Ultimate Career
Career Worth Living For!
I want an iPhone 3GS
Dec 17th
My sister-in-law and her family visited my family over a weekend last month and we had a good time catching up. Her son, Ryan, is 11 years-old this year and although I have known him since his birth and have even taken care of him for a short spell 4 years ago, he is growing up to be his own man and, entering his teenage years, he now tends not to enjoy adult conversation nor company.
Ryan spent most of the entire visit glued to my laptop computer that was in the living room where everyone was. I would peek at what he was doing occasionally (mainly to ensure he was not messing up my files) and found him on the Apple Computer website.
Specifically, he was on the iPhone pages of the Apple website.
Before I knew it, he interrupted the adults who were happily chatting away over coffee.
“Mom, look! The iPhone 3GS is so thin and it’s so cool!”
Three minutes later, he shouted again, “Mom, the 3GS can take videos and upload them to YouTube! Isn’t that something?”
Another 5 minutes later, he exclaimed, “Mom, there is voice command for the 3GS! Wow!”
This time, his mother responded, “Ryan, you don’t need an iPhone. I’m not buying one for you. You already have a mobile phone.”
It turned out that Ryan had been bugging his mother over the past week to get him the latest iPhone 3GS. And when I asked him why he needed an iPhone, he said, “Everyone in school has one and it’s really cool” to which I responsed, “Ryan, the iPhone cannot make you cool. Only you can.”
Of course, Ryan didn’t understand what I meant and he also didn’t get the iPhone 3GS he coveted.
From this little episode, it reminded me of the way most of us try to persuade, influence and convince others of something – in other words, our “selling” strategy.
And guess what? Job-hunting is a “selling” process whether you like it or not.
Most people think that the best way to sell is to do what Ryan did – promote the features of the product or service: The iPhone is thin, it can take videos, access the internet, and issue commands via voice, etc.
In job-hunting terms, most people promote ONLY their features thinking that those will sell: Their degree(s), work experience, internship experience, special skills, awards, extra-curricular activities, community service, professional memberships, etc.
Just like Ryan’s mother, the features of the iPhone 3GS meant nothing to her. They may be cool to Ryan but they do not appeal to his mother at all. In fact, an iPhone is expensive to buy and to maintain, especially for an 11 year-old.
Remember: To an employer, you are always on the right-hand end of this simple equation:
Profit = Revenue – Cost
To make business sense, you will only be hired IF:
1. You are affordable (i.e. low cost), and
2. You can generate sufficient value (or revenue) to cover the cost of employing you (i.e. high benefits).
And so, your features may be cool to you, but they will only be cool to the employer IF and ONLY IF they can generate benefits to the employer.
In order to sell successfully to employers, you must approach from the BENEFIT angle: How exactly will the employer benefit from having you on the team? What value can you bring.
No doubt, features can be part of the selling process to provide support for the benefits but features should never be the main focus.
Remember: We don’t buy features. We buy only benefits.
When Ryan understands this, he will be in time to get an iPhone 3GS for Christmas.
Write Me a Reference Letter
Nov 10th
It is graduate school application season and loads of students (that I know of in or from mainland China) are attempting to go overseas for their Master’s degree next September.
Other than the standardized tests like GMAT, TOEFL, GRE, and IELTS, many universities requirement a personal statement and at least 2 reference letters from every applicant.
Over the past 2 weeks, I have been approached (“ambushed” is a better word) by more than 10 students asking me to write them recommendation letters and/or personal statements. And these requests all came with deadlines, “I would like the letter by this weekend and I want 15 copies of it.”
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m always happy to help.
But these students are not doing it right.
First of all, they have not kept in touch since the final exams last semester (which ended in June 2009). For that matter, most of them didn’t even bother to know me or let me know them. So, out of the blue, I get students (yes, I do recognize their faces but…) suddenly appearing in my path or in my email inbox when they have never previously bothered to talk to me.
Secondly, they are outright demanding without being considerate. To ask me to do them a favour today (Tuesday) and give me a deadline of this weekend is presumptuous that I have all the time in the world, just sitting around as their beck-and-call.
Thirdly, they think they are the only ones asking me to help.
As more students approach me with the same request, I get the feeling that I am simply being used. For I know that, after getting what they want, they will once again disappear from my sights and email inbox. And Ethan Pang will only be a distant memory.
They have yet to learn that this world functions on the principle of reciprocity. In the real world, it’ll be very hard for future requests if there are no goodwill or favours returned for the current one.
Your Resume is Ordinary!
Apr 14th
If you are part of the 90% of the job-hunting population, your
resume is ordinary, boring, unattractive and … useless.
I say “useless” in the sense that it is not serving the purpose
that it was written for.
A resume is a personal leaflet intended to bring the potential
employer’s attention to the job-applicant’s capabilities,
competences, experiences, character and personality. It is meant to
“show-off” your features and the value that you can bring to the
company.
However, too many job-apllicants simply do not put in any effort
into crafting their resume (and, might I add, their cover-letter)
and opt to “follow the herd” without using their minds
appropriately to market and promote themselves (they search the
Internet for templates or buy resume-writting books from the
bookstore). After all, job-hunting IS a personal marketing and
promotion exercise.
How, then, do you market yourself through your resume? Here are the
top 10 resume tips you won’t get from anywhere else:
1. Keep your resume to 2 pages at most! Employers are busy and do
not have time to read (in fact, they don’t read, they skimp).
2. Give your resume a professional look. Make it look like it was
created by a professional instead of an amateur or student. Would
you read a leaflet or brochure that looks amateurish even if it was
stuffed in your face?
3. Your resume MUST carry a CORE message – that is, how do you fit
the job? What value will you bring if hired? Instead of stating
your “Career Objective,” I’d suggest that you state your unique
job-match message. Look at it this way, employers are not
interested in what you want, they are interested in knowing what
you can do for the company.
4. State your achievements in ALL your experiences, including
education. Most people will simply state what they have done (job
responsibilities/duties) and what education they have gone through.
What’s the point of telling employers that you have done
photocopying without telling them HOW WELL you did it? This is
similar to receiving your university results transcript that gives
only the subjects you have done but without the grades you have
achieved.
5. Leave out unnecessary and irrelevant items from your resume like
whether you are married, your passport/ID number, your photograph
(unless required or you are applying for a sales position),
referees.
6. There is no need to list your referees in your resumes. There is
also no need to say “Referees available upon request.” It is a
given that you have referees ready for work verification and
experience checking.
7. List items in reversed chronological order in each section. This
means, the most recent ones should be listed first.
8. If you are a freshgraduate, your education section should come
first (after your particulars, job-match message, and brief
professional profile) followed by experience, affiliations,
awards, non-work involvements, skills.
9. If you are have work experience, exhibit your experience section
before education.
10. Make the resume content easily readable. Use active verbs and
tangible numbers and percentages (e.g. Increased the company market
share by 100%) with bullet points instead of paragraphs of
description.
Remember this: If you follow the herd, you will step on sh*t. : )
Communicate to Succeed
Jan 21st
How strong are your communication skills?
In this day and age in which technology is abundant, the way that we communicate with one another has evolved within the business world. While face-to-face communication is still important, learning how to communicate using digital technology is also crucial when entering the work force. To succeed in your career, seek to master your communication face-to-face, within a group, over the telephone and through email.
Face-to-Face Communication
There will be numerous opportunities for you to communicate with co-workers and superiors within your chosen career. There are a few things to keep in mind when working to display strong communication skills, including:
> Always make eye contact with the individual speaking to you
> Turn off all other electronic devices within a meeting to eliminate distractions
> Actively listen- seeking to understand what the speaker is saying by asking probing and clarifying questions as needed. Use statements like, “I may be wrong but what you are saying is …”
> Sit up straight and model your body language to match that of the person speaking to you (this established rapport)
> We unconsciously like people who are similar to ourselves. And a very easy work to establish rapport with someone is to behave like them through matching or mirroring body language, voice tone, tempo and pitch of speech.
Group Meeting Communication
In most organizations, group meetings are commonplace. You may be required to attend conferences, staff meetings or training sessions throughout your service within an organization. Follow these tips to increase your communication skills when within a group setting:
- > Sit near the front of the group or near the speaker
- > Take notes to show the speaker that you are engaged in what they are saying
- > Remain focused on the meeting’s objective(s)
- > Hold all questions until the designated question and answer session; refrain from interrupting the speaker
- > Use questions to clarify a point or communciate a point
- > If your question would benefit the group as a whole, ask it at the appropriate time
- > If your question is more individual in nature, speak with the speaker privately
- > To increase your credibility even if you don’t have a question, formulate a question that would show insight and attention to the subject matter and ask it during the question and answer portion of the presentation
Teleconference Communication
A growing number of organizations are using teleconferencing (sometimes called “conference calls”) or even webcasts to communicate messages to a large corporate audience. If you are on a teleconference, be sure to adhere to the following etiquette:
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> Place your phone on mute to eliminate any background noise while on the call
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> Participate in the call from a landline, not a cell phone to reduce interference or background noise or dropping from the call
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> Take notes to refer to after the call as well as to note any questions you have about the material being covered
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> Some teleconference call systems allows recording for retrieval and reference later. You can check with the teleconference organisor for information on this.
Email Communication
Email is the standard of communication in most organizations. Whether you are a student or professional, you should set aside time each day to handle emails. Here are some quick tips on communicating through emails:
- > Always proofread emails prior to sending them
- > Spell and grammar check all emails prior to sending them
- > Emails are made up by only words which lacks the necessary tone and body language to construct the intended meaning. Hence, use email sparingly to have conversations instead as the nature of an email can often be misconstrued and misinterpreted. Instead, schedule a phone call, teleconference or face-to-face meetings to discuss issues and matters.
- > When using emails at the workplace, avoid including personal comments or opinions (especially negative ones) as emails are hard records which can be forwarded (whether intentionally or not) or referenced.
- > Always review the “reply all” function to ensure that material is being sent to the correct parties. Be cautious when forwarding or replying an email to all or a distribution list as the content of one email may contain sensitive or private information not suitable for unintended recipients.
By working to master communication in each of these media, you will be improving your overall corporate communication.