Announcing Jobpreneurship™ 101 – From College To Dream Jobs!

We are pleased to announce the availability of my latest book, Jobpreneurship™ 101 – From College To Dream Jobs.

What is different? EVERYTHING most people are doing is not working well in today’s chaotic world.  Why? The world has changed. Business as usual is no longer usual. Business risks and threats are reducing interest in hiring. Fewer jobs means greater competition for the remaining jobs that exist.

If you are doing the same thing as everyone else, you will find similar results as everyone else. What results are they finding?

If you are ready to learn how the insiders and successful few go about getting a job, then you need to see what others are saying about Jobpreneurship™ 101 – From College To Dream Jobs.

“Jim Villwock applies his wealth of experience to the critical topic of job searching. A book for young and old, novice and experienced, Jim teaches you how to get hired into the position you want!“

Marshall Goldsmith – World-renowned executive coach and author of the New York Times best-sellers, MOJO and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There; He is acclaimed by the Wall Street Journal and Forbes Magazine, and named by the American Management Association as one of the fifty great thinkers of the last century.  He has authored 23 books on leadership.

“This book should be required reading for all college seniors and for all who contemplate a job/career change. In clear terms it presents the steps needed to identify and secure employment even in the most turbulent economic times.”

Carter Hopkins, Former Director of Alumni Career Services at U. Va. Alumni Association

“His description of the job hunting process is revolutionary compared  to the usual method
most people take…”

June Erickson, Atlanta Business School Alliance (Alumni Groups from top U.S. business schools)

“Jobpreneurship 101™ is more than a tool to help you find a job, it is a practical, powerful and proven approach to creating a habit of effective career management. It is applicable to all — college age through senior executive. As a leader, mentor and coach I enjoy helping individuals reach their potential. I encourage you to add this to your must read list.“

Alex Perwich, President, Contained Energy LLC
; Former CEO, Golden Key International Honour Society (world’s largest)
; Lieutenant Colonel, US Army (Retired)

If you wish to check out our new book, click here.

Job Searching is a Business to Business Sale, NOT a Consumer Sale; Part Three

How can a hiring mistake harm a company?

How about an EEOC error causing a law suit? Some companies have paid out millions.

How about a disgruntled or negative attitude hire that sours morale, spreads rumors, creates strife, or does not follow rules impacting productivity?

How about a good intentioned employee, who makes poor decisions without involving management, that costs millions in excess inventory, uncollected customer payments, wasted advertising dollars, low productivity sales teams,…etc.

How about a less than honest employee who steals from the company? I have seen cost millions of dollars.

How about a naïve or foolish employee who says the wrong thing to a customer or to the media? Customer good will is lost. Lawsuits can easily occur. Bad media and publicity exposure could unwind hundreds of millions of dollars in marketing advertising and media relations.

Just take the recent BP oil spill. Was an employee somewhere at the heart of the problem? The cost is $20 billion and counting.

Are these hiring mistakes or managing mistakes? Both. Managing starts with hiring. Ultimately, the manager is responsible for the hiring decision and writing the specification that is given to HR. If the manager makes a mistake or does not hire or manage well, her neck could be on the chopping block.

Wise managers eliminate problems (retrain or fire) and learn from them (tighten hiring requirements).  The decision is theirs. The risk is theirs. Burned once, most managers don’t want to be burned a second time. Executives, by the time they are at this level, have been burned numerous times in different ways.

You may have personally been burnt by someone spreading a false rumor, stealing from you, or worse. In business, the manager’s career and reputation is on the line. His bonus and promotional opportunities are also on the line.

That means, your fit to the job description requirements is really only 50% of the story. Your fit is merely the first step to join the pool of other technically qualified people.

The hiring decision is based upon unspoken questions, such as “can I trust you?”, “will you help me get promoted or be self-promoting?”, “will you do what I say (to manage the risk) or be a cowgirl?”, “do I like you?”.

These factors are not decided by HR or other gatekeepers. HR is there to help the hiring process just like procurement helps the buying process. But in both cases, the decision maker is the manager who is responsible – or her boss.

That means the approach to selling to a business is FAR more complicated than selling to a consumer.

The good news is that you can learn the process while your competition keeps assuming the hiring manager is just like a consumer.

Job Searching is a Business to Business Sale, NOT a Consumer Sale; Part Two

Now let’s talk more about the buyer decision for a larger company, such as a Fortune 1000. If you want to work at a company under $50 million in revenue, the characteristics may resemble more of a consumer sale.

A consumer personally decides what they want to buy. If they make a mistake, the impact is usually limited and not a significant impact to them. Buying a house or a car are large purchases but can usually be resold with limited loss and personal impact.

Note well: A consumer decision rarely impacts others outside of their family.

A business buyer usually has specific needs or consolidates consumer spending into leveraged buys.

Business commodity spending, such as toilet paper or printer ribbons, are usually purchased in large quantities in a bid process. The vendor who has the needed product at the best price with the best servicing relationship usually wins.

However, most business purchases are for specific technologies, raw materials, consulting, and items that could significantly impact their business. To be competitive, they have rules designed to control what is purchased to attempt to only buy what is needed to drive their business forward – at the lowest cost. But that cost is rarely the price paid for the product. The impact of a business purchase is immense with hidden costs and risks.

Let’s take a simple example. Say the company is buying HP laptops. What is the risk of going out and buying a Dell laptop for yourself? First, the price is probably more than buying off a corporate contract. Second, the company has to pay someone to service the laptops. By now having two vendors, the costs for parts and service knowledge, has increased. Third, the IT software strategy may require interfaces and memory/disk requirements that your new Dell laptop does not have. Bad decision? You bet. You will probably get your hand slapped.

This example gets a lot worse depending upon what is purchased for the company. If the buyer makes a major mistake, the impact can be the entire company. I have see some companies go out of business for making naïve or poor decisions. Everyone can be impacted. Management take mistakes very seriously. A wrong decision or not following the rules could easily cost your job.

The business buyer decision impacts the business. Bad decisions result in slaps on the wrist to being fired.

This has a dramatic impact on how companies buy – and hire.

Job Searching is a Business to Business Sale, NOT a Consumer Sale; Part One

One of the biggest mistakes that job seekers make is to assume that looking for a job is no different than how they shop for items that they want. That sounds reasonable. It is what most of us know. It is all that most of us ever see! However, for job seekers, it is tragically wrong.

Now, I can just tell you it is wrong or I can explain why it is wrong and set the stage for what you should consider doing.

Let’s start by comparing consumer spending to business spending.

Consumer spending is mass marketing. The idea is that if you spread the message to enough people, buyers will show up and buy your product or service. Think about TV or magazine advertisements. They play to broad audiences – whoever is watching the program or reading the magazine. Such a market could be hundred of millions of potential viewers. Further, the product may get lost among hundreds of alternative products for hundreds of millions of people to consider.

That is why billions of dollars are spent on advertising and branding to become the most predominate product in the public’s eyes, hopefully resulting in large numbers of people buying their product.

There is some market segmentation, but it is usually to broad categories like 15-20 year olds. That only contains tens of millions of possible product buyers.

The pricing of these products is usually relatively low. The products are usually commodities, like shampoo, where large numbers of competitive alternatives keep pricing competitively low. Ongoing profit depends upon large numbers of people buying their product over and over again. That is, the buying public “consume” the product and have to buy more at some time in the future. That is why the buying public are often called “consumers.”

The key term here is “commodities.” Unless you demonstrate unique value, you are viewed as one of many to choose from, i.e. a commodity. It is hard to stand out from the crowd if you are viewed as just another one in the crowd.

On the other hand, Business spending is usually divided into two categories. The first is what is commonly purchased on a routine basis. These are called consumable items or commodities. The second spending type is specified product (i.e., for raw materials or parts used in manufacturing, consulting services, computer solutions, and a host of uniquely needed and higher valued products and services). This is true regardless of the “business” you are in, including public and private sectors.

The business buying process, whether through HR or procurement, usually begins with a job description or a specification for a specific need that is already approved by management. The range of buying includes low value and low priced (low cost labor) to high value and high priced (higher skilled and valued labor).

Here is your question: Are you a low value consumer product (commodity) that people will buy (hire), use up, and buy more elsewhere? Or, are you a unique person who can bring value to a company?

Are You a Victim or a Victor?

There many victims in this world. In fact, anyone can claim to be a victim. The poor may not have enough food, clothing, education, healthcare, nurturing, safety, role models, etc. The rich may have been spoiled, not enough time with loving parents, too much freedom, too much money, too many temptations, too much unstructured free time, too much access to drugs, sex, and mischief. Perhaps you are in the middle but had a negative teacher experience, a professor who could not teach, a boss who was unethical, etc. It is easy to blame others or our circumstances. It emotionally feels good to blame the system, blame our situation, and ignore our own responsibility. You might get compassion from a court of law or others but feeling like a victim does not solve anything. You will just remain a victim.

We have far fewer victors. A victor does not ignore the injustices in life. Instead, they feed off of wanting their lives to be different. They take any negative energy and turn it into positive motivation to become different. They want to provide food, clothing, opportunities, a better world and a better life for themselves and for their children and grand children. They choose to win at the game of life. They get up each morning determined to break through their past, their excuses, and their weaknesses to make a difference, to maximize their potential, and to ultimately leave a legacy.

Being a victim is easy. You don’t have to do anything.

Being a victor is hard. You have to be determined, work hard, persevere, and surround yourself with other like-minded victors to become successful. Many future victors are often surprised how many older victors are willing to reach out a hand to help those who are determined to win in life. These older victors have won already and are now working on paying it forward in order to leave a legacy for future generations of victors.

At the end of the day, the difference is what you decide to do with your life.

Will you be a victim or a victor?

The Financial Challenge for Graduates Trying to A Job

The first shock will be having to go home. The article cites that in 2009, 80% moved back home to Mom and Dad after graduation. Since the trend has been increasing, the 2010 numbers may likely be higher. You can read the full USA Today article by clicking here.

When they arrive home, many will have to start paying back their college loans. While the national average is cited as around $23 thousand, if you went to school in a top tier school in an expensive state, that number could easily be much, much higher. Unless their parents keep paying for them, the financial pressures will quickly mount.

For some, their parents may also be unemployed and financially struggling. The unforeseen train wreck may be just around the corner.

I have heard some people suggest that this year’s graduates, as well as for the last two years, will be the “lost generation.” That refers to far fewer getting jobs and lower starting salaries for those who do get a job. By starting with a lower salary, the impact to lifetime earnings can be staggering.

If you do the math, ongoing support at home + paying off student loans + job hunting expenses + risk of parents running out of money + the lifetime loss of earnings (from starting at a lower salary) = a frightening scenario for today’s graduates. Yet the article suggests that 50% of graduates are confident that they will get a job.

I hope that they do. I suspect that those who assume that the job will come to them or that simply trying to get a job the same way that their parents used to get a job will be very disappointed. The math, for most, just will not work.

So, what are their choices? The article suggests: a) staying in school, b) starting their own business, c) picking jobs that don’t fit their majors, d) taking internships to get experience, and e) accepting job offers when they get an offer.  These are all reasonable but miss the most important point; which is learning how to competitively sell and market themselves to get a job now and develop the skills that will help them develop a lifetime of success.

Of course, most people think that getting their resume updated, applying online for jobs, and learning how to interview is all that you need. That is why I am trying to get the message out about Jobpreneurshipä. If you have heard our presentations, attended our seminars, read our newsletters, blogs, testimonials, and books, then you know that our message is a paradigm shift to many but simply words of wisdom shared from insiders who want to help others. Those who want to take action can increase their opportunity for career, family, and future success.

If you agree with our message, please tell others about Job Doctors.  Thank you for helping us help others.

The Shocking Challenge for Graduates Getting A Job

The employment news on Friday, June 4, 2010 was that unemployment fell to 9.7% nationally. That sounds like an improvement. However, when you peal back the number, less than 10% of the improvement came from the private sector – far less than expected. The improvements came from government hiring but are clouded by how many are related to temporary Census workers.  The bottom line is that the employment picture for everyone has not really improved. The stock market understands this math and the DJIA fell 323 points.

So, what does that mean for graduates? First, most students don’t really know what is going on. They often believe that getting a job is something to think about when they graduate; and not before. The real shock will be when they enter the transition market that over 30 million Americans are experiencing.

Let’s look at some of the information provided by USA Today on May 19, 2010. You can read the article by clicking here.

First, 2.4 million new students have recently graduated. That does not include graduate level students. Many of them will struggle to get an interview, much less get hired.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics is cited as showing five job seekers for every opening. Who knows where they get their numbers. My HR sources tell me that hundreds and thousands are applying for posted positions. I will let you decide which you believe is true for your dream job.

What is astounding is that the percentage of employers planning to hire recent graduates is continuing to go down! The article cites 79% in 2007, 58% in 2008, and 44% this year with last year around the same number.

There is no question that the markets are incredibly competitive with little improvement seen for the next several years.

However, many of these graduates have been accustomed to getting along and not worrying about the future. Many, not finding a job, will simply go back home while others will assume that their parents will continue to pay for their needs. To be blunt, that phenomena will probably be increasing. But believing that they should not have to compete for jobs or assuming someone, like their parents, will help them get a job is living in a bubble that, for many, will eventually end poorly.

The conclusion is that, “are simply not enough jobs to go around.”

I agree with the numbers but not with the implied conclusion. If everyone just sat around, being a victim, the sentiment would be reasonable. However, not everyone will just be sitting around. The ones who get hired will be those who are hungry enough to decide to learn how to compete regardless of the economy. Their attitude will be, “no excuses!” They will choose to learn how to cope and succeed in today’s market. When the market improves, they will be ahead of their peers and far ahead in knowing how to get their ultimate dream jobs.

So how will they learn these skills? Job Doctors is here to teach them. Few may wish to learn, but I want to be there to help them learn the secrets that insiders have always used and that anyone who wishes to be competitive in today’s marketplace must use to be working while others go home to their parents house waiting for more jobs to “go around.”

How about you? Are you taking steps to learn to be competitive? Can you help others know about these insider secrets so that they can also start moving toward their dream job?

Helping College Students and Graduates Get Jobs

The challenges for experienced workers to get a job in today’s market are sobering. The challenges for a college student to land a job after graduation are far worse.

In today’s market, this demographic is caught in the middle. First they are competing against double digit general unemployment, experienced people willing to take a step down just to have a job, retirees wanting to return to the labor force, graduates from prior years who are still unemployed and far fewer companies who are interested in hiring anyone.

I want to help. I will need your help for me to help them. Who is “them”? It may be you, your children, friends, or friend’s children.

My program includes a new book that will be out this summer, speaking at colleges, and offering seminars designed for college students and college graduates.

Will this program solve the problem? No. However, the information that I will be sharing will provide a competitive advantage to those who have the opportunity to listen and to learn.

So, for me to help them, I need your help.

The best way for me to help that population is to work within existing college and alumni programs that are already set up for speakers and continuing education materials for career days, assemblies, student leadership gatherings, conferences, etc.

If you are interested in finding out more, please check out http://www.JobDoctorsInternational.com/speaking/college.

If you are interested in helping me, what I am requesting is that you consider either forwarding my link ( http://www.JobDoctorsInternational.com/speaking/college ) or my brochure to anyone whom you know in your college or alumni organization with any of the following titles:

• Director/Coordinator of Student Affairs
• Coordinator of Greek Life
• Director of Career Services
• Director of Residential Life
• Presidents of Alumni Groups
• Trusted College Staff Relationships
• Trusted Relationships in Associations interested in helping college/graduate students

Please consider helping me to get my urgently needed message to the next generation. For some of us that might mean helping others, perhaps even your children, get off their parent’s dole and out of their parent’s house to move on to their own life adventure.

If you need any brochures or information, please feel free to call me at 888-420-6861 or email me at Jim@JobDoctorsIntl.com.

Tips On What Employers Look For In A College Graduate

The key question for any job hire is “can I trust them, based upon their resume and performance history, to perform well?” For a college graduate hire, this question becomes more difficult since the knowledge, experience, and expertise of a college graduate is largely untested. That means more hiring risk.

So, what HR and hiring managers generally look for are clues to find the best fit candidate with the best performance history (grades, extra-curricular activities, awards, and references).  What top career coaches recommend is, in addition to the above, helping candidates learn how to market and sell themselves and how to use relationships to change the fear of making a wrong hire into the excitement of finding someone who “gets” how the real process works. Those who understand and use the “real process” are more likely to have a higher potential for their personal future success and to become a credit to the person who hired them. Instead of the hiring manager fearing making a wrong hire, they see you as a guaranteed performer.

What is the “real process?” It includes combining personal development, marketing, sales, relationship development, and performance strategies. These are what top achievers are using for both job seeking and career development.

College Career Services Tips For Alumni

I was recently asked, “How helpful can a college or university’s career services office be to alumni who are looking for jobs? Some colleges and universities provide services (free or for a fee) for job seeking alums, including resume writing, mock interviews and job listings. If so, what are the best way to utilize them?”

My response is:

• Using traditional methods, career service training value is rather limited. In addition, college career services offerings to alumni are seeing a significant growth in similar offerings from other groups. For example, churches across the country have begun career ministries which provide resume reviews, how to interview, job listings, and job search tip presentations. Also, the number of people hanging out a shingle to “review resumes and coach” is growing dramatically, with the quality of their services ranging wildly.

• What are my suggestions for career service offices to add more value to alumni? First, they already have strong relationships with many companies and alumni. This is an area that has tremendous value if properly leveraged.  This is a different mindset than job postings. Job postings are like cold calls. Instead, using the Relationship Referral Model is one of the top ten secrets to getting a good job quickly.

• My second suggestion is for career services offices to consider the need for a new paradigm. Resumes, interviews, and job listing cold calling is fine in a robust, low employment economy.  Today, proven strategies of personal development, marketing, sales, relationship development, and repeatable performance are what top achievers are using for both job seeking and career development. Career service offices may want to consider how they can partner with third parties who can introduce these dimensions through speaking engagements, books, and seminars. By tapping into leading edge thought leaders, college career services can make their offerings a guaranteed value to their alumni.

• If your college career service office does not offer these suggestions, you may want to speak to them. By you helping them to help you, you both win.

What suggestions or comments do you have?

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