The Voice of Job Seekers

Mark Anthony Dyson ★ Career Writer ★ Speaker ★ Thinker ★ Award-winning Blog & Podcast! ★ "The Job Scam Report" on Substack! ★ I hack and reimagine the modern job search!

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Job Search News Special – How to Use My Job Search Tips eGuide

Job Search News Special – How to Use My Job Search Tips eGuide

What’s hot? My updated eGuide “118 Job Search Tips…”

If you don’t have my job search tips eGuide, you can get it right here. I feel the need to explain how to use my tips guide. You can apply this to any checklist, article, or presentation. I wanted to provide you with relevant advice to get you started. If you’re parents or friends tell you the job search is a numbers game, tell them to get my eGuide. It’s free for the taking and using.

Set them free today from old and stale advice!

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There are more than 118 tips! There are about 14 areas I cover to get you started!

People are still giving advice their parents gave them from years ago hoping it would work. Then again, people are always assuming the most popular advice others follow is the best advice. Frustration and confusion overcome strategy and logic, which results in job seekers doing what is comfortable and passive. Many job seekers go months and years without interviews and jobs when they can just click and apply.

  • They will rely on job boards by applying to everything.
  • They will depend on a few friends to offer leads.
  • Maybe they will read some advice columns or blogs; a few will read books.
  • They will attend career fairs in desperation mode, annoying the attending employers.
  • They will go on social media only looking for someone to give them an opportunity (rarely does it ever happen if at all).

Then at the end of their ropes, when they ask for advice, it’s out of desperation. If you ever noticed, everyone runs from a desperate job seeker. Everyone.

Job tips send you in the right direction. They are the arrow pointing you where to go to start.

It’s up to you to seek out what the entire process is for you to succeed. But remember, it is only a tip.

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Tips work best: Experimentation is good. If it doesn’t feel right, you can back away, although, in my eGuide, no workout equipment is needed. Decide which tips are worth being patient for to succeed. Plan on being patient but diligent.

Tips fail: When you experiment half-heartedly and without a strategy. Why would you conduct a job search without one? Admittedly, you’ll need to make some moves requiring advice. 

Tips work best: You want longevity for your career, especially the ones about brand building. Writing articles, doing videos, or creating podcasts takes time to get views and takes work to create quality products. The payoff isn’t the instant gratification of being noticed and getting hired on the spot. The payoff comes in creating a body of work and positioning yourself as the go-to person in the industry.

Tips fail: When you are impatient and desperate. Networking can be an out for desperation among the people who know you and understand you. For people who are minimally familiar with you, not so much.

 

Tips work best: Any strategy requires treating, rinsing, washing, and repeating. Consider how you approach people with your wants and needs and ask yourself, “What will this relationship look like a few minutes, months, and years from now if I’m only asking for stuff?” Most of the tips shared in my guide involve how you interact with others (if you have thought deeply about them).

Tips fail: No advice works when you miscommunicate the goal.  Asking an awkward question such as, “Can I network with you?” breeds a lack of confidence. It would cause people to pause even if you have good intentions, but are not grasping the big picture.

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Tips work best: By sharing these tips (I love attribution, but give from your heart), you will get back in the long run. But more important, give without any expectation of return. My spirit about it all is to help people no matter how far and wide it reaches. Some of these tips were given to me by mentors and teachers. In return, using my experience with coaching and training job seekers, I created a guide for others.

Tips fail: If it’s all about you! Share with others what you’re doing. I have an attendee from my Job Lab who sends his contacts a newsletter to let them know how he’s doing and to share what he is learning. Capture this spirit, and you can take a load off yourself.

 

Tips work best: Be open-minded to change, pivot, and recalculate. The job search is not designed to be comfortable or painful. You get results when your resolve exceeds your comfort and embraces your willingness to be uncomfortable.

Tips fail: When you are looking to minimize your efforts. None of these tips are magic. They will take some trial and error.

 

Today’s modern job seeker stays engaged whether in career development mode or job-search mode. Preferably, you’ll stay engaged in both. As we move towards a gig economy, the job will matter much less than the work itself. As time goes on, I will renew these tips and add new ones yearly.

 

I hope you’ll stay with the newsletter and this blog as I share the changes in strategies and tips as they happen, or as you give me feedback.

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6 Practical Steps to Negotiate a Compensation Package

6 Practical Steps to Negotiate a Compensation Package

Don’t wait until you get an offer to start thinking about compensation negotiation. It’s never too early to plan for salary discussions, even if you aren’t going to leave your current job for at least a few more months.

If you’re strategic about it, negotiating a new compensation package doesn’t have to be scary. What should scare you, though, is only negotiating your paycheck while leaving the rest of your compensation package on the table! Many people settle for the first offer.

Rethink your negotiation strategy, especially if you’re only focused on your annual income.

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Negotiating compensation is stressful when you lack strategy. Anxiety appears when you’re unprepared, and it results in failure and disappointment. Employers are not interested in offering the best salary first. You must pursue it. If you’re unprepared to persuade employers to pay your worth, you’ll lose out.

Read Unemployed? The Voice of Job Seekers Is Here to Help

Kwame Christian, a business attorney and founder of the American Negotiation Institute, says people need to “recognize the opportunity to negotiate.” Kwame and I had quite a robust discussion on my podcast last winter.  Most people need practice in negotiating. Now is the time to prepare – even if you are not conducting a job search.

Here are several ways to ready yourself for a negotiation:

1. Recognize That ‘No’ Is Part of the Growth process

You never get used to hearing “no,” but enough “no” can help you adjust to negative outcomes. Christian suggests what he calls “No” Therapy: “Look for [negotiation] opportunities where the chances of success are minimal. Sometimes it works, and it’s a win-win when you don’t expect to succeed.”

This mindset is especially useful during particularly stressful negotiations. “It’s easier to accept rejection when the stakes are higher,” Christian says.

2. Know Where the Boundaries Are in Compensation Negotiation

Salary is important, but you need to consider the complete compensation package in order to determine the appropriate strategy. You can also get a head start on negotiating with a new employer by upping your salary now before you head onto the job market.

“While you’re working at your old job, ask for a raise, [which you can then] leverage when looking for a new [job],” Christian says. “The ceiling is the new floor.”

I used this strategy years ago while exiting a dissolving startup. Since others were exiting the company early, I had no pushback in getting a 15 percent raise.

Listen to How Can Underemployed Job Seekers Adapt to the New Workplace

3. Keep the Narrative Positive

Many job seekers focus too much on their opportunities for improvement and not enough on their strengths.

It’s especially important to emphasize the positive when negotiating a salary.

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“The impetus is on you to change the narrative,” Christian says.

4. Ask, But Also Show

Confidence comes from the application of your strengths. Strategize and execute a serious dialogue promoting your value. Proving your value will go a long way.

That being said, Christian also notes, “You don’t get what you deserve; you get what you ask for.” Proving your worth is only one part of the equation. You also have to set the terms of the negotiation.

Listen to Giving Women The Courage to Negotiate Salary

5. ‘No’ Can Also Mean ‘Not Yet’

Christian says most people fail because they think of the negotiation as a single conversation. Instead, he suggests approaching negotiation as if it “has no beginning and no end.”

When you have delivered value, you position yourself favorably for follow-up discussions. Even if the first attempt at negotiation doesn’t go your way, you may be able to reignite the conversation when you’ve proven your worth.

6. Defuse the Threat

If you start a negotiation by saying you want more money rather than by trying to establish a mutual value exchange, you’ll be seen as a threat. Negotiations need to be amicable, but you also want to keep your accomplishments top of the manager’s mind.

To help you make negotiation a pleasant experience for all involved, Christian recommends creating a paper trail when good things happen. Send emails with specific details and file them away for when it’s time to negotiate.

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Your job search could take months or longer, and seeing a bump in your compensation now could be leverage for your next job. Some people can get raises based on earned buy-in they’ve already built up with bosses. The rest of us can follow the above steps.

This article was originally published at Recruiter.com. 

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How Students, Grads, and Young Careerists Can Mitigate Bias

How Students, Grads, and Young Careerists Can Mitigate Bias

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Thanks so much for your interest in this episode. Bias has different faces, sizes, complexities, and issues, and it’s hard to talk about them in one episode. Sheila Caldwell, Ed. D. is the Advisor to the President on Diversity at the University of North Georgia. She is the eyes and ears for the University on all things for diversity and inclusion and reports directly to the President of the University. I was happy she agreed to come on and share her journey in mitigating bias as well as the university students.

Join in on the conversation

  • Call and leave a voicemail at 708-365-9822, or text your comments to the same number
  • Go to TheVoiceofJobSeekers.com, press the “Send Voicemail” button on the right side of your screen and leave a message
  • Send email feedback to [email protected]

More about Sheila Caldwell

Sheila recently received her doctorate of education in workforce education. She has completed a certification program at the Harvard Kennedy School of Busines for “Strategies for Building and Leading Diverse Organizations Executive Education program.” Sheila is actively involved in working with students and staff in making the University of North Georgia inclusive and safe for all.

Few highlights from our conversation

  • Bias occurs in the workforce and college campuses but manifests differently in their respective environments
  • Students must gain a strong identity of self to endure the narrow perspectives fellow students and coworkers will have
  • Colleges are trying to do a better job in preparing students for the workforce diversity
  • Students needing to feel a belonging at a diverse university while combating bias
  • Sheila shares the latest reports of graduates show money, not intelligence, is a primary reason for students of color not finishing a degree
  • Sheila discusses how women dominate the graduate rates yet not enough women are STEM and engineering majors in college
  • How bias includes cultural appropriation and how it affects campus and the workplace

Do you need coaching or instruction?

I am here for it! Use my contact information above to inquire about individual or group coaching. You can also sign up for my weekly newsletter at the top right of my page. I try to pack as much value in my newsletter to more than 1,100 people as possible. If you want to see an example of what I send out, go here.