Minto Roy - Career - Recruitment Blog

1. Corporate Downsizing by large multi-national companies. If you are a small company, this is the best time to pursue talent within your industry who have great contacts, experience, and competitive intelligence. Many well networked professionals who may have been unaffordable in the past are now looking beyond the corporate giants to entrepreneurial small businesses. Those with decent severance packages in hand can justify taking a salary cut and investing in your company’s growth plan and potential.

2. Large companies reducing staff run the risk of diminishing service quality to their clients. Reduced staff and fewer resources could mean that existing clients accustomed to premium service might be disappointed to learn that the representatives whom they always dealt with are gone. It’s a great time to pursue these clients who might now consider moving their business to your small business and deal directly with the owner.

3. Public support. In this era of corporate bailouts, outlandish corporate salaries and rollercoaster stock dips, the strength of small business and a customer’s access to the actual business owner is comforting to the public and consumer market. The public has far more trust in the mom and pop shop businesses than the corporate giants responsible for the plummeting stock market.

4. Small business is nimble and reactive. Corporate giants have thrown down their anchors in their attempts to ride the economic storm. Millions of “No More Spending Memos” have been sent across North America, corporate layoffs, salary rollback, no more travel, no more client lunches, dinners etc… Large corporations are making it harder for their sales staff to close new business. Small business can strategically target key clients traditionally held by the corporate giants. Small business can react and create innovative approaches, incentivise their sales reps to travel the red-eye and take advantage of every opportunity available to close new deals.

5. Global Thinking. Small business can initiate and launch into new markets, globally, where consumer markets want or need their products. Large corporations require significant re-structuring, re-tooling and significant capital to pursue new markets. Small business can decide tomorrow if they want to expand globally. No red tape required, small business comes with the freedom to hire an agent or a representative in China or India to sell their products via agent agreement and become international overnight.

So let the newspapers continue to grow their businesses and sell newspapers with negative stories of rampant layoffs, restructurings, large business contract cancellations and the decline of the corporate giants. It is all good news for small business.

Minto Roy / Partner
RevGen/www.revenuegeneration.ca
CareersToday Canada / www.careerstodaycanada.com

Posted by minto at 04:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

1. Make a commitment to really go after that great career!

Don’t grab the first low hanging offer that waves a few dollars at you. A committed job search requires focus, strategy and unrelenting dedication until the objective is achieved.

2. Drastically increase your career options by targeting opportunities in the SME Market.

Small to Medium Size Enterprises represent approx. 95% of companies in the economy, therefore, they do 95% of the hiring, but these companies are often ignored or unknown to most job seekers.

3. Create powerful skills and achievement narratives.

Narratives are exciting short-burst descriptions of your skills and achievements used in your resume and overall marketing campaign. Narratives must be compelling and unique to showcase your value to employers. Stay away from cliché’s and vague statements like, “I’m a people person, team player, honest and hardworking, loyal and looking for a challenge.”

4. Showcase your future not your past

Send hiring managers future-focused resumes not past-focused documents. Hiring managers are far more interested in what you can do for them in the future than what you have done in the past. But the only thing typical resumes talk about is…hmm, your past.

5. Work your job search strategy from the top down, not bottom up

Try networking or securing interviews two levels up from your income level. If you’re looking for a job at 50K, you better interview with people who make 80-100K. They are the ones who make the final decision to hire you. If you are looking for a job at 100K, it’s hard to believe the person in HR earning 50 K can make the decision to hire you.

6. Prepare for your interviews with the same intensity as you did for your University finals.

On average, most jobseekers spend 1-2 hours preparing for an interview that may change their lives, yet most spent days studying for their University final exams.

7. Network consistently and with sincere engagement

Never ask a company if they are hiring! Only by taking a sincere interest in a company’s goals and challenges will they then take a sincere interest in your career objectives.

8. Negotiate the entire package when you get an offer.

Salary, benefits, performance bonuses, stock options, paid vacations, review assessments, training allowances, flex hours, ++ Most jobseekers are either too scared to counter offer or don’t know all the perks available in this red-hot job market by employers hungry for talent.

9. Your career is where you spend the majority of your day! Hire a professional to help you land that great career.

Your friends and family may have the very best intentions but do they really have the time, market insight and resources to ensure that you get that great career? The right career expert will provide years of expertise, market insight and resources AND hold you accountable to help you land that great career. So, have a beer with your buddies, but do not rely on them to be your primary source of job search advice.

10. Finally, Just do it! What have you got to lose?

If you’re not happy with your current job, then take the chance to go after something better. If it doesn’t work out, you won’t have any problem finding a job that you don’t want, the market is full of them. In-fact, you don’t even need any of the last nine tips to get a job you don’t like!

Minto Roy
President
Careerstoday Canada
www.careerstodaycanada.com

Posted by minto at 06:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Employment World doesn’t need another boring resume.

Here are Top 5 Things Not to Do when creating a competitive resume to set yourself apart from your competition. But first a quick ‘Marketing 101 lesson for jobseekers,

“If you are trying to set yourself apart from other jobseekers in the marketplace, don’t market yourself with the exact same methodology as the rest of your competition and hope to stand out.”

Most jobseekers traditionally use a resume to showcase their value. The resume showcases their past accomplishments, past experiences and past education. However, after speaking with hundreds of hiring managers, I am reminded that these managers are far more interested in what a candidate can do for them in the future, not what they have done in the past.

However, only a fraction of the resume focuses on the jobseeker’s future. The “objective section”, usually the lead paragraph, is the only part of the resume that contains any information about the jobseeker’s future objective. But most objective statements are vague and contain never ending clichés.

Objective: “seasoned professional looking for a dynamic and challenging position with a growth oriented company. A great team player, willing to work hard, flexible, loyal, etc…”

In hopes of being unique most job seekers provide employers with identically formatted marketing documents and statements hoping to set themselves apart as being unique. So here are 5 Things Not to Do when trying to create a unique resume

Number One

Don’t be too general and say the same things as every other job seeker.
Employers assume that you are honest, loyal and a team player. No employer disqualifies you right away and says, “Hey, this guy didn’t say he was honest, hardworking and loyal in his resume, he’s out!”

Number Two

Don’t assume that your resume has to showcase every one of your experiences and accomplishments.

Including everything you’ve done in your career doesn’t increase your odds of getting the job or another job at the company. Don’t hope that employers might look deeper at your qualification and figure out that you are qualified for another opportunity within the company.

Number Three

Don’t use words that are long term or process oriented words when describing your achievements. Use a short term, action oriented bursts. Write dialogue to attract the reader’s interest and emotions.

Number Four

Don’t go back more than a decade with your experiences and achievements. Even that’s a long time. Respectfully, not many people care about what you did ten years ago…It’s over. Remember, keep the focus of your resume on what you can do in the future.

Number Five

Make the end of the resume count. Remember, most people remember what they read at the beginning and at the end. End uniquely, by creating an exciting explanation of your passions and interests outside of work.

The end of your resume should provide employers insight into your competitive drive, your creativity, your commitment to charity, volunteer work, how you might save the world!

Be bold, be creative, use the final part of your resume to compel the hiring manager to want to meet the professional and the personality behind the document.

Minto Roy
President
CareersToday Canada
www.careerstodaycanada.com
www.mintoroy.net

Listen to Minto on Careers Today Radio. Every week on The Buzz 1410 am Saturdays from 3-4 pm. Past shows available can be downloaded on the Careers Today website.

Posted by minto at 06:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I assume, by your visit to this site and this article that you have a commitment or at least curiosity about positions over 100K. One thing you should know that’s an irrefutable fact.

Very few people make six figures and very few people will ever make six figures consistently.
It’s not because very few people have a talent to earn six figures. In fact, I have met thousands of professionals with the talent, education, experience that exceed those that earn six figures consistently. Most talented professionals simply don’t know how to enter this income bracket and remain consistently there year after year.

One hundred thousand dollars a year seems to represent the holy grail of income levels for most professionals. A validation to themselves, their peers and their families. A badge of recognition in the competitive workforce that you are successful and at the top of your game.
However, this income bracket symbolizes more just money. Personally it represents a level of lifestyle coveted by most people. A chance to live beyond the monthly bills and live a life full of options for you and your family.

Professionally it is viewed as validation by an employer that you are crucial to their organization. Within the company there is enhanced recognition your peers, exciting and important responsibilities are a daily part of your role, there is management opportunities and decision making capacity.

These perks remain elusive to the majority of professionals unless more people learn how to market themselves effectively. Having the right talent, experience and education alone is only part of the battle. An effective and competitive marketing campaign is crucial.
Competing for six figure position comes with an initial realization that this compensation represents the top 2 % of the paying jobs within an employment market. Therefore, looking to get into this market requires a different job search strategy as those being utilized by others making less than six figures. The other 98% of people conducting a job search.
Think about it. Would you market a Lada with the same methodology as Mercedes? Does Starbucks market its five dollar coffee with the same methodology as cafe that sells coffee for a dollar? How a product is marketed is immensely important to the perceived value by the consumer.

So if you are professional looking to secure at six figure position, then remember your the product in a very competitive and complex market. Appreciate that you are competing against other talented products for those 2% of higher bracket jobs. So what’s your marketing strategy? How are you going to differentiate yourself from the other quality products competing against you for the employer?

Most professionals market themselves with a document called a resume, typically a few pieces of paper that outline a jobseekers skills, experiences, achievements and education. A resume is most common form of marketing communications used by job seekers. A document filled with history about a candidates past. However, in speaking with thousands of hiring managers, I’ve come to realize that most are interested in what an employee can do for them in the future, not in the past.

A past history and accomplishments are of course important, but in reality candidates competing at this level are all very good and most great past work histories. A past focused resumes is a very ineffective way to set anyone apart and we know why people use resumes.
Everyone does it and no-one knows what else to do when job hunting.

Mercedes does not rely on marketing their automobile as only fast and with a good warranty. Simply because almost every car over 100K is fast and has a good warranty. Mercedes like all premium products recognizes that marketing given variables and common product features rarely help the consumer select their product.

Consider a simple marketing concept to your job search. If you are trying to divide yourself out from the rest of the market why use the exact same marketing strategy as the rest of the market and hope to be seen as unique? How can the end consumer (the employer), set you apart?

Hiring at six figures has also become extremely difficult for both sides of the hiring desk. Executive Managers have limited time to review resumes and don’t have months to screen candidates, they have hours. Managers are at the mercy of screening candidates through past focused resumes speaking very little about what they bring to their companies future.
It’s crucial that higher bracket professionals initially engage employers with future focused documents and dialogue. Marketing focused on the future. Do not rely on a resume of what has been done in the past. Market the vision of your future and you gain a definitive edge against their competition below and above six figures.

I will follow up with upcoming articles that will hopefully provide insights into getting in and staying in the higher bracket income. Articles related to constructing a value proposition, negotiating six figure salary packages, interviewing questions and answers and the mindset of what executive managers look for when they are hiring their next six figure employee.

The six figure world is truly a world of abundance, not merely about money, but about am abundant belief. A belief to share ideas and information to help others reach their professional and personal goals. I hope this insight propels your career and motivates you to achieve your next level.

There is plenty of room at the top.

Minto Roy
President & CEO
Careers Today Canada
www.careerstodaycanada.com

Posted by minto at 06:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you are fortunate enough to get in-the-door of the right company looking to hire someone with your professional skills and qualifications then you will have to deal with some difficult interview questions.

The typical job interview takes about one hour; Sixty minutes of time that determines where you will spend at least 8 hours of a day, a crucial meeting that solidifies your professional identity and future lifestyle for you and your family in Canada.

With my experience of assisting thousands of professional immigrants with their job search, the questions that cause most anxiety relate to the lack of Canadian work experience. It’s extremely important that new professionals handle this question with a solid response.
Most professional immigrants arrive in Canada with a great education, years of work experience, lots of talent and a commitment to hard work. Yet lack the understanding of how to effectively communicate their value during a job interview. It’s vital that newcomers showcase that they DO HAVE the drive, skills and experience to take on a professional job similar to that of their home country.

Forget Interview strategies for this column. Here are some real interview answers to get you through the number one toughest question your will face. Practice these answers, memorize them and use them. This type of professional language will help you understand and respond effectively to the dreaded Canadian experience question:

Employer Question:

Why should we hire you, over other candidates with greater Canadian experience?
To answer this question you will need a plan or a rehearsed script. Think about famous actors when they perform in a play or a movie. They do so only after massive preparation. Every word, every pause, every facial gesture has been practiced. In fact, professionals in every field recognize when called to perform at a competitive level they must be ready. They practice until their responses to an important situation becomes second nature.

Treat your response to questions or concerns related to your lack of Canadian experience with the same degree of practice and performance. Rather than taking a defensive position with your answer, go on the offense. Turn the question into an opportunity that mirrors commonly held business concepts.

Here’s a script to rehearse.

Answer:

“We’re in a dynamic global economy, I understand you are (or want to be) a global company. A company that thinks and acts beyond Canada’s borders. My work experience has many common traits that you are looking for.” (Give a clear example at this point that matches their requirements.) Write down your own experience example and rehearse it before the interview. Practice over and over again, memorize and make sure you provide examples of experiences that match the criteria for their job description.

Here’s more dialogue for you to memorize.

“I also hope to assist with your companies initiatives locally and globally. Many Canadian businesses are realizing that more than half of their products and services are being bought by new immigrants. I hope with my multi-language skills and cultural understanding that I can help service and grow your customer base in new markets that are growing each year with the increase in Canadian immigration.

These responses will be extremely attractive to companies that are targeting their products into immigrant market segments. Your competition will not be able to compete with your language and cultural insights that match social demographic changes to Canada’s population. If you’re interviewing with a progressive company, there may already be plans underway to move their products and services global or at least local plans to reach growing immigrant communities in Canada.

I know most of your realize that you must commit to improving your English skills and practice every day. But go beyond practice and pretend you are an actor in a movie learning a foreign accent. You’re not trying to be fake when job interviewing, your simply trying to present full value of your potential.

You shouldn’t be relegated to low level entry jobs in Canada. If you’re a professional take responsibility for preparing and presenting yourself until you can answer well enough to present your skills and experience. Practice interview answers until you can quote them perfectly. Memorize, practice and face questions about your lack of Canadian experience with confidence. Become dedicated to your interview performance, like actors in-front of paying audiences. Because when your interviewing for a job, you are performing in-front of a paying audience, your future employer.

Minto Roy
President / CEO
Careers Today Canada/RevGen
Vancouver, British Columbia
www.careerstodaycanada.com
www.revenuegeneration.ca
www.mintoroy.net

Posted by minto at 06:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Question:
After several short term contracts and fill-in positions covering maternity leaves and vacations, I have a full time permanent position in my field. The problem is, I don't enjoy it as much as I thought I would and I'm more tired and stressed than I thought I would be. Can I afford to quit a FT gig and have another six month stint on my resume? I have excellent references. Does length of stay really matter that much?
- Zane

Answer:
Well, Zane, I always hate being in the position of suggesting that people make the best of a bad situation but sometimes that’s what we have to do. If you had said that your job is making you sick and you are damaging your health in the long term or that you had an abusive boss or toxic work environment, of course anyone would say that you should damn the resume optics and just take care of yourself. But it sounds more like you are describing a fairly typical case of adjustment and growing pains. A certain amount of stress and overwhelm in your first permanent full time position in many years is to be expected – likely for at least the first year. Research suggests that it takes 12-18 months for new employees to adapt to their new workplace culture and feel confident in their mastery of the full scope of their role. Even adjusting your expectations of how relatively hard or easy the transition should be for you may lessen some of your stress. Constantly thinking “I thought it would be different” and “It should be easier than this” takes a lot of energy and makes things harder. In the Buddhist tradition, a highly instructive principle says that “Pain is necessary but suffering is optional.” We often make ourselves suffer by the judgments we make about life’s pain. Give yourself a break: you have some adjusting to do.

And all this is because, in answer to your closing question, yes, length of stay does matter. A resume full of part time, temporary and short contract placements does not inspire confidence in recruiting employers. They worry you are flighty, unable to commit or, worse, unable to deliver results. And that’s a justifiable fear when you consider how much they have to invest in your training and development before you will be working at full capacity: the same 12-18 months that applies to you also applies to them.

My advice is to do a very honest assessment of where you are: if you are genuinely in an unhealthy situation, get out. But if you are just having a hard time at something which is reasonably going to be hard for awhile, changing jobs will only make things worse. You’ll have to get past the negative impression created by another short stay on your resume and you’ll have to go through yet another stressful orientation and adjustment period in the next place. If you can, stay a few years with one employer and try to get any need for change met with internal advancement which will fill out a sketchy resume and give you more options for the future. Stay strong and good luck.

Posted by minto at 08:28 PM | Permalink

First off, let's be honest.

The employment market is rebounding, slowly. I realize every day newspapers, radio and TV stories scream to their audiences that 1000's of jobs are going unfilled. Movie trailer panic headlines about Labour Shortages and the doom of our economy if we don't find talent to fill the million, zillion, trillion jobs that are vacant.
But, if you listen and read carefully, what the media is not saying is: "Thousands of career position with excellent growth and management potential with starting salary ranges of 50K and above, go unfilled at these particular companies in the North America." Now, I am not implying that there are not alot of jobs in this economy, I'm saying that getting the right career requires the right strategy no matter the market conditions.
For example, we still have thousands of IT professionals, managers and skilled workers, out of work or underemployed. These professionals that would have never dreamt 10 years ago during the I.T. boom, that they would have been unemployed for a single day. Remember the days when all they had to do was post a resume on Monster or Workopolis and employers would scurry to entice them to their dot.com.

Folks the world has changed.

Martha Stewart went to jail.

Schwarzenegger is the Governor of California and a shoe box in Yaletown is worth 500K.

The process of securing career employment has also changed. Ten years ago there were more jobs than technical people. The tech. community walked around with a level of casual arrogance that comes from being chased and never having to chase. I meet many talented people who don't know how to chase great careers. I tell them to look around, no-one is chasing you. No-one is around the corner AND no-one is waiting for you. Goblal changes, have increased competition. Leaner business models have caused a drastic shift in the way professionals need to approach the employment market.

With the right approach however, there are many great careers out there. But how do you know if you have the right strategy to land that great job?

Well, here's a great test that will assess your career search strategy. Before taking the test however, consider the following. Our priorities and principals in life are crucial. For most of us our families and our health are our #1 priority. Also, like most people the second most important prioritiy or "1B" is our careers. By default most of us spend at least 8-10 hours a day of our life working. Everything we do at work provides for the health and economic well being of our families. Like it or not, the right job makes a world of difference in the way you and your family live.

So with the realization, test your career strategy with these 4 questions.

Each question is to be answered on a scale of 1 to 10, ten being the highest grade. Please answer and total for the following questions out of 40.

Remember, if you are seeking new employment, then you are the product in a very competitive market of job seekers. So please take a moment to really think about these questions and be honest. The only person you are going to fool is yourself.

I will, at the bottom of this article give you the average total score from professionals I have interviewed from my 10 years of working with professionals helping them secure their next career.

Question #1.

On a scale of 1-10, what is your level of awareness of opportunities for your professional skills? (For instance, how many openings do you know about that are definite right fit for your skills? How many opening do you know about that are in the works, how many of your are asking yourself, what are my professional skills?)

Question#2.

On a scale of 1-10, How aware are you of your current market value? Not just estimate based on your last job. (We know you earned $80K in your last job, but for G-d's sake you've been unemployed for 6 months and have sent out 300 resumes and now call yourself a consultant and the next change to your cv will be an address change back to your parents house). How well do you know what your worth in the current economy? Total compensation packages; salary, benefits, bonuses, stock options, future options, vacations, health plans, further education, etc..

Quetion#3.

On a scale of 1-10 How strong are your interview skills and strategy. Before you answer, think about competing against10 other people with similar skills going into an interview for one job. How well do you interview?

We are not counting the fact that during a one hour meeting you can tell an employer what they already know from your resume; your work history, that your a team player, that your looking for a challenge and your a loyal, hard worker. I am talking about your ability to market yourself with strategic information and a plan to set yourself apart from the 9 other candidates.

Question #4.

On a scale of 1-10, what is the level of your contacts in your targeted industry? For example, if your looking for a job at 50-70K, how many people do you know over 100k that are in managerial positions in companies that would meet you or potentially hire you?

How did you do?

These questions are not designed to be easy. I have found in life that humility is the first step to succeeding towards the next level. So, now that you've been honest and answered these questions, what's your score out of 40?

Most people realize during this survey that they really don't have a great strategy for 1B in their life.

And think about this. Those questions relate to marketing any product. How well do you know the product? Who needs this product? How does this product differ from similiar products? How well can I communicate the value differences of this product? Who do I know wants to buy this product? What's the product worth if someone does want to buy it?

I have had the privilege of meeting thousands of professionals at all levels during my career. The vast majority score between 10-15 out of 40. Actually the higher I seem to go up in the corporate ladder the lower the score admited by the professionals. CEO & VP's invariably score between 10-12. Simply speaking, they know that their competition is equally impressive. They are extremely ready to admit where they are weak and get help. That is the basis of all success in life.

I will follow-up this article next month with some concrete ideas and strategies on how to secure new opportunities in the employment market. There is no magic pill coming, these ideas will require; research, diligence, practice and consistency, but they will work. I welcome you to try the ideas and give me feedback.

After all, it's only your life.

Minto D. Roy
President/CEO
PCMG Canada/Careers Today Canada

Posted by minto at 01:10 PM | Permalink

The Vancouver lifestyle. Sea-to-sky. Golf in the morning, skiing in the afternoon and sailing into the sunset. Who actually does that? Minto thinks no one should even want to – at least not career-minded people. Alanna thinks Minto should get a life.

Minto Roy's View:

I say it all the time: if you want to get ahead in life, outwork your boss. Success is hard-won. It’s not something that’s handed to anyone. And it takes sweat. Don’t ever let anyone tell you different.

Every time I take a trip to Toronto I am struck by just how much energy and drive there is in that town. Toronto is tiger country. People there are hunters. They know their careers drive their life and they drive their careers. By comparison, Vancouverites seem domesticated – tabby cats who want to find a patch of sun on the back of the sofa and stretch out for awhile. Nice pastime but it doesn’t get you anywhere. No corporation is going to recruit you off that sofa. No life transformations happen while you’re catching some rays.

Business leaders look for behaviour patterns. They know that early in someone’s career they have not achieved the results that would set them up for executive management, partnership or profit sharing. But if talent shows the right behaviour, we know the results have to follow. You can’t relentlessly focus on achieving goals and be the first one in and the last one out of your office every day and not eventually deliver results. Do the right things; get the right outcome. If you want to be on the career fast track, be a tiger. Outwork your boss.

Alanna’s View:

I agree on every point as far as each goes. I just have a few additions to make a whole life picture. Outwork your boss only if your boss is not an idiot workaholic or a deluded slave to a dream of getting ahead that no one in your company ever achieves. Work as hard as you need to work only when you need to work hard. Sweat the stuff that needs sweating and strive to give your pores a break with the rest. Work harder and smarter at the same time – effectiveness beats efficiency in side-by-side value comparisons, but having both pretty much kicks ass in any organization. (That was tiger talk, Minto – I’m sure you recognize it.)

I believe in getting things done. Anyone who has ever worked alongside me will tell you I have a very well developed work ethic; as a manager I am demanding; as a career coach even more so. And, yes, the right behaviour does yield the right results. I just don’t believe that behaviour is always best measured in hours or even effort. If I can apply some physics and lift a large object using leverage instead of brute strength, I’ll expend less energy, take less time, and expose myself and my company to less risk. I will not put on a big show of being strong; rather, I will quietly and effectively be smart. I’ll also be moving on to another task while my bicep-flexing colleague is still grunting down the hall. And if I get three things done to his or her one by 4:00 on a productive day, I think it is not only fair but also smart business that I move on to invest some time in re-energizing – for myself, and for my next career achievements. One of the results I want for myself and every one of my hard- and smart-working clients is the enjoyment of rewards.

Want to enjoy the best of work and life? I say don’t outWORK your boss. OutPERFORM!

Posted by minto at 11:44 PM | Permalink