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Ethical Outplacement or Retrenchment

Outplacement / retrenchment is a stressful time for both those losing their jobs and those involved in administering the process such as HR staff and managers. Employers are obliged to make the process as dignified and respectful as possible, and to do so sensitively and fairly. The Tripartite Advisory on Managing Excess Manpower and Responsible Retrenchment (from the Ministry of Manpower – updated March 2020) elaborates on how companies should do this. In particular, MoM stresses that employers should assist those being retrenched in finding an alternative job and recommends the provision of outplacement assistance programmes or outplacement support services.

Outplacement support provides benefits to both the affected employees and to the employer.

For the displaced employees, outplacement support reduces the stress and anxiety the situation causes, and helps them maintain a positive outlook. Frequently the support provided reframes the awfulness of the situation into one of opportunity for the employees. Most importantly, outplacement support makes their job search more efficient and effective, and reduces the timeframe in finding another suitable position.

For the employer, the benefits of providing outplacement support to retrenched employees includes reducing the inevitable impact on the organisation’s reputation and brand, and helps preserve the goodwill of terminated employees. It also helps improve the morale, motivation, and productivity of remaining employees, and makes the firing process somewhat easier for managers and HR staff involved.

Outplacement support should be provided as soon as possible, preferably the same day that affected employees are notified. There are two benefits to this: Firstly, it provides immediate emotional support to those being retrenched, and secondly, it facilitates them in starting their job search immediately and in a planned way. The job search strategy part of the outplacement support will ensure that the affected employees avoid the many mistakes that job hunters are prone to.

Outplacement support has four main components. Firstly, as mentioned above, it is essential that each retrenched employee has a personal job search strategy that utilises the three approaches to finding jobs. This is the primary focus of outplacement support.

Secondly, the retrenched employee needs an impactful resume that will be noticed by those hiring managers it is sent to. An impactful and focused resume secures an interview. Thirdly, the retrenched employees as job applicants need to know how to convert job interviews into job offers. Most outplacement support services provide these three components. The fourth component is career choice and planning which gets the retrenched employee to look wider than their previous job. If one company is reducing its headcount in a particular function, it is probable that other companies may be doing so either now or in the not-so-distant future. It is therefore advisable for people to look at other jobs that they may be suitable for. This career choice process also helps individuals identify and compile their skills, strengths and work values – all of which supports their overall job search process.

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Job Searching during the Pandemic Lockdown

The COVID19 pandemic has led to an economic slowdown and the closure, hopefully temporarily, of many businesses. Numerous people have entered an already flat labour market and are seeking either permanent or temporary jobs. One area to focus on for the latter are where extra people are needed in coping with the effects of the pandemic, areas such as delivery drivers for the increased demand for food and other commodities, temperature screening, stocking supermarket shelfs, ancillary health services assistants, etc. Search these out.

Otherwise, use the extra available time to reflect on your future career. What is it that you want to work at for the immediate foreseeable future? What type of job(s) or career would you be passionate about? What type of job(s) or career will bring you job satisfaction and fulfilment, and therefore will perform well in? You may as well use this downtime to decide on a job that will make you happy!

Then have an honest look at your resume and at your skills-set. Take the time to upgrade your resume and have a separate version focused on the different type of jobs you are interested in. A generic resume rarely gets past the screening process, so work out what the key requirements are for each position you are interested in and make sure those keywords are prominent in the first half of the first page of your resume.

You should also do this for your LinkedIn profile - though your LinkedIn profile needs to be aimed at a wider audience than any of the versions of your resume. Google how to improve your LinkedIn profile and update it.

In relation to your skills, list ALL of the skills you have (those developed outside of work as well). Go through this list and mark those that you are good at. Then, from your list of skills that you are good at, mark those that you enjoy doing. These are your strengths - the skills that you are both good at and enjoy doing.

It is an interesting exercise to reflect on your strengths and see if there is a job that would facilitate you using as many of these as possible. When you work using your strengths, you not only perform well, but your job energises you and you feel satisfied and fulfilled.

Also, from your strengths list - using the words and phrases you used to describe your strengths, write a paragraph about yourself - this is a Strengths Profile. Incorporating this into both your resume’s ”Summary” or ”Professional Profile” and into the ”About” section of your LinkedIn profile will really add impact to both.

Then do a gap analysis between what you currently have in terms of QSE’s (qualifications, skills and experience) and those required for your target jobs. Identify those QSE’s you need to acquire or need to improve or update, and take action to do so!

Taking these steps now will leave you well placed when the labour market begins to recover.

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The Challenge for Workers Over 50

Harder to secure a new job

In general, the average time to find a new job in Singapore is three months – unless you are over fifty years of age that is, then it takes a lot longer. At 50 years old and above, there are fewer calls for interview per number of resumes submitted, and the interviews they do get are more focused on what they don’t have rather than what they can do. Frequently too the salary on offer is closer to that early career candidates with little experience could expect. When employers state that they ‘value’ the experience of older workers, often they don’t mean a monetary value!

A greater danger of retrenchment

Older workers generally earn a higher salary than younger people not only because of their experience, but because they have simply been in that company or that position for a longer time. They have received more increments over time and thus receive a higher salary. While this is generally good for the older worker, it unfortunately is a threat to their career. When companies plan to downsize, especially when they do so to reduce costs or to “protect future profitability”, those in greatest danger of retrenchment are the older workers on higher salaries.

While these challenges and threats definitely exist for older workers, all is not doom and gloom! With a little planning, there are actions that older workers can take to make their job search easier or reduce the likelihood of being selected for ‘outplacement’ – a sanitised way of talking about retrenching workers!

Staying up-to-date

Many older workers are perceived to be out-of-date in regards to the latest technologies and methods. In some cases this is true where especially new technology has surpassed their once prized expertise. Sometimes the new technology itself replaces an older worker’s job, but more often, because they are so busy doing their job as they always have, they haven’t managed to stay up-to-date with new ways of working that seemed to have crept in unnoticed.

All workers, irrespective of their job, career, profession or industry, and especially those in their 40’s and 50’s, need to ensure that they stay abreast of developments in their field. Read relevant trade magazines, either hard-copy or online; follow LinkedIn groups pertinent to your job area and industry; attend appropriate trade shows or conferences; and above all, make sure you attend up-skilling training workshops provided by your employer or outside bodies.

Staying up-to-date reduces your chances of being made redundant, and for job seekers, being up-to-date shortens the time it takes to find a new job.

Show them what you’ve got!

The catchphrase in job hunting is that a focused resume gets you an interview, and an effective interview gets you the job! This is especially important for older workers. A generic resume is unlikely to get anyone an interview - resumes must be focused and impactful to be effective. Older workers who are seeking a new job must ensure that their resume is focused on the main requirements of the specific job they are chasing.

Bear in mind that a resume is not simply about you, it is about what you can do for a particular employer. This is a different mindset than writing about yourself in your resume – what you need to write about is what you can do for that employer. Research the requirements for the job and make it abundantly clear that you have the experience and skills needed to that job excellently. And at interview, you must be proactive in demonstrating that you meet the main requirements and show how your greater experience adds value.

When in a job, make sure you possess the current requirements of the job to reduce the chance of retrenchment

Older workers in a job also need to research the current key requirements for doing the job well – research these requirements as if you were about to apply for your own job – what would your employer look for in candidates if you job was vacant? Then map yourself against these requirements – any gaps are your urgent development requirements! Make sure to ‘plug these gaps’ by attending a relevant training course or getting the necessary experience.

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Using Job Boards for Your Job Search

Using job boards is the most common approach to searching for a new job in Singapore. People log on to online sites such as JobsCentral, Job Street, Jobs DB, ST Jobs, Jobs Bank (now renamed MyCareersFuture.sg), Monster, etc, register their details, and indicate the industries and types of jobs they are interested in.

Many of these sites facilitate the uploading of a resume too – but that is a problem in itself as the resume will be generic or, at best, focused for one particular job but not for others. When recruiters search through a database for relevant resumes for a particular job, they use specific keywords related to that job. Those resumes focused on such a job will contain the appropriate keywords and will be selected for review. Generic resumes do not get selected in such a process as they lack a sufficient number of the appropriate keywords.

No wonder then that job boards have the lowest success rate in finding a new job – it is said that the success rate is between 3% and 4%, meaning that for every one hundred applications made or resumes submitted, you might only hear back from three or 4 of them!

When registered with a number of job boards, job hunters have to regularly log on and see what jobs the board has available – the more job boards a person is registered with, the more time this takes during their job search. A better approach is to use an aggregator such as Indeed.com. Aggregators do the searching for you. Much like Skyscanner that searches for flights on all airline and flight internet sites, or like Trivago that searches all hotel internet sites for rooms, Indeed.com searches through all the job boards as well as companies that advertise jobs on their own websites. So rather than you having to log onto multiple sites and spend time searching through them, Indeed.com does this for you.

For Indeed.com to work effectively for you, a bit of ‘trial and error’ is required in getting the search parameters exactly right for you. This may take a few attempts until Indeed.com is bringing up jobs that you are interested in. Once it does, you can leave it to do your job searching for you!

Another site that is increasingly getting good reviews from job hunters is Google Jobs / Google for Jobs. Google is the most advanced search engine on the internet and it makes sense to harness that search engine power to assist you in your job search. Before you use it though, it makes sense to google how to use it! If you are looking for the job of Business Development Manager and type that into Google, Google interprets this as a search for Business AND Development AND Manager, and will present you with millions of pages with these words. So, when using a phrase like Business Development Manager, you should enclose the job title in quotation marks – “Business Development Manager”. Google will then present you with only those types of jobs.

Like all job boards, it takes a little bit of ‘trial and error’ to get it right, and when you do, the results are much more useful.

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How to Focus Your Resume

We keep hearing how important it is to have a ‘focused resume’, and that generic or unfocused resumes do not make it past the initial screening. But how do you actually focus a resume?

An employer or hiring manager wants to quickly see if an applicant for a job meets the key requirements necessary to do the job. This means that your resume must be focused on showing that you meet these “key requirements”.

To do this, you must firstly do some research to identify the “key requirements” for the job or jobs you are targeting. What qualifications, skills, and experience are required to be able to do this job well? These are what an employer will look for in a candidate, and these are what provide focus to your resume.

Identifying the “key requirements” for your job target is the single most important task in the whole job search process. This can’t be overstated – they are what provide the focus for a resume, and they also what an interview is about (in an interview, an employer wants to know can this person do the job? The way they find out is asking about the key requirements). Spending time on identifying these pays huge dividends in the job search process.

There are a couple of ways of going about this research, and ideally you should do more than one!

Do a Google or LinkedIn search for previous job advertisements for the role - if you can’t find current ones, you will probably still find historical advertisements going back a year or two and these are fine. Aim for at least four of them. What do these advertisements list as the requirements for the job?

You could also look at a labour / jobs database such as O*Net at: www.onetonline.org

When you have found a number of advertisements (and possibly information from O*Net), you will have a long list of requirements – compile them into one file. Then look for the items that were common to all the advertisements – these are most likely ‘key requirements’ as a number of employers list them as a requirement. From your own knowledge and experience, what you think are the most important requirements (in terms of qualifications, skills, and experience) to be able do this job well? You should aim to have a concise list of 6 to 8 key requirements.

Additionally (or alternatively!), you could talk to a few people already doing this job - if you don’t already know anybody who is in this type of job, you could search for them on LinkedIn or Google - or maybe there is a professional body that you and/or they are members of. Ask them what they think are the “key” requirements to do this job well.

When you have the list of “key requirements” for your target job in terms of qualifications, skills, and experience, you need to match yourself against these. Describe the way that you possess these qualifications, skills, and experience, and place them in your summary or profile, as well as in your list of skills.

A hiring manager or employer will then be able to clearly see that you meet the requirements for the job because your resume is now focused!

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How to Evaluate a Job Offer

Congratulations! You have a job offer. But now you need to decide whether to accept it or not! Here are some things you need to think about before you make your decision.

Research Your Prospective Employer

Your prospective employer has researched and assessed you for the job, and you should do the same on them.

Spend a little time in investigating whether the company is a good fit for you before you accept the offer. As well as Googling them, look them up on social media – what are people saying about them? Have a look at what is said about them on www.glassdoor.com.

Gather information about the company’s working environment and culture – about its reputation and values. Would you be proud to tell your family and friends that you work there? Will you fit in with the people already working there and with the environment? When you were there for interview, did you get a sense of a good atmosphere and environment?

If you can, talk to somebody who already works for the company – find out what they and their colleagues think about it.

In particular, find out about your prospective boss’s management style – do they micro-manage or give people sufficient autonomy? Will you get on with this person?

Research the Job

If there is a job description and person specification, read through them carefully. If there isn’t, does the letter of offer describe exactly what your job entails? If you only have a verbal offer, you should talk to HR or the hiring manager to get more detail on the job.

From the information to hand, do you think or feel that the work is what you expected and want to do? Will it give you job satisfaction, enjoyment and fulfilment? Are you likely to perform well in the job? These are important factors because if they are absent, you are unlikely to last in this job.

Does the Company “Fit” with Your Work Values

You need to spend a little time in identifying your work values – those factors that are important to you about your work. Then you need to determine whether your work values align with the company’s values.

Many companies list information such as their mission, vision and values on their website – they may also have something about their corporate social responsibility (CSR), or about their stance on the environment, etc. These are good sources of information on their values. The HR department may also provide the information you need.

Ask yourself if each of your values will be met or facilitated in this company. If some aren’t, how important is this? Think about each of your values separately, how important it is to have each in this job, and whether it is a ‘deal breaker’ if it is not met or facilitated.

Salary

Salary is always an important factor in evaluating a job offer. Know the amount you would like to receive, and the amount below which you will walk away.

You should research the ‘going rate’ for the job on offer – how does the offer compare? Have you (or others) put a cash value on your SQE’s (skills, qualifications and experience)?

The website www.glassdoor.com can be a good source of information on salaries in various industries, professions and locations.

It is important that you think or feel that you are being paid fairly for the work involved. If you don’t, you won’t be satisfied and you won’t stay long-term.

Don’t be afraid to negotiate. If you have a fair case for a higher salary, make it – but prepare your case before you have the discussion. Remember, you already have an offer, so you know they want you!

Benefits and Perks

As well as salary, benefits and perks are an important part of the overall compensation package on offer, and you need to be clear about what is included. Consider these in conjunction with the offered salary – a good benefits package can make a lower salary more attractive!

Time

It is important to know the number of hours you are contracted for and the actual number of hours you are expected to work. You might already have dealt with this issue if it is one of your work values.

Talking to someone already working in the company is the best way to get this information, especially if they are in the same department or section you would be working in, or if they are in the same or a similar job.

Are people regularly expected to work late? Are they paid overtime or given time off in lieu?

Another consideration is the time it will take to travel from home to the new work location and back. Is this greater or less than before? If greater, how will this impact your (and your family’s) life. What are the public transport options – are these reasonably good?

How does the Job Fit Your Career Plan?

Hopefully you already have some idea where you want to be in your career in seven to ten years’ time – this is considered a long-term career plan. How does the job on offer fit into this? Will it be a stepping stone on the way to your career goal?

What are the prospects for promotion? Will there be career and skills development? What is the company’s attitude to training and development?

You also need to consider how long you might stay in this job or with this company. If it doesn’t seem to be at least a medium-term prospect, how will it look on your resume if you leave after a year or even a few months? You don’t want to look too much like a job hopper!

From Evaluation to Decision

When you have considered all the factors above, you should write them down in order of their importance to you. Perhaps you would like to give each criteria a score or weighting. If so, what score level will influence a positive decision and which would make you refuse the offer? A high score would indicate that the job under consideration is a ‘good fit’ with your values and expectations. On the other hand, if the score is low, then it is probably best to walk away – to refuse the offer. Either way, only you can make this decision!

One other consideration is where you feel you have no option but to accept the offer because of some compelling reasons. These might be because of high financial commitments; a prolonged period of unemployment; fear or anxiety about unemployment or that you might not be able to find a job; etc. If this is the case, then you might accept the job offer but have a time limit on how long you will stay – it will give you the space and financial freedom in which you spend more time in finding a more suitable job.

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Answering Interview Questions 2

In an earlier article, Answering Interview Questions 1 (you can read the article here), I wrote about interview candidates only needing to prepare answers to a few core questions which stem from four concerns of hiring managers. That article then explored how to respond to two questions – one which frequently starts off an interview (Tell me about yourself) and the other that frequently is one of the last asked (What are your salary expectations?). Here I explore other questions that an interview candidate must prepare for and suggest how to do this.

Focused, Competency-based Questions

As the hiring manager needs to establish during the interview whether a candidate can actually do the job, you can expect to be asked specific questions about how you meet the key requirements for the job. Hopefully your resume was focused on this specific job and therefore listed your skills relevant to the job. If so, the interviewer will ask you about them and these questions usually come in a particular format.

The format for asking about your skills is based on behavioural or competency-based interviewing techniques. The thinking behind this technique is that past behaviour is a good predictor of future performance. Therefore, for each skill that is a key requirement for the job (and for all the skills you list in your resume), you should prepare an answer to this question: “Can you give me an example of a time you did XXX?” (Replace XXX with the relevant skill, job task, or responsibility). Another popular way of asking this questions is: “Tell me about a time you did XXX”.

The interviewer is looking for specifics and detail, and if you cannot provide a credible example, you are deemed not to possess that skill. It is difficult to bluff in answering these questions as the interviewer usually asks deeper, related questions to understand the situation better. Such follow-on questions include “How many people were involved and what were their responsibilities?” Or “How exactly did you go about planning this?” “How did you monitor and track progress?” So your answers need to be based on a real example.

The way to answer competency-based questions is to use CAR stories. C-A-R stands for Context, Action and Results (another form of this is STAR stories – Situation, Task, Action and Results). You explain the Context of your example in terms of how the situation came about and any other background details. You then explain the Action you took or the action your team took but describe your involvement. Finally, you discuss the result or results taking this action led to. If the result involved anything quantifiable such as cost savings or increased sales, quantify the results in monitory (dollars $) or percentage (%) terms.

In addition to credibly demonstrating that you possess the skill being discussed, using C-A-R stories adds impact to your interview performance. Everybody loves stories and pays attention to them, so relating your answer in this format makes you memorable.

Questions relating to your Strengths

A sure to be asked core question stemming from the hiring manager’s four concerns relates to those about your strengths and can you do the job. You can be asked about this usually in one of four ways:

What are your strengths? OR

Why should we hire you over other qualified candidates? OR

What would you say are the main things needed to do this job well? Can you do those things? OR

Why should we hire you?

Whichever way the question is asked, you should approach answering it in the same way. Start by stating that you more than meet the three or four top requirements for the job (these are a mix of skills, qualifications and experience) and give examples of when you used them (use C-A-R stories). Then talk about any skills, education and experiences that make you unique – things other candidates probably don’t have or don’t have in the specific combination of them that you have. Throughout your answer, remain aware that you are trying to show that you meet the key requirements of your job target.

What about Weaknesses?

Unfortunately many interviewers still ask this rather pointless question. No candidate in their right mind is going to sacrifice themselves by discussing a weakness that might mean not being offered the job, and other answers are probably not relevant to the position anyway! Trained interviewers are told to avoid such unproductive questions.

If asked, the way to address this question is to mention one or two shortcomings that are not very important to the job, but to discuss them in a way that shows you are self-aware and that you are doing something to overcome the weakness. You could make the answer even stronger by giving an example of a time you overcame the weakness, and effectively make it sound like a strength!

What are your career goals?

Interviewers ask this question to see if you know where you want to go with your career or are drifting through it. Your answer will also give them an idea whether you will stay short-term or longer with their company, and also whether you have done some research on them. If you sound too short-term or drifting, they may not offer you the job if they have another candidate who knows why they want the job and where it fits into their career plan.

The way to approach this question is to convey that you want to work in companies that match your personal and career goals, and align with your work values – linking this to their company will really prove to be a strong answer and have them already viewing you as “one of them”! So firstly talk about the job responsibilities you want to have a few years down the road in broad terms. Then talk about the type of company and people you want to work with (if you really want the job make it sound that this is them!) and explain how and why the company is a good fit for your goals. This will demonstrate that you have done your homework and researched the company, its people and its culture. It further indicates that, since you know a lot about the company and believe it to be a good ‘fit’ with your goals and values, you will stay more than just short-term.

What did you like most / least about your last position?

In some ways your preparation for the previous question is relevant to this one too. The approach should be to link your answer to the requirements of the job target and not to talk about a list of negatives about your previous company or boss – if you talk about your previous company negatively, it might be assumed that you would do so about the target company too.

Instead talk about how you liked most aspects of the previous job and company, but that you would have liked more of “X” in that position. Here “X” should relate to one of the responsibilities of the new position. You could also mention that you are looking for a new challenge or a role with more of a regional focus (but only if the new role requires this). You could also talk about wanting to work in a company with a more “Y” environment or culture – where “Y” relates to something that exists in the new company. Answering in this way puts a positive spin on your answer by making it sound that you are attracted to the role and company rather than just trying to get away from something you dislike about your current or previous role.

Why do you want to work here and what do you know about our company?

This question too is related to the previous two questions and seeks to establish if you are an ‘informed’ or ‘uninformed’ candidate. An ‘informed’ candidate will have researched the company sufficiently to answer this question competently because they will be able to talk knowledgeably and meaningfully about the company and how it ‘fits’ with their personal goals and values. Hiring managers strongly dislike ‘uninformed’ candidates and in surveys report that they won’t hire them even if they meet all other requirements for the job!

You can read more about this in our article “How to Be an Ideal Candidate for the Job” here.

So you don’t have to prepare separately for hundreds of possible interview questions as this article and particular Answering Interview Questions 1 demonstrates.

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Answering Interview Questions 1

You only need to prepare for a few core questions

Preparing for a job interview is a daunting task for most people and many people feel overwhelmed with the seemingly huge amount of work involved. But the task doesn’t have to be so overwhelming if planned properly. One area that prospective interviewees should focus on is preparing for commonly asked or otherwise predictable questions.

The hard way of preparing for these is to do an internet search on “interview questions” because you will inevitably end up with hundreds of such questions – that would certainly add to the feeling of being overwhelmed! However, the majority of possible interview questions only require preparing answers to just a few core questions. Let me explain why.

What the Hiring Manager is concerned with

During the interview, the hiring manager (or recruiter if applicable) is concerned about four things:

  1. Can this candidate actually do the job? Have they got all the ‘key requirements’ (a mix of skills, qualifications and experience)?
  2. Who is this person? What are they like? What type of personality have they?
  3. Will this person fit in with my team or company? Will they fit in with the organisation’s culture?
  4. How much is this person going to cost me?

So you don’t need to research and prepare answers for hundreds of interview questions. Instead, all you need to do is to prepare your responses to just a few possible questions that stem from the four main concerns of hiring managers listed above. If you prepare material so that you can competently and confidently discuss these four concerns of hiring managers, you will have prepared answers to most questions you can be asked at interview! The questions may be phrased differently or come in various forms, but essentially they are asking about these four concerns, and the responses to them will be similar – based on your preparation to discuss them.

Make sure to give the hiring manager what they want

In order to do well in the interview, your task is to provide the hiring manager with all the information they require to put the above four concerns to rest. As many hiring managers are not trained in interviewing skills, they may or may not ask appropriate or sufficient questions to elicit this information, so your additional task is to make sure you address them whether asked about all of them or not. In other words, you need to be proactive in the interview.

That start off question: “Tell me about yourself”

Some people, both interviewers and candidates, see this question as one to settle you down – an easy question to answer because it is about you. But it is a mistake to respond to this in a casual or informal manner, and a wasted opportunity too. A well-prepared response is as easy to prepare and deliver as a casual ‘history of me’ answer!

This question provides a great opportunity for you to describe your background (i.e. education and work and other relevant experience to date) in a manner focused on showing that you meet the key requirements of the job [you can read an article on how to identify these key requirements here – it is titled “The Single Most Important Task In Your Job Search”].

Answering the question in this way also helps you steer the interview in the direction you want – that is to demonstrate how you meet these key requirements. From your answer, the interviewer will pick up on a few points you mention to continue the discussion – and conveniently you have prepared for these points.

One useful way to structure your answer to the question is to talk about your education (from university or school onwards, whichever was most recent) and your work experience. Then discuss the skills you developed along the way, especially those that are your strengths (you can read how to identify your skills and strengths here).

The skills and strengths you choose to discuss should of course be focused on some of the key requirements of the job. You can follow on from that by discussing one or two of your work achievements, particularly any you are proud of or are relevant to the job target.

The Salary Question

In answering questions that stem from the fourth concern of the hiring manager (How much is this person going to cost me?), the key is to not get into negotiating salary before you are actually offered the job – read how to do this in our article “When Is The Right Time To Talk Money During Salary Negotiation?”

Further “Tips for Negotiating a Higher Salary” are discussed here.

Just in case you made a mess of your salary negotiation at an earlier interview or answered too soon or asked for too much in the current interview, read our article “Did You Ask for Too High a Salary During Your Interview? Here’s How to Make A Comeback.”

A following article, Answering Interview Questions 2, looks at other core questions that stem from the four concerns of a hiring manager. You can read that article here.

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What is involved in Outplacement Support?

Outplacement support benefits the company as well as the individual

This is a question I have to frequently answer either by e-mail or over the phone. When retrenching a staff member or members, people in the Human Resources department like to offer the person or persons involved various supports to help them secure another job. This is also aimed at protecting the company’s reputation, both internally and externally.

The Benefits of Outplacement Support

Providing outplacement support presents a more human and caring side of the company, and to the remaining employees, it shows that the company is going to great lengths to help the retrenched staff. This lessens the inevitable blow to staff morale that accompanies retrenchment.

To the outside world – customers, clients, suppliers, the media, etc – a company that provides outplacement support is viewed as less mercenary and penny-pinching. Even when people don’t fully understand the need for the retrenchment, by providing outplacement support they perceive the company in a more positive light.

Of course there are huge benefits to the retrenched staff from outplacement support, and as stated in a previous article, it helps their self-esteem as well as places them in the best possible position to secure another job.

So what is involved in outplacement support?

Career Choice and Planning Programme

There are generally two programmes involved. The first, which we in Sandbox Advisors call ‘Career Choice and Planning’, is focused on providing the individual with a clearer understanding of their career goals; the options or choices they have; the constraints they face; their skills and strengths; their work values and motivations; their core interests, particularly those related to work or career; and their personality type and how it affects their career and job search.

This ‘Career Choice and Planning’ programme not only leads the individual to a better understanding of themselves, but helps them identify ideal industries and careers to focus their job search on. In doing so, it broadens the scope of their job search and widens out the variety of jobs they are willing to pursue. In short, it increases their options.

The process also uncovers vital inputs for crafting a new, impactful resume, cover letters, and online profiles such as LinkedIn. The increased self-knowledge also helps prepare them for job interviews and salary negotiation.

The steps involved in the ‘Career Choice and Planning’ programme includes psychometric inventories or personality assessments - the Myer Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Strong Interests Inventory (SII); the completion of a set of self-assessment exercises to uncover achievements, skills and strengths; work values elicitation; and the unearthing of deep aspirations about work and career.

Transition and Job Search

The second programme, which we call ‘Transition and Job Search’, focuses on getting interviews and converting them into a job offer.

Resume, Cover Letter and LinkedIn Profile

The starting point of this programme is the crafting of an impactful resume, cover letter and LinkedIn profile – these are the tools used to secure interviews. To create these impactful instruments, the individual has to complete a workbook that compiles and assembles information in particular formats – they are provided with a guidebook and supporting materials to help them. Their career advisor then uses this to craft an impactful resume and profile.

The Job Search

Once the individual has a new resume, cover letter and LinkedIn profile, they are ready for the job search part of the programme. Their career advisor helps them develop a three-pronged job search strategy focused on the three approaches to job searching – job boards, employment agencies or recruiters, and networking. Using a guidebook and directed by their career advisor, the individual produces a personalised strategy for their job search. This, and the use of the tools discussed above, will attract more interview calls.

Preparing for Interview

The interview preparation part of the programme involves two workbooks. One is focused on presenting the individual’s career achievements and key strengths in an impactful, structured manner – this also provides a structure for answering unexpected questions. The second workbook is focused on answering interview questions, and in particular, focuses on commonly asked and expected interview questions specific to the individual’s job target. When the ‘content’ for interviews is prepared, then there is practice in the ‘techniques’ of successful interviewing, including a mock interview and how to be proactive during interviews. Building and presenting confidence and poise during interviews is also practiced.

Ongoing Support

When the preparation stages described above are completed, we provide ongoing support to the individual for a period of two months. This involves tracking their job search activities and providing advice on how they should tweak their approach if necessary. The individual is also provided with guidance for ongoing needs, such as tips for upcoming interviews and dealing with various job search situations. This support ensures that they ingrain all the best practices for a good job search and that they execute a speedy and effective job search.

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The Single Most Important Task in Your Job Search

You need to show that you meet the requirements of the job

Career advisors are often asked what is the single most important task in the job search process. The answer is undoubtedly the identification of the key requirements for the targeted job.

There is an assumption underlying this statement which is that a resume is to be specifically targeted at one particular job and not used ‘generically’ for a wide range of job applications. However, the identification of the key requirements for a particular job is not only to be used for focusing a resume, but it is also of the utmost importance in preparing for interview too, as we shall see.

Firstly, let us consider the importance of the key requirements when crafting a new resume. All career advisors agree that one must have a very focused resume to get called for interview for one’s targeted job. So how do you focus a resume?

To get called for an interview, the applicant or candidate needs to specifically demonstrate in their resume that they meet all or most of the selection criteria for the particular job. The selection criteria roughly equates to the main or ‘key’ requirements to perform in the job reasonably well. These ‘key’ requirements will be a mixture of skills, qualifications and experience.

The task of identifying the ‘key’ requirements is easier for a publicly advertised position because the ad usually lists both the responsibilities of the job and the main requirements needed to do it well. However, it is wise to check that the advertised requirements is complete by doing some research – see below.

When a position comes from the “hidden” job market – that is, through networking where candidates hear about the job through ‘word of mouth’, there usually isn’t a job description or person specification to go with it. In such cases, the job applicant has to do some research themselves. To start, search the internet for previous advertisements of the same or similar roles – what requirements were listed for these? Then talk to people who are already doing that job – or to their immediate supervisor. Ask for their opinion on what the key requirements for the job are. Thirdly, you could also search an occupational database such as O*Net (www.onetonline.org) that will provide data on the tasks, responsibilities and requirements for a huge range of jobs.

The above research will uncover quite a lot of information and you will need to distill this down to a manageable number. As you need to demonstrate in your resume that you match the requirements of the job, you need to identify and determine just the 6 to 8 “key” requirements for the specific position. Print off this list and have it in front of you as you write your resume. The Summary or Profile and the Key Skills sections of your resume need to reflect these 6 to 8 “key” requirements. In wondering what to include and what to leave out – if something is relevant to the key requirements it should be included, if not, leave it out. In this way your resume will have greater impact as it is focused on showing that you meet the main requirements for the job. And because it does, you will be called for interview.

As stated above, knowing the 6 to 8 “key” requirements for the position also guides your preparation for the interview. As you prepare answers to commonly asked questions, the answers should be focused on demonstrating how you meet the requirements. After all, from the interviewer’s perspective, the interview is about discovering if you can do the job and showing that you meet the requirements meets this objective.

Therefore, for these reasons, identifying the 6 to 8 “key” requirements for the job is the single most important task in the job search process.

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Managing That First Impression at Interview

You have to manage that first impression

When you arrive in the interview room, it is only natural that you want to make a good first impression. The impression we make is determined by our non-verbal communication – what is usually referred to as our ‘body language’. Our bodies are constantly giving off signals – they continually communicate what we are feeling and thinking inside - that is why it is called ‘body language’. That first impression takes but a moment – it is both a conscious and sub-conscious process in the mind of the interviewer, and within a few seconds they have an initial impression of you.

Your non-verbal communication is something that interviewers pay close attention to. From the very first moment that they see you, they notice how you are dressed, the expression your face, whether you are smiling or frowning, your handshake, and the way you hold your body. These all contribute to that first impression. So you have to manage that first impression. But how?

There are a few exercises that will help you make a stronger, more positive impact in that first impression. The first of them is something you do before the interview and involves deliberately changing your body posture to control the levels of two hormone. You want to increase your testosterone level and decrease your cortisol level – cortisol is the stress hormone. Power-posing is how you do this, and by power-posing for just two minutes before an interview (or any other evaluative event such as speaking in public), your performance will be significantly better.

Dr Amy Cuddy, a social psychologist in Harvard Business School, gave a TED Talk on how to do this – watch her most interesting talk here, or go to: https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are.

The second exercise involves taking control of your breathing. When we feel stressed – and being interviewed is a stressful situation – our breathing tends to be shallow and higher in the chest. By breathing deeply so that our diaphragm pushes our stomach out, we relax our body (again bringing the cortisol level down). But breathing deeply has another positive effect – it bring energy into our body, an energy that can be used to show enthusiasm and interest in the job and organisation you are being interviewed for. This extra energy in your body deepens your ‘aura’ and projects confidence and poise.

To achieve the correct breathing, get balanced with your feet firmly on the floor (whether you are standing or sitting). Breathe in deeply through your nose all the way down to your stomach, and hold the breath for a couple of seconds. Then exhale the breath out through your mouth more slowly – the ideal ratio of out-breath to in-breath is 2:1. Do this for five minutes in the waiting room and you will feel calmer, more relaxed and more energetic – ready to perform better at the interview.

The two exercises above will help you appear more confident, poised and relaxed when you sit in that interview chair. More importantly, inside you will “feel” confident, poised and relaxed.

To round things off, pay attention to your handshake as this too gives off a sub-conscious signal. A wet, limp, cold handshake portrays fear and a lack of confidence, and produces an “ugh” feeling in its victim! On the other hand (no pun intended!), a firm, strong handshake portrays confidence and self-belief, and is a pleasant experience for the recipient, especially when it is accompanied by a smile. But firm and strong doesn’t equate to hurting – so get the balance right. Practice your handshake with a few friends or family members, and smile as you do it. Get their feedback and adjust your handshake as suggested.

When you are in the interview, sit upright but relaxed in the seat with your lower back touching the back of the chair, and your feet firmly on the floor. Take two deep breaths before speaking as this will bring back the effects of the earlier breathing. Now you are set for a good interview!

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The Most Important Task in Preparing for Interview and Answering Interview Questions

Its crucial to identify the 6 to 8 “key” requirements of the job

Your objective at interview should be to demonstrate that you are the most suitable candidate for the job. To do this, you need to show that you meet all of the key requirements for the job – but how do you find out what these are?

If the job was advertised in the newspapers or on job boards on the internet, then the task is simpler. Usually a job advertisement will list the main tasks and responsibilities of the position, as well as essential and desirable requirements. The requirements will be various skills, qualifications and experience. However, do not stop there but do some research as well such as that suggested below.

Interviews for positions secured through networking (and as much as 50% of jobs are found through networking) present a bigger problem – there is no advertisement to identify the responsibilities and requirements. So what should a potential interviewee do then?

Search the internet for previous postings of similar jobs. Try to gather the information for a few postings as there will probably be slight variations across different companies for the same or similar jobs. From these, identify the common elements and what seem to be the key requirements.

If you know people who are doing the same or similar jobs, especially in the company you are to be interviewed for, talk to them. Ask them for their opinion of what they believe to be the key requirements to be able to do the job. If you know a manager or someone who has been involved in interviewing for your target job, even better! As them about the key requirements. And if you don’t directly know anybody who can help with this, ask your wider network if they know someone you can talk to.

You can also do a Google or LinkedIn search for people either doing a job similar to your target job or the manager of such people. Connect with them on LinkedIn and then ask for their advice – people like to be asked for advice because it shows you respect their opinion!

Lastly, you can search an occupational database such as www.onetonline.org – this site contains details on nearly every job you can possibly think of.

When you have completed the research suggested above, you will have an unwieldly long list of responsibilities and requirements of the job. You need to distil and reduce this list to the 6 to 8 “key” requirements to do the job effectively, so prioritise and group similar requirements. Having just 6 to 8 “key” requirements is more manageable and easier to focus on, because they are the focus of all your interview preparation.

Your task then is to match yourself against these 6 to 8 “key” requirements – do you have them all? As stated earlier, these requirements will be a mix of certain skills, qualifications and experience. To present yourself as the most suitable candidate for the job, you will have to illustrate at interview that you possess each of these. In preparation, you should expect questions such as those asked at behavioural or competency-based interviews: “Can you give me an example of a time you XXX (used X skill or gained X experience)?” The answer to such a question demands a story which demonstrates how you used the particular skill or gained a particular experience. The best way to do this is with a C-A-R story (Context or Challenge – Action you took – the Result you got) or a S-T-A-R story (Situation – Task – Action – Result). Phrasing your story this way will give it impact and make it credible.

Your focus then at interview is to make sure that you get the opportunity to demonstrate that you have all of the 6 to 8 key requirements and, of course, tell them as CAR or STAR stories.