Job Search Advice

Stepping Up to a Better Career was created to help job seekers nationwide find fulfilling employment by providing advice on resume writing, interviewing, job searching and more.  For the past year, I have upheld that goal by creating topics that I felt would be interesting to the 100 loyal readers I have each day.

Now I feel it is time to turn over the reigns.  I want to hear your specific questions and concerns and provide you with advice that will aid you in finding fulfilling employment and fast.

Have a question about transitioning careers? Looking for employment while keeping your old job? Networking to find employment? Moving from nonprofit work to the business sector?

Explaining laid-off or fired status? Job searching on the internet? Keeping a job after your company has been bought out or your department is being phased out?

Creating a resume? Formatting a resume? Specific resume samples? Types of resumes?

Following up on an interview? Negotiating your salary? Creating a cover letter?

If you have any questions about your job search…

Contact me!  You can choose to comment directly on this blog or you can e-mail me your questions at Resumes@AyeshaWrites4u.com and see your question appear in my next post.

All I ask is that along with your question(s), you send your first name and an e-mail address where I can contact you to let you know that your answer is being posted on the blog.

As always, good luck on your job search.

Ayesha Long

www.AyeshaWrites4u.com

Networking 101

We’ve heard it said time and time again, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” What does that have to do with job searching?  Everything!  In one of my favorite books, Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell discusses ways to dissect the classification of success and how we categorize people who are intelligent or financially savvy.

In one chapter, he discusses a man who ranked in the top 97% of the world according to their IQ’s.  Instead of working in the sciences or technological fields, as most would expect of someone so intelligent,  the man was a lumber worker.  While blue collar work is vital to our community, it’s not what we expect of  anyone who is among the 3% of most intelligent people in the world.

So what happened to this man?  The same thing that has happened to job searchers all over the world.  He lacked the one basic skill necessary to advance his career – social skills.  Yes, he was highly literate – could read expansive texts, could remember geographical locations, yet he couldn’t get further in his career.  He dropped out of college because his professors wouldn’t allow him to change his schedule.  A feat most of us have done at some point in our academic careers – whether in high school, secondary or post-secondary school.  Yet, here is this man with this enormous brain power and he fails to achieve the success many of us would imagine someone with such a high IQ would achieve – all because he failed to relate to people and become socially adaptable.

Yes, some people are naturally social butterflies.  They walk into a party knowing only the host and within fifteen minutes, it seems that they have been lifelong friends with everyone at the party.  They leave the party with dates scheduled and a host of new acquaintances.  These people are typically the most successful in their job search.  People are impressed with their communication skills and even if they aren’t the hardest workers, they have the ability to charm people into believing they are.

This is the skill that all job searchers must activitate.  Within each of us is a social butterfly waiting to come out.  If you are serious about your job search, you must step out of your comfort zone and reach out to employers to get a job.  You have to network and network hard to get the results that you want.

Not sure where to start?  Here are a few starting points to get you prepared to step out and get the career you deserve -

• Start slow. If you are not the most vocal person, but have a good eye on design and writing, join social networks that allow you to reconnect with old friends and make some new ones.  A great place to start is LinkedIn.com, which is meant for business networking.  Through your network of friends, let them know you are job hunting and be sure to post your resume in the best light possible so that potential employers will be willing to contact you.

• Make a list and check it twice. Make a list of your closest friends.  Then expand that list into people who are casual acquaintances, but you see them fairly often.  Contact everyone on that list including your beautician, barber, and mailman.  These people know the pulse of the community and are one of the firsts people to hear any new information that may be relevant to your job search.

• Attend job fairs. Job fairs are often advertised in your city’s local employment guides and will host dozens if not hundreds of employers willing to hire employees on the spot.   By attending job fairs, you can not only meet potential employers, but you should also network with other job seekers.  Often when you attend job fairs, people are afraid of networking with each other in the fear that the person they are befriending is fierce competition.  On the contrary, these other job seekers might have information on the companies that they are leaving and might be able to give you insight into these companies – insight that might make you interested in joining their old company. If there reason for leaving is strictly personal and they still have some good contacts, have them send in a positive word to their old employer and then follow up yourself.

• Cold Call. This is the hardest aspect of networking, but achieves the highest rate of success.  Look in your yellow pages, on-line, and throughout your community for companies of interest.  Then get on the phone and call them!  Yes, you can send your resume and cover letter like everyone else – but as we all know, if everyone’s trying to get through the front door, then the person coming through the back will have the greatest success.  This person stands out and gets noticed, which is exactly what you want to do.  Call the company, ask if they are hiring.  If they say yes, introduce yourself and ask if it’s possible to schedule an interview to come in and discuss the opportunities available.  If they say no, introduce yourself and ask if it’s possible to send in a cover letter and resume just in case something comes up in the future.  Then every one to three months follow up with the company and let them know you are still interested.  Even if you have found a different position, it is still always good to keep your options open, particularly if this is your dream company.

Remember that networking is vital to all aspects of our lives, and is especially essential to job searching.  If you remain professional and always project a professional image, you should be able to find a job in no time!

As always, good luck with your job search.
Ayesha Long

www.AyeshaWrites4u.com

Step Up to a Better Career with Professional Resume Services
*** Also be sure to go to Ayesha Writes 4 You’s website and schedule your Free Resume Consultation. From now until August 15th, you can take advantage of our Summer Discount and get 15% off any resume package. So go to www.AyeshaWrites4u.com to get started now!

Why Hiring You Should Be Like Found Money

Okay, we have another post from our guest blogger, Kevin Donlin, co-creator of The Guerrilla Job Search System DVD.  On his posts, he explains how to use guerrilla warfare tactics to expand your job search.  So instead of passively sending out your professional resumes, you should actively seek out work, while still maintaining your professionalism.

Today, he follows up on yesterday’s post “Who DoYou Know,” and explains why hiring you should be like finding money.  In essence, the key to getting hired is to make an employer feel like you are the answer to all of his employment problems.  Be sure to read Kevin’s articles and if you want to catch the Guerrilla Job Search  tactics captured on video, click here .

As always, good luck with your job search.

Ayesha Long
www.AyeshaWrites4u.com

Step Up to a Better Career with Professional Resume Services

*** Also be sure to go to Ayesha Writes 4 You’s website and schedule your Free Resume Consultation. From now until August 15th, you can take advantage of our Summer Discount and get 15% off any resume package. So go to www.AyeshaWrites4u.com to get started now!

Why Hiring You Should Be Like Finding Money

By Guest Blogger Kevin Donlin

If you found a wallet, full of money and credit cards, with a driver’s license that said: “Warren Buffett, Omaha, Nebraska,” do you think you might be able to meet the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway?

All you’d have to do is call Mr. Buffett and say, “I found your wallet. Can I deliver it in person?”

You would enjoy making that call, having that conversation, and meeting Mr. Buffett.

Well, you can do the same thing with employers — meet them by offering to return “lost” money.

Here’s how: Research a company until you can call a hiring manager and say something like this: “Mr. Smith, I found some lost money that belongs to you. You see, I called your office twice posing as a potential client, and your staff didn’t ask me a simple question that my last employer used to increase revenues 35%. Can I meet you for 15 minutes this week and give you that information?”

You would enjoy making that call, having that conversation, and meeting Mr. Smith. Bring your resume, along with more tips that could help him run his business, and a job interview would be the likely result.

Feeling diffident? Mail a letter with the “found money” information, say you’ll call to discuss, and then call at the appointed time.

Heck, if you really want to stand out and be a Guerrilla, fold up your letter and mail it in a wallet to the employer (buy them at any flea market or dollar store). The headline of your letter can read, “Is this money yours?” No resume needed.

The point is this: When you call to offer someone money, they may be suspicious. When you call to offer to return money they’ve lost, they will hang on your every word.

All you need do is research an employer’s business, industry, clients, and competitors until you find one or two ideas that can make or save a significant amount of money.

Best part: You don’t need to create the money-making/saving ideas, just as you don’t need to create gold nuggets; you need only dig them up. Nobody cares where you found the gold (except the I.R.S.).

If you can’t do this — if you can’t think of ways for someone in your field of work to make or save money — it means you have no idea why an employer should put you on the payroll. Instead of thinking of ways to earn a job, you are waiting for someone to give you one.

And you will have a long wait.

You’ll find many more ideas like this on the new Guerrilla Job Search System DVD.

Personal Branding

When conducting a job search, it’s easy to get caught up in all the little details of your job search materials without actually looking for a job. I like to compare it to a new business owner that focuses on getting business supplies, buying commercial property, creating a business plan, and building a website without ever testing her market.

Any capable business owner would say that the aforementioned business owner had it all wrong. BEFORE buying a single piece of merchandise or property, the business owner should have tested the market first. This way the business owner is opening his business knowledgeably and is well aware of what the consumer wants.

This same principle applies to job searching. BEFORE creating a resume, doing interview preparation, or quitting your job, you should test the market.

Go to the websites of companies of interest and see if they are hiring. Check to see what qualifications they are looking for when it comes to qualified candidates. Create a profile of the prototype candidate the employers are seeking in your industry and then determine how you can be that prototype.

Once you have this information, network. Don’t just tell people you are job seeking – explain to them the kind of candidate you are. Make them eager to sell you to the employers they know.

Create your marketing materials, i.e. your resume, cover letter, and follow up letters around that prototype. This way you are running a capable and efficient job search.

As always, good luck with your job search.

Ayesha Long

www.AyeshaWrites4u.com

Step Up to a Better Career with Professional Resume Services
*** Also be sure to go to Ayesha Writes 4 You’s website and schedule your Free Resume Consultation. From now until August 15th, you can take advantage of our Summer Discount and get 15% off any resume package. So go to www.AyeshaWrites4u.com to get started now!

Lacking Skills? Become an Intern.

One of the biggest problems when securing a job for graduating students, career changers, or even professionals with upward mobility is lack of actual work experience in the position of choice. Prospects often rely on their educations as the only way to substantiate them as better employees against their competition. However, this has often proved a fatal mistake.

When employees choose to wait for employment until AFTER graduation or attempting to make their career move, they are often faced with rejection. Why? Employers understand the difference between street smarts and book smarts. If you do not have enough real world experience, an employer will not be interested in training you in the actual day to day activities of the job, only to find out that the straight-A student has proven to be incompetent in the actual field.

In order to avoid being in this group of the “intelligent unemployed”, a lot of employees are now turning to internships to help secure their professions. So should you. But be forewarned, this year, more and more employees are seeking internships to help secure employment and therefore are finding it ever more difficult to find placement or even find tasks to complete once they become interns. In fact, in today’s New York Times the article, Internship is secured, but a seat? That’s tricky., focused on interns interested in Law receiving internships, but then remaining unassigned throughout the course of their internship.  This problem will probably remain prevalent until our economy is more stable.

To avoid wasting your internship, there are three things you should continuously do to help you secure employment after your internship:

1. Network. Remember the key to any business is never “what you know, it’s who you know.”  So if you have the opportunity to intern with the company of your choice, you should not waste your time doing crossword puzzles or choosing to create a fraternity of interns.  Instead, all of your time should be used in getting yourself noticed by the higher ups.  Staying late to help with assignments, arriving early before the other interns to talk one-on-one with the actual employees, offering to get lunch or have lunch with the decision- makers – are all ways to stand out amongst the crowd and get you noticed.  At the same time, you should also go to networking events within the field, so you can meet others who are in your industry who may be able to advance your career if your internship fails to land you a position your interning company.
2. Present the professional in you. Not being an employee does not give you permission to come to your assignments looking sloppy, being late, or otherwise being unprofessional.  Give off the impression that you are a qualified candidate and you BELONG at this company.
3. Apply early. Typically, before the last two weeks of an internship is when interns begin asking for employment.  Be ahead of the pack.  Submit your resume after getting a feel for the environment and determining what qualifications are most important to the hiring manager.  You will be amazed how this one step can get you results without any extra work.  The employer will be happy to know that you are already eager to work for the company and if there are qualifications that you seem to be missing, he may be able to tell you what holes need to be filled in.  This gives you the remainder of the internship to work on those skills and then apply again. If your internship does not have a noncompetitive clause, banning you from contacting companies within the same industry, you should be applying to these companies as well.

Remember the key to securing employment is to always be consistent. If you start off strong and keep up the same pace throughout your entire internship, you will have gained valuable work experience that can now be placed on your resume, landed some great references that can help you land employment anywhere, and a resource of contacts that can help propel and guide you as you journey throughout your career.

As always, good luck with your job search.

Step Up to a Better Career with Professional Resume Services
*** Also be sure to go to Ayesha Writes 4 You’s website and schedule your Free Resume Consultation. From now until August 15th, you can take advantage of our Summer Discount and get 15% off any resume package. So go to www.AyeshaWrites4u.com to get started now!