Richard Maun

Author: moderncareers

  • Job Hunting Tips #5 …Pay Attention

    The smoking gun...but who was the real culprit in the story?
    The smoking gun…but who was the real culprit in the story?

    I have a confession to make. Well, erm actually not that one, tsk tsk, I’ll save that one for another time. No, this one is about paying attention to things, which is ironic, given that this week is all about attending skills. You’d have thought that I would do better, but sadly not so. You see it was the bacon’s fault.

    The bacon? I hear you ask. Yes, the bacon.

    You see I was cooking supper and had decided to turn some chopped boiled potatoes into roast potatoes, by frying them off. Given that oil likes to spit and spat I cunningly covered the pan with a plastic plate-lid, that is normally reserved for the microwave. Clever me! No oily mess.

    This is where the bacon comes in. I stabbed open a fresh pack of rashers and noticed a brownish tinge to the end of them and a faint odour. Clearly the pack was faulty and the bacon not worth risking. However, as I was pondering the way life sometimes offers you off-ish bacon, my eldest son, Theodore, suddenly yelped out:

    ‘Dad, look! Something’s wrong!’

    And as I turned to look at the cooker…oh dear…the plastic plate-lid was drooping and blobbing onto the hob, making the pan look as if I had just iced it, like a Disney-style cake. I flicked off the gas and carefully pulled off the remains of the cover, before it touched the rather pleasingly crisp potatoes, and knifed off the bits of stuck plastic from the edge of the pan. Phew, I had averted a possible fire there…and the lid was certainly ruined, but I may send it off to the Tate Modern as a piece of art, entitled ‘Plastic Menace (the dangers of not paying attention).’

    In a sense the same thing can happen at a job hunting interview, where a lack of attention can see your chances of success melting away. We all need to attend to the people we’re with, the questions we’re being asked and the environment at large. The same is true at any meeting, of course, so these points really apply anywhere.

    Here are my top 5 tips to improve our attending skills:

    1) Put the pen down. Waggling a pen, or going clicky-clicky with a biro is downright distracting. If we’re looking at a pen, then we’re not really listening to you.

    2) Put your hands in your lap. Waving arms can help to illustrate the size of the fish you caught at the weekend, but are often irritating when waved about with airy abandon at an interview.

    3) Look at the other person. If you’re staring at the ceiling, hoping the answer will appear there, then remember the other person can see you doing this. Instead; make eye contact as you’re talking.

    4) Smile. Obviously, don’t grin like a manic imbecile, or you will be taken as one. However, a warm smile imparts enthusiasm and helps to foster good feelings towards you.

    5) Nod and say ‘uh-huh’. This kind of tiny para-verbal gesture let’s the other person know you are attending to what they are saying. To them, it feels like you are paying attention.

    **Bonus Ball Time**

    Ok here’s one extra way to keep yourself attending to the other person. As they are talking, keep asking yourself this question to stay sharp:

    ‘If they ask me something now, how will I reply?’

    That’s all there is to it. I’m off to see what else I can melt on the hob and then to complain to the supermarket, because clearly someone wasn’t paying enough attention when they packed the bacon rashers.

    Oh Yes, That Promo Video

    Los Penguin Productions have posted the  Job Hunting Blues video on YouTube and please click through and enjoy it. It features Brian, our resident stunt man and he was great to work with, a real pro. And he was very happy to be able to read his own special, little copy of the book Job Hunting 3.0. If you know someone who is looking for work then please point them at Amazon where they can read reviews and order a copy of the big book.

    Find a Friend

    If you know someone who would be interested in this blog post please forward it to them, or ReTweet it, or let them know they can subscribe to regular emails via the box on the homepage. Many thanks.

    Next Week

    …we will have a look at the art of ‘contracting for success’, which can save people untold misery at Christmas…!! (Oh no, I mentioned the c-word)

  • Job Hunting Tips #4 …Do Something

    Brian does something to improve his chances of finding a job
    Brian does something to improve his chances of finding a job

    There are currently 2,470,000 people registered as unemployed in the UK, which is split roughly 1.46 million men and 1.01 women. I mention this because losing your job can feel like you’ve been cast into a snake pit, where your chances of getting out again seem slim and uncertain.

    In my experience, people looking for work seem to think they are in competition with all the 2,469,999 people who are also out of work. They tell me that it’s impossible to get a job in a recession (it isn’t). That there aren’t any jobs out there (there are). That nobody wants to hire them (this isn’t true). And so on…

    People give away their power by using negative words and scary statistics to frighten themselves into inaction. A classic example of this is when people say:

    ‘I’ve been made redundant.’

    Of course the truth is that they haven’t. The job has been made redundant. They remain a useful and talented person, who is looking for work.

    This post has the title ‘Do Something’ for two reasons. Firstly, if you change your language you retain your power and can set yourself up for energetic and productive job hunting.

    Secondly, and this for me is the BIG one, do something to cut down the odds against you. I’ve noticed in job hunting workshops about 40% of people own a useful job hunting book. If you buy a book and read it you’re now ahead of the 60% of people who know nothing and don’t invest in their own future.

    And I’ve come to realise that about 30% of people bother to properly prepare for an interview. By ‘properly prepare’ I mean rehearse their Minute To Win It, practise their STAR answers, know which questions to ask at the end of an interview and are aware of how to use attending skills to maintain contact with people.

    If you are one of six people waiting in turn for an interview, the chances are that only two of you will have prepared well enough. Would you like to be one of them?

    And finally, it’s true that networking is the smart way to find a job. How many job hunters make a concerted effort to go networking? About 10%. This means that if you go networking then you’ve left behind 90% of the unemployed herd and are competing with a much smaller pool of people. By the time you think about how many people with your skill set are actively networking, you might only be in competition with a few tens of people.

    So, if you really want to get a job please do something to increase your chances; buy a book (any relevant book), go networking and really prepare for your next interview.

    That way you know you won’t be competing with 2,469,999 other job hunters. You might just be competing with less than 100.

    Do something. Increase your odds in your favour. Do it today.

    **NEW** Video

    Here’s fun. My chums at Los Penguin Productions have posted a new Job Hunting Blues video on YouTube and you’re welcome to have a look. It features Brian, our resident job hunting stunt man. He was great to work with, a real pro.

    More Opportunities To Do Something

    The Minute To Win It, the STAR answers and much more useflness can all be found in the book Job Hunting 3.0. If you know someone who is looking for work then please point them at Amazon.

    Pass It On

    If you know someone who would be interested in this blog post please forward it to them, or ReTweet it, or let them know they can subscribe to regular emails via the box on the homepage. Many thanks.

    Next Week

    We’ll be looking at attending skills. How well do you engage with people?