THE CAREER SECRETS™ NEWSLETTER
Revealing what's "working" for you…
FREE Career Management and Job Change News and Ideas from Darrell W. Gurney, CPC, JCTC, For Working and Careers Industry Professionals.
May 8, 2001. Copyright Hunter Arts Publishing.
Published continually since the last issue.
Editor@CareerSecrets.com; http://www.CareerSecrets.com ; 1-877-5-RECRUIT
For Subscribe/Unsubscribe procedures and Privacy Statement, scroll to end.
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IN THIS ISSUE
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1. Welcome from the Publisher
2. CareerTips
3. CareerNews
4. CareerResources
5. CareerThoughts
6. CareerOptions
7. CareerCalendar
8. CareerHumor
<1>--------------WELCOME FROM THE PUBLISHER---------------<>
Welcome to the second issue of our monthly newsletter. This is an opt-in only publication and I want to thank you all for accepting the invitation to subscribe, whether from the first issue or from the opt-in box on either of our related Web sites, http://www.CareerSecrets.com or http://www.HeadHuntersRevealed.com. Your response from the first issue was great…and highly encouraging. I look forward to bringing you even more valuable material in this and future issues to come. (If this was forwarded to you by a friend, please feel free to opt-in at either of the above sites and join us!)
PLEASE BEAR WITH US if the formatting on this issue is not the best. It's the first one sent through our newsletter service provider, and we'll be seeing the end product at the same time you do. If tweaks are necessary, we'll catch them next go 'round.
As a reminder, I look forward to your feedback, both on the material presented and on any ideas/tips/humor/whatever you'd like to offer. If this newsletter can serve as a clearinghouse for everyone's Career Secrets™, perhaps there will no longer be secrets! So, DON'T sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. Participate! Give what you can, and I'll give you credit.
All the Best, and Happy Hunting!
Darrell W. Gurney, CPC, JCTC
Hunter Arts Publishing & A Permanent Success National Career/Search Partners
http://www.HeadHuntersRevealed.com and http://www.APSCareerSearch.com
Editor@CareerSecrets.com
<2>------------------------CAREERTIPS--------------------------<>
A crucial part of any interview is how you end it. In any aspect of selling, the critical step is closing. Whether or not your occupation is in sales, be aware that when on an interview, you are a salesperson and need to close the interview/sale. When you get a sense that the interview is about to end, most everything having been said, you want to interject your close. Don't wait for the interviewer to give you an opening - you need to get it in wherever you can.
First, do a 30-second summary of the interview, showing that you've fully comprehended everything discussed: "You know, we've spent the last 45 minutes going over your company, this opportunity, and my background. I really like what you said about [this], and was intrigued by [that], and feel that I could offer a lot in [whatever]. I'm very excited about this opportunity. Do you see anything that would prevent me from getting this job?" That, my friends, is the million-dollar question! It shows the interviewer that you're definitely interested in the position…and bold enough to ask for it. If they express a concern (which you've asked them to do), your job is to overcome it. Better for you to handle it at that point than for your headhunter to try to overcome it later. Again, minimize the negative and maximize the positive: "I can understand your concern about my lack of experience with software, but I can tell you that I am the fastest at picking up new products. What if I provide references to attest to this fact?" Try to dig up and nullify any concerns because, if the interviewer is left with any at the end of the meeting, it's pretty much over.
If they respond with "No, I don't have any concerns at this point," you want to enthusiastically respond with "Great! Well, tell me, where do we go from here? What's the next step? I'm really excited about this and would love to work here!" Remember: regardless of how you feel at this point, your objective is to get an offer down the road. So, exude heightened energy for the moment - you'll have plenty of time later to consider whether this is the right job for you.

Excerpted from "The Career Secrets™ Pocket Interview Prep Guide: 7 Points Toward a Winning Performance" by Darrell W. Gurney, CPC, JCTC, available with copies of "Headhunters Revealed!" from http://www.HeadHuntersRevealed.com/order.html
<3>------------------------CAREERNEWS-------------------------<>
Here's a great article describing the "plight" (that word doesn't seem relevant) of so many young dot.com refugees. It seems that their youth was taken away too soon by the hot demand for new graduates over the last 5-6 years of dot.com-mania. Now, relieved of work responsibilities, they're using their savings and newfound spare time to catch up on the freedoms they missed. Nice situation: major money in the pocket while pursuing an after-school-play agenda.
"What - Me Worry?"--Alfred E. Neuman
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/05/technology/05DOTC.html?searchpv=site03
<4>----------------------CAREERRESOURCES-----------------------<>
There are many wonderful resume-writing professionals out there able to create masterpieces for you. Sometimes, the design you'd use for pursuing a job search on your own might differ from what you'd present to a recruiter. For this reason, we suggest that you always have one version set up in the "recruiter preferred" format, specifically for submission to search firms. Check out these tips for making your resume "recruiter friendly": http://www.HeadHuntersRevealed.com/tips.html#resumes
I just read (in 20 minutes) a great little booklet sent to me by a subscriber. Full of very down-to-earth insights and tips, "Try", by Karen Okulicz, can be a helpful resource for laid-off/unemployed individuals WITHOUT a dot.com nest-egg. Sometimes, despite all of our professional flair and confidence while in the working world, we can get pretty inefficient and depressed when finding ourselves unemployed. A former Marketing Director, Karen shares her personally-earned wisdom from being unemployed twice in three years. For more info, see http://www.okulicz.com
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Darrell W. Gurney, CPC, JCTC, offers job search and career consulting services, from reviewing and commenting on your resume to helping create a structured game plan for your career and/or job transition. You get real advice from someone *active* in the job and career search business on a day-to-day basis. If you've ever tried to get advice from a recruiter who doesn't have a position for you at the moment, you've noticed they aren't necessarily available. It's because they get paid by filling current openings, not offering advice to job seekers. However, there's a wealth of information available in a headhunter's head. Here's your opportunity to tap into it. I'm a staunch advocate of what I call "career partnership™," a lifetime of teamwork between job seekers and their recruiters. My purpose is to empower individuals to reap the most from their life's work. For information on areas of support and availability, please see:
http://www.advicezone.com/experts/expert_profile.jsp?profileId=519
If you go through Advice.zone.com, the rate is $198 per hour. However, contact me directly for the The Career Secrets™ Newsletter recipient rate of $125 per hour, with greater discounts on "long-term care" packages. Resume review with comments: $50. E-mail for more information: publisher@hunterarts.com.
<5>------------------------CAREERTHOUGHTS--------------------<>
For May's New Graduates: A Forward-Looking Word to the Wise
Learn before you (crash and) burn that there's no guarantees out there. Yes, be excited and congratulate yourself warmly when you land that first job…and know there will be plenty more. A US Department of Labor study stated that the average 22-year-old graduate will have 22 jobs during their lifetime. Conservatively, assuming one works until age 66, that means a different job every 2 years! Whether your mom or dad worked for the same company for a number of years, most probably, you will not. Therefore, it pays to learn early…
Lifetime Career Management™: It's Not Just (About) a Job…It's an Adventure!
Lifetime Career Management: a simple concept…a system any ambitious person would naturally use, right? Wrong! After 14 years in the recruiting business, I'm often amazed at the lack of forethought and planning that goes into individuals' careers. By far I would say a majority of folks employ an emergency career management strategy: I need another job because of a layoff; I need to move fast because the company's going in the wrong direction; I'm desperate to leave because I'm dying here! With the demise of corporate "loyalty" to employees over the last 20 years, and the frenetic rise and fall of dot.coms on every e-corner, the phrase "job security" has become an oxymoron. The time has come for working individuals to keep their options always open.
How does one focus on a job, while at the same time staying abreast of "options?" By establishing career partnerships™ with professional recruiters.

"Keep…your networking working, and your eyes and ears open for clues of changes coming that could be hazardous to the health of your career. Never stop looking out for number one."
- Harvey Mackay, "Sharkproof"

Here's a quick test to determine if you utilize lifetime career management.™ Let's say you just landed a great position (on your own or through a headhunter…doesn't matter) making more money than you ever have doing exactly what you want to do. What do you do the first week on the job?
A) Notify everyone involved in your search that you're happy and settled now so please, "take me off your list"
B) Rework your resume to include your present job description and send it, along with an updated "wish list," to your favorite recruiter(s)
C) Find the nearest dry cleaner and Starbucks™ to the office
A is the current standard. B sounds absurd, but let me make a case for executing it - even before C! If you don't update your "career partners" with your particulars right away, you will only remember to do so during your next desperate moment. It's called emergency career management. This is not because you're already available to make another move. Nor is it to say that you will post your new resume everywhere (e.g., the Internet). Yet putting it in the hands of a few trusted recruiters who know your long-term hopes and desires keeps you tuned in to opportunities arising that you should at least know about. You may not move for another 10 years (but probably will)…yet it never hurts to hear about what's going on in your field. Pay attention to what's out there - you never know when it might be you!

Darrell W. Gurney, CPC, JCTC, is Principal of A Permanent Success National Career/Search Partners (http://www.APSCareerSearch.com), and author of "Headhunters Revealed! Career Secrets for Choosing and Using Professional Recruiters" ($14.95, Softcover), reviewed in Publishers Weekly, the American Library Association's Booklist, and featured in nationally syndicated career columnist Joyce Lain Kennedy's "Careers Now." © Hunter Arts Publishing
Know a new college grad who'd benefit from learning career management early on? Give a graduation gift that will keep on giving…for their entire work life: "Headhunters Revealed!" (http://www.HeadHuntersRevealed.com)
<6>----------------------CAREEROPTIONS--------------------------<>
As mentioned in the previous newsletter, what good is a headhunter without some great positions to tell you about? Only thing is, even in the midst of current downsizings, top talent is still highly valued and sought after. So, this time rather than promote the opportunities of our clients, we want to promote an opportunity with us first! A Permanent Success National Career/Search Partners just celebrated its 10th anniversary in providing quality contingency and retained search services to companies such as Microsoft, American Express, America Online, and Hunt-Wesson…and we're now opening up our doors for a possible Partnership. Los Angeles-based, yet affiliated with over 700 executive search firms worldwide, we are in integral player in a vast recruitment machine. So, if you know anyone who's grown tired of the standard corporate game and is interested in making a career investment to reap a substantial return, please have them give us a call-we'd like to talk. 1-877-5-RECRUIT. Ask for Darrell.

Might not make a living at it, but if you are a Careers Industry professional with a Web site, check out our Affiliate Program at:
http://www.HeadHuntersRevealed.com/educate.html for a 20% commission on every book sold from your site's sent traffic. Help a job seeker…and buy yourself lunch.
<7>-----------------------CAREERCALENDAR----------------------------<>
Darrell Gurney, CPC, JCTC, will be speaking at the following upcoming events:
Publishers Marketing Association (PMA) will host its annual PMA University for three days prior to the Chicago Book Expo America (BEA) Convention, the largest book fair in the US. On Wednesday, May 30, Darrell will participate in a panel discussion entitled "Web Marketing 202: What You Need to Know-and Do-after You've Mastered the Basics." He will be joined by novelist and Web publishing superstar M.J. Rose ("Lip Service" and "In-Fidelity") as well as Ed Palmer from Bookzone.com. For more information, see http://www.pma-online.com/pmau2001/Wednesday.cfm
Darrell will moderate a one-day program of expert panelists entitled "Pink Slip Boot Camp" hosted by The Learning Annex from 10am-5pm on June 23 in Los Angeles. Panels will focus on knowing your options, the nuts & bolts of finding a job, turning your passion into a paycheck, and job-search strategies that work. Cost is $39 for members and $49 for non-members. You and your friends can sign up at http://www.LearningAnnex.com
<8>------------------------CAREERHUMOR-----------------------------<>
Vice Presidents and Personnel Directors of the 100 largest corporations were asked a series of questions about their most unusual job interviews. Here are some of their responses:
Unusual statements made by candidates during the interview process:
"At times I have the strong urge to do something harmful or shocking."
"I feel uneasy indoors."
"Sometimes I feel like smashing things."
"Women should not be allowed to drink in cocktail bars."
"I think that Lincoln was greater than Washington."
"I get excited very easily."
"Once a week, I usually feel hot all over."
"I am fascinated by fire."
"I have no difficulty in starting or holding my bowel movement."
"I like tall women."
"Whenever a man is with a woman he is usually thinking about sex."
"People are always watching me."
"If I get too much change in a store, I always give it back."
"Almost everyone is guilty of bad sexual conduct."
"I must admit that I am a pretty fair talker."
"I never get hungry."
"I know who is responsible for most of my troubles."
"If the pay is right, I'd travel with the carnival."
"I would have been more successful if nobody had snitched on me."
"My legs are really hairy."
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Hunter Arts Publishing, Darrell W. Gurney, Certified Personnel Consultant, Certified Job & Career Transition Coach, Author, Publisher, Speaker
P.O. Box 66578
Los Angeles, CA 90066
http://www.HunterArts.com with free online career tips, resources, and excerpts.
Tel: 310-821-6303, Fax: 310-821-6308
Editor@CareerSecrets.com