7 common job search objections and how to overcome them

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://emj.icbdr.com/artieimages/dd/ar5f0s46jnqv77xp3bdd.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://emj.icbdr.com/artieimages/dd/ar5f0s46jnqv77xp3bdd.gif" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><span id="cbArticle_lblByLine">Don Asher, "America's Job Search Guru" and author of "Cracking the Hidden Job Market"</span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><span id="cbArticle_lblByLine"><br /></span></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><span id="cbArticle_lblByLine"><span class="Apple-style-span"></span></span></span><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">If you've been in the job market for more than five minutes, you've heard some networking contact or employer give you the brush off with these objections:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">1. We're not hiring.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">2. Just apply online.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">3. I'm too busy to talk to you.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">4. Just send me your résumé.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">5. I don't have any leads for you.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">6. I don't handle this type of thing. Call <a href="http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobs/keyword/human+resources/" style="color: #000099; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none;">HR</a>.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">7. Don't call us. We'll call you.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">These are the seven deadly objections you'll run into in a job search. Objections are an interesting linguistic device. Objections are neither literal nor logical. The meaning behind an objection may be quite different from the words that come out of your contact's mouth.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">For example, "I don't have any leads for you" may mean "I'd love to help you, but I'm sitting here hoping that you don't ask me for a job, because I like you and I don't want to be put in the uncomfortable position of saying 'no' to you. Besides, the whole idea of unemployment scares me, and if you sound desperate it might just totally creep me out."</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">"We're not hiring" is almost never true, either. They're hiring somebody, maybe in some other department or in some other state, but they're definitely hiring somebody.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">"Just send me your résumé" usually doesn't mean that at all. It usually means "Get off my phone." Same goes for "I'm too busy." "Just apply online" means, yep, you got it: "Get off my phone."</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">You can overcome some objections by making it clear in advance that you're not asking them for a job, and by being enthusiastic about your search and the world of possibility out there.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Remember that you don't have to overcome the objection literally or logically. In fact, an advanced technique is simply to agree with the objection. "I'm too busy to meet with you" is completely disarmed when you say, "Yeah. I heard you guys were really successful right now. That's great."</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Suddenly, it's the other person's turn to speak, and the conversation continues. There may be a pause, and you may want to fill that pause, but don't. It's the other person's turn, and I assure you, she'll start speaking soon enough.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">She'll jump in with something like, "Well, how can I assist you? I'm underwater with work, so a face-to-face is out, but what else could I do that might help you out?" That's exactly what you want to have happen.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">In fact, objections appear right before someone decides to help you. In <a href="http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobs/keyword/sales/" style="color: #000099; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none;">sales</a> theory, the sale only begins with the objections. Sales professionals are trained to listen for objections, because they are a buy signal.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Objections can come over the phone or in e-mails, and you'll see the same ones over and over. Learn to juggle objections and you can massively increase your success in networking and accessing hiring managers. Here are some lines to help you get started:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Objection: We're not hiring.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Response: That's okay. I'm not applying for a job with you anyway. I am just interested in your advice.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Objection: Just apply online.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Response: Actually, I'm going to be applying through official channels, as well, but I wondered if you could give me a little inside information.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Objection: I'm too busy to talk to you.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Response: This will only take a moment.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Objection: Just send me your résumé.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Response: Great. What's your e-mail. I'll send it to you while we're talking.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Objection: I don't have any leads for you.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Response: No problem at all. I wonder if you could share any advice with me. What's the best thing I could be doing to find a job in this field?</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Objection: I don't handle this type of thing. Call HR.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Response: Who should I be talking to about this? I appreciate the referral. May I mention your name?</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Objection: Don't call us. We'll call you.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Response: Great. No problem at all. But when, if I have not heard from you by then, should I check back in with you to see where I stand? Two weeks? A month? What's best?</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Remember, you don't have to overcome the objection logically. You just have to keep the conversation moving over this rough spot. You'll double or triple the number of people who can help you find your next position.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><i>Adapted with permission from "Cracking the Hidden Job Market: How to Find Opportunity in Any Economy." Copyright © 2011 by Donald Asher, Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, Berkeley, CA. Donald Asher is the author of 12 books on careers and higher education, and the creator of the Stone Soup Club phenomenon for job seekers. Get a Stone Soup Club starter kit from </i><a href="mailto:don@donaldasher.com" style="color: #000099; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: none;"><i>don@donaldasher.com</i></a><i>.</i></div>

7 common job search objections and how to overcome them

Don Asher, "America's Job Search Guru" and author of "Cracking the Hidden Job Market"If you've been in the job market for more than five minutes, you've heard some networking contact or employer give you the brush off with these objections:1. We're n…

Read more »

Leadership Is Making Something Happen

Ron Heifetz in his book, Leadership On The Line, tells the story of Lois. She lived on a Native American reservation where nearly everyone over 12 drank alcohol. She started going to the meeting lodge every Tuesday night. She told her friends she was leading AA meetings. But when they peeked through the window, there was Lois sitting all by herself. When people challenged her about this she said, “I am not alone. The spirits and the ancestors are there with me. Someday our people will come.”<br /><br />Lois sat alone in that room for years. After three years, a few people joined her. After 10 years, the room was full. Leadership is doing what is needed -- not what is demanded.<br /><br />Two years ago, there were no Sunday Schools for children in Nixon, Bullhead City, Ely, or Elko. There were no Sunday Schools because there were no children. There were no children because there were no Sunday Schools. But determined leaders in each of these communities started Sunday Schools. The adult teachers sat in empty rooms and waited. Today, there are vibrant Sunday Schools in those four churches. The children are present and they have brought their parents.<br /><br />Who might need the grace of God? Who might need the love of Christ? What form might that grace need to take for someone?<br /><br />Nevada has the highest divorce rate in the nation. This is not just folks flying in for their divorce then flying back home. Our people get divorced a lot. Might there be Nevadans hurting from their divorces who might need the support of a group. There’s a ready template. <a href="http://www.divorcecare.org/">http://www.divorcecare.org/</a>. There’s a special version of it for the children. A church could extend that ministry to people regardless of where or whether they worship.<br /><br />Might the offering of periodic Recovery Masses or healing services mediate grace to someone with an addiction? Last year I asked all our churches to observe a Recovery Sunday each year. One initially said it would be too expensive. Another is waiting to figure out if any of their present members need such a thing. But many of our congregations have observed at least one Recovery Mass and they plan to do it again. At our recent priests conference several priests requested the resources to offer a Recovery Mass. We might someday become a church explicitly for people in recovery, a church whose commitment to being “inclusive” would intentionally include the addicted.<br /><br />Leadership is doing something new. It’s being out in front which necessarily means being alone at first. It’s risk taking because the new thing may fall flat. But it’s where the action is, where life happens.<br /><br />There are a few business management folks in our diocese who want us to announce a strategy. Maybe someday we can do that. But that strategy depends on what is in our people’s hearts. I am still waiting to learn that. For example it does no good for me to say, we ought to offer Divorce Care unless it is in someone’s heart to minister to people in this particular pain. What other needs are out there? Needs of the vulnerable elderly? Needs of abused children? What about the deaf? I I have been told (elsewhere) that “we don’t offer signing in our worship because we have no deaf people.” That’s like not offering Sunday School because we have no children.<br /><br />I don’t know a fraction of the needs that surround the church. All I know is what the church needs. We need leaders with the imagination, the compassion, the courage, and the initiative to make something happen. If our hearts are open, the Spirit will move us to right action.

Leadership Is Making Something Happen

Ron Heifetz in his book, Leadership On The Line, tells the story of Lois. She lived on a Native American reservation where nearly everyone over 12 drank alcohol. She started going to the meeting lodge every Tuesday night. She told her friends she was…

Read more »

Happy in Seattle...sort of

Maybe "happy" is an exaggeration, but at least I'm not heartsick. Well, not totally anyway.<br /><br />My heartsick post stemmed from me losing my two best buddies at work, both in the same week. Next week they're both moving to different teams. They'll still be on the same floor, and they'll still be my friends, but it will be different. Right now I know these two guys always have my back. I won't have that anymore.<br /><br />Life goes on and since there's really nothing I can do about this situation, I have to get over it. I'm trying my best to stay positive, but it hasn't been easy. In my almost 28 years with my company, I've worked in several different areas and different cities. I've always had at least one and often two or three "best" friends at work. You know the kind of people I'm talking about. The kind where you can vent, and that you can trust 100%. The people that make you laugh when you feel like crying because you're so stressed out on your job. The people that are always there for you. Well, that's gone now. Even as I type this I feel the tears starting again (dammit anyway!). <br /><br />Of course there will be new people, but I have this really strange feeling that it won't be the same. In fact, I'm positive it won't be the same. There are reasons I can't discuss here, but I know the new folks won't be my best friends, and they won't have my back. Oh well, that's life, right? It's painful to accept, but like I said, it's just the way things roll. It can't be "fixed". <br /><br /><b>Moving on to the issue at hand</b><br />My biggest problem right now (outside of me boohooing about my work situation), is my weight. Another dammit anyway topic. I didn't weigh this morning, but yesterday I was 187.8. Ouch! This is totally <u>not </u>where I want to be, and I don't know how to stop this roller coaster I'm on.<br /><br />I'm not eating junk, I'm just continuing with eating too much of the healthy foods. It's all healthy. Fresh fruits and vegetables, baked or broiled chicken breasts and fish or shrimp, whole grain bread, Fage 0% yogurt, 2% cheese in very limited quantities (28 grams a day). That's pretty much all I eat, but I EAT TOO MUCH.<br /><br />Every day starts out great. A great workout at the gym (almost every day, at least I'm still doing this right). A great breakfast, a great lunch, an afternoon snack, usually yogurt and fruit. Even dinner is usually healthy and a small portion. But I'm back to eating at night, late night.<br /><br />I'm pretty sure this recent stint of night eating is because when I try to sleep I think about work. I can feel myself start to get upset and not wanting to think about it, but I can't shut my brain off. I wind up getting out of bed and grazing, and my grazing usually racks up about 500 calories or more. Last night it was three slices of Dave's Killer bread at 110 calories each (I need to stop buying this stuff because it too good), two bananas  and a cup of 1% milk, then later a giant bowl of fresh strawberries (the best strawberries ever). That's probably about 700 calories that was over my normal approximately 1500 calories. And I had the wise idea to skip the gym yesterday morning. <br /><br />I really don't know how to get a grip on this out of control eating. I'm not eating junk, but I am eating way too much food. It's making me crazy that I feel so lost and out of control.<br /><br />I guess "happy in Seattle" should probably have been titled "hopeless in Seattle".

Happy in Seattle...sort of

Maybe "happy" is an exaggeration, but at least I'm not heartsick. Well, not totally anyway.My heartsick post stemmed from me losing my two best buddies at work, both in the same week. Next week they're both moving to different teams. They'll still be…

Read more »