Tip of the Week
My topic this week is staged appropriately with Halloween. “Stepping Out Of Fear” – The biggest challenge for Job Seekers is to step out of all of the fear that surrounds them. We’re afraid of how our bills are going to get paid. We’re afraid of where we’re going to find a new job. We’re afraid that we aren’t qualified. We’re afraid of so many things. Fear can strangle you and take you down in a choke hold.
The number one thing that I have found to conquer fear is to take action. If you’re afraid of something, go and find the information and details and take action.
Think about what your life will be like when you step out of this moment of fear and you’ve had time to pass.
What does your life look like 6 months from now? Where are you working? What are you doing? Can you see it?
Then sit and develop an action plan that is going to lead you to that goal.
Do you have a favorite company? Do you know anyone at that company? What can you do to find someone to talk to within that company?
Would you rather be doing something else? How are you going to get trained in the new skills? What can you do now to learn them? Who teaches them?
Are you willing to take a survival job until the right one comes around? What does that look like? How much do you need to make? Where can you go to find it?
Sit in your moment of action and your moment of triumph and feel what it feels like to be there. Embrace the change and make plans to get yourself there.
Tip of the Week
It is better to have a focused search in your job hunt than an “I’ll Try Anything” search. Develop a list of your top 10 companies. Make an effort each week to get to know everything you can about 2 – 3 companies on that list (more if you have time). Set a goal to be talking to someone who works for one of those companies by the end of the week. Ask everyone you come in contact with that week for help getting connected.
Tip of the Week
When you are asking people to help you in your job search you must account for two pieces. How well do you know the person? How easy is it for the person to help you? The better you know someone and the easier you make it for them to help you the better results you’ll see in your search. So, instead of saying “I’m a tech writer and I need a job.” Say something like “I’m a tech writer and I recently saw a position posted for ABC Corp and I know your friend Joe Schmoe works there, would you mind sending an email to him to introduce me? Here’s some details on why I’m perfect for that position: …..”.
Tip of the Week
I talk to a variety of Resume Writers all the time. They have different opinions on whether you should have a functional resume or a chronological resume. They have differing opinions on what should be included in a resume and how it should be formatted.
The key tip I want you to learn from this week is – make your resume easy to scan. Can someone look at your resume for 20 seconds and gleam all the important useful knowledge they need to know about you? Set the timer on your microwave and test it out yourself. Have your spouse, kids or friends read it and have them repeat back to you what information they read about you in the 20 second time period.
Once you have identified a position that you are interested in – take the job description and your resume and give it to a friend. Give them 20 – 30 seconds to read through the resume. Then have them go through the job description and see how many of the bullet points you fit.
