CATEGORY ARCHIVES

Job Seeking Sales Process

As recruiters serving the restaurant industry, we speak with candidates all day who are looking for a new career in the restaurant biz.  Most of these candidates are great cooks and can conclude this fact about making a great meal: the quality ingredients used to cook a meal will determine the quality of the end product.  This is quite obvious to most of us but here is what is not so obvious to these career seekers: the quality of the ingredients you put into your job search will also determine the end product.  The fact is, if you want a great career… you HAVE to have a quality career finding process.

I speak with so many job seekers who are perplexed at the lack of response from their resume submittals via the internet.  In many instances, these job seekers are submitting hundreds of resumes only to hear very little response.  Internet resume mining that most companies now employ have changed the way resumes are looked at.  I recently posted a position for a Director of Operations and received about 120 resumes for the position within a few days.  With so many resumes pouring in, hiring managers control their time by VERY quickly vetting resumes.  I usually make a judgment as to whether the candidate’s resume MIGHT be a fit in 10-20 seconds of looking at it.  This begs the question, “How you can you turn this problem into an opportunity?”  I believe the opportunity lies in a paradigm shift from the thoughts, “Let me throw a wide net of resumes out and see who will give me an interview,” to viewing the resume writing / delivery process as a greater self-awareness activity and then, the discovery of your ideal career fit.

Marketing yourself for a job is a sales process.  You must understand the most effective sales cycle and variables in order to set yourself up for success in hitting your target.  Upon understanding this reality, I have begun to see the elements of a successful sales process and how it can help job seekers maximize their efforts to obtain a great career fit.

In the coming weeks, I’m going to detail the job seeker sales process.  I have walked dozens of job seekers through this rationale.  In every instance, it has led to greater introspect, self-awareness and in most cases, a set up to a much more strategic job seeking process.  For right now, we will discuss two ideas of this method to further break down the details that will only benefit in the long run.

1. Product Knowledge – The first element in the sales cycle relevant to job seeking is truly knowing what you offer.  In the sales world, we call this product knowledge.  Without being aware of who you are, what motivates you and what you offer employers, you are missing the fundamental information you need to market yourself well.  It seems that the resume writing process becomes a remedial task for many seekers, but the reality is this is the foundational element – knowing what you have to offer an employer.  Before you hone in on writing a resume, I recommend deep reflection upon past successes and failures in your career.  This reflection is essential to pull out awareness.  I often encourage frustrated job seekers to an exercise that I call the CAREER GRAPH.  The CAREER GRAPH is an elementary exercise with profound realization.  Very simply, draw a horizontal line on a piece of paper and chart the high points and low points of your career path.  After doing so, ask yourself in depth questions about what made those high points and low points.  These questions should include:

1. Did I have a high degree of autonomy?
2. Was this a structured or unstructured environment?
3. Was this a large or small organization?
4. What was the mission of this company?
5. How was my communication with my supervisors / subordinates?
6. What were the inputs / outputs of my job here?
7. Was I using my strongest skills in this job?

Reflecting on these questions and others will help you pull out common denominators to discern what you do and don’t want in a career setting.  The self-awareness that will follow will lead to the product knowledge of how you are equipped to best succeed in a job and what elements need to be present.

Once you have the product knowledge to understand who you are, you are able to build your resume to highlight the strengths of who you are and how those skills / abilities have played out in career accomplishments.  Dig deep and don’t be general.  Utilize ratios, increases and other numeric accomplishments that really show the output of your input.  Numbers and ROI quotients are what pops on a resume.  Once you understand your true abilities, ask yourself and reflect how these abilities have returned profit for your employer.  When doing so, think strategically to realize the cost associated with non-ideal performance.

To truly capture your worth to an organization, you must understand the true profitability measures of all aspects of business.  There are many costs that do not show up on the P&L, but can drastically reduce bottom line.  Communicating these is also important on a resume.  For instance, if you have been a part of developing three employees to a supervisory role, start to realize the cost associated with the externally hiring those supervisors.  Another great example is creating an environment of retention.  Research shows the turnover of a manager costs a company 150% of that managers’ salary.  If you are GREAT at creating a work culture where managers are retained, you are greatly affecting the bottom line.

This is only one step of the process.  There are many ingredients that are involved with efficiently writing an outstanding resume, in which we will go into further detail at a later date.  It is our hope here at AGI that you will use these processes in order to set yourself up for success!

All I wanted for Christmas was more Wisdom! Well, it wasn’t in my stocking or under my tree so I’m sharing some thoughts in hopes that you,  reader,  might help me develop some thoughts that can turn into wisdom for all of us. As one year ends and another begins it is always a great time to learn from the past and ensure you are presently utilizing your God Given strengths in order to plan to be a better leader. So, it is timely to consider the character traits that best define an effective leader. My studies and reflection on leadership have led me to three top characteristics that I am seeking to sharpen in order to better lead others in all facets of my life. Come along with my reflection and please share any thoughts. If Santa can’t bring me more Wisdom, maybe you can (no pressure).

Here are the three areas I’m seeking improvement in 2014:

INTUITION, INTENTIONALITY and the ABILITY TO CAST A SHARED VISION.

I best like Peter Druckers definition of leadership with my own twist: Management is doing the things right; leadership is doing the right things, right?

We have all heard the saying “Practice makes perfect”, but I refuse to teach this to my children. In fact practicing the wrong thing leads to perfection of the wrong behavior. Perfect practice makes perfect. In order to lead others towards desired results the right activity and action must be reinforced. I believe a great leader varies from a great manager because of the intuitive ability to know what should be the focal point of action. This takes great discernment ability and a big picture vision. I believe this INTUITIVE nature is the foundational element of a great leader. But how does one practice intuitive ability? A lot of reflection will certainly help, but please let me know how you think one can become more intuitive.

Once the leader has the ability to know what the right things are to focus on they must be INTENTIONAL. The right things will only get done if there is focus on that behavior. Great leaders are able to define systems, behaviors and metrics to ensure focus. I know this seems obvious , but many managers simply rally up their troops, gain insight to betterment, but then never implement. All the work put in to gain direction is wasted if not acted upon; therefore, leaders follow through and intentionally sustain the doing of the right things.

I finish the great Drucker quote with a question: “right?”  I do so Intentionally (see, I’m practicing my own advice) to show the importance of having a SHARED VISION. The reality is when a leader shows great intuition to focus on the right things and then intentionality to ensure those things are focused upon then the team must come around that vision and share it. A vision casted and dictated from a manager is not powerful, it is merely instruction. This mentality can work and lead to results, but in order for those results to be sustained, the vision must be shared by the others working towards the goals. In order to cast a shared vision a leader must be selfless to let others chime in and contribute to the vision and patient to let others go through the discernment process to get to the right focus even if the leader already knows the best course of action. So, when a leader has a vision, the best way to ensure it is shared is by asking those around him or her: “is this right?”

Let’s all become the best version of ourselves. We have been placed in scenarios of life where we can lead others. I’m certainly thankful for the opportunity to do so and want to excel in the call to lead. Chime in, let me know your reflections and let us all be better leaders in 2014!

Do you crave structure or strategy?

In order to grow in your career within the restaurant industry you must understand your management style and then find a company that is going to cater to that style. There are many different elements of a management style, but the one that I think is extremely important to maximize a career fit is understanding the degree of structured decision making capability you desire.

Let me define the extremes of this arena:

• If you are a manager who yearns for a high level of unstructured / strategic decision making capability this means you thrive off strategy decisions, new project implementation, change management and big picture aspects of business.
•  If you are a manager who is on the other side of the spectrum and yearns for structured decision making you thrive when there is a lot of defined systems, clear expectations and attention to detail.

Neither extreme is healthy or unhealthy and neither will be predominant in the level of leadership you can provide; however, different organizations cater more to one or the other so it is important that you are settled with an employer that can cater to your need for decision making capability.

In general, in the large, corporate companies managers will have less big picture decision making capability. This means the managers will have clearer expectations of how to succeed, be expected to follow the lead of their supervisors and adhere to strict policy. These companies have a track record of success and straying from their strategy is not going to lead to success or career advancement within these organizations. On the other hand, if you are able to meet the expectations set forth there is usually good promotability and development opportunity. If a company has over 200 units they typically fall into this category of employer.

In the smaller companies there is a need for manager who will set direction, strategy and make changes as the company adapts to the market. Managers who are able to do so will set the pace, systems and future for these growing companies. If you are a manager that thrives under structure and you step into a growing company like this you will find yourself very frustrated and not as successful as you would be in a highly structured environment.

A great way to determine where you are on this spectrum is to look at your past. Put a horizontal line on a paper and document the highs and lows in your career. After you have done so you should be able to identify some common denominators around the environments you have been in that have led to high levels of your success. Then think if these were very structured environments or if these high points where times when you had to utilize a lot of unstructured decision making. This simple exercise should give you more clarity as to your management style in this arena. Once you have this knowledge you should analyze the ideal career path based on how the company will allow you to leverage your structured / unstructured decision style. Finding a great employer match will help you grow your career, skills and advance to higher levels. Do not leave career growth to luck, make sure you are aware of your management style and find a GREAT fit!

Resume Best practices to convey how your career has increased profitability

I met with a friend recently who has started to think about a career transition. He has been with the same company for about 18 years and started with them straight out of college. The task of resume writing, interviewing and marketing himself for a new job was daunting because he had never done any of these activities. I think many great employees find themselves in a similar situation and stay in a mediocre career because they perceive the process of changes will be greater than the pain staying in a position that is not the best fit. I have a lot of compassion and understanding towards this stance so I began to talk through some very simple tasks with my buddy to help him break this process down so it seemed more manageable. It was very helpful to him and he has made great progress. I believe these generalities can help every career seeker in any stage of their career.

A resume is a place to start to communicate your marketability. I am not the guy who thinks you need to spend oodles of money or time worrying about the colors on your resume, the format or how many pages it is, but the general gist of a resume is that it is the key and first step to open doors to an interview and potential job offer. There are so many different thoughts on what makes a good resume but I believe the most important element of a resume is its  conveyance of the individual’s track record and ability to increased profit. This seems obvious, but what is not so obvious to those that do their job and do it well is the microcosm of their activity that leads to profitability. Here are a few areas the job seeker must convey on the resume and throughout an interview to maximize their marketability:

• Profit through sales driving – Most companies are top line driven these days. So, as a leader how have you driven sales? Don’t just think of the obvious like “I increased this contract negotiation to get a 10% increase”, but realize the nature of the little things you do around customer service and relationships that ultimately drive top line. Think about times customers bought more than they originally anticipated due to your diligence. Think about times you trained and developed your subordinates on great service and how that has led to top line. Net/Net – comb your business activity with great precision for any activity that can equate to top line increase and be sure you can communicate its worth. Most job seekers can talk to the large accomplishments around increasing sales, but I find myself most impresses with the explanation of top line increase that are out of the box, but have great influence on revenue.
• Profit through creating culture – If you are a manager of a team or considered a leader in any capacity, the culture you create can have the largest impact on motivation of the individuals around you and performance. While culture remains abstract, I believe it is the most important, silent, business partner that affects profitability. The work world is starting to understand this more and more so the ability to communicate specifics around culture creation and its impact on profitability can go a long way in distinguishing the good from the great leaders.
• Profit through cost control – Through the recession this area took the largest emphasis as companies looked to go leaner. This will always remain an important area when marketing yourself. The opportunity lies in the detail. The obvious trimming of costs and increased profitability associated with it should be able to be seen by even the average leader; however, the smallest of saving and the quantification of that saving over time can really impress those you will be marketing yourself towards.
• Profit through time management – When speaking of waste, time is the biggest profit sucker. If you are able to communicate the efficiency of how you spend your time, how you teach others to manage their time and how this leads to profits you will certainly be ahead of the game. Detail oriented is a quality that everyone hiring is seeking in a candidate. I believe the best discipline of detail is in the way an individual uses time to add value to a company. We have heard so much about work smart, not hard and time management that our eyes gloss over on this subject, but it remains one of the most important variables in communicating your worth to an organization!

If I can boil all this down, I would say to be extremely marketable you must not focus on the forest of your accomplishments, you must be able to see the trees in that forest. Every decision we make in our business leadership has an impact. Consciousness around this truth will give you a new mindset to understand how you add value in your career. If you can come to the resume, interview or performance evaluation with preparation in these areas I guarantee you will open doors to career growth and prosperity. Please chime in if you have additional insight to help others develop a marketable resume that shows profit focus.