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Tip of the Week

Linked In for Schizophrenics

Many Job Seekers have asked me lately what to do with their Linked In Profile when they are seeking a variety of different positions or possibly a variety of different industries. My comment is “be honest”.   Use the top section of Linked In to explain why you have so many different interests and how each of them might benefit the company that you seek to work for.

Now, the catch to this is that you must still show that you are focused on whatever it is specifically that a company needs. You can’t just say “I’ve picked three areas to focus my search.  I’d like to be a baseball player because I played baseball as a kid.  I’d like to be a plumber because I feel handy around my house.  I’d like to be a journalist because I enjoy writing.”  Um.. Okay….   How would a Hiring Manager review that one?   Tell people why you are passionate about the area you have chosen to focus on and why (perhaps with little experience) someone should give you a shot.

Now, I’m not going to get into the “What do you want to be when you grow up” conversation in this tip.  That’s a long conversation that we cover over 12 weeks at Austin Career Coaching.   However, I do challenge you to really focus in on what you’d like to do and why you are special at doing just that.

Then when you’re talking about specific job experience you can spell out something about the past experience that makes you perfect for one of the new directions that you are heading in.

For example:

Application Support Team Lead at Authoria
September 2006 – September 2007  (1 year 1 month)

• Developed and trained team members on support ticket software
• Motivated fellow employees
• Defined and captured functional and operational requirements and processes
• Ensured issues were resolved in a timely fashion

EVENT PLANNING – While in my role as Application Support Team Lead at Authoria – I was part of the Event Planning Committee.  I helped to plan over 15 events. Each week we coordinated catered lunch for 75 employees.

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Tip of the Week

KEEP YOUR SKILLS FRESH

This week I’m going to encourage you to start to look for ways to keep your skills fresh.  Even passive job seekers find themselves in roles in their companies where they are not doing what they want to be doing.  For example, a java developer may be asked to lead a team and they get so swamped with the administration of that team that they don’t get to code anymore.

So, what can you do to keep your skills fresh?

First, decide which skills are the ones that you want to maintain.  You might be really good at bookkeeping but you really enjoy managing people.

Then you need to start to look for opportunities where you can continue to use those skills.  You can volunteer.  You can offer to help small businesses get up and running.  You can start your own side consulting business. You can take classes. Trust me the opportunities are out there.  You may not always get paid for your efforts but if you don’t get your skills up to date you won’t get hired for the jobs that you want.

A sales person may offer to help a company launch their sales program on a commission basis.  A programmer may build their own website.  A project manager may offer to manage a group or volunteer project.  A bookkeeper may help small businesses balance their taxes.

If you are looking for an opportunity to keep your skills fresh but you aren’t sure how to do it.  Please email me and I’ll be happy to start offering suggestions.

If you aren’t doing what you would love to do as a career every single day.  Then you need to be finding ways to do improve that skillset so you can start doing it tomorrow.

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Tip of the Week

FOLLOW UP

I can’t tell you how many people I talk to every day.   Lots of people are interested in receiving my help.  I tell them how I can help them and then I task them with sending me a follow up email to remind me to help them.  Do you know how many people don’t follow up with me?

This is the worst thing that you can do as a job seeker.  People talk to you and they hear your story and they are excited to help you.   The longer you let time go on the more energy and enthusiasm are lost.

I connect people all the time, it’s my business to do so.  So, I tend to remember when people send me an email that I offered to help.  However, other people are not the same.  They leave a conversation and life happens and they forget.

You should respond back to any request within a 24 hour period (or maybe Monday morning if you have a task over the weekend).   If people don’t get back to you within a few days – assume they are busy (not avoiding you) and follow back up again to remind them to help you.

If you are one of those people who has been meaning to send out a followup task and you have forgotten – go ahead and send it out now.  You won’t get as great of a response, but you might still get one.

No one cares more about your job search than you do.  Take the responsibility.  Own it.  You’ll start to see some magic results start to come through for you!

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Tip of the Week

Take Time To Celebrate

There was a lot of celebrating going on over the last week.  Out With The Old and In With The New.  Are you feeling good and revitalized now?   How much did taking a little time out to celebrate lift your spirits?

I encourage you to start to make this part of your routine. Every win you celebrate brings more wins to you.  The power of positive thinking is absolutely amazing.

As you sit and your write your New Year’s resolutions, I encourage you to focus in on some realistically obtainable goals.   Your goals could be as simple as “Set up 10 meetings with friends”, “Find 3 new companies I’ve never heard of”, “Get an Interview”, “Take A Nap Every Afternoon”.  I don’t care what your goals are – just set them.

Once you have reached a goal (or perhaps a milestone to a goal) take a moment to celebrate.  When you get that phone call telling you that you have an interview, set down the remote, stand up in your jammies and do a little happy dance.  When you get the name of a new contact from a friend, stick your chest out and crow like a rooster (okay, maybe not right in front of them).  When you complete an interview, do not go home afterwards go straight to Amy’s Ice Cream and buy yourself an triple decker ice cream cone.  If you have had any wins this week, no matter how small, I want you to go out in your backyard right now and scream at the top of your lungs “I AM A WINNER”.  You should do this 3 or 4 times to get the full effect.  By full effect I mean that you will fall down laughing at yourself for feeling so silly. If you can, record a video and send it to me.

Okay, maybe you don’t stop and celebrate in the same way that I do.  But I do want you to go out and celebrate.  Embrace those wins and love every second of them.

Guys, we only get one shot at life.  In the times of your greatest despair you need to take a moment to sit back and laugh at yourself.

If you’d like to receive these tips as they come in – Sign Up for our Job Seeker Newsletter at – www.BridgeATX.com/newsletter.html