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Warehouse and Operations as a Career back at ya! Let’s see, where we at now, its already week 28 of 2018 and we’re on episode 94 of the podcast, wow times flying by this year! I’m Marty T Hawkins and I hope you’ve all had a Safe, productive and most importantly a prosperous week so far, shoot a Safe, productive and prosperous year so far. We’re just a little over half way through the year and I’m already looking forward to 2019 and whatever opportunities it’s going to bring me. I’d like to thank all our new listeners so far too, we’ve added friends from California and Texas, the United States, several new listeners from Canada, the United Kingdom oh and Germany, and here’s a new listener from Vietnam, I see 2 new listeners from Brazil and 1 from Bulgaria, oh here’s a few from Poland and the Philippines too. We’ve added listeners in 39 countries so far this year, if you’re a new listener and from another country please shoot us an email to host@warehouseandoperationsasacareer.com and tell us a little bit about the warehouse, transportation and operations there! I love hearing about all the success stories so far this year too. I’ve heard the stories of 4 men that’s moved into selection from Sanitation, oh and a young lady, she started with a facility with dock sanitation and now she’s a Lumper, she’s really enjoying the physical aspects of her job and states the monies much better now, as she plays a part with how much she makes each week! To date we’ve heard from 8 others that’s moved into Lead or Supervisor positions at their buildings, we’ve spoken to a couple of them here actually. I think Cory has shared his experiences with us twice now, and we visited with Abraham a couple of times, who else, oh Lavoil’s called in a couple of times now too. All these men are doing a great job and putting their plans into practice and sprinting towards their goals! Be sure to check out our past episodes where we’ve spoken to several managers and facility managers and drivers, oh, and Tony and James, their rocking it in the selection and training arenas! We’ll enough about the past 28 weeks, lets talk about the next 24 for a few minutes!
I heard of a young woman that wants to be a sit-down or counterbalance fork driver, she’s applied several places and she’s getting pretty frustrated that no ones calling her back. If you look at most any Job Board and its comments you’ll see this frustration in several regions and as disheartening as it is we can stop, slow down, regroup and go get the job we’re wanting! I really believe this and it’s kind of why we first put this podcast together! I keep saying it simple and easy, but I know it doesn’t seem like it when we have bills to pay and families to take care of, we need a paycheck, so we take whatever position we can find and we have too. I got that, BUT I really believe if we slow down, put our plan together and attack it properly we can have THAT job, the one we want, and a lot quicker than we think! Let’s break it down:
Now don’t get me wrong, we may have to change a couple of things about ourselves, maybe have to adjust our thinking a bit, maybe even have to try and work two jobs for a short spell but I really do believe we can do it! Us here at WAOC may be able to help with some Career Coaching or advice even, which will probably sound more like opinions or maybe we could get you some help with your Resume, remember Sharon, one of our Go To Recruiters, offered up a little of her time, I’d be happy to get you in touch with her as well!
OK, so what should we do! Step one, our Social Media. I know our feeds tells others about us, who and how we are. But does it really? Have we maybe embellished a bit for laughs or to have a stronger personality or attitude than is really us? We have to clean it up, remember our prospective employers are, more often than not, going to check out our Social Media accounts before they even reach out and call us. Seriously, if they see something they like on our resume, their going to want to know a little more about the person. My rule of thumb is if I wouldn’t want my grand mother to see it, and I’m looking for a job, don’t have it on there! Step one’s simple, we alone control it!
Step2 is our Resume or work history. Please don’t spend hundreds of dollars on a cover letter and resume, don’t even spend $25 on one! I just don’t feel, in our field anyway, that we need something so professional. We just need to learn and use some key words, maybe in the right place, to get our experiences pulled from the pile by the right person so we can get that call. Honestly, Microsoft Word has some great templates that will work just fine and only cost us a little of our time to fill them out. Libraries, schools or a friend will have templates or computers we can use & there’s people that will help you for free, don’t pay anyone to fill out a template for you. All it’ll cost you is a couple of hours and its done! In many instances, maybe for a general labor position we could get by with just a sheet with our work history on it but let’s put the resume together. It’ll show that we’re willing to put in the time and it gives us a space to talk about ourselves a little, what we want, and where we’re going! So, step two is really simple for us, it just cost us an hour or two and throws a little of the responsibility of getting that phone call on us!
Step 3, we have to know where and what we want to do though. Please don’t answer a post for a fry cook if you want to be a forklift operator. Remember, recruiters are members of just as many job boards or Facebook & twitter groups as we are. If they see a response from us to a fry cook post on Monday and a forklift position on Tuesday odds are there going to call us about neither. There looking for a person with a direction, looking to do what they enjoy and will probably be around for a while and quit looking for a job. Their about to invest several hundred dollars if not thousands on training us, they want to feel that money is well spent. As an example, if we want to be a forklift operator but we do not have any experience driving a forklift we need to put ourselves in a building that has forklift positions! Identify companies in our area that has that position or uses that kind of equipment and see what’s open, what are they looking for. Taking a job in sanitation or unloading may get us in the door and then we can work towards the equipment operators task. Step 3 is simple also right!, we just have to spend some time doing research on what and where we want to work. Again, a little responsibility and time on us but it will pay off!
Step 4, get that resume out there! We need to answer any ad or post that fits the job we want. Look at social media, all the on-line job boards, prints not dead either. Check out the classifieds and the little community papers at the convenience stores. Big companies advertise in print too. It’s fine to go knock on doors, just walk right up to the receptionist where we’re wanting to work and drop off our resume. Don’t wait to see a Hiring Now sign, it doesn’t hurt us to be a little proactive and knock on the door. Yep, its easier to just post to a Facebook group over and over but that frustration level is going to rise pretty quickly within us I’ll assure you! Hit the street with our research and resumes in hand, use every on-line job board and answer every recruiter post and be at every job fair you hear about. It’ll pay off! So, step 4 is a little work but it’s only costing us some time!
Step 5 is being prepared for the Phone Interview. If we’re busy when that call comes its perfectly fine to say so. Set up a time to return the call. They’re reaching out to us and they want to talk to us. It’s important we’re in a quiet place where we can think and talk without being interrupted. Have our resume with us, and some notes as to why they should hire us. Share our goals and plans with them. Its important we’re honest too, don’t exaggerate with our skills, odds are they know something about us already. If we’re nervous, let them know, their use to it and they’ll help calm us down. Again, easy and simple. It’s all about being prepared for the questions and concentrating on the conversation!
Step 6, that dreaded face to face interview. Know something about the place, dress appropriately, usually a little nicer than the daily work attire for the job is fine. If you know they require steel toe shoes or boots wear them that day, I assure you the hiring agent will notice! Before going in let’s read over our resume and cheat sheet with our goals, plans and accomplishments once more so its fresh on our minds! It’s easier than it sounds, just be prepared. Being prepared helps make it simple!
I feel if we’ve put in the time to do all this well, our odds of getting that job will go up by like 80 or 90 percent! Now we need to work just as hard to keep our new job right. It’s so important to be on-time, dressed for work and at our work station 5 minutes early. Every recruiter we’ve had on the show’s told us if we’re right on time we’re late. Be that person that’s there 15 minutes early every day, it’ll get us noticed by our management team. And after all, we’re just doing this task for the short term, we want that next job, that higher paying position. We want to eventually be the boss!
I know it’s not always that simple. But I can’t help but feel that if we shoulder some of the responsibility or workload of finding a position, have a plan or at least know the direction we want to work towards, a goal if you will, we can make this happen. Our friends and family, community groups and church members, even us here at WAOC are willing to help with anything we can!
Well, I wanted to talk more about sit-down forklifts today, but I got side tracked on how frustrating the job search can be. I’ll get back to the counterbalance lift in another episode I guess.
I hope I talked about something that’ll help you in some way today and I really appreciate you listening to our show each week! If you have a minute, please check out our Facebook page @whseandops and maybe join the Warehouse equipment operators community group over there. Until next week we wish you a successful job search and please practice Safety at home and in the workplace!