It seems that the concept of personal branding is becoming as ubiquitous as having a robust presence on every social media platform known to man. Career coaches, recruiters, and outplacement consultants pontificate about its importance. No doubt it is, but few practitioners put it into such understandable and actionable terms as Scott Ginsberg. He has written nine top-selling books and contributes to The Ladders blog. Ginsberg says, “Your brand is what you’re known for and what you’re known for knowing. Use that to your advantage in making a career transition.” This article is a worthwhile read for anyone contemplating a move up and out.
Author Archives: Holbrook
Squeezed By Everything: Life As A Middle Manager
This Wall Street Journal article by Melissa Korn is an illuminating look at life as a middle manager through the eyes of one at FICO. What’s it’s like being a middle manager is chronicled by following Michelle Davis from the start of her day in an empty parking lot at 6 am to the end when she hits the hay at 10 pm. Meetings, conference calls, crises, and precious little planning time seem to be the norm. She has many duties but little authority. People-pleasing is the order of her day. Upward mobility is limited and company loyalty is questionable. This article is a good read for those on “the fast track” and for their bosses who struggle to keep good employees engaged and motivated.
Age Discrimination Is Real. Here’s How To Deal With It.
Marc Cenedella founded The Ladders… you know the commercials, “$100K jobs for $100K people.” He writes a weekly topical letter that is often quite informative and, as the job market heats up, this week’s is worth a careful read. It is on the topic of age discrimination and, as Cenedella posits, age discrimination is prevalent while hidden and is affecting ever younger workers. It is something that the savvy jobseeker can overcome… without dressing in clothes from J Crew or getting the latest buzz-phrases from your teenage daughter. In fact, DON’T do that! Instead read the letter.
“One of the things I was most surprised by when I got into the jobs business over a decade ago was the prevalence and practice of age discrimination in hiring right here in the USA. Oh, sure… we’re not like some overseas markets where job ads explicitly demand youth, or a particular gender, or beauty(!), in the applicant, but there it is… the blank look on your interviewer’s face when you talk about growing up in the 60s or 70s. The skepticism with which your Twit-facebook-gram skills are regarded. The cultural references that pass silently like two Teslas in the night…
Well, at least the younger generation seems to get your reference to “Gunga-galunga” and giggle. Most of the time. All of it adds up to a pernicious undercutting of your ability to get hired and get ahead. We just have to admit the ugly truth that age discrimination exists — there’s no doubt about it. And there’s no silver bullet for those facing it. If you’re in the job market and over the age of 52, you will almost certainly face stereotypes and negative attitudes regarding your desirability because of your age. And in some cities, in some markets, that negative environment impacts candidates as young as 40 years of age.
While there’s nothing you can do to stop it, I have, over the years, observed which candidates and applicants have succeeded despite their age and which have failed because of it. If I had to summarize, I’d say it appears to me that age discrimination is mindset discrimination first and foremost. And you’ll need to review how you are presenting your mindset — your attitude — to your future employer. Every hiring manager is asking herself, every HR person is asking himself, these questions about you and every other candidate they’re interviewing. Will this candidate:
| – | Be able to excel in this role? |
| – | Be able to learn and adjust as the role evolves? |
| – | Be able to master the tools and technologies involved today and tomorrow? |
| – | Get along well with others on the team? |
| – | Take direction and feedback? |
And it’s important for you to realize that youth is the symptom, not the cause, of age discrimination. What I mean by that is that hiring managers are hiring for open-mindedness, flexibility, and a sociability with others. On average, there’s a perception on the part of hiring managers, whether right or wrong, that those attributes are more frequently found in the young, as opposed to the experienced.
And it’s worthwhile to review why these attributes have so much value in the business world today. As the world changes, businesses change even more rapidly. Companies sometimes need to jump on new trends before they pan out, or hedge their bets, or make sure they’re well-prepared for most contingencies. And that means there’s always plenty of “new” to keep up with. So a workforce that is flexible, open-minded and interested in learning is far better than a workforce that is determined to keep doing it the old way.
“The old way works fine” might be OK for you around the home, but in business, it has proven to be an enormous destroyer of value. Take a look at the hard times that old famous companies have fallen upon. Heck, even some of the newer tech companies that were darlings within the last decade have had difficulties mastering new environments. So expecting your future employer to be pleased with an “old ways are tried and true” mindset won’t serve you well in your job search. So it is not necessarily youth itself that companies are hiring for, rather, it is those attributes that have proven effective in today’s business environment.
The cause of age discrimination is the perception around older professionals’ adaptability, curiosity, and team spirit; youth is merely a symptom. Since you can’t change your age, your goal is to address the underlying root causes of age discrimination — your goal is not to appear or act age-inappropriate — it is to present yourself, effectively, as a constructive, resourceful, “coachable”, team player. When confronting misperceptions in your job search, it is always better to “show” than to “tell”:
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Describe situations in which you adapted new technologies to the problem at hand. It is helpful if these examples aren’t from the seventies, but rather represent transitions that your interviewer herself went through. |
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Recount how you were able to help younger (and older) staffers get to a solution that was stumping all. Detail the challenges you faced and what tactics you used to overcome them. |
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Relate your experiences with receiving and using feedback constructively. Discuss how you used the situation to update your behavior and outlook. Share the process you went through to find where you could perform better and the steps you took to achieve an improvement. Ideally, quantify that improvement. |
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Illustrate with specific stories your interest in, and passion for, the work that you do. Why does it drive you? What excites you about your work? Your younger competition does this out of habit — because they can’t talk about decades of success in the business — so you need to make sure you put yourself on a fair footing. |
As you can see, the important thing is that rather than telling the hiring manager that you’re open-minded, curious, flexible, adaptable to new circumstances, and sociable enough for the role, show him that you are. And a final word to remake the point about youth being a symptom and not a cause of age discrimination.
On occasion, one finds older candidates that mistake having an open mindset with mimicking a twenty-year-old’s mindset. There is a difference. Arriving at a job interview replete with the names of the latest bands, dropping age-inappropriate lingo into your answers, and wearing clothes that reveal too much about your desperation by trying too hard, all have the opposite effect of what you’d hope for. Interactions like these reconfirm your interviewer’s fears that you’ll be obtuse, unsavvy, and a management challenge on the job.
No, your best tactics are to communicate, verbally and nonverbally, that you are adept at keeping up with the times, and, even more importantly, interested in doing so. And the best way for you to do that is to show them precisely those behaviors and traits for which they are interviewing.”
Creativity and Inertia are Natural Enemies
With shifting political alliances, worldwide mobility, instant connectivity, global commerce, and the general acceptance of situational ethics, it may seem that there are few natural enemies left anymore. Even in the animal kingdom, we are witness to more species peacefully coexisting in a changing world – sometimes out of sheer necessity. It seems to me, however, that creativity and inertia will (and should) always be natural enemies.
One of the definitions of creativity according to Webster is “the ability to make new things or think of new ideas.” The very essence of this definition is that creativity is an active process. Creativity demands an interested party or parties working on a solution that addresses a unique circumstance or a perceived shortcoming in the status quo. Inertia on the other hand is a passive mindset. Look again to Webster. Inertia is defined as “a property of matter by which it remains at rest; indisposition to motion, exertion, or change.” Common synonyms for inertia include words like idleness, laziness, and sloth. Synonyms for creativity elicit words like imagination, ingenuity, and originality. Could these be more opposite? I don’t think so. Well, so what!
OK, here’s what. In my humble opinion, we are inundated with so much information and so many “expert views”, that it is easy to get lost in minutiae and discouraged about our own “lack of influence.” I heard a productivity guru the other day preaching a philosophy where his disciples ignore most events in the world and instead concentrate only on those things (mostly his books and CDs) that further individual, personal goals. I agree that being an “information junkie” can be both depressing and counter-productive, but being clueless-by-choice is to hand over our natural abilities to be creative. It is the essence of inertia or, as a popular TV commercial says “a body at rest tends to stay at rest.”
And here’s what else. In addition to being an activist disposition, creativity demands exercise. It is never at rest. It may sometimes be restful but it is never completely shut down. Sound daunting and unachievable? Actually, the process is frequently referred to as exhilarating and supremely satisfying. The musician Charles Mingus said, “Anybody can play weird. That’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.” The American inventor Edwin Land stated, “Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity.” And the famed movie maker Cecil B. DeMille said “Creativity is a drug I cannot live without.”
If it’s been awhile since you’ve experienced a “creativity high”, here are three quick hits to get you buzzed again:
- Get Moving. Remember, one of the synonyms for inertia is laziness. So, don’t be lazy. Explore. Go. Experience. If creativity is your goal and you want to look at things with a fresh set of eyes, then feed your senses by simply getting out. You’ll probably be shocked at how small you’ve allowed your world to become.
- Seek Difference. Fine, you’re moving… but to what? Well, err on the side of the different. Different people, venues, practices, habits, experiences, engagements, challenges. If you want to spark creativity again, it will only happen if you scramble the routine a little. No good high ever came from a look-alike drug.
- Embrace New. Well you’re different now… but what’s permanent? I say it should be a commitment to the new. Don’t toss everything that’s worked for sure, but ‘new’ should not mean ‘bad’ or ‘enemy’ either. It has a tendency to be that in business unless it’s a potential new revenue source. Not every ‘new’ idea or practice that you embrace will love you back, but you’ll be better for having taken the risk.
Finally, remember the old advice to keep your friends close and your enemies closer? It never applies here. Anytime. For any reason. Inertia is always the enemy of creativity.
Getting Your Resume Past The e-Gatekeeper
OK, anyone who has embarked on a recent job search knows the importance of getting your resume to the right person. But what happens when the first “right person” is a software program? Executive recruiters and employers both are adopting ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) with increasing frequency to streamline the sifting and ranking process. Knowing how these programs use your data is critical to success in the initial screening of your resume. If you’re good at tailoring your CV to the software, you have a great shot at moving on in the process. If not, no one will ever know you were their best option.
Lisa Vaas covers resume writing techniques and emerging technologies for The Ladders. In her post on modern resume writing, she offers 24 tips to make sure you are at the top of the heap in an increasingly machine-driven screening process. I suppose I could be critical that some of the tips might be redundant or simplistic (they are), but on balance this is a very cogent, thoughtful piece. Ms. Vaas has done a good job providing candidates with the “how-to” of tailoring a resume to ATS software while not losing sight of the personal touch. A quick primer and a worthwhile article to keep on hand in your job search.
How NOT To Get Hired.
Rebecca Rapple is a personal branding expert who has been featured in the Harvard Business Review, Business Insider, and other online and traditional publications. Her advice to the savvy job-seeker is timely and to the point. She takes us on a quick tour of some surefire ways to end up at the bottom of the heap. A few are pretty simplistic and you’d think even Homer Simpson wouldn’t make such mistakes, but “D’oh” many of them will leave you thankful for her reminder. Ms. Rapple provides a clear-eyed roadmap for avoiding how not to get hired. It’s a worthwhile read in a competitive marketplace and her solutions are direct and easy to implement.
Are You Being Headhunted?
Admore Recruitment is a UK-based firm, and until I ran across their blog I had never heard of them. But I won’t hold anything against the Brits, and I’ll credit them with a good post about how to react to being “headhunted”. They are not referring to some recruiter performing a mass search on minimal information. Admore speaks to a specific search where a particular candidate has been identified as a top performer by the prospective new employer and is specifically targeted by their executive recruiter. This article is WAY better than most other things British – think jellied eel, deep-fried Mars bars, and black pudding as their culinary delights! When you are being headhunted, this article is definitely worth a close read.
Embracing Portable Ignorance
Could we actually become smarter by asking a lot of stupid questions? Do we add less value when we appear immediately astute? Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, authors of the standby college textbook The Elements of Journalism, published a book in 2011 on the changing media landscape and how to discern what news is best. Blur: How to Know What’s True in the Age of Information Overload focuses on the importance of verification, fact-checking and evidence in media — whether it be traditional newspaper media or an online blog. Kovach is a much-honored editor and bureau chief at both The New York Times and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In a recent interview he said, “The separation between journalists and citizens is slowly disappearing. I mean, anyone, anywhere can be a reporter of the next big news incident. Citizens are becoming their own editors. So it’s imperative that we both help journalists understand this change…and citizens understand how they can determine what they can believe in.”
Although the book is highly engaging, very readable, and intended for a general audience it wouldn’t seem that relevant to anyone employed outside of journalism. That is until you dive into Kovach and Rosenstiel’s writing about the need for “portable ignorance”. Basically portable ignorance involves the willingness to ask a lot of questions, often resisting the temptation to appear ‘smart’. Most of us in the creative fields have trouble with that because we’re paid to be smart… and quick-on-the-uptake. Rosenstiel, in a recent NPR interview, said we all should be more willing to say,” I don’t get this. Explain it to me. What are you going to try and do? As opposed to being seduced into trying to look like you know everything and that you’re astute.” He says we can use being “not astute” as a powerful tool.
As ‘knowledge workers’ in an age of crowd-sourcing, curation, commoditization, and co-creation we face many new challenges to being truly effective. Could appearing to be LESS astute actually work to our advantage? Kovach and Rosenstiel sure think so and I agree that it can yield a far better result for us and our clients. Following are several practices that might improve your portable ignorance:
- Be Inquisitive. Professionals tend to often look at our role as that of a persuader, taking an ‘outside-in’ approach to our projects. We are paid for the ‘big insight’ but often skip over some valuable ways to get at it. Being inquisitive is basically asking more questions when you’re tempted to start talking about yourself. It is allowing for the pursuit of a thread in a conversation to possibly lead to greater insight. It welcomes disagreement as a chance to learn and to consider alternatives. Kovach and Rosenstiel tell of a New York Times reporter in Vietnam who used his innate curiosity to such an extent (often asking “stupid” questions) that he was predicting our inability to win that war… in 1961! Being inquisitive involves asking ‘why’ and too much of that could lead us nowhere. To balance this approach we need to ask ‘why not’ and that’s where our imagination comes in.
- Seek Improbable Connections. Using our imagination allows us to connect what we learn to how it can be most effectively applied. We imagine greater possibilities and thus add greater value. Let’s face it, if you regurgitate standard solutions after asking a ton of questions you’re likely to have one very upset (or lost) client. Being imaginative allows us to see how to make the pie bigger or maybe even bake a different one versus how better to carve up the existing one. If the essence of creatives’ purpose is to provide ideas that clients haven’t thought of themselves, then making these improbable connections by using our imagination is the way to do it.
- Reject Complacency. A little fear can be a big motivator and there is such a thing as healthy paranoia. Really. This is what makes us stay on top of our industry by reading one more trend report. It’s how we create value by studying yet another market analyst’s report on our client’s business. It’s what keeps us going to another networking event or making that catch-up call to a mentor. It’s what prevents us from making a stinky proposal with a “Plan A – Number 6” recommendation to a new prospect. Healthy fear can spur you to check your facts or go over your pitch – just once more. Plenty of research shows that people with the LEAST competence or ability are the MOST likely too overestimate themselves.
There isn’t a single point above that I have accomplished with consistency. For me, this concept of ‘portable ignorance’ is one to chew on for awhile. I must resist the temptation to be the “experienced know-it-all”. Being truly smart, creative, and serving others well means staying engaged, actively seeking new insights, and remaining vigilant. So… I’m taking a little ignorance along to my next meeting. I think I’ll come out a lot smarter.
Playing Nice With Recruiters
Amanda Augustine is a respected blogger with The Ladders and this article provides some solid advice for making the recruiter-candidate relationship really work. Some of her observations may be a bit simplistic and redundant, and a few seem to recall a world we can barely remember. But on balance the post is thoughtful and reasonable; a good read for both sides of this sometimes tempestuous relationship.
How to be Happier at Work
I usually don’t spend time with “feel good” articles but this one from Inc. magazine contributor Geoffrey James is solid, practical advice. James writes the world’s most visited sales-oriented blog and his new book, Business Without The Bullsh*t, will be published in early 2014. Hopefully, a few of his 17 Ways to Be Happier at Work will be helpful as you slog through another day of meetings, reports, computer glitches, and cold coffee.