Articles - Page 184 of 258 - The Voice of Job Seekers

Heroes Get Hired: Interview Advice for Military Personnel

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For some military personnel, it has been years since he or she had to interview for a job. That’s why there is a need for our heroes to have a resource that will help them update their job interviewing skills.

Michelle Tillis Lederman is a communication expert who authored, Heroes Get Hired: How to Use Your Military Experience to Master the Interview, FREE to military personnel and their families at H eroesGetHired.com.This project was sponsored by Citi and published by NBC Publishing. I accidently said during the intro that it was NBC Universal (please forgive me!) It is a detailed and practical read that can be applied immediately to his or her job search strategy.

Many veterans are challenged with how to translate his or her unique military experience to civilian careers. Michelle not only walks through many of the challenges veterans face, but also how to communicate value. From everything from simplifying titles and military acronyms to handshakes and eye-contact this book articulates ways that each vet can demonstrate a compelling unique selling proposition to a potential employer. Michelle can be reached either through her website michelletillislederman.com or her Facebook page.

In a related note, I attempted to record a video call that ended up an audio call. You may hear several references to seeing rather than just hearing. I accidentally referred to Michelle as a “What you see on the screen…” rather than a “Who.” I was so excited about the visual we had, I lost my mind for a second.

Please enjoy our conversation.

by Mark Anthony Dyson

Job Seekers Must Think Like Entrepreneurs

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You can interchange entrepreneur with the job seeker, and principles from this conversation are applicable both ways.

Paul B. Brown is the author is Own Your Future: How to Think Like an Entrepreneur and Thrive in an Unpredictable Economy. He is a contributor to The New York Times and more specifically, the creator of the What’s Offline column. He is also a Forbes and Harvard Business Review contributor as well. He is also a member of the Massachusetts and New Jersey Bar. He offers his perspective on how to manage your career as if you were an entrepreneur.

Although the press release quotes him, urging readers to, “Think of this book as an owner’s manual for having a more successful life,” there were key career lessons that deserved attention.

Much of our discussion centered around the “Act. Learn. Build. Repeat.” model. Here are some of the highlights:

Focus specifically on what you want to do, learn what is needed through the next steps, continue building over time, and repeat the process
Flexibility and small steps are critical, so the time investment is productive
Accountability is a key component to keep in commitment to your goals, but you’re the person that needs to make it happen
Adaptability is also a key component to controlling and owning your future, and understanding and knowing when to change along with the marketplace

In this interview you can interchange entrepreneur with job seeker because the thinking is so identical.

Please, enjoy our conversation.

by Mark Anthony Dyson

Is Your Name Ruining Your Career?

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Linette Singleton (@NPDIVUS) and I (@MarkADyson) tackle the very complex subject of the risk of changing your name to draw less attention to race, culture, and gender. Has your ethnic specific name affected your career or career choices? Do you use a generic name to avoid bias or questions about your culture?

We realize name bias or name discrimination is not an easy subject to tackle, and makes some people uncomfortable to discuss, but I feel is necessary. In this discussion, we talk about it as it relates to race and culture bias.

Both of us would love to talk more about it because of how much of this discussion is diverted to several different factors:

Bias in this instance is hard to point to specifically as “here it is” or “there it goes.” We wanted to start a conversation that is needed to move to a more diverse and inclusive society and workplace
We do not discuss how name bias affects gender and societal conscious people. As people are changing, transforming, and evolving, so will this discussion and how it affects people in various communities
One thing that stands out in this discussion is how it affects race, and what is in the future. Although we agree it comes down to a job seeker’s presentation, resume, and other determining factors to get in front of a hiring manager, we do not ignore that in many circumstances determines who goes to the next round.

Linette and I highlight the following points in our discussion:

1) We want to describe what it is and what it isn’t

Name and address could potentially mean bias
Not always limited to race

2) What are the risks in changing your name if you feel it’s necessary?

Celebrities change all of the time, but the spirit of the change is vastly different for artists than regular working folks.
There are instances that as a coach, I have witnessed that interview requests become more frequent once a client alters his or her name to a generic one.

3) Changing your name has to do with a job or some emotional need to do so? Do some employers (or individual hiring managers) have an innate bias towards names?

4) What should you do when you do change your name on a resume, or social profiles? Will it really make a difference?

Linette wanted to talk about how an article from a few years ago point to the success of individuals who had a cultural-less name.

We invite discussion on this topic, and perhaps you would like to share your experience with name bias. Feel free to catch either one or both of us on Twitter. We welcome all views on any side of this topic.