Career Advice | Linking Indiana

An Unemployment Sabbatical: Need One?

February 27, 2013 by Tim's Strategy Leave a Comment

You may be like me, swimming in the sea of unemployment…and yet you may never be busier! See this time as time for you…as a sabbatical.

This is a guest post by Regina Richardson.

A sabbatical is defined, roughly, as “any extended absence in the career of an individual in order to achieve something”. Okay, and “sabbatical” sounds so much better than “unemployed”, especially when unemployment has shifted to “long-term” status.

Sabbaticals still involve work, though, which fits the job of job hunting. Explaining some of this logic to others might be a bit daunting, though, especially with family. Someone unfamiliar with the dark waters of unemployment may scoff at your new outlook, but those of us in the water with you will smile and nod.

Now, what to do with this “absence”?

Visit the local employment agency in your area and see what resources are available. There may even be monies available for you through the Workforce Investment Act to pick up a class or two toward an improved educational foundation. iTunes has a feature called “iTunes U“, which is a collection of free classes/courses from universities and other institutions all over the world. Many are also available via YouTube or through OpenCulture. While these courses are not offered for credit, they are, for the most part, equivalent (if not exact) to what students on campus are taking.

Keep your brain engaged and let your curiosity run free — what courses did you really want to take, but didn’t have room in your schedule? What’s something that piqued your interest? now you have time to explore!

Develop a schedule for reading, including many of the sources Greg Johnson listed in his article. Add to that the fact that many text books can be rented from Barnes & Noble, and you have the beginnings of a recipe for staying current.

Take the knowledge you have and volunteer at your local schools. These kids need help in everything from reading to research paper development to science. And, they will definitely keep you on your toes with some of the questions they have.

Enjoy this sabbatical time.

Set a schedule for each day to include some form of exercise for the body as well as the mind. Get current on your industry/area as well as supporting areas — who knows, maybe the end to your sabbatical is down a different path than you thought.

Go explore! Imagine the stories you’ll have when you do return to the corporate world!

Filed Under: Career Advice, Career And Life Development, Choice, classes, courses, exercise, free, harvard, iTunes, learn, MIT, read, sabbatical, unemployment

Career Smarts: 6 Things You Should Be Reading

February 26, 2013 by Tim's Strategy Leave a Comment

As we all know, job security is no longer something that can be taken for granted in today’s market. Mergers, acquisitions, restructuring and downsizing have taken their toll.

This is a guest post by Greg Johnson.

Changes in technology and regulations happen at an amazing rate. Before you know it, you find yourself to be either redundant or obsolete and out of a job.

What steps can you take to protect yourself? Of course, continuing education and ongoing certification for your career should always be a part of your career management plan.

In addition, general reading on your industry and function should be part of your regular schedule. So many times when I ask people what they read professionally, I either get a blank stare, or they say they do not have time to read.

Given the lack of job security, the constant and dramatic changes in so many industries, I would say, a professional that takes their career seriously, does not have time not to read professionally.

Purposefully scheduling time to read and keep up to date can add a cadence to your career management and confidence to your brand. So what should be on your reading list?

Here are six categories of information that you should be reading:

Industry/Trade Associations publications and websites
Industry blogs
LinkedIn Groups
Business/Career Books
1. HeadStrong
2. The One Minute Manager
Business News Publications
Industry Reports & White Papers
1. Tech Republic White Papers

Let us know what you read to keep current in your career.

Filed Under: blogs, books, Career Advice, Career And Life Development, Career Management, Career Optimization, career smarts, expert, industry reading, LinkedIn, personal branding, Professional Reading, relevance, Subject Matter Expertise, things you should be reading, well read

How to Write A Cover Letter that Works

February 22, 2013 by Tim's Strategy Leave a Comment

As an executive recruiter, I review thousands of resumes and their cover notes a year, but rarely do I see a great cover letter.

This is a guest post by Leslie Ayres.

Most are stilted, boring, complicated, unfocused or worst of all, missing entirely. That’s too bad, because knowing how to write cover letters that work can give you an edge in a competitive job market.

First, you need to understand that a cover letter’s job is very simple: to get someone to read your resume with interest.

That’s all it needs to do. You want them to scan your resume cover note and think, “This could be the one,” and so they take a serious and optimistic look at your resume. Job done.

The good news is that it doesn’t even have to be a great cover letter to do its job. In fact, you’ll get the highest likelihood of getting your resume read with what I call the “good-enough cover letter.”

The good-enough cover letter is short, simple, tailored to the job and is designed to get your resume read.

It isn’t overworked, so it feels confident. It talks about your match to the job, so it establishes a perception of your qualifications, and it gives give just enough information to make them hungry to read your resume.

Here’s how to do it:

Always include a cover note.

I’d say that half the applications have no note at all. Come on. If it’s worth applying for, it’s worth five minutes to write a note. On top of that, no cover note can be a deal-breaker for many hiring managers, who figure if it’s not important enough to you that you make a good impression, you’re not their person.

Write a fresh note for every job. No cut and paste.

The good-enough cover letter points sounds fresh and personal, so just write it new each time. Cutting and pasting is lazy and encourages you to include unnecessary information. We can tell you’re using the same note for every job, and are not impressed.

Keep it short.

The reader is going to scan the note to until they see something that knocks you out of the running. Don’t hang yourself with too much information. Three short paragraphs are just right: 1) an introduction; 2) a couple of highlights about your experience and 3) an expression of interest in the specific job.

Don’t recap your resume.

Remember, the job here is to get them to read your resume. Just share two or three highlights about your background to give them a taste of your experience. Let the real story reside in your resume, which is your real marketing document. Speak directly to the specifics of the job.

Be confident but not overconfident.

Never declare that you’re the perfect person for the job and be careful not to make assumptions or offer advice about the job. Job postings give limited information, so you can safely assume there is a lot you don’t know.

Be friendly and personal.

There is no need to be formal or stuffy when introducing yourself for a job. Just write like you talk and don’t use too many big words, even if you have the world’s biggest vocabulary. Use the person’s name if you know it, and if you don’t, just begin with “Good morning” or “Hello.” Never ever say “To whom it may concern” or “Dear Sirs.” Never ever.

What does a good-enough cover letter that works look like?

Here’s a sample for you:

Dear Leslie,

My friend Jan Smith forwarded me your job posting for a Widget Manager on LinkedIn, and it seems like a good match with my experience in the widget world.

I have been a widget designer with Epic Widgets, where I managed a team of ten widget service assistants, and built our group into the biggest department on the East Coast before the company was sold.

Your company’s new widget line is cutting edge and I’d love the chance to talk to you about this position. My resume is attached for you, and you can reach me at 555-555-1234 at any time.

Looking forward to talking to you,

See how easy it is? The recipient is compelled to look at your resume because your cover note is:

Is written in simple language and directed at a specific job
says why you’re sending your resume
gives some highlights from your background that match their job
shows genuine interest
makes it easy for them to call you.

Then, of course, your resume better be great, because it job is to tell your story in a way that gets the interview (if you missed my article You’re Awesome But your Resume Probably Sucks, check it out now).

Put your focus on the resume, and don’t waste time trying to create a great cover letter, when good enough works better when it comes to cover letter formats.

And that’s the secret to how to write cover letters that work. Make it short, friendly and tailored to the job, and you’ll find you get more responses.

Photo courtesy of 123RF

Filed Under: Career, Career Advice, communications, cover letters, Cover Letters And Resumes, cover letters that work, cover notes, good cover letter, Job Search, marketing yourself to the hiring manager, resume cover letter

You May Need to Rethink Job Hopping

February 21, 2013 by Career Rocketeer Leave a Comment

Sometimes circumstances seem to deal certain people a series of bad hands when it comes to jobs. These people get downsized repeatedly, find jobs working for the devil and jobs that instantly evolve into something else. It happens, but…

At some point, those around you stop believing that it’s just bad luck and start thinking it’s about you. The potential for “involuntary” job-hopping has certainly increased during this past decade of bad business conditions. [Read More...]

Filed Under: Career Advice

Don’t Like Your Job? Don’t Jump from the Frying Pan into the Fire!

February 13, 2013 by Career Rocketeer Leave a Comment

I had a conversation with someone recently about wanting to leave their job because the workload had become overwhelming.

One of their comments was…

“Anywhere I go has to be better than this, it certainly can’t get worse.”

I pointed out that it certainly can get worse! Often people get so focused on a negative aspect of their job or organization, they don’t see the good things they have or how other circumstances can be worse. [Read More...]

Filed Under: Career Advice

What is Working in Job Search Today?

February 4, 2013 by Career Rocketeer Leave a Comment

I have found people who employ conservative, conventional approaches to find a job too often end up with limited results and lengthy intervals of unemployment between jobs.

In the past few weeks, I have followed up with people I have worked with and those I offered free advice to in 2012 to see what worked and what did not for them in their job search.

Here, again, in no particular order, are some tactics that generated more interviews and shortened the length of time people anticipated being out of work. [Read More...]

Filed Under: Career Advice

The Most Important Job Search Activity: Are You Tracking It?

February 1, 2013 by Tim's Strategy Leave a Comment

With all the job search activities a job seeker has to do in this employment marketplace to conduct a successful job search, it can easily become overwhelming.

Submitting resumes to job postings, going to networking events, reaching out to your contacts and introducing yourself to new people at target companies—and we have not even included social media interactions, interview preparation and many other actions.

It’s enough to make your head spin, if you let it.

This is a guest post by Lisa Rangel.

Through my years of recruiting and job search consulting, I have boiled all of the activity down to one real job search activity metric that needs to be tracked. Tracking this metric each week provide a litmus test for you to determine if all of your social media interactions, in-person venues, online research time and phone activity is purposefully focused or just plain busy work. You ask, “What is this one metric, Lisa?”

The metric to track is:

How many conversations are you having each week with people that can help you with your job search?

(to be clear, I define a ‘conversation’ as a back-and-forth dialogue about your job search among two or more people that can happen over the phone, in person or in email.)

Yes, that’s it. That is what all of this activity comes down to, in my opinion.

The number of conversations per week in an active job search can vary based on the person’s situation—but I would say any active search with less than 5-10 conversations will experience slow progress. Ask yourself, is all of this social media posting, resume submission, networking event attending, coffee meeting, lead generation, online research and blog writing activity getting you qualitative conversations with the right people who will lead you to getting hired?

I pose this question to job seekers often. This is often the pivotal point missing from the job search when people are experiencing lackluster results and bordering on job search burnout. Diagnostic conversations I have with frustrated job seekers who are not seeing results can often go like this:

JobSeeker: I am spending 10-30 hours a week on my job search and I am not receiving many (or any) calls for job interviews. I am getting really frustrated.

Me: What activities are you doing for your job search?

Job Seeker: I do all this research on line for jobs and I have submitted to over 150+ job postings over the last three months. I have received 2 phone calls for interviews and I am frustrated.

Me: How many conversations have you had with people at the companies or people who can introduce you to hiring managers are these companies during the course of those 150+ submissions?

Job Seeker: Well, I do not really talk to anyone at the companies directly at this point. I hope they call me when I submit my resume… I mainly submit through job postings and attend job seeker support groups.

Me: Are you speaking to contacts that are employed, as well? Are you asking your network at these events you attend who they know at those companies to help you gain an introduction?

Job Seeker: Not really. In hindsight, I am asking if they know of open jobs that I can apply to….

You see it all comes back to the conversations you are having to gauge if the activities you are doing are moving your job search forward. Here are other ideas to help you audit your effectiveness:

- Are you posting on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter but not getting much from it? What do your profiles look like when people find you? When was the last time you reached out to a person from these mediums to speak on the phone or meet for coffee in a public place? Use social medium as a gateway to conversations.

- Not see much activity after a networking event? Are you following up properly after a networking event with people who can provide you introductions or be a conduit to other influencers? The job won’t find that probably come directly from the networking event—you need to follow up with people after the event to find those gold nuggets.

- Are you researching for hours? Feeling like you are not getting anywhere? Ask yourself how many outbound calls or emails to PEOPLE did you make/send as a result of that research. Sending emails to job postings do not count as communication activity. People hire people…so reach out to people and track it accordingly.

- Submitting to job postings? I wouldn’t say stop, but for each submission you make, spend time finding a possible hiring manager to introduce yourself to and/or find contacts that can help you with an introduction to the firm.

The goal of all your job search activity is to generate conversations that advance your job search. Ask yourself before your next job search action, “How is this going to help me chat with a person about my search?” to help you stay focused on the right activities to pursue.

Photo source: 123rf.com

Filed Under: activity, Career, Career Advice, effective networking, efficient, How To Find A New Job, Job Search, job search activity, job search mistake, productive, results, successful job search, track, tracking

The Best Way to Keep a Positive Attitude in Your Job Search

January 30, 2013 by Career Rocketeer Leave a Comment

As I’ve often written…

One of the most important and most difficult things to do in your job search is to maintain a positive mental attitude.

Allowing the grind and the ups-and-downs of a job search to drain your optimism and determination will invariably harm your chances of landing your next job. [Read More...]

Filed Under: Career Advice

13 Points to Remember When Looking for a New Job or Promotion in 2013

January 28, 2013 by Career Rocketeer Leave a Comment

As a resume writer, job search advisor and Career Rocketeer blogger, I need to stay current on all aspects of career services to help my clients and readers in their job search efforts. So here are a few random thoughts (in no particular order) for you to consider while job hunting in 2013. 1. Resumes are [...]

Filed Under: Career Advice

Executive Resumes: Are You Job Hunting With An Expired Tool?

January 24, 2013 by Tim's Strategy Leave a Comment

resume, great resume, professional resume, professional resumes, write resume, resume help, resume confidential This is a guest post by @AbbyLocke.

The first month of the New Year is always buzzing with activities as we convince ourselves that this will be the year that we finally get it right. You know the usual resolutions, lose those pesky 20 pounds, find a better job, start eating healthy food and exercising.

In fulfilling your efforts to make good on your “new job” resolutions, you have to pull out your professional resume; there is a lot of talk about resume becoming extinct, but here we are in 2013 and employers and recruiters still need your resume before they meet with you or schedule an interview.

I want you to think of your resume as your personal marketing tool – the product it’s selling is YOU, so your career story must be compelling, explain your benefits (not features) and peak the interests of hiring managers.

A tall order for a document, but it can be done effectively if you keep these five resume strategies in mind:

A. Have A Clear Target In Mind

A lot of job seekers kill their job search before it really gets started by casting a super wide net; you cannot be attractive to every employer or be qualified for every job opportunity. So determine your ideal job and tailor your resume accordingly and remember to keep the employers’ needs in mind. Take the time to understand the job/industry requirements and only highlight relevant experience, qualifications, education, training and projects that fit with the job.

B. Have An Opening That Stands Out

Avoid a lengthy, wordy and generic resume summary that uses a ton of keywords, but does nothing for you or potential employers. Combine a title header, personal branding statement and a brief value-driven summary that captures attention and highlights your value in 30 seconds or less. Here’s an example:

SENIOR EXECUTIVE
Delivering High-Level Strategic Vision, “Out-of-Box” Business Innovation And Rainmaker Expertise To Niche Market Companies

C. Learn To Do More With Less

When we start talking about resume length, there’s always that catch-22 – how to make it long enough to cover your work experience, but short enough to not get lost in the pile. For starters, don’t, don’t, please don’t squeeze 15+ years of work experience and achievements onto one page UNLESS it’s a trimmed down networking document.

A standard, two-page resume is fine and yes, even if you have tons and tons of work experience, you can still develop a brief, but effective resume. Consider these quick tips creating an ideal length resume:

Keep the more current and relevant content for the first page of resume
Draw substantial content from positions you held in past 15-20 years
Summarize very early work experience in a brief paragraph
Put education, training and certifications on resumes first page only if critical to target position. For example, a project manager would list PMP certification next to his/her name
Take a deep breath and break any emotional ties to career story, if it is not RELEVANT or ESSENTIAL to your job target, be brave and let it go

D. Allow Your Career Achievements To Sell You

Resumes with a laundry list of tasks, responsibilities and “to-dos” are not impressive and don’t speak real value; focus your resume on your career achievement and company contributions as these show how well you have done the job.

E. Be Prolific With Your Career Story

When conducting your job search, you will always need paper and electronic resumes, but remember to leverage other resources to market yourself, online and offline.

Develop your resume in Word, PDF, and ASCII (text)
Extract key highlights of your career background and achievements into a branded LinkedIn profile or networking resume

Remember, the resume is simply the key that opens the door for further in-depth conversation, but it still has to compelling enough to warrant a phone call or a closer look.

Thanks slightly everything for the photo via Flickr