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!

  • TVOJS Podcast
    • Guest Posts Topics or Podcast Guests
  • ABOUT ME
  • Press page for Mark
  • Hire Mark to Speak
  • Hire Me for Content Writing
  • Guides & Resources 2023
  • Press Bylines
  • PRESS MENTIONS
  • Articles
  • Guides & Resources

by Mark Anthony Dyson

Good Grief! Listen Employers and Learn What They Value!

Good Grief! Listen Employers and Learn What They Value!

Editor’s note: I wrote this article JobMob published two weeks ago and thought I’d share it here. As a lifelong Charlie Brown fan (at one-time owned 10 volumes of Peanuts books), there was a lesson here that was more of a revelation. 

Good Grief, Charlie Brown! Listen to the Employer and Learn What They Value! by Mark Anthony Dyson

If you don’t pay attention to employers’ needs, they won’t pay attention to yours.

When Charlie Brown said that Joe Shilabotnik was his all-time baseball hero in the Major Leagues, with a horrible batting average way below .200, we can understand why. As grown-ups, we do.

There is a valuable lesson here anyone could be your hero, and it doesn’t matter why it excites us. We know throughout the decades, Charlie Brown would have given up every single baseball card he owned for Joe Shilabotnik’s card.

Value works for us when we’ve hacked into the interests of the other person, or in this case, the employer.

If Charlie Brown is the job seeker and Lucy is the employer, then the benefit of creating value must be communicated. Job seekers go wrong in never demonstrating value when the moment comes. Employers want to win in value more often than in volume. Employers tell you what they need some time by what they don’t need.

Listen closely, and you can discern accurately.

I will dissect Charlie Brown’s approach from end to beginning to show how job seekers miss opportunities to connect with employers in demonstrating their value.

Good grief Charlie Brown, she threw what YOU valued away!

Lucy: “He’s not as cute as I thought!”

Lucy ends this segment by throwing the beloved Joe Shilabotnik baseball card in the garbage. Similar to an employer tossing a resume or at least filing it away with no other intentions to look at it again. Charlie Brown didn’t get that she liked Joe because at the moment, he was cute.

Lesson Learned: If you can’t persuade an employer what you have is valuable, then they will keep looking, sometimes forever (so it seems).

Good grief Charlie Brown, it’s not about volume.

Charlie Brown: (tosses his whole baseball card collection in the air) “For five years, I’ve been trying to get a Joe Shilabotnik! My favorite baseball player, and I can’t get him on a bubble gum card… five years! My favorite player…”

We identify with losers at times. Charlie Brown loved this guy despite his .157 minor-league batting average. My sons like badly-acted late ’80s and early ’90s sitcoms, but we like whom we like. Value is an individual decision we cherish for one reason or another from childhood.

Lucy, at least now, does not care about collecting baseball cards. She cares about one cute baseball player, although it is temporary.

Lesson learned: Charlie Brown didn’t earn attention because he never listened to what Lucy said. Had he mentioned “cute” once or twice throughout his face time with her and the card he desired, chances are he would have obtained her interest.

Job seekers who succeed find ways to understand the employer’s needs. What does the employer’s team or company care about? The job seeker who serves it up on a delectable platter to the employer has their attention, causing salivation and perhaps, career salvation.

Good Grief, Charlie Brown! Don’t you listen?

Employers test you from the beginning. They want to know you’re listening. Charlie Brown, who is representing the anxious job seeker, wants one thing. He thinks the way to get it is to trade.

Charlie Brown: “How about Nellie Fox, Dick Donovan, Willie Kirkland, Frank Lary, Al Kaline Orlando Pena, Jerry Lulupe, Camilo Pascual, Harmon Killebrew, Bob Turley, and Albie Pearson?”

Lucy: “No, I don’t want to trade…I think Joe Shilabotnik is kind of cute…”

Charlie Brown: “I’ll give you Tome Cheney, Chuck Cottier, Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, Maury Willis, Sandy Koufax, Frank Robinson, Bob Purkey, Bill Mazeroski, Harvey Hadoix, Warren Spahn, Hank Aaron, Tony Gonzales, Art Mahaffey, Roger Craig, Duke Snider, Don Nottebart, Al Spangler, Curt Simmons, Stan Musial, Ernie Banks, and Larry Jackson!”

Lucy: “No, I don’t think so…”

Lesson Learned: What are the chances that Charlie Brown could have offered Lucy to pick out several other “cute” players from his collection? Is it possible Charlie Brown owned other cards she desired?

The reality that job seekers must increase their value by offering substantially more to get one package is imminent.

Remember, employers hold the one card you want. They won’t give it away (or throw it away) unless a perceived value equals or exceeds what they hold. They don’t want to hire, but they could be persuaded possibly by something cute (or perceived by others as cute) as what they hold.

Creating opportunities is what you’ll need to do, but won’t happen by offering what is valuable only to you or what the employer’s competition cherishes. Lucy, the employer, is the one you need to convince.

Good Grief, Charlie Brown! Are you desperate?

Charlie Brown: “Joe Shilabotnik? Really? You have a Joe Shilabotnik? You have a Joe Shilabotnik Bubble Gum Card? He’s my favorite player! I’ve been trying to get him on a bubble gum card for five years! You wanna trade? Here…I’ll give you Whitey Ford, Mickey Mantle, Robin Roberts, Luis Aparicio, Bill Monbouquette, Dick Stuart, and Juan Pizarro!”

Lucy: “No, I don’t think so…”

Lesson learned: Um… strategy? Yes, Charlie Brown, the job seeker, lacks the correct strategy. He may not need to bargain if Lucy, the employer, was a real baseball fan that trades baseball cards. But she wasn’t. Just inundating her with what he has, without understanding what she wants, is a great way to be ignored.

Employers will respond if there is something they want. Lucy was only interested in “cute” Joe. If Lucy cared about his .157 batting average, she would have given the card to Charlie Brown without trading it.

Thank goodness! What did we learn, Charlie Brown?

Charlie Brown, the job seeker, was only a loser because he didn’t listen close enough to Lucy, the employer, ‘s message. Proactive listening is effective when you listen to what an employer says and doesn’t say. Employers will tell you “nice resume” even when it’s not all that nice. In most cases, the statement follows: “… but we will continue looking.”

If Charlie Brown figured out what Lucy valued, Charlie Brown would have kept all of his cards.

Job seekers will find the right employer only by listening closely to employer needs.
Read the original article at: http://jobmob.co.il/blog/learn-what-employers-value/

 

 

 

 

 

About Mark Anthony Dyson

I am the "The Voice of Job Seekers!" I offer compassionate career and job search advice as I hack and re-imagine the job search process. You need to be "the prescription to an employer's job description." You must be solution-oriented and work in positions in companies where you are the remedy. Your job search must be a lifestyle, and your career must be in front of you constantly. You can no longer shed your aspirations at the change seasons. There are strengths you have that need constant use and development. Be sure you sign up to download my E-Book, "421 Modern Job Search Tips 2021!" You can find my career advice and work in media outlets such as Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Glassdoor, and many other outlets.

  • Mail
  • |
  • Web
  • |
  • Twitter
  • |
  • Facebook
  • |
  • LinkedIn
  • |
  • More Posts(756)

Filed Under: Interview, Jobseekers Tagged With: Jobseekers

by Mark Anthony Dyson

How Unconscious Bias Can Hinder Job Seekers Before An Interview

How Unconscious Bias Can Hinder Job Seekers Before An Interview

 

Rarely do employers intend to debilitate job candidates – but it happens anyway.

Many job seekers are hamstrung way before their resumes have a chance to stand on their own accomplishments or merits. This happens when the person screening the candidates applies their personal biases.

The University of California, San Francisco, Office of Diversity and Outreach defines unconscious bias as “social stereotypes about certain groups of people that individuals form outside their own conscious awareness.”

Bias affects everyone’s decisions, including during the hiring process.

Click To Tweet

Unconscious bias can lead to “microaggressions,” described by Psychology Today as “the everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs, or insults, whether intentional or unintentional, which communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership.”

Many job seekers, especially those from marginalized groups, deal with microaggressions and unconscious biases daily

Click To Tweet

. They are tough, resilient, and courageous in the face of these experiences. Workplaces that welcome these character traits will likely benefit from having these job seekers on board – as long as bias doesn’t stand in the way of hiring them.

Listen to Facing Unconscious Bias in Your Career and Life

Some Types of Biases Job Seekers Face:

  1. Bias Toward the Unemployed: Some employers refuse to hire applicants who are unemployed. However, many unemployed and underemployed job seekers are talented and qualified. Often, they have lost their previous jobs due to reasons beyond their control, like downsizing.
  2. Bias Toward ‘Ethnic’ Fashions: For example, there have been instances where job seekers are terminated or denied job offers on the basis of wearing their hair in dreadlocks, a style traditionally worn by black people. In fact, courts have upheld an employer’s right to do this. Whether I wear dreadlocks or not, it feels like an attack because of my ethnicity.
  3. Bias Toward Names: Name bias occurs when an employer rejects a candidate based on the way their name sounds – usually because the employer perceives the candidate’s name to sound “ethnic.” I experienced this in action when working with a woman named Latoya several years ago. Her resume was great – an engineering graduate with honors, numerous internship and volunteer positions to prove her competencies – but she received very little response. While tweaking her resume, we changed her name to the family nickname, “Toni.” As a result, she has made several advancements in her career.
  4. Bias Toward Addresses: Some hiring managers discriminate against candidates whose address are associated with lower-income areas. I knew a manager who would ask candidates how they get to work. Candidates who took cabs were more attractive to this manager than those who took trains and buses.
  5. Affinity Bias: Another form of bias occurs based on personality traits. Many interviewers are drawn to people who are similar to themselves. This is called “affinity bias.” Corporate relationship expert Tony Chatman reminds us, “If you have an interviewer who is detail-oriented, he or she is likely to hire someone who is introverted and detail-oriented, even if the job doesn’t call for it.”

Listen to Unconscious Bias: Your Career, Workplace, and Everywhere

Common Examples of Bias in Action:

1. Advice about “hard work” directed specifically toward one demographic and/or ethnicity.

Someone I know recently posted on Facebook to say “inner-city” people needed to learn about hard work and that I would be a good example for them. He had trouble making a rational defense of his comments.

How many times have kids from the inner-city who rise to the college ranks heard this rhetoric? Does this advice work for everyone? How do you know if someone “didn’t work hard”?

Implication: “Your people are lazy.”

2. Statements like “I believe the most qualified person should get the job!”

Often, this statement is used to criticize perceived instances of affirmative action. The thing is, not all of us needed affirmative action to enter college or get a job. My merits are just as good as anyone else’s. Why are you questioning them?

Implication: “People of color get an unfair advantage.”

3. Questions about a person’s demographic or ethnic background, like “What kind of name is this?” or “What nationality are you?”

If you can’t offer solid career advice without knowing someone’s nationality, ethnicity, gender identification, or skin color in 2017, then you give lousy and irrelevant career advice. It probably serves no one.

Implication: “You’re not white, so it’s weird.”

4. Backhanded compliments, like “You’re so well-spoken/articulate.”

Are you surprised that I speak well? Or that I learned English so well? Why didn’t you say this to my white counterpart?

Implication: “It’s unusual for someone of your race to speak so well. You don’t belong here.”

5. Employers who only hire currently employed job seekers.

Many mega-talented people become unemployed due to circumstances beyond their control. People are laid off, politically ousted, or recipients of other unfortunate situations.

Implication: “Unemployed people are lazy. They will be desperate.”

6. Unreasonable impatience with a candidate who has an accent.

Being invited to an interview is a privilege, but when an interviewer rushes through a phone screening or other conversation, it can be discouraging or disconcerting. Job seekers with accents unfortunately face this problem often. When a person raises their voice while speaking to someone who has an accent, it’s not just rude – it’s a microaggression.

Implication: “You don’t belong here. You’re not welcome.”

7. Preferential treatment for men in STEM roles.

One study suggests men are often hired over women for jobs involving math and science. There are many women with aptitudes for math and science, which was recently illustrated in the movie Hidden Figures. In one scene in the movie, one of the central characters says, “There wasn’t a protocol for a female in an engineering class.” There isn’t much need to further clarify the insidiousness at work here.

Implication: “You don’t belong here. You’re not welcome.”

8. Using ‘cultural fit’ to exclude certain types of people.

Often, hiring authorities use “cultural fit” and “gut instinct” to make decisions. This leads one to question the validity of their hiring decisions. It also makes one wonder: When employers complain about the skills gap, is it really because they can’t find the skills they need, or is it because the people who have the skills aren’t “cultural fits”?

Job seekers should research the “culture” of a prospective employer. Are they using “skills gap” language to obscure their “cultural” hiring practices? Any workplace that seems overly homogenous may be doing just that.

Implication: “You lack the personality, like-mindedness, or ethnicity to be here.”

–

It is unrealistic to think unconscious bias has a cure. There is no way to absolutely resolve all of it. It is deeply rooted in our daily lives and social interactions, and the lack of discussion about the subject breeds hostility. Unconscious biases are subtle, and they hurt people in subtle ways.

Let me also save you the trouble of trying to make the “victim card” argument: The reality of unconscious biases shows how thick-skinned the majority of job seekers have to become in order to succeed. This is the very quality employers like seeing in job seekers, and they should appreciate more the courage, patience, perseverance, persistence, and resilience job seekers display when facing biases.

 

This article was originally published on Recruiter.com!

About Mark Anthony Dyson

I am the "The Voice of Job Seekers!" I offer compassionate career and job search advice as I hack and re-imagine the job search process. You need to be "the prescription to an employer's job description." You must be solution-oriented and work in positions in companies where you are the remedy. Your job search must be a lifestyle, and your career must be in front of you constantly. You can no longer shed your aspirations at the change seasons. There are strengths you have that need constant use and development. Be sure you sign up to download my E-Book, "421 Modern Job Search Tips 2021!" You can find my career advice and work in media outlets such as Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Glassdoor, and many other outlets.

  • Mail
  • |
  • Web
  • |
  • Twitter
  • |
  • Facebook
  • |
  • LinkedIn
  • |
  • More Posts(756)

Filed Under: Interview, unconscious bias Tagged With: Interview, Jobseekers, Unconscious Bias

by Mark Anthony Dyson

Job Interviewing 101: How to Succeed in Different Situations [INFOGRAPHIC]

Job Interviewing 101: How to Succeed in Different Situations [INFOGRAPHIC]

Editor’s note: Today’s post was written by Heather R. Huhman (@HeatherHuhman), President of Come Recommended.

 

We know that job interviewing is tough. Did you know the average employer may receive upwards of 100 applications per job opening? In addition, even if an applicant does land an interview, it can be difficult to navigate through the process since every interviewer is different. So, how can job seekers ensure they are reading each situation correctly?

This inforgraphic, compiled by Interview Success Formula, a program that helps job seekers to deliver powerful interview answers, illustrates how job seekers can read the most common types of interviewers and how to succeed in the process. Some takeaways to note include:

  • The average duration of an interview is 50 minutes
  • 60% of managers conduct video interviews
  • 34% of U.S. workers say they have a younger boss
  • 17% didn’t believe the employer was knowledgeable

Check out the full infographic below and let us know your thoughts in the comments!

What do you think? What are some other ways job seekers can succeed in job interviews?

Graphic created by InterviewSuccessFormula.com

 

 

Heather R. Huhman is the founder and president of Come Recommended, a content marketing and digital PR consultancy for job search and human resources technologies. You can connect with Heather and Come Recommended on Twitter and Facebook.

About Mark Anthony Dyson

I am the "The Voice of Job Seekers!" I offer compassionate career and job search advice as I hack and re-imagine the job search process. You need to be "the prescription to an employer's job description." You must be solution-oriented and work in positions in companies where you are the remedy. Your job search must be a lifestyle, and your career must be in front of you constantly. You can no longer shed your aspirations at the change seasons. There are strengths you have that need constant use and development. Be sure you sign up to download my E-Book, "421 Modern Job Search Tips 2021!" You can find my career advice and work in media outlets such as Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, Glassdoor, and many other outlets.

  • Mail
  • |
  • Web
  • |
  • Twitter
  • |
  • Facebook
  • |
  • LinkedIn
  • |
  • More Posts(756)

Filed Under: Interview, Jobseekers Tagged With: Interview, Jobseekers, Success

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 5
  • Next Page »

Join the email list and get “12 Modern Job Search Strategies Beyond the Resume 2022”

Download free

The Fortune For Your Career Is In The Follow-up

Download free

I moderated a panel on Wealth Management for executives by Black Enterprise Magazine in October 2023 in Miami.

I was interviewed on Scripps News show, “The Why!” 4/13/2023

I talked with John Tarnoff and Kerry Hannon of “The Second Act” podcast about job searching after 50 in October 2022.

I was on “The Career Confidante” podcast to talk about “boomerang employees” and “job fishing” in June 2022.

Making Job Search a Lifestyle With “Dr. Dawn Graham on Careers,” SiriusXM Ch. 132, Wharton School of Business May 2021

In May 2020, I talked with LinkedIn’s Senior News Editor Andrew Seaman on “#GetHired” Live.”

Beverly Jones, host of the NPR podcast “Jazzed About Work,” invited me back to talk job scams, job search trends, and AI tools in April 2024

WOUB Digital · Episode 183 : Job search expert Mark Dyson says beware of scams, know AI & keep learning

Copyright © 2025 · Generate Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in