postings and from sites like Glassdoor and Salary.com. You can get more personal information from people you know in the industry. They may not be willing to divulge their own salaries, but they’ll probably be willing to talk salary in a general way. Remember that geography can play a surprisingly large role in rates of pay, and that salaries for the same job may be very different in California than in Nebraska. For example, your salary is now $150,000. You’re not about to take a cut in pay, and you’re applying to a larger organization for a job with slightly more responsibility. A 30 percent increase would be reasonable, and it’s consistent with what you’ve learned about the market. All you need to do is include a simple statement, perhaps with an indication of your willingness to adapt to circumstances: “My salary range is from $150,000 to $195,000, depending on the particular scope and responsibilities of the position.” You don’t have to make your flexibility explicit, just as you don’t need to mention that references are available upon request. Everyone knows that you’ll deliver those references when called upon, and everyone understands that there may be further talk about pay. You’ve made your willingness to have that talk quite clear. It should go without saying that there’s no need to broach the salary question unless the employer insists. Don’t make it part of your cover letter as a matter of routine. When the employer asks, though, you can stand in silence on principle, knowing the risks, or you can give your best possible answer, knowing that all you can do is make the best of a bad situation. Ready to get strategic about your career? Let’s talk.

Create Your Brand When it Counts the Most As a sales and marketing professional are you prepared to promote yourself with an effective resume that will land you an interview? The average human resources manager spends less than 30 seconds reviewing a sales resume before deciding to keep it or throw it away. Needless to say, the vast majority of resumes end up in the trashcan. In the current job market, your skills do not matter if no one reads your marketing resume. “Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room,” said Jeff Bezos. Your resume can shape that brand in this crucial moment of your job search. It is easier to sell a product than to sell yourself. After all, you don't have to take it personally if someone chooses not to buy. With a marketing resume or a professional sales resume, suddenly you are trying to transform your accomplishments into a personal brand that will set you apart from other applicants and get you an audition. On the surface, this seems like it shouldn't be too difficult. However, many people aren't sure how to advertise themselves. They know that if they downplay their strengths, it could cost them a job. On the other hand, they don't want to appear overconfident, conceited, or cocky by coming on too strong. If you're not confident that you can use the appropriate sales resume strategy when creating the most important marketing material of your life, you should use the services of an executive resume writer. “All of us need to understand the importance of branding,” Tom Peters wrote in Fast Company. “We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.” When using professional resume services, you can leverage the many years of experience that an executive resume writer brings to the table. If you've been in your current job for a number of years, your resume writing skills are probably out of date. A professional writer will know all the latest methods to virtually guarantee that your resume is given the attention that it deserves. My role is to monitor the latest hiring trends and attention-grabbing techniques that will accomplish the desired result of landing an interview. Armed with the right information I can assist the sales and marketing professional by creating a resume that uses just the right wording, tone, and format to attract the attention of employers. A professional writer adds value to your job search by: - Creating a unique brand to represent your job skills and make you stand out from the competition by effectively communicating the value that you bring to a company. - Crafting a career objective that will summarize your key strengths to quickly grab the reader's attention and interest. - Emphasizing the value that you bring to a company instead of simply listing your job responsibilities. - Quantify your results to illustrate the value you have brought to current and past employers. Hard numbers provide a dramatic impact compared to general statements. - Using the current industry buzzwords to make sure your resume is noticed by automated resume review processes. You would never expect a company to create their own ad campaign without the help of sales and marketing professionals. Why would you choose to write your own resume when you can take advantage of the skills provided by an executive resume writer? If your job search hasn't produced the results that you would like, you will be amazed at the difference a cutting-edge resume will make. Ready to get strategic about your career? Let’s talk.

“Congratulations on the new job!” Life will all be smooth sailing from now on. Won’t it? Actually, starting a new job is not all unicorns and rainbows. Mixed emotions are often the order of the day. There’s a deserved sense of accomplishment that comes from getting hired. There’s also stress, uncertainty, and fear. Those feelings come naturally when you are about to start a new job in a new place filled with strange faces. You will be entering a workplace governed by unfamiliar routines and protocols, both spoken and unspoken. Mapping Out Success Your first days and weeks, important as they are, can pass in a blur, but it’s important to get things right during this time because you are setting the tone for all that follows. If you have a weak start, you will be fighting an uphill battle, struggling to regain lost ground. It will be like a debt you’ll have to repay, something to make up for. Career Transition Magic A strong start will put you in good shape now and give you a cushion for the future. Think of it as career capital, something you’re putting in the bank. To start strong, you will need a plan of attack. Give yourself the greatest chance of success by following this three-step strategy, which helps you prepare effectively, find your place in your new workplace culture, and quickly achieve top performance. Prepare and Develop a Plan for New Job Success Your plan should start before you even walk in the door. You may want to luxuriate in the last few days of pre-grind freedom, but a few hours of preparation will pay dividends. Take this time to: Review the company. Refresh your memory by looking back at everything you learned about the company during your job search. Revisit its website and catch up on the news. Review the industry. You don’t need to turn this into a major project involving in-depth research. It should be more of a combination of a refresher course and a way to put yourself on the same wavelength as the people you’ll be working with. Clarifying Your Goals A plan works best when you know what you’re trying to accomplish, so commit yourself to achieving these goals in the first weeks and months at your new company: To do well in your job To be seen to do well, which is not always the same thing To become better at what you do To take on more responsibility and manage it well To expand your skills so that you become more hirable To become indispensable, the ultimate job security To manage relationships within and outside your team To manage relationships with colleagues at every level To make allies To build a network To find a mentor And the goal of all goals, to set yourself up for long-term success This can and should be a sweet moment if the job search has been long and tough, or if you are finally going to be free of a job that has been dragging you down. Impressions form quickly, and first impressions tend to stick, regardless of their accuracy. They also perpetuate themselves. You want those qualities to work for you, not against you. Ready to get strategic about your career? Let’s talk.

The essentials of the job hunt don’t really change according to your employment status, but employed searchers do have to consider a number of special issues that don’t affect their unemployed counterparts. 10 RULES OF THE ROAD Rule 1: Mum’s the Word The first rule of the searching-while-employed club is: You do not talk about searching while employed. The one exception applies when, and only when, your boss tells you it’s time to look for a new job. For example, layoffs have been announced, with your imminent unemployment the result. You’ve been told when the end will come, and your employer may even have offered assistance with finding other work. In that case, everyone knows what’s going on and there’s no need for secrets. In that case and that case only, you can go to colleagues and supervisors for advice. In every other case, the risks of disclosure outweigh any possible benefits. At the very least, you’ll be seen, quite rightly, as less committed and less loyal. As a result, your assignments may suffer. You won’t get the more interesting or important projects, and you certainly won’t be given increased responsibility. Your chance of advancement will be reduced to zero. Many of the other rules for searching while employed are related to this first principle. Even when they seem to lack that relevance, it’s always best to remember the first rule and to make decisions on that basis. Rule 2: Use Your Own Tools If you want your search to stay private, and you do, don’t be tempted to use company equipment in the process, whether it’s your computer, the office copier, or a company-issued phone. To one degree or another, your employer has access to all those things. Similarly, don’t use your work email address for search-related communications. Rule 3: Use Your Own Time Just as employers have expectations of how you’ll use the things they provide, they have expectations of your use of time. Again, there’s leeway. No sane employer expects that every second of every day should be spent in unwavering attention to your work, although you might not want to test the limits if you’re assembling circuit boards in China. What flexibility there is, even among more relaxed employers, does not extend to using time on the clock to find greener pastures. Rule 4: Stay Positive If you’re actively looking for a new job while working at your current job, it’s logical to assume that there’s something you don’t like about your current situation. That’s fair enough, and perhaps it’s true. You’re working at a horrible job for a horrible company in a horrible place. Keep it to yourself. Negativity is almost never a desirable quality. A prospective employer, as an outsider, is in no position to judge your workplace, and he’s likely to see your negativity as something fundamental, a quality you’re all too likely to bring to a new workplace. Rule 5: Take Care with References If you’ve kept your job search private, be careful with references. Prospective employers will want your references to be as current as possible, and that obviously includes current supervisors. If you don’t want those supervisors to know about the search, ask if any contact with them can be postponed, at least until it’s clear that an offer will be forthcoming. If possible, get the offer first, and see if it can be made contingent on satisfactory current references. Rule 6: Dress as Usual If your workplace dress code is casual, don’t expect your sudden appearance in suit and tie to escape your colleagues’ notice. They always notice, and they almost always comment, whether you’re aware of those comments or not. Before you know it, your strange new formality will be the subject of speculation and rumor. Remember that the workplace environment is second only to the high school cafeteria as a place where gossip thrives. If you have to, scope out a restroom on the way to the interview where you can change, and build in time to do so. Rule 7:Use Discretion on the Web and Social Media Your Facebook posts are of abiding interest to more than your friends and the National Security Agency. Anything you publish, even if you think you’re restricting your readership to a few select friends, is liable to be noticed by people you’d rather keep in the dark. Prospective employers are very interested in your presence on the web. They’d be crazy not to be. There’s really only one safe approach to your online communiqués—keep quiet about your job search until you’re willing to make it public. The corollary to that principle will serve you well here and throughout your professional life: Assume that anything you post will eventually become public, and that the likelihood of it becoming public is inversely proportional to your desire to keep it private. Rule 8: Update LinkedIn Not everything on the web is dangerous and evil, as you probably know, so make your online identity as good as it can possibly be. This especially applies to LinkedIn. Update your profile and give it whatever polish you can before starting your search. Even if they look nowhere else, employers will look here. Rule 9: If the News Gets Out, Be Honest It happens. Despite your best efforts, someone in your office finds out what you’re up to. There’s nothing to stop you from underplaying it—you’re just testing the waters, for example—but there’s nothing to be gained by denial. Depending on your specific situation, the fact that you’re testing the waters won’t endear you to your supervisors, but honesty will always do a lot less damage than dishonesty. Rule 10: Be Prepared to Stay Put The search doesn’t always end with the offer of a dream job. Either the offer doesn’t come or the change is not quite as dreamy as it seemed when you set out on the quest. In either case, be glad that you haven’t burned any bridges, and use the experience for what it’s taught you. Perhaps it gave you a new perspective on your current job or on the alternatives available in your field. You may have learned something about the application process, and you’ll be a better interviewee in the future. Perhaps you’ve realized that you should expand your skills or that it would be a good idea to gain some experience in facets of the business you’d previously ignored. All this hard-won knowledge can be incredibly worthwhile, whether you’ve decided to stay put for the duration or if you simply opt to put your search on hold for the moment. BONUS RULE: ALWAYS BE SEARCHING What is the best time to be looking for a job? The answer that’s come down to us through the ages, one that rings true to everyone who has ever ventured into the job market, is that the best time to be looking is when you don’t need a job at all. There’s another side to the notion that the best time to be looking is when you don’t need to find something, and that is where you find the real lesson for employed searchers: You don’t have to be conducting a full-blown job search every day of your working life, but you should always be doing some of the things that are part of that search. Ready to get strategic about your career? Let’s talk.

No matter the type of company, there are certain fundamental things you need to get right in the workplace to ensure success: 1) Show up. As writer Regina Brett once said, “Most of life is showing up.” You can argue with the how much of life is showing up, but you can’t argue with the saying’s corollary: “Failure to show up is 100 percent guaranteed to be bad for your career.” It’s not just a matter of being physically present. In this context, “showing up” means being there wholeheartedly. When you start a new job, there’s a lot going on and a lot of new information to take in. It can be overwhelming, but try not to let the information overload get the better of you. Remind yourself to pay attention. Take notes if it helps. There’s always a lot to process, and you can’t process it unless you’re fully present. 2) Be prompt. Don’t leave people, including your new boss, wondering what happened to the new guy. If anything, get there early. Show up relaxed and ready to go, rather than as a nervous wreck who barely made it on time. You have enough to deal with without worrying about being late, so if your new job entails an unfamiliar commute, give yourself a cushion of extra travel time. If you’re uncertain, test things out with a dry run before your first day. Anything you can do to reduce first-day jitters is a thing worth doing. 3) Dress right. At your interview, you may have picked up some clues about how to dress. If you’re in any doubt, opt for something on the formal side of appropriate. If you’re in serious doubt—or if you know that a mistake will paralyze you with self-consciousness—consider making a scouting expedition to the office to see how people dress. 4) Be approachable. You don’t have to be a world-class extrovert. You do have to interact with people. Be professional but friendly, and avoid giving the appearance that you are someone who would rather be left alone. Rightly or wrongly, that’s seen as aloofness, and it’s one of those first impressions that can hurt you. 5) Say “Thanks.” Say it a lot. Acknowledge people who are giving you their time, and if there’s someone who’s been particularly helpful, make it a point to stop by at the end of the day and say so. “Thanks so much for your help. It really made a difference. See you tomorrow”—that’s all it takes, and it will be noticed and appreciated. 6) Remember some names. For some people, remembering names is second nature. For others, it’s an unsolvable puzzle, but there are tricks you can use to make things easier. Use people’s names when you’re introduced. Saying them aloud helps make the connection. Associate a name with something memorable. If you meet Katrina and her desk is a hopeless mess, she’s “Hurricane Katrina.” You’ll remember the association. Down the road, when you’re ready to move on to the advanced level, add the names of people’s kids and pets to the list. It’s another thing people appreciate. These six basic tasks remain important to your success beyond your first day. They should be on your agenda each and every day. Ready to get strategic about your career? Let’s talk.

Research and networking complement each other in your job search. One under-used strategy takes advantage of that overlap and should be part of every applicant’s arsenal: the informational interview. Despite its value, the informational interview has become the poor relation in the family of career strategies. It gets little attention in job-hunting guides, but it should be a standard tactic for job seekers. If anything, the fact that it is so often forgotten makes it more valuable to those who take the trouble to do something a little different. The informational interview can best be introduced by describing what it is not. First, it is emphatically not a job interview. An informational interview takes place between a professional employed in a particular field and an individual who is either considering a similar career or is already working in that same field or a related industry. In a job interview, you often know little, if anything, about the person across the table. It may be someone from the company’s human resources staff, an interviewer who has some definite notions of proper interview subjects but little or no direct experience of the job opening in question. The best person to choose is someone with hands-on, day-to-day experience in your field of interest, someone who knows the job from the inside, even if she has not the slightest notion of hiring procedures or staff recruitment. In the worst case, an informational interview might teach you that your picture of the work bears little resemblance to reality. That can be a profoundly deflating bit of knowledge, but it is almost always better to have your illusions shattered early on, when you still have the opportunity to regroup and consider a different career path. Seeking Out Informational Interview Opportunities The first and most obvious step is to have a clear idea of the career or careers that interest you the most. Once you have narrowed the field, excellent places to start your search for potential interview candidates are professional associations, current business contacts, friends, teachers, and online job networking groups. If you are just starting out, your resource list may be short and not especially helpful, but don’t be discouraged. That list will likely expand once you participate in an informational interview or two. Before you start that search, take some time to make the most of your LinkedIn profile. When you contact someone through the site, your profile is the first place they’ll look. You can, of course, attach a copy of your resume to any messages you send, but it’s preferable to let contacts ask for it in their own time. Bombarding contacts with resumes is not the way to win their hearts and minds, and you can be certain they’ll check your profile in any event. Make sure it’s ready. How to Land an Informational Interview First, prepare. Take plenty of time to research companies or potential interviewees on your list. Learn about their job descriptions and relevant business ventures. If the industry is completely new to you, be prepared to learn some of the terminology and job specifics before making any interview requests. Going into an informational interview with a bit of insight shows motivation, enthusiasm, and genuine interest. Developing a List of Interview Questions Since you have already done some of the basic research, you should now hone in on the specifics. Find out more about your interviewee and, especially, about the latest developments in the field. If you do that, you will be able to ask questions that are more meaningful and more personalized, and asking good questions is one more way to demonstrate your genuine interest and your relevant knowledge. You will want to compile a list of questions beforehand that cover those aspects of the work that are most important to you. Keep your questions open-ended. Questions that can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no” are dead ends. In order for you to gain any insight from the experience, the interview must expand into a working conversation between two people with shared interests. Open-ended questions push things in that direction. The Day of the Informational Interview Prepare by reviewing your notes and questions the day before the interview, and plan what you will wear. Dress professionally to make a good first impression. Make a last-minute check of industry news. If something big has happened in the past few days, you want to be able to discuss it, and it can be a source of interview questions that touch on subjects that may already be on your contact’s mind. Bring along your list of questions, note-taking materials, and your resume or portfolio. You are not going to thrust your resume into your contact’s hand, but you want to have it available if asked for it. During the encounter, keep an eye on the time. Unless the contact indicates a willingness to spend additional time with you, stick to the allotted period. If the limit is approaching, bring that up. That kind of awareness is a nice way to demonstrate your respect for the interviewee’s time and his willingness to spend some of it on you. Don’t hesitate to personalize the request: “If you were in my shoes, what would you do?” Before the meeting wraps up, ask the contact for any recommendations concerning your goals. You can also ask if there are other contacts within the industry who might be willing to participate in an informational interview. Thank your contact again, ask for a business card, and find out if it is acceptable for you to make contact in the future for industry-related purposes. Following Through After the Meeting Post-interview etiquette is extremely important and, properly managed, can lead to good things. The first order of business is to send a thank-you note within 48 hours of the interview. Your thank-you note does not have to be your last communication. One strategy that may help you tap into a company’s hidden job market is to offer an occasional update. The Long-Term Rewards The informational interview is the best kind of rehearsal for actual job interviews. The situation is much the same, and you have the opportunity to practice your presentation in a setting that cannot be duplicated elsewhere. You become more confident and you gain knowledge of your field from the inside. That combination is exactly the recipe that will make you stand out in future interactions with potential employers. Ready to get strategic about your career? Let’s talk.

Many of my clients ask what to do about age discrimination during the job search. The plain truth is if you’re waiting for ageism to disappear from the job market, one thing is certain: However old you are, you’ll grow much older waiting. Age-based discrimination may be illegal, but it remains pervasive despite its illegality. In any event, the law isn’t the recourse you need. “Failure to Hire” claims are difficult to prove, and that’s almost beside the point. You don’t want a lawsuit, even one that’s winnable. You want a job. With all this in mind, the older applicant has to enter the market with eyes wide open. Rage against the ageist hiring machine all you like. That’s certainly your prerogative, but it’s not a practical or productive option. Instead, focus on doing what you have to do to overcome the obstacles you face, knowing that some of the biggest of those obstacles appear in the interview. If you’ve been offered an interview, your resume had to overcome obstacles of its own, and that offer tells you something. You now know that age hasn’t been an automatic disqualifier so far. But don't get carried away. At this point, that’s all you know. You don’t know what's on the interviewer’s mind, and you can’t be sure that age is not a lingering issue. You have to assume that it’s still relevant, and you need to be prepared for the issue to rear its ugly head. Preparation starts with identifying the goal you’re working to achieve. Although an interviewer is not likely to ask about your age, you want to address the question wisely and without mentioning it directly. Here, that goal is twofold. First, you have to do what’s required of every applicant. You have to convince the interviewer that hiring you will be of practical benefit to the company. Second, you have to convince the interviewer that one of three things is true: At the very least, your age is not a handicap. Alternatively, your age is irrelevant. In the best case, your age is an asset. If you’ve had any education in sales, you may have noticed a relationship between those age-related goals and the principle of overcoming objections. In essence, the idea is that the buyer – also known as the interviewer – has reasons for refusing to buy – or to hire – and the salesman has to make those reasons disappear. What are the interviewer’s potential age-based objections? You won’t be with us long, because you’re probably thinking about retirement. You don’t have the energy of a younger candidate. You’ll be hard to manage. You’re set in your ways and unwilling or unable to learn. You’ll have trouble working with younger managers. You’re not up-to-date. You’ll want too much money. Whether those objections are reasonable or whether they’re legal is not the point. Unreasonable or illegal, they may well be on the interviewer’s mind. Sometimes, they’re made explicit in the questions asked. Whatever the case, your job is to answer questions like the ones that follow so that, if nothing else, the interviewer knows that all the stereotypical objections don’t apply to you. When do you plan to retire? “The only real attention I’ve paid to retirement is my retirement account, and I haven’t even begun to think about a timeframe. All I know is that I’m awfully good at what I do, I love doing it, and I have no wish to stop. If pressed, I’d have to say that retirement will be an option when I feel like I’m no longer contributing at a high level or when I no longer love the work. I feel like that’s a long way off, and I have some specific ideas about what I bring to this position…” The issue: The company doesn’t want to invest in someone who’ll be gone soon. Return on investment is the ultimate concern behind every question that’s asked. Offer heartfelt reassurance, but refocus the conversation on how you’ll benefit the company, and do so as specifically as possible. In addition, find a way to make it clear that you’re current in your field, whether that’s by bringing up recent developments in the industry or by referring to new technology in the field. Make retirement irrelevant. Are you certain you want this job at this point in your career? “Absolutely. I’m interested in a job where I can contribute. I know this job, and I’ve learned a lot about your company. I wouldn’t have applied if I didn’t think it was a great fit. From what I understand, the company is currently transitioning to an automated system that combines tracking, reporting, and lead generation, and it’s a transition I’ve managed in the past with great results. At ABC Corp, I…” The issue: Is the job beneath you? Will you be a problem because you’re in a less exalted role? Answering this questionrequires good preparation. You do have to know about the company. With that knowledge, though, you can get enthusiastically and convincingly specific about what you bring to the table. Would you be comfortable reporting to a younger manager? “I’ve always worked with many different kinds of people, including people of all ages, and I’ve always found something to learn from people young and old. A younger manager wouldn’t trouble me any more than an older manager. At United Widget, my manager was…” The issue: First, how will you fit the company culture? Second, will you be the disgruntled, resentful, or entitled employee no company wants to hire? As always, a relevant example from your past is more convincing than a broadly abstract claim. Those examples demonstrate three important themes: It helps to know what each question is really asking. It helps to know as much about the company as possible if you’re going to make a convincing case. Concrete examples will make that case and take the spotlight off your age. An interview is often described as a chance to sell yourself, but that’s not strictly true. In reality, you’re not so much selling yourself as selling what you can do for the company. Your specific characteristics, including your age, fade into the background when an interviewer is convinced that the company’s investment in you will pay off. That’s what matters. Ready to get strategic about your career? Let’s talk.