Job Search Mistakes You Probably Still Commit

Through the years, hiring managers have been witness to all kinds of interviews, resumes, hiring and negotiation errors. You may think you know them all and that you’ve avoided them throughout your career, but you might just be surprised at mistakes that you still repeatedly do. Whether you’re applying for a manager job or a director job, you can increase your chances of getting hired by avoiding these job search mistakes:

• You judge a job based on the description. A lot of executives miss their dream job just because it doesn’t sound like their dream job. Instead of going to the interview, they decide based on just a statement they see in the job posting.

• You take one interview at a time. Job seekers have a tendency to think that once they interview for a job, they will get an offer. This results to a long waiting time and a slow job search.
• You give out references you haven’t checked in a long time. If your reference is still your college professor, you might lose your offer just because the hiring manager couldn’t contact him anymore. Worst, your references might not remember you anymore!
• You haven’t got the thank-you note down. The thank-you note is probably the most overlooked job search tool that executives miss. Either it’s always just a two-sentence email that comes off as flippant, or a boring paragraph reminiscent of a literature piece.
• You don’t consider temporary positions. A lot of companies that are looking for temporary employees are actually the ones that are on the verge of a breakthrough. Moreover, some companies offer temporary positions but in the future hire employees as full-time staff, as long as they see the potential and the skills.
• You miss out on the attitude and personality factor. A lot of times, hiring managers are after the one executive who is pleasant to be with and has a personality that will blend well with the team. One trick is to take out the applicant to lunch. If you’re rude to the waiters or if you come off as an arrogant individual, the hiring manager might hire the less skilled yet more pleasant than you.
• You have a messy bag/hair. Your appearance is a big deal to your hiring manager. Unless you are applying for a graphic artist position in a relatively young firm, you need to ensure that even the interiors of your bag are clean. You’ll never know when you’d have to open it and search for a pen. If it takes you a minute just to locate your pen in your bag, you might just have failed your test.

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Questions to Ask before You Shift Industries

How many times have you seen graduates running out of Singapore jobs to have, just because they thought that the industry of their time would still be the industry on their graduation? As an executive, you have a lot more to lose than students who just freshly graduated from college. So if your reason of shifting industries is only the money and the amount of opportunities in it, then you need to think more deeply about it.
However, if you have more reasons that are valid and will help you in your career advancement, you may be right in your intention to chase another industry. Make sure, though, that you answer the following questions before you make your move:

• Is the shift necessary for your success? Managing a team of writers is much different from managing a team of programmers. Will moving to the IT industry help you in your managing career, or will it be a detour?
• Is the new industry suited for your skills? If you intend to shift from an accountant job to a sales job, you need to know if you can handle all the new tasks that will come from being a sales executive. You would have to meet with people, interact with them all the time. If you have no intention to master your people skills, then it is best to concentrate on industries and jobs that are more technical than requiring of interaction.
• Have you seen anybody doing the job you want to have? Maybe you only have a vague picture of what it’s like to be in the industry that you are eyeing. It would be best if you can try being a shadow of an executive who’s in the position you want to be in. Shifting industries is a big decision, and so you need to do everything in your position to have an idea of what you will be walking into once you make the shift.
• Can you really do it? Given that the industry shift will do great for your career, you still should evaluate the situation relative to yourself. For instance, if you really want to shift to the IT industry, you should be ready for stressful nights away from home because you need to finish a program. You should also be prepared for quiet times in the office while everybody gets busy coding or rushing deadlines. It may be best to stay in the creative world of writing and focus on managing people and motivating them to do better than yesterday.

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How to Get Your Idea Approved

Do you have this one big great idea that will benefit your company greatly, and that will ultimately catapult you to success? Then great! All you need to do is to pitch it to your boss and then they’ll execute your idea, and you’ll be the next big thing in banking jobs. Right?
Wrong. While your idea may seem like the next best thing to curing cancer, it may not be a smooth sailing ride to get it approved. Worse, apathetic bosses and colleagues who think that your idea is too outlandish may even reject it.
Take it one step at a time and make your way towards getting your idea proposed, approved and executed. You get all the credit in the end, so you can’t say these steps are too difficult:

1. Make sure that you yourself won’t back down on the idea. If you’re not sold out on your idea, one “That won’t work” can break your spirit and send your wonderful idea down the drain.
2. Write it down. What, exactly, is this idea of yours? You will be asked questions, so you better make sure that each and every detail is clear and planned. This will also help you define your idea and make it more realistic.
3. Ask others for feedback. Before taking your proposal to the big bosses, why not have a chat with your colleagues and ask them for their feedback on your idea. Their inputs will help you refine your proposal and make it ready for the big submission to the bosses.
4. Research. You need to evaluate if your idea is relevant to the company at this time. Look for documents that can support or weaken your idea, and work around these if you can. If you find out that your idea should be shelved at the moment, then just keep it. It will be better to pitch it on the day when it is much needed, then to pitch it today and have it rejected.
5. Research some more. If you find that your idea can actually work, the next thing to do is to tailor-fit it to your company and industry. Assess the problems that your idea will solve, and get down to numbers if you need to. Read business magazines and other trade publications to have a good grasp of the industry and how your idea may be materialized.
6. Prepare for the proposal. Put it in writing and hand out copies to everybody who has a say in the decision. If you will be asked to pitch the idea to a panel or a group of people, come prepared with a presentation. And make sure hat your script highlights the advantages of your idea. Will it cut down the need to fill in finance jobs? Will it improve the business process or shorten the time it takes to deliver to clients? Imagine your proposal as a sales pitch, and you’re convincing your audience to buy what you’re selling.

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Find a Good Mentor

Executive jobs and rank and file positions are filled with people who need somebody who can help them reach their goals.  Easy to say, but most of the time difficult to have and do. For one, mentors may be hard to find. Moreover, professionals in the executive level may think that they don’t need a mentor anymore, and that they themselves should be mentoring somebody.
While it is a good idea for any executive to mentor a young professional or somebody who’s on his way to where the executive is currently in, it remains a fact in life that learning can never stop. As long as you are willing to improve yourself, as long as you are eager to learn more, then you should still be under mentorship.
Still unconvinced? Here are the perks that you will get if you have a mentor, perks that you will not get from anywhere else:

• You will have access to key contacts in your network. Your mentor would have more connections in the higher-ups and the bigwigs of your industry. Having a professional relationship with him is like having a gate pass to your industry’s top professionals and opportunities.
• You can be guided on how to build relationships in the industry. Your mentor may have had years of building a network of contacts. He may know how to navigate the culture and the landscape of your corporate zone, and he can pass on to you tips that will help you get to where you want to be.
• You may be directly referred by your mentor to top players in the industry. For one, your mentor may also be a highly respected personality in your industry. That’s a bonus point, aside from the fact that you will be referred to positions that are inaccessible to most executives. If you are an accounting executive, you will have inside information on the accounting jobs that may not be advertised or announced, and are only referral-based.
• Your mentor may recommend you for huge projects. You’re his prodigy. In a sense, you are his huge project, and so he will be proud about you. Your mentor vouching for you is also great for him. His authority in the field will be established, and his expertise will be highlighted all the more.
• If you want honest feedback, your mentor will give you honest feedback. After all, why would you want somebody to teach you things without accepting the fact that you will be criticized and scrutinized until you reach almost perfection? From your personal communication skills to the way you dress and your business strategy, expect your mentor to treat you like his own child. After all, you will be associated to him as his mentee.

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Entrepreneur/Executive: Possible?

While it is highly possible for executives to dream of setting up their own business, a lot of them toss their dream to the trash bin thinking how impossible it is to juggle a corporate job and being a business owner. However, some executives are unstoppable and are able to manage both a business and a well-running career. How in the world do they do that? Here are the things that they did in preparing for launching a business:

• Working super overtime. Executives have their hands full, and running a business is not an easy feat. An executive/entrepreneur acknowledges that he would have to work overtime to accomplish tasks for both his day job and his business. This includes all-nighters and few to zero free weekends.
• Having two super demanding job. Notice the superlatives already? Being an entrepreneur and being an executive will require you to be attentive to two jobs that are both mind-wrecking at times. Unless your idea of having a business is placing your money on a company that you own but not manage, you would have to recognize the fact that both your business and your current job as an executive will demand a lot from you.

• Managing stress. You won’t have to manage your business and two different teams, you would also have to do some management on yourself as well, stress management that is. Don’t worry though, as discouraging as these preparation tips may seem, so are the results of persevering worth it. Hold on and always look on the positive side so that stress won’t get the better of you.
• Take your time. One of the best ways to manage your stress and to balance your work and your life is to think that you shouldn’t be in a rush. You shouldn’t be in a rush in your day job, and you shouldn’t be in a rush in your business. Pad your schedules to give yourself ample time for accomplishing tasks, and so that you can insert some personal times in between.
• Don’t compromise one for the other. Just because you own a business doesn’t mean that you should compromise the quality and time that you give to your full time job. It’s called full time for some reason, and you’re an executive for better reasons as well. You know your company rules; make sure that you don’t go beyond those. If you can insert some business tasks in your 9 to 5 schedule, well and good. However, if it will cost you your job, better be safe than sorry.

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Revolutionize the Way You Lead

If we were to travel back in time, the bosses and the employees would act much different than how subordinate-leader relationships work now. Executive jobs were filled in by bosses were tyrants, and their favourite sight was that of their employees’ scared faces. This is the exact opposite of the corporate landscape of today, and most of it is defined by the new breed of leaders who aren’t tyrants but get the most results and the best outputs.
The scene
The executive leader of today inherited the result of years of progress. Tighter competition across all industries, more demanding clients, rapid technological advancements and more competent executives make for a brand new and even more challenging landscape for professionals today.

Add to that employees who are mostly composed of the Generation Y kids, young professionals who can even be more demanding than the customers of the company. They have a long list of what they want in a job, and a critical eye on the bad boss. The good boss, in their definition, is a rock star who they can look up to.

The requirements
Now, given the current corporate scene, what exactly is it required of an executive who wishes to make his mark? How should he lead? First, he needs to recognize that leading is not simply having a position to command and demand. Instead, it is a responsibility given to a worthy individual who is seen to be fit in maintaining relationships within and outside of the company while at the same time overseeing other business matters. So if you think that being a leader is all about class and Starbucks coffee, you might get disappointed to find out that the executive has the muddiest hands among all the workers in the field.

• Vision. A good leader knows the vision of the company, and is able to cast the vision to his team. He should be clear with his strategies that will definitely take the whole team to the direction that the company wants to steer to. How can you cast the vision of innovation to your team composed of professionals with accounting jobs and programming jobs? That’s your task.
• Creative. A visionary leader should be creative enough to think of unconventional and ingenious ways to cast and capture the vision of the company. Just imagine if all people who had a vision were creative enough to execute their plans, then we would have such an ideal place. However, creativity seems to be an endangered trait thanks to the instant solutions such as the Internet and other technological advancements. A leader can think creatively even amidst all the available resources and cheats.

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Branding Tips for Introverts

Every executive has his own personal brand attached and associated to him. Through the years of experience and accomplishments, and the many relationships that you have already forged, your name may already be attached to a perception, in other words, a brand. Whether you’re in the finance jobs or banking jobs sector, or in relationship-centric positions such as directorial and managerial positions, branding is more than essential.

However, your brand is not necessarily something that comes naturally to you through time. In fact, you can work on your executive brand to direct it to the direction that you want to take. Through relationships and interactions with other industry executives, you can establish yourself in a way that you want to be perceived.

But what if you are introvert? What if you don’t enjoy building relationships as much as you enjoy programming or brainstorming on your latest marketing strategy? Well, as they say, if there’s a will, there is definitely a way. Below are some tips designed for introverts that will get you on your way to building your brand:

• Choose a few executives to forge relationships with. You most likely would not like the idea of speaking in public and shaking the hands of a hundred people in a single industry event. That is why the best thing to start your branding strategy is to have talks with a few people, and work your way from there. Ensure that the relationships you build are strong and beneficial to both parties.
• Make sure you speak about your accomplishments. A lot of introverts find themselves underrated just because they do not speak much about anything, even about the braggable things such as professional accomplishments. If you think that mentioning your career milestones is unacceptable, then just think of how much more unacceptable it is to just wait for somebody to bring up what you have already achieved. You should take it upon yourself to speak about yourself for the sake of your career.
• Don’t be hard on yourself. Introverts can be too hard on themselves because of the high standards that they have. If you’re too cautious about what you project or share to other people, you will never get anywhere. Don’t be afraid of the mistakes that may show once you put yourself in the more public areas of your industry.
• Don’t be afraid to share. Like we said earlier, there’s not use hiding from anybody. If you’re too uncomfortable with the idea of semi-bragging about your accomplishments, why not offer help to people instead? This way, you will be perceived as a generous and kind expert who’s only a bit shy.

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Networking Mistakes Executives Make

Networking is one of the biggest buzz words today. It is a must for executive jobs as much as it is for rank and file employees. Because of its increasing popularity, it is sometimes misused and abused. For one, networking is sometimes seen as a way to give out as many business cards as possible, without acknowledging how it is supposed to be a two-way thing.

Let’s get one thing straight. Networking is about building relationships, not about marketing or selling yourself. To make sure that you don’t make it into something it’s not supposed to be, here are networking mistakes that you need to avoid or stop doing:

Being too shy to be specific
Surely you have more concrete plans than simply wanting to build a company that you own and using the skills that you learned in the corporate world. If you want to be helped by executives, you should bounce off ideas that will stimulate the minds of the people you talk with, instead of taking them into the cloud where there’s nothing but fluff.

Abusing Internet Networking and Not Maximizing Personal Opportunities
LinkedIn and other professional social networks are great avenues to build a network of professionals and executives. You can find groups for those who are excels in accounting jobs, and groups for animators and artists as well.  However, while they offer a lot of advantages, they can also be abused and misused. For instance, oftentimes you will see executives who are obviously only posting in the Internet just to be seen and to show the world that he exists in the corporate landscape.

The key to being able to maximize the internet is to use it to share valuable bits and pieces of information, and to interact with other professionals on topics and subjects that interest you. Commenting on something that you don’t know much about will only make you look like a trying hard person who wants to belong but just couldn’t.

Pay attention to personal meetings. After all, how often do you get to talk with other professionals who are in the same line of work as yours? Whenever you get the chance to network through face-to-face communications, grab the opportunity and really spend time in the conversations. You can easily delete an email or leave a LinkedIn discussion, but you can’t do that in a meeting.

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Working the Office Culture

Every working environment has its own culture. Just like in any home, in any school or in any society group, there is a distinct set of values and practices that define and differentiate each company. And even in a single company, different departments and teams have different cultures. If you’re coming from a sales job, you may have to adjust to a different culture when you’re getting a marketing job.

However, your knowledge of your own industry and the things executives around you say can be used as a baseline for the kind of culture you can expect when you join a company or an industry. For instance, in banking, team players are highly valued. When you want to work in trading, you need to have a more aggressive personality and a persistent attitude.

Why work the culture?
You will be able to traverse the different industries successfully if you make it a goal to understand the culture and adapt to it. You won’t have to change yourself or your personality (that’s almost an impossibility). But what you can do is to really study the culture you’re entering, and do your best to influence it without having to agitate anybody.

Hang out with People at Work
Based on casual conversations, you will be able to gauge the culture in your office. Be a keen observer. How do people talk with each other? What are the types of relationships bosses have with their subordinates? How is information transferred from one person to the other?

If possible, have one or two people who can help you ease into the whole group. They can “orient” you with the culture, and give you advice on how you can adjust well. Just don’t abuse the relationship and start emailing them every single day. Invite them for lunch every once in a while; reach out in a pace convenient to them.

Get the Formal and Informal Cues
The formal cues are those used to achieve official tasks. For instance, how is email used? How’s the structure of the company? What are the avenues used to communicate with each other?

On the other hand, the informal cues are those that build up the relationships within the team. You should also be sensitive to things that aren’t as obvious as the others. Get a feel of your office. Doing this will give you more confidence in interacting with the people around you.

Work
At the end of the day, what will matter most is how you are able to produce results for the company. You aren’t in the company just to make friends and blend in well. Knowing the culture is only as valuable (if not more valuable) as how you are able to contribute to the company’s growth.

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How to Storm Proof Your Career

Time and again you will hear stories about the economy going down, or the job market getting more and more volatile. If effects of an economic downturn have ever hit you and your career, you need to prepare well for the next one. We’re not saying it’s going to happen anytime soon, but the prepared executive will beat the industrious one. Here are some tips that will help you position yourself well before, amidst and after a recession:

Give your current job the focus that it demands. If you’re already employed in a company that pays you and treats you well, then one of the best things you can do in case an economic downturn happens is to focus on it. Do well in your job and you will never have to be afraid of losing it.

Be observant. During a recession, the upper tiers of the executive ladder will manifest changes such as shorter hours and longer meetings with the human resource department. As soon as you see such symptoms, prepare yourself and again, do even better in your current job.



Increase your value. Make it difficult for your boss to let go of you. Executive jobs such as accounting jobs and can be harder to fill in than rank and file positions like secretarial jobs. Exceed their expectations and perform excellently so that when pus comes to shove, you would not be the one who has to go.

Be frugal. If and when you lose your job, will you have enough money to fund your needs in the next months while you look for a job? You should have a fund that can sustain your financial needs for six months. You’ll never know when the economy will play its cards on you.

Have a game plan. It’s not enough to have a stash of money. You should also have a stash of ideas ready anytime you will need them. Do you have a strong network of contacts you can contact if in case you get laid off? Do you have a small business that you can give attention to when you lose your job? These are some of the things you can evaluate to ensure that when recession hits. You will not be hit hard.