Business

4 Mental Shifts to Boost Your Job Search Success

Published

1 year ago

September 21, 2023

Nick Kossovan

Job Searches Are Full of Uncontrollable Factors

A job search requires the following mental frames:

Respect(Respect the employer’s hiring process.)
Persistence(Persistently persevere in your job search.)
Patience (Be patient with an employer’s hiring process, which is at a pace that suits them.)

Shifting your mindset is necessary to embrace all three mental frames. Everything starts in your mind; hence, a job seeker’s mindset is the most significant asset to determining their job search success. Your mindset creates everything — everything is consciousness — therefore, you need to adjust your mindset to work for you rather than against you.

New mindset = New results

I believe the following four mental shifts would greatly benefit every job seeker and help them embrace the mental frames I mentioned, resulting in faster job search success:

Kill your ego.

Your ego is not your friend, especially when job searching. If you allow your ego to lead you, two things happen:

You feel entitled.
You believe you have more options than you actually do.

Your ego’s job is to feel important; its survival depends on it. Your ego needs to fight and defend itself. It needs negative situations so it can have something to do, worry about, or something to change. So, even if you are happy, your ego will look for negative situations, no matter how small. Essentially, it will try to persuade you that your value can only be gauged by how well you compare with others, which is harmful during a job search. Your job search is uniquely your own, as is your career. Comparing yourself to the “projected” success, which we all know is easy to manufacture, of others wastes time you could use towards your job search.

When you let your ego control your life, you never feel relaxed or happy, nor will you embrace the three mental frames. Your ego will keep telling you, “It must be done my way!” Recognizing your limits (level of hunger), abilities, and reaches is critical. Learn to manage your ego, your expectations and yourself… as much as you may wish you could, you cannot control how employers choose to hire.

I highly recommend you read Ego Is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday.

Think of your odds.

As hard as it may be to admit, if you are looking for a job today, you are facing fierce competition. Most likely, you are competing against candidates who are younger, more skilled, and hungrier than you. In other words, you are not as “qualified” or “an asset” to employers as you think you are.

Thinking of your odds — asking yourself ‘What are my chances?” — is one of the best job search strategies you can adopt. The key is not simply asking yourself, “What are my chances?” when you come across a job opportunity that interests you, but honestly assessing your chances to do everything you can to increase your odds for success.

You can improve your odds by:

Being persistent and resilient during your job search and learning from your failures.
Seek advice from those who are doing the job you want. (The best career advice I ever received was when I asked the person who was where I wanted to be, “How did you get to where you are today?”)
Manage your energy throughout the process by understanding your emotions and how they affect your efforts and success. (There is no shame in talking to a therapist to understand yourself.)
Leverage your contacts and networks. (Today, more than ever, job search success depends on being referred.)

Throughout your job search, do everything you can to increase your odds of success, the number one being the job search advice I give to all job seekers: “Search for your tribe!”

If you are struggling with your job search, I guarantee it is because you are trying to fit into companies where you do not belong. Searching for your tribe will dramatically increase your odds of job search success. Do not look for a job; look for your tribe.

Want it, do not need it.

Being desperate is a turnoff. Whether you are trying to get the woman of your dreams interested in you, negotiating a deal on a new automobile, or interviewing for a job you really want, acting or seeming desperate will work against you.

Having a laid-back attitude and being confident prevents you from looking desperate. You achieve this by making the mental shift to not care so much. Trust me, not caring so much, to a degree, will benefit you on many levels.

Think how you can offer solutions.

“You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.” – Zig Ziglar

When meeting someone for the first time, the easiest way to connect is to ask yourself, “How can I help this person?” Employers value employees who create measurable value for their business. Therefore, when interviewing, keep asking yourself, “How can I help this person?” or “How can I make a meaningful and measurable difference to this company?” and notice how it changes how you conduct yourself.

_________________________________________________________

Nick Kossovan, a well-seasoned veteran of the corporate landscape, offers “unsweetened” job search advice. You can send Nick your questions to artoffindingwork@gmail.com

Business

What Difference Will You Make to an Employer?

Published

4 hours ago

October 21, 2024

Nick Kossovan

It’s common knowledge that companies don’t hire the most qualified candidates. Employers hire the person they believe will deliver the best value in exchange for their payroll cost.

Since most job seekers know the above, I’m surprised that so few mention their Employee Value Proposition (EVP). Most job seekers list their education, skills, and experience without substantiating them and expect employers to determine whether they can benefit their company; hence, most resumes and LinkedIn profiles are just a list of opinions—borderline platitudes—that are meaningless and, therefore, have no value. Job seekers need to better explain, along with providing evidence, how they’ll contribute to an employer’s success.

Employers don’t hire opinions (read: talk is cheap); they hire results.

You’re not offering anything tangible when you claim:

I’m a great communicator.
I’m detail oriented.
I’m a team player.

Tangible:

“At Global Dynamics, I held quarterly town hall meetings with my 22 sales reps, highlighting our accomplishments, identifying opportunity areas, and recognizing outstanding performers.”
“For eight years, I managed Vandelay Industries IT department, overseeing a staff of 18 and a 12-million-dollar budget while coordinating cross-specialty projects. My strong attention to detail is why I never exceeded budget.”
“While working at Cyberdyne Systems, I was part of the customer service team, consisting of nine of us, striving to improve our response time. Through collaboration and sharing of best practices, we reduced our average response time from 48 to 12 business hours, resulting in a 35% improvement in customer feedback ratings.”

These examples of tangible answers provide employers with what they most want to hear from candidates but rarely do; what value the candidate will bring to the company. Typically, job seekers present their skills, experience, and unsubstantiated opinions and expect recruiters and employers to figure out their value, which is a lazy practice.

Getting hired isn’t based on “I have an MBA in Marketing and Sales,” “I’ve been a web designer for over 15 years,” “I’m young, beautiful and energetic,” blah, blah, blah. Likewise, being rejected isn’t based on “I’m overqualified,” “I’m too old,” “I don’t have enough education,” blah, blah, blah. Getting hired depends entirely on showing employers that you can add value and substance to their company; that you’ll serve a purpose.

When you articulate a solid value offer, the “blah, blah, blah” doesn’t matter. Job seekers focus too much on the “blah, blah, blah,” and when not hired, they say, “It’s not me, it’s…” The biggest mistake I see job seekers make is focusing on the “blah, blah, blah”—their experience and education—believing this is what interests employers. Hiring managers are more interested in whether you can solve the problems the position exists to solve than in your education and experience.

Not impressive: Education

Impressive: A track record of achieving tangible results.

You aren’t who you say you are; you are what you do.

If you want to be somebody who works hard, you have to actually work hard. If you want to be somebody who goes to the gym, you actually have to go to the gym. If you want to be a good friend, spouse, or colleague, you have to actually be a good friend, spouse, or colleague. Actions build reputations, not words.

The biggest challenge job seekers face today is differentiating themselves. To stand out and be memorable, don’t be like most job seekers, someone who’s all talk and no action. Any recruiter or hiring manager will tell you that the job market is heavily populated with job seekers who talk themselves up, talk a “good game” about everything they can “supposedly” do, drop names, etc., but have nothing to show for it.

More than ever, employers want to hear candidates offer a value proposition summarizing what value they bring. If you’re looking for a low-hanging fruit method to differentiate yourself, do what job seekers hardly ever do and make a hard-to-ignore value proposition.

Increase sales: “Based on my experience managing Regina and Saskatoon for PharmaKorp, I’m confident that I can increase BioGen’s sales by no less than 25% in Winnipeg and the surrounding area by the end of 2025.”
Reduce cost: “During my 12 years as Taco Town’s head of purchasing, I renegotiated contracts with key suppliers, resulting in 15% cost savings, saving the company over $450,000 annually. I know I can do the same for The Pasta House.”
Increase customer satisfaction:“During my time at Globex Corporation, I established a systematic feedback mechanism that enabled customers to share their experiences. This led to targeted improvements, increasing our Net Promoter Score by 15 points. I can increase Dunder Mifflin’s net promoter score.”
Save time: “As Zap Delivery’s dispatcher, I implemented advanced routing software that analyzed traffic patterns, reducing average delivery times by 20%. My implementation of this software at Froggy’s Delivery can reduce your delivery times by at least 20%, if not more.”

If you want to achieve job search success as soon as possible, structure your job search with a single thread that’s evident and consistent throughout your résumé, LinkedIn profile, cover letters and especially during interviews; clearly convey what difference you’ll make to the employer.

_____________________________________________________________________

Nick Kossovan, a well-seasoned veteran of the corporate landscape, offers “unsweetened” job search advice. You can send Nick your questions to artoffindingwork@gmail.com.

Business

Netflix’s subscriber growth slows as gains from password-sharing crackdown subside

Published

4 days ago

October 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

Netflix on Thursday reported that its subscriber growth slowed dramatically during the summer, a sign the huge gains from the video-streaming service’s crackdown on freeloading viewers is tapering off.

The 5.1 million subscribers that Netflix added during the July-September period represented a 42% decline from the total gained during the same time last year. Even so, the company’s revenue and profit rose at a faster pace than analysts had projected, according to FactSet Research.

Netflix ended September with 282.7 million worldwide subscribers — far more than any other streaming service.

The Los Gatos, California, company earned $2.36 billion, or $5.40 per share, a 41% increase from the same time last year. Revenue climbed 15% from a year ago to $9.82 billion. Netflix management predicted the company’s revenue will rise at the same 15% year-over-year pace during the October-December period, slightly than better than analysts have been expecting.

The strong financial performance in the past quarter coupled with the upbeat forecast eclipsed any worries about slowing subscriber growth. Netflix’s stock price surged nearly 4% in extended trading after the numbers came out, building upon a more than 40% increase in the company’s shares so far this year.

The past quarter’s subscriber gains were the lowest posted in any three-month period since the beginning of last year. That drop-off indicates Netflix is shifting to a new phase after reaping the benefits from a ban on the once-rampant practice of sharing account passwords that enabled an estimated 100 million people watch its popular service without paying for it.

The crackdown, triggered by a rare loss of subscribers coming out of the pandemic in 2022, helped Netflix add 57 million subscribers from June 2022 through this June — an average of more than 7 million per quarter, while many of its industry rivals have been struggling as households curbed their discretionary spending.

Netflix’s gains also were propelled by a low-priced version of its service that included commercials for the first time in its history. The company still is only getting a small fraction of its revenue from the 2-year-old advertising push, but Netflix is intensifying its focus on that segment of its business to help boost its profits.

In a letter to shareholder, Netflix reiterated previous cautionary notes about its expansion into advertising, though the low-priced option including commercials has become its fastest growing segment.

“We have much more work to do improving our offering for advertisers, which will be a priority over the next few years,” Netflix management wrote in the letter.

As part of its evolution, Netflix has been increasingly supplementing its lineup of scripted TV series and movies with live programming, such as a Labor Day spectacle featuring renowned glutton Joey Chestnut setting a world record for gorging on hot dogs in a showdown with his longtime nemesis Takeru Kobayashi.

Netflix will be trying to attract more viewer during the current quarter with a Nov. 15 fight pitting former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson against Jake Paul, a YouTube sensation turned boxer, and two National Football League games on Christmas Day.

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Business

All Magic Spells (TM) : Top Converting Magic Spell eCommerce Store

Published

4 days ago

October 17, 2024

Sven Eggers

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