Many of us will have heard of an ‘Elevator Pitch’ as a key asset in the armoury of a sales person. In a few brief words an effective Elevator Pitch will define the unique ability of a proposition to deliver real and sustainable value to a potential customer.

A carefully polished and practiced Elevator Pitch will convey a compelling and memorable message that encourages the customer to take a desired course of action – and all before the mythical elevator, reaches the fourth floor!

So, if we can see the value of a professional, structured Elevator Pitch for a salesperson why isn’t it seen as a basic requirement for a job hunter?

Well, it should be, it’s as simple as that!

A job hunt is a sales campaign, or to be more specific a “Solution Sales” campaign. The job hunter is both sales person AND the ‘value add’ solution. On one hand that can be is challenging, but on the other hand it gives the job hunter one significant advantage...

When it comes to searching for a job, it can overwhelm your entire life – at least it feels like it. You put in all these hours crafting an awesome resume, more hours seeking out job openings that interest you (and some that really don’t), and after multiple follow up calls you feel like you’ve accomplished something. Yet, after failed interviews, or no interviews at all, you feel like you’ve just lost a life in the game of job seeking and are back at the first level all over again. Frustrated, you’re ready to throw that computer and your resume out the window.

Before you do that, we want to let you in on a few secrets that will help curb that frustration. Here are 8 job search secrets that you need to know now:

Secret #1: 80% of job openings are never even posted online.

What?! 80%! Surely we’re joking right? Nope. Believe it or not, but the vast majority of job postings that you are scouring through are only the tip of the iceberg. Most of the...

We all know the frustration of sending out a million and one applications and never getting a call back on a single one. It seems that a lot of employers today don’t give a second thought to leaving those looking for a job out in the dark. You know that they don’t treat their customers like that, but potential employees are a different story it seems. Job seekers respond to those ads that are many times just written horribly, usually vague, and sometimes insulting with the pay descriptions. Yet, we respond anyway because either we really want that job, or simply have to have one no matter where it is.

If you have worked your fingers off sending out resumes and answering countless ads, and you are getting no call backs or interviews, then something is really wrong. Even if the whole process is just broken in some cases, there should be a way to be able to sift through the crud and get a great job or at the least a call back. So, what can you do to get through and actually...

The JobzLab™ concept is simple: it pitches you, the job seeker, as a product, and getting a job as a sales process where you must sell yourself; the product, to the employer; the effective buyer of your services.

There are five simple stages to the sales process:

1. Research your customers (employers)

2. Know your competition (other candidates)

3. Design a great product (develop skills and experience)

4. Pitch your product professionally (apply for jobs and interview effectively)

5. Close the deal (get the job, the salary and the terms you want)

Let’s consider researching customers, or in this case, employers. Before applying for a job – and certainly before applying for interviews – research and understand the employer’s background. This means more than just glancing at the website. It means reviewing their website closely and systematically asking questions like:

– ‘What are the company’s values and do they align with mine?’

...

To wrap up this series of posts focusing on Negotiating a Job Offer, we take a moment to pin down secrets 9 through 15 in detail.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to read our previous two posts on this subject, we encourage you to do so in order to gain the maximum benefit from this insight. >>> POST ONE >>> POST TWO

Let’s start where we left off, at Secret #9

Secret #9: Learn To Negotiate Everything Together

Just like looking at the job offer as a whole, you also want to look at negotiating everything together as a whole. For example, a company makes you an offer, but you think that the salary is a bit lower than it should be, you ask them about raising the salary. Once they come back with a better salary, you then tell them there are two other things that you would like to talk about. This is a big no no. The company will assume that since you only asked for one thing, i.e. salary, then you’re ready to take the position after...

We know that the saying ‘Fail To Prepare, Prepare To Fail’ is a cliché and has forever been trotted out by every teacher, boss and parent – but that is only because it’s so true. Preparation should be at the heart of everything you do in your quest for a new position in the next phase of your career – It’s as simple as that.

Why Is Preparation So Important?

As a rule, good things just don’t happen by accident, and if your plan is to wait for lady luck to bring you everything you want in life, then you may also want to plan on getting comfortable, because it’s more than likely that you’re going to be waiting a considerably long time. Good things, crucial things, the things that really shape our lives, like finding and securing the right job, need planning – they need you to prepare.

Keep in mind – Preparation is a competitive skill that it will pay dividends many times over.

But preparation...

As we stated in our previous post – negotiations for job offers are anything but a walk in the park. They can be intimidating, stressful, and downright scary, and every single situation is different. It can be hard, almost impossible to know what to say and do so that you don’t completely blow a great job offer. How do you handle negotiations? What can you do to ensure that you get the best possible offer for the job that you want? Well, before we get into the secrets that you’ll need to negotiate successfully, let’s take a look at three different scenarios that are the most common: (Outlined in our previous post)

It is important to keep in mind that every single situation is different, but there are some great tactics, strategies and secrets that can help you get through many of the problems that most people face when trying to negotiate with potential employers and those they already work for. There are fifteen actually, and for the sake of...

In today’s world, negotiations for job offers are anything but a walk in the park. They can be intimidating, stressful, and downright scary, and every single situation is different. It can be hard, almost impossible to know what to say and do so that you don’t completely blow a great job offer. How do you handle negotiations? What can you do to ensure that you get the best possible offer for the job that you want? Well, before we get into the secrets that you’ll need to negotiate successfully, let’s take a look at three different scenarios that are the most common:

Scenario 1: For the last four years you have been working at the same company. You pull your own weight and have never gotten a bad review or comment from your supervisors. However, a recruiter has been calling a lot lately, telling you that you could – and should – earn more somewhere else. You like your job and the company you work for, so you don’t want to just quit but...

How Painting By Numbers Colors In Your Resume

We’ve probably all heard the phrase, “Lies, damned lies, and statistics”?

Well, hopefully we are all in agreement that you never, ever lie on your resume – period.

However, numbers, and especially the right numbers, can play an incredibly powerful role in getting key messages across on your resume, and getting them across in a way that really catches the eye of the hiring manager. Using numbers to quantify your achievements, your skills, your attendance record or your personal development, can have incredible impact, and after all, impact is what you’re aiming for isn’t it?

Speaking the Employer’s Language

Look at it this way: numbers are just another language. It’s not rocket science. All we’re doing is using the same language to describe our achievements that employers use to evaluate staff performance.

Just about every single one of us has our performance at work assessed using...

Making ‘The’ Call Is Never As Tough As It Seems

Never before has it been more important for candidates to understand the importance of how they interact with prospective employers.

Whether you are setting up an appointment for an interview, receiving post-interview feedback, or making that dreaded ice-breaking call to apply for a role or introduce yourself and your skills, you must always be in top form.

How do you achieve that?

Preparing for the Call

Don’t ever rely on your memory when preparing to call an employer. There is nothing like finding yourself in the spotlight to erase everything from your mind and leave you stuttering.

Before you make any call to a prospective employer, consider what you want to achieve. Once you are clear on that, figure out what you are going to say to reach your objective.

A call without a plan is a waste of time.

Do it this way:

• Research – if it is an ice-breaking call, familiarise yourself with the employer and the...