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)

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)

Living in Vancouver has given me great insight about life and business on the West Coast. However, the 25 years I spent in Toronto has provided an intimate knowledge of the vast differences and similarities facing immigrants on both sides of this great nation.

Every week in Vancouver I meet frustrated professional immigrants telling me that they are ready to abandon the West Coast to seek career success in Toronto. They have concluded that there are “many more jobs” in Toronto.

Yet during my regular visits to Toronto, immigrants express similar statements about the West Coast economy as the place to find success. Media stories abound about the West Coast job boom — Canada’s employment situation is so desperate, that Vancouver and Calgary are scurrying to bring in immigrants from all parts of the world.

Incredibly, both sides of Canada are absolutely convinced that the land of milk and honey, and the solution to their career frustrations are simply a few thousand miles away.

I remind new immigrants in Vancouver that there are, in fact, many more jobs in Toronto. However, there is also three times the population competing for those jobs. Furthermore, there are three times the jobs that they don’t want. I am certain that there are three times more professional immigrants who are underemployed or unemployed. Most importantly, there are three times the immigrants wondering why they left a good life in their country to move to Canada. Now reverse the math if you are in Toronto and believe that Vancouver has the magic pill for your career.

What immigrants can do on both sides of Canada is give themselves a competitive edge on how to market themselves effectively. The booming economy is forcing Canadian companies to integrate diversity into their hiring and business practices. It’s the perfect climate for professional immigrants to expect more for themselves than the “I need to start at the bottom” mindset.

Here are some key things successful immigrants in Canada do to ensure a better career and a better life in Canada.

They make a conscious and strategic effort to build friends, relations and networks with all Canadians.
They seek advice from those within and outside of their community that have succeeded in Canada.
They network and leave the comfort zone of their communities, joining organizations like the Board of Trade.
They stay away from negative or pessimistic influences trying to tell them how tough or impossible it is to achieve success in Canada.
They seek out professional career counselling from many sources and practise English several hours a day.
They develop marketing materials to promote their skills, which focus on what they can do for companies in Canada with their transferable skills, not simply writing resumes about what they did in the past in their country.
Canada is truly the land of opportunity. It doesn’t matter as much whether you’re in the east or west, as long as you follow the key steps to success

Posted by minto at 03:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There are two specific roads that new immigrants travel down when they arrive in Canada. The first road is quite easy to enter, yet is packed with frustrating traffic and gridlock. The other is like a highway, clear and full of the excitement that only the open road can provide.

Yet most professional immigrants entering into Canada enter and travel down the first road, one that’s congested and confusing.

Most immigrants arrive in Canada and go through a very similar career journey. Their first step is usually to integrate within their cultural community--seeking out friends, relatives in their cultural circle and establishing a feeling of home here in Canada.

If you’re an new immigrant the first thing the community tells you is "Welcome to Canada, it's tough here, you have to start your career at the bottom"

Now it doesn't really matter that you were a senior project manager for IBM in India, you’re told you still have to start at the bottom because it's tough in Canada. Further evidence is provided to justify this advice; you have no Canadian Work experience, your education is not recognized, you face racial discrimination, you lack a network of contacts. All this free advice is dispensed by those that arrived before you and have traveled down this road. They had to forfeit their professional lives and start at the bottom. Why should you be any different.

Being new to Canada, this advice makes sense to most new immigrants who know very little about job market. In fact, the advice is overwhelmingly consistent within their community and is reinforced everytime they discuss their career frustration. Inevitably the new immigrant accepts this ideology to be TRUE.

The second stage on the congested highway leads immigrants outside their community and into the hands of government agencies providing career advice. With renewed hope to live in such a wonderful country that provides free advice and seminars to new professionals with their career search. However, other than changing advisors, the advice received though slightly different seems very similar. The message has now evolved to, "it's tough, but you should take any job to get started. Work hard you will get ahead at the company". The message, though disguised still says "you have to start at the bottom."

It's tough to say this, but the motive of Government is focused on ensuring that the least amount of people collect social welfare or unemployment insurance not ensuring that you get the right job at the right level. That is a personal responsibility that should be within each one of us.

I make this statement whenever I talk to newcomers frustrated with their job search in Canada. I tell them, "If I moved to your country I would not find 50 Canadians that had not succeeded and take their advice on to get a great job. I would also not go to the government of your country and expect them to get me a job at my level of career in Canada" That is however exactly the road that they have traveled.

The right road or the highway is a little tougher to get on. I have worked with many successful immigrants to Canada that have secured wonderful careers. Here's what they did to get on the career highway:

• They did not go only into their community.

• They made a conscious and strategic effort to build friends, relations and networks with all Canadians.

• They sought advice from those within and outside of their community that succeeded in Canada. They networked and left the comfort zone of their communities, joining organizations like the Board of Trade.

• They stayed away from negative or pessimistic influences trying to tell them how tough or impossible it is to achieve success in Canada.

• They sought out professional career counseling from many sources and made an investment to get the right help. They practiced English several hours a day.

• They developed marketing material to promote their skills. Focusing on what they could do for companies in Canada, not focusing on what they did in the past. (This really helps to minimize the "you've got no Canadian experience rejection.")

This advice is not easy to implement, that is why the right road is empty. It takes courage in doing what other in your community don't do. If you are frustrated with your Career Journey in Canada, ask yourself, what road are you on.

Minto Roy
President / CEO
PCMG Canada/Careers Today Canada
www.pcmgcanada.com
www.careerstodaycanada.com
www.pcmgexecutive.com

Posted by minto at 03:58 PM | Permalink

My wife and I began considering the idea of emigrating from the Philippines in 2001, amid worsening political and economic conditions. Even though we had a good chance of living comfortably there, we felt we had to put the long term future of our children first.

Upon obtaining the application forms from the Canadian Embassy in Manila, we immediately began gathering all pertinent documents. Upon submission, which took us some months to accomplish, we waited three long years before finally getting a letter of approval. In between those three years was a lot of uncertainty. We held back on any major investments back home that needed our direct supervision, as we constantly convinced ourselves that ‘it’ was just around the corner. We were not about to quit 5 minutes before the miracle happened! Those three years were also a time of big dreaming – if many things in the present were on hold, we had huge expectations for how life in Canada would quickly make up for it.

We packed up and shipped out in less than two months and arrived in Vancouver in June of 2005.
Our major concerns as immigrants, which the Canadian Immigrant Magazine so aptly outlines, were housing, communication, transportation and employment. As soon as we had a place to stay and telephone and internet connections, we began searching for jobs. I have advanced degrees and a pretty successful career track record so I thought I would find work with relative ease as I always had. I sent over 150 applications without result and was becoming both concerned and discouraged.

Then I chanced upon PCMG and began a comprehensive career management program with Minto Roy and Alanna Fero. At first I was a little resistant to all the assessments and homework – I kept saying that I just wanted a job, not a career education. Alanna told me I did not come halfway around the world for a job – I came for a new life which would need the foundation of a real career, and if I could be patient for a few weeks of strategic career development work, it would pay off. It was hard to hear her. Interviews were scarce in the beginning and when I did get a foot in the door, my lack of Canadian work experience would most certainly swing it back shut. But I kept doing what PCMG told me to do, even when it didn’t make sense to me, and soon interviews started trickling in. At one point, I had to do 4 interviews in one day!

By then I had developed the focus and confidence to handle my strengths, and my weaknesses, and I could tangibly demonstrate the direct relevance of my international experience and the value I could offer a company – a skill taught to me by my career manager.

By mid-September, I had 3 standing offers for posts in my field of expertise – marketing. Even though they were not quite at the level I had reached in Manila, all were good jobs which could give me stable and adequate income to meet my family’s needs, and all had opportunities for advancement. After tough but careful deliberation, and some coaching in how to negotiate a better offer, I accepted a job at a strong Canadian company with promising room for growth.

I continue to see PCMG as my ever-reliable career guide. I know I’ll be calling Alanna when I have my performance reviews. And, it makes me feel a lot better knowing I have PCMG to fall back on… just in case.

Posted by minto at 11:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)