Serenity and Handling Rejection with Grace

One of my hobbies is taking pictures of nature.  I love to watch birds and photograph them. I have several bird feeders in my back yard and I am always amazed when a yellow finch sits on the thistle feeder.  They are so bright and vibrant.  How can a bird be that colorful?  A couple of weeks ago Jim and I went to Fort Harrison state park in Indianapolis.  I brought the camera and on our way I saw this bird sitting on the shore on a dead tree.  The colors are gorgeous, it is hard to see in this small picture but he (I am assuming it is a he as most male birds are the colorful ones, my apologies to the bird if it is a she) is actually almost turquoise.  Every now and then he would squawk and elongate his neck. 

This is how I want to react when I get rejected for a job.  However, I know better so I thought I would share some of my tactics when I get rejected.  I do try to learn something from everything, but learning from rejection is hard.  Your first reaction is to say a few choice words, get the blood pressure up and toss a few things around the room.  I am not saying that is what I do, just saying that is what some people do!  

Research will tell you that the best thing you can do is ask why you were not selected to move forward.  This can be hard, but if you want to learn and grow that is what you should do.  So, I have asked that question when companies have actually gotten back to me.  Interestingly, most state that I have wonderful qualifications, experience, etc, but that I don't have the industry experience that they were looking for. Well, that is interesting because on my most recent rejections I was contacted by the recruiters because of my experience they felt I was a perfect fit for the positions (their words not mine).  

What do I take from that? Well, I could be cynical and say that they needed a female in the mix to satisfy affirmative action requirements and they knew all along I wouldn't go any further. I was probably a good candidate, but not a great one. 

So what is a girl to do?  In retrospect, one of the positions was a stretch, and maybe I should have turned the recruiter down from the get-go.  But if you don't take a risk or stretch yourself how do you grow?  You don't, so toss that thought out the window.  What you do is keep on moving on, keep on looking for that great job that is out there, you and the company just have to find each other.  If there are things that are mentioned that you can work on, for example if they state that you don't have enough excel experience - take a class.  Do internet research and when you are done make sure you add it to  your resume!

Morale of the story:  When you want to squawk like a green heron because things aren't going your way make sure that you are in a enclosed room where no one can hear you.  Then walk out and join the rest of the world who is looking for a position, refreshed and ready to move on!

Cabernet and the Cover Letter

I hope you are all seeing my theme here. I love wine so I am trying to weave my love of wine into my job search.  The past couple of evenings Jim and I have been sipping some nice light Cabernet, as it is still warm out I am not into the  heavy reds yet. On Sunday I opened a bottle of Raven's Wood 2011 Cabernet.  This wine has a very nice aroma and has hints of blackberry in it and it is very reasonably priced.

Okay, on to the job search. I will share some of my stats (remember I am anal and track everything!) Today I am 2 Months unemployed.  I have applied to 20 positions of which I have had no response from 13 of them, to be fair some of them I have applied to  recently.  I have been contacted by 7 recruiters for positions and 4 of them are still very active.

To date I have discussed the resume and how to use LinkedIn.  Today I will discuss the cover letter and what my research has told me is successful.  If you look up "cover letters" on the internet you will find lots of resources, so many in fact that it can be overwhelming.  I was looking for help in writing a cover letter that showed I was sincere in my job search and that I had researched the company and wanted the job.  Why those things? Because that is what I looked for when I was hiring staff members.  The resume tells a hiring manager about the person's experience, but the cover letter tells them why they are applying.

Based  on what site you go on and what type of position you are applying for you will find all kinds of variation in what the cover letter should say and what it should look like.  The best advice I have received from a recruiter was to not sell myself in the cover letter but to offer solutions to how I can help the company achieve their goals.  Not an easy task and when you write it the first time it kind of sounds like you are selling yourself.  The difference lies in how you phrase the sentences.  Remember, your resume outlines everything you have done, you don't have to say it again in the cover letter.

Here are some examples:
Selling yourself:

• I have 25 years in the healthcare industry
• I have managed 10 direct reports
• I reduced supply expenses by $10  million

Offering solutions:

• I can help XYZ company become a leader in the industry by using my network to bring talented staff in
• I will work to reduce your expenses by implementing successful strategies I have used in the past. For example, if you currently use xyz strategy, then I would work to covert it to ABC, which has been discussed recently in the news as the most cost effective way to manage this strategy. 
• I will mentor my direct reports in XYZ  company to become skilled in ABC which makes the company stronger.

Before you write your cover do some research and find out about the company you are applying to.  This is where you get to be a detective!  You want to find out the hiring managers name if possible.  One way to find this out is to see if the job description says who the position reports to.  If so, then go to the company website and look for a page that lists the leaders in the company.  I have actually found organizational charts on company websites.  If you get lucky that way, find out the name and address your cover letter directly to them.  Also, see if you can figure out the email address of the hiring manager and send them your cover letter and resume directly.  If you do this, you should also apply the way the company specifies, but state in the cover letter that you are sending this to them as well as through the website (or however you will be applying) so you are sure that they see your qualifications.  

If you can't find out who the hiring manager is, go to LinkedIn and search for the company.  See if there is anyone in your network that works for that company and ask them about the position and who the hiring manager is.  You can also find the email address this way.  If you can send your cover letter and resume directly to the hiring manager you have a better chance of it being seen!

I have actually been called directly by the  hiring manager using this technique.

So now that you have some resources for cover letters make sure you do your homework. Never send a resume in without a cover letter. Even if you apply online and there is no way to upload a cover letter use this trick.  If it appears that you can only upload one file here's what to do:

1. Create your cover letter
2. Open up your resume file and paste the cover letter at the beginning of the resume
3. Make sure there is a page break between your cover letter and resume
4. Name this new file: Yourlastname_companyname_combo.doc.  That way you know that this is a customized cover letter resume for that company.

Enough for today on cover letters.  A quick update on my job search.  I have 4 positions that I am actively involved with, all of them are from recruiters who have called me!  I hope to have something finalized in the next couple of weeks.  Keep your fingers crossed.

Cabernet makes the world go around, the world go around...LinkedIn helps get you hired!

Misss Smokey is home and still pretty drugged up.  She is in a daze but doesn't seem to be in any pain.  I am surprised at how easy she is taking her bubble gum flavored antibiotics!!  Yes I said bubble gum.   I would have thought it would be tuna or salmon flavored.  Talk about feeling bad when you are holding down a one-eyed cat and shoving a dropper full of bubble gum in her mouth.  And did I tell you I have to do this twice a day for 2 weeks!!  Yikes

Had a lovely glass of Cabernet last night, Toasted Head, 2011 barrel aged California Cabernet.  Yummalicious!  If you haven't tried it, you should.  Reasonably priced and very smooth.  I am looking forward to the fall when I will start opening up some of my heavy cabs and zins with the peppery flavors.  Add some stinky blue cheese and you have yourself a party!

It is Saturday so I am going to digress a bit.  I just have to say that homemade strawberry jam in Greek yogurt is the best!

Yesterday I talked about how I was always ready with my resume, being the anal retentive person that I am.  Well, that isn't enough it seems.  So many people are applying for positions that they are not qualified for that it blogs the hiring managers down and they may not get to your resume even if you are the most qualified.  I track my job search with an excel spreadsheet.  (Remember, anal retentive?) I list out the date, the company, the job, where I found it, if they responded, etc.  

I guess my statistics aren't too bad; I have had 14 responses back from 22 jobs that I applied for online. I have five jobs that recruiters called me for:

• ·        One I turned down, it was in NYC and the pay was awful.  I would only be able to afford an 8x12 apartment with what they were offering and how traumatic would that be for the cats?
• ·        One the company decided to hold off starting the division they originally wanted me to run
• ·        The other three I am in the process of interviews

So how do recruiters find you, you ask?  One of the best places for recruiters to look for candidates is LinkedIn.  If you are not on LinkedIn, you should be, even if you have a job. Remember, always being ready for that great opportunity? I guess I am an early adopter and have been on the site for years.  I get calls from recruiters all the time regarding jobs.  And if I am not interested in the position, I will generally see if I know someone who might be and I will forward their information to the recruiter (I always let the person know I did this too).  That is called networking and it is critical to your success of not only finding a job, but hiring good people yourself.  

There is a great articles on the web detailing how to use LinkedIn to its fullest.  Here is one site with a great discussion on maximizing the FREE site.

http://www.impacthiringsolutions.com/careerblog/2010/07/13/why-dont-candidates-use-linkedin-effectively/

Some of the highlights of this article written by Barry Deutsch include these tips:

Start to leverage all the great tools LinkedIn provides for your job search, such as:

• Ability to participate in Questions and Answers
• Ability to constantly evolve and change your Profile
• Ability to Get Testimonials/References to say good things about you
• Ability to share books/reviews/thoughts with others
• Ability to participate in group discussions
• Ability to post useful information into groups
• Ability to contact directly potential hiring managers and recruiters
• Ability to post rich content/media of PowerPoint presentations, white papers, video, and audio
• Ability to “LIKE” and comment on the status updates of people in your network
• Ability to easily build a powerful network to generate an abundance of job leads and referrals.
• Ability to include your twitter stream and blog postings

I belong to groups, I post on the discussions, and I interact with my network.  All of these are fairly easy to do once  you get in the habit of doing it regularly.  While employed, during the few lunches I had with no scheduled meetings, I would have my salad in front of my computer and update LinkedIn, network with old colleagues and read what was going on.  It kept me up to date on topics being discussed in my industry (healthcare) as well as others.

Ok, I need to get back to my canning, I have one more batch of beets to do until the tomatoes come out in full force, then it is sauce!!  Happy Saturday.

Restless but had a nice glass of Zinfandel

Once again another restless night,  but I did have a wonderful glass of Zinfandel.  2009 Zen of Zin old vine California  - yummy!  Nice and rich.  I don't dream about wine, not sure why but  I did think about how I am putting my new found extended vacation to use.

First, I am rediscovering the art of canning.  I used to can way back when the kids were little. We would go out and pick strawberries then make tons of jam.  My cupboards are now full of bread and butter pickles, relish, sweet pickle chips, corn relish, pickled beets, strawberry jam, blueberry jam. and peach jam.  My next adventure starts when I get my pressure canner and I can can Boston Baked Beans!

Secondly, I am a firm believer that things happen for a reason - sometimes we don't get to find out the reason, sometimes we lay awake at night trying to figure it out!  My other nugget is that I always learn from every experience.  So what have I learned so far from losing my job?

1. Life is too short to be stressed out.  I have been stressed for years now climbing up the corporate ladder.  What I have discovered is that success does not equal stress! You can be very successful but deal with the stress in a positive way.  My leadership coach has taught me that.  (Shout out to Dave Stoddard from Leaders Legacy, my coach)
2. You can't change how other people act, but you can change how you act towards them.
3. Life is an ever changing sport, there are winners and there are losers.  How you prepare for the race determines how you will do at the finish line.  However, you need to lose some races to figure out what you have to do to win.  I really should have compared this to football, my favorite sport. Okay, rephrase:  Life is an ever running football game......you need to prepare for each and every game. When you lose a game look at it as a learning experience, what do I need to do next time to come out on top?
4. Finding a job is hard work!  But I have done a lot of research on how to go about it. I will share some of what I have learned each day.

Ok, expanding on number 4, finding a  job is hard and there are things that you should be doing TODAY even when you are employed that will make it easier.  "Why should I be doing anything about finding a job when I am still employed?" you ask. Here's why:

• Companies don't have a sense of loyalty to their employees like they did 25 years ago and employees don't feel loyal to their companies either.  There is a great article by Jeremy Kingsly, in "The Conference Room" published March 11, 2013 regarding the issue. See link below.

By Jeremy Kingsley

The Conference Room

Published March 11, 2013

FOXBusiness

Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/2013/03/11/is-loyalty-just-thing-past/#ixzz2c8hYUzl9

• If you are ready and the perfect opportunity arises then you can act quickly.

So what should you do now to prepare  yourself? The first thing to do is get your resume ready!

• If you already have a resume, update it with current information.
• If you don't have a resume create one. There are lots of sites online that you refer to for starting templates. 
• I have several versions of my resume -
• I have a long resume that lists every job I have had since 1990.  
• I  have my short resume that only goes back 10 years.  Most want to only see 10 years and sooner of experience; however I have been asked for a complete resume so it is easy to give when I already have it done.
• I also have resumes that I have customized for particular jobs I am applying for.  Example, if a company highlights several times in an ad that they are looking for a specific skill I make sure that I have it listed in my resume. I also pull keywords from the ad and make sure I reference those in my resume. That way when the hiring manager is reviewing my resume they can clearly see that I have the experience that they are looking for (that is if they ever get to read it).
• Tip - how to name your resume so you know what it is. First create a folder called "Resumes".  Always save your resume starting with your last name, that way employers always know whose it is. I can't tell you how many times people have sent me resumes and their name is not in the file name and I have to open it to figure out who it is.  You want to make it easy for an employer to hire you.  
• Here are examples of how I name my resume:
• SheridanResume-2013long
• SheridanResume-2013short
• SheridanResume-project management
• SheridanResume-consulting
• What do you put on your resume, what order, how much etc?
• Most sites recommend only a 2 page resume so that means you have to be very concise with your words.  Again, I have a long resume that has all my jobs back to 1990.  I can cut and paste from my long resume when I need to customize a resume to a job. That  way all the information is consistent.  (As I get older I forget a lot of the details.  Do it once and you don't have to remember it)
• Do not put your graduation dates from college.  Just list where you went and what your major was.   A lot of companies wean out applicants by the graduation dates on resumes. They can't legally not hire you because of your age but they can wean you out from the process to begin with.  Not putting the dates on gives them one less reason to drop you from the pile.
• Don't put a lot of fancy formatting on your resume (unless you are an artist, graphic designer, etc and that is part of the application).  Most employers load your resume into a database and search from this database. If you have a lot of fancy formatting it can mess up how it gets loaded into a database.  You want to make sure that everyone can find you.   

Well, enough for today.  I am waiting for the vet to call me when Smokey comes out of surgery.  The little thing  has eye cancer and is having her eye removed today to prevent the spread of the cancer, poor baby.  Mama is going to give her lots of loving tonight.

Hunting for the perfect night's sleep and bottle of wine

August 15, 2013.
Last night I lay awake trying to run job hunt strategies through my head. Should I use this search or that search, should I pay the $7,500 to a career guide, am I saying the right things during interviews, yada, yada, yada. So at about 3 am I decided in my mind that I needed to write about my experience for several reasons:

1. I can document my experience and get it out of my dreams
2. I can share all the information that I have gathered with others
3. I can get a good laugh now and then (you will see later)
4. My cats were getting annoyed that I kept tossing and turning, I could let them sleep, God only knows they need it more than me!
5. Lastly, I can sleep!!

Maybe I should say that I am recently unemployed (June 2013) which is new for me and I have embarked on journey to find the last great job of my career.

So the story starts way back before Jesus was a boy.   Back when Monster.Com had just started in the 1990's.  I am the typical Type A personality (and yes anal retentive as well).  I have always had a resume handy, I always have it updated and ready to go.  So when the guy I was dating sold his company and needed to find a job I said lets try Monster.Com.  He didn't have a resume handy, but I did so I used my information to show him how to set up an account and how easy it was. Well, guess what? I got a call not two days later from a company who I eventually went to work for!  Wow.  I learned a valuable lesson that day - if you have your resume out on the web people will come to you for jobs.

I have always kept my resume up to date, I even keep a "project tracker" for all the projects I have been part of (remember anal retentive).  This allows me to respond to prospective employers with detailed answers to questions quickly.  Anyone who wants to progress should consider keeping a project tracker not only to keep track of your projects but to let you know where you have gaps in your experience.

So back to sleeping.......  I mean job hunting

I have determined that the best way to job  hunt is to treat it like a job. I get up and go to my computer and spend at least 4 hours a day job hunting, researching or networking.  Ah, the elusive networking.  Yes it does work and it pays off.  I have never burned a bridge no matter how mad or upset I have been, it does not pay off to show it.  I have always taken the higher road.

Now the all important question:   What do I want for my perfect last job?  Geez, I wish I knew.  I think that is why I am restless and fidgety.  I have absolutely loved my past positions and companies.  I have been in healthcare for the past twenty years either in consulting or direct line management.  I have towed the line, wore the suit, dressed the part, played the part, followed all the rules.  But something is missing.

In June this summer a bunch of women from the office got together for a style party. What is a style party you ask? You get  a group of professional women who have nothing better to do on a weekend to come over to someone's house where you have snacks and wine (yes, I love wine, have I said that yet? I am a certified wino) and you bring  your favorite accessory that you never wear.  I brought my scarf that I purchased while in Paris. It is blue and turquoise and very "impressionist" inspired.  I also had on white capri pants and similar styled tank top.

We were all asked to gather around an easel, bring our wine and snacks and have a seat.  The setting was beautiful, we were out side in a pool area with gorgeous landscaping; it was very serene, well except for the neighbor mowing the lawn and the dog barking.

The style consultant, Sola, asked who wanted to go first.  Me, being such a shy person, raised my hand and said "I will".  Now let me clear, I had an ulterior motive.  I was thinking to myself, if this is really a silly exercise, I can get my part over with and sit back and drink wine and watch everyone else make a fool of themselves  as I would be done first.  I could also sneak out  if it got really boring. However, quite to the contrary it was pretty cool!  The first thing that happens is that Sola took my scarf and held it up to the group and asked them, when you see this what does it say to you about Linda?  The responses were spot on of who I felt I was: artistic, happy, free flowing ,fun, approachable etc.

The next question was "how does this differ from what you know and see of Linda at work?" Well, you could have stabbed me in the eye with a stick when I heard the responses.  One woman, who I hardly knew at all, said "she seems cold, unapproachable, very rigid, business like (aren't' I supposed to be business like as a VP?).  She then stated "I was floored when she came in dressed like she is. I expected her to come in wearing a suit".  Really? A suit on a Sunday at a party with wine?  I was floored, deflated, embarrassed, and so much more.  Glass of wine, heck no give me the bottle!  But, Sola brought it back to the scarf and reason why we were asked to bring our favorite accessory that we never wore.  What we look like at work is not always what and who we are. But people see what we wear and base their assumptions on that.   There are ways to bring my creative artistic side into my wardrobe Sola stated.

I was sold, I needed to hear more as I have felt that way for years.  If I had my way I would wear a turquoise suit to work with a yellow floral blouse but I didn't think that would not go over too well.  As it is, I try to  show my artistic creative side in my shoes and handbags  (did I tell you I have shoe and handbag fetish?).   I am getting to the point, trust me!  So this all ties back to "What do I want to do for my last great job?"

Trouble is I don't know quite yet but I do know that it has to allow me to be who I am, not be afraid of wearing my suit with colorful accessories.

Tomorrow I will opine on my search and how I have approached it so far.