Author: Mike Balof

A retired Air Force Master Sergeant, Mike used to lay in bed at night and worry about what would happen if his plant closed or found himself without a job. One day his plant closed. Rather than panic and hysteria (OK, maybe a little) Mike found himself carried away on the adventure of his life. Mike started with the best job he ever had working at Home Depot. He spent 8 years working with job seekers at a local workforce center, helping them to find employment. He then started his own company developing courses, writing books and urging others to follow their own paths into the future. Mike holds a Master of Arts in Adult Education and Training and a Bachelor of Business Management, earned through the University of Phoenix and an AAS degree in Electronics Systems Technology from the Community College of the Air Force. Mike is a member of the Delta Mu Delta Business Honor Society.

Supply and Demand

One of the things I missed during the pandemic was a haircut. At first, I thought it was great because I had an excuse not to get it cut, and I could just let it grow. Here I am nine months later with a full head of very unruly hair. Every time I try to get my haircut, shops are closed, or a line goes out the door and around the block.

The hair is somewhat bothersome. I could live without the haircut except for the fact that I’m ready to shoot videos for upcoming courses. I do not want to have a significant change in hairstyle right in the middle of a class. It could distract and cause a lot of questions.

I figure I will keep my eyes open for an active barbershop with low lines to get in.

What’s the thing that you’ve had the most trouble trying to get after being vaccinated?

Take Care

There’s a member of the team that usually gets overlooked. And yet, if you don’t take care of that member, the business will never get to the place it could be. That member is the person in the mirror.

We are always taking care of others. We tell them when they’ve done well. When they mess something up and feel bad about it, we are there to make them realize everyone makes mistakes and encourage them to do better. When we see somebody struggling too long, we encourage them to take a break or come back to it in the morning if the hours late.

Quite often, we forget to do these things for that person in the mirror. Wait a minute, isn’t that person in the mirror ourselves?

If we do all this good for all these other people and help them make their goals, shouldn’t we do that for ourselves? It is not selfish, petty, or childish for us to take care of ourselves. It is necessary because if we go down, how can our company stand?

Self-care and self-compassion are vital to everyone in every organization. It is as essential as anything we accomplish.

Thank You

Thank you to everyone who joined last week’s free Critical Thinking lessons in Finding Employment on LinkedIn.

Thanks to you, the fact that you were there and the comments you gave me are a vast help in my quest to build meaningful training packages.

I am now building video training packages to help anyone who is looking for a job.

If you are interested, please send me a comment. And if you have something specific you were trying to learn, please tell me about it. I may have something which might help you.

The important thing for you is not to give up. If you need to know something, knowledge is all around you. If you need to change what do you do or how you do it, I understand. As our world changes, so do we all, and I may have something that could help.

Thanks again,

Mike

Not Done Yet

This week, we have put on our critical thinking hat And worked at getting a job. We have looked at the jobs, the companies, doing a phone interview, and more. We have one more thing to accomplish. We must keep the company aware of us.

We want those we met at a particular company to remember us and think of us favorably. It is a great and doable thought. Believe it or not, this is not that hard to do:

  • Send the people you met a handwritten thank you card.
    • That it was handwritten makes it more memorable.
    • The sooner done, the more it will mean.
  • Give a follow-up call in a couple of weeks to see if the job is still open.
    • My brother got an excellent job. A month after the interview, he was the only one who had called back to check on the job.
  • Connect on LinkedIn with those who interviewed you.
    • If they did not have a job for you, they might know who does.
  • If you are not the right fit for a company, tell others who might be better suited for the job.
    • If you help someone else get a job, they might return the favor.

Who you help along the way could help make your journey easier.  Think about it.

Invited to an In-Person Interview

Now the real excitement starts.  You are on the shortlist. Now it is time to display your best thoughts and how you can critically lay things out.

  • Make sure you have the day, time, and location correct.
  • Dress one step above the normal dress code for the company.
  • Arrive about 10-15 minutes early.  Not too early and never late.
  • Do not take coffee if offered. Bottled water would be OK if offered.

The first person you meet is generally the receptionist.  Be very nice to them.  They are your first interviewer and usually asked what they think of you. Relax, look calm and interested.

  • When in the interview room, smile, shake hands, be personable.
  • Sit upright, no lounging or rocking in the chair.
  • Avoid one-word answers to questions.  They want to hear you talk and your ideas.
  • Stick to the subject, answer the question, and do not go on and on.
  • For ‘How would you’ and ‘What if’ questions, take a moment to explain your reasoning.  Interviewers need to know how you think.
  • In answering questions, use company words and phrases you learned from their website.
  • Please make sure to get everyone’s name so you can send them thank-you notes afterward.

If lunch or meeting future coworkers are on the agenda, remember manners and be polite to everyone.  Even the janitor is a cherished company employee.  No one wants to empty their trashcan.

Relax and follow the company lead.

Critically Thinking The Phone Interview

Any interview is a critical step in getting a job. Think logically, those who present themselves in the best light during these interviews are more likely to get a job. Today, critical thinking gets extended to how to ‘look good’ on the phone.

A phone interview is essential. Preparation is key.

The big question: how do you implement the critical thinking to win the phone interview and move on to the in-person or Zoom round?

  • When you have a phone interview, dress up. When you dress up nice, you impress yourself, and the good you feel is what interviewers will hear.
  • You want the interviewing room picked up and clean because that plays to how you feel and how your voice sounds.
  • No extraneous noises. No dogs barking or cats meowing. Put the pets in another room or outside.
  • No spouses or kids in the room.
  • Make sure no extraneous sound like the refrigerator opening or closing. No ding on the microwave.
  • Whatever you do, NO bathroom sounds. In more than one after-action report, the person had the job right up until the interviewers heard the toilet’s flush. It is rude, and the interviewers hung up.
  • Have a mirror in the room that you can look in and see your smile. Your interviewers hear the smile.

Remember, you can do this!

Finding the Right Company

If you have completed what I gave you yesterday, you now know what you want to do. The next step is to find who’s hiring for that type of position. Now, I want to warn you that many job requests get written to hire a specific person the company wants to hire for that job.

To get past that, you have to apply for many jobs. Also, each job posting will attract on average 250 job applications. To beat the odds, you want to read the company’s website and write your resume and correspondence using the company language. If they call customers ‘clients’, you do the same. If they call their employees ‘the team’, you ask to be part of the team. The more you work this, the easier it gets.

Even if you pay somebody to do your resume, you may end up with only a generic form. Take your time to do your work. Employers do notice and pay attention when you put the extra effort into it. Taking the extra step rarely goes unnoticed.

Make sure friends, family, and everyone you know understands that you are looking for a job. Anything they do to help you is greatly appreciated. You want to be on everyone’s good side and every set of eyes counts.

Earning a job is not an easy gimmie. Many consider getting employed as the most challenging thing to do.

Tomorrow – phone interviews.

Welcome to Critical Thinking

We can talk about types of critical thinking, how we can use critical thinking to build better computers and find answers to global warming, forest reduction, and other problems that plague us all. One of our biggest challenges today is trying to help everyone find employment. I think this is where I’ll start.

Critical thinking is finding the correct answers to essential questions. To do this, you may find yourself talking or even arguing with yourself from time to time. That’s OK, and after a while, I don’t even notice the people staring at me. The important thing is that you keep notes of what you want to know and how you will find out.

Take notes because notes are easier to figure out. It beats having to watch 2-hours of video you taped of yourself.  Some of the first things you will want to know are what you want to do; and who is hiring people to do that.

Other questions might be how much I need to earn, and do I like this type of job? Also, does the job advancement take me where I want to go?

This blog is all about asking questions. You cannot get correct and needed answers if you don’t know what to ask. Starting tomorrow, we will look at finding the critical solutions and next steps.

You Did What

Have you ever noticed that if something goes wrong, no matter how big or little it may be, we often look for someone to blame? Unfortunately, each of us usually points the finger at the person in the mirror. We need to stop doing that.

First off, others will want to blame anybody else even though they feel the same way. Also, whether somebody did it or not, if the majority can blame them, everybody else feels good (and that person feels bad.)

Instead of finding someone to blame, let’s first look at what happened. And then, see what process failed which caused this error to occur. Blame is third or fourth tier after an event.

We need to understand what happened and why it happened. And what we are going to change to make sure it never happens again. Anything less is a band-aid fix that tells you the same thing will happen in six weeks. 

Remember, when we are in business. We manage processes, not people. If the process is wrong, how can you blame the person running it?

What have you falsely blamed yourself for lately for which you had no control?

Everybody Loves to Learn

Everybody loves to learn something new. It makes people feel good to know we can extend our knowledge. Learning keeps us young in heart and soul. Although we love to learn, no one likes getting pushed and forced. Several negatives link to being poorly taught. I am not here to force anyone.  I am here to help you learn the new things you want to know.

As soon as you mention things such as TQM, 8 – D, Six Sigma, or any other quality and process improvement techniques, you find yourself the only person standing in the room. Everyone else ran. Most hate these classes because of how they are taught and rammed down people’s throats.

Starting Monday, I will give you a brief intro to critical thinking at a pace of 250 words a day for five days.  I hope to instill as much fun as anyone can have in these five blogs. And, hopefully, you can find a way that thinking can now become a fun game.

How good are you at finding fun in ‘Everyday’ things? What if you had a refresher?