How often has a friend of yours complained about not getting an interview for a job when their experience matched the job announcement requirements? More often than not, filling out a job application is the reason for their disappointment. The potential hire unwittingly, inadvertently filled out the application under stress and in a hurry, and their information created a seed a doubt, causing their application, and opportunity, to be trashed. Part 1 of 3.

We all want to be liked, accepted and appreciated for who we are and what we do. In the real work-a-day world, this need for appreciation not received is the number one reason why people quit their job. It is important that you understand why you will not be able to relate to everyone, why this happens, and why it is important for you to protect yourself from mental harm to your psyche. Part 2 of 3.

Many people who work for a living continue to do so without a college degree. Many of these same people believe that they will never be able to generate a $100,000-a-year income without at least a bachelor’s degree in hand. Nothing could be further from the truth. They need to know what acquired trait they could develop that could lead them to a $100,000-a-year income without a bachelor’s degree. Part 3 of 3.

A reader emailed me with this question: "I was in an interview, and was asked this question: How do you motivate yourself? I could barely answer the question. What would you suggest?" That is a great question that deserves a great answer. After managing dozens of employees over the years, I can tell you not what I think, but what I know. Get the full story.

If you have a some trepidation about job interviews, relax, you are normal. Who among us wants to be interviewed by someone we do not know, controlling an interview with their questions and concerns, and then sit in judgment of us without an opportunity to prove ourselves? Learn how to turn that negative feeling into positive energy by getting the answers to the 15 most frequently asked questions in a job interview. Here are the quality answers. Part 1 of 4.

If you have a some trepidation about job interviews, relax, you are normal. Who among us wants to be interviewed by someone we do not know, controlling an interview with their questions and concerns, and sit in judgment of us without an opportunity to prove ourselves? Learn how to turn that negative feeling into positive energy by getting the answers to the 15 most frequently asked questions in a job interview. Here are the quality answers. Part 2 of 4.

If you have a some trepidation about job interviews, relax, you are normal. Who among us wants to be interviewed by someone we do not know, controlling an interview with their questions and concerns, and sit in judgment of us without an opportunity to prove ourselves? Learn how to turn that negative feeling into positive energy by getting the answers to the 15 most frequently asked questions in a job interview. Here are the quality answers. Part 3 of 4.

If you have a some trepidation about job interviews, relax, you are normal. Who among us wants to be interviewed by someone we do not know, controlling an interview with their questions and concerns, and sit in judgment of us without an opportunity to prove ourselves? Learn how to turn that negative feeling into positive energy by getting the answers to the 15 most frequently asked questions in a job interview. Here are the quality answers. Part 4 of 4.

Whether you are looking for a job, or are already employed and looking for a better opportunity, your focus should not be on finding another job. Your focus should be on securing job interviews, recognizing that the interview precedes the offer during the hiring process. Getting in front of people is vital to your success in getting a job offer.

The demand for email resume products today is incredible. This has happened in large part as a result of new technology and the information explosion powered by access to the Internet. Personnel, human resources and marketing specialists love the explosion because it moves critical information around in an instant. Thus the rise and proliferation of the requests for email resumes.

In today’s job market it is a good idea to have more than one email format when responding to a request for your email resume. The marketplace almost demands that you do so because of viruses floating around the Internet, and the importance for you to follow exact instructions. Anything less might imply that you do not know how to read and follow instructions.

While 50% of companies and organizations will accept an attachment version of your email resume, the other 50% will not because this is how the bad guys use viruses to corrupt their computer systems. The latter 50% demands that you send your email resume, or your email resume and cover letter, in the body of a normal email, thus avoiding any attachment that might bring with it an uninvited and dangerous visitor.

It almost goes without saying that you need a hard copy resume and cover letter more than you do an email resume and cover letter. This is because the overwhelming majority of hiring is ultimately done with a hard copy resume and cover letter. Find out why.

Job sites exist online to make money, not to serve your best interests. Job one for any job site online is to make money. Without revenue they can not do diddly-squat as its staff members are not going to work for nothing very long without being paid. Serving you is simply a by-product of being able to do so.

Step-by-Step Instructions on How to Receive, Open, Save, Retrieve and Send Email Attachment and Text Versions of Your Resume and Cover Letter - Part 1

There is a huge difference between having computer skills and having some computer skills. Some of my clients who can go online and access the Internet, surf the Internet, launch a Google search for information, and send and receive emails have great difficulty figuring out how to open, save, retrieve and send email resumes. This is because they have some computer skills, but not enough to get the job done without sliding into frustration over what to do next. Here is a step-by-step explanation of how to do it. Part 1 of a 4-Part Series.

How to Receive, Open and Save an Email Attachment - Part 2

There is a huge difference between having computer skills and having some computer skills. Some of my clients who can go online and access the Internet, surf the Internet, launch a Google search for information, and send and receive emails have great difficulty figuring out how to open, save, retrieve and send email resumes. This is because they have some computer skills, but not enough to get the job done without sliding into frustration over what to do next. Here is a step-by-step explanation of how to do it. Part 2 of a 4-Part Series.

How to Retrieve and Send an Email Attachment - Part 3

There is a huge difference between having computer skills and having some computer skills. Some of my clients who can go online and access the Internet, surf the Internet, launch a Google search for information, and send and receive emails have great difficulty figuring out how to open, save, retrieve and send email resumes. This is because they have some computer skills, but not enough to get the job done without sliding into frustration over what to do next. Here is a step-by-step explanation of how to do it. Part 3 of a 4-Part Series.

How to Post Your Email Resume and/or Cover Letter on an Online Website - Part 4

There is a huge difference between having computer skills and having some computer skills. Some of my clients who can go online and access the Internet, surf the Internet, launch a Google search for information, and send and receive emails have great difficulty figuring out how to open, save, retrieve and send email resumes. This is because they have some computer skills, but not enough to get the job done without sliding into frustration over what to do next. Here is a step-by-step explanation of how to do it. Part 4 of a 4-Part Series.

Online Hiring Threatens to Do Away With Traditional Hard Copy Resumes - Part 1

Is it really true that online hiring threatens to do away with traditional hard copy resumes? As one who has spent 20+ years in the high end of the resume writing business crafting 5,400+ hard copy resumes for executives and professionals making $40,000 to $350,000 a year, this is not my experience of how things get done in the hiring process. Let me explain why this soon to be "urban legend" is like all others, simply untrue and does not have any substance in fact. Part 1 of a 4-Part Series.

People Skills Are the Most Important Trait You Have to Present in Selling Yourself at an Interview - Part 2

Is it really true that online hiring threatens to do away with traditional hard copy resumes? As one who has spent 20+ years in the high end of the resume writing business crafting 5,400+ hard copy resumes for executives and professionals making $40,000 to $350,000 a year, this is not my experience of how things get done in the hiring process. Let me explain why this soon to be "urban legend" is like all others, simply untrue and does not have any substance in fact. Part 2 of a 4-Part Series.

94% of Candidates Are Hired the Traditional Way: With a Hard Copy Resume and an Interview - Part 3

Is it really true that online hiring threatens to do away with traditional hard copy resumes? As one who has spent 20+ years in the high end of the resume writing business crafting 5,400+ hard copy resumes for executives and professionals making $40,000 to $350,000 a year, this is not my experience of how things get done in the hiring process. Let me explain why this soon to be "urban legend" is like all others, simply unrue and does not have any substance in fact. Part 3 of a 4-Part Series.

Many Job Hunters Are Frustrated With the Continual Digitized "Depersonalization" of the Hiring Process -  Part 4

Is it really true that online hiring threatens to do away with traditional hard copy resumes? As one who has spent 20+ years in the high end of the resume writing business crafting 5,400+ hard copy resumes for executives and professionals making $40,000 to $350,000 a year, this is not my experience of how things get done in the hiring process. Let me explain why this soon to be "urban legend" is like all others, simply unrue and does not have any substance in fact. Part 4 of a 4-Part Series.

After reading The Tao of Warren Buffett, I discovered that Buffett had some very valuable information on what students should know when selecting their first job after graduating. According to Buffett, one not only needs to learn what kind of business to invest in but what kind of business to work in. Learn why.

Colleges and universities are fond of reminding anyone who will listen that there is great value in earning a bachelor's degree. In the most recent statistics available the U. S. Census Bureau tends to agree. Results from the 2004 Census Bureau report shows a $23,000 difference between the average annual salary of adults with a bachelor's degree ($51,554) compared to adults with a high school diploma ($28,645). Find out the Top 12 Paying Jobs Overall in the nation today.

A client e-mailed me yesterday about her student loan debts that netted her 3 college degrees and a job without a commensurate income and future. I had to break the news to her that there is no real correlation between education and income, and that not all degrees are equal. How can a person with a high school degree earn a six-figure income without any degree? Learn how it happens as this article exposes colleges and universities for what they are and are not.

A reader emailed me about my article titled "There Is No Huge Correlation Between Education and Income and Here Is Why". This article can be found in my Jobs and Careers archive. He poses a great question: "We do not live in a perfect world but why is it so much less perfect than 30 years ago? Here is his email and my response.

I have a client making $350,000 a year with a high school diploma. I have another client making $144,000 who is a high school graduate with two additional years of technical training. A third client is making $250,000 with a high school diploma only. Here is some information you can use if you are a high school graduate and have zero interest in getting a bachelor's degree at this point in your work career: go into sales if you have any people skills or personality. Sales is the second highest paid profession in the world, and it does not usually require a college degree.

I opened my Friday newspaper and was reminded again that life is full of rejection. Take Harvard University for example. No less than 22,955 eager applicants applied for admission to Harvard this fall and only 2,058, or 9%, were accepted. A whopping 20,897 applicants came up short of admission. Hundreds of the applicants had perfect SAT scores on their verbal or math portion, and 3,000+ ranked first in their high school class. To all of the rejects of the world, I have some good news: you can make it in the game of life anyway. Learn how in this article.

Reading my Sunday newspaper yesterday reminded me of how Career Fairs do little to substantially increase local employment. Three special interest groups benefit the most, not the unemployed looking for work. You could hold Career Fairs for the unemployed every other week in Flint, Michigan and it still would not affect their depressed economy. It is likely that when people benefit from these Career Fairs it is more by accident than design.

The wealthiest person in the world is not only the world's greatest investor, he also has some exacting standards when hiring his staff at Berkshire Hathaway. Learn what 3 qualities Warren Buffett looks for when interviewing potential hires. If you think the 3 qualities include education, experience or talent, you are dead wrong.

Female executives who are bold and aggressive do not rise up the corporate ladder as quickly as you may think. Female executives who use a self-confident but much softer, indirect approach do not highlight or reinforce any pre-conceived notions that they might be too bold, too aggressive or too judgmental for a higher position. Learn why it matters in dealing with male executives.

Being too judgmental during a job interview could most certainly be a negative for potential hires. When you appear judgmental during an interview, it is difficult to create a positive impression of someone who will be able to get along with staff and management. You may be perceived as having an opinion on everything when no one, especially management, is interested in your opinion on anything.

We can teach people a lot of things, but there are two things we cannot teach people, potential hires or employees—judgment and personality development. We acquire judgment by making judgments, but unfortunately, some people have better judgment than others. Personality development cannot be taught because it is not driven by professional development but rather by personal growth. Learn why it matters.

My best advice to clients about to interview for a job is to treat the interview like an IRS audit. When the Internal Revenue Service thinks you are cheating on your annual tax return, and they ask you a question during an audit, it is a real good idea to answer the field auditor's question and shut up. The same strategy works during job interviews. Learn the technique in this article.

While interviewing, sometimes the potential hire talks himself or herself into an offer and then right back out. The reason why is they commit the biggest mistake a person could make when interviewing for a job, and this is it: They are asked a question, they answer the question, and then they feel compelled to explain or justify the answer they have given. Get the full story.

There is probably not a day in America when at least a million employees wonder "When am I going to get promoted?" or "I am so upset that they promoted him and not me?" These workplace sentiments tend to happen because employees tend to look only at opportunity, and employers tend to look only at preparedness. The reality of life is that the greatest explosion can only occur when opportunity meets preparedness.

When you start a new job, even if it is a part-time job, you can be thrust into a needy situation that could cause harm to your psyche and confidence. This real life story tells you how you can make an incredible impression during your most vulnerable moment. There is a real lesson to be learned in surviving in the work-a-day jungle of everyday life.

It has always been a mystery to me why certain chief executive officers do such a poor job hiring key executives for their management teams. I submit that one reason is because chief executive officers spend company money and the stockholders' equity in the hiring process. What if the chief executive officers had to hire their key people with money out of their own pocket? You better believe their judgment and discretion would improve in a hurry.

Power Secrets:

December 20, 2006

Marketing Yourself:

Power Secrets on Getting Hired - Do Not Fill Out Job Applications – Part 1

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

A lot of people are trying to figure out how to market themselves in this trying economy. Here are some power secrets on getting hired that can help:

Power Secret 1: Do Not Fill Out Job Applications

Job candidates should not fill out job applications because applications contain so much potentially incriminating and damaging information.

While it is illegal to ask you your age, a business can legally ask you your salary history, how much you want to make, reasons why you left jobs, your medical history, and specific references. This information alone is worth much to a business but can only hurt you, the potential hire, 99% of the time.

Job applications can be the "kiss of death" because the company (or organization) controls your information flow. They ask the questions and you are obliged to answer, or your possibility of being hired can be trashed.

When you use a resume and cover letter, you control the information flow, you tell them what you want them to know, and nothing else. While it is never a good idea to claim an untruth about yourself, you can liberally practice the sins of omission. When you have a back problem, you want the company to know about it when you place an insurance claim as part of your benefit plan.

When you reveal too much information too soon, you can create a seed of doubt with your potential employer. Once the interviewer or employer senses a seed of doubt, they begin checking for a chink in your armor, and who among us, if put under intense scrutiny, does not have a chink in his or her armor?

Like a pit bulldog on the prowl, they search for something, anything, negative about you to validate their suspicion, whether their doubt is justified or not. You are then thrown upon the scrap heap of rejects, and they move on to another candidate.

Any information about you that is a lightning rod should not be revealed, even when they demonstrate an indicated interest in you as a prospect, and you, in turn, are genuinely interested in the opportunity.

Many potential hires read an ad in the classifieds and then approach the business with this introduction: "I read your ad in the Sunday paper (or online) for an Administrative Assistant (or whatever the position is) and would like to fill out an application." This approach misses the mark in that it invites filling out an application, which is a mistake.

When you feel you must go to the business with your approach, use this language exactly: "I'm interested in your Administrative Assistant (or whatever the job is) position. Here is my resume." Then hand them your resume; it is hard not to take your resume when you are handing it to them. Give your resume and cover letter to the most important person you can reach.

A decision maker is much more likely to take your resume, peruse it, decide to interview you, and set an appointment to do so. On occasion, he or she may even interview you on the spot. In any event, you want your resume--and not a job application-- in their hand.

When applying for a public service position (such as a state job, or a classroom teacher position), filling out a job application will be mandatory. When put under stress and placed under a time constraint, candidates unwittingly and inadvertently rush through the process, putting down any answer that comes to mind.

When confronted with this situation, never fill out the job application on scene. Take the application home, read the questions carefully, and think before you answer. When answering any question on the application, ask yourself this question: how could this answer appear negative, or damage my chances of getting an offer?

Most businesses in the private sector appreciate a resume and cover letter far more than an application, as the resume generally gives more and better information about you (ever try to describe your duties and responsibilities on a job application in one line where only seven words will fit if you print in small letters?).

You would not normally be filling out a job application in the private sector unless you are applying for the lowest of entry level positions. You should not be asked to fill out a job application at the management level, and if you are, there is something terribly wrong.

Power Secret 2: The Most Important Factor in Writing Resumes

Judgment is the most important factor in writing a resume. We can teach people a lot of things but there is at least one thing we cannot teach people: judgment. We develop judgment from the life experience of making judgments, and what experience shows us is that some people simply have better judgment than others.

People without good judgment keep running into brick walls because they have not figured out how to climb over them, walk around them, dig under them, or blow them up and walk through. This reflects a lack of judgment.

We raise our children to have a sense of right and wrong and to make good decisions when it counts. But try as we might, there comes that day and time when we are not there, and someone offers them cigarettes, or drugs, or something worse.

At that point in time, we hope and pray that our child makes the right decision because the wrong decision might lead them down a road from which they may never return. Their decision involves judgment. They cannot acquire good judgment by you simply telling them what to do, or not to do; they also need modeling, the power of whatever influence you may have with them, and osmosis: the process of making judgments, recognizing the results of the judgments, and making better choices.

Judgment is the most critical factor you are going to come to terms with in writing a resume, or judgment may be your most telling weakness when you go to the job market to test its effectiveness. Always remember that it is not just what you say, but how you say it that counts.

December 21, 2006

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

Power Secret 3: Why You Will Not Be Able to Relate to Everyone

You need to know that for every 10 people who could potentially make a decision to interview you or hire you, the odds say that 3 out of the 10 will like you, and it will have nothing to do with who you are or what you do.

They may simply like your smile, your handshake, the sound of your voice, or the way you do your hair.

Rest assured that 3 out of those same 10 people will not like you, and again it will have nothing to do with who you are or what you do.

They may simply not like your smile, your handshake, the sound of your voice, or the way you do your hair.

And when you are hired, 4 out of those same 10 people will learn to like you, or dislike you, as they develop a working relationship with you.

The odds say that those 4 in 10 will like you if you actually do your job and then some, you work at earning their respect, you honor their confidence, and you treat them as you would want to be treated.

Considering these numbers, you will potentially be able to develop a very good working relationship with about 70% of your fellow employees when you are hired and go to work.

The other 30% you can forget, and if you bend over backwards to cultivate their good will, you will usually find that they always have a reason to whine or complain about what is happening to them, and why the world and the people in it are not treating them right. They are, in a word, negative. Your best positive attitude will not likely overcome their negative attitude. So forget about them, or they may do mental harm to your psyche.

Why do people like or not like you based upon things that really have little to do with your skills and abilities?

The simple answer is that people are not always rational. People are filled up with prejudices, beliefs, foibles and idiosyncrasies. They will continually tell you that cat is spelled "kat" even when you lead them to a dictionary and show them that cat is spelled "cat". They may see but choose not to recognize reality, or truth. A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. A woman convinced against her will is of the same opinion still.

Under the category of "people are not always rational" is also the phenomenon of "life is not always fair.”

For those of us who have been paying attention, life is not fair, and unfairness (or discrimination) is no respecter of race; no one is immune. People of any race are just as apt to be unfair to a person of their own race as they would to a person of another race, they are just less obvious about doing so.

A good example of this would be Karen, a woman who went to a job interview, had a fantastic experience at the interview, and came away feeling good about herself, and her prospects of being hired.

She knew that the company representatives liked her, and would offer her a job. She did not get the offer. Later she learned that everyone liked her, but the key decision-maker axed her hiring, even though he clearly liked her as a possible hire at the interview.

What Karen did not know was that the key decision-maker was going through a nasty divorce and child custody battle, and his ex-wife's name was Karen. He simply did not want to come to work every day and have to smile at this Karen and say, "Good morning, Karen, how are you doing?" Such is life.

Power Secret 4: Be Careful About From Whom You Take Your Advice

Always remember that the cheapest commodity in the world is opinions. Everyone has one, and if you do not think so, just ask them, and he or she will tell you.

Ask a lot of questions and even solicit opinions, but be careful about from whom you take your advice.

Some displaced workers making $100,000 a year get pushed out the door during a merger, acquisition, restructuring or downsizing (all words for the same negative impact on the individual involved), head down to the local watering hole, ask some unemployed, broke person for advice on what to do next, and then actually listen as if the unemployed, broke person could tell them how to become financially successful in life.

The sources of advice are all around us: fellow employees, those who did not get axed, your friends, your relative who has never had a job, your pastor, and, if you are desperate enough, your dog Spot.

When you want advice, never go back down the success ladder, always climb higher until you reach someone more successful or accomplished than yourself in a certain area. Let someone with experience, expertise and success suggest meaningful actions that can actually produce potential results.

Always remember that when you take your advice from anyone, they are not going to hire you. Nor would you hire yourself.

Seek advice from those who are competent through their own experience and success to give it.

December 22, 2006

Marketing  Yourself:

Power Secrets on Getting Hired - How to Make Money Without a College Degree – Part 3

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

Power Secret 5: How to Make Money Without a College Degree

It is worth pointing out that many times there is no meaningful correlation between education and income.

One can statistically show that an average college graduate, over the course of his or her adult working life, will make more money than an average high school graduate who does not go on to higher education. Any knowledgeable person can show this as a fact.

The problem is that many times the difference between the two is not as great as some would think. It is not like all college graduates make an average of $100,000 a year, and all high school graduates make an average of $20,000 a year.

It is a fact that if you are a physician or an attorney with a professional degree, well placed and competent, you can make a potentially huge income compared to people who do not have a medical degree, or a juris doctor degree.

But what about all of the college graduates without professional degrees who end up as a cook or behind the counter at McDonald's while they are trying to find a challenging, good paying position that interests them?

Clearly, without a college degree that leads to a high paying profession, you cannot expect to knock down the big money.

Some graduates have a bachelor's degree, have been out of school for 10 years and are making less than $30,000 a year. You are going to have a hard time convincing them that a college education has put them on easy street.

The reason they are making only $30,000 a year is not because they are underpaid for the service they are performing, it is more likely because they are underemployed.

College graduates in this position generally do not have an education problem, a training problem, an intelligence problem, or a refusal to work problem. They usually have a marketing problem. They simply do not know how to market themselves.

Just as there is many times no meaningful correlation between education and income, so is there no meaningful correlation between intelligence and income. There are educated idiots everywhere. A high IQ (intelligence quotient, your ability to learn quickly) does not automatically equate to a high income.

Many times there is also no meaningful correlation between talent and income. Have you ever heard of the proverbial starving artist? How many painters are waiters at restaurants while they are waiting to be discovered? How many talented actors have gone to Hollywood and, like thousands of others, not been discovered?

How can we then explain why some people (generally sales representatives) earn more than $100,000 in annual income and do so with a high school degree, and sometimes even as a high school dropout?

The answer is that you can many times show a meaningful correlation between people skills and income.

In almost every case, when you can identify a person who is not in an education-driven, high paying profession, does not have a college degree, and makes $100,000 plus a year, you will likely discover a person with obvious people skills. When you listen to them talk, they may not have perfect subject-verb agreement, however, they know how to relate to prospects at an emotional level, and use their winning personality to create a likeability factor that results in sales.

You do not need a college education to generate a lot of income, you do need to have people skills, and know how to relate to people at an emotional level before you begin benefit selling a prospect on your product or service.

Power Secret 6: When the Protestant Ethic Does Not Work for You

This is the Protestant ethic: work hard, be thrifty, keep your nose clean, and good things will happen (like such success being a sign that one is saved). Too often today, people who follow the Protestant ethic find that good things do not automatically happen (like getting hired or promoted when qualified), which might help explain why a lot of folks have little use for the Protestant ethic these days.

How many times have you seen a fellow employee hired or promoted who was not really the most qualified person?

Yes, you are seething too. Someone might say: "I can not believe they hired that person," or "I can not believe they promoted that jerk. If they only knew."

The reality is that 50% of the time the person hired or promoted is not the most qualified. It is important to note that another 50% of the time, the person hired or promoted is the best choice based on his or her qualifications.

Why does this happen? The answer is fairly obvious. People who hire get a lot of pressure to go through all their relatives, friends, neighbors and lovers to find prospects to hire or promote. This is why you need to know that 60% of hiring and promoting involves influence, the person getting hired or promoted simply knows someone who wants to help him or her.

Granted that much of this occurs at entry level to mid-management positions, but it occurs none the less.

Here is some good news: the people who get hired or promoted are oftentimes not the most qualified, but usually they have done the best job of presenting what it is they have to offer.

This means that many potential hires who are not the most qualified can also get hired or promoted when they do the best job of presenting what it is they have to offer. This is exactly what you need to do in the process of getting hired or promoted: the best possible job of presenting what it is you have to offer, despite your qualifications or lack thereof. It almost goes without saying that knowing someone who wants to help you is an even bigger factor in getting hired or promoted.

One Door Closes, Another Opens

May 8, 2008

A Job Interview Nightmare:

When He Asked, "How Do You Motivate Yourself?," I Was Without a Good Answer

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

A reader emailed me with this question: "I was in an interview, and was asked this question: How do you motivate yourself? I could barely answer the question. What would you suggest?"

This is a great question that deserves a great answer. After managing dozens of employees over the years, I can tell you not what I think, but what I know.

First, employees who do well and then lack motivation generally have a change of attitude. What is more important than what caused the change in attitude is recognizing that there has been a change in attitude.

Knowing this is important because attitude drives personality. A person with a good attitude generally has a good personality. A person with a bad attitude generally has a bad personality.

You can change your attitude just as you change your employer, but if it means giving up a good salary and benefit package, why bother looking for another job when it is easier for you to change yourself?

Second, your change in motivation and energy level is almost always tied to your exercise or lack of exercise. A program of sustained exercise is not only a tremendous "stress buster" but also provides you with more energy, more motivation, better health, better decision-making skills and a better attitude.

So when you feel your motivation is on the wane, start an exercise program or return to exercising as a way to improve your motivation. Exercise pumps more oxygen into your bloodstream, clears your mind, improves your self-image, increases your self-confidence and increases your energy level.

Third, learn to live with gratitude. When you lack motivation, remind yourself that there are many people who cannot find work to support their family, others who may not make the kind of money you are making, or have the kind of opportunities you have for advancement through production. Be thankful for everything good in your life.

Be thankful for your health, your family, your friends and your employer who helps you generate income to support yourself and your family. We can make choices while those who are physically, mentally or emotionally challenged are less able to make the same choices. Perhaps the only thing worse than an ingrate is a capable person too lazy to work.

It was Abraham Lincoln who said, "People are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." Williams James said, "The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter their life by altering their attitude." Both statements show great insight and reflect truth that is beyond refute.

Fourth, learn to laugh at yourself and with others. Do not take yourself too seriously. Researchers have shown that people who cannot cope with their situation generally have low self-esteem, live in the past and cannot laugh at themselves. Laughter makes almost every situation better.

Laughter can keep you going, keep your healthy and keep you motivated.

Finally, realize that motivation is an "inside" job. If you continually need your co-workers and boss to keep you motivated, you are seriously not in charge of yourself or your destiny.

This is why motivation by intimation or reward for effort by your superiors cannot last. We will not tolerate intimation forever, and the rewards for production must continually increase to keep the production increasing, thereby increasing the cost until it exceeds the benefit to the employer.

The smartest, most successful employees motivate themselves and keep themselves motivated with exercise, gratitude and laughter.

December 3, 2006

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

With the economy in the dumper and so many people out of work, some job interview tips seem in order. Here is Part 1 of a 4-Part series on my best-selling booklet Inside a Job Interview: Answers to the 15 Most Frequently Asked Questions.

Job Interviews - It Is Not What You Say, But How You Say It That Counts – Part 1

Some surveys have shown that there are more than 90 questions that could be asked during a job interview. Of these, 15 in particular are asked most frequently during an extended interview (more than 20 minutes) for a regular work-a-day job.

Always remember that in a job interview, it is not just what you say, but how you say it that really counts. Your choice of words is powerful, and can move job interviewers to a more positive impression by how you say what you say. Here, in no particular order, are the answers to the 15 most frequently asked questions during a job interview:

1) Which position are you most interested in?

When you are responding to an advertisement, the company will likely know the position for which you have applied. Many times companies key their advertisements so, when they are advertising for more than one position, they can identify the position for which you have applied. Most public service organizations will have a specific job number with the job announcement.

However, no matter what position for which you may have applied, many companies have more than one position to offer, and the interviewer is probably going to consider you for any position available based on your submitted resume and interview performance.

Key to answering this question is to realize that different companies and organizations may call essentially the same positions by different job titles; therefore, it is best if you answer the kind of function you are interested in performing rather than a specific job title.

Hence, say "I am interested in accounting," or “I am good at accounting,” rather than "I am interested in the Junior Accountant position.”

2) Are you looking for full-time or part-time work?

When you are dealing with a large business or public service corporation, chances are the position is full-time, and you should be prepared to accept full-time employment.

However, when you are trying to get your foot in the door, it is well to remember that many companies hire full-time employees from their part-time and temporary help. This makes sense from a business standpoint in that they are then hiring a person they have had an opportunity to observe on the job.

When you are considering a public service position (working for the federal, state or local governmental entities, for example), it generally makes sense to accept any position as long as two factors are present:

1) That it is a full-time permanent position, and

2) You are entitled to all the normal benefits.

Most public service positions offer opportunities for advancement within the organization, and some even allow you to apply, take tests and interview for positions during your normal working hours. You can, in some cases, look for a better job and get paid for looking during your normal working hours.
This is indeed a good deal for the employee; most private businesses would not tolerate this action and, quite frankly, some would find a "legitimate reason" to fire you if they thought you were looking.

3) Are you willing to travel or relocate (go where the company sends you)?

Decide which is more important to you: where you live, or whether you want the position, and answer accordingly. You may be willing to travel (this could be anything from commuting to another city to work to being out of town two weeks every month), but not willing to relocate. When you are married and earn a secondary income for your family, relocating is not always practical.

4) How much money do you want to earn?

Rather than trying to figure out what they are willing to pay, or revealing what you are willing to settle for (both very risky at best), say this: "What is your salary range for this position?" This tells them nothing, puts the ball back in their court, and you remain a class act.

Another possible answer: "While the salary I would receive is certainly a consideration, I am far more interested in a position that uses performance to determine promotion and compensation. I am interested in being rewarded for my production for the company, thereby proving my value to the company.”

Do ask about benefits if the interviewer does not detail the company benefit package, as the benefit package can add substantially to your salary base. In some cases the benefit package can add 30% to your salary.

5) When can you start work?

The answer is immediately when you are not working, or two weeks—or whatever the notice of termination time is—when you are working. When you are employed and can begin work immediately, your potential employer might wonder if you would quit on them without notice.

6) How long do you expect to work?

Use "As long as it is mutually beneficial for both of us.” When you are the spouse of a career military person, the interviewer may want to know how long you will be around (that is, your spouse's rotation date). That is why it is best to use the suggested answer. After all, you can not predict everything that might happen. Many military families have found this out when a war or military action started.

December 4, 2006

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

This is Part 2 of a 4-Part Series on Inside a Job Interview: Answers to the 15 Most Frequently Asked Questions.

Job Interviews - How to Answer When Asked Your Strengths and Weaknesses – Part 2

7) Why are you interested in this position?

When you are an accountant and you are applying at an accounting firm, it is pretty obvious why you are interested; you are interested in using your acquired education, skills, and knowledge in your career field.

However, maybe the position is a cashier for a store and you just want a job; you do not have a brilliant answer to offer. Not to worry. Do not discount very basic answers such as "I need to earn money to support myself and/or my family," or "I want more out of life, and I need to work if I am going to have a better lifestyle for my family.” Employers like employees who need to work; such employees are more apt to be dependable, responsible and productive.

8) Why do you want to work for us?

Here you should be specific in your answer. There may be thousands of accounting firms with positions to offer, but it is now a question of “why us”?

Research the firm as best you can. Phone book ads often contain great information, such as how long a firm has been in business, what it specializes in, who are the key members of the firm, and whom they hope to serve.

Depending upon what you learn at the library, and from other local sources, possible answers might be:

"You have an expanding firm, and I believe there will be opportunities for me to prove myself and grow with you,” or

"Your firm is one of the oldest and most respected in our community, and I want to learn from, and be associated with one of the best,” or

"I believe you will reward people according to their value to the firm, and I am willing to prove my value to you,” or finally

"Your specialty happens to be my area of career interest.”

9) Why should we hire you?

Here you must be straightforward and confident about your ability and what you have to offer. Say, "I believe I am qualified and can do the job.”

Amplify this answer by stressing your strong points, such as your appropriate education, specialized training, proven experience, skills and abilities.

Do not say you can do any job. You do not know that for a fact, and, more important, the person interviewing you—no matter how good you look on paper or act in person—does not really know if you can do it either until you start having to perform on the job.

This is why you should qualify your answers with "I believe . . .," or "Based on my performance in similar positions in the past, I have no reason to think I will not be able to do the job for you.”

10) What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Good strengths include some very basic character traits, such as determination, honesty, responsibility, dependability, inquisitiveness, willingness to learn, openness to new ideas, stability, and humor. Pick traits that you are confident and comfortable with.

In approaching the question of your weaknesses, rule one is to have some. The worst answer you could give is "I do not have any weaknesses.” We all have weaknesses, and if we are unwilling to talk about them, it is a big red flag that there are some definite personality problems.

Never let your lack of confidence, or overdeveloped ego, prevent you from showing your weaknesses. Handle the challenge by taking your weaknesses (whatever they may be) and turning them into strengths. If you are a workaholic, say "Sometimes I do not know when to stop working on a project. I can get so involved I may work 16 hours straight. This may upset other employees who quit at the normal time.”

11) What are your career goals?

Your objectives or goals are very important. You do not want to be a wandering generality; you want to be a meaningful specific.

People want to know if you have thought about your future, and have a plan to get where you want to go. You should have both short and long range goals. A good short range goal might be to secure a position in your career field, develop more experience in an area of interest, or position yourself with a firm or organization that is growing.

Long range goals require you to picture yourself, and where you would like to be, 10 or 20 years from now.

12) Why did you leave your last position?

This question can be asked because they are testing your reaction, or if your resume gives the impression you have been "job-hopping”.

If there was a problem with leaving your last position (you were fired, encountered a personality conflict, or got mad and quit), be careful not to speak ill of the position you held, the organization you held it with, or members of the organization. Put downs score no points and reflect poorly on you, regardless of the challenges you may have had.

Good reasons to leave jobs are: 1) an opportunity for advancement, 2) an opportunity to make more money, 3) an opportunity to secure more or better benefits, 4) to gain more job satisfaction, 5) a better career opportunity, 6) a more challenging position, or 7) an opportunity to work with better people.

While all of these are legitimate reasons, none of them is the best answer to the question. It is best to simply say, "I am looking for a better opportunity.” The better opportunity could be any of the above seven answers without actually saying so.

December 5, 2006

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

This is Part 3 of a 4-Part Series on Inside a Job Interview: Answers to the 15 Most Frequently Asked Questions.

Job Interviews - How to Handle Job References – Part 3

13) Do you have references?

It is not a good idea to give references at the resume stage. References are far more appropriate at the interview stage, and even then, do not give references unless they ask for them. When and if they ask, always have them available at the interview.

The reason you do not want to be giving references at the resume stage is that, if they can read your resume and check your references and—on that basis—make a decision not to interview or hire you, you have done yourself a real disservice. You want to get in front of people (secure interviews). Give them the resume, but not the references unless they ask for them.

Most prospects give names, addresses and phone numbers for references when asked. It is better not to do this. It inconveniences the interviewer in that they have to call to get the reference. And while you think you know what someone may say about you, the fact is, you do not.

The references being called may not be available, or may be on vacation. They may have left the firm, been fired or laid off since you last checked their availability.

Therefore, it is best to use written references only. Have the person put the written reference about you on the company’s or organization's letterhead so it looks official, and have them sign it. If the person giving the reference will not put it on company letterhead because it is against company policy, then have them use a plain sheet of paper. They can still use their name, company position, and company name at the bottom of the letter. Usually, written references are taken at face value. Oftentimes, with a written reference, a call is made only to verify employment.

Many candidates think that written references have to come from the big boss, or their immediate supervisor. You have other options if your boss or supervisor will not do it for you, or if you would not want them to do it for you.

When you have little work experience and have volunteered at your church, have your priest or pastor write a reference attesting to your character, ambition, dependability and productivity.

When you have worked with key employees, supervisors or managers of other companies, ask them to write you a reference attesting to your professionalism and ability to work with people.

When you have worked closely with vendors, suppliers, or their sales representatives, ask them to write you a letter of reference.

You could even have another person holding the same position at another company, who you have worked with, write you a reference.

Ask a lot of people to write references because many of them will agree to do it and be happy to do it, but, unfortunately, you are not on the top of their priority list. You can be forgotten despite their good intentions to help you. Ask a lot of people and realize that for every 10 people you ask who are willing to do it and happy to do it, you will be doing very well to get 1 or 2 to actually do it.

And, when all else fails, remember that any written job evaluations you have can also be used as references until you can secure written references. You do not need a lot of references. Two or three are adequate, and they can be personal (about you) as well as professional (about the job you do).

14) Do you have any questions?

It is very important that you have questions at the interview. Any question you ask shows an indicated interest, or genuine concern on your part.

When any of the basic questions about the job have not been covered in the interview, this is a good time to ask about salary, benefits, what is expected, how you will be evaluated, and the opportunities for advancement. Other good questions include:

"Is your company or organization growing?" (Growing organizations create jobs and promotions.)

"What happened to the last person who held the position?" (Maybe they were not fired or incompetent. Maybe the company offered no advancement or salary increases, encouraged lousy working conditions, or refused to get rid of an incompetent boss.)

"How committed are you to research and development?" (Companies that invest in their future plan to be successful, profitable, and on the cutting edge of what is happening in their industry.)

"How fast can people who perform be promoted?" (You want to know that, when you produce, you will be compensated for your effort rather than draw the same salary as another employee who produces far less by comparison.)

"Is this company family owned and operated?" (When it is, you can forget getting anywhere very fast; all of the relatives will get the positions, and this will happen in many cases whether the relatives are competent or not.)

"Is there any possibility of an equity interest in the future?" (Buying in, even on a little scale, can be lucrative. More than one employee has become a millionaire by taking advantage of stock options. Look at the fortunes people made when they hooked up with Microsoft, when the software giant grew so rapidly.)

December 6, 2006

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

This is Part 4 of a 4-Part Series on Inside a Job Interview: Answers to the 15 Most Frequently Asked Questions.

Job Interviews - What Are Employers Really Looking For? – Part 4

15) What would you do if . . .? This question about imagined situations is usually posed to evaluate your reaction and judgment about decision-making matters involving the position.

The answer here is to remember that the quality of your solution is not nearly as important as your attitude and approach toward the solution.

Your first answer should be that the situation is probably not new, and your first move would be consult your superior who has more knowledge and experience in dealing with the problem, or you would ask others who have likely encountered the situation how they resolved the problem.

Then, be sure to qualify your answer, whatever it may be. Say "I might consider . . .,” rather than "I would . . .” Always strive to be calm and rational in your approach, and certainly be open to receiving more information upon which to base a decision, or take an action.

Remember, too, that some problems will resolve themselves if you do not rush to judgment too quickly. Sometimes responding quickly actually adds to the problem or challenge. Even consultants oftentimes suggest the right answer to the wrong problem. Consultants can be quick to tell you the answer to your problem when they have not even identified the actual problem, but thought they did.

The bottom line here is to know that the more information you have, and the better it is, the more likely you are to make an intelligent decision.

This ends the answers to the 15 most frequently asked questions during a job interview, and almost begs the question: What do employers really want when hiring? The answer may surprise you.

Most potential employees are told that employers are looking for someone with a degree and hands-on skills.

While this is true in many cases, you should know that employers are also looking for someone who can do the job.

This is why they are not necessarily looking for someone with only education, experience and knowledge, as important as these three attributes may be.

Some employers will not hold it against you if you do not have education, experience, knowledge or obvious ability going for you.

For some prospects, the ego is so well developed that an employer cannot teach them anything because they already know everything.

The ego, in this case, becomes a barrier to learning.

It is really helpful to be an open, willing spirit without all the answers; and this applies whether you have education, experience, knowledge and ability, or you do not.

While employers may not hold it against you if you do not have education, experience and knowledge, they will hold it very much against you if you have a poor personality and cannot get along (work) with people. Remember that attitude drives personality. A person with a good attitude generally has a good personality. A person with a bad attitude generally has a bad personality.

In other words, the single biggest thing you have going for yourself is people skills. People skills are more important in the long run than education, experience, knowledge, talent and intelligence.

Some clients feel people skills are an option. They are not an option; they are mandatory if you expect to get ahead in this world.

When you greet customers or fellow employees, the last thing a business or organization can afford is for you to cost them customers, or the support of other employees because you are a negative person who cannot get along or work with other people.

Believe it or not, the two most important qualities you have going for you are 1) Your personality, which is driven by your attitude, and 2) Your ability to deal with people effectively.

Therefore, it makes all kinds of sense to sell yourself first in an interview before you sell your education, experience, knowledge or special abilities. It is vital in an interview to establish a high likeability factor, without it, you may not get an offer, no matter what qualifications you are bringing to the position.

If you do no more than learn how to smile, be enthusiastic, and act interested in people, it may well take you farther than the knowledge gained by an expensive college education combined with a bad attitude.

November 26, 2008

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

There was a time, many years ago, when a potential hire seeking a job went to a company or organization, filled out a hard copy job application, went and interviewed when called and, if they did not receive an offer, repeated the same process until they were hired. That was then. This is now.

Now you just don’t drop in on companies unannounced and present yourself for employment. When you read job announcements in the paper or postings on the Internet, it is rare if ever that a company invites you to bring your resume to them in person. Companies do not want to pay personnel to collect resumes at the counter as an additional duty.

Companies now want more and better production out of their employees from day one.

The fact that they might be giving their resume to a clerk behind the counter who has no influence in their hiring does not occur to them. More often than not, the clerk could care if they drop dead. All of which is to say, dropping by companies unannounced is not a good idea—it is generally a waste of time and gas.

When a company announcement says "Send your resume to:" you should be thankful that you can get a hard copy of your resume and cover letter into the hiring mix. Sometimes potential hires are hesitant to send their resume to a company "P. O. Box" number. Do not be hesitant.

When an employee is pursuing a better opportunity, he or she does not inform their employer that they are looking for another, better position. Companies are no different than you. You mind your own business, and a company minds its own business.

Whether you are looking for a job, or are already employed and looking for a better opportunity, your focus should not be on finding another job. Your focus should be on securing job interviews, recognizing that the interview precedes the offer during the hiring process. Getting in front of people is vital to your success in getting a job offer.

November 27, 2008

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

When you begin looking for a job in today’s marketplace it is important to understand and appreciate the landscape you will navigate. The more knowledge and understanding you have of the marketplace and current job hiring practices, the quicker you will get where you want to go, and where you are qualified to be.

Clearly, the ability to move a resume around the world in seconds via email saves time and money, beating snail mail (regular mail) hands down. The fact that the email format it is not in the best interest of the potential hire gets no hearing at all in the court of hiring.

Email resumes save time in transit. Email resumes can be sent to multiple parties simultaneously. Email resumes save paper handling. Email resumes reduce the necessity for storage. There is much to recommend email resumes.

When you are asked to initially apply via an email resume, you need to do so, no ifs, ands or buts about it. Do not whine, moan and complain because you have a hard copy resume and no email resume. Create an email resume or hire a professional to do it for you.

If you think the cost of hiring a professional is too expensive you should calculate the cost of being broke and unemployed. Every month you are not employed and bringing in a paycheck you are losing money through inactivity.

Think about all of the protesters in the world who are out to change everyone else to their way of thinking and get absolutely nowhere. It is much easier for you to change and adapt rather than trying to change the world to your way of thinking. When you run the show, then you can make the rules.

You are the one coming hat in hand looking for an opportunity, not them; they are well aware of the fact that they have a job and you do not.

If you do not think this is true and your attitude shows it, they will remind you in short order about who is in charge, about what is going to happen or not happen, and when it is going to happen or not happen. Like other professionals, human resource (personnel) types like their authority and are not shy about using it to their advantage.

November 28, 2008

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

In today’s job market it is a good idea to have more than one email format when responding to a request for your email resume. The marketplace almost demands that you do so because of viruses floating around the Internet, and the importance for you to follow exact instructions. Anything less might imply that you do not know how to read and follow instructions.

You really need 4 different email resume formats in two different versions to cover all the possible requests you might encounter in the hiring process, allowing you to read and respond immediately to exact instructions.

Use the attachment version because it should look like the original hard copy version of your resume and cover letter. All of the formats you use should be in Microsoft Word for easy down loading. Using pdf files might be popular but they are not nearly as practicable. Everyone may not know how to down load pdf files but almost everyone can down load a word.doc file. Be smart, not sorry; format your versions in MS Word.

This is because specialists that screen email resumes consider the cover letter unnecessary, and they may not be doing the actual interviewing and hiring so they could care less whether you or another more qualified applicant is interviewed.

When a company or organization will accept an attachment, they know you are sending it, and you clearly identify yourself, use the attachment version because it should look most like your original resume and cover letter.

Do not use your company email address when you are employed and in the job hunting process. Companies can and will monitor your email usage and messages. To avoid this pitfall, create a personal email address for yourself that you can access at home and not on the job. They can and will monitor your personal email on the job.

If your name is Ed Bagley, do as I do. Make your email address "edbagley@comcast.net", even better would be "ed-bagley@comcast.net so it is easier to distinguish your name as the sender.

Do this so the person you are sending your email resume attachment to can easily identify you, otherwise, your email may get deleted.

November 29, 2008

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

While 50% of companies and organizations will accept an attachment version of your email resume, the other 50% will not because this is how the bad guys use viruses to corrupt their computer systems.

The 50% of companies and organizations that will not accept attachments demand that you send your email resume, or your email resume and cover letter, in the body of a normal email, thus avoiding any attachment that might bring with it an uninvited and dangerous visitor.

You would be smart, if you know how, to program each line of the email so that it travels neat and tidy. There is nothing worse than getting an email that looks like pig slop. The more professional you are in the hiring process the more attention you will receive and the more professional you will appear.

You may be responding to a site online that allows you to post your resume for free, or you may be responding to company or organization online that you have gone directly to, or you have found by using a third-party, like a resume-posting site. In all of these cases, be sure to use the email resume version and not the email attachment version. By doing so you will find that your transmission will display better in the space provided.

Again, if the receiving party asks for an email resume, send only the email resume version. If they ask for an email resume and cover letter, then send that format.

If all of this seems complicated and unnecessary in the hiring process, remember that you are not making up the requirements for hiring consideration, so it is best just to shut up and get on with it. You can take your hard copy resume and cover letter to the interview process and present them at the appropriate time.

November 30, 2008

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

It almost goes without saying that you need a hard copy resume and cover letter more than you do an email resume and cover letter. This is because the overwhelming majority of hiring is ultimately done with a hard copy resume and cover letter.

It is true that many times you are asked to initially send an email version of your resume. This helps human resource (personnel) specialists get the information out faster to all concerned parties involved in the hiring and elimination process.

Even though you respond with an initial email resume, be sure to take 6-8 copies of your hard copy resume and cover letter with you to an interview. Make sure the cover letter is pre-signed and arrange the resume and cover letter in sets so the resume is on top of the cover letter.

In almost all cases, the actual hiring authority, or the person who ultimately gives approval to the hiring choice, would prefer the hard copy resume and cover letter version rather than the email version.

One reason why is that it simply looks more professional, and gives a more attractive presentation of the potential hire. Another reason why is that the email resume in text version is extremely unimpressive and may well be defaulted to a smaller typeface in the transmission process, making it harder to read. Remember that the quickest way to increase readability is white space.

Most often, the panel in private enterprise makes a decision and then gets approval to hire from the wheel horse, a horse in a team of horses that is next to the lead horse. This would be the chief executive officer when hiring for corporate management positions, or the chief operating office for middle management positions, and on down through the pecking order of staff positions.

Everyone among staff members has an important role to play in the success of the company or organization, with some staff members having more responsibility than others.

Bureaucrats love to surround themselves with fellow employees and never assign responsibility for anything; that way no one is ever accountable when mistakes are made. This sort of arrangement does not play as well with companies in private enterprise.

December 1, 2008

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

Job sites exist online to make money, not to serve your best interests. Job sites online are no different than government entities that are set up to serve you as citizens.

Job one for any job site online or government entity is to make money or get funded. Without revenue or funding neither of them can do diddly-squat as their staff members are not going to work for nothing very long without being paid. Serving you is simply a by-product of being able to do so.

In the hiring process, you will be well served to be as cunning as a serpent, as clever as a fox and as quick as a rabbit. What you know about the hiring process is your greatest asset, and what you do not know is your greatest liability.

One thing you should know about posting your resume online is when to fill out the equivalent of a job application online and when to pass. When filing out job applications online that are compartmentalized, you should pass. Compartmentalized is when the online provider is having you put your first name in a separate block of space, your last name in a separate block of space, etc.

For years your bank routinely sold your personal information on the sly to credit card companies and other direct mail interests and made a ton of money. Eventually what the banks and associated financial companies were doing became public knowledge, leading to the privacy notices you receive today that allow you to opt out of the system.

Unfortunately, the effect of this law is zero, zip, nada because the very companies we are talking about are too often corporate conglomerates with many wholly-owned subsidiaries that can also use your information as revenue-generating sources of income. It is only their third-party partners that cannot use your information if you so request.

When an online provider simply asks for some basic information and then presents a block and says "cut and paste your resume here" then go ahead and do it if they are not using compartmentalized methods and you can accomplish the task in a few minutes.

Online sites are also famous for allowing you to post your resume online for free. When they have thousands of resumes posted the online providers sell advertising as another source of revenue.

They would send me a job alert for an engineering position in New Jersey when what I would tolerate was corporate writing projects and an unwillingness to move out of state. The job they sent required a bachelor of science degree in engineering when my bachelor’s degree was in a different academic study.

Needless to say, this was a complete waste of my time but valuable to them as they could crow to advertisers about how they were helping the potential hires who posted their resume online.

Use online job sources by following the general outlines I have suggested here and you will avoid a lot of heartache and stay out of trouble.

Here is an additional piece of advice for believers who like to pray their way to success: Pray like it depends on God and then act like it depends on you. You must take action in your own best self-interest or you will never succeed at anything. God gives the birds food but he does not personally deliver it to their nests.

July 14, 2009

Jobs and Careers:

Step-by-Step Instructions on How to Receive, Open, Save, Retrieve and Send Email Attachment and Text Versions of Your Resume and Cover Letter - Part 1

Copyright © 2009 Ed Bagley

Being a Personal Marketing Specialist and operating a high-end professional resume writing service for more than 20 years has taught me more than a few things about my clients.

One of the things that I have learned is there is a huge difference between having computer skills and having some computer skills. Some of my clients who can go online and access the Internet, surf the Internet, launch a Google search for information, and send and receive emails, have great difficulty figuring out how to open, save, retrieve and send email resumes. This is because they have some computer skills, but not enough to get the job done without sliding into frustration over what to do next.

I am going to write this resource aid about opening, saving, retrieving and sending email resumes as if you are a client of mine. If you are a client of mine, you need to download this information and follow it carefully. If you are not a client of mine, you might learn something by following along.

First, I do no less than 4 email conversions of my client's hard copy resume and cover letter. You need at least 4 email conversions in today's job-hunting marketplace. I explain why in my 6-part series on Email Resume Management, which is available on my blog (http://www.edbagleyblog.com) in the Getting Hired and Promoted section under Online Hiring.

I do not give clients a CD (compact disc) or a 3.5-inch floppy disk with a copy of the 4 email conversions because I use only 3.5-inch floppy disks exclusively to store my electronic files. There are 4 reasons for this:

1) I started with 3.5-inch floppy disks when there were no CDs (compact discs)—remember, I have been writing resumes for more than 20 years.

2) CDs will in fact provide much more space to hold data, however, what you are not being told is that when you go to retrieve information to update a resume product, CDs do not always keep the information or data in proper order, and can create a huge mess and problems.

3) Some clients think the answer is to use a flash memory drive (also called a thumb drive) because it is very small and can handle a lot more data than a 3.5-inch floppy disk. All of that is true, however, what clients are not telling me is what they do not know, and that is this: Flash memory drives (thumb drives) have only a 10-year retention. In other words, data on a flash memory drive currently lasts only 10 years. Remember, I have been in business for more than 20 years.

4) The reality is that 3.5-inch floppy disks are so passe. When you buy a new computer today, there is no 3.5-inch floppy disk drive in the CPU—your actual computer, as in Central Processing Unit. When I buy a new computer, I special order a 3.5-inch floppy disk to be installed.

I continue to use 3.5-inch floppy disks because it is better to be safe than sorry. I can retrieve the very first 3.5-inch floppy disk I used more than 22 years ago, and it is in perfect condition with all the data captured and stored the same as if I had created it yesterday.

So when I create email resume conversions, I email them to my client. By receiving the email conversions as an email transmission, my clients instantly know two things they would not otherwise know:

1) My email conversions of their hard copy resume and copy letter will safety travel via Internet, so they know that when they send an email conversion I create, the potential employer will receive it as an email attachment (which looks very similar to the original hard copy resume and cover letter), or as a text version in the body of the email (the same as if you sent a message via email on the Internet).

2) By receiving my email conversions by email rather than by disc, my client will know exactly what his or her email will look like when the potential employer receives his or her email resume and cover letter. This gives them assurance that the process I use actually works, and will work for them.

All of the resume projects I create are initially done in Microsoft Publisher because Microsoft Word cannot produce the work I create. Just the fact that many of my projects use borders in the construction process prevents Word from working. When you use Word, you start with a page, and when you fill the page with text or data, it automatically creates a second blank page so you can continue on without interruption. In a word or two, MS Word cannot do what we call area composition.

If you want to create more sophisticated projects, such as flyers, newsletters with artwork, or resumes, you need to use MS Publisher or some other software that can produce area composition with pictures, artwork, borders, etc.

After producing the hard copy resume and cover letter in Microsoft Publisher, I do the email conversions in Publisher, and then convert them again into Microsoft Word so that, when my client receives my email conversions of their project, they arrive via email as Microsoft Word documents. A Word doc can be downloaded by probably 95% of the computers worldwide, assuming, of course, that the user has Microsoft Word as a software program on their hard drive (C drive).

And now to the exact, step-by-step process of how my client can receive, open, save, retrieve and send the email conversions I have created for them. I am assuming that you already know how to turn your computer on and off, go online and access the Internet, can surf the Internet, launch a Google search for information, and send and receive emails.

Everything that I share with you from this point forward is based on the fact that I am using a Dell computer with a Microsoft XP Home operating system, and using MS Word to create the final product. These are some vital facts to know since, if you are using another kind of computer with a different operating system from another manufacturer and do not have MS Word installed, then the exact instructions I give may in fact be different for you.

Really knowledgeable people with different systems can find and figure out the same functions on their different systems, but I am not writing this for knowledgeable people. You may be very smart but that does not automatically make you more knowledgeable.

When it comes to computers and their systems in the real world, everything looks easy until you have to do it, and then suddenly it does not look so easy to accomplish. Is that not true of almost everything in life?

When you see Tiger Woods swing a golf club, it looks like it is easy to do. You do not see the million practice swings he has taken to develop the swing he uses while competing in a golf tournament. And so it is in the computer world.

The reality is that computer gurus (popular experts) will tell you what to do but not how to actually do it. Their approach stops right here right now with my approach. This is what you can do in these situations:

(Ed's Note: This is Part 1 of a 4-Part Series.)

July 15, 2009

Jobs and Careers:

How to Receive, Open and Save an Email Resume and/or Cover Letter Attachment - Part 2

Copyright © 2009 Ed Bagley

1. Turn on your computer and go online to the Internet. When I turn on my computer, I have an icon for Internet Explorer on the opening page of my Windows XP Home software operating system, and I simply left-click on it to go online. Microsoft Internet Explorer is the browser I use for access to the Internet.

If you do not have this shortcut installed on your opening page, look in the lower left hand corner of your monitor and, using your mouse, left-click on "Start". When the pop-up window appears, look at the bottom of the window and left-click on "All Programs". When the next pop-up window appears, there will be a complete list of every software program you have installed on the hard drive of your computer. Scroll down in alphabetical order until you reach "Internet Explorer", then left-click on "Internet Explorer" and you will be taken online to the Internet.

If you are using a laptop computer and do not have an adapter mouse attached to it, use your touch pad to accomplish the same purpose as the mouse provides.

When I hit my "Internet Explorer" icon on my opening page, I have my software programmed so that it opens by default (it automatically goes to) to my blog at: http://www.edbagleyblog.com

I know this is very basic stuff for a lot of online users, but everyone has to learn a first time when they do not already know how to do it.

2. When you are online on the Internet, open up your email platform from your service provider (the place you go to for receiving and sending email transmissions). I use comcast.net, a cable service provider, for my email activity.

To open my email service provider, I go to my Favorites icon on my Menu Bar at the top of the page underneath the URL locator feature, where you type in the URL—Uniform Resource Locator—when you want to go to a particular web site and know the unique URL address to keyboard (type) in. This saves me from having to keyboard in the exact URL every time; it instantly takes me where I want to go. The Menu Bar is the one that contains these important icons: File, Edit, View, Favorites, Tools, and Help. Your Menu Bar may not be exactly the same, but it will be close to mine.

If you do not have an icon installed on your opening page for your Internet service provider, or do not have a link installed on your favorites menu, then enter the exact URL address into the line box and hit the "Enter" key on your keyboard. This will take you to your email service provider site.

3. Once you are at your email service provider site, find and left-click the link to your personal email file. When you get to your email file, left-click on the "Inbox" link, which will open up your list of incoming emails. Most of these set-ups show who your emails are "From" and what the "Subject" is. You already know this because you have been sending and receiving emails online.

4. Look under the "From" column for "Ed Bagley". When I send emails to a client, I do not screw around and play games; you know it is me because you will see "Ed Bagley" show up as the sender. Generally, when sending email conversions to a client, my subject line will say something similar to "Email Conversions of Your Resume and Cover Letter". When you find my email, left-click on the email to open the transmission.

5. After opening my email, look either above or below the email message for a link to the attachments I will be sending. You will know it is a link to an attachment by placing your cursor over the link as a line will suddenly appear beneath it. When you see the line, you know it is the link to the attachment. Left-click on the link to one of the attachments.

6. After doing so, a pop-up window will appear, asking you if you want to "Open", "Save" or "Cancel" the action. Left-click on "Open" and, after waiting a few moments, the attachment that I sent with the email will automatically open up in Microsoft Word when you have MS Word installed on your computer. You have now successfully received and opened one of the email attachments I have sent to you. You will receive 4 attachments. Two attachments will be for email resumes in attachment form to be attached to an email when you send an email to a potential employer, and the other two attachments will be in text form to be placed in the body of the email for those businesses and organizations that will not accept attachments.

7. The file name for the attachment will be very similar to: "sp1026 – Ed Bagley (or your name) – Resume and Cover Letter Attachment Format". Normally, when you save a file you may be tempted to change the file name. Do not change the file name on attachments I send to you. Use what I use because it describes which attachment this one is, and makes it much easier for you to identify it later when you want to send an email resume (and cover letter in some cases) to a potential employer.

8. In order to now save the email attachment so it can be used later, go to back to the Menu Bar and left-click on "File".

9. When the drop-down menu appears, left-click on "Save As". Important: Leave the file name as I have identified it.

10. Go to the top of the "Save As" menu box and look for the "Save in" line, and click on the downward arrow. Another window will open showing all of the places (drives) you could save this file on your computer. Scroll down this menu until you find "Local Disk (C:)" and left-click on it. Suddenly what you left-clicked on will replace whatever was in the "Save in" line box with "Local Disk (C)".

11. Left-click on the "Save" icon and this will immediately take the attachment from your monitor to your hard drive (the "Local Disk (C)" drive). You have now successfully retrieved, opened and saved one of the attachments I have sent to you. Repeat this process to save the rest of the attachments to your hard drive. Important: I will send at least 4 email attachments and perhaps a few more attachments with resource material. Save all of them to your hard drive. If you cannot see all of the attachments where the others appear, do not panic. Look just below for a horizontal scroll bar or to the right for a vertical scroll bar, move the appropriate scroll bar and the rest of the attachments, which were there all the time, will appear.

12. It is very smart business to save these attachments to not only your hard drive, but also your CD drive, and/or your 3.5-inch Floppy drive, and/or your Flash Memory Drive (also called a Thumb Drive). When doing so, in Step No. 10, rather than left-clicking on "Local Disk (C:)" for your hard drive, left-click on "DVD/CD-RW Drive (E:)" for your CD drive, "3 1/2 Floppy (A:)" for your 3.5-inch Floppy Drive, and "Removable Disk (F:)" for your Flash Memory Drive (also called Thumb Drive).

Again, everything looks easy until you have to do it. These step-by-step instructions should make the task easier to negotiate.

(Editor's Note: This is Part 2 of a 4-Part Series.)

July 16, 2009

Jobs and Careers:

How to Retrieve and Send an Email Resume and/or Cover Letter Attachment - Part 3

Copyright © 2009 Ed Bagley

The following is a shortened version that uses many of the same functions as the step-by-step process mentioned above in "How to Retrieve, Open and Save an Email Attachment". If you get hung up, refer the above steps for guidance.

1. Turn on your computer and go online to the Internet.

2. When you are online on the Internet, open up your email platform from your service provider.

3. When you are at your email service provider site, find and left-click the link to your personal email file. My link on comcast.net is called "Inbox". By clicking it, my personal email file opens, allowing me to view emails I have received, reply to emails and/or to write and send a new email.

4. Left-click on your link to write and send an email.

5. Put in the URL address where you are sending your email resume.

6. Go to the line below (the Cc: line) and put in your email address so you can send a copy of the email back to yourself. Do this for 2 reasons: 1) If you receive a copy back, you can see how it looks when the party you are sending it to receives it. 2) You will also automatically capture the email address you are sending it to. Print a single page of this so you can put it in a folder in case you need the email address for later use. It is true that you can just save the email in your file of incoming emails, but it is also true that many of these files automatically eliminate the contents later, causing you to lose the address you want to keep. Another consideration is that it is too easy to delete the email later when you are in a hurry to eliminate emails from your file. Many times the email contains the address of a key contact in personnel or human relations.

7. Put in the subject line of your email something similar to this: Ed Bagley's (your name) Email Resume and Cover Letter. Important: Use the two attachment formats (Resume Only or Resume and Cover Letter) only when dealing directly with a company or company representative. If they ask for an email resume, send only your resume. If they ask for an email resume and cover letter, send both your resume and cover letter.

Always use the text format (Resume Only or Resume and Cover Letter) when posting your email conversions online over the Internet, or if a web site online has a link that takes you directly to a company, and the company wants you to initially apply online. Using the text format online is vital as usually there is a box that will say something similar to "Copy and paste your resume here", and all of the spaces tend to be different sizes. I program each line of the text version so that, no matter what size the box (area) is, the text copy will fill in neat and tidy, and look professional.

8. If you are using the email attachment format (either resume only or the resume and cover letter version), then left-click the "Add Attachment" link, and a screen will pop up.

9. When the attachment window pops up, hit "Browse" and the "Choose File" window appears. Go to the "Look in" box and choose the drive that contains your email conversions, and highlight the file you want to send as an attachment, and hit the "Open" button. When you hit the "Open" button, the file you selected will suddenly appear in the Browse line.

10. At this point, if you are sending only one attachment, left-click the "Attach" button, usually near the bottom of the pop-up window. This will send your file from your drive and attach it to your email. You should now be able to see your file attached to your email.

11. Write any instructions or a message in the body of the email, just as if you were composing an ordinary email. You might say, for example, "You asked for my email resume. Here it is as an attachment in Microsoft Word for easy down loading." Sign your name and phone number, and then left-click the "Send" button. You have now successfully retrieved and sent your email resume as an attachment to your email.

Now, let's deal with how to post your email resume and/or cover letter on an online website.

(Editor's Note: This is Part 3 of a 4-Part Series.)

July 17, 2009

Jobs and Careers:

How to Post Your Email Resume and/or Cover Letter on an Online Web Site - Part 4

Copyright © 2009 Ed Bagley

1. Turn on your computer and go online to the Internet.

2. When you are online on the Internet, open up your email platform from your service provider.

3. When you are at your email service provider site, find and left-click the link to your personal email file. My link on comcast.net is called "Inbox". By clicking it, my personal email file opens, allowing me to view emails I have received, reply to emails and/or to write and send a new email.

4. Left-click on your link to write and send an email.

5. Put in the URL address where you are sending your email resume.

6. Go to the line below (the Cc: line) and put in your email address so you can send a copy of the email back to yourself. Do this for 2 reasons: 1) If you receive a copy back, you can see how it looks when the party you are sending it to receives it. 2) You will also automatically capture the email address you are sending it to. Print a single page of this so you can put it in a folder in case you need the email address for later use. It is true that you can just save the email in your file of incoming emails, but it is also true that many of these files automatically eliminate the contents later, causing you to lose the address you want to keep. Another consideration is that it is too easy to delete the email later when you are in a hurry to eliminate emails from your file. Many times the email contains the address of a key contact in personnel or human relations.

7. Put in the subject line of your email something similar to this: Ed Bagley's (your name) Email Resume and Cover Letter. Important: Use the two attachment formats (Resume Only or Resume and Cover Letter) only when dealing directly with a company or company representative. If they ask for an email resume, send only your resume. If they ask for an email resume and cover letter, send both your resume and cover letter.

Always use the text format (Resume Only or Resume and Cover Letter) when posting your email conversions online over the Internet, or if a web site online has a link that takes you directly to a company, and the company wants you to initially apply online. Using the text format online is vital as usually there is a box that will say something similar to "Copy and paste your resume here", and all of the spaces tend to be different sizes. I program each line of the text version so that, no matter what size the box (area) is, the text copy will fill in neat and tidy, and look professional.

8. Now, look up in the right hand corner of your monitor and you will see 3 boxes, the one on the left has an underline, the one in the middle has a box within the box, and the one on the right is a red box with an white X inside.

By left-clicking the box on the left (the one with the underline), it will take the email you are composing and put it at the bottom of the monitor and hold it there until you want to bring it back up to work on the email again.

By left-clicking the box in the middle (the one that has a box within the box), it will expand the size of what you are working on to fill up the whole monitor screen.

By left-clicking the box on the right (the one in red with the white X inside), it will close out the file you are working on, and cause you to reopen the file if you want to continue working on the file you just closed.

Left-click on the left-hand box (the one with the underline) so that you take the email you are composing off of the monitor and put in holding on the line at the bottom of your monitor.

9. Open up your Microsoft Word program.

10. Go to your Menu Bar (the bar near the top of your monitor), and left-click on the "File" icon.

11. When the drop down menu appears, find and left-click on the "Open" icon.

12. When the "Open" window appears, go up top to the "Look in" line box and see what drive you are in. If you have stored the email conversions I sent you on a drive other than the C: drive, change the drive from the C: drive to whatever drive you have stored them on. Once you are in the correct drive, scroll down and fine the file you want to send. Remember, you should have your 4 email conversions stored in this drive. Highlight the email conversion you want to use, then left-click on "Open" icon, which will bring up the desired email conversion in Microsoft Word.

13. Use your cursor to highlight the email you want to send. Do this by putting your cursor at the beginning of the material, then hold down your "Shift" key on your keypad, and use the "down" arrow to highlight the copy until the end, and release the "down" arrow key. Then release the "Shift" key. Your material is now highlighted.

Do not go to your Menu Bar and select "Edit" and then "Select All", which is another way to highlight the email material without having to scroll down to highlight manually. The reason why is that the file may contain other material you do not want to send. When you do it manually, you control the information that is sent. This other, undesired material may be instructions before or after the email that would not be appropriate to send with your email conversion.

14. Go to the Menu Bar and left-click "Edit" and then "Copy" from the drop-down menu. Now you have duplicated the material in the email conversion and sent it to a holding area to be transferred to its destination online.

15. Now take your email account off of the monitor by left-clicking the left box up top (in the right hand corner) to send it down to the bottom line of your monitor for holding.

16. Find the destination where you want to post your email resume. Note: You may have done this already and have it reduced down on the bottom line of your monitor. If you have, left-click on the button indicating the website you want to post on. If not, go to the site now and go through the online application process until you get to the box that says "Copy and Paste Your Resume Here".

17. Click to place your cursor into the destination box.

18. Go to your Menu Bar and left-click on "Edit" and when the drop-down menu appears, left-click on "Paste" and you email resume conversion will appear in the job application box online. Congratulations, you have now successfully retrieved, opened, copied and pasted your email attachment to an online website.

Important: If the website asks for your email resume, send your email only because the next click you make online may have a separate box for your cover letter. If they do not ask for a cover letter, do not send them one. Make them ask for it.

19. Close out your online connection when you are finished. Close out your email account, close out your Microsoft Word program, and call this task completed.

(Editor's Note: This is Part 4 of a 4-Part Series.)

March 19, 2007

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

The presentation of this story in my Wednesday daily newspaper is dramatic.

A smaller headline in color above the main headline says "Digital Job Searches Gain Ground".

The main headline says "Straight to the Waste Basket" and shows a picture up top of a resume folded like a paper airplane headed presumably for a wastebasket (if you are wondering, wastebasket is one word, not two).

Is it really true? Well, I guess that depends on who you are talking to and what advice you choose to believe.

The story—and I use the word story rather than article because I believe most of the story is make believe—makes some observations and assumptions that are without substance in fact.

"Instead of reading your resume," says Daine Stafford of The Kansas City Star, "an employer might ask you to fill out an online form or take an online test that measures how well you fit the job, based on responses from successful workers."

That is an observation and at least the first part of it is correct, that more and more employers are asking for an email version of a resume rather than the traditional hard copy (printed) version we have used in recent decades.

Stafford says "Google, for example, uses a screening program to measure applicants' attitudes, behaviors, personality and biographical details. Answers are scrunched in a formula that creates a score, indicating how well the candidate is likely to fare on the job."

Fair enough, Google probably does so if Stafford says so.

I have often wondered what a screening question like "Which would you rather be: 1) a monkey, 2) a bear, 3) a tiger, or 4) a kangaroo?" actually tells human resources about a person's personality that they could not better find out by interviewing them.

If you get the impression that interviewers are personnel types who are lazy in the hiring process, you might be right. Anything to get them to the point where they have nothing to do but push paper around and look important and arrogant in the process (like I have mine, screw you).

Stafford continues: "It's all electronic," said Michael Doyle, a 60-year-old job seeker from Prairie Village, Kan. (sic), who recently landed a job through personal contacts. In nine months, Doyle said, he's spoken to exactly two interviewers as a result of online postings."

My guess is that Doyle may have submitted an email version of his resume to dozens, if not hundreds, of online destinations.

I could have told Doyle that probably 60% of all hiring is contacts, knowing people in the workplace or knowing people who know people in the workplace. Yes, it helps to have qualifications, but it helps more to have qualifications and know someone who wants to help you.

Reading about Doyle's experience might lead me to conclude that online posting is not the best method to proceed here given the results. No wonder hiring is so screwed up.

From this and another example, Stafford then draws the conclusion that the applicants "discovered that resumes have gone digital."

She goes on to say "In some cases, resumes have disappeared from the hiring process completely. Some employers don't even want them in digitized format. They prefer customized online forms, tailor-made to cull the applicant field."

Again, anything to make it easier on personnel types, we certainly would not want to put them out for even a minute of their precious time.

From the input of experiences of two applicants this conclusion comes bursting forth as implied truth that a new paradigm has taken place in the America business of hiring.

March 20, 2007

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

As one who has spent 20+ years in the high end of the resume writing business crafting 5,400+ hard copy resumes for executives and professionals making $40,000 to $350,000 a year, this is not my experience of how things get done in the hiring process.

For one thing, the more responsibility and more income the position generates the greater the likelihood that a hard copy resume and cover letter will be requested in the hiring process. Company officers higher up in the food chain than human resource types want more rather than less information on which to make a more intelligent hiring decision.

High level corporate officers would also like to view the writing skills of the applicant. They are well aware of the fact that the potential corporate-level hire probably had a pro write his or her resume.

They also understand that the client had to provide information for the process and this is one indicator of how well they present themselves professionally, and how well they can transmit pertinent information about themselves.

They are interested in the cover letter which, I might add, most online application forms and even resume posting opportunities many times do not address.

This is important because there is one thing that can be done by a pro in a cover letter than cannot be done by a writer in a resume, no matter how good of a resume the writer creates.

Pay attention because this important: You can demonstrate people skills in the cover letter and you cannot do so professionally in the resume product.

So what is the big deal about demonstrating people skills? Only this: people skills are the most important trait you have to present in selling yourself at an interview.

People skills are more important than education, training, experience, intelligence, talent and knowledge.

Do not misunderstand what I am saying here.

I am not saying that education, training, experience, intelligence, talent and knowledge are not important in the hiring process. I am saying that people skills are even more important.

The human process of "people contact" (my quotes) forms your attitudes about everything, and your attitude drives your personality. Show me someone with a good attitude, and I will show you someone with a good personality. Show me someone with a bad attitude, and I will show you someone with a bad personality.

If you do not think so and are content to remain ignorant, then explain to me how a high school dropout who lacks subject-verb agreement in his or her conversation can earn more than $1 million a year in sales.

Companies hire high school dropouts in sales even though the description for the job requires a high school or college degree, and proven experience selling in the field.

Why? Simple, do you know how many people can sell effectively? Less than 5% on anyone's best day. When business employers realistically require education as a component in hiring they severely limit their ability to find people to generate sales to keep them in business.

Do people who believe this tripe being peddled about online hiring even realize that less than 5% of the employees in our economy are in professional sales, and that it is this same 5% of people who create the jobs for the other 95% in our economy?

Even Diane Stafford would be unnecessary as a journalist at The Kansas City Star if someone in their advertising department did not sell enough advertising to cover the newspaper's overhead that includes her salary. She produces nothing and sells nothing and is irrelevant without ad sales to support her very existence.

Now some smarty is going to say that Diane Stafford is such a great writer than her writing will help The Kansas City Star draw readers for its ads. Fair enough, but if that point has any legs to stand up then take the ads out of the paper and try to sell it.

I have owned a newspaper and know better. I have worked as a managing editor of a daily newspaper property for another owner. He thought the same thing I did; this is why he did not pay me a $1 million a year to be his managing editor. Some of the ad salesmen made more than I did.

And? What's the point? Well, think about it. How are an online application and an online testing process going to reveal anything about a person's people skills in the hiring process?

At least with a hard copy resume and cover letter you can use the cover letter to demonstrate your people skills. Ergo, high level corporate executives are not going to let human resources (HR) limit them to online processes only.

 March 21, 2007

Online Hiring:

94% of Candidates Are Hired the Traditional Way: With a Hard Copy Resume and an Interview - Part 3

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

The only two reliable studies I am aware of show that less than 6% of prospects on average are hired through the online process only. That means 94% of candidates are hired the traditional way: with a hard copy resume and eyeball-to-eyeball contact during an interview. I wonder how Diane Stafford was hired.

A company or organization may, in fact, require the initial resume or an application via email because HR does not want to fuss with paper copies of resumes. I would advise any candidate who has to apply online with an email attachment or in the body of the email, to take 6 or 7 hard copies of their resume and cover letter—pre-signed—to the interview.

When the interviewers (and today it is one to a committee of several interviewers more often than not) are passing the single email copy back and forth trying to read it and ask questions (which is tacky but they do it anyway), the prospective candidate should get up and say, "I brought hard copies for everyone today" and hand them out.

You cannot imagine how positive an impression this will make until you try it.

Should you try it and the brightest thing an interviewer can say is, "Oh, we don't accept hard copies anymore, just email versions," then I would recommend continuing with the interview, but understanding that when you go out the door this is not the place you are going to work, or the people you are going to work with.

They are too stupid and bureaucratic for anyone with an ounce of initiative, talent, ambition and intelligence to be fussing with. People like these bureaucrats are most often occupying space and contributing little to the progress and success of any company. They are where they are because of their level of incompetence.

They are only screening candidates so someone more important can interview them later and make a hiring decision. In other words, people in personnel may hire entry level workers but no chief executive officer or anyone else important would allow a personnel type to make an offer of employment for key company executives.

What is it with this business of "customized online forms, tailor-made to cull the applicant field"? Are we in some kind of race here? Good grief, does anyone who is a consumer or a potential hire realize what is happening here?

Why exactly do you think the big-time online services that allow you to post you resume for free also might want you to fill out a customized online form before they let you post your resume?

If you believe that the only purpose for this activity is to help you find a job you are very naïve, especially if they ask you to fill out the equivalent of a hard copy job application online. In doing so, you will be asked to fill your first name in one block and your last name in another block, etc.

Why would they do this? Answer: To build a more manageable, faster database of your personal information so they can sell it for profit. I know they say they would never sell your information, but they lie through their teeth, just like banks and financial institutions did for decades.

Why do you think banks and financial institutions must mail you a notice ever year telling you how they use your information. That is correct, they finally got caught.

Even this legislative correction does not prohibit them from continuing to do so in many cases because they have so many wholly-owned subsidiaries with whom they can still legally share information.

Banks routinely sold your personal information to credit card companies for years, for example, and pretended that they did not. It was not in the bank's best interest to reveal what they were doing because it became such a good profit center for them.

What makes you think your banker does not continually lie to you every time you see him or her for a loan? Bankers love to lie at your expense, and they make more money every time they do it.

Do you honestly think that all of the fine print that goes on and on in your loan agreement is there because bankers what to explain to you exactly what it means in plain language? I think not. It is there to confuse you and leave you in the dark about what is really going on.

March 22, 2007

Many Job Hunters Are Frustrated With the Continual Digitized "Depersonalization" of the Hiring Process - Part 4

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

Many clients of mine have filled out customized online forms tailor-made to help them only to find out later that they were receiving calls on their cell phones from telemarketers, and needing to get a bigger mailbox as suddenly they were inundated with unwanted advertisements.

How did those advertisers get such pertinent information? Answer: the good fairy brought it to them while they were sleeping, in other words, they bought it from the source of the customized online information form.

Stafford continues her groundbreaking story with this piece of riveting information:

"John Sullivan, a management professor at San Francisco State University, says most interviews are as valuable as Ouija boards in measuring whether a person will be good on the job.

"Interviewers ask the wrong questions, and job candidates can lie, or simply not shine when on the job they'd do quite well, he (Sullivan) says—all the better for online assessments. Companies—especially those that hire thousands of workers and have high turnover—are turning to a range of computer-based filters to pare down candidates to a manageable number."

I could not disagree more with what Sullivan has to say as a management professor who is likely quoted as an expert.

It may well be that Sullivan himself does not have the necessary skills and competence to get anything out of a face-to-face interview with a potential hire in his university department. That would be his problem.

Stafford does end her story with this observation: "Many job hunters are frustrated with the digitized 'depersonalization' of the hiring process." Amen.

Just when personnel types and those hiring should be asking more questions of candidates in an increasing complex world they are turning to forms for the answers. Good luck and God speed.

If potential candidates hope to represent my companies or me they had better be ready to sit down, look me in the eye, and sell themselves.

In most cases I am old enough to be their father. In many cases I am old enough to be their grandfather. My children call me a fossil, but I still read people so well one-on-one that I would not trust an online form to separate the wheat from the chaff.

March 10, 2008

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

Imagine my surprise Wednesday (3-5-08) when I discovered that Warren Buffett, who has played second fiddle to Bill Gates as the world's richest man for several years, is now the wealthiest billionaire in the world with a net worth of $62 billion.

For the uninitiated, a billion dollars is a million dollars 1,000 times. At $62 billion, you could also say that Buffett is worth a million dollars 62,000 times. Gates slipped to No. 3 at $58 billion on the just released 2008 list by Forbes magazine.

Equally surprising to me was the fact that, after reading The Tao of Warren Buffett, I discovered that Buffett had some very valuable information on what students should know when selecting their first job after graduating.

"Managing your career is like investing—the degree of difficulty does not count," said Buffett. "So you can save yourself money and pain by getting on the right train."

According to Buffett, one not only needs to learn what kind of business to invest in but what kind of business to work in.

If one goes to work for a company with poor long-term economics, then he (or she) can never expect to do really well because the company does not do well. Salaries will be below average and raises will be few and far between, and there is greater risk of losing your job because management will always be under pressure to cut costs.

But if you go to work for a company that has great long-term economics working in its favor, then the company will be awash in cash. This means higher salaries and tons of raises and promotions for a job well done. Plus there will be plenty of room for advancement as management looks for ways to spend all that free cash.

In short, Buffett says you want to work for a company that has high margins (of profit) and makes lots of money. And you want to stay away from businesses that have low margins and lose money.

One is a first-class train ride to Easy Street; the other is a long, slow, hard freight-train ride to nowhere in Siberia.

A good example of a company with high margins, no debt and billions in cash reserve is Microsoft.

The next step to getting on with your career is to also work for a company that allows you to do what you love doing.

"There comes a time when you ought to start doing what you want," says Buffett. "Take a job that you love. You will jump out of bed in the morning. I think you are out of your mind if you keep taking jobs that you do not like because you think that it will look good on your resume. Isn't that a little like saving up sex for your old age?"

It is not hard to figure out why Buffett is a very smart person. He did not become the wealthiest man in the world by being stupid. It takes no talent to lose money; it takes a lot of talent to make a lot of money.

According to Buffett, spending a life getting up and going to a job that you hate, with people you do not respect, leads to frustration and discontent, which you bring home with you from work and share with your family, which makes them unhappy as well. This, of course, makes for a lousy life for everyone you love, including yourself.

When you find a job you love, going to work puts a smile on your face, which you can take home with you at the end of the day to share with your loved ones.

If you are worried about money, remember that the people who love what they are doing are the ones who rise to the top of their fields and end up making the most money. Do what you love, says Buffett, and the money will come.

December 10, 2006

Money Makers:

Who Earns the Most Based on Their Educational Level

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

Colleges and universities are fond of reminding anyone who will listen that there is great value in earning a bachelor's degree. In the most recent statistics available the U. S. Census Bureau tends to agree.

Results from the 2004 Census Bureau report shows a $23,000 difference between the average annual salary of adults with a bachelor's degree ($51,554) compared to adults with a high school diploma ($28,645).

In what may or may not be an anomaly, the income gap narrowed slightly from five years earlier when bachelor's degree graduates made nearly twice as much as high school graduates.

The percentage of Americans 25 and older with a bachelor's degree rose to 28%, and the percentage with a high school diploma rose to 85%. In 1970, 36 years ago, only 11% of Americans had a bachelor's degree and a little more than half had a high school diploma.

It is probable that the increase over time has had much to do with the advent of technology in our society, and the impact of Internet accessibility to the general public in 1993 and 1994 through the creation of browsers.

If you are wondering, Minnesota, Utah, Montana, New Hampshire, Alaska and Washington had the highest proportions of adults with at least a high school diploma, all at about 92%.  Texas had the lowest with about 78%.

Connecticut had the highest proportion of adults with a bachelor's degree (37%) and West Virginia had the lowest (15%).

I have long been a believer that there is no real correlation between education and income unless the degree leads to a high paying profession, such as a physician, attorney or dentist. I have known too many people with bachelor's degrees working at McDonald's restaurants.

My standard comment is that it is not like all people with bachelor's degrees make $100,000 a year and those with high school diplomas make $30,000. I also have known many people with only high school degrees and some high school dropouts who make well in excess of $100,000 annually, especially in sales.

Bill Gates is a college dropout who ranks as the richest man in the world. Forbes magazine rates William H. Gates III as the richest person in 2006 with $53 billion, proving perhaps that even Harvard dropouts can make a lot of money.

You, dear reader, will have to decide for yourself how big a difference in income is possible with a college degree instead of settling for a high school diploma. There is no question in my mind that the income gap will increase as the upper and lower edges of our middle class are falling away and the gap between the rich and poor in America widens.

I have also found little correlation between talent and income, intelligence and income and experience and income. Is there anyone in America who has not heard of the starving artist, or educated idiots in menial jobs, or janitors becoming millionaires?

The only real correlation I have noticed is between people skills and income. How else can you reasonably explain how a high school dropout becomes a self-made, multi-millionaire entrepreneur?

These successful entrepreneurs may not have perfect subject-verb agreement when they speak, but they certainly know how to relate to people in a meaningful way. You may have noticed that the whole world steps aside for the man who knows where he is going (ditto for women).

Also of note is the Bureau of Labor Statistics National Compensation Survey which shows that white-collar earnings average $21.85 an hour while blue-collar earnings average $15.03 and service occupations average $10.40.

Source information for the following statistics come from the Employment Policy Foundation.

The jobs that pay the most generally require at least a bachelor's degree (4 years of higher
education) and several also require graduate (master's or doctorate) degrees. Here are the average annual incomes during 2003 for the nation's Top 12 Paying Jobs:

Top 12 Paying Jobs Overall

$147,000 – Physicians and Surgeons
$133,500 – Aircraft Pilots
$116,000 – Chief Executives
$112,000 – Electrical and Electronic Engineers
$99,800 – Lawyers and Judges
$90,000 – Dentists
$85,500 – Pharmacists
$84,700 – Management Analysts
$84,000 – Financial Analysts, Managers and Advisors
$83,000 – Computer and Information System Managers
$80,000 – Marketing and Sales Managers
$80,000 – Educational Administrators

Top Paying Jobs That Generally Require an Associate Degree or Certificates of Training

The jobs that pay the next best annual average salaries tend to be technical in nature and generally
require an associate degree (2 years of higher education) and/or job-specific training certificates. Here are the average annual incomes during 2003 for the Top 6 Paying Jobs:

$66,000 – Healthcare Practitioners
$58,000 – Business Analysts
$57,000 – Electrical and Electronic Engineers
$56,800 – Mechanical Engineers
$54,000 – General and Operations Managers
$50,400 – Computer and Information System Managers

Top Paying Jobs That Generally Require a High School Diploma

These jobs generally require a high school diploma and emphasize work experience and on-the-job training rather than college degrees. Here are the average annual incomes during 2003 for the Top 6 Paying Jobs:

$58,900 – Computer Software Engineers
$56,400 – Computer and Information System Managers
$55,000 – Computer Programmers
$49,000 – Network Systems and Data Communications Analysts
$48,000 – General and Operations Managers
$48,000 – Database, Network and Computer Systems Administrators

Top Paying Jobs That Do Not Require a High School Diploma

These jobs tend to require substantial on-the-job training and work experience rather than formal education and specialized training. Here are the average annual incomes during 2003 for the Top 6 Paying Jobs:

$36,400 – Bailiffs, Correctional Officers and Jailers
$36,400 – Legal Assistants
$36,000 – Industrial Production Managers
$36,000 – Drafters
$33,600 – Construction Managers
$31,900 – Electricians

Sometimes the sources for these statistics are not really clear in the significance of their findings. You will notice that whatever the educational level, the positions for Computer and Information System Managers are mentioned.

It is the 9th highest paying job at $83,000 in highest educational level, shows up at $50,400 with a two-year degree and becomes the 2nd highest paying job at $56,400 for high school graduates.

The difference in salaries at different educational levels could have to do with the size of the company the worker serves. There is a difference in responsibility and technical requirements for a company generating $10 million in annual revenue as opposed to a company generating $100 million or $1 billion in annual revenue.

I believe it is also important to understand that many people with Top 12 paying jobs are self-employed professionals who are able to take many legitimate deductions in their business tax returns that workers do not enjoy.

Deductions lower their net taxable income. The earnings you see here can be much lower than their actual earnings because deductions can be "paper write-offs," deductions that result from depreciation, for example, that can amount to thousands of dollars credit with no out-of-pocket expenses.

It almost goes without saying that many savvy college and high school graduates also have part-time businesses that allow them legitimate deductions that lower the net taxable income from their jobs.

December 29, 2006

Jobs and Careers:

There Is No Huge Correlation Between Education and Income and Here Is Why

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

(Editor's Note: A client e-mailed me yesterday about her student loan debts that netted her 3 college degrees and a job without a commensurate income and future. She has a Bachelor of Arts Degree from New York University, a second Bachelor of Arts Degree from the London Institute and a Master of Arts Degree from the University of London. My unvarnished answers to her questions follow. I changed her name since I could not contact her in time to use her name.)

Happy Holidays Ed Bagley,

I had a follow-up question to your three-part series on "Six Power Secrets of Getting Hired and Promoted."

If education is not a great factor in making the "big bucks" why do people stress that, especially a lot of companies that only want to hire college educated employees?

OK, I don't have a source for those stats, just stuff I have heard. I am guessing just media hype. Nonetheless, if there is any validity to that, why is that the case?

Because I so regret the major amounts of money I am in debt for because of higher education, and the three degrees I have have not gotten me any further than anyone else.

I am not surprised. I guess life isn't fair.

Happy New Year, Carolyn

Fasten your seat belts for my reply to Carolyn the same day:

Carolyn,

You are reading my blog! This can only help you, and you have the added benefit that I am not going to try and collect on your student loans! (it is OK to smile)

You ask an excellent question and you shall receive an excellent answer.

Here are some considerations in no particular order:

1) Colleges and universities are not part of the same world that exists around them. They are isolated special interest groups with no other primary purpose than to ensure their continued existence.

Job one for them is to stress education as the answer to all of life's issues and ills, thus, get a degree and earn a lot more money, get a degree and start doing something you really want to do, get a degree and get hired quicker, get a degree or many corporations will not hire you, etc.

Their real purpose is to generate enough income to support the salaries and lifestyle of those involved in perpetuating the enterprise. A tenured professor must be paid even if the subject he or she is teaching has almost zero demand in our economy.

If colleges and universities really told the truth about what you could reasonably earn after you acquire your degree, enrollment would plummet in certain subject areas. Students would stop being skydivers without parachutes.

Colleges and universities will put 120 students into a program that there is absolutely no need or demand for in the marketplace. What will a student do with an art history degree when there is zero need for people to run the few museums that exist.

You cannot turn out 120 students a year at each university when the annual demand for what they have to offer is 22 openings at all levels nationwide. This is why education majors who do not want to teach in South Central Los Angeles end up as shift managers at a McDonald's restaurant, or as a life insurance agent for Prudential.

2) Not all degrees are equal. A Bachelor of Arts in history is pretty useless unless you switch to teaching history. Get a Master of Business Administration degree from a top 20 school and your chances improve. Get a Doctor of Medicine Degree, become a physician and surgeon and your chances are even better.

Degrees that lead to a high paying profession pay off, everything else has little real impact on your salary.

3) Corporations want to hire college graduates not only because they believe educated workers will make them more money, but also because it is their best guarantee that the person they are hiring is literate.

They want to be assured that the new hires can speak and be understood by fellow staff members, and are not so illiterate that they will drive away customers and clients by showing, through their lack of communication skills, that they are stupid, lack grammar and diction, and have the personality of an ashtray.

4) Facts: Results from the 2004 Census Bureau report shows a $23,000 difference between the average annual salary of adults with a bachelor's degree ($51,554) compared to adults with a high school diploma ($28,645).

In what may or may not be an anomaly, the income gap narrowed slightly from five years earlier when bachelor's degree graduates made nearly twice as much as high school graduates.

Notice the fact says "the average annual salary" which means that in this total is a brain surgeon making $1.2 million a year and a ditch-digger making a minimum wage of approximately $7 an hour or about $14,000 a year. This produces an average difference of only $23,000.

Throw out the brain surgeons and ditch-diggers of which there are very few and the difference is even less.

5) This has little to do with life being fair or not. It has everything to do with you figuring out how to make money, whether you have a degree or not.

Do I think you have been snookered on the education trip? Yes I do. Why? I have too much experience and evidence to think otherwise.

Both of us come from educated families that would naturally stress education. I was appalled when my son and daughter had zero interest in continuing their education after high school.

My daughter is now a loan officer with Washington Mutual making good money, probably far better than you are, and she has zero student loan debt.

My son did get a 2-year certificate as an automotive technician; he refused to take the 4 or 5 academic classes with the occupational training so he could get an Associate of Technical Arts Degree rather than a certificate as an auto tech.

He told me, "Dad I do not need any more education."  Remember what Mark Twain said: "I never allowed schooling to interfere with my education."

My son is 28 years old and already has a $540,000 house, 4 upscale vehicles, a rental property and two auto repair shops with an income well in excess of $12,000 a month plus the net profits from his businesses.

Did he need a college education to succeed? You decide. This is why I say that there is more correlation between people skills, having technical skills and being in an activity that is in demand than there is between pure education and income.

6) Do I believe everyone should have a college degree, say at least a bachelor's? Absolutely, because you will be exposed to multiple areas of knowledge and get some well-needed breeding and culture.

My son could care less about classical music, plays, culture, reading, etc. He is focused on making money and when he looks at anything he is only interested in discovering the answers to two questions: Where is the money? and How can I get it?

This is the clear difference between an entrepreneur or businessperson and a college graduate who is thinking his or her education is going to bring them big bucks.

Nothing will bring you a lot of bucks unless and until what you bring provides a service or product that is in demand, has little competition and you can charge big bucks for your service.

This is why brain surgeons and auto repair technicians who own auto repair shops make money. Cars break down. People have brain cancer. Who cares whether you have 3 degrees, or 20 degrees, or whether you know hip-hop from opera?

7) Given your circumstances, this is what I recommend you do: Use your expensive education, street smarts and intuition to figure out what people want to know and then provide the knowledge or information they want and need, and charge for your service.

The more they want the information the more you can charge because no one else will be providing the information they want at a lower cost.

This is America, the land of opportunity. This is a needs-based, on-demand economy. The market you want to earn your living in is capitalist based, not education based. If you cannot figure out the economy, become a teacher and settle for whatever salary and benefits education pays a teacher.

8) Also, stop acting like there is some big secret about how to make it in your chosen field. Get into the field and act like you are the secret. Do not chase people and opportunities, act like you are THE person and THE opportunity is with you.

For example, you cannot find a better resume writer and personal marketer in America than I am. Period. I dare you to scour New York, Boston or LA and then come back to me when you figure out I am right.

Most people in my profession are just sucking money out of their clients and moving on.

When you call I answer, not my secretary because I do not have one. You get the expert. You do not have to work through me to get to the top. You start at the top.

This is why I do not have employees. I am the authority.

You are bright, educated and capable. You are the answer to your own quest to find someone else to hire you. Start acting like you are a person of total substance.

Make people appreciate and understand instantly that when they are talking to you, or doing business with you, that they are dealing with a person of substance. Repeat, a person of substance. Let there be no mistake.

If your thing is hip-hop music, become the authority, brand yourself and build a reputation so that no one thinking hip-hop is doing squat without consulting you first because you have the answers, and are worth whatever you are charging and 20 times more!

Think about who you need to be, not who you are at the moment, then be that person, becoming a magnet that will attract people to you.

Now get out there and make me proud of you. You are Carolyn, an expert. You do not know everything and quickly acknowledge so, but in your area, there is no one who knows more than you. Period. That is it.

And if you do not agree with me that I am an expert in my field, no matter, others do.

You are not some silly girl with three degrees who cannot find the right job at the right income. Start 2007 as an expert, not as someone looking for a job.

You know I believe in you. Now you need to believe in yourself and get out there and let the world know who Carolyn is. People will start listening when you decide you are a person of substance, know what you are talking about, and then continue to get more knowledgeable and helpful in your area of expertise.

This is not a mind game. Do not believe with your head, believe with your heart as if your life depended upon it and people will accept you as an expert.

When they offer you less money than you want, look them straight in the eye and tell them you would like to help them but other people are offering you more money, and then shut up.

Do not try to justify or explain yourself or your value. If the person you are talking to cannot figure it out, find someone else who can.

There are two possible outcomes in any situation: results or excuses. I think you know which situation you want to be in.

Ed

August 20, 2007

Reader Asks a Question:

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

(Editor's Note: Steve emailed me about my article titled "There Is No Huge Correlation Between Education and Income and Here Is Why". Here is his email and my response.)

"Good Morning Ed,

These were very interesting perspectives. There is much truth to the premise that financial success can be achieved without extensive educational debt.

It is unfortunate that in this day and age, many have to choose between personal fulfillment and generating a reasonable salary.

I have been dating a high school teacher who has been in her profession for many years. She genuinely enjoys her students, believes that she is able to make a difference in some lives, and she has skills that allow her to share things that will be of benefit to her students.

Unfortunately, on a teacher's salary, her lifestyle is almost Spartan.

Could she find another profession that would allow her to generate a better income? Likely. Would it be as emotionally rewarding to her? Doubtful.

We do not live in a perfect world but why is it so much less perfect than 30 years ago?"

Hi Steve,

Thanks for reading my article. Every now and then someone takes the time and effort to email me with a comment or question. I try to respond when this happens but not reveal their full identity.

As a former daily newspaper managing editor, I try to be sensitive to a reader's interest.

You pose a great question, Steve, "We do not live in a perfect world but why is it so much less perfect than 30 years ago?"

I suspect one reason, Steve, is that each generation seems to invent its own idea of what is a perfect world. As a 63-year-old father of two children and grandfather of three, I have come to accept this as a rite of passage through time.

I confess that I love 60's rock 'n roll, Motown, Nat King Cole and Broadway musicals. If this does not date me, nothing will.

It has been my observation that each generation is loyal to its music because a song can instantly remind us of an emotional moment in our life. Maybe the start of a lifelong relationship, or the ending of another.

You only have to have your heart broken once in a lifetime and a certain song playing will remind you of the experience. It matters not that you go on to marry another girl and live happily ever after. The song and the moment remain.

My son has a totally different idea of what his perfect world is compared to mine. My perfect world would bore him to death, and put him to sleep at the same time.

The lesson to be learned is that "our" world, its culture, its values, and its mores are all constantly changing, and we are too—we are getting older with the passage of time.

I suspect a second reason, Steve, is that each generation believes its own special world should be the same for everyone.

Your friend may be happy in her career choice, an outstanding high school teacher, and making a real difference in her students' lives.

Ask any successful person if there was a teacher or coach who made them feel special and turned their life around for the better, and you will likely get a very positive response.

I am one of those successful people. I consider my high school cross-country and track coach—Varnard Gay—and my journalism teacher—Vernita Knight—to be tremendous, positive influences in my life to this very day.

Varnard produced many team and individual champions during his coaching career, and I was one of them. Vernita produced many outstanding journalists who would go on to productive careers, and I was one of them. I was blessed at a time when I needed a blessing. This is the gift a teacher or coach gives.

I have never been burdened with working at a job I hated. I have done what I wanted to do and sacrificed income in doing so. I did not care. I became self-employed in the early 1970's and never looked back.

It would be years before I would realize that there is no monetary reward for doing "good" in a job or profession. People who make a lot of money, like my son, make it their business to make money. In the business of making money there can be only two outcomes: results or excuses.

I never chased money and big money never really caught me. We live in a time where making a lot of money, wearing the fad clothes of the day, and driving the hot car or truck of the time, is believed to make you look more successful.

Why do something that you do not like for more money rather than doing something you do like for less? That would be chasing someone else's dream for the perfect world.

In assessing why I am not any other person than who I am, I try to remember two things:

1) What you think about me is none of my business. What is most important is what I think about myself.

2) Always remember that no matter what anyone is saying to you from the outside, the most important conversation is the one you are having with yourself on the inside.

My son spends little time reading, and I constantly read. As I have grown older, I have come to appreciate not only the writing of Ralph Waldo Emerson, but his mind as well.

Here are two things Emerson has written that impress me:

1) You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.

2) This time, like all times, is a very good one, when we know what to do with it.

I believe that integrity is 1,000 times more important than making a lot of money. I will grant you that having a ton of money allows you to have better health and to do more fun things.

I have found that entertaining yourself is a blessing, and the best things in life are still free, such as a sunset over the lake, a walk on the beach and the warm glow of a fireplace.

I have never believed that having a lot of money causes me to make decisions with right thinking and right motives. I make decisions with right thinking and right motives because I am at peace with myself and value my integrity.

The world may pass me by on its way to a different way of life, but when I go to sleep for the final time, I am secure in my final resting place.

Always remember that when your regrets exceed your dreams, you are truly growing older.

When all reason and logic fail to convince, remember what William Shakespeare said:
"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so," or my more modern adaptation: "Nothing is either good or bad except that thinking makes it so."

Thanks again, Steve, for posing the question.

Make yourself a good day, and make your world a good world.

Ed

February 21, 2007

Jobs and Careers:

Want a Six-Figure Income Without Getting a College Degree of Any Kind? Here Is How

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

As someone who has 5,000+ high end clients who are interested in jobs and careers, I paid attention Tuesday when I came across a story about six-figure incomes by Laura Morsch of CareerBuilder.com.

According to Laura Morsch and the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, "physician jobs dominate the list of the nation's highest-paying positions, holding 9 of the top 10 most lucrative jobs."

Morsch reminds us that there are other high-paying jobs in our economy.

"Although statistically more education means better pay," says Morsch, "you can land a very high-paying job with just a bachelor's degree and considerable work experience."

She then goes on to list these 9 examples: Chief Executive at $140,000, Airline Pilot at $135,000, Dentist at $134,000, Lawyer at $111,000, Air Traffic Controller at $106,000, Engineering Manager at $105,000, Computer and Information Systems Manager at $102,000, Marketing Manager at $102,000 and Astronomer at $101,000.

I have clients making six-figure incomes in all of Morsch's examples, however, you need more than a bachelor's degree to realistically become a Dentist, Lawyer or an Astronomer; therefore, they are not good examples.

I have a client making $350,000 a year with a high school diploma. I have another client making $144,000 who is a high school graduate with two additional years of technical training. A third client is making $250,000 with a high school diploma only. All three of these examples are men.

Men can make excellent money with a high school diploma in a number of occupations.

Women can also make $100,000+ with a high school diploma, but they tend to do it generally in three ways:

1) They own their own business, usually a small business that is very profitable. Some research organizations report that there are more small business owners making six-figures-plus than in any other job or occupation.

2) They work in commissioned sales rather than salaried sales. A sharp woman can many times outsell a man because of the dynamics between the sexes. A sharp woman calling on a male client many times gets more time and attention than a male calling on the same client.

3) They work in a financially-related position, such as a stockbroker, mortgage banker, mortgage broker, loan officer or chief financial officer.

Here is some information you can use if you are a high school graduate and have zero interest in getting a bachelor's degree at this point in your work career: go into sales if you have any people skills or personality.

Sales is the second highest paid profession in the world, and it does not usually require a college degree. There are some corporate sales jobs that do require a degree, but there are many more opportunities available if you can generate sales production.

There is not a single business in America that cannot benefit from more sales, and almost every one will pay for sales production.

Here is some even better news: If you are selling and producing big time and the owner or company is too cheap to compensate you at the level you should be compensated at ($100,000+++), dump the owner or company and sell for someone else.

A far better idea would be to start your own business, go into competition directly against the cheap owner or company that would not pay you, and wipe them off the map.

There really is no reason you should be working for someone else anyway. Working in your own business can be an outstanding deal. You call your own shots. You will not fire yourself, lay yourself off, or deny yourself promotions, fat bonuses for production, outstanding benefit packages, and a lot of time off to enjoy your money and family.

The nine examples listed above have 7 positions that amount to no more than hired help, that includes the Chief Executive position. Only the Dentist and Lawyer positions might be either self-employed or hired help.

All nine examples cited by Morsch and the Bureau of Labor Statistics have more stress than anyone needs and are labor intensive. Even the Dentist and Lawyer positions, which might be self-employed, require them to report to work or not get paid. If a Mac truck runs over either them, their income stops in a heartbeat.

Has anyone ever heard of income-producing investments when these job opportunities come up? Income producing assets allow you to take possession of your own time while your investment throws off the income to fund your lifestyle without working a job.

It might be fancy to have any of those nine jobs with status and making $100,000 a year. Some people would rather make $250,000 a year and not have a job, have a boss, and deal with the stress.

Here is a rare career path: Own the business, company or organization and hire the six-figure people in the examples above to work for you. There are people who would gladly pay the above examples their listed wages when they could make $250,000 free and clear and not work.

Who needs status and aggravation when you have money?

April 2, 2007

Life Is Full of Rejection:

Take Harvard University: 22,955 Student Applications to Apply and 20,897 Rejections

Copyright © 2007 Ed Bagley

I opened my Friday newspaper and was reminded again that life is full of rejection.

Take Harvard University for example. No less than 22,955 eager applicants applied for admission to Harvard this fall and only 2,058, or 9%, were accepted. A whopping 20,897 applicants came up short of admission.

Actually, Harvard University calls its undergraduate school Harvard College. Nonetheless, all who were admitted are certainly among the chosen few.

According to the Bloomberg News, students fared a little better at Brown University, which admitted 14% of its applicants, and the University of Pennsylvania, which admitted 15%.

The article said that "Harvard's undergraduate tuition, room and board and other mandatory fees will rise to $45,620 and financial aid will increase to the highest in the school's history, $103 million. About 26% of the incoming class is eligible to attend free of charge or at a reduced rate."

Students from households making less than $60,000 annually can attend free, and students from families below $80,000 can get a reduced rate.

According to the Harvard University Gazette Online, just over half of the incoming class are women (50.5%), and records were set for minorities, including African Americans (11% rounded), Asian Americans (20%), Latinos (10%) and Native Americans (2%). Students from 79 countries are represented in the Class of 2011.

All of those statistics are good news if you were admitted. Here are some interesting facts about some of those who were not admitted:

1) Harvard admitted 2,058 students and nearly 2,500 of the applicants scored a perfect 800 on their SAT verbal test, almost 3,200 applicants scored a perfect 800 on their SAT math test, and more than 3,000 applicants were ranked first in their high school class.

2) If every student that scored 800 on his or her SAT verbal or math test and there were no duplicates, then more than 3,600 students did not get admitted. At least 900 of those students graduating No. 1 in their high school class also missed out.

It is a good thing I did not have my heart set on a Harvard education.

I never took a SAT to get into Michigan State University. I did not need to take a foreign language, trigonometry, calculus, statistics and probability, algebra, physics or chemistry to graduate from high school, and I did not take those courses, but I did graduate.

To all of the rejects of the world, I have some good news: you can make it in the game of life anyway.
A Harvard education might open more doors to success on the job, and you may or may not feel better about yourself, after all, the competition at Harvard looks pretty stiff.

I got into Michigan State because if you lined all of the incoming Class of 1966 at Harvard for a middle distance race and fired a gun, I would have been first across the finish line. So there you have it, talents differ.

While the tree was talking big to a squirrel about how unimpressive he was, the squirrel replied that maybe he was not as big and strong as the tree, but neither could the tree crack a nut.

Here are three facts about Harvard that impress me and I believe them to be true:

1)  Harvard is recognized as the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Harvard was founded in 1636 and celebrates its 371st anniversary this year.

2)  Harvard was the first organization in the country to become a legal corporation. This fact really surprised me because I thought it would have been a business, not an educational institution.

3)  Harvard has an endowment of $29+ billion (not million, billion). That is a lot of cash invested that allows it to help a lot of students who would not otherwise attend Harvard even though they might qualify.

I graduated from Michigan State University 41 years ago this June. Had I paid for my college education it would have cost me approximately $12,000, and I graduated without any student loans.

The cost of an education for the Class of 2011 at Harvard will be more than $182,000. Someone will pay that cost. I sure am glad it is not going to be me.

November 6, 2006

Jobs and Careers:

Unfortunately, Career Fairs Best Serve Everyone But the Intended Jobless

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

Reading my Sunday newspaper recently reminded me of how Career Fairs do little to substantially increase local employment. It seems that no one is willing to say this, and a lot fewer are even willing to believe it, but I know it to be all but a fact.

After spending 20+ years in the news business, and another 20+ years as a personal marketing specialist helping potential hires by writing upscale resumes, I can relate my experience with authority.

You might think that after helping 5,300+ clients get on with moving on and moving up in their careers that I could produce at least one client who has benefited from attending a Career Fair. I can not. This is why I caution any client who gets all excited and goosey about attending Career Fairs. I do not want their disappointment to affect my marketing plan to help them achieve their goals.

In revealing this apparent incongruity for the first time publicly, it is important to note that I am in the high end of the resume writing business. Virtually 97% of my 5,300+ clients during my 20-plus-year career are executives, professionals and managers earning between $40,000 and $350,00 annually who are already in management, want to be in management, or in sales and/or marketing.

Career fairs are all about first jobs and entry level career jobs that do not pay all that well, so they do little for folks who have already been in the marketplace, enjoyed some success, and want to keep moving up the corporate ladder, or any other ladder of their choice.

This makes a lot of sense when you examine who is involved in putting on Career Fairs, and what they expect to get for their investment. I am not talking about the potential hires, or anyone looking for a job or a better opportunity.

I am talking about businesses and organizations, large facility managers, and big advertising media, usually the dominant daily newspaper in the community. Nothing meets their profit needs, their publicity needs, and their public service needs like Career Fairs. It has become almost a rite of passage for these special interest groups in our society.

Let us start with businesses and organizations. Should you stroll down to a Career Fair in your community, and talk to a business representative at a snappy booth display, you will quickly pick up on the fact that the well dressed person is not the person you were expecting.

You knew going there that if Microsoft was a participant Bill Gates would probably not be there, but you secretly hoped he would. Later you came to realize that the person a major corporation sends to represent them at these Career Fairs is usually the most expendable person available.

This is why they smile a lot, take your resume (sometimes they do not), and tell you very little about what the company is really doing. Major companies that are cooking the books (using unacceptable accounting practices to inflate revenue and profits in order to increase stock prices so executives suck money out faster), and in worse shape than they want their stockholders and the public to know, would be at a Career Fair putting on their best face.

Just being at a Career Fair is good business for businesses and organizations because it gives the impression that those involved are key players in building the community, increasing employment, and acting like a good corporate citizen.

If you think large facility managers do not like Career Fairs you would be sadly mistaken. The same managers who hosted last week's rock concert du jour are more than happy to move the rockers out and the new vendors in.

Facility managers do not give the space away as a public service, and they do take care of the "job" exhibitors. Whether any potential candidate attending the Career Fair ultimately gets hired is none of their business.

Newspapers and related media (usually radio which needs public service announcements to stay licensed) love Career Fairs. The Internet has been gaining the advertising and profits that newspapers have been losing. Newspapers have been forced to create web sites and compete on the Internet whether they want to or not.

Career Fairs give newspapers extra ads and profit regardless of the economy. Newspapers generally run a special section advertising the Career Fair as it gives paying advertisers and the event itself more exposure and prominence. Newspapers also feel a need to serve the community that supports them, whether people get hired at these Career Fairs or not.

You are seeing more and more and more Career Fairs (or Job Fairs) because it is good business for three very big special interest groups who may be more like a three-legged stood than a helping hand. You could hold Career Fairs for the unemployed every other week in Flint, Michigan and it still would not affect their depressed economy; I suspect that the same is true in many other communities across the country.

When your government tells you employment is on the rise, public officials are counting on the fact that when an unemployed person's compensation benefits run out, they drop off of the rolls and remain unaccounted for even though they are still unemployed.

The salient point here is this: It is likely that when people benefit from these Career Fairs it is more by accident than design; the unemployed in our economy are the true story worth telling.

Hiring Practices:

March 29,2008

Jobs & Careers:

What Warren Buffett Thinks Is Important When Hiring Staff for Berkshire Hathaway

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

The wealthiest person in the world is not only the world's greatest investor, he also has some exacting standards when hiring his staff at Berkshire Hathaway.

Warren Buffett, who for years played second fiddle to Bill Gates among the world's wealthiest billionaires, was recently named by Forbes Magazine as the new No. 1 with a net worth of $62 billion.

"In looking for someone to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence and energy," said Buffet. "But the most important is integrity, because if they don't have that, the other two qualities, intelligence and energy, are going to kill you."

This insight comes from The Tao of Warren Buffett by Mary Buffett (his daughter-in-law) and David Clark.

"When you hire someone to run your business, you are entrusting him or her with the piggy bank," according to Buffett. "If these people are smart and hardworking, they are going to make you a lot of money, but it they aren't honest, they will find lots of clever way to make all your money theirs."

The rule is simple: People with integrity are predisposed to perform; people without integrity are predisposed not to perform. It is best not to get the two confused. Integrity is the key ingredient.

The lesson is simple: Having integrity is more important than being good at what you do.

Mary Buffett says that "Warren's management style has always been to afford his managers tremendous operational autonomy. They are free to run the businesses as if they are the owners. He could not give his managers this much freedom if they lacked integrity."

That is how important integrity is; it is everything. If you are concerned about being judgmental, work more on becoming less so by gaining more knowledge and understanding, and always stress your integrity first.

While Warren Buffett is a great investor, he is not a great manager of the businesses that Berkshire Hathaway owns. His secret for growing a corporation through diverse acquisitions is to buy a good business for a reasonable price that already has competent management running it, and then get out of way and let them do their job.

To show you how particular Buffett is at picking his own people, you need only know that Berkshire Hathaway has about 180,000 employees but only 17 of them are at Berkshire Hathaway headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska with Warren Buffett.

Can you imagine any other major corporation in America with only 17 employees at its headquarters office? If you get the idea that Berkshire Hathaway is an efficient operation, you get the idea. How you determine who to hire makes all the difference in the world.

Berkshire Hathaway has stock in very few companies, a huge stake in some major companies and owns some companies outright.

When you speak as a potential hire, people should almost instantly get the impression that they are talking to a person of substance who is guided by integrity and is very professional at what they are doing.

You develop this presence by knowing who you are, where you are at, what you are doing, why you are doing it, and doing it so you can serve someone else at their point of need. Like success, this development is a process and not a destination, but I promise you from the bottom of my Irish heart that you will enjoy the journey, and God will be with you to help you and guide you on your way.

March 24, 2008

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

Female executives who are bold and aggressive do not rise up the corporate ladder as quickly as you may think. Bold and aggressive traits do not naturally match well with intelligence and savvy. Given the fact that there are many more male executives than female executives, being bold and aggressive gets fewer promotions on the way up.

Female executives who use a self-confident but much softer, indirect approach do not highlight or reinforce any pre-conceived notions that they might be too bold, too aggressive or too judgmental for a higher position.

Remember that men, and especially male executives, do not like aggressive, judgmental women (it may even remind them of their wife in some cases). The expression is: Behind every successful man is a strong and cooperating woman, and we surely do hope it is his wife because too often it is his mistress.

Men like women who are assertive but not aggressive. A man sees an intelligent, assertive woman as completing him, not challenging him. Remember that men do not know how to handle aggressive women, they do not have any centuries-old database other than that the man leads, the woman follows. Their ego does not allow them to treat aggressive women any differently than men.

If they perceive that you are aggressive, they will treat you as they do men, they will rip out your jugular vein and walk over you to the next corporate competitor in the boardroom. Here are some things to consider:

First, female executives should never, under any circumstances, devalue any core competencies of a male executive. Try to reinforce any good trait that a male executive has that you have. Why? Because he psychologically cannot deny himself. If he is detail-oriented and you are detail-oriented, and he criticizes you for being so, he is criticizing himself during the process. Male executives who are smart and successful will not criticize you in this circumstance. He will rather like you for being so as well.

Second, if the male executive has weak people skills, make it your business to bring a wonderful (not challenging but supporting), uplifting, positive presence to his office. In other words, COMPLEMENT his weakness, just as he would want his spouse to do.

Some guys are perceived as a man's man, like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Howie Long. They ooze macho. They are good guys, nice guys, but if you even think about testing them, they will knock you on your backside. You know better than to even try. Their image is secure and intact.

There are some male executives who appear secure and smart in what they are doing, but they cannot handle harsh criticism or ANY criticism. Their ego is that fragile. If you criticize them harshly and embarrass them in the process, they will quietly quit what they are doing and find a reason to go elsewhere. Schwarzenegger and Long will see to it that your face gets messed up as they move on WITHOUT you.

It is wise to know the difference between these two types of male executives.

Just as in writing resumes, female executives who get to the top of the corporate world know it is not so much what they say, but how they say what they say that counts most.

March 23, 2008

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

Being too judgmental during a job interview could most certainly be a negative for potential hires. Judgments rendered too quickly happen most often because they are based on preconceived notions.

Think about a friend unloading their most pressing problem on you. Your friend will be more comfortable sharing his or her concerns if you are a non-judgmental, non-threatening great listener. This means they talk and you listen.

In its purest form, you allow people to talk through their problems and discover their own solutions without recommending yours. When they cannot solve their problems by talking through them, make recommendations when they ask your opinion, or when you need to refocus them to the task at hand.

When you appear judgmental during an interview, it is difficult to create a positive impression of someone who will be able to get along with staff and management. You may be perceived as having an opinion on everything when no one, especially management, is interested in your opinion on anything.

You must ask yourself "Why should I be so judgmental?" if you think you are. How does being judgmental help the person on the receiving end of your judgment? How does being judgmental make you a better, more competent, more understanding person?

Do you need to be judgmental because you are seeking approval? Do you need to be judgmental because you want to show you are superior? Do you need to be judgmental because you secretly (in your subconscious mind) need to beat yourself up? Do you need to be judgmental to draw attention to yourself because you feel inadequate in some way?

If you are constantly checking yourself because you think you may be judgmental or have been told you are judgmental, it is possible that you may be spending too much time on yourself and not enough time on others.

The idea is to take the focus off of yourself and put it on others so they do not get the idea that you are more self-centered than other-centered. You will still have more time later to share your immediate opinions and judgments. Be genuinely more interested in others than you are in your own judgments and pronouncements.

If you are interviewing for an in-house promotion and the issue of your being judgmental comes up because they have found some instance when you may have been judgmental in the past (like it is in your personnel record), use this response:

"I admit there have been times in the past when I have been judgmental, and I take responsibility for my action and have learned from it. I am happy to report that because of my personal growth since then, I am more understanding, patient, effective and appreciative in my relationships now."

When I can think of one good reason for a potential hire to be judgmental during an interview, I will let you know. Until then, give it a rest if you tend to be judgmental.

March 22, 2008

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

We can teach people a lot of things, but there are two things we cannot teach people, potential hires or employees—judgment and personality development.

Judgment is an interesting trait because the only way you can acquire judgment is by making judgments. Unfortunately, in the reality of life, some people simply have better judgment than others.

If you think the bank and financial lenders at the biggest companies in the United States always have good judgment, you are dead wrong. Their judgment can be terrible. Look at the recent subprime lending that was fueled by greed rather than good judgment. Just because the CEO of a company makes more judgments (or decisions), it does not mean that he or she makes good judgments (or decisions). People either have good judgment or they DO NOT, just as you are pregnant or not pregnant; there is no in-between.

Remember, too, that there can be a huge difference between having good judgment and being judgmental. Sometimes it is hard to forget your past. People can be judgmental about someone else's ideas or opinions when their credibility is not on the line, but change like a chameleon when THEY are responsible for making a judgment.

Personality development cannot be taught because it is not driven by professional development (adding more college degrees, specialized training, seminars or one-on-one help). Personality development is driven not by professional growth but by personal growth.

This is why it is so difficult to take a bigoted person and change his or her attitude about racial issues. A bigoted man may well be as prejudiced on the day he dies as the day he decided to look down on someone or question their ability because of the color of their skin.

Personal growth is 100 times more difficult to achieve than professional growth because it requires that you not only learn or become aware of new information, but that you also willingly change your thought process and belief system. People CAN change but most people choose not to.

A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. A woman convinced against her will is of the same opinion still.

The next two sentences are very important to know and understand: When we blame others, we give up our ability to change. If you lack the will for change, there is no one who can show you the way (that includes Jesus Christ himself).

You will rise higher faster by achieving more personal growth than professional growth. Many potential hires and employees have enough education to become successful. Many can also handle any necessary training required to become successful. Few, however, manage to achieve more personal growth than professional growth and remain stuck in their current position.

March 21, 2008

Jobs & Careers:

Before You Interview, Learn and Practice Ed's "Zip-a-Lip" Theory

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

My best advice to clients about to interview for a job is to treat the interview like an IRS audit.

When the Internal Revenue Service thinks you are cheating on your annual tax return, and they ask you a question during an audit, it is a real good idea to answer the field auditor's question and shut up.

The same strategy works during job interviews. When the interviewer asks you a job-related question, answer the question and shut up. Use my "Zip-a-Lip" Theory and you will more likely stay out of trouble and get an offer when all is said and done.

Too many clients answer a question and then feel compelled to explain or justify their answer. This is almost always a bad idea. You have perhaps heard the expression "better to remain silent than remove all doubt". A job interview is no time to be the life of the party or a chatty Cathy.

Once I asked a potential hire a job-related question and about 30 seconds into his answer he drifted into a discussion of his sled dog experience in Alaska. Something he had said triggered a word association in his mind and caused him to veer off track. I let him yak on and it was about 8 minutes before he shut up. He did not get a job offer.

When asked a question, answer the question and invoke Ed's Zip-a-Lip Theory. If the interviewer wants more information, force him or her to ask a more specific question, then answer the question and again use my Zip-a-Lip Theory.

Few potential hires realize that by adopting this strategy, you actually gain significant positive points doing so. The fact of the matter is that when you answer a question and remain silent when it is appropriate to do so, the smarter, the more intelligent and more accomplished you appear to the interviewer.

Again, it is only when you keep talking that you reveal too much of yourself, and run the risk of saying something out of turn that could create a seed of doubt. Creating a seed of doubt is something you simply cannot afford to do when interviewing. It causes the interviewer to start checking out something about you that could lead to a negative reaction.

When you remain silent you do not have to look sullen. You can smile without talking the interviewer to death.

Using my Zip-a-Lip Theory also moves the interview along, and saves time for all concerned. Be short and succinct in your answers and you will appear to be better organized, more in control of yourself and excited about the opportunity in question.

March 19, 2008

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

If I told a lot of potential hires that sometimes they have as much or more to do with getting a job offer as I do as the interviewer, most of them would not believe me. After all, I am the interviewer and, in many cases, I might also be the owner, manager, supervisor or personnel specialist charged with the responsibility for making an offer.

Having said this, I would also share with you that sometimes the potential hire talks himself or herself into an offer and then right back out. The reason why is they commit the biggest mistake a person could make when interviewing for a job, and this is it:

They are asked a question, they answer the question, and then they feel compelled to explain or justify the answer they have given.

I might ask, "Where are you educationally?"

They might answer, "Well, I thought about going to college but I only completed high school." Then they will launch into a big explanation of why they could not go to college because of their circumstances at the time. Too often, the reasons given are lame excuses and it becomes pretty clear that they simply did not give education any kind of priority in advancing their lot in life.

Maybe their parents thought education was a waste of time, or that it cost too much, or that they (the parents) would not pay the cost. Or perhaps the potential hire started an academic program but did not finish, or they did not like a professor they had, or needed to work to support their wife and new baby.

I might ask, "Why did you leave your last job?"

They might answer, "I was laid off" or "I quit" or "I was fired." Then they will explain the circumstances about how the company was downsizing, or they hated their boss, or the company forced them to work overtime, or the company would not allow them to work overtime.

I asked a potential hire a job-related question, and about 30 seconds into his answer, the candidate launched into the story of his sled dog trip in Alaska and droned on for about 10 minutes. Rather than interrupt him, I let him yak on. The interview was just 10 minutes shorter, I did not get my questions answered, and he did not get an offer. I would have been more interested had I been in the mushing business, delivering goods across the great tundra. Such is life.

Obviously, when allowed to talk too much, the potential hire gives the interviewer all sorts of reasons why they should not receive an offer.

The one thing you absolutely can not afford to do in an interview is to create a seed of doubt about why you should be offered a position. When you do so, the interviewer feels obligated to start checking all kinds of things about you to validate their suspicion and pretty soon, you are eliminated from consideration.

And seriously now, who among us, if put under intense scrutiny, does not have a chink in his or her armor? We all do.

The message of this reality is: keep your answers short and succinct. Interviewing is a business activity, not a social activity. Be businesslike and be professional. Save the small talk for after you are hired and not on the job.

March 18, 2008

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

There is probably not a day in America when at least a million employees wonder "When am I going to get promoted?" or "I am so upset that they promoted him and not me?"

On that very same day there are hundreds of managers or employers who, when confronted about offering a promotion would say, "If you want to get promoted, do something and I will promote you," or, when confronted about a promotion they made would say, "You are simply not ready to be promoted."

These workplace sentiments happen because employees tend to look only at opportunity, and employers tend to look only at preparedness. The reality of life is that the greatest explosion can only occur when opportunity meets preparedness.

The fact is, millions of employees would get promoted before their counterparts if they were better prepared before an opportunity occurred.

Imagine for a moment how fired up I would be if the Seattle Seahawks suddenly needed a middle linebacker after a serious injury to their All-Pro and 3-time Pro-Bowl Samoan Middle Linebacker Lofa Tatupu. Imagine that Mike Holmgren, the Seahawk coach who will retire after the season and wants desperately to get to and win another Super Bowl on his way out, calls for an open tryout nationally.

Hundreds of wannabe professional football players would show up for the tryout. All of them would have played high school or college football. Some would be very big. Some would be very fast. A very few would be able to take the pounding that you would receive fighting off 300-pound-plus nasty offensive linemen. Even less would be great open field tacklers. A scant 1 or 2 might be able to cover a tight end or slot receiver.

Exactly none of them would have all or enough of the skills to compete effectively in the National Football League or they would already be there. In short, they would not be prepared to take advantage of a great opportunity to succeed in the NFL.

This is an extreme example, but an example nonetheless, of how too often opportunity does not meet preparedness when offered.

So how does one get prepared to meet opportunity in the workplace? The obvious answer is acquire more education and/or training. If you do not have a college degree in an academic discipline, do whatever it takes to get one. If you do not have specialized or professional training in a certain task, get involved in a technical training course at a vocational school.

Make yourself more marketable to be hired at a higher level task, or to be promoted to a higher level task.

Believe it or not, as difficult as it may be for you to acquire more education or training, it will be far easier than accomplishing the second route to getting prepared to meet opportunity head on when it arrives. That will require personal growth.

Personal growth is 100 times more difficult to achieve than professional growth because it requires that you not only learn or become aware of new information, but forces you to willingly change your thought process and belief system. People CAN change but most choose not to.

You will rise higher faster by achieving more personal growth than professional growth.
If you do not believe me, that is your business, but you might want to ask yourself this question:

If it only takes professional growth to get on in life, why is it that there are so many people with college degrees, professional training, smarts and talent that are not promoted and are also prejudiced, intolerant, judgmental, self-centered, self-absorbed and sometimes even nasty?

March 17, 2008

Copyright © 2008 Ed Bagley

Thirty-nine years ago I had taken a weekend job as a police reporter for the Colorado Springs Free Press, a daily newspaper competitor to the long-established Colorado Springs Gazette. The Free Press was a morning paper and the Gazette an afternoon paper in Colorado in 1968.

Early one Saturday night an elderly man who looked like my grandfather came rushing into the newsroom, making a beeline path to my desk.

"I have a problem and I need help," he said quickly. "What can I do?" I replied, kicking myself for volunteering. I was new to the police scene and really had not acclimated myself to the routine. After glancing around, I became aware that he was headed my way because I was the only choice at that moment.

"Do you know anything about producing a sports section?" he asked.

Not knowing what I might be getting into, I slowly answered, "I played some sports in high school."

Then he shared his situation: "I have been somewhat critical of my sports editor in recent weeks, and when I arrived to work this afternoon, I found out that he had up and quit, walking out in a huff. Because of the loyalty of his staff, they all walked out with him in a show of solidarity. I need to put out the sports section tonight and I need your help."

Being older, more experienced and more mature, I now realize I kind of felt like the President was calling, and so I stuck my neck out by agreeing to help.

My needy "grandfather" figure turned out to be the publisher of the newspaper. He quickly ushered me into the wire room, and began a two-minute drill on what I would have to do in taking stories off of the Associated Press and United Press International news wires. The first thing you learn is the stories are continuous on the multiple wires.

Then he took me to the sports department and began explaining how we needed to choose stories to run, edit copy, layout news pages, write headlines, choose pictures to crop and run, write photo captions, answer phone calls from stringers in the field, take dictation over the phone, etc.
There were formerly several support staffers that did these tasks daily with the sports editor in command.

It became obvious to me that the publisher had not done squat in producing a daily sports section—or any section of the paper—in years. We started sending copy and photos down to production so typesetters could get cranking out copy. There was some real trauma at times, but we managed to get the job done.

Remember that 38 years ago, there was no Internet, no transferring of files, no software programs to generate area layout, and no automatic plating process. Everything was done by hand with IBM Selectric typewriters, and over the phone.

At the end of the night, the publisher was very grateful and invited me back to join him in the next night's production. Long story short, I told him I would do it and call him if I needed any help. That made him even more grateful. I did not call him the next night and produced as good a sports section as they had ever done.

What happened after that was incredible. The publisher spent all of his time walking around the newsroom for the next few days and telling anyone that would listen that "he had been in the news business for more than 40 years and had never, ever, seen a kid catch on to the business as quickly as this Bagley kid."

Within a week, I was the new sports editor of the Colorado Springs Free Press, a daily newspaper. I quickly hired a bunch of my friends and contacts, and spent my immediate future covering the Denver Broncos in the NFL and the Air Force Academy in the NCAA.

How did it happen that I could make such an incredible impression in my most vulnerable moment? Here is how:

When the publisher asked me if I knew anything about putting out a newspaper section, I did not tell him that I:

1) Was an award-winning sports editor for The Arrowhead, my school newspaper at Flint Central High School in Flint (MI).

2) Was a Michigan State University graduate with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Journalism.

3) Was a weekly newspaper editor prior to arriving in Colorado Springs.

4) Knew how to handle wire copy, write stories, take and develop pictures, layout pages, write headlines and photo captions, and do everything else that needed to be done.

5) Was an outstanding prep runner in high school, had played baseball, basketball, football and hockey in my youth, and was also on the swim team in high school.

Why did I do this? Easy, if I shot off my mouth about what I knew and then screwed up, I would never regain the publisher's confidence in my abilities. By wisely acting normal but giving the impression that I had fallen off of a hayseed wagon, anything I did was impressive to a man with an urgent need.

The moral to this real life, true story is: Never be too quick to tell people what you know or can do, and never be too slow to figure out when opportunity is knocking. It is called street smarts and it is one way that successful people get ahead in life.

From potential disaster, I would go on to be editor or managing editor of 6 weeklies, an investigative reporter for a daily, managing editor of a daily and own and operate a community publishing company.

Another very important lesson in life that I learned from this experience was, when a person has a need, do not shoot off your face about what you know, simply shut up and get about the business of helping the person at THEIR point of need, not yours. Life has a way of rewarding people who tend to be more other-centered than self-centered.

Take your eye off of yourself and put it on someone else, and life will naturally send its blessings your way.

(Editor's Note: After I left the Free Press, it was apparently acquired by the Sun Newspaper chain and became a liberal leaning news product in competition with the more conservative Gazette-Telegraph. In the 1980s it apparently changed hands again when the Freedom Newspaper chain, owner of the Gazette-Telegraph, bought it and eliminated its only competition by immediately firing the staff and shutting it down. Such is life.)

November 16, 2006

Business in America:

How Hiring Corporate Executives Could Improve in a Heartbeat

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

It has always been a mystery to me why certain chief executive officers do such a poor job hiring key executives for their management teams.

A lot of folks would agree with the idea that a company's performance (or lack thereof) starts at the top with its key officers and trickles down through managers at different levels to the professional (or less professional) staff members.

Harry Truman became more famous as America's 33rd President when he popularized such phrases as "The buck stops here" and "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen." Truman understood a thing or two about taking responsibility for the performance of an organization (or a business).

Truman, a Midwest boy born and bred in Missouri, was a folksy, unassuming president who was forced out of his re-election campaign in 1952, and left office as one of the most unpopular chief executives in history.

Historical scholars, however, have treated Truman more kindly in polls ranking the Presidents. He has never been listed lower than ninth, and was most recently ranked seventh in a 2005 Wall Street Journal poll. The primary reasons? His honesty, integrity, political courage, and firm stance for Western democracy after World War II.

Harry Truman was a leader who took responsibility for his actions and decisions. Far too many "leaders" of major corporations today are much more interested in "cooking" the books, increasing the company's stock value, and then sucking out non-existent profits from a losing business.

The losers in the latter case are the stockholders, employees, the company itself, and its image and standing among consumers and watchdog organizations. You do not see major businesses weigh in on these dastardly practices (perhaps because they are too afraid they will be the next ones caught with their hand in the cookie jar).

The high profile cases like Enron have gotten the lion's share of negative publicity. Few consumers are aware that when their government gave major corporations a grace period to rewrite their books before they came after them, an inordinate amount (one report says half) of corporate "leaders" went running to their chief financial officers faster than you could say "lickety split."

The number of corporate executives seeking to cover their tracks due to their self-absorbed, self-centered and greedy nature was sickening, and a poor testament to the face of corporate America today.  Many are nothing but thieves and crooks, and should be treated as such (a few have).

There is no reasonable justification for this kind of behavior by supposed "business leaders" in our economy. Their egotistical shortsightedness tears at the very fabric of our society. Many of these "business leaders" (they are not leaders at all) have surrounded themselves with people of their own ilk.

How has this happened? I submit that one reason is because chief executive officers (and sometimes even with the support of their board of director members) spend company money and the stockholders' equity in the hiring process.

So? Isn't that business? Isn't that how business is conducted?

That may be business as usual, but it does not excuse the behavior and subsequent results in the hiring process.

And the cure? How about a new approach for corporate America? (I will do anything to start a dialogue.) What if the chief executive officers had to hire their key people with money out of their own pocket?  Some of these chief executive officers are certainly paid enough to afford the investment.

You better believe their judgment and discretion would improve in a hurry. That is the complaint (and rightly so) of majority stockholders who get ripped off by these common thieves who plunder the company coffers to line their own pockets at everyone's expense but theirs.