There seems to be a common thread amongst the hundreds of happy and successful people I’ve interviewed over the years.

Generally, they all spent a great deal of time – many years in some cases – envisioning what their happy, ideal life looked like.  They used to think about what it was they really wanted to be doing in their work, the types of dreams they had for their life, the kind of relationship they wanted or what their world would look like if they actually took control of their finances.

But they also all remember the exact moment when they made the leap from dreaming and envisioning what it was they wanted in their life to deciding to go for it.   And yes it was scary.  And yes it was fraught with risk.  And yes there were naysayers in their lives that said “IT WILL NEVER WORK!”

But they had a greater fear of an unfulfilled life.  They had more anxiety of growing old and unhappy.  They had less concern about what others were saying and more concerned about looking themselves in the mirror every day knowing that they didn’t at least try to follow their dream.

The red-hot fire in their gut overcame the cynics.  The risk was worth the chance if it meant they could live a life happy and fulfilled – to live the life they dreamed.

Are you more consumed with thinking about living a life of potential then actually doing it?  Is fear holding you back?  Fear of jumping out of a comfort zone, even though in your heart of hearts, you are are not comfortable at all?  Are you full of anxiety about what others might think if you choose to follow your dream?

Once you decide – and I mean really decide – to follow a dream of being happy, of achieving success in your life and of living the life you really want, you will see that everything else falls begins to fall into place.  There is a new found sense of confidence, determination and excitement.  You’ll realize that there are other people and helpful resources that will guide you to get to where you want to go.  You’ll see that any risk you worried about can be managed by through reasonable and measured steps you can take to reach your goal over a period of time.  You’ll also come to understand that the greatest fears and anxieties were really self-fabricated; in other words, you’ll be amazed at how much will power and self discipline you really have to accomplish amazing things.

But first, its time to decide.

So you find THE BEST JOB for you!  It matches your skills, your background and experiences, your expertise, etc.  You spend 4 hours customizing your resume, your cover letter and maybe even your portfolio! You get former bosses and clients to sign recommendation letters to include.  You lick the stamp, you send it all in and…..

Zip. nada. ZILCH!

Three weeks go by and YOU HEAR NOTHING!

You leave voice mail messages.  You send emails.

Nothing.

Big sighhhhhh…..what did I do wrong???

Here’s the reality.

Employers not getting back to job seekers is, unfortunately, completely normal.  Yes it sucks.  Yes its rude and yes it is the number one complaint from job seekers.

But job seekers: as hard as it is to read this, don’t take it personally.

If you do, here’s what happens:  that mountain of confidence you built up in yourself begins to crumble.  That red-hot flame of dedication starts to extinguish.  After a few of these experiences, your confidence and self-esteem starts to chip away.

And then comes the ‘stinking thinking’ – those terrible little voices in your head that try to convince you of why didn’t get the call back.  “What is wrong with me?”  “I’m too old.”  “I’m too young.”  “I’m overqualified.”  “My resume sucks.”  “I have to ‘dumb down’ my resume.”  “I need to ask for less money.”  “I need to exaggerate my resume.”…..and on and on and on.

Before you know it, you have given yourself more reasons why someone shouldn’t hire you, as opposed to why they should bring you on board.

Here’s the best advice.  “Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!”

And here’s one more piece of advice:  “STOP THE STINKING THINKING!!”

I’ve seen it time and time again.

I ask a job seeker, “So, tell me about your job search!”  And for the next five minutes I’m being give 20 reasons they’ve convinced themselves why they are NOT getting hired as opposed to sharing with me the qualities that SHOULD get them in the door.

When I ask them, “Who told you that you are too inexperienced?  Who told you that you are too senior?  Did someone say to you, ‘we can’t hire you because you’re asking for too much money?  Did someone say to you, ‘your resume stinks?”

And the answer is inevitably, “Well, nobody really ever told me that…but I just assumed since I didn’t hear back.  I just figured since I didn’t get the job….”

You can’t let this discourtesy rock your confidence and certainly not let it define who you are!  I mean seriously – are you are going to let a nameless, overworked corporate HR recruiter who probably had 300 resumes to go through who may or may not have even seen your resume determine what you think of yourself?

Don’t let it happen.   You are who you are and you need to remain confident in all you have to offer!

You are an experienced professional with skills, talents, value, expertise, accomplishments, industry knowledge, and a deep and robust work ethic.  Keep pushing forward.  Keep motivated and remain faithful to yourself!

Move on.  Keep your motivation strong and your persistence and commitment stronger.

The New York Times recently profiled Chris Cunningham, co-founder and C.E.O. of Appssavvy, a social media-focused marketing firm.  He gave save valuable insight into what many people who are interviewing candidates are thinking and some good advice to job seekers.  In part he said,

Demonstrating your desire for the job goes a long way!

“We look for people who really want the job. And that sounds really simple to say, but some of the most important people in the organization who shine and are really transformative people were the ones who were almost jumping out of the chair, saying: “I have to be here. I’ve been studying this company. This is all I’ve ever wanted. And if I’m not here, I’m not going to be happy.” Those individuals took that extra step as well to follow through after the interview. We watch how quickly the person follows through, and how much thought they put into how they want to contribute. But how badly do they want the job — I can’t stress that piece enough. “

You can read the whole article by clicking here.

Remember - Successful interviews are about showing your red-hot desire for the job and the confidence that is demonstrated in your preparation and research, and most importantly, making the relevant connections between your talent and your past experiences, accomplishments, and results that show why you are the best person for the position you’ve applied.

On one hand, the employer is trying to find someone who is the perfect ‘fit’ in many ways. They do try to sniff out folks who they fear are too senior and would take another better-paying job the minute they could.

Try to address the issues of ‘too senior’ in the conversation you are having in the interview. In other words, you might already get the sense before the interview that it will be an issue, so demonstrate or commit early on about your passion and desire for the job. BUT YOU CONTROL that issue and don’t let them make an arbitrary judgment after the interview…its an easy cop-out for em.

A recruiter at a company has one responsibility: to find qualified candidates! Believe me, if you are the best candidate for the job, they want to know that and they want to be your top advocate to get hired!

Typically, an HR recruiter finds that it is impossible to identify an applicant that meets 100% of the requirements listed in a job posting.

There is some levels of qualifications criteria that is non-negotiable such as experience, technical skills, etc.

But other criteria is more forgiving such as years of experience and industry background.

My rule? For mid-level, if you meet 75% of the qualifications in the job posting, send in your resume. For Sr.-level, its closer to 90%.

But rememember: YOU NEED TO connect the dots between the relevance of your experience/expertise to the job you are applying.

Answer – You write about ‘my resume’ as in ‘singular’ as in ‘I have one resume.’

Sorry, but every resume needs to be customized to the job you are applying for. We are living in an age of applicant tracking systems (those god-awful computer resume screening programs) but more than that, the competition is just too tough. Your resume needs to make the connection between the relevance of your experience and the SPECIFIC job you are applying for.

In searching for a job, you can never assume your brilliance, your expertise, your accomplishment and your career trajectory is going to make an impact with the HR person who has 90 seconds (maybe) to review your resume.

Now don’t get me wrong, you don’t have to re-write your entire resume, but you do have to edit each resume so that it identifies and shows your specific accomplishments/experiences and how they matter to the job you are applying.

When interpreting a job posting, you can easily see what are the 4-5 most important qualifications the employers is looking for. You can also easily determine what are the 4-5 most important elements of experience they are looking for and, most importantly what are the most important functions of the actual job itself. Make sure your resume is customized to these things….connect the dots so that anyone who is reading your resume can easily see the relevance of your experience/accomplishments/background/expertise to the job you are applying.

Far more times than are comfortable to count, Coloradans were asked what they had to be thankful for on Thanksgiving past. To most, the answer was simple; a job. In a time of economic uncertainty, they were thankful just to be working. But to others, according to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, that was not their answer.

Perhaps, among this group, the answer was their health, maybe it was friends or family. But for 8.4 percent of the state’s workforce, it would have been nice—an early Christmas gift— to answer that they were thankful that they had a job. But they couldn’t. They are the 8.4 percent of Colorado’s workforce that is out of work.

Not only did 8.4 percent of Colorado workers not have a job this Thanksgiving, but the number of unemployed in the state was higher than the previous month by two tenths of a percent. It was also more than a percentage point higher than last year at the same time. Still, Colorado’s Executive Director of Labor and Employment remains optimistic that the state’s jobless picture has bottomed out. “Despite mixed results in the employment numbers, there are encouraging signs of improvement including recent increases in online job postings,” said Donald (Don) J. Mares.

Indeed, while the state’s unemployment picture might look challenging with nearly eight and a half percent unemployment, that still means that more than ninety percent of the workforce has a job. That is good news for everyone, including Latinos who make up slightly more than twenty percent of the state’s population.

“We’re inching back,” said Wayne Hicks of the Denver Business Journal, a paper that tracks the ups and downs of Denver area businesses. But the companies that seem most poised for a total recovery, or at least a decent recovery, from the state’s deepest recession in generations, Hicks says, are those who build on a diverse workforce. “Anytime you have a diverse workforce you’re going to have larger pool of experiences,” in your people, he said. And with the changing demographics of Colorado and the country, and Hispanics making up a larger portion of the population, that is important.

Denver’s largest employers, including Kroger (King Soopers), Qwest, Centura Health, Safeway and Health One employ nearly 63,000 workers. Kroger and Qwest employ nearly half that number. The state’s largest in-state employer is the state of Colorado which has slightly more than 25,500 workers spread out over all 64 counties on the payroll. Because of the economic downturn, it enacted a hiring freeze more than a year ago which remains in effect. Governor Ritter also designated eight furlough days in the last fiscal year which ended in October. None is foreseen over the next twelve months.

Hispanics represent about twenty percent of the slightly more than five million people living in Colorado, according to the U.S. Census. In this group, there are approximately 442,000 workers. Like the rest of the population, most work in government jobs at the local, state or federal level. In fact, government—at all levels—employs more than 400,000 workers in the state. In El Paso County, in addition to military personnel, government provides a paycheck to more than 52,000 people. Four military installations including the Air Force Academy, Fort Carson, Petersen and Schriever Air Force Bases are located in Colorado Springs.

But the state’s largest private employers, including companies like Miller-Coors, Comcast, Verizon, Qwest, Swift Meats and Level 3 also have substantial workforces and each has a good number of Hispanic workers on their payrolls.

“Denver is on the cutting edge in this area (diversity),” said Janet Fritz, Director of Marketing for the Greater Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. It is Fritz job to answer questions and sell the city to individuals as well as prospective companies who may be considering relocation to Denver. Diversity is one of the strongest selling points. “All types of diversity are important,” she said. “It brings creativity, new ideas and so much more to the workplace.”

Because of the image of the city in some people’s mind, people who only know it through magazine pictures or old movies, the diverse population of Denver sometimes comes as a surprise. But when one out of three people on the streets of Denver each business day is Hispanic, diversity becomes an important variable in selling a 21st century city. “I think people need to know about it,” said Fritz. “In a time when ethnic cultures are growing or migrating, it’s very important.”