Minto Roy - Career Management 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)