Hunting for a job in a recession

“You are retrenched!” That is a much dreaded verdict few would want to hear, especially during the current economical turmoil.

As the economy grinds to a halt, job seekers are hit with double whammy. First, the number of available jobs is shrinking at a frightening rate. Second, the number of job seekers is ballooning as more and more workers are being retrenched. The job market gets significantly more competitive as a result.

What can you do to secure a job in such a situation? It is going to be real tough though it is not impossible if you approach the unenviable task in a logical and rational manner.

Rather than panicking and worrying, it is more prudent to sit back and look at the situation from a totally different angle. That way, you can position yourself more favorably and create for yourself certain competitive advantages.

Understand what employers want
Start by understanding what employers want and ask if you are the best candidate to fulfill them. If you are the best candidate, obviously the employers would like to have you. If you are not, then you should work hard to become THE best candidate. Look at the big picture and understand how you can help your future employers succeed.

Stay focused
You have to stay focused on the type of role that you are applying for. As a headhunter, I see the common mistake that many job seekers make. They apply for any positions that are available. That would not work as their skill set is never going to be suitable for all positions and actually works against them. It shows that they are desperate and are not sure of what they want.

Look at different industries
Where your skills are transferable, you may want to look at different industries. If you are doing sales in the finance or IT sector, you may consider sales positions in the telco or health-care sector.

Research your target companies
The golden rule in job-hunting is to research your target companies thoroughly. You should never attend an interview without knowing about the company. It reflects your sloppy attitude towards your career and impairs your sincerity in trying to join an unknown organization.

Demonstrating a strong knowledge of your future employer will give the hiring managers an impressive opinion of yourself, your seriousness, attitude and your interests in the organization. They will have a higher confidence in you to succeed.

Customize your resume
You should never send a generic resume for the positions that you want. Customize your resume by highlighting the most relevant skills and achievements for the jobs. That will help you put greater emphasis on your potential value to the future employers.

Make full use of your network
Your network is key to your success. What you know may be important but who you know may be more important, especially during bad times. With so many candidates applying for the same job, a good recommendation from your network can do wonders to sway the selection decision in your favour.

Sell results, not skills
Employers want results, not skills. You may possess a whole plane-load of skills through your years of hard work. These will be of no use to the employers if they cannot produce results. Your skills are the necessary means to the ends (results). You should clearly explain how you can help your employers achieve the desired results using your skills, instead of just conveniently listing your skills.

List your achievements in your resume
Employers want contributors and problem-solvers. They don’t really want employees. Your resume must be a great sales tool to clinch the interview. It must include a list of achievements to demonstrate your capability and your ability to contribute or to solve problems. That will give you the competitive advantages over your competitors.

Think outside the box
Many people picture the recruitment section and the job-boards when they think of job-hunting. Nothing can be further from the truth. You should identify ideal potential employers and craft customized resumes to send to them. Explain clearly why they should consider employing you.
Contact everyone in your network. Make it clearly known that you are available and are looking for career opportunity in the job market.

Know your worth
Do you know your worth? Not many people do. A rough estimate of your worth can be a proportion of the value of your contributions to the employers. For a sales-related job, the contribution can be related to amount of sales generated. For other positions, it can be related to the amount of cost savings achieved, etc.

Knowing your worth is important as it enhances your bargaining power. You should highlight your worth to your interviewers diplomatically. If possible, let them feel that it is their loss in not employing you.

In the current economical turmoil, job seekers face an uphill task in securing a job. Though tough, it is not totally impossible to secure a job as long as you can approach the task in a logical and rational manner. You can look at the situation from a different perspective and create for yourself competitive advantages to enhance your chances of securing that elusive job.

Doing Business In A Recession

Doing Business In A Recession
By Stan Tan, MBA (email: ess@ltc-cpa.com)


It is official. The National Bureau of Economic Research (of USA) said on 1st December 2008, that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007. What does this mean for us, in this part of the world, Asia?

Undoubtedly, most people get worried about how long the recession is going to last, the security of their jobs, reduction to their salaries and their abilities to service their financial burdens.

Getting worried is not going to benefit you. Rather, one should keep a clear mind (I know that is tough!), be objective and figure out the best ways to not only survive but to do well in this recession.

What are the typical behaviors during a recession? Let us list out some:

- Businesses are understandingly more worried.
- Businesses cut down on their spending.
- Businesses think about survival instead of expansion.
- Businesses scrutinize their operations more closely.
- Businesses look at cost cutting seriously.
- All the bad news in the newspapers daily: retrenchment, bankruptcy, downsizing and even suicides.

So what should you do? Worry away your life? You can take comfort from the fact that, historically, recessions come and go. Conditions undoubtedly change for the better. Businesses and people who exploit the current opportunities and position themselves for the better times ahead, will do well and be market leaders in the future.

- Businesses are understandingly more worried.
Your customers are more worried. Talk to them and explore ways to help them. What are they actually worried about: revenues, profits, overheads, costs, survival? You will be surprised that as you talk to different clients, their worries can be different even though, in general, they are all more worried.

Offer them advice and try to sway their thoughts from the pessimistic to the optimistic. Such discussions help generally as they help to eradicate the gloom, to a certain extend. Such discussions with customers will go a long way to strengthen the rapport with them as well.

- Businesses cut down on their spending.
Remember. The key message is that businesses cut down spending. They do not stop spending altogether. Businesses reduce their spending and give their business to vendors that they trust; vendors that they view as offering them value for money.

During a recession, it is critical that your company brings itself in tune with the customers. They are fighting to cut cost (not foregoing value and quality!). Can you help them manage by offering them a recession rebate until conditions improve? Do not do the wrong thing by lowering your prices! That can send a very wrong signal to your customers, especially the very good customers. They may think that you have been over-charging them all the time, plus it will be difficult to raise the prices back to the higher levels.

- Cost management
I prefer the term cost management to cost cutting. We manage our cost more carefully in difficult times. Differentiate between the needs and the wants. Better still; re-classify the needs and the wants. Some ‘needs’ in the good times may actually become ‘wants’ now. Once this is done, forget about all the ‘wants’. For example, in good times, your staff will consider a PC with more functionalities as a need because of the increased work-load. During the current difficult time, can that PC be ‘downgraded’ to a ‘want’ instead?

Many companies use such difficult times to downsize by retrenching. It may be prudent to use retrenchment as a last resort. Why? Because it can be conservatively estimated that it costs a company more than S$100,000 to replace a manager in term of recruitment, training, lost production and opportunity cost. Unless your company is 100% sure that the staff is definitely no longer required for the long foreseeable future, it would be prudent to utilize other cost management methods such shorter work-hours or going on mandatory vacation. Retrenchment can lead to low morale (which can be already low in such situation) and diminish the company’s reputation as a good employer!

- Scrutinise your offerings.
Customers’ needs and focus may shift during difficult times. Like you, they are going to focus on only their needs. Fad items are out. Think of ways to help your customers whenever possible, be flexible and tailor your services to suit their needs for the current time. New offerings and corporate image are out; superior value and price performance are in.

-Manage your marketing.
It is not advisable to stop all your marketing activities altogether! On the contrary, companies should market harder to position themselves as the customers’ best help to get the best value for their money, reduce cost and to do well in the recession.

In fact, companies should use such time to negotiate for a better price with your marketing agent and lock in the favourable prices. Adjust your marketing message to focus on value for money, superior value and price performance for your customers.

-Manage your customers.
Do not lose your customers. It enhances your company reputation greatly when you can keep your customers for a long period. Studies have shown that it costs more than 5 times to gain a new customer than to keep an existing one. Be as flexible as far as you can go and keep your customers happy. That does not mean that you should agree to a loss-making deal. Your customers who are with you long enough will be reasonable, as long as you demonstrate to them that you are giving way to meet their demand. You must always remember that you are in business to make a profit.

-Maintain your core values.
Your company is successful because of your special core values, culture and your unique selling propositions. Do not lose track of these or your foundation of your success will be undermined.

-Innovate during this difficult time.
Your customers may have special requirements during this difficult time. You can work closely with your customers to understand these requirements and adapt your services to suit them. Such working relationship with customers is crucial and can go a long way to cement you as their key vendor/consultant.

-Build for the future.
Do you realize that you can actually get more for less during difficult times? When times are bad, your customers are not going to pay your premium price. They go elsewhere instead.

The same goes for recruitment of employees. Potential employees do not demand higher salaries in view of the softer labour demand. Progressive companies use such time to cherry-pick good talent that may be let off by their employers. Such talent can be a real gem when market conditions recover and can help your company stay way ahead of the pack.

Who knows? Such employees may just be the ones to help your company do well and overcome this difficult situation.

Conclusion
In conclusion, recessions come and go. Like the Chinese phrase, “wei ji”, you should focus on the “ji” (opportunity) instead of worrying about the “wei” (crisis). Understand your strengths and focus on your customers’ modified requirements for this difficult time. Work closely with your customers and adapt yourself to satisfy your customers. Exploit this difficult time to position yourself for the turn-around.

You will not only survive this recession. You should be coming out of it much stronger!


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Article by Stanley Tan, Director of ELTICI HR Consultancy Pte Ltd, a leading regional executive search firm. ELTICI HR has an established network of offices in the Asia Pacific and Europe, specializing in the search for middle-management and senior management executives and senior executive placement service.

Copyright 2008 by ELTICI HR CONSULTANCY PTE LTD, all rights reserved. This material may be freely copied and distributed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice and the author's name.
===============================================================

Recession-Proof Your Job

Copyright 2008 by ELTICI HR CONSULTANCY PTE LTD, all rights reserved. This material may be freely copied and distributed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice and the author's name.
====================================================================

Recession-Proof Your Job
by Stan Tan, MBA (email: ess@ltc-cpa.com)

In the current economy downturn, we may want to refer to the famous quote from John Kennedy, 35th President of the United States:
“Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.”

It may be appropriate here to modify this famous saying as follows:
“Ask not what your company can do for you - ask what you can do for your company.”

Why? Because if your company does not make it, neither will you. You lose your job and if you are lucky, you find your next job quickly. But ask yourself: how likely will that be during the current market situation.

Another timely quote from Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States:
“Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, 'Certainly I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it."

Companies are struggling! In the United States, former leading brand names like GM, Ford and Chrysler are fighting for survival. Companies in Singapore are foreseeing a difficult time ahead. So, what should you do? Whine and wait for the worst or stand up for your company and live to fight another day? Below are some suggestions how you can stand up and make a difference to recession-proof yourself.

Attitude counts a lot.
It is all about attitude. In the current difficult time, the importance of attitude cannot be over-emphasized. Positive attitude will help boost morale and enhance harmony and unity. This is made more important during difficult times where morale is typically low.

Take a macro view/look at the whole picture.
Look at the company as a whole and see yourself as part of the whole company. Do not wait to be told to do something. Now is the crucial time when you should look hard around and help the company to be stronger to be able to secure the diminished available business.
Be aware of and anticipate the needs of your co-workers and other departments. If you come across an article that might be useful to your co-workers, send it to them with a note.

Think of ways to generate revenues or cut costs.
During an economy downturn, the opportunity to generate revenues is diminished. Even then, we should always pro-actively think of ways to generate revenues. It is only when we ‘give up’ and stop thinking that we get into trouble.
We should keep the cost factor firmly in mind and cut costs wherever possible. Whatever costs that can be postponed should be postponed. Differentiate between needs and wants. All the wants should be firmly put on hold.
Cutting costs means that you can offer a more competitive price to your customers. Cutting costs is different from cutting corners. It means doing things in a more efficient way and doing away with non-essential stuff, without any adverse effect to quality.

Make positive contributions.
Make positive contributions whenever possible. Think of all possible ways to make positive contributions, even if it is not in your area of responsibility. Share your ideas willingly and be helpful to everyone.

Talk up your contributions.
There is no need to boast about your contributions. But keeping silent about contributions is not going help either. Subtly mention how your contributions have helped and offer more help whenever possible.

Doing your job well will not help.
In good times, doing your job well may suffice. In the current difficult situation, doing well just is not enough. Why? Because of the diminished available business opportunity, we must do our job exceptionally well to be able win the projects.

Build a strong rapport with other departments.
Unity is strength. Unity enhances morale. This is more crucial during the current downturn when morale can be low.

Make yourself stand out. Strive to be leader in your industry.
In such difficult times, it becomes more essential be best as we are competing for a limited number of available projects in the market. You can write articles, do a presentation at a seminar or even make use of the current trend and use a blog.

Get your skills up to date.
Ask yourself. If your skill is outdated, how can you contribute to the company? During the downturn, normal people start to worry. Progressive people think of how to contribute to the company by upgrading their skills, in line with the company’s requirements. Doing so will demonstrate to your company your positive attitude.

Continue networking.
It is more about who you know than what you know. What you know is important of course, but who you know can go a long way to help you succeed in difficult times. With your strong network and through the network of your network, you will be surprised how much can be achieved. This is particularly true in the current difficult time.

Be visible.
Be visible. In such difficult times, the company needs all contributions it can get. Now is not the best time to go on long vacation. The risk is that you may return to find out your job has become redundant. Make yourself useful and visible. Offer whatever help you can to whichever department that needs help.

====================================================================
Copyright 2008 by ELTICI HR CONSULTANCY PTE LTD, all rights reserved. This material may be freely copied and distributed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice and the author's name.