============================================= "Achieve Your Dreams" - Volume 23, May 2007 ============================================= Greetings! Welcome to "Achieve Your Dreams", a bi-monthly newsletter for people with a dream - - whether it's accelerating a career, changing careers, building a business, securing a new job, achieving that long-desired goal, or discovering a new life vision and direction. Each newsletter will offer 1-2 noteworthy articles, a section on "Office Happenings" and "Helpful Resources", and some favorite quotes and sayings to motivate and inspire you. In this issue: 1. Guest Article "Resumes Win Interviews... References Win Jobs" 2. Office Happenings (Need a Great Gift for a College Grad?) 3. Helpful Resources (Military, Physician and Executive Sites) 4. Favorite Quotes Feel free to forward this to those you believe would find it useful. Feedback is encouraged and appreciated. If there is a specific topic you'd like covered, please send the suggestion to me via the e-mail address below. ============================================================ Guest Article: Resumes Win Interviews... References Win Jobs ============================================================ While at the Career Masters Institute's annual conference last month, I met Heidi Allison, owner of Jobreferences.com, a reference checking firm headquartered in Rochester Hills, MI. Heidi had some interesting, and scary, stories to share about her experience checking references for clients. Candidates beware! She's given me permission to reprint one of her articles in this month's newsletter. Enjoy... ~~~~~~~~ Inquiring minds want to know, and no minds are more inquiring than those about to hire you. Rest assured, you will be investigated. As a rule of thumb, the better the job and the higher the pay, the tougher the screening process. If you are a top candidate for a good job at a visible company, your references and past employers will be checked in great detail. When a prospective employer has completed the first round of interviews and you are among the top candidates, its next logical step is to check your references and interview those individuals to whom you reported. Are you certain these individuals will seal the deal for you, or will they blow it away? If you're like most people, you probably haven't given your references much thought. Instead, you've focused on your resume, interviewing skills, networking, and what to wear to the interview. Now the focus shifts. You now want to concentrate on the quality of your references and recommendations from past employers, because they can make or break your chances of securing that job. About half of all references that get checked range from mediocre to poor, so it's very possible that the great job you lost out on at the last moment had nothing to do with your skills or expertise. It could have had more to do with what a reference or past employer said about you. So, if you are concerned that someone, somewhere, might be giving you a bum rap, you may be right. That's a frightening scenario when your livelihood is at stake. Here is a sampling of the damaging comments HR professionals and line managers hear when they check references: - "Our company policy prohibits us from saying anything. We can only verify dates of employment and title." Then the reference goes on to say something like, "Check his references very, very carefully." - "Are you certain she gave my name as a reference?" - "After we settle our lawsuit..." - "Let me see what the paperwork says I am able to give out regarding _______." - "Really... is he still in this field?" These are actual comments! References and past employers won't call and warn you that they're not going to be complimentary. The reference situation is ever changing and very volatile because of shifting company policies, new employees hired into HR departments, new laws governing references, and company liability for giving references. You are well advised to take more control of your career by finding out what every potential reference will say about you. If the odds hold, as they will, those references will range from stellar to negative. But when you know what someone is going to say about you ahead of time, you can pass on your best references with greater confidence. Here are some general rules of thumb to maximize the tone and accuracy of your references. 1. Make sure your records are correct. Occasionally, an interviewee looks bad because his/her former HR department didn't have the same job date and title information in their file as he/ she did on their resume. Data entry or communications errors are not unusual, so check with your HR department to ensure that their records correspond to yours. Conflicting data could be perceived as a big negative to a prospective employer, and may cause them to suspect you are being dishonest. 2. Maintain active and positive relationships with your references. Stay in touch via phone or over coffee. Keep your references up-to-date about your progress, and make sure you have the most up-to-date information about them. If your reference's title (or name) has changed, or if they've left their position and you've provided old information to a prospective employer, it may not reflect well on you. 3. Advise a reference about an important opportunity. To avoid burning out your references, you don't need to call about every single job opportunity. However, if a particular position is very important to you, call your reference(s) and give them details about what the company may be looking for. 4. Know reporting relationships. Even though you've given the Senior VP's name as a reference, a prospective employer may resort to calling the Director you reported to because she can't reach the Senior VP. Even though you have not given that person's name as a reference, it's probably on the application you filled out. You may want to advise that Director about the potential for a reference check and explain what the company is looking for. 5. Know your company's policy. Although federal law restricts reference information, some states now allow more extensive disclosure. Know which regulations and policies govern your company. In addition, be aware that some employees will break company policy. 6. Don't rely on relatives or letters of recommendation. You are well advised not to let Uncle John regale a prospective employer about your antics as a youth. Also, although letters of recommendation and endorsements can be helpful, information such as titles and even names can change over time. Make sure that the information on your letter of recommendation is correct by contacting your reference periodically. 7. Use a reference-checking service. If you want help in knowing what your references are saying about you, or if you find that you are losing too many opportunities after several interviews with an organization, you might want to commission a professional reference-checking service. Check to ensure that the service has the professional and legal personnel who can develop a strategic use of your references. Typical service fees range from $69 to $99 per reference checked, depending on level of position being sought. For more information on Heidi's firm, visit www.jobreferences.com, or call 800-651-2460. ================= Office Happenings ================= Are you looking for the perfect gift for that new graduate? My DVD, "10 Steps To Interviewing With Confidence" has had stellar reviews since being launched last October and may be exactly what your new grad needs to secure that job offer. This 60-minute DVD, with its 65-page Study Guide, captures the most common interview challenges and offers key strategies and techniques to help people in all industries and at all levels of an organization succeed on an interview and get the job they deserve. Here are some comments from recent viewers: "I received your DVD and workbook ...I found them very helpful. Since I've watched the DVD, I realize I've got a bit of work to do!! I need to write some success stories and get my 'tell me about yourself' story developed. The DVD is great... well done and really covers what you need to know to do well on an interview." -- L. Hincks, Webmaster "...I found many useful tips in your DVD program. I particularly appreciated the tips on questions to ask the interviewer, as well as your suggestions about handling the issue of salary. Lots of excellent information for anyone job seeking." -- G. Yetter, Sales Go to http://www.careerdesigns.biz/dvd.htm to order your copy of "10 Steps To Interviewing With Confidence" and help a graduate you know feel more confident going on their next interview! ================= Helpful Resources ================= Military, Physician and Executive Sites MilitaryConnection.com has announced its launch as an employment site for military personnel transitioning into the private sector. The site offers an online directory of employers, a virtual job fair, military pay conversion calculators, and other resources. It also provides the employers that are its clients with a discount that it then encourages them to donate to charity, including military-related charitable organizations, which it lists on the site. Site: http://www.militaryconnection.com DoctorsJobSite.com: A job posting and resume bank site for physician and physician specialty jobs. If you are a physician, or thinking about entering the medical field, this may be an excellent site for investigating position openings and job requirements. Site: http://www.DoctorsJobSite.com YourEncore.COM: For retired high-level executives founded in 2003 by Eli Lilly and Procter & Gamble, YourEncore.com originally was designed to help pull retirees back to those two companies. Today, the site is an online recruitment firm that places older job seekers in positions at both member and nonmember companies. The jobs are geared toward scientists, engineers, and product managers, and are mostly contract-based, though some are salaried positions. Site: http://www.yourencore.com =============== Favorite Quotes =============== "The line between failure and success is so fine that we... are often on the line and do not know it. How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience, would have achieved success. A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless may turn to glorious success." -- Elbert Hubbard "Nobody makes a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little." -- Edmund Burke "Ninety-nine percent of all failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses." -- George Washington Carver "In order to change, we must be sick and tired of being sick and tired." -- Anonymous In support of you, Jeanne ** If you would like someone added to this newsletter distribu- tion list, please forward their name and e-mail address to me. They will be added promptly. ** If you would like to be removed from this list, please reply to me via this e-mail address. I will remove your name promptly.