Asking for a salary increase properly is an art and a science. There are many tactics to do to receive the above-average pay raise that you want. However,  during my time as a recruiter and a manager, I have seen many things that an employee should absolutely not do when asking for a pay raise. 

Here are 6 Things not to do when asking for a pay raise

Cite that you work hard with no achievements list

Don’t expect your boss or executive management to keep tabs on what you have done for them. Working hard allows you to keep your job and come back the next day—not get a raise. The results and achievements you accomplish could put you in a position to get a raise. Brag about what you do and let them see your value.

Expect a raise because you deserve it

Don’t demonstrate your entitlement due to tenure versus achievement. No one will give you a raise, just because you think you deserve one since you have been there a long time. It is like the song says, “What have you done for me lately?”

Be unprepared with no data

Before you ask for a raise, show that you have researched salary sites and have done some investigation to see if you are paid below, at or above market value for your expertise and skills. If you expect your employer to do the research to give you what you deserve, you might as well stay home and not ask.

Create a case for fairness  

Don’t demand a raise since you heard others received one or is making more than you. In fact, that is often what can put you on the “Don’t give him a raise” list. I tell my kids, life isn’t fair…what side do you want to be on? And then do all of the right things to be on that side to get the raise you want.

Ask with your tail between your legs. 

Nothing is more unattractive than a lack of confidence. Employers want to know they are giving their money to the ‘A’ players within the organization. If you start off your request with, “I was hoping to chat with you about something when you are not too busy…,” I say pack up and go home. Make an appointment with your manager outlining what you would like to discuss and be confident and prepared. This is a business discussion like all others…so treat it as such.

Outline how you need the raise

To me, this is the kiss of death! 

No one cares that your daughter needs braces, or your son is going to college or that your spouse lost his/her job. Everyone is experiencing a higher cost of living—including your employer. Your employer is not entitled to give you the funds you need for your budget shortfalls. However, if you prove your worth and continually achieve, you may receive a raise that recognizes your merits that your employer would be happy to give to you.

Threaten to quit

Even if you are ready to leave that minute, this is never an effective tactic. 

Whatever time you buy or raise you receive will be temporary while your employer looks for your replacement. No one wants to be held hostage.

Written by Lisa Rangel - Chameleon Resumes

“How long do recruiters take to read an executive resume and what do you look for when reading a resume?” This is the question I am often asked as a former search firm recruiter. 

The question has an incorrect assumption…

Resumes are not read by most recruiters. They are scanned the way most of us scan websites looking for information. Think about the last time you looked at a website: We don’t read websites, we scan them looking for specific keywords and phrases and assessing the visual feel to decide if we should keep clicking through the website or move on to the next search result.

If we don’t see words we like/need or we don’t like the visual feel of the website, we move on to the next result happily provided by your search engine. That process can take most of us as little as 15 seconds.

When performing the initial scanning of resumes determining which candidates I would call, I always looked for (and trained numerous recruiters to seek out) the following initial pieces of information:

6 Items Recruiters Need to Work on your resume

What Job Are You Applying For? – Have a Target Title: 

In your summary section, have a target title outlining the job you are pursuing. Don’t risk letting the recruiter have to decide what job you are applying for within their company. It is possible they won’t decide and just put you in the ‘no’ pile and move on to the next candidate who spells I out for them. Or they may wrongly assume the role you are pursuing. Or worse, they may realize what job you are applying to but think you are a poor communicator in doing so in an unclear manner.

Where Did You Work? 

Knowing where your work gives the recruiter context to your targeted job title. The Director of Marketing at the local doctor’s office and the Director of Marketing at a Fortune 500 company are two different jobs despite having the same title. Make your employers’ names easy to read and identify, as it helps the recruiter place your experience into context.

How Long Did You Work There & When? 

Recruiters need to know the chronological order of your employment. Period. Functional resumes and any format that disguises the dates do the exact opposite of what job seekers want in using these formats—and it annoys recruiters since they have to work to find the dates and put things in context.  If you were a Director of Marketing 15 years ago versus a Director of Marketing today—those are two different jobs even though they share the same title. If you had the job for 10 months versus 10 years, that tells a recruiter two different stories. A recruiter must have a time frame for your resume to have meaning.

Where Are The Numbers? 

Recruiters may not take the time in this initial screen to read every stat and detail, but recruiters want to see numbers on a resume upon the first scan.  When I scan a resume and see no numbers present in the content, it automatically makes me wonder if this person is achievement-driven. Companies do not want to hire taskmasters—they want achievers. Having numerical measurement in some form does not have to only refer to money, can set forth a subliminal impression that you are an achiever and you can express yourself comfortably in that manner.

Where Did You Go To School? 

Again, knowing where you went to school helps recruiters put things in context. This is not to assume recruiters always want to see that you went to an Ivy League school.  If you attended a local regional school and went on to a Fortune 100 management job that tells a great story. If you went to a prominent school and are engaged in a start-up initiative, that tells an intriguing story. All the pieces, of which education is one, contribute a valuable piece to your story.

Does Your Resume Look Good And Is It Easy To Read? 

When a recruiter reads your resume, are they thinking, “What was he thinking with this format?” – Is the format dated, poorly formatted, visually unappealing and simply hard to read or understand? If a recruiter does not notice anything about your formatting, then you are at least not doing damage to your presentation. Ideally, you want something to think, “This person gets it” when they click open your resume. You have less than 5 seconds for that first impression and only one shot to get it right.

By Lisa Rangel, Chameleon Resumes

The job search game has changed, yet again!  Just as you learned job search tactics for your resume to be digested on social media, your resume has to now contend with being read on iPads, iPhones, Android phones, Blackberries and every other type of old and new tech device in between.

One Sunday night, I had a friend of mine send me their resume in the spirit of networking asking if I could facilitate any introductions. As I opened the document on my iPhone, I noticed that the contact information on the resume was missing. The employer’s information was absent, as well. Just blank spaces on the resume where this information should have been placed. Yet when I opened the document on my PC, the contact and employer name information was where it was supposed to be—it was just placed in a table. I learned (and my friend learned the hard way) that information placed in tables are not read by iPhones.  

While I have been reading resumes on smartphones of some type since 2006 or 2007, it is now apparent the job search and the recruitment model is going mobile like many other industries. How can job seekers be ready for these technological adjustments and what should they expect?

Here is how to get your resume ready for mobile recruiting

Make your communications ridiculously concise

Cover letters should be as short as a screenshot. For certain social media channels, you have to convey your intent in 140 characters or less to get the pingback from the job poster to contact them offline.

Test your resume and cover letters on various mediums and devices to ensure they open and appear properly

I have been opening resumes on PDAs, and now smartphones, since 2006 (maybe 2005).  Some recruiters have been doing it much longer than me. Resumes in dated Word versions have a lesser chance of opening on a newer phone. Are your Mac docs compatible with PC, Droid, and other non-Mac gadgets? Can your PC-based docs open on iPhones and iPads?  Perform some quality controls with your documents and see what can open where.

Use your mobile phone number on your resume—remove landlines from your applications

This will enable you to receive recruiting SMS text messages from employers who use this technology. ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) such as Bullhorn and Bond Adapt house this information in applicant data files and can send out mass job alerts via SMS text, as well as email, automated phone messages, etc.  Landlines cannot receive texts—and who knows if your kids or parents will answer the phone!! Yikes!

Get your QR Code

The jury is out on how these codes will be used en mass by corporate and search firm recruiting departments to benefit from their features in an economy of scale capacity. But until that is figured out, get your code and look like you are cool, hip and happening (without using those words, of course). QR Codes are being used at job fairs for all types of candidates, especially technology and digital jobs, and at various types of industry conventions at vendor booths and promotional venues. Currently, they are in use and can help vying recruiters find you as an early adopter of this technology. 

Engage recruiters online on Twitter, LinkedIn and other appropriate social media venues (blogs, industry groups, networking groups) for your career. 

If a company is seeking a social media savvy marketing executive, they will not post an ad in the NY Times. They will find relevant sources and viable candidates where they expect this next hire to already reside. Be the job you want—and they will find you.

Get your resume posted on online and social media forms 

A paper resume is often the last version of your resume a recruiter will see. Your personal website, LinkedIn profile, Twitter bio, Branchout/Facebook Timeline, About.me or VisualCV may be the first thing they see in searching online for people like you with your credentials. Those virtual documents need to be equally as engaging as your print resume, as they are often the first impression seen by others.

Embrace the use of job search apps on your phone

These are very much in development for many companies and organizations. The major job boards and social media channels all have a mobile version (Monster, LinkedIn, Facebook, Indeed.com, TwitterJobSearch, etc…). These can help you keep track of responses on your submissions and comments and stay up to speed on new job openings posted by the recruiters you follow.

Mobile recruiting is still in its infancy for many industries and companies. But if you are in a progressive industry or profession, it is paramount that you embody these new trends into your daily job search activities.

By Lisa Rangel, Chameleon Resumes

When applying for a job with a new prospective employer, it’s usually a good idea to send a follow-up or thank-you email, assuming you really want the job. There are a number of reasons for this: for one, it shows that you really enjoyed meeting with the people at the new company and that you really want the job itself. Second, and perhaps the most important, it puts you back into the minds of these prospective employers, as they are undoubtedly sifting through a number of other resumes and interviewing other job applicants. The more you can stay on all their minds, the better chance you have at getting the job above another applicant who is just as qualified and charming as you. The follow up / thank you email is an ideal way to do this without going overboard by sending, say, a thank-you gift basket.

However, the follow-up/thank you email also needs to be properly written, which is probably another reason people avoid taking this extra step when applying for a gig. As with anything written, there is a proper structure for these follow-up / thank you notes to prospective employers which should be followed if you want the best chance at getting the job. This structure is broken down below, based upon the example letter included here.

How to Properly Write a Thank You Letter / Follow-Up Email

1. Address the Meeting Briefly

Off the bat in this follow-up/ thank you email, you will want to recall the interview, what you enjoyed about it and what your impressions of it were. This example letter instills confidence in the person writing it from the outset by reminding the reader of their talents, yet also thanking the reader, or more specifically the prospective employer, for being straightforward and clear about the job that needs to be done. By doing all of these things, the employer is reminded of how well the interview went.

2. Compare and Contrast

People who are interviewing for new jobs at big companies are usually working somewhere else that is similar or have worked in that field for a similar company. As is the case in this example letter, the candidate delves deeper into the discussion about the state of the IT industry they are working in, recalling a conversation that was clearly had during the job interview. Yet the candidate moves on to compare the company he has worked for in the past doing a similar job but how he could do much more for the company who he is applying to, demonstrating value as an employee, if they are hired. In fact, the candidate even goes as far as to say “we” in the letter, making the assumption that they are already a team. By doing this, the prospective employer is already envisioning the candidate as being part of their team, albeit for the purposes of the letter. However, the candidate takes this strategy to the next level by outlining how they will help the company if they are hired, without coming right out and saying that.

3. Outlining Strategy

The prior paragraph goes directly into a list of ways they will help the company to succeed. This is risky, as they may say something that the candidate may think won’t work, but it also displays honesty and transparency they will have when working for the company, which an employer greatly values. However, as long as the project strategy, as bullet-pointed here, is well-defined, it doesn’t necessarily matter to the prospective employer if it will actually be implemented—they just like to see that the candidate will have thought everything through if they are a part of the team. This is important for a worker in general in the IT industry, as business climates are constantly changing and the employee, company, and methods for attaining goals will have to adjust.

4. Closing with Anticipation

After outlining what they would do if part of the company team, the closing is a paragraph about anticipation for the future. There is a brief recap of their skills and the fact that there is much more to the industry that they would be happy to talk about. The second to last lines is also one of the most important, as they finally come out and say how interested they are in working for the company, basically “asking for the sale.” This is much like presenting the ring after a long time living together—you want to work for this company and you look forward to the next steps.

While this candidate is not guaranteed the job by writing this follow up / thank-you letter, they have definitely helped their chances and left a good impression on this prospective employer. And this is really all they can hope to do.

A few years ago, a good friend of mine gave me this piece of advice after she had been released from a position unexpectedly.  I find senior managers can be released from a position if they do not share in the management philosophy leadership promotes or believe in the plans the company is implementing to grow. Being fired is not only related to poor performance, which is something I have learned from working with candidates over the years. It can take one by surprise.

So back to the advice.  She told me, “The best thing you can do, Lisa, is to pretend you were fired today. You would start to make a list of all the activities you would do to land your next job. Take that list while you are working and do one item a week to ensure your bases are always covered.”

She formulated this golden nugget of advice in hindsight.  She thought she was secure with her firm since she was growing revenue.  So she never went to lunch with people in her network. She did not have a resume ready or even loosely constructed.  She did not make calls to former colleagues or school mates in business to stay abreast of their progress. I mean she was too busy working hard in her job.

She did not see that the direction of management was changing and, essentially, she did not share in this philosophy of this new direction. And one day, she was let go. She was blind-sided.  She shared this piece of advice with me to ensure that it did not happen to me. And I have shared it with countless people over the years to pay it forward.

So let’s pretend you’re let go today.  What would you do? Here are some things I would do to get myself back in the saddle again (this list is by no means exhaustive or in any particular order):

Step by Step Job Search Advice

Step 1

Pull out the resume and ensure it is updated and reflective of my achievements (not just a list of tasks. Be sure I have a cover letter that can support my resume

Step 2

Make sure everyone I worked with at any level is connected to me on LinkedIn

Step 3

Get recommendations on LinkedIn where it makes sense. 

Step 4

Put my vendors, clients, prospects and other external corporate connections into LinkedIn to connect with me.

Step 5

Devise a target list of companies where I would like to work based on industry, geography, discipline, or benefits needed

Step 6

Shore up on certifications and necessary professional development requirements in my field

Step 7

Look up when conferences related to my profession are taking place and make plans to attend

Step 8

Join profession/industry-related association to network with like-minded individuals

Step 9

Brush up on interviewing skills through a course and/or with friends that I trust to help me

Step 10

Make coffee/lunch appointments with friends, former colleagues and other professional connections to stay current on what is going on in their lives, at their companies, and in a global sense.

STep 11

Help someone with their professional goals: maybe introduce two people that can help each other; get your former colleague into a company he has been looking to gain as a client; mentor a student that is looking to obtain their first job

STep 12

Get a massage—in other words, do something to take care of yourself physically and mentally

Now take the list---and start doing it now while you are working.  Don’t get overwhelmed. Just put in your schedule one item per week to start.  Call a former colleague and meet them for breakfast. Arrange to meet someone from another department you have not seen in months for your 3 pm Starbucks run. Contact a local college for an interviewing tactic class.   Is there a college grad in your extended family or neighborhood that needs help finding a job? Call them and ask what you can do to help. Helping people makes you feel good, allows the person you are helping get what they need and they will remember you when/if you need help in the future. We must give to get.

But Lisa, I am already not working…what do I do?  Let’s audit the list. How many of the items above are you doing?  When was the last time you invested in yourself – professional conference attendance, skill certification or personal care (you feel tired and spent, yes?—so take care of yourself to have all your energies to focus on the search).  Have you created a target list? Are you marketing yourself using LinkedIn connections you know and those you do not know? Or are you just responding to job postings…you need to network and market yourself to land your next job. Passive searching will not work in this economy.

The bottom line is this. You do not need to practice this concept perfectly.  And you certainly do not want to be so on top of networking for your next job (unless you are not working) that you lose your current job.  But the key is to build your network in a genuine manner by helping and giving at a time when you do not need it, so if this happens to you, it will already be in place – or at least started – to help you when you do need it.

A successful business hinges on hiring employees who offer the highest potential to get the job done the way you want it done. For a sales position, this means finding people who demonstrate a knack for generating sales. Separating good salespeople from mediocre ones is easy to do when you use a sales assessment test.

Sales assessment testing offers a useful tool for identifying the most promising salespeople from a pool of qualified candidates. Companies need to sift through many applicants to fill sales positions. It can be costly to make a mistake with a hiring decision.

Using a sales assessment test removes the guesswork from the process. It weeds out applicants who do not possess enough sales potential and shine a light on the ones who demonstrate a natural sales ability.

A typical sales assessment test puts applicants on equal ground. An employer can obtain information on an applicant that goes beyond a resume or cover letter and helps them identify which candidates have attributes needed for a specific sales position.

Some attributes measured through a sales assessment test include:

• Competitiveness

• Persistence

• Self reliance

• Energy

• Determination to make sales

A good sales assessment test can be a useful tool for measuring areas of performance. It covers all of the bases where salespeople will be tested in their real jobs. These performance areas include:

• Finding Prospects

• Closing Sales

• Call Reluctance

• Self Starting

• Teamwork

• Building Relationships

One thing a sales assessment test should be designed to do above all else is to measure a wide cross section of skills and traits that will come into play while doing everything from generating a lead to closing a sale. Different types of tests are available to test different skills.

Cognitive tests are useful in measuring reasoning, memory, speed and accuracy in how a person approaches tasks related to their job. Personality tests measure what traits are in an applicant's personality and predict how those traits will influence their job performance. Integrity tests are predictive in nature because they are designed to analyze if a person will engage in detrimental conduct such as stealing or missing work frequently once they are hired for a sales position.

Any sales assessment test you use should include certain key elements to maximize its effectiveness. The test you use should be valid and reliable. It should administer a testing procedure that uses no form of discrimination. The test should also be current with changes in job requirements or the sales industry and apply those changes to the test.

Somes sales assessment tests that are both popular and effective:

1. Brooks Group TriMetrix Sales Assessment Test

2. Objective Management Group 

3. Resolution Systems Inc. 

Guest Blog Post by Maria Botta

“As consumers spend more and more time online, it’s critical for marketers to reach our consumers at the right time, with the right message, communicated in the right way. Tools that help drive those insights help us stay on the cutting edge.” - Gayle Fuguitt Vice President, Consumer Insights, General Mills

Most of my career I have worked as a producer on a variety of projects from commercials to corporate videos and everything in between. But in the last 3 years I have gone from producing traditional video communications, to video content specifically for online dissemination.

As we witness the evolution of the internet, going from a static environment to that of moving images, marketers are creating online video for everything.

This evolution has created a new medium in itself, completely different from the old time platform of TV, so it's no surprise that this new medium presents a challenge to advertisers and marketers on HOW to message the audience. The online environment has infinitely more channels, and there is lots more content. Research shows that creating quality original content represents a huge opportunity for brands, because original content has the best effect on consumers' recollection of brands, as well as fostering positive sentiment.

I suggest that instead of thinking of “adapting” a :30 or :60 ad made for TV, create a video specifically designed to engage online audiences.

In the past 24 months alone, I have worked on 5 different online video projects, for 5 very different clients, with very different communication goals. All of them chose to include online video as a cornerstone to their overall marketing strategy - and all have achieved great results by doing so.

Below are 3 examples of the projects I have worked on.

For General Mills, we created 20 "How to videos" in English and Spanish. The videos where then deployed on their proprietary microsite as well as on several independent channels including youtube.

Cookies

A film for the NROTC for the US Marines, geared to the parents of prospective NROTC candidates.

NROTC (Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps) Marine Option

While at Graduate School at Thunderbird, I directed and produced for the Marketing Department 4 candid student interviews, that are used on their YouTube Channel and for recruiting.

Executive MBA Student Perspective - Choosing Thunderbird

All of these projects involved telling a story, an entertaining story that connected with their audience and compelled them to listen and watch.

The growth of online video has been exponential

According to a recent study by emarketer, US online video ad spending will grow by 43.1% in 2012 making it the fastest-rising category of online spending.
The total US internet audience viewed an all-time high of 42.6 billion videos in October.

“It's still going to be about the people who can tell a story, you can own the TV network or outlet but you need to hire the people who can tell the story or you won't own it for long.” - Michael Eisner, former CEO of Walt Disney and founder of The Tornante Company

One of the reasons that marketers are moving towards online video content is the growing number of eyeballs watching content online. The 2010 study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, indicates that 69% of adult internet users, or roughly half of all U.S. adults (52%) have used the internet to watch or download video.

It's not only important to produce a good quality video that engages with your audience, but it's equally important to deploy the content on all relevant platforms, including social media and proprietary websites. Your video can be as simple as the ones I featured, or as complex as creating webisodes.

Still, there are some challenges, including understanding how to properly measure ROI. However, there more emerging technologies that do a better job at measurement - this is all very fluid stuff because constant refinements are happening everyday.

If your company is not using video communication as part of your marketing strategy, you are missing an amazing opportunity to really connect with your audience with a message that is relevant.

We've had a lot of demand lately for highly skilled sales reps from our Valued-Added Reseller/ Systems Integrator (VAR/SI) clients.  Not only are they expanding their sales teams, but they are also experiencing turnover from competitive pressure and the (predictable) lower quintile under-performers changing teams before they get canned.

Sales Manager hiring for Unified Communications sales people are looking for a variety of skills.  In many ways UC is still selling network infrastructure, but instead of the value being "strong, faster, more secure", sales reps are pushing the business transformation story, i.e. they're selling an application that will change the way you do business through interaction within firms, and with customers, partners, vendors, etc.

So which is it?  Do you need a Telecom sales rep who has led his sales with network services, or an equipment guy where telco connectivity is "not his bag"?  Or are they looking for an applications software sales rep, who has handle complex sales with multiple decision-makers on mulit-year product and services deals?  Or do they want a salesman from an channel partner, or consulting firm who has sold integration, professional services, or managed services?

Naturally, the answer is yes, yes, yes and yes.  Our clients tell us that their Unified Communications offerings can be sold from a variety of angles, and so the sales reps who can adapt quickly, adjust to new market demand and who have overcome the usual barriers to sales success are going to be hired into this burgeoning market.

Sales management wants good sales "blocking and tackling" more than ever. A good track record of quota achievement, good sales tactics (and oftentimes requiring some type of structured sales methodology experience, if not in fact training like Miller-Heiman, TAS or SPIN Selling) as well as high-performance, low-maintenance mentality are the elements most in demand. And these requirements are particularly crucial in a virtual office situation, where managers see their sales reps infrequently.  So skills such as strong use of CRM, pipeline/funnel forecasts and sales activity reporting are must-haves for technology vendors and reseller sales teams.  If you look at our current Sales and Pre-Sales Engineering searches, you will see that again and again.

Aggregate demand for sales reps is accelerating as generational technology change in the form of Unified Communications deployments are happening.  Corporate America is sitting on a ton of cash and needs to deploy it wisely, to compete and thrive.  

If you are an outstanding sales rep with characteristic we've discussed here, let us know!

Time to get started on the next big technology sales opportunity!