6 Steps to Launch a Targeted Job Search

May 18th, 2012 | Author:

Invest your time wisely.…in front of those who can help you.

In my pre­vi­ous arti­cle, I addressed why con­duct­ing a tar­geted job search is crit­i­cal in today’s job mar­ket. Today, I am going to give you 6 easy steps to help you launch a suc­cess­ful tar­geted job search.

1. Pro­file your Ideal Com­pany. First, decide what char­ac­ter­is­tics your ideal com­pany should pos­sess. Con­sider the fol­low­ing fac­tors when pro­fil­ing your ideal com­pany:  Indus­try you pre­fer to work in; prod­ucts and ser­vices; mis­sion and vision; size; num­ber of employ­ees; for-profit, non-profit; annual sales; com­pany cul­ture; geo­graphic loca­tion; com­mute, etc.

 2. Iden­tify 5 com­pa­nies you want to work for. To do this you will need to con­duct research. Talk to asso­ciates, recruiters, pro­fes­sional asso­ci­a­tion con­tacts, cham­bers, friends and any­one else you can think of. Online sites such as Manta and Pol­son Enter­prises  are good places to find detailed com­pany infor­ma­tion, well beyond finan­cial data. Use the cri­te­ria you came up with under step one to develop your tar­get list of 5 companies.

3. Use extreme net­work­ing tac­tics. Next, tap your net­work to locate indi­vid­u­als who work in your tar­geted com­pa­nies. In LinkedIn, go beyond your 1st degree con­nec­tions and get intro­duc­tions to your 2nd and 3rd degree con­tacts who can intro­duce you to peo­ple who work for your tar­geted com­pa­nies. When ask­ing for an intro­duc­tion be spe­cific about your inten­tions. For exam­ple, state that you are inter­ested in find­ing out more about the company’s prod­ucts and ser­vices or mar­kets they serve.

4. Do your due dili­gence. If apply­ing online always tap your net­work first before sub­mit­ting your resume. If pos­si­ble, have your resume hand deliv­ered to the hir­ing man­ager as well as post­ing it to the company’s website.

 5. Man­age your time effec­tively. The key to a suc­cess­ful tar­geted job search requires that you net­work face-to-face by day and post online by night.  Get­ting your­self in front of peo­ple who can open doors for you should be your num­ber one pri­or­ity. Save the com­puter work for off hours.

 6. Develop an online pres­ence. Recruiters expect to find you online and will be search­ing for your dig­i­tal foot­print. As such, make sure your LinkedIn pro­file is 100% com­plete. Par­tic­i­pate in LinkedIn Groups and Answers and post sta­tus updates often. Con­sider cre­at­ing a web port­fo­lio where you can include work sam­ples, audio, video and images. Visu­alCV  is a web­site that allows you to cre­ate a web port­fo­lio. Cre­ate a blog to build cred­i­bil­ity and posi­tion your­self as a thought leader.  You can cre­ate a blog for free at http://www.blogates.com/.

Con­duct­ing a tar­geted job search using these steps will get you in front of peo­ple with hir­ing deci­sion author­ity. A tar­geted job search allows you to uncover oppor­tu­ni­ties that have yet to be adver­tised on the open mar­ket. So what are you wait­ing for? Think seri­ously about what you really want in your next job and com­pany and launch a tar­geted job search effort. Fol­low us on Twit­ter and Face­book.

 

 

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4 Reasons Why Having a Social Media Footprint is Essential to the Job Search

April 6th, 2012 | Author:

Where is your social media footprint?

If you think hav­ing a pol­ished resume is all you need to be found by employ­ers,  think again.  The days of one dimen­sional job search mar­ket­ing plans are a  thing of the past.  Con­sider how many resume writ­ers are now focus­ing their  busi­nesses on writ­ing LinkedIn pro­files and other on-line brand­ing mate­r­ial  for their clients.  If you want to stand out in today’s job mar­ket it’s  absolutely nec­es­sary to have a social media pres­ence.  Here are the rea­sons  why.

Why your job search requires a social media presence: 
1. Com­pa­nies are invest­ing heav­ily in social  media.  Frus­trated with job boards, com­pa­nies are turn­ing to  social media to find tal­ent.  Con­sider these sta­tis­tics released in the 2011  Job­vite Social Recruit­ing Sur­vey.  89% of com­pa­nies will recruit in  social media net­works this year.  55% of com­pa­nies will spend more on  social net­work­ing.  64% of com­pa­nies use two or more social media net­works  for recruiting.
2. Makes it eas­ier for recruiters to find  you.   LinkedIn has become the recruiter’s data­base of  choice.  If you want to be found, you should be par­tic­i­pat­ing reg­u­larly in  LinkedIn Groups and Answers as well as post­ing sta­tus updates.  Recruiters  are also surf­ing other social sites like Twit­ter, Face­book and Google +; not to  men­tion the newer apps like Bran­chOut  and Glass­door to  find the best can­di­dates.  Why would they waste time on job boards look­ing  at hun­dreds of resumes when they can review inter­ac­tive social pro­files of  candidates?
3. Lends cred­i­bil­ity to your resume.  No one really knows who wrote your resume.  Your resume says you  are great at what you do.  So what?  It is your dig­i­tal foot­print that  backs it up.  Your blogs, Tweets and LinkedIn sta­tus updates pro­vide  the ‘proof in the pud­ding’ behind your resume. Whether you are Tweet­ing, post­ing  a video on YouTube or adding posts to your Face­book Time­line, your social media  pres­ence fur­nishes a three dimen­sional pic­ture of you that your resume can­not  provide.
4. Makes you rel­e­vant.  Hav­ing a  social media pres­ence allows you to be in the con­ver­sa­tion real time and  show­case your­self as a thought leader.  Recruiters will be on the look­out  to see if you can ‘walk your talk’ as a way to pre-screen you.
Hav­ing a social media job search strat­egy does not mean invest­ing time on  every social site.  Nor does it mean you should con­cen­trate all of your  net­work­ing efforts behind the key­board.   Pick one or two net­work­ing  sites to start with and focus on qual­ity ver­sus quan­tity with your posts.  Pick­ing the sites that work for you will facil­i­tate your net­work­ing efforts and  will greatly improve your changes for land­ing that next job.  Fol­low us on Twit­ter and Face­book.

 

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5 Reasons Not to Give Up Your Gym Membership if You are Unemployed

March 6th, 2012 | Author:

 

Treat your body well while on the job hunt!

 

The other day I was work­ing out at my local gym, Santa Cruz Power Fit­ness,  when the owner walked up to me and intro­duced me to another gym mem­ber,  Ash­ley.  I had never met Ash­ley before.  The owner asked me, in front  of Ashely, “Deb­bie, if you were unem­ployed would you give up your gym  mem­ber­ship?” You see, Ash­ley had just lost her job and had come in that day to  can­cel her membership.

You might imag­ine my response, being a career coach and all.  That plus  the fact, I had been in Ashley’s shoes about 3 years ago.  Even still, the thought of can­cel­ing my gym mem­ber­ship at the time never entered my mind, and I  will tell you why.

5 rea­sons not to give up your gym mem­ber­ship if you are unemployed:

1. Exer­cise is a nat­ural stress reducer. Exer­cise is  the best nat­ural anti­de­pres­sant as it pumps up your endor­phins which in  turn will lift your mood.  See what the Mayo Clinic has to say about exer­cise and stress. Yoga is a  per­sonal favorite of mine for reduc­ing stress; and it is a great  workout.

2. Great place to net­work. That $20 gym fee you spend  each month might just help you land your next job.  It is a fact that 80%  of jobs are found through net­work­ing.  Your local gym is teem­ing with  peo­ple who can help you in your job search.

3. Boost your self esteem. A job loss can do a  num­ber on your self-esteem.  Being phys­i­cally active will make you feel  bet­ter about your­self and in turn boost your self-confidence which is crit­i­cal  in your job search.

4. Increase your energy level.  Let’s face it,  look­ing for work is a full time job.  You will need the addi­tional energy  that exer­cise gives you to con­duct a suc­cess­ful job search.

5. Add struc­ture to your day.  One of the biggest  adjust­ments for those out of work is not hav­ing a rou­tine each day.   Incor­po­rat­ing a reg­u­lar exer­cise reg­i­men into your daily sched­ule will help give you pur­pose and a goal.

Any form of exer­cise, whether you are an ath­lete or totally out of shape can  help you deal more effec­tively with the loss of a job and get you back on  track.  So if you, or any­one you know is con­sid­er­ing turn­ing in their gym  mem­ber­ship encour­age them to recon­sider.  Fol­low us on Face­book and Twit­ter.

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10 Tips to Jump-Start Your Job Search on LinkedIn

February 9th, 2012 | Author:

Most peo­ple miss the pur­pose of LinkedIn.  They think the goal is to grow their net­work as quickly as pos­si­ble just to say they have 500+ con­tacts.  After that, they ignore the net­work they worked so fever­ishly to build. LinkedIn can be a gold mine for job seek­ers and career minded pro­fes­sion­als who are will­ing to put in the time to develop their con­tacts into long last­ing rela­tion­ships.  If your goal is sim­ply to amass as many con­nec­tions as pos­si­ble your efforts will be wasted.   There are many things you can do on LinkedIn to jump-start your job search beyond merely con­nect­ing with others.

10 LinkedIn Job Search Tips:

1. Nur­ture rela­tion­ships. Once you have made con­nec­tions and devel­oped a net­work on LinkedIn you need to look for oppor­tu­ni­ties to reach out to those peo­ple and con­tinue the con­ver­sa­tion. Start think­ing about how you can become ‘mem­o­rable’ to oth­ers and share your brand. The fol­low­ing tips will help you accom­plish this.
2. Share your brand in your pro­fes­sional head­line.  Become mem­o­rable by shar­ing your brand or your 5 sec­ond com­mer­cial in your head­line.  Rather than using a bor­ing job title try some­thing like this…’Professional Hard­ware Engi­neer whose bril­liance lies within  the box’.  If you are in tran­si­tion you could men­tion a con­sult­ing role or say some­thing like, ‘Net­work Engi­neer look­ing for next career opportunity’.
3. Engage your audi­ence in your sum­mary. So many LinkedIn users copy and paste their resumes in the sum­mary sec­tion.  Don’t do it!  There are apps for that.  Instead, tell a story of your career high­lights using key words and PAR’s (Prob­lem, Action Result) to make your sum­mary inter­est­ing and give it sub­stance.  Use the first per­son to make it per­son­able and engag­ing.  LinkedIn allows 2, 000 char­ac­ters for your sum­mary.  Don’t be shy.  Use them all!
4. Post sta­tus updates often.  Here is another great place to reach out to your net­work.  If you are in tran­si­tion let oth­ers know what you are look­ing for.  Say some­thing like, ‘Look­ing for a Pur­chas­ing Man­age­ment role in the South Bay – Who do you know?’ Your pro­fes­sional net­work wants to help.  This is the place to let them know how they can help you.
5. Net­work your way into com­pa­nies.  First, develop a list of tar­get com­pa­nies you are inter­ested in.  Under the ‘Com­pany’ tab locate net­work con­tacts who work in the com­pany you are inter­ested in.  See who in your net­work is con­nected to some­one in your tar­get com­pany and get an intro­duc­tion.  Under the Com­pany tab you will find  lists of for­mer employ­ees,  new hires as well as cur­rent employ­ees.  The com­pany tab offers invalu­able mar­ket intel­li­gence to help you get in the back door of com­pa­nies you are inter­ested in apply­ing to.
6. Much more than a job board.  LinkedIn ‘Jobs’ offers another excel­lent oppor­tu­nity for you to net­work your way into your tar­get com­pa­nies.  When review­ing a job, search for the name of the per­son who posted it.  From there you can see how you are con­nected and net­work your way to the per­son who posted the job.  Also, when you click on a job you are inter­ested in, a box pops up called, ‘Inside con­nec­tions to the com­pany’.  This shows you how many con­nec­tions you have inside the com­pany.  Why would you spend time on any other job board when you have this type of net­work­ing intel­li­gence at your fin­ger­tips?
7. Browse your net­work.  Review the net­work of any of your key con­tacts.  Who are you not con­nected to, that you would like to get an intro­duc­tion to, who could con­nect you with a hir­ing manager?
8. Give rec­om­men­da­tions. Unso­licited rec­om­men­da­tions are one of the nicest gifts you can give to your 1st degree con­tacts. This is another excel­lent oppor­tu­nity for you to nur­ture a rela­tion­ship.  Rec­om­men­da­tions must be solid, with PAR spe­cific exam­ples of the individual’s expertise.
9. Join new groups. Join groups in your tar­geted career field.  Here you can dis­cuss top­ics with group mem­bers and start dis­cus­sions of your own.  Group dis­cus­sions allow you to get your brand out in front of a wide audi­ence who share your pro­fes­sional inter­ests.  The other advan­tage of join­ing a group is that you can mes­sage peo­ple in the group with­out being con­nected to them.
10. Com­ment on another’s sta­tus.  Another way to reach out to your net­work is to view your home page reg­u­larly and look for oppor­tu­ni­ties to com­ment on oth­ers’ sta­tus updates. Con­grat­u­late them on a recent pro­mo­tion, a rec­om­men­da­tion they have received or a blog post.
Tak­ing the time to build and cul­ti­vate your net­work on LinkedIn is the most pow­er­ful way to jump-start your job search.  Take advan­tage of every oppor­tu­nity to reach out and engage your net­work because the time spent here will go a long way to help you secure your next job.  And just because you’ve landed that new oppor­tu­nity doesn’t mean you ignore your net­work.  Career man­age­ment is all about nur­tur­ing your net­work for the long haul.  Always stay LinkedIn!  Fol­low us on Face­book and Twit­ter.
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6 Networking Tips for Introverts

January 16th, 2012 | Author:

Find your cir­cle of net­work contacts

In case you haven’t noticed, I am a huge fan of net­work­ing because it is the best job search tool out there.  Just review CareerXroads Source of Hire Report and you will learn that ‘refer­rals’ are the num­ber one source of exter­nal hires, com­ing in at 27.5%.  Yet, most job seek­ers asso­ciate net­work­ing with the plague.  They avoid it all costs and as a result sub­ject them­selves to the rejec­tion merry-go-round asso­ci­ated with a job search strat­egy focused solely on the ‘pub­lished’ job market.

Even if you are not an intro­vert but abhor the thought of net­work­ing to land your next job, fol­low these tips to jump start your net­work­ing efforts.
6 Net­work­ing tips for Introverts:
1.  Call it some­thing else.  The term net­work­ing con­jures up the likes of tele­mar­ket­ing or sales to many of us.  Instead think of it as going to lunch or hav­ing cof­fee, hav­ing a busi­ness meet­ing or doing field research.  Just giv­ing it a new name can help get you moti­vated to network.
2. Do the easy stuff first.  Prac­tice with peo­ple you already know and trust.  Share with them your career objec­tive and strat­egy.  You may be amazed at the help­ful and con­struc­tive feed­back you will gain, not to men­tion get­ting more com­fort­able telling your story.
3. Branch out.  Next, find peo­ple you don’t know but who enjoy talk­ing about the things you like.  The topic may not even be related to your career objec­tive but per­haps a hobby or sport you share with some­one else.  Pho­tog­ra­phy, web design, field hockey maybe?  The point is, get com­fort­able talk­ing about sub­jects you can con­verse in eas­ily, which may not nec­es­sar­ily be focused on your job objective.
4. Turn it up a notch. Next, seek out those you don’t know who are inter­ested in things you want to learn about.  Meetup groups are a great way to learn about all sorts of top­ics rang­ing from search engine opti­miza­tion to drum cir­cles.  These are great for get­ting refer­rals and the for­mat is typ­i­cally small and infor­mal.   Mee­tups exist in 45,000 cities across the nation and boast 9.5 bil­lion mem­bers, cov­er­ing 90,000 topics!
5. Vol­un­teer. Vol­un­teer­ing gives you focus and a pur­pose and allows you to net­work while you give back to a big­ger cause.  Many job con­tacts and ulti­mate hires have occurred as a result of vol­un­teer­ing.  Best thing is you don’t know you are net­work­ing because your energy is focused on help­ing some­body else.
6. The more you do it, the eas­ier it gets. Har­vey Mackay, author of the pre­mier book on net­work­ing, ‘Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty’ says, “The more you exer­cise your net­work­ing mus­cles, the stronger they get – and the eas­ier net­work­ing becomes”.  You need to practice.
Lastly, if the thought of net­work­ing still has you run­ning for the com­fort of your office chair and lap­top con­sider one final Mackay Maxim.  “The really big net­work­ing mis­takes peo­ple make in their lives come from the risks they never take.”  Fol­low us on Twitter.
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