Resignations: The most painful and most overlooked part of the process

 Hello Everybody!  I trust you are all doing well!  Things are great out here in Iowa.  The baby countdown is at T-16 days and we are going to have an unseasonably warm 70 degree day!  Today I’m going to talk about resignations. I recently had a candidate resign from a job and it was a less than pleasant experience.  After talking to the individual it got me thinking about how unprepared we are for this act.  Compared to all of the other activities involved in a job search it is almost an afterthought.  The problem is that it is a critical and sometimes painful step in process.

Why is it painful?  We live in a world where the mantra is “It’s not personal, it’s just business.”  What a lie!  It is always personal.  The fact of the matter is that most people develop personal relationships with their co-workers and bosses and resigning has the same emotional impact as breaking up with a long term girlfriend or boyfriend or leaving for college.  Often times the person resigning feels like they will be letting the team down or disappointing their manager.  This is natural and it’s OK.  If you don’t feel like this it’s OK too – it just means you don’t have a heart…  Just kidding – it’s OK to be excited about leaving a bad situation too.  The other reason it is painful is because many people automatically assume that the employer response will be negative.  This is rarely the case.

Moving on… The other reason resignations are so tough is because of how your employer reacts to it.  I’ve generally found that they react in one of three ways:

1.  Gracious

This is how I wish everyone would act.  The employer congratulates you and wishes you the best.  They thank you for your time and ask to keep in touch.  This is how most places react.  It’s easier to leave these places on one level but does tug on the heart strings.

2.  Shocked

This one is  a little harder to quantify.  The employer isn’t angry but instead acts hurt and shocked.  Quotes you hear in this area include:

• “I just had no idea you were unhappy”
• “I don’t know how we will survive without you.”
• “Why didn’t you come to me?”

Often times this response is followed by a counter offer. If you want  to learn more about my  thoughts on counter offers feel free to read my article about them here:

Counter Offers - The worst Mistake You Will Ever Make!!

3.  Angry

This is by far the worst response.  It is what people seem to expect will happen when in actuality it is also the rarest.  In this situation the employer gets mad.  They start telling you things like:

• “I can’t believe you are doing this to us!”
• “We were thinking of firing you anyway!”
• “You are making a horrible mistake!”
• “The company you are joining is terrible!”
• “Get out of here right now!”

So – why do people act like this?  In most cases it isn’t because you are working for a horrible person (this can be the case though).  Usually it is because you caught them by surprise, they value you and because they don’t know what they will do without you.  Basically they are angry because it affects them negatively.  Some people are just bad reactors.  Don’t hold it against them.  In most cases they apologize later on once they have processed things.

Why is it important to resign correctly?

This seems like a no brainer but I’ll reiterate it.  You need to resign correctly for two reasons.  First – you never want to burn a bridge.  Secondly, it’s a small world out there.  If you choose not to exit gracefully it can and will come back to haunt you in future.  So just remember to be the bigger person and exit gracefully.

How do you resign gracefully?

This is a really easy process.  Just remember to keep it simple and move on.  Here are the key points to remember:

1.  Write a short resignation letter

This needs three parts.  A statement that you are resigning and that your last day is X.  A statement that you are leaving to pursue a different opportunity (remember – be gracious – say different, not better).  Finally, say thank you for what the company has provided you.

2.  Don’t Take Potshots walking out the Door

After you resign your company might start asking for constructive criticism or you might feel inclined to give some honest assessments about managers and co-workers.  Keep your mouth shut and work out your two weeks.  The sole goal of your final two weeks is to exit in a positive way and have good references for the future.  Any constructive criticism – no matter how true – runs the risk of making you look bad in the eyes of people in the organization.

3.  Don’t’ share where you are going

Here’s the deal.  What do you have to gain by sharing your future employer?  Absolutely nothing – the only purpose it serves is to satisfy curiosity.  What do you have to lose?  Everything!  Protect yourself and don’t share it.  But how do I answer the question?  Use these words:

• My future employer has asked that I don’t share anything until a formal announcement has been made to their staff.  I’ll be sure to let you know once this has happened.

4.  Remember these words

“I really appreciate your input on this.  I’m really excited about this next step in my career and will do anything within reason to help with my transition.”

Practice this statement before you go in.  You can pretty much shape it to overcome anything your employer says.

Example:

Boss:  “You’re making a horrible decision.  You will Fail.  Your are nothing without this company!”

You:  “I really appreciate your input on this.  I’m really excited about this next step in my career and will do anything within reason to help with my transition.”

Boss:  ‘Congratulations!  Best of luck!”

You:  “I really appreciate this.  I’m really excited about this next step in my career and will do anything within reason to help with my transition.”

Good, bad or neutral it works.

That’s all I’ve got on this subject!  I hope that you all find this relevant and interesting.  It means you close to getting jobs!  As always please let me know if you have any comments, questions or suggestions!  You can email me too at sthompson@insurance-csg.com.

Check out some of my recent articles on the blog here:

Five Dumbest Mistakes You can Make in an Interview

Five Things Employers Do in the Interview Process that Suck

The Four Skills that Every Insurance Account Manager Needs to Succeed in Their Career

So You Got Fired…  What Do You Say in an Interview?

Counter Offers - The worst Mistake You Will Ever Make!!

Five Things You Should Know When Working with a Recruiter

Ten Common Job Seeking Mistakes

Self Defeating Job Search Moves

Forward Emails:  The Silent Job Search Killer

Six Biggest Challenges Faced by Insurance Producers

Back to Basics:  Five Interview Tips You Need to Follow

Answering the Salary Question

The Four Worst Interview Tips

Five Biggest Resume Mistakes

Five Keys to a Great Resume!

Five White Lies that Cost People Jobs!

Five White Lies Continued:  It was a Mutual Decision

Five Things You Need to Know When Negotiating a Salary

5 Things You Need to Know When Negotiating a Salary

Things are feeling pretty positive around here so I thought I’d focus today on what to do when you've gotten an offer.  Before I start I also wanted to let you know that at some point in the next month I will be taking a break from the blog.  My wife and I are going to be welcoming our third child into the world.  Tentatively we are scheduled for March 22^nd but these things don’t always go as planned.  In case you are wondering, we are having a boy and his name will be Kai Strom Thompson.  Now back to the article…

When people get offers the best case scenario is that everything is perfect on the first try and you accept immediately.  Unfortunately, this is not always the case.  Many people try to negotiate and many are successful.  However, I’ve seen a lot of job opportunities die on the vine because the two parties can’t get something hammered out.  Some other day I’ll focus on how to actually negotiate a deal.  However, today I’m going to talk about what you need to know about salary negotiations.  These tips will put in the right frame of mind to get it done and start the new job!

1.  It is absolutely your right to negotiate… but there can be consequences

Many people ask me if it is OK to negotiate on an offer.  I firmly believe that it is.  However, you need to think long and hard about what you are looking for and if it is a dealbreaker.  The reason is because culturally some companies are very turned off by it. I’ve seen responses ranging from insult to anger resulting from someone negotiating and in some cases I’ve even seen offers rescinded. 

Why would companies react this way?  To understand this you need to realize that the people making offers are people too.  Often times when they put together an offer it is something that they are really proud of and when it is questioned they feel insulted.  Some places just refuse to negotiate.  Regardless of the reason, there are risks.  I’m not telling you this to stop you from negotiating.  Instead, I’m making you aware that this is an outcome and that you should think carefully about what you are asking for and why.  Make sure that you aren’t negotiating because you feel that it is expected.  It’s not.

2.  You need to be armed with Supporting Information

With any good argument you need justification.  Often times the person you negotiate with has to go back to their boss and ask for more money.  You need to give them a reason why you are worth it.  Just to be clear there are several reason why you shouldn’t ask for more money.  These would include:

• Because I’m worth it – really?  Really?  I roll my eyes when I hear this
• Because I’m currently underpaid – Companies don’t like to pay for the sins of other companies (this is a valid reason – just not one you should use for your argument)
• Because I haven’t had a raise in XX months/years – see above – also this does not make you special – many, many people have not had raises since the recession in 2008.
• Because I just got my MBA/Bachelors/Associates/GED – I’m all for education.  However, getting a degree does not necessitate an immediate salary increase.  Believe me you will make much more over the lifetime of your career with this education.  You just won’t see an immediate bump.

Valid supporting information would be:

• Significant differences in benefits
• Recent salary changes that weren’t taken into account – (we’ll discuss this more in depth)
• Cost of living adjustments
• Compensation for income lost during the transition
• Because the new job’s duties warrant it

3.  Set Expectations – Update Them When Necessary

We live in a weird culture.   For some reason someone’s salary and compensation is a really taboo subject.  Stemming off of this is the bad advice that is constantly given – “Don’t talk about your salary in an interview.”  OK – there is some truth to this.  You shouldn’t ever ask a potential employer – “So what does this job pay?” – it’s tacky and makes it seem like you aren’t interested in the job.  However, you should be open and honest about your expectations.  When asked about it be specific – make sure the company knows the following:

• My total compensation is X
• I would like to see something in a range of X – X
• There are some special considerations in my current situation (I get a huge annual bonus that is out of the ordinary, all of my benefits are paid, I work from home four days a week and get four hour lunches.)
• I would like this type of relocation assistance

The reason people say not to share salary is because there is this fear that your expectations will somehow scare the company off.  This line of thinking is total crap.  Companies budget for hiring positions and they can make it work or they can’t.  I feel that there is a better chance of making things work if they know what they are up against rather than being blindsided at the last minute. 

Finally, the interview process can sometimes last weeks and even months.  Sometimes when this happens your situation changes.  If this affects your expectations you need to tell the company before they make an offer.  I see a lot of people get a raise in the middle of the interview process and then get angry at an offer that is now low in light of the raise.  Problem is that if the company doesn’t know about it, they can’t adjust for it.  So, I would suggest that when you are at the end of the process ask the company if they would like to go over your current compensation again.  Just to make sure you are all on the same page. 

4.  It’s Not all About You!

Here’s the deal.  In a perfect vacuum a company would make an offer to you that mirrors how they value you.  In reality, companies have other factors that they have to take into consideration.  They have budgets, salary guidelines and also they look to have some form of salary equity within the organization.  You need to remember this.  One of the biggest mistakes I see out there is that people tie their ego to their salary and then become so angry when an offer isn’t right that they can’t effectively negotiate.  When you are negotiating do your best to be reasonable about things and don’t take it personal.  No company makes an offer with the intent to insult you or p#% you off.  If they were trying to do that they wouldn’t be asking you to come work for them. 

5.  Companies are Generally Uncomfortable Giving People an increase of more than 10% - 20%

Please take this as a general rule of thumb rather than an absolute.  I’ve found that companies are generally uncomfortable giving someone a salary increase that is more than 10% - 20% of what you are already making.  Knowing this is half the battle.  If you want more (and there are valid reasons to want more) you need to be armed with valid reasons why.  You also need to be prepared to come up with creative ways to overcome this if the company has guidelines that prohibit anything above a certain percentage.

One of the best solutions I’ve seen is asking for a review after 6 months where there is an increase on the table. Another solution would be to negotiate a bonus structure that is more lucrative.  Sometimes companies are more open to situations like this as opposed to a black and white I need X.

Bonus Tip

This is just a small aside but it is worth noting.  If you are overpaid in your current position it is not a fair expectation that every company will give you an increase.  You need to be aware of the market.  Same thing goes for special perks that you have earned.  This is why it is so difficult for people to make a move in these situations and probably why the company gave you these to begin with.  If you are in this situation you will have to one day make a sacrifice to make the move or sacrifice your quality of life to stay in the bad situation for more money or flexibility.

That’s all I’ve got for this week.  Make it a great day and don’t forget to leave comments or email me directly at sthompson@insurance-csg.com.

Check out some of my recent articles on the blog here:

Five Dumbest Mistakes You can Make in an Interview

Five Things Employers Do in the Interview Process that Suck

The Four Skills that Every Insurance Account Manager Needs to Succeed in Their Career

So You Got Fired…  What Do You Say in an Interview?

Counter Offers - The worst Mistake You Will Ever Make!!

Five Things You Should Know When Working with a Recruiter

Ten Common Job Seeking Mistakes

Self Defeating Job Search Moves

Forward Emails:  The Silent Job Search Killer

Six Biggest Challenges Faced by Insurance Producers

Back to Basics:  Five Interview Tips You Need to Follow

Answering the Salary Question

The Four Worst Interview Tips

Five Biggest Resume Mistakes

Five Keys to a Great Resume!

Five White Lies that Cost People Jobs!

Five White Lies Continued:  It was a Mutual Decision

8 Ways to make that Perfect Career Match

Counter Offers – The Worst Mistake You Will Ever Make!!!

Late last month I was working with a candidate who I had helped secure a new job.  This individual was really excited about his new company and was going to be starting in a week.  Five days before he was about to start his old boss called him into his office and offered him a significant raise, a change in duties and a new job title.  They pleaded with him to stay, promising that there will be big changes and that they couldn’t bear to lose him.  After careful consideration he accepted the counter and informed his new employer that he would not be joining them after all. 

As a recruiter in the trenches I see this situation everyday and shudder whenever a company makes a counter offer.  I do my best to prepare candidates for these and let them know that they typically work out in the long term about 25% of the time.  Still they happen all of the time and candidates accept them with regularity.  When this happens I will question their reasoning and make them aware of why counters don’t typically work out.  However, I usually bite my tongue and avoid telling them how I  really feel about counters – at that point they are not in a position to hear what I’m saying.  Ultimately I end up congratulating them on their promotion and tell them to keep in touch.  Full disclosure – What I want to say is “Why are you being so stupid?  This has a low probability of working out and you will be screwed!”

Back to the story from above.  After my candidate accepted the counter, I sent him an email congratulating him on his new position.  Three weeks later he responded to this email asking to talk.  The same boss that called him in and talked him out of leaving had called him back into his office on Monday.  He was really sorry.  The company didn’t have the funds to come through on their promise.  Nothing was going to change – but he was still valued as an employee….  Let that sink in.  What an A@#$# - That company not only broke a promise but they prevented him from bettering his situation.  The worst part – his potential new company just hired someone to replace him the week before.  He is now at square one in a job he hates even more than before and less options. 

Let me tell you something.  This is the norm!  I’m sure that some of you will email me and tell you about all of the times you accepted a counter and it worked out.  That’s great – you are nothing but lucky!  I can even tell you a story of one of my other candidates that accepted a counter and ended up winning a major award.  Just remember that for every one of these that does work out to the positive there are four times as many that leave a trail of broken dreams, broken promises and ugly exits.  They just don’t work.

So… Why don’t counter offers work?  Below are the five reasons I don’t think that they work out:

1.  The Company is Just Buying Time

Of all reasons this is quite possibly the most wicked.  Sometimes companies make a counter offer and have no intention of following through.  Essentially they make the offer out of spite because they are angry that someone is leaving or so they can get their ducks in a row and not have their business interrupted by you leaving.  Either way it is cold hearted and inconsiderate.  This probably has something to do with why you are trying to leave in the first place.

2.  Money Doesn’t Solve All Problems

Blah, blah, blah.  Money doesn’t buy happiness.  Mo Money Mo Problems.  I get it.  This is a pretty tired argument when you put it that way coming from some moral high ground.  Let me be the first to tell you – Money is important.  Very important!  However, there is a diminishing return to the value of money when you have a boss that screams, a horrible culture, you are working 80 hours a week, etc.  When companies make counters usually the first step is to throw a ton of money at the employee and beg them to stay.  While an extra $5K - $20K annually will make you happy in the short term – eventually you will get tired of the crap again.  On top of that many companies will hold up the money they gave you as a reason to treat you terrible saying things like – “We gave you all of that money and you’re complaining again?”

3.  The Feeling of Trust is Irreparably Broken

This is one of the biggest reasons that things eventually fall apart.  Even though they won’t say it a company will never forget that you tried to quit.  Never.  When you make a mistake they will maybe be less forgiving.  When you decide to dress a little nicer for work – just because – they will wonder if you have an interview scheduled over your lunch.  Eventually this will damage the relationship enough that one of you decides to move on. 

4.  People (Specifically Managers) Can’t Change – Same with Culture

All of you people out there that are married (or were married) should appreciate this.  My wife is fond of telling me when we fight, “You know who you married!”  What she means by  this is that there are certain core personality traits that can’t be changed about a person and by marrying that person you need to accept them and lose your right to get mad about them.  The same goes for companies and managers.  I don’t care how valuable of an employee you are.  Your resignation is not the epiphany that is going to stop your boss from being an a@#$#$!  These types of personality changes typically only occur in Dickens novels after a visit by three spirits on Christmas or after a severe brain injury.  A company might be sincere in wanting you to stay but you need to be realistic, try as they may companies and managers can’t make radical changes about who they are.  If that is why you are leaving then you should just go.

5.  Job Searches Open Up Wounds that Don’t Heal

Do you remember how it feels to have a mosquito bite?  It starts as a small itch – but the more that you itch it the worse it gets.  Eventually it gets big and red and it really hurts.  This is what a job search does to all of the little gripes you have about your current employer.  However, unlike a mosquito bite – it doesn’t completely go away when you take a counter offer.  All of those gripes that you thought of sit in  the back of your head and weigh you down.  The problem is that you rarely are able to put the genie back in the bottle and it just stays with you.  Eventually you will get fed up and decide to look again. 

So!  That’s my thoughts on counter offers.  What do you think?  Do you have any horror stories to share about them?  Feel free to leave comments or email me directly at sthompson@insurance-csg.com.

Check out some of my recent articles on the blog here:

Five Dumbest Mistakes You can Make in an Interview

Five Things Employers Do in the Interview Process that Suck

The Four Skills that Every Insurance Account Manager Needs to Succeed in Their Career

So You Got Fired…  What Do You Say in an Interview?

Five Things You Should Know When Working with a Recruiter

Ten Common Job Seeking Mistakes

Self Defeating Job Search Moves

Forward Emails:  The Silent Job Search Killer

Six Biggest Challenges Faced by Insurance Producers

Back to Basics:  Five Interview Tips You Need to Follow

Answering the Salary Question

The Four Worst Interview Tips

Five Biggest Resume Mistakes

Five Keys to a Great Resume!

Five White Lies that Cost People Jobs!

Five White Lies Continued:  It was a Mutual Decision

8 Ways to make that Perfect Career Match

Five White Lies People Tell in the Interview Process that Cost You the Job

Hi there everybody!  I hope that you are having a great week.  This week I want to discuss an issue that I find to be really troubling.  Lying in the interview process.  We are continually taught that we need to shape the truth when we are interviewing so that we look as good as possible to a potential employer.  Often times people lie in the interview process or on their resume to get noticed.  At first it seems like a little white lie – nobody will get hurt… right?  This is only partially true.  The only person who gets hurt is you.  Often times when people tell these white lies they get hurt in two ways.  First, the company doesn’t believe it and they are no longer considered.  However, it is much worse when the company finds out about the lie on their own.  This typically leads to a loss of trust that ultimately ends with termination,  the rescinding of an offer or an abrupt end to the interview process.  The worst part is that it can be avoided by just telling the truth.

1.  It was a Mutual Decision

This is probably the worst euphemism known to man for I got fired.  Let me give you a quick pointer.  If your boss sits you down and says “I have to let you go” and you follow up with “Fine!  Well I quit anyway!”  It was not a mutual decision.  The same goes for when you hate a job, quit trying and then get fired for performance.  Essentially you chose not to do your job and got canned for it – again not a mutual decision.  The problem with this euphemism is that NOBODY BEIEVES IT! – It’s kind of like the dog eating your homework.  So… what do you say?  You need to own your situation.  Be honest about it.  Say something like, “You know – that job just didn’t work out.  I wasn’t a good fit for the company, but I learned what is right for me.  I also learned how to be a better employee because…”

If you want to read more about this subject check out this article I wrote last year:

So You Got Fired…  What Do You Say in an Interview?

2.  I’m still Employed

This is another place where people get tripped up.  There is a school of thought that if you are employed then they are somehow more desirable.  I’ve seen some studies out there about it that make cases both ways.  Personally I believe that it is a factor but usually not the deciding factor when looking at making a hire.  That said overcoming not being employed is much easier than overcoming lying.  But nobody will ever know… WRONG -  I tend to prescribe to Finagles Law – anything that can go wrong will go wrong.  Here’s the deal, it is a small world out there. Through the process of checking a reference or through a personal acquaintance there is better than a 50/50 chance that this will come out.  The second part of this thought comes from a unique situation that I see from time to time.  What if you employment status changes during the interview process?  Sometimes when this happens people feel like they shouldn’t tell the new company that their status has changed fearing that they will now look like damaged goods.  Just remember this – omission of the truth is the same as lying in the eyes of an employer. 

3.  I was Making this in Salary

This area is a little murkier because it is harder to prove what you were making in salary.  However, the lying problem is still there.  I see this rearing it’s ugly head in two ways.  First, I see people lower their stated salary expectations at the beginning of the process to get an interview and then share their real expectations when it comes time for an offer.  If the gap is significant the employer feels betrayed and the new job becomes in jeopardy.  The second area  I see this is when someone is underpaid in their current job (big shocker for some of you I know) and they pump up their current salary number in the interview to help their argument for more money in the new job.  Regardless of the situation lying about salary typically leads to problems.  You are better off setting your expectations honestly and making your argument from there.

For more on salary check out this blog post from last year:

Answering the Salary Question

4.  My Title was…

This one is much less a lie and much more stretching the truth that makes you look stupid.  I’ve harped on this over and over again in my blog and will continue to in the future.  If you are a receptionist – don’t call your self the manager of first impressions.  If you own your own small company of less than five people – don’t call your self the president or CEO – you are the owner.  Owner actually does a better job of encapsulating your duties as  I assume that an owner does the duties of the controller, HR manager, CFO, COO and janitor.  This one is probably less about honesty and more about reality.  I’ll be honest, I haven’t seen people lose jobs over titles as much as others but I feel that sometimes if you put something on your resume or say something in an interview that makes you look silly it comes back to haunt you.

5.  My Education level is…

This one is pretty cut and dry.  You attended a school and graduated or you didn’t.  Some companies have strict requirements about this and others don’t.  The fact of the matter is that if you put a college on your resume and in little words write – attended – it’s the same as lying.  You are putting it on your resume to try and trick people into believing you got degree from there.  Please understand that this isn’t a judgment one way or the other on the value of a college education and whether or not it is relevant to getting a job.  I have some interesting thoughts on this that I’ll share another day.  The facts are that some companies require this and when you intentionally try to trick them by putting something on your resume it will hurt you more often than not.  I can’t tell you how stupid I feel when I have to go back to a company and tell them that there wasn’t something wrong with the background check.  Our candidate indeed doesn’t have a degree but that it is somehow the company’s fault for making an assumption that there was a degree when the candidate wrote this on their resume:

Education

University of Iowa                                Iowa City, IA

2008 – 2012                                        Business

It doesn’t go over so well.  If you are so concerned about it that you feel the need to lie then do something about it.  Go get a degree or be prepared to discuss why you don’t need one and how your experience trumps it. 

That’s all I’ve got for this week.  As always feel free to leave me comments or send me an email at sthompson@insurance-csg.com.  

Check out some of my recent articles on the blog here:

Five Dumbest Mistakes You can Make in an Interview

Five Things Employers Do in the Interview Process that Suck

The Four Skills that Every Insurance Account Manager Needs to Succeed in Their Career

So You Got Fired…  What Do You Say in an Interview?

Five Things You Should Know When Working with a Recruiter

Ten Common Job Seeking Mistakes

Self Defeating Job Search Moves

Forward Emails:  The Silent Job Search Killer

Six Biggest Challenges Faced by Insurance Producers

Back to Basics:  Five Interview Tips You Need to Follow

Answering the Salary Question

The Four Worst Interview Tips

Five Biggest Resume Mistakes

Five Keys to a Great Resume!

Ten Common Mistakes that Job Seekers are making that keep them From Getting a Job! Part II

Welcome Back!  In case you missed it this week I've been talking about the mistakes that people commonly make in a job search.  On Monday I gave the first five.  You can read them here:

Ten Common Mistakes Part I

Below are parts 6 – 10.  Enjoy!!!

6.  Uses Poor Etiquette When Following Up

This is one that really trips people up.  Here is the deal.  When a company tells you that they will be in  touch by a certain date and you don’t’ hear from them you can follow up.  However, it is important that you follow up appropriately.  It is OK to make one phone call and follow up with an email.  If you haven’t heard back in 48 – 72 hours it is OK to send one more email.  However, if you do any more than this you will run the risk of appearing desperate or too aggressive.  This is the hardest thing to do but you need to just let it go.  The other thing you should be aware of is how to leave a voice mail.  People are busy.  When you leave a voicemail you need to leave three things:

• Your name
• Your number
• Why you called – less than two sentences

If your voicemails become one sided conversations they will get deleted. 

7.  Unrealistic Salary Expectations

Salary is an issue that really gets people worked up.  In our minds our salary is a validation of our own self worth and signifies how other people value you.  The problem is that only in a vacuum is your salary a true estimation of your worth.  There are so many other factors that go into a salary including the economy, the economics of the company and the salaries of others in your position.  The truth of the matter is that your salary only has a little bit to do with you.  However, because we are in an ego-centric world we make it all about us and have expectations that don’t match with reality.  Here is the hard truth.  Generally you can expect a 5 %- 10% salary increase as an incentive for leaving a job in a good economy.  I’ve seen people get more than this and I’ve seen people get less but I’ve found that this is pretty realistic.  However, I hear many people ask for much more based on some silly premises.  Some of the best are:

• I haven’t had a raise for three years so I should be making this – WRONG – anyone that uses this premise right now looks pretty stupid.  We just came out of the worst recession in 60 years.  Not getting a raise in three years does not entitle you to some form of back pay for your hardship in your next job.  It just means that you are like every other person lucky enough to keep their job through the recession. 
• I just got my MBA or other professional degree – I should get $20K more a year now – WRONG AGAIN – This is another flawed premise.  I think that schools actively recruit people for professional degrees based on the promise of increased earnings.  They often float out how people with MBA’s make X% more than others.  What they don’t share is that this percentage is over the lifetime of a career not immediate.  Your MBA is not some magical salary key – it is a set of skills that will help you excel in the long run.  So if you are only taking the degree to get more money and not to develop yourself you have a big problem.
• I’m really underpaid and I think I’m worth more – sorry I don’t have a snarky comment here – we all feel this way.  Make sure that you have some concrete reasons why you deserve more money.  Starting out with “I think” is never a convincing argument.

For more on salaries check out this article that I wrote last year:

Answering the Salary Question

8.  Act Arrogant or Uninterested

When you are interviewing you need to act confident.  There is no doubt about this.  However, many people confuse confidence with arrogance or disinterest.  Confident people talk about why they would be a good for a position and are excited to do so.  Arrogant people expect someone to tell them why they are great and acknowledge how good they are.  I don’t want to go to in depth here.  Just remember this key piece of wisdom.  Companies hire people that want to be a part of their organization – in order to get hired you need to act like you want it.

9.  Didn’t Dress to Impress

I wrote about this pretty in-depth last week but it is so important that I thought I’d mention it again.  How you dress for an interview shows what you thin about the opportunity and the company.  If you wear a suit you show respect and it signifies that you feel that this meeting is important.  Anything less than that suggests that either:

• The interview isn’t important
• You don’t understand social graces and don’t know what is expected of you
• You think that you are better than the job

Don’t let what you wear say negative things about you.

10.  Lie or Misrepresent Themselves on Resume or Application

This is so obvious that I’m sure many of you think it is silly to bring it up.  I wish…  Here’s the deal, lying on your resume can and will come back to haunt you.  I’m sure many of you remember the high profile examples of  this like George O’Leary who was hired to be the head coach of Notre Dame (for you non-sports people this is one of the true dream jobs – or at least it was ten years ago) only to be fired after it was discovered that he lied about his education among other things on his resume.  However, blatant lies are the only thing that gets you in trouble.  Little white lies can hurt as well.  Some of the little white lies I see are:

• Omitting a job
• Making it appear that you still work for your most recent employer by not putting an end date on it
• Changing your job title

Doing these little things can and will hurt you in the long run.

So there you go!  Let me know if you think I’m off base or if you have any things that I missed.  Have a great week and don’t forget to leave comments or email me at sthompson@insurance-csg.com.

Check out some of my recent articles on the blog here:

Five Dumbest Mistakes You can Make in an Interview

Five Things Employers Do in the Interview Process that Suck

The Four Skills that Every Insurance Account Manager Needs to Succeed in Their Career

So You Got Fired…  What Do You Say in an Interview?

Five Things You Should Know When Working with a Recruiter

Ten Common Job Seeking Mistakes

Self Defeating Job Search Moves

Forward Emails:  The Silent Job Search Killer

Six Biggest Challenges Faced by Insurance Producers

Back to Basics:  Five Interview Tips You Need to Follow

Answering the Salary Question

The Four Worst Interview Tips

Five Biggest Resume Mistakes

Five Keys to a Great Resume!

What's up with Construction Insurance?

Hey everybody!  I was wondering if anyone else has seen a change in the insurance market in regards to insurance.  Before the recession hit construction insurance experience was one of the top qualifications I was searching for.  I consistently had clients asking for experience working with contractors, large and small, large wrap ups, self insured funds and the like.  Some of the biggest hubs for these were Charlotte, Atlanta, Birmingham, Denver and Phoenix.  Then the market bottomed out and I have literally seen nothing since 2008.  Now this month I'm working on five positions for large construction.  Three are in the Southeast, one is in Chicago and one is in Pennsylvania.

What are you guys seeing in the market?  Are things changing?  If so why?  I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.

For all of my thoughts on insurance and job hunting check out my blog at Scott the Insurance Recruiter

Five Keys to a Great Resume!

I hope that you are all having a great week.  I started out the week discussing the biggest mistakes that people make on their resume.  You can read this here:

Five Biggest Resume Mistakes

As promised I’m following up with the most important aspects of what should be on your resume.  Please remember that resume writing is an art form and many people have different theories about what works.  These are my thoughts and I’m to hearing your thoughts as well!

1.  Your Resume Should be Action Oriented

This one is something that is really important.  It’s kind of like in English class when you are taught to write with an active voice instead of a passive voice.  The description of your tenure at a job needs to show what you did and how you did it.  Since I work in insurance I’ll be giving examples from this industry with a typical insurance sales person.  A non action oriented description would be:

• Prospected for new clients

What a waste of space on your resume. This gives me nothing new that I didn’t already know from your title.  Instead you should write:

• Generated $150,000 in commission revenue in first year through active prospecting

When writing in this tone you should be using words like achieved, accomplished, gained and engineered. 

2.  Your Resume Should be Clear and Concise

This is so important.  I’ve been told that people that read resumes have an attention span of seven seconds when looking at a resume for the first time before they move on to something else.  Work with me here and count to seven in your head.  That is how long you have to make an impact on someone to read more about your background.  Because of this your resume has to be easy to read.  The best way to do this is to change how you think of your resume.  It is not a piece of paper that encompasses your entire job history.  Instead you need to think of it as an advertisement designed to make companies want to talk to you.

My wife teaches a Microsoft Office class and in one of the units they talk about PowerPoint and how an effective slide should follow the six by six rule.  What this means is that no slide should have more than six bullet points and each bullet point should have no more than six words.  I’m not saying that this should be the exact philosophy you should follow with your resume but the concept is correct.  Pick the most important achievements from your jobs to share on your resume and use an economy of words.  If you see anything on your resume that even remotely resembles a paragraph – work on it.

3.  Your Resume Should be Relevant

When you are applying for a job your resume should include information that is relevant to the job and to your career.  There are a lot of competing theories out there about the benefits of a chronological resume versus a skill themed one.  I’m OK with deviating from the Chronological as long as it doesn’t look like you are hiding something.  Regardless of the format though I think that it is important to change what you share about yourself on a resume to match the position you are applying for.  You should always keep your greatest accomplishments but do what you need to do to make yourself the most attractive candidate as possible.

Bonus tip here.  Some things are simply not relevant after a certain period of time.  If you graduated college more than five years ago and have had two jobs I would say that you should drop all of your college activities off of your background unless they directly relate to the position.  The same goes for high school.  If you are in a type of position that values volunteering and community involvement – like sales then you should definitely have your associations on there.  If you volunteer and it doesn’t relate to your career at all you should leave it off.

4.  Your Resume Should be Easy to Read and Scan

This is something that people really mess up on.  Your resume should look great aesthetically.  Take a look at your resume and ask yourself.  Does it look pretty? 

• Make sure that it is uniform and that you use bold face in the same places. 
• Make sure that your information is indented the same way
• Make sure that the appropriate information sticks out

Another trick is to shut your eyes and then quickly open them looking at your resume.  What is the first thing you eyes are drawn to?  If it is your name you have a problem.  You want them to be looking at your experience.  Just remember in this area that if you resume looks like it is a chore to read then people will just hit the delete key.

5.  Your Resume Should Include Basic Information that is Expected

This one seems like a no-brainer but many people  are simply told bad information.  When you apply for a job you are asking for someone to reach out to you.  Why then would you make it difficult to contact you?  Make sure that you have your name and cell phone number on your resume.  I often times get resumes from people that don’t put their phone number on their resumes – I get paid to source people so I take the time to email them and ask for a phone number.  I’ll then ask why they didn’t put their number on there and they tell me that they didn’t want a bunch of phone calls about jobs – sounds pretty stupid right.  I can guarantee that someone that works for a company that prefers to call people over emailing them will delete resumes without a phone number and move on.

Other information you should put on there is your address.  A lot of people assume that because the US Postal Service is a dying industry that your address doesn’t matter – the company isn’t going to mail you something, right?  Wrong!  If you don’t put your address on your resume companies assume you are hiding something like a long commute or that you don’t actually live in the area.  The morale of the story is that companies expect that you have specific information on your resume.  Some other information can include:

• Full name
• Dates of employment
• Company names
• Education
• Licenses if you work in an industry that requires them

Many times people don’t share this stuff because they don’t think it is important.  It probably isn’t important information however; the issue is that companies expect to see it.  Don’t put yourself at a disadvantage because you are smarter than everyone else.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for today!  Have a great weekend and I’ll have some more thoughts for you next week!!!

As always feel free to leave comments or email me at sthompson@insurance-csg.com.

Check out some of my recent articles on the blog here:

Year in Review

Five Dumbest Mistakes You can Make in an Interview

Five Things Employers Do in the Interview Process that Suck

The Four Skills that Every Insurance Account Manager Needs to Succeed in Their Career

So You Got Fired…  What Do You Say in an Interview?

Five Things You Should Know When Working with a Recruiter

Five Reasons to Look at Making a Move in 2012

Self Defeating Job Search Moves

Forward Emails:  The Silent Job Search Killer

Six Biggest Challenges Faced by Insurance Producers

Four Keys to a Great Reference

Answering the Salary Question

The Four Worst Interview Tips

Five Biggest Resume Mistakes

Hi there everybody!  Sorry I didn't give a real article last week.  The shortened week after the holidays had be behind the eight ball.  To make it up to you I’m putting together a two part series on resumes.  The first part that I’ll post today is about five mistakes people make on resumes.  I’ll follow up later in the week with the five things you should be doing with your resume.  So here goes!!!

1.  Uses Inappropriate or Irrelevant Information

When you are writing your resume you are applying for a job.  Not posting on E-Harmony.  This means that your resume should focus on your career, your skills and why you would be a great candidate.  It should not include the following:

• Hobbies
• Family situation
• Age
• Political Affiliation
• Religion

It doesn’t matter how proud you are of your vintage 1950’s Barbie collection - it isn’t relevant.  There are three reasons why you shouldn’t put this on here.  First, it runs the risk of taking away from the pertinent information on your resume.  Second, it is commonly accepted that this is a poor practice and it makes you look like you aren’t up to date – as a bonus if the information is exceptionally odd they will pass it around to others and laugh at you.  Finally, you open yourself up to people passing on you because of predisposed notions that are irrelevant to the job.  What if a client hates gardeners and thinks that they have no business in the professional world.  Putting your hobby on there could really hurt you…

2.  Grammatical and Spelling Errors

This one is really important.  I mean really important.  If you have errors on your resume it makes you look careless, sloppy and stupid.  There is really no way around this.  However, let’s put this in perspective.  One minor error won’t knock you out of contention with most places.  However, multiple errors look really bad. People will make the assumption  that if you are doing something incredibly important for your own well being and can’t take the time to proofread your resume then you will probably be worse when doing daily correspondence with their clients.  This makes you look lazy and sloppy.

Even worse is when you make errors on really important pieces of information.  If you misspell the following you are screwed:

• Your name
• The name of the person you are applying to
• Your previous employers
• Your current employer
• The name of your industry (I have a hard time calling someone that applies to me for an inusrance job…)

These types of errors signal and underlying problem in the eyes of an employer and you will have major problems getting an interview.

3.  Describes Your Job Duties in Great Detail

This is another major error.  Many people put together a resume and underneath their positions of employment they write in great detail every minor job duty that they had.  Some of the things included would be:

• Answered the phone daily
• Handled customer complaints
• Assisted customer

When I read things like this I immediately think “No S@$#!”  Most reasonable companies can look at your job title and make some basic assumptions about what you did.  What they are looking for and what sets you apart is what you accomplished.  Give specific details about what you did.  If you were a commercial lines account manager and your book of business was heavy in transportation – say it.  Give hard and true facts.  Two bonus things that go with this:

1.      If you have a weird job that doesn’t match the title it is OK to give a basic description.  Just make it one bullet point and move on to your accomplishments.

2.      Don’t ever, ever, ever write same as above on your resume or just copy the same thing you wrote and paste it in again.  I don’t care if you worked as the drive through manager at McDonalds and then Burger King.  You should come up with unique information about both positions.

4.  It Reads Like a Book

I’m going to let you in on a big secret.  People are lazy.  More specifically, people who read resumes are lazy.  If the information presented on your resume is written in paragraph form and it requires people to take the time to seek out relevant information they will miss it or ignore it altogether. 

As a recruiter I can tell you from experience that when I see a resume that looks like a chore to read I have to stop myself, take a deep breath and then try to read it.  If I’m busy, tired or under a deadline it runs the risk of me missing something and hitting the delete key. 

5.  It Blatantly Inflates Your Titles and Duties

Look I get it.  The point of a resume is to toot your own horn and make you look good.  However, if you owned your own business and it has 1 – 3 employees your job title should be owner – not President or CEO.  If you are a receptionist don’t put down Vice President of First Impressions – true story here, I actually have a client that gave their receptionist this title – if you actually have this title you should change it on your resume.  If you were a stay at home parent don’t put it on your resume as an actual job – no one will be impressed that you put laundry away, paid your bills and dropped your kids off at school.  Do you know why? – because most of them have to do this as well without the luxury of staying at home.  Don’t think that I’m knocking being a stay at home parent – it is a wonderful luxury.  Just don’t try to spin it as anything different than it is.

So – this is part one – you can read the second part here:

Five Keys to a Great Resume!

Have a great week and as always remember that you should leave comments below or email me direct at sthompson@insurance-csg.com.  

Check out some of my recent articles on the blog here:

Year in Review

Five Dumbest Mistakes You can Make in an Interview

Five Things Employers Do in the Interview Process that Suck

The Four Skills that Every Insurance Account Manager Needs to Succeed in Their Career

So You Got Fired…  What Do You Say in an Interview?

Five Things You Should Know When Working with a Recruiter

Five Reasons to Look at Making a Move in 2012

Self Defeating Job Search Moves

Forward Emails:  The Silent Job Search Killer

Six Biggest Challenges Faced by Insurance Producers

Four Keys to a Great Reference

Answering the Salary Question

The Four Worst Interview Tips

Another Stupid Career Article Brought to You by Monster and Yahoo

You can almost count on it at the beginning of the year.  Media outlets will try to capitalize on your new year’s resolution to find a new job and will invariably spew out lists of the top career choices that you should pursue.  When CSI came out all the rage was pursuing a job as a forensic analyst – “It’s a growth industry!” Whenever these articles come out I read them and just laugh because they draw you in with the prospect of bright new careers that will pay big bucks and then tell you about obscure jobs that in most cases require advanced degrees or skills that the average person doesn’t have.  You can read the article by clicking the link below:

Eight Bright Career Outlooks

Among the wonderful career choices you have that are there for you are :

• A Geneticist – really?  According to the article you need some type of PHD to get into this.  Hardly something that you can just pick up and pursue tomorrow.
• A Nanotechnology Engineering Technologist – I’m sure that this is an easy field to get into.  There are like 30 places that even offer a degree in it according to Wikipedia.   

The article went on to suggest several other gems including a Validation Engineer and an Ophthalmic Medical Technologist.  Please know that I’m certain that all of these are terrific career paths for people and I’m sure that they also are in growing fields.  My issue is that for the vast majority of people that might stumble upon this article – I’m sure there are many seeing as Monster saw fit to post it on the front page of Yahoo – these are completely unrealistic career options. 

I just wish that professionals would give good career advice.  If you are unhappy with your career or unemployed don’t make the mistake of looking for a job because it is in a cool, growing field.  Also don’t make a move because the field offers a significant pay increase – this is the biggest falsity that these articles perpetuate.  They always mention that the median salary is somewhere just shy of six figures – who doesn’t want that?  What they don’t tell you is what an entry level person makes and that in order to realize the financial gains you have to have experience AND be good at what you do.

If you truly want to make a move you need to do some deep internal reflection.  Analyze your strengths and weaknesses.  Look at what you like about your job and what you hate about it.  Then start looking for career paths that match it.    

Check out some of my recent articles on the blog here:

Year in Review

Five Dumbest Mistakes You can Make in an Interview

Five Things Employers Do in the Interview Process that Suck

The Four Skills that Every Insurance Account Manager Needs to Succeed in Their Career

So You Got Fired…  What Do You Say in an Interview?

Five Things You Should Know When Working with a Recruiter

Five Reasons to Look at Making a Move in 2012

Self Defeating Job Search Moves

Forward Emails:  The Silent Job Search Killer

Six Biggest Challenges Faced by Insurance Producers

Four Keys to a Great Reference

Answering the Salary Question

The Four Worst Interview Tips

Five Reasons You Should Consider Making a Move in 2012… And One Reason Why You Shouldn’t

I know we still have a pretty big holiday coming up on Sunday but it is never too early to start thinking about the future.  I've often found that spending time away from the office and enjoying time with friends and family magnifies what you don’t like about your job.  I’m sure that some of this is just that absence can make the heart grow blacker.  However, for many the time away helps people objectively look at their career and compare it to their goals.  Below are five reasons why you should at least check out your options.

1.  You Aren't Being Challenged Intellectually

Are you coming home from work feeling like you didn’t learn anything new?  Many times people fall into traps where they are very good at what they do because they have perfected it.  Companies won’t give them new duties because your current job is too important – maybe there aren’t any more duties to take on.  If you have these feelings it might be time to look at your options.  As always I would suggest that you ask your current employer if they can fix the situation – but if they can’t…

2.  Your Boss is a ________

You can fill in the blank with a lot of different words here.  Pushover, screamer or absent owner.  It doesn’t matter.  If you aren’t happy with your boss or the leadership of your organization it might be time to make a move.  The hard thing here is that while it is possible to change policies or your habits it is incredibly hard to change another person.  If your boss is a ______ he/she will always be a ______ unless there are visits from three Christmas spirits at midnight on December 25^th…

3.  Promises Haven’t Been Fulfilled

So you asked management for an assistant or to move into sales or for a new puppy last January.  They told you that they’d be happy to do it in March.  In March they said June.  In June they said August.  There is always a reason why the timing isn’t right.  Take the hint – they are probably placating you.  Please know that it isn’t about you.  The company either doesn’t have the money to do so, doesn’t value the investment the same way you do or doesn’t think that you deserve it.  It doesn’t matter.  You probably aren’t going to get it.  If you really need these things to be professionally satisfied you may need to look elsewhere.

4.  You Don’t Feel Valued

Do you do everything going above and beyond the call of duty only to get a jelly of the month club for Christmas?  Do you work overtime every week and your boss is too busy playing golf to even notice – let alone thank you?  This doesn’t mean that your boss or management is mean.  It just means that the organization’s culture doesn’t appreciate extra work or expects it as a way of life.  Either way you probably need to move to a different culture that will value your efforts and stroke your ego a little bit.

5.  You Are Dreading Going Back to Work on the 27^th or January 3^rd

There is nothing wrong with wanting you holiday to last a little longer.  Who doesn’t?  However, if you are sick to your stomach about going back or if you are letting thoughts of going back to work ruin your holiday you have a problem.  Maybe its one of the reasons above.  Perhaps it’s a toxic relationship.  Regardless, you should at least be able to bear going to work and probably should want to.  If it is dragging down your life at home then you need a change of scenery.

So these are the reasons you should consider making a move in 2012.  There is one reason why you shouldn’t:

Bonus - You aren't making enough money

I’m not going to fill your head with some garbage about how money doesn’t buy your happiness.  I have a family of four soon to be five and I can tell you that money buys stability that leads to happiness.  However, if the only reason you want to move is because of money you need to do some more soul searching.  The reason is because if you don’t know what is ailing you, then you won’t be able to find something that is better.  What I mean by this is that you need to want more money and something else otherwise you will end up with more money and the same problems you currently have.

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!!!!!!

 Check out some of my recent articles on the blog here:

Forward Emails:  The Silent Killer

The Six Biggest Challenges Faced by Insurance Producers

How Insurance Producers Can Use Social Networking to Increase Sales

Four Skills that Every Account Manager Needs to Succeed

Job Hunting Myths Exposed

How Account Managers can Improve their Resumes

Three Things that Account Managers Should Do

Six Interview Tips Part I

Five Things You Should Know When Working With a Recruiter

So You Got Fired...What Do You Say in an Interview?