Job hunting Tips
anyone else out theRe in the JoB MaRket? why do i even ask? i know you are … lots of you. isn’t it fun? sure, for the masochists among us it couldn’t be more rewarding! For the sane ones … not so much. Remember the glory days? it wasn’t that long ago that hiring banks (now an endangered species) were
begging us to consider working for them. name your salary … demand extra vacation
days … work Reg. Z or Bsa violations into a few sentences and you could get them
to redecorate your new office. now? not so much.
OK, so we have to consider some guerilla
job-hunting warfare tactics. Remember when
recruiter calls used to be such a nuisance?
Seemed like you’d get a call at least once a
week pestering you about some “great opportunity” for you or anyone else you could
think of and would be willing to pass along a
phone number. Remember when you wished
they would just leave you alone? Guess what?
You got your wish. On the off chance that
you do hear from a recruiter on the currently
elusive job openings, well it’s like the old
saying—opportunity only calls once. I can’t
tell you the number of times I’ve had a voice
mail from a recruiter, which I do return (as I
said—we are job hunting—right?) only never
to hear from the recruiter again! (Is missing
their initial call simply unforgiveable now?)
I’ve tried the bold route—keep calling them
back and leaving a series of voice mails. This
might work in some situations, but I’ve got a
couple of stalking restraining orders to prove
that it often doesn’t. One time I actually did
connect up with the recruiter (I was beyond
thrilled) and he was kind enough to explain
the current phenomenon. They are swamped,
buried, up to their eyeballs with résumés these
days. So tip number one, make your résumé
stand out. I’ve tried “puffing up” a little on my
accomplishments, although if a prospective
employer ever asks me to actually prove that
I can swim the 50 meter freestyle as fast as
Michael Phelps I’m in big trouble.
Another tip is to be sure you’ve done an
“online facelift” of your Linked-In or Face-
book pages. Maybe even Twitter (although I
One last tip: Don’t give
up. Well, that’s what everyone is
telling me at least. I mean face it,
… more … day … (and we’ve all been there,
right?) Whatever. It means you need a new
job, and no matter if you were (pre-recession)
close to retirement, your 401(k) is now just a
“(k)” and Medicare doesn’t really “care” about
you yet.
About the Author
In what falls under the “truth is stranger
than fiction” category, stu;lehr,;CrCM,
actually did get a new job recently, ironically
with a high-tech company (now that’s
funny)! This company, Finacle, has a
core banking software product, but not to
worry, he is only responsible for advising on
U.S. regulatory requirements; he won’t be
writing any code (as if he could). For the
20-some years prior to this he developed
and lead compliance programs for a number
of kind-of-big banks, and even an online
payments provider. In addition, since 1993
Lehr can’t seem to end his dependence on
American Bankers Association activities,
from the Compliance Executive Committee,
to Conference Planning, to still being
on the faculty for the ABA Compliance
Schools. Even after receiving 2002’s ABA
Distinguished Service Award, he won’t go
away. He did manage to get a couple of
degrees, from Nebraska Wesleyan University
and the University of Nebraska, College of
Law, and prior to discovering the thrill that
is regulatory compliance, he tried his hand
at a number of things from practicing law to
corporate marketing. You can contact him
at stu.lehr@gmail.com (he’ll respond if he
could just remember his password).
