514.295.9599 | 
Tag Archives | career coaching
Work For A Terrible Boss! It’s Great For Your Career!
No one accepts a career anticipating a horrible, terrible, awful, no good boss but perhaps it is something you should consider as you go through a career assessment. Working for a terrible boss is like opening the golden gates to your career and here’s why:
You Simply Learn More From A Bad Manager Than A Good Manager:
You Learn To Wear Different Masks: You learn quickly that the way you talk to one person is not the way you can or should talk to someone else and a terrible boss will make that very clear, quickly.
You Learn To Do Be Resourceful: You want to avoid your boss so you will find different ways to get answers and you will certainly be sure to get the right ones, the first time around.
You Learn To Work With Difficult And Different Personalities: It’s easy to work in an office where everyone is more or less easy going…try working with the 50 shades of an office…
You Learn What To Keep To Yourself And Vice Versa What To Say Allowed: A bad boss normally doesn’t want to hear or read from you, or they want to hear and read from you every second so you will learn to discriminate your thoughts regarding what to say when and to who.
You Learn Self Respect: Deep down you know you are great at what you do, so you tell yourself that and you know what you just won’t tolerate.
You Learn Patience: There’s a reason patience is a virtue and many deep breaths come with a bad boss.
You Learn Not To Associate Yourself With Gossip: It’s that simple. You are working. You learn to be more like your boss and care less about the world around you and more about your work.
You Learn To Think Before You Speak Or React: It’s very common for people to react in action and speech but with a bad boss, your mouth and body language is sealed since you want to keep your job…don’t you??
You Learn To Value Feedback And Know How To Accept Criticism:Bosses can be rough, mean and tough. Having a bad boss, means you understand that some things are genuine points you need to improve on and other points that just need to slide. You accept criticism and feedback as you know it is to help you improve without crushing your ego…in fact it makes you stronger.
You Learn How To Understand People: Some people flourish when working with difficult people and it’s simple, because they “get it”. They can read the good days, the bad days, and even the moments. They understand that EVERYONE even a bad boss has great moments!
You Learn Negotiations Skills: If your mind is set on something you will be as articulate as possible to ensure what you are about to present or offer is sure as hell worth it. A bad boss, doesn’t accept mediocre.
You Learn How To Help Others: When someone new comes to the office you can’t help but feel a little bad for them. You go up to them, console them and work with them. They are not your new best friend, you are their confident and what keeps them from quitting, and you know that!
Learn To Read People: You know how to read body language and quickly!!
Learn To Value Relationships: The people outside of your office are important to you. They are what keep you grounded and the people you get along with in the office are your common ground and they are your release center as well..as they understand you.
Learn What to Do When Left Alone: You don’t need to be hand held, micro managed, or babysat. You know how to prioritize your work and your time because you know what will get you in trouble and what won’t.
You Learn Everything You Are Doing Today Is Preparing You For Tomorrow: When you go to work day in and day out working for a bad boss you aren’t looking at the now, you are looking at the big picture. You know it’s more important for you as you know it’s your stepping stone to the mountain top.
So next time you are about to turn down an interview or a job at that “terrible” company. Look deeper as there is a company out there for everyone and just because you may know a lot of people who didn’t take a job at that company, know the company survived somehow and those that did survive have an amazing learning ground.
Stop Crashing Your Career By Doing THIS!
You are sitting at your computer, ready to apply for your dream job. You have been waiting for the perfect job to be posted or the certain person to reach out to you and so you start to ponder your cover letter. The butterflies are in your stomach and anticipation of getting the job is in your head. You are sitting there thinking “What should I write in my cover letter??” Well, be relieved that as much as you hate writing covering letters, hiring manager hate reading them.
It takes 7 seconds to review a resume and 1 second to scan your cover letter. So the truth is if we see another cover letter that expresses the “desire to learn” or how your education and experience matches that of the job, or how you managed 15 people which can clearly be seen in your resume please, don’t shoot us, just pull our eyes out! As there is no such thing as an “eye catching” cover letter. Don’t be fooled by posts with information that must be in the cover letter. For the love of anything do not have one…it’s old school!
In the new school of thought, there is no secret to writing a great cover letter, except for not having one and here’s why:
Cover Letters Have Proven To Be Your Window For Error: Countless people make so many errors in their cover letter. Aside for the fact people still make spelling and grammatical errors, people also forget to ensure their cover letter matches their resume and social media platforms.
The ATS- Applicant Tracking System Is Against You- All recruiting firms and most companies use an ATS to make their recruiting efforts more efficient so your cover letter isn’t even kept! It gets deleted as your resume put into the system.
Your Resume Tells Your Story: We know your cover letter is full of jargon about how you want the job but would you apply if you didn’t want the job or work at the company your writing about in detail??
It’s So Damn Long!! What the heck are you writing?? You make it as though we have all the time in the world to sit an read a novel during our work day. If you can’t write quickly, what will it be like meeting you??
The Cover Letter Profiles Your Monotony: Everything you have written in the cover letter is profiled in the resume..we get it. You worked at a, b c company for x years, managed so many people etc etc…again there’s no need to reiterate it in your cover letter.
Your resume, if strong enough, will highlight the elements of your resume that will ensure you are the right match for the job and company you are applying for. If it doesn’t then revamp your resume. Gone are the days when it had to be one page. If you have experience profile it, highlight it, embrace it but let the cover letter die in peace.
If you want to get noticed, don’t write a cover letter write an introductory email about the person you are writing to, as it’s not all about you.
Jessica Glazer is the Recruitment Director/Founder of www.MindHR.com-a head-hunting and resume writing agency. She can also be heard on Montreal’s NewsTalk Radio CJAD and seen on BTMontreal and Global television speaking about employment related issues.
Over 1M Recruiters, Who Is The Right One?
Every job has it’s perks and down falls and the biggest downfall in recruitment is the quality of talent that comes through staffing firms directly so here are the qualities needed for top performing recruiters you should know about if you are going to be working with them:
Emotional Intelligence: Being smart is one thing but a great recruiter needs to be able to read people and situations. They need to know what to say when and how, and WITHOUT LYING! Lying gets you nowhere but trouble
Diligent To The Point of Obsession: It’s one thing to be a perfectionist however top performing recruiters are people of the now with the vision of the long term as everything has to happen instantly for their candidates and their clients but building the solid relationship is always #1.
Multi-Task Masters: There is no way a top performing recruiter will take on one job at a time or talk to one candidate for one search. The don’t NEED a retained search as they know that they will find the top candidate and there’s no way they are working with one company so why make a company work with only them? Due to their busy desk, they need to know how to manage a different projects at different stages, hand while being observant enough to know what priorities are. As I was once told it’s “Magic hands”.
Listen: In sales it’s always important to listen but recruiters aren’t just sales people selling a glass. Their class walks, talks, speaks to other glasses and if they fall of the shelf, the recruiter can’t just find the exact same glass. So it’s so important they listen to the needs of their clients.
Caring: In all jobs the bottom line is important but someone who is in recruitment for the money is in it for the wrong reasons. The career placement industry isn’t a numbers game, it’s about changing lives.
Friendly: If the recruiter you are working with can not take the time to talk to you with a smile and caring voice, you have a problem
Sense of Sportsmanship:Recruiting is the People Person Sport. It’s impossible to be a successful recruiter without a team. It takes a village to make the right higher. They need the right tools and guidance from their clients and their candidates so if they aren’t working with you, they aren’t going to be able to help you
Energized: If a recruiter sounds like Eeyor you have a problem, they shouldn’t be like Tiger either. You need them to be a healthy balance of professional, fun and educated regarding your needs.
Self-Motivated: A recruiters lively hood depends on the clients they manage and the jobs they fill. If they are happy with just being at the level they are at, they will not strive to fill your jobs as they have no drive. A top preforming recruiter has drive faster then a formula 1 racer.
Ridiculous Researcher: A top recruiter won’t just research a company to know what they do, they will know the company and the match of what they are looking for better then an adult tooth moving into a mouth. They love to research, to the point of almost stalking. It;s their passion to research, learn and talk to others. It’s just in their blood.
Laugh At Themselves: If they can’t laugh at themselves they will die as some things said and done along the way can kill them…literally.
Write THIS Resume To Land Your Dream Job!
The time will come when you want to leave your snug job and when that time comes you have to ask yourself: “Is my resume parallel to the career I am looking for?” That resume you put together in college landed you your first office job but as you try to scurry up the food chain that resume sink right into the interweb trash can. So as you grow up, so should your resume.
1) Write about your achievements. You had x job and did a, b, c. But NO you didn’t just do a,b,c you accomplished x, y, z!! You save the company money, you opened multinationals, you led a team of all sorts of trades, you negotiated off the ying and the yang to reach the end of the earth for the company you worked for and THIS IS HOW!! Explain what you did and how you did it! Your new hiring manager wants to see numbers and names. Throw them!
2) You didn’t just reach targets you went above and beyond because you did THIS!
3) Add color and spice and everything nice. You need to stand out on paper. Your resume is you selling yourself on paper. Cap where caps go, italic where italics go, use small and large fonts, use graphs and diagrams BUT ALWAYS BE CONSISTENT!!
4) You are one person with many talents who may have a few jobs that are of interest to you. You may want to be a GM, a Director of Operations or a VP. Whatever the case may be do know it’s okay to have more than one resume for more than one job.
5) Say goodbye to your objectives on the top of the page. Your applying for a job, we get it you are motivated, highly educated, and a thought provoking team leader. Instead brand yourself, add information we can’t find anywhere else on your resume, add things you did but be sure you actually did them.
6) NEVER LIE!! I don’t care how great this all reads to you, don’t you dare lie. Liers get caught in one way or another….Karma baby karma!
7) Date your work. If you are senior go about 15-20 years but not more! DO NOT add high school but add dates to all other places and if you worked at one place for many years, break it down to what you did when. And don’t tell me you have to think…we all have to think!
8) Just because you are out of school doesn’t mean education isn’t important. Add all relevant degrees, affiliates and certifications. And do know if you are applying to certain careers a scuba certificate can be interesting BUT for others and most…keep it out! (Point 8.5, Know your audience. Do your research about what works and doesn’t work with the company, figure out if and where they volunteer, perhaps not only are your interests are the same but you have both been to the same event at the same time.)
9) References upon request is old school. Of course you will give references if requested. If not what’s the matter with you?? And with that though don’t add your actual references here, wait until asked or bring your glowing letters to an interview. It’s manners 🙂
10) Your information on the top of the page can be limited to your name, your phone number, your email address, your twitter, linkedin link but after that no need to add more. You can leave your actual mailing address out, it won’t be used until you are hired.
11) If you are too lazy to do this all yourself. There are resume writing agencies that can help….including ours but do know no resume will guarantee you a job. It will hopefully get you an interview but after that it’s all you.
Do know, the bigger the job, the more humanistic the process will be. You will have multiple interviews with multiple people. It may all be for nothing but you don’t know what you can or will have until you try. So fix your resume and get on out there!
12 Sure Ways To Not Get A Job
1) You are are applying to jobs you want to work for but have zero experience in the field or industry
2) You are pushy. If you are pushy in the interview process how will you be in the office?
3) You are late. You don’t call. If you want a job and you are late you call, if you are lost you call, it’s that simple.
4) You know everything so act like you do. This is sure to be a winning personality trait.
5) Ask about money and benefits. You don’t want a job you want a vacation your first day!
6) Talk terribly about your previous employer and coworkers. People love gossip chatter box away!
7) Ignore recruiters. Ignore their emails and their calls. What do recruiters know anyway? There’s no way they know what they are doing, just because they have a job, doesn’t mean they are good at it!
8) Don’t analyse the company, the team or the people you will be working with. The less you know the better. Who doesn’t love surprises anyway??
9) You job hop like a pub crawl.
10) You don’t sell yourself. You don’t care about the job and you don’t care about you. You wonder why they are even interviewing you in the first place. You were only picked out of probably 50 profiles!
11) Your biggest weakness when asked you answer “organizational skills and prioritizing” (yes, we have heard this)
12) Your resume hasn’t been modified so it’s not only outdated but you actually didn’t change the template, not even the words “place information here”
Recent Tweets
Follow @mindhr on Twitter
