Author: nbrout@comcast.net

Career transitions are challenging enough. We make them more challenging when we think common myths are realities—the way things really are.

Believing these myths can get in our way of landing a new job we love. Or, we can find new ways to think about them so they don’t get in our way.

Myth #1: 80% to 90% of jobs are never advertised.   

Most job seekers are told to spend 80% to 90% of their time networking to find these hidden jobs. This advice comes with a warning to spend no more than 10% to 20% of their job search time online.

The myth of the “hidden job market” dates back to the 1970s. Hmmm. Have you noticed the world has changed since then? If it were ever true, the belief that only 10% to 20% of jobs are advertised is long overdue for extinction.

Sure, networking to arrange introductions is a great way to land a job. But job seekers who don’t use online channels to generate interviews and offers are missing powerful ways to land their next jobs.

Myth #2: Applicant Tracking Systems (ATSs) are black holes that block your resume from being seen by human eyes.  

Data from LinkedIn and SilkRoad suggest that companies find at least 40% of their new hires through online channels. I believe this is low and growing exponentially.

There are many tips and tricks for completing online applications to reduce the likelihood of being screened out and sucked into the black hole of oblivion. Common advice is to take all formatting elements out of our resume (e.g., shading and charts) so it can be read by an ATS. I don’t believe formatting has been an obstacle for the resumes I and many of my clients have submitted.

Methods that worked for me include:

• Combining multiple positions in the same company as a single entry
• Adjusting the placement of information parsed from my resume so that it’s in the right places on the application
• Bringing attention to my application by connecting on LinkedIn with someone in the hiring chain and/or HR
• Rejecting automated rejections as definitive rejections. It’s not uncommon to advance in a screening process after receiving an automated “thanks, but no thanks.” The more interested you are in the company or opportunity, the more important it is to keep pursuing it.

Myth #3: Companies post jobs because they have to; not because they intend to hire this way. Besides, many posted jobs are already filled.  

Skeptics argue that companies post jobs because the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) requires them to. A well-known EEOC law prohibits discrimination in hiring based on race, color, religion, gender identity, national origin, age (40 or older), disability, or genetic information. To comply with this law, some employers (e.g., government and government contractors) advertise and use applicant tracking systems to capture statistics for all job openings. But these are employer policies, not legal requirements.

I’m sure some jobs are already filled when they’re posted. But I don’t believe hundreds of thousands of jobs are posted just for the heck of it.

Myth #4: You can’t get hired at age 50+/-.  

Sure, ageism exists in some hiring practices. But it’s NOT a universal truth. I was offered several jobs in my 50s, as were numerous people in my network.

How you think about your age will determine how you go about your search and become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you perceive your age as a barrier, it will be. If you perceive your age as a non-issue, it will be.

If you believe your age is a barrier to being hired, it probably will be. If you don’t view your age as a barrier, it’s less likely to be one.

Myth #5: Hiring stops or slows down during summer and holidays, so it’s a good time to take a break.

I found new jobs to apply for 7 days a week, all year round. And, because many job seekers believe this myth, there was less competition for jobs during periods assumed to be slow.

Companies that have a July 1 to June 30 fiscal year have new hiring budgets during July and August. Many companies that have a January 1 to December 31 fiscal year recruit in fourth quarter so they have new hires in place when the year begins.

The last two weeks in December were the only weeks I found fewer job postings—but I still found some good ones!

Read Losing Your Job & Finding Yourself to learn more about conquering these myths and other career transition challenges.

Who Needs to Know What Salary Numbers and When?

Candidates are asked about salary histories and salary requirements during four steps of the screening process. Knowing when to provide which numbers often feels like a gamble.

It’s becoming obvious that your salary history is nobody’s business. Cities and states are enacting laws prohibiting employers from asking this question. The main motivation here is to stop perpetuating gender inequality in compensation. Job seekers have numerous rights and reasons to steer conversations toward salary requirements only.

If your salary is negotiable, but you’re guessing what the employer wants to pay, it can feel like a gamble to go high, medium, or low with your target range. This is where the crap shoot comes in.

Another key consideration in your answers is how you want or expect your next salary to compare to your previous compensation. You might want a big jump in pay to reach marketplace parity. Or, you might have reasons to accept a significant cut in your base salary. These scenarios are your private matters and provide good reasons to avoid discussing your salary history.

Timing is Everything

The well-known principle for all negotiations applies to salaries—whoever says the first number loses.

There are distinct points of view about whether salary requirements should be discussed at the beginning or the end of the candidate screening process. One view is to discuss them early so nobody wastes their time if a salary match is not in the cards. The other view is to delay all compensation discussions until the employer is making an offer.

Proceed With Caution and Do Your Research

I hope discussing salary histories becomes extinct. Until then, if you must submit your current or most recent salary, decide whether including your bonus or variable compensation helps or hurts your chances of getting to the next step.

For positions you have strong interest in, it’s to your advantage to uncover the target range the employer has in mind. Sources for this information include asking your interviewers, other internal sources at the employer, people in other organizations with comparable positions, and salary surveys and websites.

Let’s look at how to navigate compensation questions at each stage of the process.

1. Writing Cover Letters and Emails

Applicants are often asked (“required”) to provide salary histories and salary requirements in cover letters and emails. Some job descriptions say the employers won’t consider applicants who don’t include this information.

I agree with the common view that this is too soon to ask or provide this information. When I submitted letters or emails for job posts that requested/required these salary numbers, my response was along these lines: “My salary requirement is flexible and I look forward to discussing this further along in your screening process.” I acknowledged the question without answering it. If I was screened out for this reason, it was probably not a place I wanted to work.

2. Completing Online and Paper Applications

Online applications can be tricky when required fields must be filled in with the correct numerical format. Here are ways to try to avoid providing salary history and requirement numbers before you want to:

• If an application requires salary history numbers, Liz Ryan’s brilliant suggestion is to insert your target salary to answer all salary questions. Attest to your honesty with a note explaining what you did and your desire to discuss your target salary later in the process.
• Try skipping or entering $0 or $1 for salary history questions
• Try skipping or entering $0 or $1, Negotiable, or ranges for desired/required salary questions

3. Answering Interview Questions

Remain cautious about salary history and requirement questions during interviews.

To avoid discussing salary requirements until receiving an offer, I heard a suggestion to respond to an early salary question by asking if the employer was making an offer. This response is too bold for my style.

When asked early, I explained that my salary requirement was flexible in order to find a great fit. For example, “Finding a great fit is most important and my salary requirements are flexible. I would prefer to discuss details further along in the screening process.” I avoided providing my target number or range as long as possible.

It’s always a good idea to see if the employer will provide a target range before you provide any numbers. If you have a firm requirement, and you want to end conversations when there is no foreseeable match, you could provide a more definitive answer sooner rather than later.

4. Negotiating Offers

Your new employer will never love you more than when they make the offer.

Now is the time to ask for everything you want in your ideal total compensation package. If you are at or above director or VP level, you might benefit from professional assistance with your negotiations. No guarantees, but things to consider asking for include:

Higher base salary. It never hurts to ask for more than the initial offer. Maximizing your starting salary is beneficial because many annual increases are small. Market data gives you negotiating power.

Higher job level and bonus opportunity. Bonus opportunities generally vary with salary grades, so the higher your salary grade, the better. It might be difficult to have this changed.

Extra vacation time. If your offer includes less vacation time than you’ve had or want, this is the time to ask for more. Ideally, the extra time would be paid. You could accept additional unpaid time if time off is more important than money.

Hiring bonus. These are more common when an employer wants to sweeten the spot to attract you away from your current position. It’s also appropriate to ask your new employer to “make you whole” if they want you to start before you are eligible to receive a year-end bonus at your previous company.

Relocation allowance. These tend to be for higher-level positions that often involve a retained executive recruiter who is conducting a national search. Specific aspects of such allowances can be negotiated in your favor.

Health benefit eligibility or cash. If a standard waiting period exists before health benefits kick in, you might be able to get this waived or shortened (if their plan allows). If you plan to get your health benefits through another source, request a bump in your base salary to make up for the premium you are saving the employer.

Title. Think carefully about the job title the company has offered. Ask for changes while negotiating the offer. The title on your business cards and soon-to-be updated resume and LinkedIn profile should position you as you want to be thought of going forward.

Golden parachute. Protecting your interests if a separation occurs is probably the last thing you want to think about as you accept a new job. But, as you climb the corporate ladder, and especially if you relocate, it’s important to have an agreement that sets forth what your new employer would provide if you part ways for any reason. In these cases, it’s wise to protect your interests by consulting an attorney with expertise in employment law.

Read Losing Your Job & Finding Yourself: Memoir, Myths, and Methods for Inventive Career Transitions to learn more about the Sweet Spot Job Search Method to land a job you love.

Myth of the Hidden Job Market

According to “hidden job market” data, 80% to 90% of jobs are never advertised. Were this true, job seekers should spend no more than 20% of their time searching and applying online for jobs and the other 80% of their time networking to find those hidden jobs.

Many people still accept this myth as the way things are even though it originated in the 1970s and 1980s. Given what you know about the Internet and social media, does this make sense to you?

According to LinkedIn, SilkRoad, and other sources, at least 40% of new hires are found through online channels, and this is growing exponentially.

3 Elements of the Sweet Spot Job Search Method

Having landed all of my jobs by applying for advertised positions, my approach to job search differs from prevailing advice.

Rather than focusing only or primarily on networking, you can increase your chances of landing a job through an effective combination of three elements, in this order:

1. Diligent Online Keyword Searches, Daily Alerts, and Applications. This process can help you discover and articulate what you can and want to do; then find, apply, interview, and land sweet spot jobs. The power of doing this well is vastly underestimated.
2. Superior Marketing Materials. Successful online applications require exceptional resume(s), cover letters, and LinkedIn profiles.
3. Networking With Purpose. Focusing on quality vs. quantity means connecting and establishing relationships with people for specific reasons and making time for thoughtful preparation and follow up.

3 Types of Online Job Sites

There are three types of online job sites today, but this could change as recruiting practices are evolving quickly. Here are examples of each.

1. Job Search Consolidation Engines: Indeed, ZipRecruiter
2. Branded Job Boards: LinkedIn, CareerBuilder, Monster
3. Company Career Website Pages: Many job postings in #1 and #2 redirect you to apply on company career pages.

Cast a Wide Net for Keyword Searches

Online job searches are essential if you are a Hard-to-Define Professional with a wide variety of transferable skills that don’t fit into a clearly defined vocation. They are also critical if you’re not sure what you want to do next or want to make a career change. They also work for standard searches.

Early in your transition, use online searches to explore possibilities, discover promising directions, and learn how to market yourself. While you learn about options, it doesn’t matter where jobs are or when they were posted.

As you find interesting jobs in any location, capture keywords and phrases that are consistent with work you’ve done, and match what you might want to do in your next position. Use these treasures to create your LinkedIn profile, resume, and customized cover letters.

4 Tips for Online Searches

1. Be playful and experiment with a wide range of filters and search parameters. Start with divergent ideas to consider an expansive array of possibilities.
2. Include positions from any geographic location and posting date in your research.
3. Experiment with combinations of words in the job title field. Search functions on job boards respond differently to using “and” and “or” between keywords and quotation marks around them.
4. Search for generic titles that can apply to a wide range of organizations and industries (e.g., communications, coordinator, executive, marketing, program manager, project manager, specialist).
5. Over time, as you learn what interests you, narrow your search parameters and develop a shorter list for saved searches and daily alerts.

5 Tips to Set Daily Alerts and Fish Every Day

1. Once you save searches and set daily alerts, search engines and job boards are fairly accurate in showing you only the new postings and recommendations since the last time you looked.
2. When you know what you’re looking for, zero in on your target location(s). Save keyword searches and set daily alerts in your zip code plus a 25- to 50-mile radius.
3. Be diligent about reviewing daily alerts. You can quickly scan hundreds of jobs each day based on titles and one or two lines of text.
4. If you are looking for a niche position, you might go several days without finding anything to apply for and then find a few shining stars on other days—including weekends, holidays, and all summer.
5. Apply quickly (ideally the same day) to new job postings to increase your chances of getting noticed.

Catch a Shining Star

Following this process over time generates opportunities that will fulfill your needs, preferences, and aspirations. The ultimate outcome is finding work you love.

Read Losing Your Job & Finding Yourself: Memoir, Myths, and Methods for Inventive Career Transitions to learn more about the Sweet Spot Job Search Method to find work you love.

Everyone knows workforce demographics are shifting. Latest estimates are that 75% of employees will be Millennials by 2025. Many of them are quickly rising into middle, senior, and even C-suite management roles. At the same time, many Baby Boomers are working far beyond the traditional retirement age of 65—either by necessity or by choice.

While Baby Boomers still make up a significant percentage of job seekers, it’s widely assumed that companies prefer to hire younger, less expensive employees. Wherever this age bias exists, employers are walking away from talented, experienced professionals who could be invaluable assets to their businesses.

As a midlife job seeker, here are four ways to triumph over age-related dynamics you might encounter during your transition.

1. Don’t Give Up!

Many midlife job seekers are convinced they won’t be hired because of their age. Some give up and stop trying. Being over age 50 could add time to your search but it is not a showstopper.

Many people in my network have landed jobs in their fifties and sixties—myself included. How you think about your age will affect how you approach your job search and the results you achieve. If you perceive your age as a barrier, it will be. If you perceive your age as a non-issue, it will be. Applying this thinking to your job search is a powerful place to operate from.

Learn how to conduct a successful job search at any age in Losing Your Job & Finding Yourself.

2. Stay Current with Technology

The pace of technology innovations is accelerating exponentially. Some older workers have or will become technology dinosaurs as digital natives overtake the workforce.

Baby Boomers might resist or find it difficult to keep up with mobile devices, social media, and related communication practices that emerge and disappear at an ever-faster pace. People in this age range are especially challenged if they never developed the intuitive ability to find their way around new devices, apps, social media, the cloud, and whatever comes next. But, with many accessible ways to keep technology skills current, it’s up to us to do so.

3. Age Proof Your Profiles and Job Applications

If you’re older than 45, it’s wise to defend against potential hiring biases by age proofing your resume, LinkedIn profile, and online applications. It’s easy to do by omitting dates on educational degrees and excluding one or more early jobs. Common advice is to include only the most recent 15 years’ experience in your job search documents.

However, if your longer history tells an impressive story that’s relevant to your search objectives I recommend including it on your resume. Maybe not in your LinkedIn profile, and definitely not in online applications. This is one way to avoid getting screened out by an applicant tracking system.

4. Create an Encore Career

For many Baby Boomers, replicating a previous job and compensation level can become less realistic—perhaps less desirable. Rather than working to have the resources we need to live, Boomers might be ready and able to choose work we love (living to work vs. working to live).

One notion is to determine your income requirement, find (hopefully satisfying) work to meet that requirement, and do other work because you want to—not because you have to or think you should. If financial conditions allow (including family obligations and retirement scenarios), and you can afford to earn less than before, a midlife transition can be a well-earned opportunity to downshift from high-pressure corporate jobs and find purpose-driven work you enjoy.

Reaching midlife, more people we know might become critically ill or even pass away. This is a wake-up call to enjoy life as much as possible while you can. But if you create an encore career doing work you love, you might want to continue doing it for years to come—even as you figure out what your “retirement” will look like.

Whichever work scenarios you want to create in your next chapter, you must conduct an effective job search. Learn how by reading Losing Your Job & Finding Yourself.

Did you lose your job or decide to move on?

• Are you in transition after losing a job you wanted to keep?
• Have you stayed too long in a job you would rather lose?
• Would you like to do purpose-driven work you care about deeply?
• Are you considering a career change?
• Are you a “Hard-to-Define Professional” with many transferable skills that are not easily categorized into a single, clearly defined vocation?

Inventive Career Transitions

These scenarios present opportunities to reinvent your career and find work you love. As you create your next career move, here are things to keep in mind about today’s job market. Learn more about conducting a successful job search in Losing Your Job & Finding Yourself.

Job Hopping: The New Normal

Your views about employer-employee relationships and loyalty might be based on endless waves of downsizing that have taken place since 2008. Believing anyone could be laid off at any time has led to a “free-agent” mentality across generations. A common way of thinking is “happy to stay; ready to go”—prepared to market yourself for new opportunities at a moment’s notice.

According to 2016 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, median tenure with current employers was 4.2 years. While names and date ranges for generations vary by source, many studies report that the majority of Millennials (born 1977-1998) expect to stay in their jobs less than three years. This means they could have 15 to 20 jobs during their careers. Workers between the ages of 55 to 64 have averaged 10 years in each job, and many have changed jobs multiple times after age 48 due to one or more layoffs.

Contractor Mentality: Goes Both Ways

With job security redefined, each of us must maintain our employability. Rather than expecting companies to employ us for life and manage our training and career development, it’s up to us to take charge of our professional progression and keep our skills up to date.

Many companies are hesitant to add to their “permanent headcount,” relying more heavily on contractors. Using contractors allows employers to flex staffing levels up and down without the complexities that come with laying people off. Even before the Affordable Care Act (ACA) took effect in 2014, companies used contractors and part-time employees to avoid the high cost of health insurance premiums for full-time employees.

Using contractors is a great way for companies to “try before they buy.” They can test drive potential new hires to avoid mistakes—and employees can decide if the company is a place we want to work.

Also from the employee perspective, we might avoid getting emotionally over invested in long-term employment situations that could evaporate at any moment. At the same time, an independent contractor mentality motivates many of us to add as much value as possible in each place we work.

The Next Move is Yours

In today’s job market, we benefit from deciding where we sell our services as “Me, Inc.” Portfolio careers with several concurrent employment arrangements are a growing trend. It’s increasingly common to have a central anchor that provides steady income, with several satellite endeavors—freelance and/or contract assignments that change over time.

Your next move is up to you. It could be any combination of full-time, part-time, or freelance arrangements. Perhaps you’ll join over 50 million Americans who are freelancing—most of them by choice.

Whichever work scenarios you want to create—ideally, to find work you love—you must conduct effective job searches. Learn how by reading Losing Your Job & Finding Yourself.

Mass layoffs continue, and millions of us feel lost at sea when we lose our jobs or want to change careers.

Whether losing your job by layoff or by choice, my story offers solace, insights, and actions to navigate an experience that can be traumatic, turbulent, and triumphant.

Dispelling Myths of the “Hidden Job Market”

• How can you lose your job and find work you love?
• Network less. Job hunt online more.

Having landed all of my positions by applying for advertised jobs, I crush pervasive myths about the “hidden job market” and networking. After 20 years in one company, I conducted four search strategies, discovered work I was meant to do, helped clients gain confidence and find new jobs, and landed in an amazing job of my own.

Conventional wisdom that 80% of jobs are never advertised is long overdue for extinction. At least 40% of new hires are found through online channels, and this is growing exponentially. Professionals who don’t use online job boards, social media, and company career sites to generate interviews and offers are missing primary pathways to land their next jobs.

Job seekers get results with my divergent Sweet Spot Job Search Method and tips on 25 Activities that are more and less effective for self-discovery, job hunting, networking, and finding work you love.

If you are:

• Unemployed after losing a job you wanted to keep
• Considering a career change to find work you are meant to do
• A Hard-to-Define Professional who doesn’t fit into a clear vocation

My memoir and guide gives you:

• Comfort, courage, and confidence during a stressful transition
• Inspiration and methods to reinvent your career
• Proven ways to land a job in your sweet spot

“Losing Your Job & Finding Yourself is a rare gift for professionals who want to figure out what’s next in their careers. When job loss and turbulence come with feeling like there’s nowhere to go, Nancy’s honest and insightful memoir is a beacon for possibility, and a roadmap for how to get to that job that means so much.”                               

— Dr. Paulette Gabriel, President of Key Leadership

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