Volume 6, Issue 1 January 2002
Job Link
Strategies for Success in 2002
Resolutions with NRI
Being Brief		 Random Notes
Notable Quotable
Our Disciplines and Locations
 


Strategies for Success in 2002

Happy New Year from NRI! As we look towards this year, here are some helpful strategies for getting ahead in today’s job market. This article comes from www.washingtonjobs.com, the Washington Post’s internet job site. By Caryl and Ronald L. Krannich, PhDs. Courtesy of Impact Publications.

Strategies For Finding a Job
Always try to find a job that’s “fit” for you rather than try to “fit” into a job just because it is available.

Finding a job that is “fit” for you requires that you do first things first - assess your interests, skills, and abilities and set clear goals that will guide your job search into productive channels. Unfortunately, many people start by doing last things first - writing a resume and spending most of their time reading and responding to classified ads. That’s the best way to become confused and discouraged in today’s job market!

You should spend most of your job search time on activities that increase your contacts with other individuals who can provide you with information, advice, and referrals. You do this by developing an active prospecting and networking campaign which incorporates both interpersonal and electronic networking activities.

Rejections are a normal part of any successful job search. Learn to welcome rejections as prerequisites to encountering acceptances. Without rejections, you will not learn what you should accept. A typical job search involves eight rejections before receiving an acceptance. If you stop your job search after three or four rejections, you will prematurely kill your chances of getting a good job. Start your morning out by saying “Today, I’m going to collect six rejections, because after the sixth one, I will probably encounter an acceptance!”

Finding a job need not be a lonely and depressing experience. Don’t be afraid to share your experiences with others. Better still, join or form a “support group” or “job club” involving five other individuals who also are looking for a job. Meet once a week, share experiences, set performance goals, and reward each other for achieving goals. In so doing, you may discover one of the best kept secrets of such job seekers - they cut their job search time in half by joining such a group!

Strategies for Writing Resumes
In today’s job market you need to write two types of resumes - a conventional and an electronic resume. Each follows a different set of writing and distribution principles. One stresses objectives and action verbs; the other stresses key word prefaces and nouns. Since your resume is your calling card for advertising your qualifications to employers, it must stress your accomplishments rather than your history. You must clearly state your key accomplishments in reference to the employer’s specific needs. Use key words that succinctly express your accomplishments.

Strategies for Interviewing
Employers aren’t stupid - they want quality and productivity. They recognize candidates who come prepared with canned answers to interview questions - they are role players who lack substance. Employers want to know what it is you can do for them - the specific benefits you are offering them. You can best communicate your benefits by talking about your accomplishments in specific work settings. Give specific examples of how you solved a particular problem or how you handled certain situations. Indeed, employers increasingly conduct behavior-based interviews that require you to “give them the beef.” You are well advised to become a good “story-teller” during your interview rather than someone who dishes out canned answers to standard interview questions.

Avoid talking about salary until the very end of your last interview. The job interview is all about establishing and communicating value - you need to know what the job is worth and the employer needs to value your skills and potential performance before discussing the money question. By the end of the interview both you and the employer should have answers to your value questions. You should know what the job is worth, and the interviewer should know what you are worth. Now it’s time to talk about money. If you prematurely address the salary question, you may undervalue yourself.

Overall Orientation
When in doubt about what to do next in your job search, do something that contributes to learning more about yourself, specific employers, or the job market. Go to the library to conduct research, contact people in your network, further build your network through cold calling techniques, or explore job sites on the Internet. You must be proactive in communicating your qualifications to employers. Spending a lot of time worrying about your future or waiting for employers to come knocking on your door are really a waste of time. Always focus on doing something productive - things that contribute to achieving your final job search goals.


NOTABLE QUOTABLE

“Never continue in a job you don’t enjoy. If you’re happy in what you’re doing, you’ll like yourself, you’ll have inner peace. And if you have that, along with physical health, you will have had more success than you could possibly have imagined.”

– Rodan of Alexandria


Resolutions with NRI

Happy New Year! Have you made any resolutions regarding your career for 2002? Have you decided to get serious about your job search or just decided to make a change for the better? Let NRI help you make those resolutions become a reality.

Whether you want to go directly from one permanent position to another, or leave your current position and “graze” the working world to see where you want to go next, NRI can offer you excellent support.

Most everyone prefers the perceived security of a permanent position, but nowadays, temping offers not only flexibility, but security also. Along with long and/or short term medical benefits through the American Staffing Association, NRI offers many of the same benefits that a permanent position would offer, such as paid holidays, paid vacation and a 401(k) plan that matches 10% of your contribution! With all of these great benefits, you can take your time with your job search and temp to help pay the bills. You may even enjoy the personal freedom that temping allows so much, that you may decide to become a “career temporary”!

Either way, to help you land your ideal permanent or temporary position, make sure you have a sharp resume, good interviewing skills and excellent interpersonal skills.Your trained and experienced Staffing Specialists at NRI can help you with all of these with our excellent pamphlets on resumes and interviewing and also with our pre-interview/pre-assignment counseling. Give us a call!


Being Brief

From www.ivillage.com

How do you know if you need to self-edit? And how do you self-edit?

Don’t get bogged down in irrelevant details. “I went there on Thursday, or was it Wednesday, no it had to be Thursday ...” Who cares what day it was? Get on with it.

Don’t repeat comments unless the listener didn’t hear you or indicates she didn’t understand. Say it once and go on.

Decide if the idea is new to the discussion. If not, don’t say it. People don’t want to hear the same ideas rehashed.

Eliminate extra words. Say your comment using the fewest words that can express the thought well. In writing courses, we are taught to edit our words. We can apply the same concepts to our verbal communication.

Say what you need to say in a pace that is easy to hear. Avoid going so slow that your listener fills in your last words since they’ve figured out what you were going to say.

Eliminate wisecracks that no one laughs at but you. You may feel you’re the next Bob Hope, but everyone else thinks you’re wasting their time with your inane cracks. This is especially deadly at meetings.

Eliminate “uh,” “ya know,” “um,” and “like” as non-word space holders. Pause without filling in the void with a non-word.

Don’t discuss information that is not relevant to the majority of the group. Defer specialized conversations until later.

Ask questions in a group discussion that are relevant to more than yourself. If you have a question specific to yourself, ask it one-on-one later.


Random Notes


OUR DISCIPLINES AND LOCATIONS

NRI Accounting Resources®
Specializing in Accounting and Financial Positions
11400 Rockville Pike, Suite 820, Rockville, MD 20852
Phone: (301) 230-0440, Fax: (301) 770-6125, email: nri-accounting-md@nri-staffing.com

734 15th Street, NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20007
Phone: (202) 628-3060, Fax: (202) 628-2838, email: nri-accounting-dc@nri-staffing.com

NRI HealthCare®
Specializing in Clinical and Non-Clinical Professionals
11400 Rockville Pike, Suite 820, Rockville, MD 20852
Phone: (301) 230-0444, Fax: (301) 230-0451, email: nri-healthcare-md@nri-staffing.com

1302 Concourse Drive, Suite 2-3, Linthicum, MD 21090
Phone: (410) 850-4035, Fax: (410) 850-5263, email: nri-baltimore@nri-staffing.com

7617 Little River Turnpike, Suite 603, Annandale, VA 22003
Phone: (703) 658-4033, Fax: (703) 658-1493, email: nri-healthcare-va@nri-staffing.com

NRI Legal Resources®
Specializing in Legal Secretaries, Paralegals and Law Firm Administration
734 15th Street, NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20007
Phone: (202) 628-3022, Fax: (202) 628-2838, email: nri-legal-dc@nri-staffing.com

1302 Concourse Drive, Suite 2-3, Linthicum, MD 21090
Phone: (410) 850-4035, Fax: (410) 850-5263, email: nri-baltimore@nri-staffing.com.

NRI Staffing Resources®
Specializing in Office Support and Administrative Positions
11400 Rockville Pike, Suite 820, Rockville, MD 20852
Phone: (301) 230-0400, Fax: (301) 770-3198, email: nri-staffing-md@nri-staffing.com

1302 Concourse Drive, Suite 2-3, Linthicum, MD 21090
Phone: (410) 850-4035, Fax: (410) 850-5263, email: nri-baltimore@nri-staffing.com

1899 L Street, NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20036
Phone: (202) 466-4670, Fax: (202) 466-6593, email: nri-staffing-dc@nri-staffing.com

7617 Little River Turnpike, Suite 603, Annandale, VA 22003
Phone: (703) 658-1705, Fax: (703) 658-1493, email: nri-annandale@nri-staffing.com

10780-90 Parkridge Boulevard, Suite 140, Reston, VA 22191
Phone: (703) 391-8000, Fax: (703) 391-9091, email: nri-reston@nri-staffing.com

NRI Technology Solutions®
Specializing in IT and Technical Engineering Professionals
1899 L Street, NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20036
Phone: (202) 466-4670, Fax: (202) 466-6593, email: nri-technology@nri-staffing.com

10780-90 Parkridge Boulevard, Suite 140, Reston, VA 22191
Phone: (703) 391-8008, Fax: (703) 391-9091, email: nri-technology@nri-staffing.com

1302 Concourse Drive, Suite 2-3, Linthicum, MD 21090
Phone: (410) 850-4035, Fax: (410) 850-5263, email: nri-technology@nri-staffing.com