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Thursday, February 12, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
How to Market Yourself to Employers in a Recession | ResumeBear Blog
How to Market Yourself to Employers in a Recession | ResumeBear BlogWhat most job-seekers (during recessions and economic booms alike) don’t realize is that applying for jobs is a marketing problem. The best jobs aren’t won by filling your resume with cliches and business buzzwords, using a pretty Microsoft Word template, and jumping through the same tired human resources hoops as every other job seeker. Perry Marshall touches on some of the problems with this approach in his excellent report on using direct marketing techniques to land a new job. They include:
- The best jobs aren’t publicly advertised. Rather, the jobs you see posted in newspapers and on Monster.com are the jobs insiders don’t want.
- Applying for such jobs puts you at the back of a long line of job-seeking clones who look mostly or completely the same on paper. Furthermore, the line is set up in such a way that it’s very difficult to reach a real person at the company.
- Any real person you do eventually reach is likely to be a human resources bureaucrat rather than someone with serious authority to hire you.
This process can be effective in a prosperous economy, when jobs are plentiful and the competition for them isn’t very intense. But it does not work during recessions. By definition, jobs are extremely scarce during recessions, meaning the competition for what few jobs exist is fierce. And if you try to get those jobs the same way you would during times of prosperity, you’re basically walking into a war zone unarmed.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
But if you want to get different results - that is, a well-paying job in a time of economic despair - you have to do something different. Rather than merely applying for jobs in the same cookie-cutter fashion as the rest of the herd, you need to market yourself (there’s the key word again) as a difference-maker. You need to create the impression that despite the current economic crisis, you need to be hired - like, yesterday. To do this effectively, however, you need to understand something about how corporate decision-makers think during recessions. Don’t skip past this part, because it’s critical to the tips that follow. A true grasp of this will separate you from the rest of the job-seeking herd almost instantly.
Employers still want and need to hire difference-makers.
Believe it or not, companies don’t all freeze up and stand still during recessions. While they are more reluctant and selective about whom and how many people they hire (because cash is low) companies still need top-notch employees to help them remain profitable and stay afloat. This is as true during recessions as it is during good times. In fact, it’s more important. Economic crises reveal a company’s employees for who they truly are. Those who produce demonstrable, bottom-line results for the company are distinguished from those who merely act the part and collect their weekly pay. And make no mistake - if you really, truly are a results-oriented difference maker, then companies want to hire you. They need you now more than ever. The challenge then becomes how to show them that you are such a person.
How to reach decision-makers
First and foremost, this is a matter of reaching out to the right people. The aforementioned human resources bureaucrats are not going to be of much help, especially during a recession when they are even more risk-averse than bureaucrats usually are. No, instead, you need to reach the senior-level decision makers. The people within a company who A) realize the need for results-oriented difference makers and B) have the power to hire them immediately. But how do you reach them? Surely you can’t just waltz into a company and ask to be taken to a vice-president’s office. Probably not. But what you can do is get their mailing addresses.
Just visit ZapData.com, the list service of business credit behemoth Dunn & Bradstreet. Once there, you can set up a free account and search within certain industries and locations - say, software development in Seattle. Then you just pay the fee and download a mailing list with the addresses of presidents, owners, or senior-level managers within that industry. Again, these are the people you want to reach, not HR guys. But once you have the names, what do you actually say to them?
Making your pitch
This is critical. Having the names of decision makers wont do you much good if all you do is send them the same watered-down, dime-a-dozen, MS Word-generated resumes as the classified ad crowd. Remember - these companies are experiencing the pains of a recession. They are cutting costs to the bone. The only way to get hired in such a climate is to market yourself as a results-oriented producer. This is in stark contrast to the types of people who do not get hired in recessions, whom Harvard MBA John T. Reed calls “external validation addicts.” According to Reed, “You can spot external validation addicts by the way they describe themselves in their resume or bio. If it is a list of appointments they have received from various committees, like military rank or plum positions like battalion commander in an airborne division, they are external validation addicts.”
This is absolutely relevant to our purposes here. If your resume reads like this, you’re in trouble. You might have served on every committee your former employer ever created, but guess what? The company you’re applying to now is losing money hand over fist, and committees are just another drain on the budget. They want people who can cut costs, increase sales, or both. In short, they want people who are results-oriented. Reed goes on to describe what the resumes of those people look like:
Those of us who think you can shove your external validation have different self-descriptions.
Ours involve straight-commission jobs and marks like top producer; successful entrepreneurial activities; successful coaching in sports; books and articles written (“Getting published” is external validation. I published almost all my books and articles myself.); marks set in athletic competition; net worth; income; discoveries made; inventions patented; and so forth.”
The more of these things your resume contains, the better your chances of being hired in a recession.
Another key to accentuating your results-oriented workplace credentials is to use specificity. Too many job applicants rely on laudatory adjectives and buzzwords to communicate their strengths. Don’t do that. Whenever possible, quantify what you have done or could do if hired. For example:
Don’t say “achieved phenomenal growth in the produce department.” Instead, say, “Grew sales in the produce department 15% during the slowest quarter of the year, during a hiring freeze, with no additional support or resources from management.” Even if some of your achievements appear to be committee/popularity oriented, don’t name them as such. Instead, try to unearth the objective reasons why you achieved those things. For example, don’t say “won Manager of the Year award in 2007.” Instead, say “cut operaing costs by 20% while at the same time increasing after-tax profits more than any other store in the tri-state area.”
It’s all about results
These statements identify you as a difference maker, someone who could step in, take the reigns of a department, and deliver immediate, bottom-line results if hired. And do you know what the best part of this approach is? You don’t need to have a mile-long list of college degrees, awards, or sparkling credentials. The dirty little secret about hiring (and ultimately, life) is that credentials are not the most important thing in the world. As Paul Graham points out, “What [credentials] are, functionally, is a way of predicting performance. If you could measure actual performance, you wouldn’t need them.”
“Actual performance” are the key words.
Think of what we’ve been saying throughout this article: results-oriented. Difference-maker. Bottom line. Actual performance. In a recession economy, these things are all employers care about. Everything else is secondary - in fact, lower than that. They really don’t matter at all. If you can market yourself to corporate decision makers as someone who can bring these critical ingredients to the table, you will always be employed - during good times and bad.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Patrik Antonius Signed to Full Tilt
Patrik Antonius Signed to Full TiltDuring yesterday’s first event at the 2008 WSOP, Howard Lederer made a huge announcement for Team Full Tilt Poker. One of the greatest players of this decade would be joining their team: Patrik Antonius.
Antonius was chosen for team full tilt because Howard believes that Patrik isn’t just a great player right now, he will continue to be so for decades. Howard didn’t mind that Patrik had never won a WSOP bracelet, or a WPT Title, more importantly he highlighted that Patrik plays the biggest games, with the best poker players in the world and consistently does well in these games.
It is about time they got around to signing him. After all, Patrik is on all of the high stakes tables every night and has a huge following. I guess he won’t have to worry about all the rake he is generating any more, though this is probably an insignificant amount to him.
Patrik seemed happy to be part of Team Full Tilt and looks forward to getting his own avatar, using his own name, and possibly getting his own table (similar to how Phil Ivey has the Ivey Thunderdome). Good choice FTP!
Patrik Antonius Biography | Poker Blog
Patrik Antonius is possibly the youngest and most well known poker player today. Originally from Helsinki, Finland, he came to birth in 1980. Growing up, his family was poor, so he learned that only a hard work ethic would produce results. Combined with his military discipline, Antonius is very focused at the poker table, able to lose or win large sums of money gracefully.
He was very athletic since he was a child and aspired to be a professional tennis player. Unfortunately, a back injury at the age of 15 would end that dream. Antonius still plays tennis on and off, and has become an avid golfer. Even while playing sports, he still finds a way to gamble with friends. He enjoyed golf so much that he once considered quitting poker to join the PGA tour.
He has been playing poker with since the age of 11. Most of his experience came from simply playing home games with friends, not poker books or lessons. When he turned 18, he was regularly playing at Casino Helsinki, where he would empty his bankroll almost every week for two years. Then he started taking the game more seriously and began to win consistently.
At the start of 2003, he put in an initial deposit of $200 into an online poker room. In a few months, he had grown it to $20,000. He moved to the United States of America to attend college and play poker. As he became more successful with poker, that’s when he decided to take a break from school and spend the next 2 years focusing solely on poker. By playing 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, Antonius was able to turn $20,000 into $80,000.
2005 was his golden year. Antonius went on a huge heater during the tournament circuit. He took down the Ladbrokes Scandinavian Poker Championships for $66K, finished 3rd in European Poker Tour at Barcelona for $340K, and took 2nd place in the World Poker Tour at Bellagio for $1,045,000. Then he placed 9th in the 2006 World Series of Poker $50k H.o.r.s.e. event for $205K, made it to 3rd place in the 2007 World Championship PLO event for $311K and 7th place in the 2008 World Championship PLO event for $124K.
Over the last few years, Antonius has been playing the biggest online cash games and logs most of his hours at the $200/$400 NLH and PLO tables. He also plays in Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio, a famous high limit room where stakes can run as high $4K/$8K. He was a sponsor for Martinspoker until April, 2008, when his contract expired. A few months later, during a World Series of Poker press conference, it was announced to the public that Antonius would sign with Full Tilt Poker and become a member of the prestigious Team Full Tilt.
He has a fiancee named Mya and a daughter named Mila. Their residence can alternate between Las Vegas and Monacco each year. Right now, his number one priorities in life are to enjoy his family and be healthy. If you want to see Patrik Antonius in action, look for him online, playing exclusively at Full Tilt Poker.
Patrik & Maya Antonius
Patrik Antonius is known as the "Brad Pitt" of poker, but don't let his soft-spoken words and good looks fool you. Patrik Antonius is as killer a shark as there has ever been in the history of poker. He makes the shark in the movie 'Jaws' look like a wimp. Antonius is well documented as one of the biggest winners ever online, having won millions of dollars playing in the biggest games. If anyone can help your game, it is this guy.
Patrik is from Finland, but resides in Monte Carlo permanently. He can be ogled around Vegas playing in the nosebleed cash games or driving balls out on the links. He is known as one of the best heads-up players in the world, and isn't scared to mix it up with the other heads-up specialists. He has been featured on 'High Stakes Poker' over the course of a few seasons and was even involved in the second biggest pot ever on the show.
This avid golfer and cash game pro is also no stranger to the tournament scene. In 2005, Patrik started his tournament career with an incredible run to finish the year. He took down the Ladbrokes Scandinavian Poker Championships, finished 3rd in the PokerStars.net EPT Barcelona event, and he improved on that result at the EPT Baden, taking down his first EPT title. Shortly after during the WPT Bellagio, Patrik won over $1,000,000 when he finished in second place. He lost a horrible suck-out against him heads-up that cost him the title. Since 2005, Antonius has 9 WSOP cashes and over a dozen other cashes in WPT and other high buy-in tournaments around the world.
Patrik is extremely excited the poker strategy video site on pokernews.com and is committed to making it the best he can. Patrik said recently, "In my videos, I am going to analyze my play and explain all the secrets that have helped me win millions of dollars online. I am also excited to see how my game will improve while teaching our members." Antonius will be discussing strategy at varying levels, so you won't need a 7 figure bankroll to get some great insight from this amazing poker player.
Patrik Antonius is one of the most widely recognized players in poker today, and with a record like his, its no wonder. Since taking up poker as a profession in 2002, he's amassed almost $3 million as a result of his skill and aggressive style. While Patrik is clearly a world-class professional, there's more to life for him than just poker. His competitive streak extends well beyond the game - he's still a top-notch tennis player and an avid golfer. Patrick has been living in Las Vegas since January of 2006 with his beautiful fiancee Maya and our new baby girl, Mila. Patrick has now signed with Full Tilt Poker. When he's not dominating the court, the course, or the felt, Patrik spends his personal time with his fiancee Maya and daughter Mila.
Patrik Antonius Poker Achievements
* Over $2.8 Million in Career Tournament Earnings
* 11 WSOP Cash Finishes
* 7 WPT Cash Finishes
* 1 EPT Title
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