John's Unedited Bio circa 1988, How it all started

John's idea to start the North Kingstown, RI based employment service originally named The Data Processing Connection AKA Diversified Personnel Consultants, originated from his un-forgetful experience as a recent college graduate trying desperately to find post college employment. John soon learned that employment agencies and most employers were not interested in his college degree. John was told time after time that to be considered for employment, he needed real-world experience.

Approximately, eight months after graduating, John finally landed his first professional job in the data processing profession. Upon working approximately six years in data processing, john was promoted to management, and soon found himself in the awkward position of having to tell college graduates that he could not hire them unless they had demonstrated work experience! These remembered events in John's own life inspired him to establish an employment service designed to cater exclusively to college graduates.

John's first mission was to discover whether he could actually help recent graduates find their first post college job. John began by identifying companies with a history of hiring recent graduates. He soon learned that most of these were larger corporations, and they would certainly not pay a fee to hire a college grad. Furthermore, they did most of their hiring directly from colleges. Not discouraged, John's passion led him onward.

John had never written a resume or cover letter and had no real experience with career counseling or employment search. However, he possessed a feverish passion to assist recent college graduates launch their careers. John went to his local library and checked-out every book about resume writing and job hunting he could find. He lined up the books from the library on his dining room table and set a piece of wood across the bottom of the books so you could not see the library tags indicating they were there on borrowed time. Consequently, there on his table were approximately six books, and a pencil sharpener. No computer, no degrees or plaques on the wall, no testimonials from previously satisfied clients, no visible telephone, no receptionist, not even a single sample of his resume work (What resume work?).

About one week later, John ran a $19 ad in a local newspaper (All he could afford at the time). The ad read as follows: “Computers Entry Level job search call 401-555-1212”. The ad didn't make much sense but for 19$ you don’t get much. The ad ran the following Sunday for one day. The next day on Monday John and his wife Kathy were blown away; their phone rang off the hook. John did not expect a single call, and suddenly he was deluged with inquiries about his service (what service?). John hadn't given a thought to what he would do if somebody actually called.

One of the first calls came from a young man with a fairly new college degree. He asked John what he could do for him and how much it would cost. John told the caller that he would write his resume/cover letter and work with him one-on-one until he found his first post college career job! The cost for this service is…Uh… how does $25 sound? The young man said: “you are going to do all that work for $25?” John said “yes”, and scheduled his first appointment. John knew he bit off more than he could chew, but he still remembers thinking to himself, if I promise big, I will have to deliver big!

When the young man visited John’s home, John was initially embarrassed when his son Cody began to cry in the next room. Then suddenly something very strange came over John, he looked this young man in the eye, and he saw himself! He felt this young man's pain and frustration. At that moment he thought to himself, I am going to find this man a job. I will stop at nothing. I will call one hundred companies, send one thousand resumes, I will not stop until he is hired. John was a man possessed. By the way, John worked 50 hours a week at night to support his daytime possession.

Okay, so now John has this young mans money, all $25 of it. He knew that he had to do something; he started by re-working the resume. He wrote the resume by hand and then input it in to a mainframe computer. Imagine, developing a resume on a two million dollar computer! The mainframe computer software had no spell checker, only one font style and was extremely cumbersome to work on. At the time, most people and/or libraries didn't have personal computers, they were called home computers then. Does anybody remember the Commodore 64?

Upon completing the resume, John began to call companies by the dozens. Initially, most employers had no interest in John's young client. While John continued to call companies, the inquiries for his service kept pouring in. At this point, John could do little more than tell people to send their resume. Ironically, he was telling the very people he wanted to help so desperately, the same thing employers told him when he was looking for his first job. Oh no, how could this happen?

As John continued to call companies, he began to identify a few that actually had some interest in his young client. When John wasn't calling companies, he was methodically perusing the help-wanted ads in the local major newspaper. When John came across an ad that instructed the applicant to send their resume to the Human Resources department, John would call the company and confirm a name and title of the person who should receive the resume. He would also learn who the hiring manager was for the open position and send resumes to both points of contact. Upon sending the resume, John would follow up within 2-3 business days to confirm receipt of the resume and request an interview. By the way, John had still not cashed the $25 dollar check.

Okay, so now the resumes are pouring in, John's phone continues to ring relentlessly, and he still hasn't found his one and only client a job! There were days when John had three pages of call back numbers left from inquiries about his service. He was absolutely inundated. He was working all day to find his client a job and all night at his second job to feed his family. Working on less than four hours of sleep a night, John continued onward.

John will never forget the day he called Amica Insurance Co.. The human resources department told him that they were hiring entry-level computer programmers. John explained that he charged no fee to the company and he would like to submit a few resumes for consideration. John immediately sent over the resume for his client and a few others in hopes to get the attention of the hiring authorities. Within a few days, Amica called Johns client for an interview. John spent hours preparing his client for the big day. John's client interviewed, sat for an aptitude test and was hired within approximately three weeks. Finally, John's hard work
was paying off. John still hadn't deposited the $25 check.

John learned from his first experience as a career search consultant that college graduates knew very little about how to find a job. Most of them were very passive and had no training or education regarding how to search for professional employment. They spent four years in college learning how to do a job, but not a single minute was invested on learning how to get one. John soon learned that the most effective thing he could do to help recent graduates find jobs was to teach them how.

John was not going to put on another routine seminar or write a book about how to find a job. Rather, he decided to jump right in the trenches with his clients. John would routinely invite 5-6 clients to his home and have them gather around his dining room table. He requested they bring names of companies they were interested in and/or actual help wanted ads for available positions. John told his clients to be on the look out for the ads that stated: No Phone Calls Please! and to be sure they especially brought those. John would usually start by asking one of his male clients for his resume and an actual help wanted ad. John would never tell one of his clients to try something until he first demonstrated that it worked.

With the client's resume and help wanted ads in hand, John would call the company, and ask to speak with the hiring manager(using his clients name). John's clients would watch in amazement as he made his way through the company gatekeepers and many times was able to speak with the hiring manager on the first try. When the manager asked John(or whomever he said he was) to send his resume, John would ask if it would be possible to bring one directly to the company and possibly schedule a time when he could meet with the manager. John would call for hours as his clients were continually amazed by all the interviews he was getting for them. It was even cooler when John called on the ads that read: NO PHONE CALLS! Amazingly, these companies were actually more receptive to John's calls. John surmised that because most people would never call, that the company was fielding very few inquiries about the advertised position and was therefore more receptive. Sometimes employers would use P.O. boxes as a way to mask the company's name. What most companies didn't realize is that company PO boxes are not kept private by the post office. John would simply call the post office and ask them who owned the box number. He would then call the company and do his thing.

Try to imagine what is going on here. John is calling companies saying he is somebody else (whomever his client happened to be that day), and actually scheduling job interviews for them. Some of John's clients were actually uncomfortable with his tactics, but they couldn't argue with success.

One day, John had a twenty-minute conversation with a company CEO. Johns name was George that day. Sure enough, John set up the interview. The real George was nervous because he believed the CEO would not recognize his voice or expect to hear John’s voice when they met. However, nobody ever caught on. By the way, George accepted one of the two positions he was offered at the company he went to.

John knew that if he could show people what he was doing really worked, then hopefully, they would do it on their own. John never let on, but he was always nervous every time he had to call a company in front of his clients. John was a computer programmer, not a salesman. The telephone still makes him nervous. The rest is history!

Thank God It's Friday

By John Seraichyk - Browning Associates I have often wondered where the phrase Thank God it’s Friday originates. Or, alternatively Thank Goodness it’s Friday or Terribly Gleeful it’s Friday. Furthermore, who founded Hump Day(this is the middle of the week and the day you need to get through to get closer to the weekend)? And, why are there snooze buttons on alarm clocks? For nearly twenty years I have interviewed thousands of professionals who sought out the valuable assistance of my organization because they hated their jobs. I call these people Thank God its Fridayers or TGIFers. These are people who wish their lives away working for the weekend or working through the weekend. Either way, they all agree, this is no way to live. Early in my career, I met with a middle-age professional (I’ll call him Jim) who told me he would depress the snooze button on his alarm clock as many as five times before getting out of bed on Monday morning. Jim further explained that on the weekends or when on vacation, he would actually rise from bed sixty minutes earlier everyday and he didn’t need an alarm clock to get himself going. I surmised that this gentleman hated his job so much that he started dreading Monday morning on Sunday afternoon! He was so depressed about his work situation that the only thing that got him to work on Monday was the grand thought of “Hump Day” or his ever-persistent alarm clock. However, when he was on vacation or excited about the day ahead, he would sprint from bed without the use of an alarm clock, full of vigor and excitement. During my twenty-year career as professional employment and career search consultant, I have met and worked with thousands of people like Jim. I often think to myself, if Jim lives to be seventy-five years of age and sleeps eight hours a night, he will have spent twenty-five years of his life in bed! Furthermore, if Jim works eight hours a day, he will spend another twenty-five years at work! This leaves Jim with twenty-five years to enjoy his life. I wonder how many of these years would actually be enjoyable. Jim will most likely use this time for personal chores, waiting in lines, waiting at traffic lights, going to the doctor, the dentist, time at his mothers-in-law, traveling back and forth to the job he hates, picking up the kids, dropping off the kids, washing the car, cutting the lawn, meeting with teachers, and at funerals or wakes. Are you getting the picture? If you hate your job, you won't have much time to enjoy life. This especially holds true for Americans. The average American takes fewer than two weeks of vacation per year. The average European enjoys four weeks off and many take daily siestas. Did you know that most heart attacks occur on Monday morning? According to Dr. Joseph Mercola (www.Mercola.com) and many other research studies, 20 percent of heart attacks occur on Mondays, which is more than on any other day. The experts say these heart attacks are directly related to anticipated or existing job stress which is usually at its peak on Monday morning. (Google this topic sometime). So then, what are TGIFers to do? If you are or are becoming a TGIFer, then it's time for a career action plan. You can find many books regarding this subject. But reading a book on how to find your dream job is like reading a book on how to play golf. You can read for days, weeks, or months and never become any more proficient at either! Contact Us today if you are undervalued, undecided, underpaid, not appreciated, ready for a change, trapped in your current role or you just plain hate your job, and we will respond with our best advice and direction. Twenty-five years is much too long to be unhappy! Transition Onward, John Seraichyk

Whats up with manufacturing in the U.S.?

Manufacturing “Is anything “really” made in America anymore“? John H Seraichyk circa 1990, Founder Browning Associates Fifty years ago, a third of U.S. employees worked in manufacturing, making everything from clothing to lipstick to cars. Today, a little more than one-tenth of the nation's 131 million workers are employed by manufacturing firms. Four-fifths are in services. In those days, "The company was dedicated to the employee, the employee was dedicated to the company." Quote from a longtime employee of Kodak The decline in manufacturing jobs has swiftly accelerated since the beginning of 2000. Since then, more than 1.9 million factory jobs have been cut — about 10% of the sector's workforce. During the same period, the number of jobs outside manufacturing has risen close to 2%. Many of the factory jobs are being cut as companies respond to a sharp rise in global competition. Unable to raise prices — and often forced to cut them — companies must find any way they can to reduce costs and hang onto profits. USA Today, Inc. Changing or Dying? Many in manufacturing disagree that the sector is dying. They say it's just changing. The sector's output grew for a decade through 2000 before weakening during the economic downturn in 2001 that swept across the economy but hit the manufacturing sector hardest. Whether manufacturing is changing or dying is yet to be known for sure. But either way, both scenarios will make it more difficult for manufacturing professionals to attain or maintain meaningful employment in the near future. We are not fortune tellers; however, we certainly have a unique perspective on what’s truly transpiring in the manufacturing sector. What choice do we have? When there is a downturn in any industry, we are on the receiving end of resumes and then some. When we take on the actual task of working with an individual to locate new employment, we wholly commit to the undertaking of rolling up our collective sleeves and doing whatever it takes to solve each individual career dilemma on a one-to-one basis. Browning Associates has witnessed firsthand the change that has occurred in the manufacturing sector. Many of our clients have inquired as to whether or not they should remain in manufacturing while others feel they have no choice. The good news is, you have a choice. If you have been seeking new employment within the manufacturing sector and are not finding the career job you seek or you are contemplating a complete change, please Contact Us today to learn how we have assisted thousands of manufacturing professionals attain career fulfillment.

Resume - To be or not to be?

BROWNING ASSOCIATES  Job Corner - This Month’s Topic
Resume-To be or not to be?

There is a great deal of controversy surrounding executive resumes. Here is the reality.
Believe it or not, we BROWNING ASSOCIATES do not use a resume as a method of introduction for most of our senior-level clients. A resume screams: “Hire me”! Or worse, it may cause an unwanted breach of your confidentiality! Not so fast. Less is more at your level. You need to step back, identify the proper hiring authorities and then craft an alternative strategic method of formal introduction.

Utilizing our network of growth companies, key decision-makers, and client alumni, we BROWNING ASSOCIATES will introduce you in such a way that the potential employer is given just enough information to inspire interest.

While your competition is bombarding the HR department with droves of paper and electronic boilerplate resume submissions, we  BROWNING ASSOCIATES  evenly promote your credentials to each and everyone involved in the hiring process. Many times, your initial credential submission will come complete with a referral from our client network. This is when our human exchange contacts become most valuable to you.

Eventually, the hiring authorities will request your resume. When this occurs, we will schedule a time for you to bring one directly to the company or schedule a phone interview for an initial review.

At Browning Associates, we all agree that the resume is to be. However, proper usage as illustrated above is essential. More about the resume

Who Started ALL This Resume Protocol Anyway?

One hundred twenty five years ago or so, there was no such thing as a resume. Most Americans were self-employed working ten-to-fifteen hours a day with no guarantee of a paycheck, health benefits, paid vacation and so on.It wasn’t until later, during the American industrial revolution, that corporations began to sprout up in small towns all over the U.S. What these large employers had to offer was very alluring to prospective employees. Imagine, a forty-hour workweek, paid health benefits, time off with pay and no worries of where your next dollar would come from. It wasn’t long before hundreds, if not thousands of people would approach these companies in hopes of a job. Employers soon learned that it was necessary to implement strict hiring protocols to manage the number of people applying for employment. Thus, the resume was born. A one or two-page document that employers could use to quickly find reasons not to call potential employees. That’s right; the resume was, and still is, used as a screening tool by employers. Your resume indicates that you are: too old, too young, too experienced, do not have enough experience, have a lack of education, have too much education, have a gap in employment history, and so and so on. So you see, anything you say on your resume can and will be used against you. I find it absolutely astonishing that today, one hundred years later, the resume is still considered to be the primary marketing tool used by executive job seekers. There are thousands of books written about how to write your resume, a cottage industry of resume writers across the U.S. has evolved and countless seminars on how to develop a winning resume are conducted daily. How ironic, a document that was originally developed to keep people away is now being touted as the premier modern-day marketing tool to find a job. Some time ago I was curiously browsing “how to” resume books at my local bookstore. As I was gazing at the dozens of manuals on how to write a job-winning resume, I noted a book entitled: “Resumes Don’t Get Jobs”, and there was another called: “ Resumes Don’t Get You Hired, You Do.” So what’s a job seeker to do? One book says here’s the right resume for you and the other says; resumes don’t work! The ongoing controversy over the resume is never-ending. So, how does your resume stack up? Is it helping or hindering your job search? Is your resume generating job interviews? Is there a better a way to find a job? Are you confused about your resume? Do you even need it? Unfortunately, the resume is still recognized by many hiring authorities as the only way to be considered for professional or executive employment. Therefore, it is safe to say you should have one. But more important than how it is written, is how it is used. Contact us for a free confidential resume critique and career evaluation. We will set you straight on what your resume should and shouldn’t be and how to best use it to maximize the number of quality interviews you procure. Mr. Seraichyk has more than twenty years of experience assisting executives with finding new employment and changing careers.

More on IT change

Information technology(IT) or the former more popular vernacular, data processing(DP), continues to change at warp speed. IT has and always will be the most fickle of all professions. In the IT profession, we say: “change” or be “changed”. IT professionals will forever be challenged by the ever-changing computer. Here are a few quotes that further support our assertions:


"Computers in the future may weigh no more than one and a half tons."
—Popular Mechanics, Forecasting the Relentless March of Science, 1949



"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
—Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, 1943

"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year."
—The Editor in Charge of Business Books for Prentice Hall, 1957

I Rest My Case

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
—Ken Olson, President, Chairman, and Founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977

9-5

We cant change change! However, we can change what we do M-F.

Change

“ The future of IT comes in what seems like five minute intervals. Therefore, predicting tomorrow is impossible. Keep your resume “dust free” and at the ready; change is inescapable!” John Seraichyk circa 1990