Whatever the economists are saying, workers still remain wary about the job market, according to a survey by Glassdoor.com, an online workplace community with its non-virtual headquarters in California. The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, indicates that nearly half of all employees expect their company's situation to remain the same in the next six months, while 39 percent expect some improvement. About half of all employees don't expect any wage increases in the next year. Only a third expect any kind of increase. Companies were still announcing layoffs in the second quarter, but were also adding unpaid furloughs, bonus reductions, mandatory vacations and job restructuring. Two out of five employees believe they'd be able to find similar at similar pay if laid off, but 31 percent say that's unlikely. Older workers and those who are unemployed are the most doubtful about being able to find similar work at similar pay. Scary, isn't it?

Words count when it comes to resumes, say Jim Bright and Joanne Earl, authors of Amazing Resumes, a book recently released by Jist Publishing.  Your resume, if it is read at all, only has brief opportunity to make an impression. Try these words.

These are some of the good verbs:

Achieved
Analyzed
Built
Compiled
Contributed
Controlled
Designed
Directed
Discovered
Eliminated
Established
Finalized
Founded
Initiated
Investigated
Managed
Modified
Organized
Overcame
Persuaded
Presented
Reorganized
Selected
Supervised
Trained
Transformed
Won
 

Here are some bad verbs -- even if the way you use them is positive (like avoided $1 million loss for my company), they evoke a visceral negative reaction, say the authors.

Abandoned
Argued
Attempted
Avoided
Conflicted
Disciplined
Dismissed
Failed
Lost
Relied
Relinquished
Succumbed
Tried
Withdrew
 

Here are some handy-dandy adverbs to dress up your verbs: (Unfortunately, the authors refer to them as power adjectives -- I will add the quote from them that made me retch: "You can also add power adjectives to boost the strength of your selling verbs even more.” This makes me question everything they say, but it does make common sense to use these kinds of words.)

Assertively
Capably
Carefully
Competently
Consistently
Cooperatively
Creatively
Decisively
Effectively
Efficiently
Energetically
Enthusiastically
Flexibly
Positively
Quickly
Rapidly
Responsibly
Resourcefully
Selectively
Successfully
Assertively
Capably
Carefully
Competently
Consistently
Cooperatively
Creatively
Decisively
Effectively
Efficiently
Energetically
Enthusiastically
Flexibly
Positively
Quickly
Rapidly
Responsibly
Resourcefully
Selectively
Successfully
  

Don't you wonder sometimes how these people who cheat their employers think? Isn't it obvious when something is unethical? Well, maybe it's not that simple. Read this story about how a company's top human resource executive and his wife, owner of a staffing business, defrauded his employer. This couple's path to jail started 95 percent innocently. In the end, their family got split up and it was a mess.  Published in Human Resource Executive Online, which is edited by a real pro, Anne Freedman,  this story makes for fascinating reading. Paul Gallagher, the author of the piece, quotes experts who make the point that these temptations are even more alluring now because so many of us are struggling. Ethics lines can easily get fuzzy.    

Here's the latest disturbing statistic about unemployment, courtesy of yesterday's report from the U.S. Department of Labor and the Economic Policy Institute. In May, there were 5.7 unemployed workers for every one of the 2,554,000 jobs openings in the economy. Wow. (Click here to read the EPI's analysis.)

This news comes from the Labor Department report known as the JOLT report, (Job Openings and Labor Turnover). In May, as I said, there were 2,554,000 million job openings, up from 2,513,000 in April. But just to give you an idea of how far things have declined, there were 4 million  job openings in May, 2008. For there to be a job opening, the company has to be actively recruiting -- bringing laid off people back doesn't count, nor do internal transfers and promotions. The job has to be ready to roll within 30 days.

The number of hires is also down from 4,117,000 in April to 3,980,000 in May. Hires include people brought back from layoff and seasonal workers. A third major statistic is separations. Here is where we see a glimmering of good news. Separations are declining. In May, there were 4,359,000 separations (which includes people who quit, people who were laid off, people who retired and people who died -- that's my favorite, hard to work when you are dead). Layoffs and discharges made up 53 percent of the separations. In August 2006, only one in three separations was due to a layoff.

In the 12 months ending in May, there were 52.9 million hires and 57.8 million separations, a net employment loss of 4.9 million. In almost every sector, separations exceeded hires. The exceptions? Education and health services, accommodation and food services, and state and local government.    

We've been doing a lot of talk about networking and super-charged job hunting techniques. But how do you find a job if you are a blue collar person -- not in the upper ranks? That's the question that reader Jean Haskell asked in an email. She makes her point in the context of  the work of Ford Myers, the local career coach and author of the recently-released "Get the Job You Want Even When No One's Looking." I interviewed him in the Philadelphia Inquirer and have been blogging about his work lately. Rather than paraphrase her point of view, I'll just copy and paste her email and hope that someone will have a suggestion. Meantime, I'll try to squeeze in some digging on my own to answer her question.

Here's Jean's email:

I enjoyed your article on Ford Myers, whom I know, and for
whom I have great respect and admiration for the work that
he does.

However, the information about how to find a job, while
excellent, is limited, and applies only to well-educated people
seeking relatively high paying white collar jobs.  

What about the people who are seeking lower paying blue
collar jobs?  Is there a career counselor who can give them
some assistance?  They certainly need it.

    

There's one more tip I liked from my Philadelphia Inquirer interview last week with Ford Myers, a local career coach who wrote a book titled Get the Job You Want Even When No One's Hiring. I'll copy and paste it from my interview notes. This is material that didn't get into the paper for space reasons. What he's talking about here is a letter to be sent to a job that seems really perfect for you. You now are trying to distinguish yourself from hundreds of other candidates.

(By the way, please excuse any typeface weirdness.)

Ford: I call it the “Perfect Match Letter.”  Because what you’re doing is — let’s say you see a job posting on the Internet.  You know and I know that they’re going to get a thousand applicants.  And the typical cover letter says, “Dear Sir or Madam, I saw your ad.  It looks really interesting.  Here’s my resume.  Please call me.” 

That’s not smart. 

Instead what you want to do if you’re going to answer this is to clearly distinguish yourself by having a thoughtful, professional cover letter which provides a perfect match between their needs and what you have to offer.  For example — again — you have the introductory paragraph, then you have the line down the middle.  Left-hand side is the specific bullets or nuggets that you take out of the job posting and then the right hand side you talk about your specific ways to match and the ways that you can meet their particular needs. 

Jane:  What if you think you can meet their particular needs, but you don’t have ...

Well, the U.S. Labor Department dispatched its usual grim report yesterday about the economy shedding 467,000 jobs and the unemployment rate creeping up to 9.5 percent in June. That's why it's key for those of you who are unemployed to be strategic about your job search. On Monday, I interviewed local career coach Ford Myers in the Philadelphia Inquirer. He wrote a book titled Get the Job You Want When No One's Hiring. Myers talks alot about networking. What follows is one of his suggestions from parts of the interview that didn't make into the newspaper for space reasons.

Ford: Remember I said earlier that you don’t want to come across as a desperate job seeker, but instead you want to be a solution provider.  So, let’s pretend that you’re at a networking meeting, and let’s say it’s a really good one.  And things are really clicking and you feel a real connection and the person’s really engaged and listening to everything you say, and you see a connection. You can really sense that they have some issues or some needs or some problems back at their company that you are ideally positioned to contribute [to help them.] 

So instead of just saying, “Okay, thanks, nice to meet you.  Take care. Bye. I’ll call those friends that you told me about,”  you say to the other person, “You know, I think I might have some ideas for you. You’ve been very generous to me.  I’d like to give something back to you.  Is it okay if I — when I get back to my office — write down some of the things that you’ve said here today and capture what some of your problems and needs and challenges seem to be?  Then what I’d like to do — with your permission — is offer a couple of solutions that might be of value.  Would that be all right?” 

Now, of course, the person’s going to say, “Sure.  Why not?”  So you go back to your office our your home, and what you do is you create what’s called a “Proposal for Service.”  And this is essentially a document that has an introductory paragraph or two and then you split it into two halves with a line down the middle.  On the left hand side you articulate very clearly their stated needs, problems, and challenges.  On the right hand side, you answer each one of those items with solutions that you have successfully provided them in past. 

When the person receives this letter, there are two possibilities of what will happen.  Either they’ll say, `oh, that’s nice,' and throw it away.  Or they’ll pick up the phone and they’ll call you as the candidate.  And they’ll say, “This is a very interesting letter you sent.  Would you be willing to come back in and talk to us?  We’d like to talk to you.”  Now when that happens, now you’ve got something.  You’re in the beginning of creating a new opportunity that was never posted.  No other candidates.  Only you.

With the unemployment rate at 9.5 percent and the nation's payrolls shedding 467,000 jobs, according to today's report by the U.S. Labor Department, it's no wonder that panicked job seekers may decide to turn to a career coach. Whether that's a good idea depends on the coach, your wallet and whether you can conduct your job search on your own.

I've been writing about Ford Myers, the local career coach who wrote a book titled Get the Job You Want Even When No One's Hiring. Recently I received an email from Mitch Ehrlich, who hired Myers, but was not satisfied with his work. I'll print the email, provide Myers' response and add my own observation.

Dear Ms. Von Bergen:

 I read your article on Ford Myers today in the Philadelphia Inquirer.  (He was talking about Monday's paper)

 I am a past client of Mr. Myers’ and while I believe his company may serve a valuable service for some, I think most folks can research and obtain the same career information online or in their public library.  I was the victim of a layoff from SmithKline several years ago and felt somewhat directionless after that experience.  I contacted Mr. Myers and listened to his very convincing sales pitch about his services.  While he never promised to find me a job, he did offer that he could help me identify a career objective and provide weekly counseling and support during my search. I paid Mr. Myers more than $4000 for his services which in retrospect included an updated version of my resume (which I wrote) and weekly meetings where he provided vague ideas, comments and critiques of my job search efforts. After 6 months of working his program, completing all of his assignments and holding more than 30 “networking” meetings, I remained unemployed.  Not one hot lead or bonafide opportunity.

I followed his program to the letter and worked it like a pro but with little to show for it.  I am a dual-master degreed individual with more than 25 years experience in my field and now I am also out more than $4000.  I approached Mr. Myers about my dissatisfaction but he basically dismissed me as a disgruntled customer who wasn’t committed to the search process.  He told me to hang in there and keep trying.  I reported him to the Better Business Bureau.

 I try to caution people that with a little organization, self motivation and research they can accomplish the same objectives as they would by hiring someone like Mr. Myers who I found to be more “sizzle” than substance.  I’m sure your article will help him sell a lot of books but if you ever want to interview someone for the other side of the story, please feel free to contact me.

 Regards,

 Mitch Ehrlich 

I called Ford Myers to ask him about this. Myers described Ehrlich as his only unsatisfied customer and said that he extended Ehrlich's contract, offering an additional three months of free service. Myers offered to send me many testimonials from satisfied customers. Myers said the Better Business Bureau investigated and found no basis to Ehrlich's

complaint, however Myers did not have a copy of the letter, he said. Ehrlich is now working, having turned a part time job into a full time job.

My take: I can't personally vouch for any career coach, including Myers, so I'm stepping out of the whole dispute between Myers and Ehrlich.

However, what Myers and Ehrlich both say is that a person who is organized and motivated can conduct his or her own job search. Myers naturally believes that it is useful to have a coach, but during our interview, he made the point that the coach can be a friend or a fellow job seeker, as long as the goals are accountability and encouragement.  

When it comes to looking for a job, there's a lot of unavoidable grunt work involved. One of the first and most important elements is to compile your contact list, if you haven't already, said Ford Myers, author of "Get the Job You Want Even When No One's Hiring." If your list is in scattered places like mine is, then it can be a ridiculous, albeit necessary grunt job.

I interviewed Ford in Monday's Philadelphia Inquirer. Click here to read it. I'm now adding more of the interview -- focusing on contacts. Contacts are key because networking is key and obviously, you can't network without contacts.  (Please excuse any typeface weirdness.) 

Jane:  You mentioned in your book making a tremendously long list of contacts. Should you include the people you network with in this list?