Career Choices

Compilation of some job descriptions which I have done at P, difference being? Pay, scope and depth.

• sourcing from multiple vendors/ OEMs;


• introduce new and innovative products in the market which complement the existing products;


• work closely with the regional product / sales team to drive sales of products 


• and to identify new product requirements 

• including timelines for the development of new products, features and services.


• research vendors /suppliers in the region to identify viable new product ideas


• on the ground to gather market intelligence and requirements for new products and


• provide contents for product descriptions and marketing collaterals.


• maintain specification sheets, documentation and presentations


• and provide support to local customer base on product related enquiries as and when required.

Specific Knowledge/Skills
* Bachelor's degree (Engineering Degree is preferred) with 8 - 10 years of related experience in hardware sourcing/ product management /product development cycle
* Established track records in 2-way radios / mobile phone hardware sourcing and product management
* Vendor management experience is an added advantage.
* Good understanding of business operations and business financial analysis
* Warm personality and outstanding relationship management capabilities with strong analytical and interpersonal skills
* Good communication (Mandarin and English is a must) and project management skills
* Flexible to work across different time zones
* Able to produce results both independently and as part of a team.
* Desire to work in a fast-paced, intensely deadline-driven environment with rapidly shifting priorities

OTHER OPTIONS

Senior Sales & Marketing Executive (Aviation/Fuel industry experience required)

Portfolio Management
Analyze market opportunity and compare to current state of portfolio. Make decisions about growth opportunities by reviewing customer segmentation mix, and prioritizing sales execution activities (sales plays) accordingly. Monitor progress towards revenue targets adjusting portfolio management strategy accordingly.

Account Management
Optimize account penetration by winning additional business opportunities. Identify opportunities to increase contract fuel, ITP services, and card usage and execute appropriate sales plays to win the business. Monitor customer activity, ensuring that business awarded is realized assisting with exposure and collections activities as necessary.

Raise awareness of Company/ BaseOps within Asia.
Visit all the major airports, Fixed Base Operator’s suppliers, vendors for development of new accounts within assigned region.

New Customer/Supplier Opportunity Development
Leverage professional relationships to create a strong presence for Company in the region, seeking and developing opportunities for growth and converting them into new accounts.

Customer/Supplier Relationship Management
Ensure healthy business relationships between customers/suppliers and Company. In addition, collect and maintain a data store of contact and profiling data as well as other business intelligence information regarding customers/suppliers, their positions in the market space and their relationships to others in the sales/supply value chain.

Maintain good relationship with vendors, local airport authorities within the region

Operations Liaison
Ensure accurate data setup regarding negotiated contracts. Assist in resolution of transaction processing delays, fuel/fee disputes, account/inventory reconciliation, and any other issues that require out of the ordinary or complex communications with customers/suppliers.

Liaise with other sales person on customer requirements for fuel and international trip planning services.

Revenue/Risk Management
Collaborate with Supply, Credit/Collections, and Middle/Back Office to examine and match advantageous supply plays to profitable sales plays, balancing risk against performance, and monitoring profitably of related transactions from front to end to ensure highest return on working capital.

Company Expertise
Acquire sufficient Company expertise regarding usage of internal systems, positioning of products/services, and collaboration within the internal organization to complete tasks and objectives.

Sales Excellence/Focus
Proficient in ability to manage portfolio, accounts, and revenue effectively, maintaining client profitability at desired levels.

Sales focus on all Company’ products

Relationship Management and Networking
Builds, manages and leverages relationships at highest levels of customer organization to win/influence deals. Utilizes network of industry professionals to identify business opportunities and win/influence deals.

High Performance and Leadership
Sustain high performance against targets. May be assigned team leadership role of one or more Sales Executives in a specialized or discretionary market approach.

Requirements

• A minimum of 5-6 years experience in the aviation and/or fuel industry
• Experienced in sales to Asian business aviation customers.  Ideally fuel and international trip planning services, but could be something related.
• Well connected
• Complete fluency in English (oral and written); other languages a plus
• Excellent communication skills
• Strong interpersonal skills.  At ease working in multicultural environment and able to interact effectively with individuals at all levels
• Professional presence and absolute integrity
• Broad international experience and an international mindset

Analyst

Report to the Creative Technology Director.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:
The Analyst is responsible for driving strategic thinking and economic insight across multiple client engagements, specifically: discovering new paths for growth by uncovering and developing new segments, products, and channels; optimizing budget and communications programs through test-and-learn, discipline, innovation and analysis to get the best possible return on the marketing investment; laying the Strategy foundation for companies just starting to develop relationship marketing capabilities; and collaborating with creative, media, marketing and technology to build a robust digital communications strategy for the client.

Clients:

* Develop and maintain the trust and respect of key client contacts
* Work with client teams to understand business challenges and devise analytical programs that aid in measuring and solving those challenges
* Present and rationalise program insight and analytics.
* Deliver analysis and learnings for all projects
* Develop understanding of the client marketplace and their overall business
* Understand and deliver the client analytical requirements


Analytics:

* Develop analytical processes and templates to aide Planning and Buying teams
* Develop client reporting templates and executive summaries
* Develop new revenue streams through analytical projects
* Applying various quantitative methods to analyze and interpret information from multiple data sources
* Preparing analysis and tracking of marketplace, technology and consumer demographic trends both within and across multiple industries
* Developing and maintaining functional expertise in one or more of the following disciplines; database marketing, integrated channel marketing (including web), analytical tools, techniques, and other infrastructure requirements
* Work with planning teams to ensure realistic KPI setting
* Work with internal teams to develop and/or activate strategies

Management:

* Contribute to creating and maintaining a culture in the team which enables innovation and proactive delivery of client expectations
* To ensure that strong communication channels exist between all parties involved on an account, creating the necessary forums, processes etc. are put in place to make this happen
* Workload management and prioritisation for self and the rest of the team


SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS:

* Experience in program measurement (online and/or offline), test design and financial modeling a plus
* Media tools and techniques (research & evaluation)
* Understanding of digital communications channels
* Basic understanding of offline media channels
* Analytical skills – evaluation of key trends in client & market media dynamics
* Financial/numbers awareness & understanding
* Workflow management
* Organisational skills
* Time management
* Planning and implementation
* Prioritisation
* Project management
* Effective delegation

Other Notes:
U M is an exciting place to work for the right person. We have a young and dynamic team that work on big and diverse clients. Our culture is one of play hard – work hard!


Your peers are:
Account Managers within U M and Media Owners (Ad Operations & Sales Execs) Representatives of relevant third parties


Other details:

* Years experience: 1+ years of business experience working in Management Consulting, Marketing, Advertising, or Interactive/Technology Consulting
* Academic profile: Bachelors degree in Business, Finance, Economics, Statistics, Marketing, or equivalent experience
* Language requirements: English written and oral essential (other languages) desirable
* Technology skills: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, MS Access, Business Objects, Crystal Reporting and other data manipulation tools

Executive - Sales Support & Projects


Job Responsibilities

* Support Global Account Managers on projects to produce sales oriented presentations and key customers' quarterly business review
* Conduct and analyse customer profile, industry, and financials to create presentations or reports to assist Global Account Managers/APAC countries to plan business strategy
* Conduct and analyse countries economic and business environment for strategic planning
* Support in provision of corporate information for customers' RFI
* Implement multiple projects successfully using project management skills of communication, presentation, time management, risk management, cost control/ budget management, organization and planning
* Conduct and evaluate customer/market research, market conditions and competitor data
* Support marketing plan implementation, sales tool kit creation, corporate gifts management and event management for the organization
* Maintain the department intranet site


Job Requirements

*Degree or Diploma in Logistics Management, Industrial Engineering, Marketing or Business Administration
*1-2 years sales/marketing working experience in the freight forwarding/ logistics/ industrial engineering
*Strong project management know how
*Ability to work under pressure
*Excellent Interpersonal/communication Skill
*Strong analytical skill / problem solving / resourceful
*Eyes for details and resourceful

*Strong computer literacy especially Microsoft PowerPoint skill

Executive Assistant

Job Responsibilities:

• Manages and coordinates the daily operations and logistics for the department.


• Directs the work flow and supervises the necessary administrative paperwork, records and complex filing systems to support the department.


• Initiates actions that improve the efficiency of work, reduction of costs, and/or improvement of quality of services.


• Schedules departmental meetings, prepares agendas, maintains meeting minutes and develops reports as requested.


• Assists Program Director in development of faculty process, departmental goals and objectives.


• Compiles, tabulates and reports data for surveys, questionnaires, census reports, accreditation reports and other forms and documents required by internal and external agencies.


• Provides other administrative assistance to Director and Manager as directed.


• Receives relevant training as required.


• Assists to set up the intranet.

Job Requirements:

• Degree with at least 3 years of revelant working experience.


• Ability to multi-task and work independently in a fast-paced environment.


• Proficiency in MS office application.

Regional Product Marketing Manager

THE JOB

This is a high profile product management position driving our client’s mobile product marketing and go-to-market relationships with partners with revenue impact in the millions of dollars.

You'll own the relationships with the alliance partners and roll out the marketing programs as agreed. In addition, you will have to co-ordinate the product requirements with product teams. You will also be responsible for the analytics of partners subscriber base and incentive programs.

You’ll in put in charge of marketing activities and co-ordinate the rollout of mobile products (XO and P2P) in APAC. You are also required to analyze markets trends and customer needs through extensive research and quantified studies, supporting business development teams and articulate value propositions with the regional marketing teams.


THE REQUIREMENTS

• Degree or Master in Marketing


• 10 years of working experience in the telecommunications industry


• 5 years of product marketing and partner management


• Technically inclined in telecommunication operating systems, carrier network, etc


• Dynamic and aggressive in driving marketing programs


• Ability to synthesize and drive products’ roadmaps based on industry trends and customer needs


• Ability to drive coordinated action through marketing, alliance and field organizations


• Rapid response to competitor positioning and strategies
  Excellent written and presentation skills

Business Projects Executive - MNC - Healthcare - Rebranding

Responsibilities:

• Pivotal role in the Rebranding Initiative for Asia. Work closely with the global and regional teams to manage the conversion of existing products to new branding and product packaging guidelines.


• Assist in the implementation of the Logistics and other cross-functional projects. Responsibilities include working with different departments to define requirements, map processes and implement the system to the region with proper training and documentation.


• Lead the Call-center projects for Customer service and Technical Service departments in Asia.


• Drive process simplification and streamline and document new procedures for the Planning, Customer Service, Logistics and Technical Service departments.


• Maintain and update Logistics standard operating procedures for the Asia region


• Prepare business propositions on new initiatives and technology to influence and gain acceptance from key stakeholders.


• Monthly Analysis of Logistics Key Performance Indicators.

Requirements:

• Education required/ preferred:    BA/BS required.


• Experience: 5 years professional experience.


• Prefer experience in Planning, Manufacturing, Customer Service, or Warehousing.


• Preferred Skills/Qualifications:   APICS certification or equivalent desired.


• Skills/Competencies: Good computer skills (especially Microsoft Office) required.


• Other Skills:BPCS experience a plus

Interesting Companies

Fondlight

Our company is 100% owned by the Batipart group which also owns “Korian” the largest network of nursing and elderly care facilities in Europe. (In 2009 Korian, across its 218 facilities had over 20,000 beds.

This should show that we are experts in nursing and rehab products, and have a firm understanding of what is required to provide medical equipment to industry professionals who really know what a good product is.

We provide Global Solutions to you:

-          We do all our own sourcing from all around Asia. We are confident we can source anything that is currently on the market

-          We have an established product range. Allowing you to quickly and easily diversify your product offering

-          We develop our own products with our in-house R&D team. We are able to make any modifications to any existing products, or help you develop new products from scratch. To match your exact requirements

-          We offer OEM for our customers to use their brand on our products. Helping you build your brand in the global marketplace

-          We handle all our own quality control. So you will never have to worry about any quality issues

-          We manage our own logistics. All you have to do is open your warehouse doors and let the goods in.

All of our products comply with the strictest European standards, and because we are the first stage supplier we are able to provide these at a very reasonable price whilst never compromising on quality.

Interesting Careers

• Intermediate level, highly trained Paramedic and Flight Paramedic personnel to fill vacancies in a fast expanding health care provider in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The Economic Opportunities as a Set player in the Chinese market

Witnessing how a small bed manufacturer, without a simple catalog for one of their models 10 years ago evolve into a world class 6 story office building and 100 mou di production facilities in total. That was yesterday, 9 July 2010.

The boss, whom Mr Loh knows and has some dealings in these past years, is probably a Billionaire. Not millionaire, but billionaire, even in rmb terms, hmm imagine the amount of money going into his company everyday.

Business is so good they have visitors every day from all over the world, that's everyday. A designated driver is hired with a 7 seater salon car just to fetch them from the airport and back.

Currently exporting to 14 countries, at least 100 beds are being produced every day. Prices in their exhibition room range from to gee i can't remember 1500 to 100,000 for the newest model.

Their office, well organized, board meeting room big, and soothing cream colors and seats with parquet flooring. Their exhibition room, damn huge considering normal exhibition booths of 9m2.

Being a regular participant in medical exhibitions, Mr Zhang has survived through the down turns and quality aspects, known slower lead times of up to 4 mths and slightly higher prices to emerge a ''set player in his field'', can't help think of the battle for unification of China in olden China.

All in all, his production facility bustles with positive energy, Ms Qian is sincere and easy going despite their success, reflecting his ability to use the right talent and instill a culture of oneness with his production people, where energy levels are usually very low from the repetitive and monotonous work.

The few 'Cheena' things that his facilities has are probably his slogan and beliefs for his entire company, then again which serves as a reminder which his people can understand and see every day as they come to work.

How to figure out what you should be doing with your life

http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2009/01/15/how-to-figure-out-what-you-should-be-doing-with-your-life/

A Penelope Trunk Article

There is no other way to figure out where you belong than to make time to do it and give yourself space to fail, give yourself time to be lost. If you think you have to get it right the first time, you won't have the space really to investigate, and you'll convince yourself that something is right when it's not. And then you'll have a quarterlife crisis when you realize that you lied to yourself so you could feel stable instead of investigating. Here’s how to avoid that outcome.

1. Take time to figure out what you love to do.

When I graduated from college, I was shocked to find out that I just spent 18 years getting an education and the only jobs offered to me sucked. Everything was some version of creating a new filing system for someone who is important.

Often bad situations bring on our most creative solutions. And this was one of those times: I asked myself, “What do I want to do most in the world, if I could do anything?” I decided it was to play volleyball, so I went to Los Angeles to figure out how to play on the professional beach circuit.

I spent my days on the courts, and late nights at the gym, and in between, I worked odd jobs in bookstores. And then I realized that the other thing I wanted to do was read. I had been so stifled in school being told what to read all the time. It was thrilling to be able to read whatever I wanted.

I wasn't making very much money. Sometimes I couldn't pay rent, and my landlord hated me. And sometimes I couldn't afford to wash my clothes and I pretended that bikinis never get dirty. But, in fact, you really don't need much money to figure out what you love to do, you just need time and space and a willingness to keep yourself busy until something sticks.

2. Take time to figure out what you can get paid for.

It took me a few years to navigate the arcane hierarchy of Southern California beach volleyball, but I finally played on the professional tour. For a summer. And what I found was that I am not nearly as competitive as the top players. I was, at one point, ranked 17, but I can tell you that I never cared as much about my rank as the other women.

What I did excel at, though, was winning sponsors, which, on some level, is what professional sports is all about anyway. I always had better sponsors even than women higher than me in the ranks, and I won partners and trainers by dint of my ability to attract sponsors.

But the truth about professional volleyball is that it is a really tough life. The eight hours a day on the beach starts getting old, and so do the Budweiser commercials I did (totally not fun) to manage to scrape together enough money to support myself.

So I thought to myself: Who is using the skills I have to make money? And I landed on marketing. And I had this boyfriend who was going to hire someone to do marketing at his Internet startup, so I volunteered to do it for free, to get something on my resume. And then I got a job.

3. Watch people around you to figure out who is happy.

I ended up having a pretty big job at a Fortune 500 company running their web site. Don't get me wrong. It was the earliest days of the Internet, and it actually took more people to redesign my blog recently than it did to launch that Fortune 500 site in the early 90’s.

But anyway, I started climbing the ladder and tons of people wanted to mentor me, to help me get to where they were. And they told me they were happy, but when I watched them, day in and day out, I realized that the people at the top of the ladder were not nearly as happy as I had expected them to be. They tucked their kids into bed from their phones at their desk. They were overdressed constantly and they had hair-trigger tempers for topics that seemed inconsequential to me.

So I went to where coolness seemed to be: At startups.

Now that I'm on my third startup, I can tell you with certainty that if you looked at my life you would not see that I am happy. Running a startup is really high risk and really difficult, and entrepreneurs work longer hours than anyone else. But I'm almost always there to eat diner with my kids, because I control my own hours.

So the final step of finding out where you should be is looking at everyone's life with a clear lens. Adult life is really hard. Finding out who we are, and finding someone to share our life with, and having kids and still having a life, and being able to pay for all of that: Impossible, really.

So you look around and see who is doing what part of that well. And you pick the sacrifices that they made. Because no life is perfect, but all lives have some things to offer. Be clear on what you're choosing and what you're giving up, and don't pick anyone's life if they tell you they have everything: they're lying.

How to know if you'll be good at sales

A Penelope Trunk

It’s clear to me that emotional intelligence is the most important skill for success in adult life. And the consummate career application of emotional intelligence is the sales department. So I’m fascinated by sales.

I used to think I’m not that good at sales. For example, I’m an open book—I have very little ability to bluff or play my hand close to my—actually, what is that expression? I don’t even know the expression.

But then, when I told one of my mentors that I’m not good at sales, he said, “Of course you’re good at sales. You’ve gotten three companies funded.” He’s right. I wanted to take back all the times I said I’m not good at sales. The thing is, I have a specific talent in this department: selling ideas.

I have gotten companies funded when they were still just philosophies about how a market will move, what the trends are, and what ideas will work. I have yet to raise a later round of funding, where the company is selling actual products or services with me raising money to sell them faster.

I’m also great at the consultative sale. I’m great at meeting someone who wants to think in new ways, and tossing some ideas back and forth and then going to lunch, or yoga, or commenting on each others’ blogs. I connect easily on ideas, and can close a sale there because the idea exchange is so rewarding.

There’s another kind of salesperson, though. The kind that can hit numbers, close tough deals with demanding customers, and compete effectively against the most cutthroat of their peers.

I am fascinated by this type of person. I don’t meet them a lot, which makes me nervous. Because I want to be more like them, and there’s a great piece by Clive Thompson in the New York Times about the Framingham Heart Study that shows that you become more like the people you hang out with. And it started to worry me that I don’t like hanging out with competitive types.

I know, you’re thinking, WHAT? But I’m never about getting the most money or getting up the ladder the fastest. I’m always about getting what I want to do when I want to do it—having the work that makes me happiest feeding the life that makes me happiest. Frankly, that is so much work for me that I don’t have any energy left to notice who is winning.

But it worries me. It worries me that in general, when I’m in hand-to-hand combat—on the volleyball court, in divorce court, in Ryan Healy’s office—I tend to give in so that the whole process ends sooner and I can get back to whatever is going on in my head. I always want to get back to thinking about ideas. And that desire makes me not the strongest competitor.

When I was flying two or three times a week, I sat beside a lot of sales guys.  And it is mostly guys. First Class is always full of men when you travel between smaller cities, and the odds of sitting next to someone in sales on any late-in-the-day, weeknight flight, is very high from any city.

I talked with sales guys a lot and mostly I learned that I don’t think like they do.

So it should come as no surprise that my company just had to hire one of these sales guys: Justin Rheinhardt. That’s his name. I loved hiring him because I knew my days of having to be a cutthroat closer were over. Justin is that. But also I loved hiring him because I learned so much from him in just two weeks.

For example, Justin was in recruiting, which makes sense because we are selling services that help recruiters. So I asked him why he wants to do sales instead of recruiting.

And he told me that if you’re a sales guy, you can’t be a recruiter, because good recruiters really care about placing the candidate where they fit. Good recruiters build relationships to help people over a long period of time—helping that person build their career on a path that works for them.

Justin just wants to sell, so he was closing instead of counseling. For Justin, the rush of the close is what drives him. Which I totally believe, because I don’t really have that. I have the rush of a good idea.

I talked to Richard Goldman, COO of Birkman International, a company that helps businesses make intelligent hires by using the Birkman Method for personality assessments. Goldman says, “If you’re a great team player, you probably don’t belong in sales. Salespeople are in it for themselves. They eat what they kill.”

I asked Goldman if he thought I could develop these skills, and he says that our underlying needs are set by age five or six, and our usual behaviors are set by age 22.

So it’s pretty clear to me that I’m not a salesperson, and I’m not an eat-what-I-kill sales person, plus I’m not going to become one either. I’m more of a convince-someone-else-to-go-out-and-do-the-killing person.

Also, Justin has a rule that you make your calls list at the end of the day, so that you can start calling right away in the morning. That calling part seems really hard to me. You have to be really driven to kill to be able to sit down and make calls every day.

But I know that if you want to be an idea person, you should sit down and write an idea first thing in the morning. And now, come to think of it, maybe you can tell who you are by what you require yourself to do first, every day.

How to edit your resume like a professional resume writer

A Penelope Trunk Article

It's very hard to write your own resume because a resume is a macro view of your life, but you live your life at the micro level, obsessing about daily details that have no bearing on your resume. So I recommend to a lot of people that they hire someone to help them. After all, spending money on a resume writer is one of the few expenditures that will have good return right away.

But some of you will be able to do a decent job rewriting your resume on your own. The first thing you'll have to do is make some mental shifts. You need to rethink the goals of a resume, and rethink the rules of a resume in order to approach the project like the best of the resume professionals.

Here are three ideas that guide professional resume writers and should guide you as well:

1. Don't focus on your responsibilities, focus on what you achieved.
A resume is not your life story. No one cares. If your life story were so interesting, you'd have a book deal. The only things that should be on your resume are achievements. Anyone can do their job, but only a small percentage of the population can do their job well, wherever they go.

The best way to show that you did your job well is from achievements. The best achievement is a promotion.It is an objective way to show that you impressed the people you work for. The next best way to show objective measures is to present quantified achievements.

Most people do not think in terms of quantified achievements when they are in the job, but on the resume, that's the only part of the job that matters. No one can see that you were a "good team player" on your resume unless you can say "established a team to solve problem x and increased sales x%" or "joined under-performing team and helped that team beat production delivery dates by three weeks."

If you are only putting achievements on your resume, you are going to be hard-pressed to fill a whole page. That's okay. Anything on your resume that is not an achievement is wasting space. Because you don't know what a hiring manager will look at first—and if you have ten good achievements and three mediocre lines about your life story, the hiring manager may only read those three lines—so remove them.

2. Don't make your resume a moral statement; it's a marketing document.
Think about when a company announced the launch of their product. First of all, the product is not done. Second of all, it has bugs. And third, the company is probably showing photos of prototypes and the real thing will look different.

All this stuff is fine. It's accepted practice for marketing. The company will tell you that they are doing their best to get you the information you want in the way they think is best for letting you know what your consumer options are.

You need to take the same approach with your resume, because a resume is a marketing document. The best marketing documents show the product in the very best light, which means using whatever most outrageous tactics possible to make you look good. As long as you are not lying, you will be fine.

Here's an example: You join a software company that just launched a product and the product had so many problems that they had to hire someone to handle the calls. You start doing the tech support, and you work tons of overtime because the calls are so backed up. You clean up the phone queue and then you start taking long lunches because there's not a lot to do, and then you start job hunting because the job is boring.

Here's how you summarize this job on your resume: Assumed management responsibility for tech support and decreased call volume 20%.

How do you know 20%? Who knows? It was probably more. But you can't quantify exactly, so err on the safe side. But if you just say "Did tech support for a software company" no one knows you did a good job.

There is a fine art of almost-lying-but-not-lying on a resume. You need to talk about it a lot in order to know where you fall on the spectrum. Here is a sample of my own family discussions about what is lying and what isn't.

3. Don't give everything away in the resume.
The idea of a resume is to get someone to call you. Talk with you on the phone. Offer you an interview. So a resume is like a first date. You only show your best stuff and you don't show it all.

Some people dump everything they can think of onto their resume, but a resume is not the only chance you'll have to sell yourself. In fact the interview is where the hard-core selling takes place. So you only put your very best achievements on the resume. Sure, there will be other questions people will want answers to, but that will make them call you. And that's good, right?

For those of you who can't bear to take off the twenty extra lines on your resume because you think the interviewer has to see every single thing about you right away, consider that we have statistics to show that people don't want to know everything up front. It does not make for a good match. Of people who got married, only 3% had sex on the first date.

How to Beat the System to get a Great Job

A Penelope Trunk Article

When you want to get a new job, don’t look at your resume to see what you could get. Instead, take time to build a resume that meets the requirements of the jobs you want. This doesn’t mean using keywords that are in the job description.

That is not going to work. Instead, look at the types of experience that are required to get the job you want, and then get yourself that experience.

1. Make up a project for yourself

You don’t need to be paid in order to put something on your resume. A resume is about experience, not income. So invent projects for yourself, and do them, and make sure you execute exactly what you need in order to put a bullet on your resume. For example, if you need to be able to say you executed national campaigns, then do one.

Jessica Goodman is a great example of this. She just graduated from the University of Denver and she’s looking for a job in public relations or marketing. Inevitably, the job she lands will involve social media. Because that’s where both industries are headed.

In the meantime, Jessica created a project for herself that showed her college counseling office why they should be teaching students how to job hunt with social media. (And she wrote a blog post about it.) This is a great project because whether or not the college does anything with it, Jessica conceived and executed a project to promote an organization-wide adoption of social media tools.

2. Work for free

You don’t need permission to get the experience you need to get the job you want. And you don’t need to be paid to do every piece of work. It’s true that if you work for free all the time, people will not value your work. And you’ll have to marry very rich, or starve. But work for free sometimes, when you can gain important experience that you can leverage to get high paying work.

The way I got a nationally syndicated column was to write my column for free for two years. That’s right. Every week for two years. And the way I got my first online marketing job was to nag my boyfriend for weeks and weeks until he let me do a marketing project for his company for free. (I did it for a project that involved U2, and I swear, that was my golden bullet for five years of interviews. Who doesn’t like to talk about U2?)

3. Use other peoples’ resumes to build yours

If you aim high – to jump a few levels in your field, or to switch fields but skip the entry level – then it’s sometimes hard to conceive of what a resume should look like for those jobs. The best way to make sure you have the right resume is to find people online who have already had the job you want. Look at their resume. Look at the bullet points they’ve collected.

Then transfer those bullets to your resume and start figuring out how to make them true for you. It’s focused skill-building and it’s very smart – you gain the exact experience you need to get the job you want. So much of what we accomplish at work is not relevant to the next job we want. It’s hard to control what you do in your job (but you should try). However, you can control the work you do for free. So start with the bullet you want to write for that work, and then maneuver yourself backwards into the work.

4. You don’t have to do everything perfectly, just try

It’s very hard to do something outside of what you know you're good at. Usually, the first time is extremely difficult, which is why I suggest you do it for free. Give yourself freedom to execute on a plan to get that special bullet on your resume even if the execution is not great. Perfection is totally overrated, and just having the guts to make an effort is totally underrated.


The first speech I ever gave was at a business school. It was a disaster. I thought it was supposed to be ten minutes and it was slated for fifty minutes. The speech sucked. But when it came time to write the bullet, I could say that I “give speeches at business schools.” This opened the door for me to give speeches at lots of schools. (And, good news, they have all gone really well since then. Here’s one.)

5. Have patience

You will need at least a few months to envision the resume that will land you the job you want, and then gather the bullets you need for that. It requires planning, and commitment, and a leap of faith – in yourself.

But really, all three of those characteristics make a great employee, so maybe that will be a bullet for your resume, too.

Top 10 Things To Do If You are Unemployed

Top 10 Things to Do If You Become Unemployed

GET CLEAR:

1. Financial assessment

Begin by doing a thorough review of your current financial situation:

· What are your monthly necessities? (rent, utilities, food etc..)

· What is the amount that you will need to cover these necessities?

· What choices do you have to make to ensure that you cover your necessities for at least three months?

· What costs can you reduce immediately?

Hoard your cash. Look for opportunities to save money: eat at home, downgrade cable packages, buy less expensive brands, borrow books and movies from the library, consolidate debt into one low interest payment- there are myriad money saving tips - seek them out and apply them.

2. Self-assessment 

Take this time to get really clear on what you want your next career step to be.

· What are your strengths?

· What are the activities that you want to be responsible for in your next job? What have you always (maybe secretly?) wanted to do?

· What aspects of your previous jobs have you loved? Why?

· What will you never do again?

Give yourself a chance to recharge and re-evaluate what you want to do in life and how you can best contribute. It can help a great deal to discuss this with someone who is objective: a coach, outplacement counselor, that friend who always listens without imposing their opinions.

GET READY:

3. Update your resume

Ensure your resume includes all relevant experiences and education, and then customize it for each specific job that you are applying for. Remember:

· Keep it simple. Flooding your resume with inane details is distracting.

· Highlight relevant experiences and describe them in quantifiable terms. Be specific about the results you have achieved and the contributions you have made to the business.

· Incorporate Company Terminology from the job posting into your resume. You raise your chances of having your resume noticed when you demonstrate that you know the organization's internal lingo.

Once you have updated your resume, connect with your references and let them know that you are job-searching. Only include those references that you are confident will give you a favorable review. If you're unsure, ask them.

4. Hire yourself as a headhunter 

You do have a job. You've just hired yourself as a full-time headhunter. Take the position seriously. This is a 9-5 job with daily objectives and weekly goals. That includes celebrating your successes with meaningful rewards. And, by the way, rejection is one of those successes. Use the interviewing process as a way to gain valuable information:

· What did you learn from the interview?

· What feedback did the recruiter give you for what you did well?

· What feedback did he/she give you for doing better the next time around?

· What did he/she say was missing?

Be Curious. This is your opportunity to learn valuable information about how people perceive you. If they don't give you any tips, ask for some. This feedback will help improve future performance.

5. Network

It is part of your headhunting role but important enough to single out on its own. Now is not the time to feel sorry for yourself, or let pride get in the way of letting people around you know that you are looking for a new position. Instead:

Frame Your Situation Positively: When networking, you don't need to share the sordid details of how you lost your job. You can say: "I am searching for a career that is going to allow me to contribute my best. I am letting you know because I trust you and I could use your help in making helpful connections. Here is my resume." This will yield better results than: "Sigh. I lost my job. Do you know anyone who's looking for people?"

Keep all channels open: Stay in touch with colleagues (particularly your manager) in your former organization as well as those who also lost their jobs. Re-hire opportunities may be more readily offered to those who've maintained contact, and people who've moved on could help you land a role at their new place of work.

6. Get your mindset right 

Having a confident mental attitude serves one immensely in the process of finding a new role. This is not just about thinking positively, this is about acting positively. Part of your weekly goals should include removing things that you've been tolerating in your life that have added to your stress.

· What are the 3 things you have been tolerating in your life?

· What would have to happen to ‘fix' these tolerances?

· How would it make you feel to address them?

Whatever you've been putting off in other areas of your life because you're "too busy working"- tackle it now. Not only will you feel productive when you tick these things off your list - it will also help reduce your stress. So, if every time you've stepped into your garage for the past seven years you've thought to yourself "I've got to get this place organized," get to it. If you've been planning that backyard garden, start digging.

GET GOING:

7. Expand your skills

Now is a great time to build your competency. What are the activities that you have a natural penchant for and interest in but no formal training? How about finally finishing your degree, learning a second language, honing an area of strength? Future employers will value the investment that you made in enhancing yourself enormously.

8. Take a platform job

There is no shame in taking on a job that helps you pay the bills even if it's not your ideal role or if it pays you less than previous positions. You are doing what it takes to take care of yourself and your family. No matter what role you are in, frame it as an opportunity to learn new skills, hone existing talents, meet and network with new people. There are a lot of benefits to taking a platform job while you continue the search for your ideal role.

9. Volunteer

Many organizations understand when a person has been out of work following a lay-off, particularly during times like these. They do not understand when a person has nothing concrete to show for that time. On top of contributing to your community, volunteering is a great way to demonstrate that you've shown initiative and not let your skills atrophy while you searched for gainful employment. Volunteering is also a very effective networking tool. You may meet a fellow volunteer who will be so impressed with your abilities they'll offer you work with their organization.

(Note: if you are receiving unemployment benefits, be clear whether volunteering impacts your eligibility. You may be considered "unavailable to work" on days when you're volunteering so you have to be very clear about when you will be available.)

10. Start your business.

Have you had an idea for a business that you've been working away on but never had the time to fully formalize? There are myriad free resources for individuals who want to start their own business and now you have the time to investigate and take advantage.

5 Things to Do When You're Unemployed. Hint: It's Not Job Hunting

A Penelope Trunk Article

Let’s say you get fired, or laid off, or you quit because after two weeks you know you’re at the worst company on the planet. In all of those cases, you will face the interview question: What happened at your last job?

Here’s the answer you should always give: “I left to do x.” And you fill in for x.

Which brings me to what you should be really focusing on when you are unemployed: Learning and growing. Because this is what you are going to talk about in job interviews.

Most people require about six months to get another job. This is a big chunk of time that you can piss away sending resumes to Monster and wondering why no one responds. But you cannot job hunt for eight hours a day. Really. You’ll go nuts. (Wait. Here’s a time-saving job hunt tip from my mom.)

So spend the time creating projects for yourself and executing on them. This is good for you mentally – because you are doing something meaningful with your time and that will keep your spirits up.

But this is also good for you in your job hunt. Because when you talk about why you left the last company, you spin it in a positive light by talking about how you are excited about doing what you are doing. Your interview should include you telling a good story about focused personal growth, and no one will get stuck on why you left your last job. Here are five ways to set that story up:

1. Create a job for yourself.

These projects can be wide ranging, but they have to show that you are driven, ambitious and focused. During one stint of unemployment, I worked for free for my boyfriend’s company for a couple of hours a day. That way I didn’t actually have a gap in my resume; a resume doesn’t show part-time or full-time and it doesn’t show pay or no pay. So volunteering at my boyfriend’s company for a couple of hours a day ended up looking like a full-time job on my resume.

2. Focus on ambition and execution and not so much on work per se.

Another time I got laid off I spent my days learning to swing dance. I took one or two lessons a day and practiced at night, and after my six months of job hunting, I was good enough to teach dancing just off Broadway. I didn’t put that on my resume, but when people asked me why I left my job, I told them about how I gave myself time to fulfill lofty goals as a swing dancer.

3. Start a blog about the industry you want to go into.

Blogging is a great way to keep up in your industry, network without looking desperate, and leverage the fact that you have more time on your hands that people who have jobs.

 Everyone who is unemployed should be blogging as a way to get their next job. Put your ideas out into the world and connect with people that way. This is why you want to be hired, right? For your ideas. So show them. The reason that people who blog have great careers is that bloggers are always thinking about issues in their industry. Show that side of yourself to people. Blogging takes a lot of time, sure. Bu you have a lot of time. So use it. Here’s my guide for how to start a blog.

4. Start a company.

Do you have a company idea? Try it now. During unemployment. There’s nothing stopping you. You have time, and you can try ideas to see which one sticks.

Also, whether or not your company does well, you’ll be able to talk about it in an interview as a huge learning moment that will deflect from any problems at your last job.

The company that never got out of your parent’s basement can sit on your resume as professionally as a stint in the Fortune 500. It’s all about how you write the bullet points: talk about accomplishments and learning.

5. Practice talking about yourself with everyone.

High performers practice for interviews. So now you know what you’re aiming for, but you need to talk about it with everyone – parties, at the gym, on the phone with friends. When they ask how you’re doing, talk about what you’re doing like you are in the job interview.

And the good news is that the better you get at talking like that, the more you will actually believe your story, the story that being unemployed is lucky because you have learning opportunities.

What’s important to remember here is that no one can tell you what experience you can gain and what you can’t. You don’t need a job in order to learn cool stuff and be on cool projects. You control what you do with your time and you can make it useful. Talk about that. There is no reason to talk about why the last job didn’t work when you can talk about the great things that leaving opened up to you.