Looking under the job market rocks

The most important method for job searching is finding those hidden gems.. the unposted jobs. These are the jobs that haven't been put out there for every job hunter to apply.

So essentially you must have a network. What exactly does this mean? You have got to know people and they have got to know you are looking, what you are looking for and where you are looking. Another benefit of this is that if there is a job posted and you know someone in that company you might be able to get referral so that your resume gets reviewed, gets a little more consideration and possibly you get that interview.

Remember that although the ultimate goal is to get a job.. the way you get there is through the interview. You can't get a job if you don't get the interview and you will have a hard time getting an interview without having an active network supporting your job search.

Next post will talk about cultivating your network.

May you find a method in this madness

Mark

My Current Status - Job Search

Wow!! This has been a busy month and all of a Sudden I have 3 followers. Welcome to Kim, Lisa and Crystal. I look forward to providing you with all sorts of reading material to sleep to ;-).

So what is my current status? Well I have just completed 15 classes from Professional Career Associates - a 3rd party group outsourced by the WorkForce Solutions - to help us prepare for a SUCCESSFUL job search.

15 classes in 3 weeks - each between 2 - 4.5 hours proved to be a very draining time. But I learned a lot from it, such as I had no idea how to look for a job in the new economy/market. So I started from scratch.

During the last 3 weeks I have really slowed down my job search due to the fact that 1) each class counted as a job search, 2) I had to start over on my resume, create a bunch of new documents, update my LinkedIn profile, etc and so it was best to not submit as many as I began to "re-brand" myself and present myself as I wanted others to see me in the job market.

I have three goals in my writing this blog. The first goal is to provide information on how my job search is going - If I have an interview, if I get a job offer - all of that will go in this blog. The second goal is to provide me with a journal of my activities - something to put my thoughts down when it comes to my job search. This will in effect - be another motivator for me. The third and final goal is to provide others - hopefully - with an understanding of how to move forward with their own Job Search. It is my sincere wish to achieve all three goals. It is also my expectation that I can only actually provide the first and second goal, while the third goal is not in my control.

So right now: I have yet to have an interview scheduled, or even much more than a nibble in email. I am going to have to focus more of my efforts on the hidden job market.. finding jobs through my network versus postings. EVERYONE in the job search arena is tell us in the classes that it is virtually impossible to get an interview off the postings online - there are just too many applicants applying.

So there it is..

My next steps will be to look under the job market rocks...

May you find some method in this madness

Step 2 Continued - fix/update your resume

If you have only one phone number - no reason to put (Cell) or (HM) to identify it.

This is not a really major flaw and it won't be the difference between getting a job and not getting a job, but you really don't need to add the clutter of additional text.

Create a generic email using one of the major email account providers.

Okay so I have to admit that although I haven't done this, it is a really good idea. I have already noticed that I have more spam in my email account and wish I would have done this earlier. It is still on my list, but it is more fun to blog than it is to create and account, modify my resume, LinkedIn, etc to make sure that they all match, especially after the fact. But keep this one in mind if you are just starting.

Instead of Qualifications/Experience or some other generic title - create one for each of the 3 choices, Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C.

So first of all there are two related things here. The first is the title. You want to immediately communicate to the person reviewing the resume what kind of job you want. So for example - My plan A is for a Product Manager job. So instead of Experience, My resume I use to apply for Product Manager jobs had Product Manager in place of the Experience or Qualification generic worded title.

For accomplishments - make sure these standout - don't do a "so what" resume.

So what exactly is a "so what resume". A resume that is generally one that has "Responsible for managing.." is one that is going to be so-what. What you really want is to provide quantitative information that people can say - Wow - that is impressive. Such as - "Increased sales of widget by implementing installations at 5,000 sites over 2 months."

6) You don't need "references upon request". Just flat out remove it

7) Include your Linked In Profile.

First and foremost - update your linkedin profile. Your profile doesn't have to be ready yet.. remember you are working on your resume first - not your linkedin profile. However you do need to set your public profile URL to one that is easier to read on a resume

Here is the help instructions from linkedin

You can customize the URL of your Public Profile by taking the following steps:

1. Click on "Edit Profile" from the "Profile" dropdown menu (found in the top navigation bar of the home page). Click on "Edit" next to the URL listed on the "Public Profile" line.
2. Click on "Edit" in the "Your Public Profile URL" section at the top of page. This will take you to a page that will show you your current URL and will allow you to update that address. Most custom URLs begin with www.linkedin.com/in/. Select countries will use a two-letter country code in place of the "www". You are able to add what will appear after the "linkedin.com/in/" tocustomize it to your needs. For example, John Smith could customize his URL to read "www.linkedin.com/in/johnsmith". If he were a member from the United Kingdom, "www" would be replaced with the country code and appear as "uk.linkedin.com/in/johnsmith".
3. Click on the "Set Address" button once you have entered your custom URL.

8) Please make sure you are branding yourself the way you want in the Summary section

So what do I mean by this? I will go into branding shortly, but by this I mean describe yourself in terms that meet what you want in the next job. If you are targeting project management make sure you write about your project management skills, if you a software engineer - then you need to focus on your software development skillsets.

9) Make your sentence structure as active as possible.

I was responsible for managing a team of 5 - is wrong - I managed a team of 5 - better.

Preparing for Your Job Search

What I did Wrong

So this is where I made my first mistake. I actually had a resume' that I felt comfortable with. That coupled with the fact that I was required to make five (5) job searches a week to qualify for unemployment, well I jumped right in and started sending out my resume.. sometimes with a cover letter and sometimes without. Worse I was sending out more than the minimum.. oh yeah the minimum isn't what you should be shooting for, the problem is I was not presenting myself in the best possible manner.

What I should have Done

Step 1: Self Assessment - identify your goals

So this is a fancy way of saying that you need to figure out what you want. Do you want to continue in the same career? What industry do you want to work in? How much of a pay cut if any are you willing to accept? Basically you need to take a long look at yourself, your strengths and weaknesses and decide how you want to BRAND or MARKET yourself to the rest of the employment and networking community. Or maybe you no longer want to work for someone else and want to start your own business. This might just be the time to go for it. This introspection should take place before you send out your first resume.. but let's be real.. the Texas WorkForce Commission waits for none of this and you have 1 week to submit your resumes. So here is my recommendation - make sure you submit the minimum amount of job requests while you do two things: Self Assessment and Update your Resume. My guess is minimumly this will take you 2 - 4 weeks if you haven't had a resume up to date and have a good understanding of what you want in your next career. My guess.. most people fall into this category.

Self Assessment Part 2: Identify plan A, plan B and plan C.

So what is a plan A, plan B and a plan C you ask? Well for me this was identifying what type of position I really really wanted, - plan A, then what type of position I really wanted - plan B and then one I wanted - plan C. This will provide you starting points for three areas in your job search - 1) What jobs you are looking for and 2) making sure your resume meets what you want and 3) creating your Marketing Plan. The marketing plan will come later, but ares 1 and 2 are critical right now, and in my opinion, you are in a time crunch caused by the rules of the WorkForce Commission.

NOTE ABOUT STRESS

I am not sure about my stress levels. I sometimes have a short fuse and generally I have just taken over the housework, shopping, fixing dinners, watering the plants etc to make sure that I contribute to the overall functioning of the household since I am not brining in a paycheck (well not much of one anyway). Looking back I was probably more stressed the first few days of being out of work than I am now. That is thanks to 1) A very supportive and loving wife who understands what this may do to my ego and 2) because I did take the first steps and de-cluttere and fixed my finances. That said I get a lot of satisfaction out of baking and cooking and I did a lot of that at first to keep costs down and because it reduced my stress levels as well as it satisfies my creative needs. So please find something that helps you enjoy life and try it out. It can't hurt.. just don't lose your focus.

Step 2: Fix / Update your Resume

What exactly do I mean by this? Well I learned some things that I did not know in the last few months. I made every single one of these mistakes and corrected them as my resume transformed and as these were corrected I gained confidence in both my resume as the first impression someone would have of my career and confidence that I would be finding a new job.

Note: the list below will be covered in more detail.

1) Do not put your address on the Resume.

2) If you have only one phone number - no reason to put (Cell) or (HM) to identify it.

3) Create a generic email using one of the major email account providers.

4) Instead of Qualifications or some other generic title - create one for each of the 3 choices, Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C.

5) For accomplishments - make sure these standout - don't do a "so what" resume.

6) You don't need "references upon request". Just flat out remove it

7) Include your Linked In Profile.

8) Please make sure you are branding yourself the way you want in the Summary section

9) Make your sentence structure as active as possible.

Do not put your address on your Resume.

When last I found a job with my resume it was in 1994. I applied the old fashion way, saw an ad in the Sunday Paper, mailed resume and then voila - eventually I got my job. That is no longer the way resumes are sent in and yes the internet has changed all that. Now your resume ends up on line as you submit and post it so you really don't want your address on it.

Anyway. that is all for now.. I will cover the rest of these points later this week.

May you find a method int this madness.

First things first!!!

THE Job Search

Here is the outline that I recommend to get started. It looks like a lot and it is.. don't get confused.. these are not necessarily linear and there is a certain momentum that will occur and the inertia that gets generated will help you keep going.

Plan for the LongTerm

Ripcorded? Finding yourself unemployed

Register for Unemployment

Situate your Finances - de-clutter your stress

Prepare for your Job Search

Self Assessment - Identify your goals

Fix / Update your Resume

Create Your Marketing Plan

Identify the Tools you will use

Your Job Search

Finding the jobs

Applying for jobs

Using all available resources

Plan for the longterm

Ripcorded

Okay.. so my parachute ripcord was pulled for me and that was the kickoff to my employment search. So I will say my first thought was "what am I going to do now"? I will say that the drive home was different than the drive in. I began to put together my plan - yes on the way home - for what I was going to do. I thought my plan was legitimate, and I think some of it was.. but I know for sure that not everything I planned out was in the right order or the right things to do at that time. Here is what I planned and what I did- You may find this doesn't fit you in the order and priority that I place on them. That is fine and everyone is different, this is solely my viewpoint and I hope that you can read and adopt for your own circumstances. Also note that some of these items you can have ready just in case you become unemployed. I will note those as I go along.

Register for Unemployment

Depending on your salary requirements the job search is going to probably over 6 months right now. I have seen up to 30 weeks on some websites so you need to plan your finances to last as long as possible. Normally UI (Unemployment Insurance) is paid out for up to 6 months, although it has been extended lately by the Government.

Registered for unemployment. This is critical - get it done. It takes some time to get the Unemployment checks coming in. This needs to be the first priority to getting your finances situated for the long term. I actually planned for 12 months to be on the safe side.

Situate your Finances - De-Clutter your Stress

I recommend that you identify the highest stress items and hit them quickly. I suspect that the highest for a good majority of people in this situation is getting their finances in order. That was true for me as well. I needed a day or so to situate everything. After waking up and helping get my very supporting wife to work I needed to evaluate my finances and identify what I could cut and get all of my finances in order so I could keep my stress down and get my thoughts freed from the finance question. So essentially I was preparing myself to prepare for my job search. Although this took only a few hours to identify those items that I could cut - such as club memberships, reducing the amount of insurance on the car, etc, it took me a couple of days to make all of the adjustments - calling the insurance company and making the changes. There are also other things you need to take care of - such as for me I needed to switch mine and my wife's health insurance to her company - note - a layoff is a qualifying event to change your spouses insurance.

Now once you have your unemployment and finances situated (this is the easy straight forward part by the way) you should be ready to begin the next step - preparing for your job search..

May you find a method in this madness

Starting to Repack my Parachute

WOW!!! I find myself in a position that I did not see coming... caught up in a cost cutting layoff with zero notice. I admit that I saw this coming in the future possibly, just not when it happened. But this blog is not about what happened that caused my job search but how I learned to find a job.. using all the tools.. embracing the adventure and finding outlets for all the energy that I normally applied for my employer's benefit and my paycheck to finding that elusive career position that I know is out there somewhere.

So what makes me so special that I feel I can give advice? I am currently looking so I am using a lot of various tools. I plan to post these tools here and talk about how I use them. In addition I am part of a pilot program with the Texas Work Force Commission and I will post my experience going thru that program. So it is not my "expertise" I am putting out there, but my experiences and progression from the beginning so others who find themselves in this very uncomfortable position will be able to find solace, information and advice on finding a new job.

With that said..

May you find a method in this madness