Is There A Better Way to Find Job Leads?

Question: There must be a better way to find job leads than networking. After attending so many networking events with little to show for it I’m burned out.

I firmly believe networking is the key to finding a new position. I find that most candidates don’t network the right way. Candidates too often view networking as attending a lot of meetings and meeting a lot of people. They somehow think the more people they know the better the odds are of finding a job. Sorry, this just isn’t the right way to network.

First of all, networking isn’t about how many people you know. How many people you know is completely irrelevant. What really matters is how many people know you. One hundred great relationships are far more valuable than a thousand business cards stacked on your desk. Good networking should be about building strong relationships. This ensures people know you and will refer you.

Secondly, you should always network with a purpose. Why are you going to so many networking meetings, if you aren’t getting anything out of them? What are your expectations by attending these meetings? Instead of attending so many meetings, I suggest identifying three or four networking groups, then go deep in those groups. Serve on the board or committees or be a greeter. Build relationships with all the members of these groups. If each group has fifty members that is 150 – 200 relationships you have developed. That is powerful networking.

Finally, know why you are meeting someone. You don’t have to meet everyone. Be selective with your time, just as you are when working. Always have a reason for meeting with someone. Remember, it is all about networking with a purpose.

To download the free chapter on Conducting an Effective Phone Interview from our book “This Is NOT The Position I Accepted” CLICK HERE and then click on the Free Search Resources link.

How effective is your job search?  If you are not sure, download our free 8 Matrix Job Search Self-Assessment Scorecard. CLICK HERE and then click on the Free Search Resources link.

I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Brad Remillard

Are You Blundering Through Your Job Search?

This blog post by Eliott Lasson in the Baltimore Business Journal triggered an observation I’ve been thinking about during this depressing job market.

Most of the executive job search candidates I come across appear to be “blundering” OR “stumbling their way through a job search. I’m not surprised it’s taking the average executive over a year to find a new opportunity. When are you going to stop the blundering and start using job search best practices.

Wait – do you even know what are the top ten job search best practices? If not, how do you plan to learn them?

Or, do you prefer to muddle through your job search in a state that Steve Covey called being “unconsciously incompetent?”

Although Elliot’s article focused on young graduates, the same concepts apply for more experienced executives. Here’s a comment Elliot made about resumes that I find are a major source of blunders:

Always have a resume that is good-to-go to include in your email or promptly forward after a phone call. A turn-off is a resume with spelling errors and spacing issues. It is always a good idea to have some sort of objective at the top as to what you are looking for. The resume should not be over-the-top for where you are at in life, whether educationally or professionally. Make sure to list your technical skills with software, systems, and professionally relevant social media. Just saying non-descriptive terms like “proficient in Microsoft Office” might be construed as “I have a 5th grade literacy level.”

Your move – what are you going to do right now to put your job search back in effective mode and land a great opportunity in 90 days?

Barry Deutsch

Have you test-driven our Job Search Workbook – This is NOT the Position I Accepted

To read the full article by Eliott Lasson, please click below:

Top 5 job search and networking mistakes of the young — and not so young – Baltimore Business Journal.

Prepare Sound Bites For Your Next Interview

A job search is much like a cable news show,  you have to get your point across in sound bites. You often don’t have time to give a detailed answer. Candidates need to get comfortable with doing this.

Think about all the times during your job search when you are required to give the famous, “30 second talk.” Many times during the interview process you have a short period of time to answer the question or give your introduction, you use bullet points on your resume and even your business card,  and all of these require you to express yourself in just a few words.

This is one reason why a job search is so difficult. Not only is it very difficult to speak in sound bites, most candidates are not prepared on how to do it. This technique takes practice and fore thought. This is not a case where you can just wing it. How many times have you left a meeting, only to realize you didn’t give a great answer to a question, didn’t get your point across as well as you would have liked to or thought, “OOPS I forgot to say ___.” This happens mainly because the candidate hasn’t taken the time to really get prepared.

A job search is not the time for on-the-job-training.

It is our experience that candidates wait too long to understand this point. You can’t wait and hope you will do just fine. First off,  “just fine” in this economy doesn’t cut it. Secondly, in this economy, there may not be a second chance for months.

As part of our job search coaching programs, we spend a lot of time preparing candidates for these short sound bites.  Although frustrating for candidates, we have seen these sound bites pay off so many times, we have to continually reassure the candidates of the need to prepare for them.

Candidates need to spend more time preparing and less time running to networking meetings, coffees, and one-on-ones until they are completely prepared. We find that candidates waste  excellent opportunities because they were not prepared on how to communicate in sound bites. I get calls weekly asking how best to do a do-over because the candidate believes they missed an opportunity.

There are rarely do-overs in a job search.

To learn how to speak in sound bites consider:

1. Write out what you want to say. Then wordsmith it until it is less than one minute.
2. Get help. This is a difficult task that takes experience. Don’t be afraid to invest in some professional help.
3. Take the known items and the comments or questions, such as your introduction, elevator talk, the question,”Tell me about  yourself,” or “So, what do you do?”  Most of you know these, after all you have been asked them many times during  your search, and convert them into short sentences that get the point out in less than one minute.
4. Practice them. Go to people in your network and test them. This is like any marketing campaign.
5. Once you have the answers for these then add one more set of comments and answers. Having two different sound bites is always a good thing.

Take some time to step back and get prepared. I know every candidate wants to jump into a job search as soon as possible. The problem is this jump is often in the wrong direction.

Like most things in life, if  you do the ground work, get prepared, and do some planning things go a lot better.

To download the free chapter on Conducting an Effective Phone Interview from our book “This Is NOT The Position I Accepted” CLICK HERE and then click on the Free Search Resources link.

If you would like to know if your job search is fully utilized and you are doing the right things, download our free 8 Matrix Job Search Self-Assessment Scorecard. CLICK HERE and then click on the Free Search Resource link.

I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Brad Remillard

Be Prepared For That Next Interview

A job search is much like a cable news show,  you have to get your point across in sound bites. You often don’t have time to give a detailed answer. Candidates need to get comfortable with doing this.

Think about all the times during your job search when you are required to give the famous, “30 second talk.” Many times during the interview process you have a short period of time to answer the question or give your introduction, you use bullet points on your resume and even your business card,  and all of these require you to express yourself in just a few words.

This is one reason why a job search is so difficult. Not only is it very difficult to speak in sound bites, but most candidates are not prepared on how to do it. This technique takes practice. This is not a case where you can just wing it. How many times have you left a meeting, only to realize you didn’t give a great answer to a question, didn’t get your point across as well as you would have liked to or thought, “OOPS I forgot to say ___.” This happens mainly because the candidate hasn’t taken the time to really get prepared.

A job search is not the time for on-the-job training.

It is our experience that candidates wait too long to understand this point. You can’t wait and hope you will do just fine. First off,  “just fine” in this economy doesn’t cut it. Secondly, in this economy, there may not be a second chance for months.

As part of our job search coaching programs, we spend a lot of time preparing candidates for these short sound bites.  Although frustrating for candidates, we have seen these sound bites pay off so many times, and we have to continually reassure the candidates of the need to prepare for them.

Candidates need to spend more time preparing and less time running to networking meetings, coffees, and one-on-ones until they are completely prepared. We find that candidates waste  excellent opportunities because they were not prepared on how to communicate in sound bites. I get calls weekly asking how best to do a do-over because the candidate believes they missed an opportunity.

There are rarely do-overs in a job search.

To learn how to speak in sound bites consider:

1. Write out what you want to say. Then wordsmith it until it is less than one minute.
2. Get help. This is a difficult task that takes experience. Don’t be afraid to invest in some professional help.
3. Take the known items and the comments or questions, such as your introduction, elevator talk, the question,”Tell me about  yourself,” or “So, what do you do?”  Most of you know these, since you have been asked them many times during  your search, and convert them into short sentences that get the point out in less than one minute.
4. Practice them. Go to people in your network and test them. This is like any marketing campaign.
5. Once you have the answers for these then add one more set of comments and answers. Having two different sound bites is always a good thing.

Take some time to step back and get prepared. I know every candidate wants to jump into a job search as soon as possible. The problem is this jump is often in the wrong direction.

Like most things in life, if  you do the ground work, get prepared, and do some planning things go a lot better.

To download the free chapter on Conducting an Effective Phone Interview from our book “This Is NOT The Position I Accepted” CLICK HERE and then click on the Free Search Resources link.

If you would like to know if your job search is fully utilized and you are doing the right things, download our free 8 Matrix Job Search Self- Assessment Scorecard. CLICK HERE and then click on the Free Search Resource link.

I welcome  your thoughts and comments.

Brad Remillard

What Recruiters Look For When They Interview You

People are surprised (even some recruiters) when I tell them that I have had over 10,000 interviews in my life. I don’t understand why, since I’ve been a recruiter for the last 30+ years and that is what I do. Recruiters meet and interview people. Just about every candidate I meet is an interview from my perspective. The candidate may think it is just a networking meeting to get to know each other, but not to me. I’m always thinking, would I represent this candidate, what would a company think when they meet this person, would I be comfortable referring this candidate or would a company screen them right out for a variety of reasons?

I typically meet every candidate I represent on a retained search. I know many recruiters don’t do this, but I always have. I can’t imagine asking a client to meet a person I have not met first. For me that is just too risky. Heck, I have been burned even after I have met them, liked them, and believed they were highly qualified, only to have the client call me back and ask me why I wasted their time with this candidate. It is what I refer to as the,  Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde syndrome.

Our interview is a dress rehearsal of how you will interview when you meet my client. Every meeting, regardless of how informal it might appear, is an interview and candidates should treat them as such. There are rarely do overs.

The following are just a few of the basics that I’m observing when I meet a candidate. If you don’t pass these, then we will have a nice meeting, but I’m moving on. As I have stated many times in previous articles,  that doesn’t mean you are not a qualified person. It just means that I believe I can find a better candidate for my client, who is evaluating me and the candidate during the interview.

1. Presence is important. Since most of my recruiting is at the senior level, I want a person that has a strong presence. This is someone who will have the respect of the people working for them, their boss, and their boss’s boss. It may start with the introduction and continue on throughout the interview.

2. Arrogance. Again, since most of my recruiting is at the senior level I meet a lot of very arrogant executives. For some reason many feel they are above the process. Their attitude is that my resume speaks for itself and I shouldn’t have to answer your questions. That’s not good if  you want to meet my client.

3. Communication. Do they listen to the question and actually answer the question “I” ask, and not the one they want to answer? This is not a political interview on Fox or CNN. I’m not the pundit that asks a question to have the politician not answer the question, but give a robot reply with some canned predetermined answer. Or worse, they just don’t know what to say so they say everything. I envision what my client will say to me if they answer their questions the same way. There is nothing worse than spending an hour with someone and still wondering exactly what they do.

4. Succinct. This is closely related to #3 above. Does the candidate get to the point and hit the high points? It is the old story, if I ask for the time, I don’t want to know how to build the watch. Most executives need to know how to condense a lot of information into a short period of time. They need to do this in executive sessions, board meetings, management letters, reports, and so on. Many executives, especially entrepreneurs, have the attention span of an ant and don’t want to be buried in detail.

5. Attitude. Is the candidate friendly, affable, easy to speak to, able to carry on some small talk, and will the client be able to relate to their personality? This is a tough one. What works for one client may not work for another. It is a tough call, but one all recruiters have to make. So for me it is about whether or not I am seeing the real person in front of me or if this person is putting on a show for me. Hard to determine, but that is why we get the big bucks as the saying goes.

6. First impression. Since the first impression often drives the interview, and often sets the tone for the interview, this is very important. A strong, friendly welcome is important. Does the candidate make me (and therefore my client) feel comfortable from the start? This ability to relax right from the start is important.

7. Control. An interview is often about control. Good or bad, right or wrong, that is the reality. Who is in control during the interview? The hiring manager or the candidate? Top candidates know how to be in control, and gather the information they need, without appearing to be in control.

8. Initiative/Leadership. Again, most of the people I meet are managers so leadership and initiative are critical. My clients want these behavioral skills.

9. So I don’t receive a lot of comments, yes I care about qualifications, ability to do the job, accomplishments, etc. That is a given.

These 9 things are some of what separate or differentiate the candidates that I meet (interview). They are some of the traits that I know are going to make my client a raving fan and retain me for future searches.

To download the free chapter on Conducting an Effective Phone Interview from our book “This Is NOT The Position I Accepted” CLICK HERE and then click on the Free Search Resources link.

If you would like to know if your job search is fully utilized and you are doing the right things, download our free 8 Matrix Job Search Self- Assessment Scorecard. CLICK HERE and then click on the Free Search Resource link.

If you liked this article, please send it to others so they will benefit too. Post it to your Facebook page, Tweet it, or submit it to your LinkedIn groups.

I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Brad Remillard

Changing Industry Can Be Done

Question: Most of my career is in financial services. I want to get out of that industry and into healthcare. What is the best way to make this transition?

Making an industry change in this economy is difficult, unless you have one of those jobs in which the skills required are not industry specific. That means that your skills and training are easily transferable to another industry. The issue you have to overcome is that your competition for an opening will probably include people already in the healthcare industry. Most companies will look at those with industry experience first.

The best way to make an industry change is through networking. You need to build relationships with people in the industry. To do this consider attending professional associations, joining networking groups in healthcare, attending trade shows or conferences, and connecting with healthcare people in your local area via LinkedIn.  As they get to know you they will be able to determine how your strengths, outside the healthcare industry, can apply to the problems they need solved in their company. In this case going through recruiters or submitting resumes via ads are long shots.

There are some barriers you should think about overcoming when changing industries, assuming your skills are not easily transferable. The first one is compensation. Chances are you are more valuable in the financial services industry than in healthcare. Therefore, the position will probably be at a lower level and so will the compensation. Secondly, some additional training and education may be required.

Join our Linkedin Job Search Networking Group. 6,000 other people are benefiting from the discussions and articles. CLICK HERE to join, it is free.

Turbo-charge your search  by evaluating its strengths and weaknesses with our FREE Job Search Plan Self-Assessment Scorecard. This will help you and your accountability partner get your search started out right. CLICK HERE to download your scorecard.

Need a great cover letter? A free sample cover letter that has proven to get you noticed is on our Web site for you to use with your resume. CLICK HERE to download yours.

If this was helpful, then please help others by forwarding it on to your network, posting it on your Facebook page, Tweeting with the link, or posting to your Linkedin groups or status update.  Let’s all do everything we can to help those looking for employment.

I welcome your comments.

Brad Remillard

Short Video for KABC Radio Job Search Program

Here’s a little promo clip for the KABC Radio Los Angeles broadcast on Job Search January 16, 2011 from 3-5 pm PST.  The pre-recorded show will air on the Los Angeles Station and be syndicated to other ABC Radio affiliates across the country.

Once the show airs, you can download it from the KABC radio station or their iTunes Podcast Listing.

Great panel – great discussion – great questions (okay I’m biased since I participated). It’s still an excellent program that all job seekers should tune into.

This segment was about whether the job market is starting to come back with observations at all levels of employment trends.

Barry Deutsch

Why You Must Use a Job Search Coach

I received a note from one of our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group members today. By the way, if you’re not currently a member of our popular LinkedIn Discussion Group, you can join by clicking this link. He posed a great question after reading my latest blog postings on why it’s important to have an executive job search coach.

You can read the previous blog post on job search coaching by clicking the link here.

Here’s the question that was posed in the LinkedIn Discussion Group:

Just curious, what specifically could a job search coach instruct a talented executive to do that they don’t already know how to do themselves? Maybe the talent level of the executive plays a big part!

I’m going to assume that I did a terrible job making the point in my blog posting that in most cases, executives need a job search coach to help them conduct an effective job search.

Here’s my first recommendation (which by the way I suggested in the previous blog article):

Take our FREE 8-point self-assessment of your job search. If you can’t score in the upper levels consistently on every single item – you’re a candidate for job search coaching. You can download the FREE job search self-assessment by clicking here.

Let’s now assume you’ve taken the assessment and like most executives, your job search is only about 40-60% effective. This translates into the fact that if you had conducted an effective job search in the first place, you could have found a role most likely in 6 months – instead it’s now a year later and you find yourself back at square one with no real prospects.

What Can a Job Search Coach Do For YOU?

The next step is to determine if a job search coach can do something for you that you can’t do for yourself. A job search coach (such as the work Brad and I do with executives) can help in two fundamental ways:

1. The job search coach can provide specific recommendations, techniques, and strategies that you are either not aware of OR are not effectively executing.
2. The job search coach can hold you accountable to the multitude of job search tasks that must be completed daily and weekly to find a great opportunity quickly.

Let’s take a specific example to bring the dialogue down from 40,000 feet at a generic level to a precise illustration. This example is one tiny element of an overall effective job search:

One of the many tasks I do with my clients in job search coaching is to review the capability of their existing network to generate an abundance of job leads and referrals. One tiny element of this assessment/evaluation and improvement involves breaking down all your network contacts that you track (in ACT, Outlook, Goldmine, LinkedIn) and putting them in specific buckets.

Trusted Advisors as Networking Contacts

Let’s zoom down and get more specific in terms of one of the buckets or categories:

Trusted Advisors selling services to your future boss.

These Trusted Advisors are high level professionals who have a deep trust level with their clients – and their clients share lots of information, make requests, give and receive referrals in areas that have nothing to do with the Trusted Advisors’ functional expertise.

Why are Trusted Advisors an important networking contact “bucket” or category for executive job seekers?

Keep in mind that the hidden job market is roughly somewhere between 70-85% of all executive jobs (depending on where you get your information). At a minimum, 70% of all jobs you might be interested in are NOT published on job boards or advertised in the newspaper. Imagine what happens the next time a Trusted Advisor calls on a CFO and the CFO says “We’re looking at hiring a controller, who do you know?”

You want to be that referral.

Before that referral to you gets made, there are many steps to go through – including being able to identify the Trusted Advisor in the first place.

Unfortunately, less than 10% of all professional service providers could be tagged as a Trusted Advisor.

One of my tasks as a job search coach is to help guide you to identify the majority of trusted advisors in your geographic area that are selling services to your future boss. We’re just talking identification at this stage – we haven’t even moved to discussing the process of introduction, engagement, nurturing, and generating job leads and referrals from this specific networking “bucket” or category.

If I am a Trusted Advisor working for a payroll processing company and I suggest to the CFO that he/she should speak with you about their current controller opening – you’ve got an instant interview based on the strength of that Trusted Advisor Relationship. That’s the value of networking with not just anyone who sells services to CFOs – but rather networking with those who have the added credibility of being a Trusted Advisor.

I see from looking at your profile that you are a Controller. Let’s assume one of the titles for your future boss will be CFO. Who in your city or community sells payroll processing services to CFOs at the size of company you might be interested in joining? Now let’s expand our list to who are the top trusted advisors selling benefit programs, 401K processing services, temporary accounting services, CPA (tax and accounting/auditing) services, banking professionals? The list probably has 20-25 categories. You should have in your network the top 3 people for EACH of those categories.

The Value of a Job Search Coach

So, now let’s return to “what’s the value of a job search coach?”  Here come some tough and introspective questions:

• Have you done this assessment of your network for trusted advisors?
• Have you made dramatic gains over the last 30 days in adding to your network these trusted advisors?
• Do you have the 60-75 trusted advisors in your network that are selling high level services directly to CFOs?
• Could you build this component of your network on your own within the next 30-60 days?
• Have you gone through an exercise to identify who the very best, well connected, influencers are in your local community selling services/products to CFOs?
• Who is missing from this bucket of network contacts?
• What’s your precise strategy to connect, engage, nurture them – and ultimately get them to open up their rolodex to you for job leads and referrals?
• Could you come up with a detailed plan to connect, engage, and generate numerous hot referrals on your own from Trusted Advisors?
• Have you even thought about how this is one of numerous high value activities and tactics in your job search?
• Do you have a specific written plan that you follow daily/weekly to build the “trusted advisor” bucket of your network?
• Have you established metrics to measure the effectiveness of this networking strategy and do you have corrective options and back-up plans?
• Have you established daily and weekly “stretch” goals for yourself around building your network with trusted advisors?
• Who is holding you accountable to hitting those goals and objectives every week? What’s the pressure, consequence, reprimand if don’t hit the goals. Do you have someone giving you “tough love?”

That’s a lot of detail and work to build your Trusted Advisor Network – and it’s only one small component of an overall effective job search.

Imagine a job search coach walking you step-by-step through hundreds of similar activities, tactics, and strategies.

The number one problem in whether to use a job search coach, such as myself or Brad, is that most executive job search candidates are “unconsciously incompetent” (see my previous blog posting on this subject by clicking the link here) – you don’t know what you should be doing to conduct an effective job search.

I would be willing to wager a bet that most executive job search candidates have not even considered this as a strategy, or if they have – there is confusion over how to get started (unconsciously incompetent).

How many other powerful and impactful job search strategies are you MISSING because you’re too proud to admit that maybe someone with the right expertise could offer a lot of value to you?

I couldn’t pretend for a moment that I could do your job as a Controller – why would you believe that you could do the job of an expert in the area of job search coaching?

I don’t mean for this to turn into a personal selling message. Whether it’s me, Brad, or some other job search coach – the key point I would like to end this message on is that for most executives it is critical to hire a job search coach to help you navigate the changing job search landscape in one of the worst job markets since the great depression.

Barry Deutsch

2 Major Job Search Problems You Can Fix This Week

A lot of my ideas come from personal experience.  Some directly as a part of my 2007 job search experience, some from my 18 years as a hiring manager and some that originate in life and remind me of either of those two.

Here is an example of the last one from this morning.

I woke to the sound of a beeping smoke alarm.  Now if this has happened at your home, you know that it likely is a battery issue.   And you know how frustrating it can be to stand under each detector waiting for it to beep.

That way you know which battery to change.  Before you pull your hair out.

Not only is it annoying to wait.  It is also incredibly inefficient.

And job seekers are making these same mistakes.  Every day.

Job seekers have two major problems.   They wait for others.  And they act with a surprising lack of efficiency.

Having been there, I know.  And meeting with 10-12 job seekers a week, I see it.  So today my goal is to alert you to the problems.  And then point you to some resources to help you solve them.

Problem #1 – Job Seekers Are Waiting

Just like my waiting under each smoke detector for the beep, job seekers spend too much time waiting.  Waiting for others to impact their search.

Waiting for:

–   recruiters to find them a job
–    a job search engine to return a relevant result
–    the blind resume blitz to turn up a hidden job

In my experience, successful job search isn’t about waiting.  It’s about taking action.  And while there are times in job search when patience pays off, generally you are rewarded for constant and smart activity.

Problem #2 – Job Seekers Are Inefficient

Most job seekers I meet with don’t have specific goals.  They act with impulse.  And do what feels right each day.  They apply for jobs even if not qualified, they socialize at networking events and, while they have a profile on LinkedIn, they don’t actually use the tool for what it is intended.

So set goals for your job search process.  Monthly, weekly daily goals to keep you focused.  And measure your ability to stay on track.

If you are on LinkedIn, use it to find key people in your extended network who work for your target companies.  Don’t have target companies?

Someone asked me once: “what can I do to get my resume noticed?”  My answer was to apply for jobs for which you are really well qualified.

As a hiring manager, I paid attention to resumes that included jobs, companies and experience and accomplishments that fit my needs (i.e. the job description).  So while there are great things you can do to improve your resume and cover letter, nothing is better than being a good fit.

Career networking is essential in today’s job market.  It is the single biggest reason I see some people landing new jobs and others struggling.  But it’s not just career networking.  It’s career networking with a purpose .  It is specifically identifying who you need to meet and acting with purpose to find them online and at events you attend locally.

So if you are looking for a boost in your job search success, stop waiting for others and begin working with goals and a sense of purpose.

It will increase your confidence.  And will stop that annoying beep

About the author:

Tim Tyrell-Smith is the founder of Tim’s Strategy: Ideas for Job Search Career and Life, a fast growing blog and website. Tim is also the author of: 30 Ideas. The Ideas of Successful Job Search. Download the book and other free tools at http://www.timsstrategy.com. Follow him on Twitter @TimsStrategy

Is Your Job Search Focused On Employment or Employability?

My experience from speaking with tens of thousands of candidates over the last 30 years as an executive recruiter is that most candidates focus like a laser beam on employment. Finding that next job is all they think about.  Not bad, but I have found that those that find a job fastest focus on employability first.

Changing the focus will change your search. When candidates focus on only finding a job, they often lose sight of why they are employable. This focus changes how they interview, where they look, the process for finding a job, and ultimately leads to accepting the wrong job, which results in returning to the job market sooner than expected.

Focusing on employment can also lead to desperation in a job search. Download a FREE copy of the “Circle Of Transition” CLICK HERE. This shows up in the interview as fear, poor body language, lack of energy, incomplete answers or rambling answers. It impacts the job search as candidates try to demonstrate how they can do everything, in every industry, and regardless of whether they are a 10% or 100% fit for the job, they scramble after it. This only dilutes their search, sends them on wild goose chases, increases the many highs and lows of a search, and in the end gets the candidate no closer to getting a job.

Instead, what if you changed the focus to employability? This will alter how you view yourself and what you have to offer. It starts the process of realizing you have value, you are good at what you do, the company will be better off because they hired you, your boss will look better to their boss for hiring you, and you know you can and will do a great job.

Employability is about what you bring to the party. It is about focusing on what makes  you better than others. What is it about  you that this employer can’t live without? Every person they interview will probably have the same skills and experience to do the job, so why should they hire you?  It puts you in a position of strength.

Employability will expand your job search, not reduce it. It may eliminate some of the long shots that frustrate many candidates and at the same time it will increase the exposure to positions that have a higher probability of success.  I firmly believe one of the main reasons candidates we coach find jobs faster than most is because we work to change their focus to employability and away from employment.

Employability will help you create a job where jobs don’t yet exist. My last article was about finding the true hidden job market before others and recruiters. Employability helps you to not only tap into the hidden job market but it gets employers thinking about why they need you and your unique set of skills and experiences. Employers start to think about how much better they will perform with you on board. They begin to realize the solutions to their issues of growth, expansion, cost reduction, process improvement, etc, isn’t inside company. You become the savior to these problems. Employability turns you into a solution rather than just another candidate applying for a job.

Focusing on employability is much like what a CEO of a public company said to me many years ago. He said, “The focus of many public companies is the stock price and hitting the quarterly numbers. That will never be ours. We focus on building great products, innovation, customer service, and high quality. If we do that, the stock price and quarterly earnings will take care of themselves.”

If you focus on employability, employment will take care of itself.

To help you focus on employability be sure to download our free radio show recordings. They are in our candidate audio library. CLICK HERE to enter the library.

To validate whether or not your job search is effective, we have put together a job search self assessment scorecard. You can’t fix what you don’t know isn’t working. This free download will help you identify weaknesses in your job search. CLICK HERE to download your free copy.

Tired of sending resumes and hearing nothing back? Try this cover letter. It has proven over many years to increase responses from recruiters and companies. Download a sample by CLICKING HERE

I welcome your thoughts and comments.