For the Employers Seeking Workers

When reading a resume of a potential candidate, try to remember when you were seeking employment and you had a few jobs that you left because your boss or leadership team was less than ethical. It’s hard to come up with a plausible reason for “job hopping” other than, “I left for a better career opportunity”.

Sometimes, a candidate had to leave because their morals and ethics were higher than those above them or their boss asked them to do something illegal. You don’t want to disparage the place you worked at but you also don’t want to look like you leave your job every year or two years.

Sympathize with the fact that there may be other reasons and focus on their accomplishments and what they are bringing to the table today. I see many professionals still applying for positions and many jobs that have been open for months. What are you looking for? Perfection? It doesn’t exist. What does exist are broke, eager people out there willing to learn and work hard so they can pay their bills, feed their families, and keep a roof over their heads. Don’t hesitate so much. I realize you want a “good fit”, but that can be just as discriminating as hiring for race.

Stop trying to check off all the boxes on that job description and start looking for the transferable skills and willingness to learn. I have so many friends and colleagues out there hunting for that next best career that are being passed on due to this need to check off each and every item. It just doesn’t work this way.

Don’t ghost your candidates. Put them out of their misery if you don’t want to move them to the next round. It is better to send an email letting them know that they have not been chosen than to say nothing at all. It is down right rude too. Especially when you are the Vice President or CEO and you have met the candidate in person and then just pretended that they didn’t exist.

Let’s try to remember that candidates are interviewing you as well. Humble yourselves to the fact that candidates are savvy and looking for a certain type of company. They want a good team, kind management, room for growth, training & development, and great benefits. Yes, compensation is a key component, but those other items are also at the top of the list.

Stop wasting time. We think this job market is broken. We think this world is broken. Prove us wrong and hire us. We’ll show you how hard working we are.

This is TuTu Much!

For two years now, I have been asking the universe for abundance and clarity and during these last nine months, I have been on a fantastic journey of the soul. I have experienced some heartbreak and rejection but each time I have pivoted out of the negative and shifted toward positivity because I knew that abundance was on its way.

Bring on the TuTu’s

When I finally decided to leave my toxic job due to health concerns, I envisioned myself waltzing into the office in a bright-colored tutu with a fairy wand and telling my boss I quit as I sprinkled fairy dust on all the desks and twinkle-toed my way out the front door.

My dear friend and cheerleader always brings this up and laughs at the thought of it. So do I.

Action Item for You

Because it is so bold and fun at the same time, I want to begin a weekly ritual for all of you to put on that metaphorical tutu and tell me about what you’ve accomplished or will accomplish this week. We’re calling it Tutu Tuesday!

Tutu Tuesdays!

Everyone dreads Mondays. It is a day that goes by so quickly due to weekend emails and usually is filled with meetings and messages leaving no time to think. The next day things are a bit more settled, you find time to think about the rest of the week and what is in store.

Tutu Tuesday is your posting day. Be prepared to post your goals and your weekly wins. Remember to write future goals down to make them happen. Put them in the present tense when you’re writing them. For example; I am the Regional Manager of XYZ Company or I am happy that I have received that $15,000. bonus to buy my new car. Always write it as if it has already happened to you. This is how you manifest your dreams!

Tomorrow is Tuesday so get those accomplishments or dreams ready! I want to see them!

Coach Lisa, HR People Wrangler

What would happen if you came to work with me?

Did you know you are on the edge of greatness?

Will you start that business venture you have been thinking about? Will you get that promotion that you have told yourself you deserve? Will you reach your first six-figure salary? Seven figures?

What would it be worth to transform your life in this way?

What is holding you back?

Spending time in conversations with me would be all about finding what makes you tick. Find out about the big dreams and goals you have for yourself and the demons and obstacles that are preventing you from reaching them. Did you know that you are on the edge of greatness? If you’re serious about making these changes and doing the work, then I am serious about being your partner and coach for this journey.

·         You have to commit to it. I know I will.

·         You have to show up. I know I will.

·         You have to do the work. I will support and coach you through to your goal.

·         You have to want it bad! I want it for you.

No Games, Just Coaching.

What do you have to lose? Email me today for your complimentary consultation.

lisa@coach2levelup.com

Lisa Gallucci * Level Up, Business and Career Coaching * 206.250.6104

Coaching vs. Human Resources

As an HR Director, I trained and advised team members, managers, and directors on issues they were having in their departments. As my career progressed I turned to coach these managers and directors showing them how to gain back the power of their positions. I also coached them on how to become better leaders instead of just being “the boss”.

Full-time Coaching

I am making the bold step into the coaching world outside of my human resource role, utilizing the many years’ experience I have in business and HR to help others to achieve their dreams. I have opened Level Up, Career & Business Coaching. Don’t worry, I will always be your sassy HR People Wrangler, saying it and writing it like I do!

Ready to Serve You!

Now is the time to put aside your fears and get what you want out of life. What is stopping you? If you don’t know or do know but are having trouble working through it, this is where I come in. Call me, hire me, I want to help you. Find my phone number and email on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisagallucci/

The vision of Level Up, Career & Business Coaching is to coach women to empower themselves to level up their personal, financial, and career goals, and attain them. You can have what you want out of life.

Hi! How Are You Doing?

No, Really…How are you doing?

If the answer to this question is fine, stop. Eject that thought and put in a new one. Are you really fine, because what I am going to tell you is that it is okay, not to be.

In my now 9 plus months of unemployment with an unheard of 900+ applications in 2021, I have taken some classes through my local employment security department and they are fantastic. The two women that run these courses are empathetic and smart. They have been where I am now and the other participants in the class support each other through the chatbox. Through these classes, I have learned to say that I’m not fine and I hope that what I am about to share with you allows you to say that too if that’s the case.

I want to state for the record that I am not trying to be a downer. I am a very positive person but I have been searching for employment for a long time now and I don’t understand why I have not been hired. I know I am older but I am not dead. I know I would command a larger salary but I am not outside most of the ranges that I am seeing for the roles I am applying to. If I don’t know the range, then I ask for it. If the company doesn’t share that information, then I probably don’t want to work there anyway.

So is it my interviewing skills? It might be that, but I have had friends interview me and coach me through what they see as areas of improvement. I am open to mixing it up. I actually love to interview. It provides me with a platform to show how passionate I am about what I do. The fact is, I am getting interviews and I am making it to the 2nd round with some companies. Then, poof, they are gone. I ask for feedback knowing that I probably won’t hear anything, but it doesn’t hurt to try.

Is it my resume? I don’t think so. I have recruiter friends that have looked it over with a fine-tooth comb and they just remind me to change keywords and phrases to match the job description in the advertisement. I do all of these things so I feel that my resume is pretty good. I refuse to pay someone to write me one. I don’t have the extra cash lying around anyway.

How about the number of people applying for each job I am? Yes, this could be it. For one recent position, there were over 700 applicants. Is that real? Are that many people job hunting when the media says that unemployment is reducing? 700 people, that’s crazy! If I am 701, will my resume even get looked at? Will I get a shot at the job that matches my skillset over these other people? How do you possibly stand out in that type of crowd? I apply anyway and hope that my application magically slips through the cracks and lands on the hiring manager’s desk. So, I’m not fine. I’m frustrated. I want to work. I want to be a productive member of society again. I would like to be able to pay my bills. I would really like to stop borrowing money from family and move into a new place of my own. I made this change to pivot out of a toxic environment and I’m having a heck of a time making it happen.

I am surviving though, barely. I am honestly hopeful. I know my job is coming. It’s almost here. I have put in the work. This class I took was about mental health. In job-hunting, you are on the computer all day, every day, looking at jobs, updating your resume and cover letter, and applying with the information that is on that resume. It takes time to go through an application so imagine how long it took to do over 900. The class teaches to take breaks. I have really tried to do this on the weekend and get out of the house to do something fun. Or even just walk around the block or get a coffee from your favorite barista. I know you will say to me, “I might miss something!” Yes, you might but isn’t your mental health more important? I believe it is.

Whatever your higher power is, please use it to pray. I ask for your prayers for me, but also for all of the rest of you that are telling yourselves that you are “fine” while you are job hunting. I want you to find work too.

Maybe when I get my new job, I can hire you. Wouldn’t that be awesome?

Keep up the good work, it will come!

Keeping Negativity Out of Conversations

“What I heard you say was…”

I have been doing a lot of inward searching lately and I have decided that I no longer want to hear nor be a part of a negative conversation. When people say things to you that are not necessarily friendly, we tend to go inward and wish they said something else. No one likes confrontation but I think there is something magical about what I want you to try.

Example: You are working from home and your kids are home from school. Your spouse/partner is supposed to be watching them and you have an important call coming up. You hear a loud bang. Your call is in minutes. You rush out to see what happened. The kids tell you that they were just making a large banging noise so you tell them they don’t need to be so loud and you ask them if they are all right. All of a sudden your spouse shows up in the room and says, “They’re fine.”

Well, now I am really irritated because my spouse is supposed to be watching them and there is no reason they can’t play a little more quietly. I want to scream. Instead, I stop and think because I have a call in mere minutes and I don’t want my emotions to get the best of me. So what I say is, “What I heard you say was, thank you for coming out of your office to see if the kids were not hurt. We’ll try to keep it down for you.”

I am not yelling, yet I have conveyed my feelings and shown my children the alternatives to arguing with my spouse in front of them. I have also shown my spouse/partner how I feel about what is going on in the house while I am trying to work. Yes, kids are noisy however, they can be taught to be respectful and given alternative activities during the day.

So, how do we translate this to business?

There are times when conversations get heated and it is important for us to keep our cool and maintain our emotions. If your boss is upset with you for something you didn’t do, or if a co-worker says something snarky to you for no reason. You can try this statement and paraphrase their thoughts into something positive, or let them know what is actually going on.

Example: I was told about a team lead that had just finished an extremely hard customer service call in a fast-paced environment. Normally these calls are about 10 minutes maximum, but this one lasted around 30 minutes. The team lead followed all the protocols but the customer started swearing at them and the rule was that they were allowed to ask them to stop or they will end the call. Of course in this instance, the customer kept going and the team lead ended the call.

The customer left a bad review and the team lead’s manager came over to speak with them. Needless to say, the manager did not take the time to find out what really happened and blasted the team lead for being too long on the phone and hanging up on the client.

The team lead was visibly upset but as a trained customer service representative, had the tools to respond to the manager and say;

“What I heard you say was that this must have been a difficult call for you. You were on the phone for a long time trying to diffuse the situation but since the client was unwilling to listen, you ultimately had to end the call. You followed all of our protocols. Let’s discuss what was said on the call and see how we could have handled things differently, if possible.”

You haven’t been disrespectful to your manager, but you have set some boundaries about how you will be spoken to. When this type of linguistics is used more frequently, patterns will change over time. It is a very powerful tool.

Most of us go home and stew about what was said to us and we try to come up with a snappy come-back. Or we just start to resent our boss and end up quitting to get away from them.

If you feel this is too harsh of a way to respond, then I challenge you to really listen to your inner voice the next time someone says something that is upsetting for no reason because, “What I heard you say is this might be difficult for me to try at first, but I am willing to give it a shot because I am worthy of being spoken to in a professional manner.”

Let’s Talk Resumes!

Since I am an HR Professional and on the job hunt myself, I thought I would share my experiences with resumes and how you should alter them for each application.

“What?!?”, you say? Yes, you heard me correctly. You NEED to update your resume for each application. I am not saying you need 6500 resumes, but I am going to tell you to have at least two resume templates.

Example: I have a heavy HR template and I have a heavy Talent Acquisition template. I can do both but if the job requires more recruiting, then I have the base document to update for the particular position I am applying for. Here is another thing. In this paragraph alone, I used “talent acquisition” and “recruiting”. Which word is more relevant in the job description I am looking at? If it is talent acquisition, then I want to update all my “recruiting” words to “talent acquisition” so the ATS matches it up or the HR professional screening my document sees I have the experience and skills they are looking for.

You can also look at your resume to see what kind of person they are looking for. It will say something like: “You are…” or “The successful candidate will have…”. Statements like these can be inserted into your cover letter and your resume where appropriate.

Here is another example: If they are looking for FMLA skills, and they post Family Medical Leave Act, I would suggest spelling it out and then putting the acronym at the end in parenthesis. This way, again, the ATS will pick it up and you will be on your way to your first phone screen.

These examples are for an HR resume but can be duplicated with marketing, sales, operations, etc. Use resume readers that compare your resume with the job description and give you a percentage of matching qualifications. You can usually get five free matches, then they will ask for a membership. You can also earn more free matches. The best scenario for getting matched with a company is to get at least an 80% match or higher. This is not a guarantee that you will be chosen, it is a guideline set by the matching software company.

Make sure your resume is the same font and the same font size throughout the document. Spell check, spell check, spell check! I can’t reiterate that enough! Spelling counts. Have a trusted friend read it for grammar and stylization. Believe me, when you have read it a thousand times, it all seems like stereo instructions. Having a second set of eyes to check out your document and give you feedback will be very helpful before you start applying and submitting.

Another piece of free advice, track your jobs on an excel spreadsheet. PLEASE!!! I have been doing some recruiting on contract and when I have called the candidates for their phone screens and they ask me, “who are you again, I have applied to so many places”. This is a real turn-off for me. You should always be prepared to know where you are interviewing and who is calling you. Granted, sometimes you don’t know the name of the company if it is a recruiter reaching out to you with a blind ask, but you should still remember that they are contacting you and what the job title is that you will be discussing.

That being said, I wish you all luck. I am in it with you for sure! Let’s get this done by 12/31/2021! We can start off 2022 with new positions and a great new attitude! Happy Holidays everyone and may you have a prosperous new year!

Sincerely yours,

The HR People Wrangler

Outside My Comfort Zone

Right now is one of the most difficult times in my life. I have made the choice to leave the State that I have lived in for the majority of my life, I quit a toxic job, and I drove through nine states looking for a new place to live.

I have no money. I have had to borrow money to live and don’t know how I’m going to pay the next month’s bills.  My unemployment has never come through and I’m waiting the 160 or so days that they tell me its going to take to resolve my appeal.  No extra money.  That’s scary A.F.

My closest friend calls me brave. An old friend from high school said I was a bad ass. Am I?

I really just think that I am worthy of a great life in a great job and in a place that I want to live. So why has it been so hard?

It’s hard because it’s a shift in who I am. I am reinventing myself and I am manifesting the life and job that I want. I’m not the same person I was a year ago. I’m not the same person  I was six months ago. I’ve grown emotionally.  I’m stronger than I realized. My friend reminds me that I made the decision to pack up my entire life to make it better.

My dream job is coming. It is so close I can taste it. My new boss is going to be so happy with me and I will be at the level in my career I have worked so hard to get to.

My closest friend is my daily cheerleader.  She is always there to tell me how far I have come and in such a short time and that I should be proud of my accomplishments.

So if you are looking and feeling down. Keep your chin up because,  its coming! Your dream is coming.

So yes, I am a bad ass. I’m ready for the next thing and I’m up for the challenge. I challenge  you to get uncomfortable and get out of your own comfort zone if you want to make a change in your life.

700 and counting…

Well, it’s 2 days before Thanksgiving and I am still job hunting. Today I filled out my 700th application. Yes, I said 700.

I’m not applying for jobs that I don’t qualify for and I’m updating my resume with key words so it goes through the ATS software. I’m just not sure what’s going on.

I know I’m an older worker but in my line of work, the requirements ask for the amount of years experience that I have. The salary expectations are within the range that the companies are offering, so what is it?

I’m willing to relocate, I’m able to start immediately, and I have awesome references.

I’ve even been in the interview process on several jobs and made it to the 2nd round. Then nothing.

So, I keep my head up and know that my dream job is coming. For those of you hiring and in need of a dedicated, skilled, and hungry HR Director, call me up!

Retaliation: Not a Good Thing

Dear Managers, Owners, and Presidents, Please don’t retaliate against team members that leave your organization and are seeking work elsewhere. The team member expects that you will give the standard answer of yes or no, they worked for you and yes or no, they are eligible for rehire.

I have been told that sometimes former colleagues will contact each other for references and that they think it is “off the record”. Well, guess what? If it affects the ability of the person seeking a job to lose it, or have an interview canceled, it becomes “on the record”.

You also don’t know if the former team member you had, took some classes to improve their shortcomings, or have changed. You should assume good intentions all the time because if you don’t, and you give a bad review or reference, you could affect the person’s livelihood. Their ability to get a job and make some money.

No matter what, do not disparage the former team member. Let it be the next company’s issue if they are not up to par. You interfering is what causes lawsuits.

So, tell your colleagues, yes that person worked for us. They were great at x, y, z…and leave it at that. You should always assume that the person has improved and has good intentions.