Have you been in the
same position for awhile? Feel it’s time to boost your salary and / or career
prospects? Ever been overlooked for a salary increase / promotion?
A résumé and cover
letter is a great tool in your job hunting toolbox, but there are times when you
need to go outside of the box and market yourself in a totally different light.
Since 1992 I have
been stating that a job seeker needs to market their services to an employer,
just like an employer markets their services / products to a consumer. This is
still true. However, what if you took it one step further?
Have you ever been
prospected by a sales rep who whipped out a chart full of wonderful statistics
to prove that what they were saying was the real deal? This is an interesting
point and one you can use to your advantage, assuming that you have exceeded
your own workplace targets or outstripped your peers.
A job performance
chart is a new tool for your job hunting toolbox that you can utilise,
irrespective of whether you are seeking an internal salary increase / promotion,
or whether you are attending an interview at a new company.
How do you put it
together and how does it work?
First, you need to
collect as much data as possible on your key performance indicators (KPIs) or
targets – whether they be personal or team orientated or both.
As an example: one of
your KPIs may be a target of acquiring 20 new sales per month with total revenue
of $100,000.
Next step is to
document all of your KPIs and achievements on a worksheet so you can quantify
the results. Quantifying with numbers is something managers relate to – so use
it to your advantage.
As an example:
·
In January you may have acquired 22 new sales for the month with a
total revenue of $125,000; or
·
You may have acquired 15 new sales for the month but achieved
total revenue of $155,000 (so even though your total sales did not meet the new
sales target you exceeded the revenue target).
In quantifiable terms
this would equate to (respectively):
·
10% above target for new sales and 25% above target for revenue.
·
55% above target for revenue.
If you don’t know how
to arrive at a percentage between the two figures (i.e. quantifying), then
follow this simple formula:
·
Figure subtracted by Figure
·
Divided by the first Figure
·
Multiplied by 100 = %
For example: target =
20 new sales; achieved 22.
·
20 subtracted by 22
·
Divided by 20
·
Multiplied by 100 = 10%.
If you want further
clarification on this there are some great mathematical sites on the
Internet which explain it in further detail in layman terms.
Once you have
quantified your achievements, next step is to produce a job performance chart or
graph of your accomplishments – this is a powerful tool you can use at a meeting
and / or interview.
It clearly outlines
what you have personally contributed to your organisation, thus demonstrating
your true worth to the company and what you have added to the bottom line. This
is a great bargaining tool when requesting a salary increase / internal
promotion, as well as something you can use at an interview. Consider it as
your own personal marketing document. There is no right or wrong way in putting
together your chart – present it in a way which works for you. There are
numerous charts you can utilise to display your data.
For every achievement
that you cite, you could also include the team’s “average” achievement, or
indeed, a colleague’s underperformance (excluding names of course!).
Here is a simple
example:
Of course, to make
this work really well you should be diligently documenting all of your
achievements – don’t leave it to memory (can you recall your achievements from a
year ago?). Every week or month (whatever works for you), jot down your
achievements so you have a ready access of information at your fingertips when
you need it.
Be bold in your
approach when demonstrating your true worth and take the time to present
yourself in a positive light. It could mean the difference between getting
a new position in 2 weeks as opposed to 6 months, or indeed the difference
between a $50k salary or a $65k salary. Have a think about what you are
potentially costing yourself in monetary terms.
Good luck and happy
job hunting! :-)
PS:
Is the idea of
putting together a job performance chart too difficult, too detailed, or too
time consuming?
Contact Aussie Résumés for a quote!
QUOTE
“The way of the superior person is threefold; virtuous,
they are free from anxieties; wise they are free from perplexities; and bold
they are free from fear.”
--- Confucius
ARTICLE:
The Broccoli Principle
by Craig Harper
Even as a teenager I
learned that, as a rule, the stuff which tasted great was bad for me, and the
stuff which tasted like complete crap, was gonna do me the most good. What a
ridiculous notion. What kinda weird-ass, nasty prank is that to play on a fat
food-loving kid? So not fair. So not a lesson that I wanted to learn.
"Whaddaya mean, donuts don't have the same nutritional value as vegetables? Let
me see that research paper."
As a somewhat resourceful (code for smart-ass) chubby thirteen year-old, I
actually could have run workshops for the masses:
* Vegetable Evasion 101.
* 50 creative things to do with vegetables at the dinner table, other than eat
them.
* How to create the 'illusion' of vegetable eating.
* Managing your fear of vegetables through cognitive disassociation.
* Developing your own vegetable allergy.
If the entire range of vegetables started and finished with potato, I would have
been a vegetable-a-holic. I could, on occasion, stretch myself to carrots, but
only to keep the Vegetable Police off my back momentarily. Peas were mushy crap,
the asparagus smell was worse than my school bag (that's saying something),
brussel sprouts totally creeped me out, and I had re-occurring nightmares about
broccoli; it reminded me of teeny, weeny trees. Didn't look like food to me.
Disgusting.
For the majority of my teenage years, my mother and I actually engaged in
vegetable warfare.
Gotta say, in her
thirties, she was quite the tactician. She needed to be; I could spot a hidden
vegetable at thirty feet. Mothers do that you know; the vegetable 'hiding'
thing. They're trained in it by their mothers. And their mothers, mothers before
them. We poor, simple men live in the dark when it comes to this stuff. I'll
write an article on that one day.
As I got older, she became more and more skilled and increasingly cunning. Not
fair really, I was just a dumb kid. You grow up thinking that mothers are all
'love and light'; they're not. They are sneaky, resourceful, creative and
extremely strategic adversaries. Sure, they look all cutesy and caring; it's a
complete scam. They are hard-core. They are simply vegetable pushers in frocks.
Yep, many significant battles were fought at the Harper dinner table.
"I don't care how long you sit there Mister, you're not moving until you eat
every last vegetable on that plate!"
"Cow" (in a feeble-under-my-breath whisper).
"What did you say to me?"
"Nothing."
"I'll give you some 'cow' around the ears in a minute, Mister backchat"
That's another thing nobody tells you - Mothers having super-human hearing; it's
like some in-built, special survival mechanism, chick thing. It puts us kids at
a biological disadvantage. What kinda lame-ass 'level' playing field is that? I
wish I learned about the hearing trick earlier. Coulda saved myself a lot of
heartache. It's amazing how scary a tiny little woman, with cooking utensils can
be.
Did I mention their unique propensity to bend the truth?
"Mum, does this have broccoli in it...?"
"Hmm, don't think so.."
LIAR!
Your pants are SO on fire Mary Harper.
When it came to vegetables, she had absolutely no morals. She would lie, cheat
and coerce those horrible things into my mouth. She would look at me with that
innocent, 'but-I'm-your-mother-why-would-I-mislead-you' face and then proceed to
lie her ass off. Even when I'd find the offending vegetable in my meal (hidden
cleverly under the good stuff), she'd come out with "I don't remember putting
that in there!!"
No wonder I have trust issues.
It wasn't until I hit my twenties, that I actually began to understand and
appreciate the psychology and the motivation behind my mother's sneaky little
habits. And yes, I did reluctantly discover that broccoli is amazingly good for
me. Even though it doesn't come close to cheesecake, I consume it on a regular
basis because it's good for me. Now, if only someone could only create a
cheesecake with the nutritional values and benefits of broccoli! Or conversely,
maybe grow some broccoli that tastes like cheesecake. Now there's a business
idea.
I now use the 'Broccoli Principle' when I am working with people in the areas of
personal and professional development. Even as adults, we are addicted to the
'yummy' stuff (metaphorically speaking). The stuff that's easy, the stuff that
'tastes' good, the stuff that doesn't challenge us, get us out of our comfort
zone or cause us to become stronger and more capable. It's also usually the
stuff that doesn't allow us to grow and be 'healthy' (psychologically,
emotionally, developmentally). We 'eat' what we want, rather than what we need.
We're adults behaving like spoiled brats. And what we end up with, is stunted
emotional growth and personal development scurvy. In order to 'grow' properly,
develop our potential and create our own version of 'amazing', we need to eat
the broccoli that life serves up.
Okay, I'm off to investigate that cheesecake flavoured broccoli thing...
About The Author
Craig Harper (B.Ex.Sci.)
is the #1 ranked Motivational Speaker by Google. He is a qualified exercise
scientist, author, columnist, radio presenter, television host and owner of one
of the largest personal training centres in the world.
Motivational Speaker & Conference Speaker - Craig Harper
http://www.craigharper.com.au
QUOTE
"One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose
sight of the shore for a very long time."
--- Andre Gide
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