One Simple Trick To Finding A Job

So many candidates struggle with finding a position. I’m not going to insult you by telling you it is easy. It isn’t. In fact, for most it is hard work. Mainly because this may be new to you and with the exception of a few, this is not your area of expertise. It is always difficult to do something when  you are not an expert. In fact, it is frustrating because most professionals make it look so easy. Have you ever watched one of those home improvement shows do a complete kitchen remodel in just 22 minutes? They never have any problems, everything fits the first time, they never cut a board wrong, and it looks great in the end. Have you ever done a kitchen remodel and have it done that easily?

Their remodel happens so easily because they are an expert in it and we are not. So how does this relate to finding a job?

Companies in today’s market want the expert. They don’t want the jack of all trades, they want the king or queen.

Candidates have a very hard time accepting this. It is better to be great at one thing than good at many. Experts do 1 or 2 things 10,000 times, not 10,000 things once or twice.

What is your expertise? What unique passion, unique experiences, unique skill set, unique talent, unique accomplishments do you have that will, if not separate you from the 100’s of resumes received, at least get your resume to the pile of 5 to 10 to interview?

We live in a 140 character world. Millions tweet thoughts in 140 characters or less. Status updates on Linkedin are 140 characters or less. Can you describe your expertise in such a way that you stand out in 140 characters of less?

If not, then this is a great thing to work on over the holidays.

For example:

• A CFO with extensive experience in international finance within X industry and X sized companies
• Sales professional that enjoys the challenge of cold calls, increased first time customers by X% in first year directly by cold calling.
• HR executive that excels at union neg, reducing benefit costs by X% and 70% of hires from employee referrals up from 20% when I started.

These are just some examples that at least help you stand out, identify your unique strengths and accomplishments.

I have worked with hundreds of people helping them identify what makes them unique. It always starts out the same, “I’m probably not all that unique. I do my job and so do others.” That may be true, but every person doesn’t do the same thing, even in the same functional area.

Think about becoming great at 1 0r 2 things instead of good at many. Do this, and watch how your job search results change.

If this was helpful to you, then help others in your network by passing it along so they also benefit. Helping others will always help you in your job search. You can add this to your status on Linkedin, tweet it, add it to your Facebook page, or email it to your network. Let’s help everyone that is seeking a new job.

For more help on this, join our Linkedin Job Search Networking group. It is free and loaded with helpful discussions and articles. CLICK HERE to join.

Get our FREE 8 Point Job Search Self Assessment Scorecard to evaluate your job search. You can’t fix it if you don’t know what is broken. This will help you. CLICK HERE to get yours.

You can also get a FREE sample cover letter proven to get you noticed. Thousands have downloaded this, and it is FREE. CLICK HERE to get one.

I welcome  your comments, thoughts and questions.

Brad Remillard

How To Leverage Your Network And Get Others To Help You

Most everyone in the market is out doing all the networking they can. Sooner or later they will hear the saying, “Networking is about helping others.” or “Networking is giving before getting.” Both are true and critical to a successful networking process.

But what exactly does this mean? How do you implement this concept?

My experience has been that most are more than willing to help out when asked. Most will make introductions when asked. This is great, but there are other things one can do to give and help others. Even when not asked.

I think one of the best things you can do is share information. My partner Barry and I try to do this daily. We post articles so others can read them and benefit from our 30 plus years of experience. From time to time we will get an email thanking us. In fact, I received one today which was the catalyst for this article.

Here are other ways you can help others.

• How often do you forward articles  you found helpful to your network?
• How often to you post the link to your Facebook page allowing all your friends to benefit?
• Do you post the discussion or forward the article to your Linkedin groups?
• Do you share it with your Linkedin connections?
• Do you Tweet and include the link so all of those following you can benefit?
• Do you make announcements at networking meetings about how you benefited from this article?
• Have you passed along YouTube videos that you found helpful?

Do you do this? Do you do it on a regular basis out of habit?  Or like many, do you  just read the article and never think about proactively helping others? If you benefited from it so will others.  Just one right tip from you, one article reaching the right person at the right time, may help them land an interview or even a job.

Sharing information is just as important as sharing leads. I could make the argument that it’s more important. Leveraging your network by helping others, makes others want to help you. People generally want to repay those that have helped them.

It is also a tremendous way to keep in touch with people without bugging them. You are helping them and they will appreciate it. So stop worrying about bugging people in your network, instead start helping them by passing on helpful and informative information.

I would like to challenge you to not wait until people seek your help, instead be proactive. Send them information you find helpful so they can benefit. I bet you will start getting emails thanking you for helping.

What a great way to be branded as a ” giver.”

I think this is an excellent way to continue to engage your network and at the same time help others.

Isn’t that what true networking is about?

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

For lots of articles and great discussions to start sharing, join our Linkedin Job Search Networking group. CLICK HERE to join.

Download our free sample cover letter that is proven to get results. If you like it, you can share it with others. CLICK HERE to download.

Build a compelling Linkedin profile to  help  you get noticed by recruiters and hiring managers. Our 8 Point Linkedin Profile Assessment Tool can help you. CLICK HERE to download yours. Then share it with others that don’t have a compelling profile.

Brad Remillard

Is Your Job Search Saw Sharp or Dull?

One of my favorite books is The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey.

Over the past two decades I have constantly referred to this book for insight and personal growth. Covey describes one of the habits effective people embrace as “Sharpening the Saw’”.

Sharpening the Saw is the process of becoming better, learning more, seeking knowledge to improve what you do. It’s a life-long desire to improve yourself through deep learning, uncovering best practices, learning from others, adapting the techniques and stories you find on blogs, books, workbooks, iTunes, YouTube, and other sources.

Through an informal survey of thousands of executives and managers conducting a job search – less than 10% are investing time to “Sharpen their Job Search Saw”

Why? Does this seem dysfunctional?

It’s NOT brain surgery – there is a wealth of material out there that is both inexpensive and free – why are the vast majority of job seekers NOT taking advantage of it?

Let’s take the content Brad and I publish on Job Search. I’m biased – but I do think we offer some of the very best tools, techniques, methods, and framework for implementing job search best practices. Our ecommerce site offers a wealth of job search materials that are easy to use at a price that is embarrassingly low.

Layered on top of some of our kits, workbooks, audio, and other tools is a vast archive of FREE tips, tools, templates, and audio. Why do most job seekers NOT take advantage of the inexpensive best practice tools to improve their job search. Okay – forget inexpensive tools – let’s just talk about the FREE content Brad and I publish. Wait – Brad and I are not the only job search experts out there writing, recording, and publishing great material on improving your job search.

There are some extraordinary experts on personal branding, resume writing, cover letters, interviewing, and networking. Yet, less than 10% of all job search executive and managerial candidates would be able to identify who are the top three writers/publishers on personal branding for a job search, who are the very best content providers for networking?

If you are in a job search, how could you not know this information – it’s because you are not continuously Sharpening the Job Search Saw.

Let’s agree you will begin to Sharpen the Job Search Saw from this point forward – no more excuses about not having time or resources to improve your job search. Here are 5 immediate things you can do to Sharpen the Job Search Saw:

1. Listen to our FREE Audio Programs on Job Search from our weekly Radio Show
2. Test drive our Job Search Workbook for the cost of shipping
3. Get the Self-Assessment Scorecard on Evaluating Your Job Search
4. Subscribe to this blog to stay up-to-date on all our latest audio releases, new templates, and tips on how to implement the Career Success Methodology in your job search.
5. Try our Home Study Job Search Kit to cut in half the time it takes to complete your job search – if you’re not completely satisfied – return it

Don’t wait another day to start Sharpening Your Job Search Saw!

Barry Deutsch

Leveraging The Power of the First Impression Helps You Win The Interview

First impressions are so important in the initial meeting that one would not be too far off base if they argued the most important part of the interview. First impressions set the tone for the interview and often determine the types of questions, length of the interview, and ultimately the outcome. Making a strong first impression is often the deciding factor in who makes it to the next round. If the candidate makes a strong first impression they are immediately liked by the interviewer. This candidate just moved up the point scale towards the next round and they haven’t even been asked one question. On the other hand, if the candidate makes a weak first impression, the candidate starts out in the hole. This hole if often so deep  that no matter how well they answer the questions, the interviewer cannot overcome their first impression. In fact, they may have decided right in the lobby that this person isn’t getting the job.

Tips to making a strong first impression:

· Good eye contact.

· Remain a comfortable distance from the person.

· Firm handshake – even if you think you have one ask someone who will be open and honest. Many don’t, so don’t assume you do.

· Strong introduction coupled with a smile, a strong handshake and eye contact. Practice this introduction.

· Have a couple of conversational questions prepared in advance to engage the interviewer.

· The most important of all are the four “A’s.” A VP of HR at Rockwell Corporation gave us these. They are so important more than 25 years later we still remember them.

1. Appearance

   
   

2. Articulate

   
   

3. Affable

   
   

4. Assertive

Bring these four to the first impression and you will move up the scale – not down.

Study after study reveals that likability is the single most important factor used when determining who ultimately gets the job. Underestimating this is a failure of many candidates. Those that make a strong first impression will often do better in an interview than candidates with better experience.

Join our Job Search Networking Linkedin Group. There are over 2700 members and an extensive supply of resources for you to tap into. CLICK HERE to join. Membership is FREE.

We have numerous free downloads on our Web site to help you in your search. Sample cover letters, audio downloads from past radio shows,a transferable skills list, Linkedin Profile Assessment Matrix, and our Job Search Self-Assessment Scorecard. All can be downloaded from our homepage at www.impacthiringsolutions.com.

Every Monday at 11 AM Pacific time listen to our radio show anywhere in the world on www.latalkradio.com channel 2.

I welcome your comments and thoughts

Brad Remillard

Stop All This “Personal Branding” Nonsense

It is hard to be in a job search today and not run across two, overused and misunderstood terms, one is “networking” and the other is “branding,” usually “Personal Brand.” How did these words become the “buzz words” the “must do” the “most important,” words so critical that if you don’t do them, you are sure to fail in your job search?

Who makes this stuff up? They’re the marketing geniuses.

The number of books, blogs and news articles written on “Personal Branding” continues to grow. If it takes that much to explain “Personal Branding” it may just be too complicated to begin with. It’s as if this is some new concept in job searching or as if the “holy grail” of conducting a job search has finally been found.

NONSENSE.

All that has happened is that some marketing person put a clever name to it. It’s as if once you “brand” yourself you will be the NIKE, Apple, Coke, Michael Jordon or Tiger Woods in your field or industry.

Silly me, for 29 years as a recruiter I’ve just referred to this as, “differentiating yourself” or “making yourself unique.” I didn’t know I was telling my candidates to “BRAND THEMSELVES.” I’m not sure that is all there is to a brand, but it pretty much sums up all you have to do in a job search.

It’s not so complicated that it takes a 200+ page book to explain it.

For the sake of appearing up to date and current, it is critical in any job search to communicate “why” you are different from your competition. What unique skills, traits, talents, accomplishments, experiences and passions do you bring to the party? If you can’t define these, you are a commodity. The problem with being a commodity is that the only thing you have to negotiate on is price. In a job search price is compensation.

Call it “branding” or something else, we can’t stress enough that every candidate needs to step back and take some time to determine what makes them unique. Often each position may require a different set of skills, experiences or talents. It is possible that you may have to differentiate (oops brand) yourself differently for different positions. It also means that you may not be the best qualified candidate for every position.

Do a S.W.O.T. (Strengths, Weaknesses, Obstacles and Talents) analysis of yourself. List them out. Once you have the list, for the S and T, identify accomplishments and examples that demonstrate these strengths and talents. For the W, develop a plan to work on improving your weaknesses and for the O develop a plan of action to overcome any and all obstacles in your way to getting the position you want.

So forget about “Personal Branding,” it is way too complicated and probably just a fad. Just get back to the basics and figure out what differentiates you from all the others like you. Then go market it.

In the future you will see articles I write on “Personal Branding.” I will even title the article using the word “branding” because if I don’t, nobody will read it. So I will reluctantly conform.

Conformity has never been a “brand” for me.

Our job search book provides a template called,”Personal Success Profile.” This will help you identify what makes you different and add guidance for completing the SWOT analysis. You can get this for just the cost of shipping $5. CLICK HERE to review the book.

Listen to our talk radio show every Monday at 11AM PDT on www.latalkradio.com. It you miss it, you can download all of our past shows from our Web site. CLICK HERE to review the past shows and download the ones you want. All are free.

Please give us your comments and feedback.

Brad Remillard

Hope is NOT a Job Search Strategy

Liz Lynch, over at The Smart Networking Blog, just posted a blog article by this very same title. This is one of my favorite phrases I use all the time in our Job Search Webinars, Workshops, Seminars, and Private Coaching.

Why do most job seekers base their job search on hope and luck?

This is NOT a strategy. Trying to “will” the phone to ring is NOT effective. Liz talked about a candidate profiled on CNN who submitted their resume over 600 times to job ads on job boards and had a response rate of around 2.5%. It’s a waste of time and a useless technique.

Yet, many job seekers continue to base their entire job search strategy on hope and luck centered around answering ads on job boards.

My experience in 25 years as an Executive Recruiter is that most candidates fall into the trap of answering ads and praying the phone will ring because of 3 reasons:

1. This is what they know and what they did 5 years ago. They are trapped in a tribal paradigm of conducting an out-dated job search.
2. They are unwilling to learn how to conduct an effective job search. They refuse to read the blogs of Barry Deutsch and Brad Remillard, Liz Lynch, Jacob Share, Dan Schwabel, Miriam Salpeter and the hundreds of other outstanding experts in resume writing, personal branding, networking, and interviewing. They don’t take advantage of the FREE audio recordings, videos on YouTube, and products and services offered by these award winning experts. I just wrote a blog post on this topic basically raising the question of “Don’t Be the One! Why is Job Search Like Playing a High School Sport?” focusing on why candidates mistakenly feel they have to go it alone in their job search?”
3. Although the techniques of conducting an effective job search are simple, the effort is intense. It requires long hours, hard work, and a disciplined approach. Most importantly, you’ve got to have a great plan and then work your plan. You can’t treat your job search like a hobby. Many candidates are NOT willing to work hard at finding a great job.

Brad and I recently released a new Scorecard to assess the effectiveness of your job search. It’s our FREE Job Search Plan Self-Assessment Scorecard. We were stunned when candidates started filling it out and sharing their “Score” with us. Very few candidates we discovered meet a minimum threshold for having a plan that will lead to an effective job search.

I challenge you to take the Self-Assessment – Score Yourself – See where the holes and gaps are in your job search plan. If you can fix these holes and gaps, you’ll be able to reduce the time it takes to find a great job.

Barry

P.S. Don’t forget to join our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group, one of the fastest growing job search discussion groups on LinkedIn. Learn and discuss how you can conduct a more effective job search.

Advice on Personal Branding is NOT Useful

The current popular buzzword of job search personal branding has taken on an almost mythical status.  Almost every article and blog in the job search arena talks about personal branding. Yet, almost all the recommendations and suggestions are so generic that the advice on job search personal branding is NOT useful.

Good intentions – not enough concrete step-by-step tactics for your job search!

Where do you start – what process do you use?

Are there forms or templates which organize your creation of a personal brand?

What are the best practices in job search personal branding?

What works and what doesn’t work?

How do you leverage your time to create the most powerful personal brand possible?

Most of the so-called “experts” miss the most important STEP in Job Search Personal Branding:

What do you have to do before creating a personal brand? How do you specifically STEP-BY-STEP build a defining document that leads to the creation of your job search personal brand. Telling you to create a personal brand is what I term a BHAG (pronounced Bee-HAG), which stands for Big-Harry-Audacious-Goal. BHAG objectives and recommendations sound like:

Get more sales

Achieve market share

Improve Quality

Achieve the gross margin goals

Raise the number of inventory turns

Establish a personal brand for yourself

The secret behind creating a powerful job search personal brand:

Start at the execution level INSTEAD of the BHAG level. Don’t worry about having a personal brand until you’ve gone through the rigorous process of defining who you are and what you want.

What is this rigorous process you might ask?

We call it the Personal Success Profile and it is the Number ONE Step of our comprehensive job search system called the Career Success Methodology.

Thousands of job seekers who have read our new job search workbook, This is NOT the Position I Accepted (a step-by-step workbook to use the Career Success Methodology in your job search), have embraced the process of first creating a Personal Success Profile as the starting point in their job search. Every day, Brad and I receive email messages on how candidates conducting a job search have dramatically reduced the time it takes to find a new great job – and it all started with the creation of a Personal Success Profile.

Before you can develop a job search personal brand, you’ve got to go through the creation of a Personal Success Profile (PSP). This exercise in creating a PSP will help you to develop a strong personal brand, a networking plan, a targeted job search plan, and prepare for interviews. It becomes your guiding light that dictates every move you make in your job search, including how you create your personal brand.

Your Job Search Personal Success Profile defines your capability, competency, skills, knowledge, values – all the key elements a prospective employer might want to know about you. It captures the core elements of what differentiates you from your peers – part of which is your personal brand.

The PSP goes a step further in creating a definition of what’s important to you in a new job – from the type of boss for whom you might work to the type of culture in which you might flourish.  This Profile identifies what you’re willing to sacrifice in accepting a new job and what items are non-negotiable. The PSP provides the foundation for your entire job search.

Get a copy of our book, This is NOT the Position I Accepted, to learn how to create a Personal Success Profile, listen to our Audio Program on building a PSP, or use the comprehensive Job Search Home Study Kit to get a kick-start on moving your job search into high gear.

Brad and I have also discussed the need to start your job search by creating a Personal Success Profile in our weekly Radio Talk Show. You can listen and download our previous episodes to learn why creating a Personal Success Profile is the number one element of success in your job search.

If you’ve downloaded our FREE Job Search Plan Self-Assessment Scorecard as a tool to improve the effectiveness of your job search, you’ll notice that the first item on the matrix is whether you’ve developed a Personal Success Profile.

Barry

P.S. Don’t forget to join our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group to participate in learning how to reduce the time it takes to complete your job search, especially the discussions around developing a Personal Success Profile that leads to a powerful Job Search Personal Brand.

Your Job Search Effectiveness is Predetermined

Liz Lynch, one of the foremost experts on networking, is a guest blogger on The Personal Branding Blog. A few days ago, Liz posted a blog titled “Prep for the Future with Lessons From the Present”

Liz wrote about why some job seekers might be falling short in their job search — and by extension – their career. Many candidates fall into what we call the “Circle of Transition” which is a difficult cycle to break where one jumps from one job to the next without an active management of their career. Frequently, they find themselves at the mercy of arbitrary management, poor job choices, and the economy.

Her recommendations, especially around building your contacts throughout your career is advice all job seekers should take to heart. It’s the focus of one of my favorite authors, Harvey MacKay, who wrote a book called “Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty” – a profound recommendation for job seekers – most of whom violate this basic idea.

The Job Search you are conducting right now is predetermined NOT by what you are doing right now, but what you’ve done over the last 2, 5, 10 years to prepare for this moment.

Imagine looking into the crystal ball and easily predicting how your job search and career will fare in the coming years. Liz suggests what you do now in your job, skill development, network creation, building industry relationships, is the primary element of success in your future job search. The economy will once again sour in 5, 10, or 15 years. Will you be ready or will you be a victim of the Circle of Transition.

Why do so few job seekers consider that job search and career management are efforts, tasks, and processes successful people engage in continuously (even when they have a good job) compared to those caught up in the circle of transition who only consider tasks related to job search and career management when they need a job.

Will you be the one out of work for 18 months again, or will you quickly land on your feet within months of being laid off with a great new opportunity?

Learn more about the dangers of falling victim to the dreaded “Circle of Transition”. Download our FREE Graphic Representation of the “Circle of Transition” or listen to our FREE Radio Show Broadcast.

Barry

P.S.: Don’t forget to join our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group and join in the conversation on how to avoid falling victim to the “Circle of Transition”

photo credit ben hayes

Job Search: On-line vs. In-Person 1st Impressions

Chad Levitt, a guest blogger at Dan Schwabel’s Personal Branding Blog posted a blog a few days ago titled “What is Your Digital First Impression?” Chad claimed that making a digital first impression was very similar to making a personal first impression. He inferred in the blog posting that when people are searching for you on google, those first few links that come back are your first impression.

By the way, Chad is an extraordinary authority figure on personal branding, particularly in networking and sales. His own blog at The New Sales Economy Blog is one of my favorite.

No disrespect intended, but I think Chad may have defined digital first impressions a little too narrow.

In a personal meeting, you typically have one chance to make a good first impression. Blow it – and it’s over. Rarely will you have another opportunity.

On-line, first impressions are radically different. Not only are your first impressions scattered across a wide array of sites, such as LinkedIn, Google, Facebook, forums, discussion groups, Twitter, and many other indexed sites/comments.

Not only is your first impression scattered across a wide variety of sites as compared to a one-time event in person, you also have the ability to constantly improve, manage, build, develop, and evolve your first impression on-line. What appears today in a Google Search is NOT what has to appear next week.

The major question is: are you continuously working on your digital first impression so that you can be “found” by buyers, hiring managers, senior executives, recruiters, and human resources?

Let’s tackle one small area of starting to more effectively manage your digital first impressions: A few months ago, we posted on our website an 8-point Success Matrix to evaluate the effectiveness of your LinkedIn Profile. The scorecard was intended to determine if your LinkedIn profile was strong enough to let you be found by hiring managers, recruiters, and human resources.

Our research around the use of LinkedIn as a Personal Branding Tool and for Job Search 1st Impressions was depressing. Less than 10% of those who took the challenge to assess their LinkedIn Profile using our Scorecard met the minimum standard for effectiveness.

If you would like to gain a deeper understanding if your LinkedIn Profile can be more effective in helping you to be “found”, download the LinkedIn Profile Self-Assessment.

Barry

Join our LinkedIn Discussion Group where we release first all our new tools, templates, and advanced self-assessments.

Job Search Plan Self-Assessment Scorecard – NOW Available – FREE

Are you ready to start conducting an EFFECTIVE JOB SEARCH?

Are you ready to take time off in the race to finish your job search?

As promised, Brad I committed to release our long-awaited, deeply researched, field-tested, and validated FREE Job Search Plan Self-Assessment Scorecard.

You can download the Job Search Plan Self-Assessment Scorecard and tool by joining our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group. We apologize about this two step process. However, Brad I have made the commitment to our job search community to release all new scorecards, self-assessment tools, templates, and other FREE Job Search Resources into our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group first.

We’ve worked very hard over the last few months to put together a FREE simple scorecard and tool that can make a dramatic difference in your job search.

If you take this self-assessment and work very hard to improve your scores from “0” or “1” into the “2” and “3” levels, you’ll be able to significantly reduce the time it takes to complete an effective job search.

Not only will this scorecard help you in overcoming the Top Ten Job Search Mistakes, but it will also help you in your job search by reducing the time it takes to find a great opportunity.

Here’s a great example: If you’re an executive and the average time in this poor job market is 9-12 months to find a new executive level position, this Job Search Plan Self-Assessment Scorecard will help you cut in half the time it should take to find a new job. Imagine saving $30,000-$60,000 in reducing your job hunting time by conducting a more effective job search.

Join Brad and I on our Weekly Internet Radio Talk Show this coming Monday – August 31st – 11-noon PST on LATalkRadio. We’ll be talking about how to overcome the Top Ten Job Search Mistakes and Errors by using our new FREE Job Search Plan Self-Assessment Scorecard.

Barry

P.S.: We look forward to your comments, ideas, and thoughts in our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group. How might we improve this scorecard in a future revision? What insights about your job search effectiveness did you gain after spending a few minutes taking the assessment? After you take the assessment, what’s your specific plan to improve your job search?