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How to Use Twitter to Stay "Career-Fresh"

April 3rd, 2010 @ 01:04pm

Whether you are IN a good job or are between jobs, Twitter can challenge you to stay up with what's going on in your field. I call it staying "career-fresh".

What does this mean? In order to post quality tweets, you obviously have to say something tweet-worthy. Meaning, something that's worth reading by others in your field. Original thinking and observations are best; nothing is gained by posting a "me too" comment.

So, you'll need to observe what's going on in your career field and tell readers about it, especially if others have not addressed the topic in quite the same way. Keep up with your professional colleagues/network, with journals, with printed and online articles, with interviews of leaders, and with issues in your field, so that you can tweet reactions to those.

All of this real-time consciousness about your field challenges you to keep yourself fresh. And today, employers WANT people who are committed to their work. Using Twitter is one way of showing this commitment AND this fresh knowledge.

Then be consistent with your tweets, posting at least once per week. This is advice I give my clients, especially those in job search, and those clients add their Twitter ID to their business cards. All of this gives you brand status: you become known as a reliable source of knowledge in your field. Posting just once every month is not enough and looks feeble. But posting too often can work against you: If you're in a job, posting every 5 minutes means you are using way too much of your employer's time for this, and if you're in job search, it comes across as not doing anything else.

Don't forget to use LinkedIn's partnership with Twitter and thus its ability to show your tweets. Cross-posting further enhances your brand.

Whether or not you're in a job right now, being "out there" with your knowledge keeps you up with what's going on, it strengthens your brand, and it solidifies your reputation within your field. Stay career-fresh: use Twitter.

Posted by Joanne Meehl | in Career coaching, Job Search, Networking, Uncategorized, Your time, | 1 Comment »

Five Ways to Avoid Self-Sabotage in Your Job Search

June 28th, 2010 @ 08:06pm

Posted by Joanne Meehl | in Career coaching, Change, Job Search, Networking, resumes, The job search roller coaster, Your time, | No Comments »

Is Job Search Networking A Luxury?

July 2nd, 2010 @ 03:07pm

A member of our Face2Face Job Search Networking Group for Professionals emailed me to say she couldn't attend the next meeting, and probably could not attend any others, "because I don't have the luxury of time to do networking...I have to get a job, something, anything."

That is among the most painful things this job search coach can hear. Because it's exactly networking that WILL result in a job, a good job. Responding to postings, in this kind of economy and when everyone else is answering ads, results in huge numbers working against you. When you respond to a posting, they don't know you from Adam and your resume has to fit exactly, so your chances for an interview drop significantly. But when you are introduced by an employee at a target company to the hiring manager as someone s/he needs to talk to, you are now stamped "pre-approved" and you get the interview, like magic. Sure, you now have to do well in the interview...but at least you are in the running instead of lost in a database.

Sure, I urge job hunters to not only network but also to approach hiring managers directly, to answer ads, to work with recruiters. All of those things work at some point with some people. They each have their own timeline so it's best to have a mix; networking can take time. I'll encourage any legal and ethical activity that results in a good hire for both sides.

But when I look at my clients who've landed good, new jobs, and those in the networking group who have landed good jobs, and I do the statistics, over the last two years only ONE of my dozens of clients who have landed has done it by answering an ad then interviewing and getting an offer. And only a half-dozen of the 500+ person networking group (about 75 at each meeting) have landed the postings-response-then-interview way. All others either 1) "networked their way in" to their target companies, or 2) responded to a posting AND networked their way to the hiring manager. ALL others. And I see the same thing in other parts of the country, from what my colleagues report and what those in other networking groups are saying.

Most likely, this networking group member has not done much networking to date in her search, part of the reason she might be at the end of her rope -- and her unemployment money. Another truism about networking: the more networking one does the earlier in their search as possible, the shorter the search.

So this group member, instead, will use her precious job search time to shop her resume door to door, to a lot of rejection and little encouragement...she will call her network contacts again and beg that they remember her "if you hear of anything"...she will hold her nose as she applies for jobs way beneath her. Except the result is likely to be nothing in the way of a new, real job, and instead only the erosion of her dignity, and the fracturing of any remaining confidence. And all the while she'll think something is wrong with her, that she is cursed with "bad luck" or is singled out to pay some kind of penance. All of this is so wrong.

And that's why job search networking is not a luxury: It is the very air that keeps a search, especially in these trying times, alive. And thriving.

Note: We are planning an in-person seminar for August which gets to the "hows" and "what to say" of networking, especially for the senior professional. Check our web site (www.thejobsearchqueen.com) over the next few weeks for location, date and time.

Posted by Joanne Meehl | in Job Search, Networking, Your time, | No Comments »

"Seven Career Changes" A Myth

September 12th, 2010 @ 12:09pm

Over the years, my colleagues and I have heard "people change careers seven times over their lifetimes", and looked at each other quizzically. Really - SEVEN times?! I've never known anyone who's done this, save for the very rare career experimenter who can afford to start over and over again at a beginner's salary -- usually at the cost of his or her (I've seen both) relationships.

Sure, I've known people who've changed once or maybe even twice. But even those who come to me to determine if they should change careers almost always decide to do a career shift rather than a careerchange: someone in pharmaceutical sales, for example, shifts to medical device sales. Or a hospital CTO becomes the CIO of a large medical practice.

A career change: A college career counselor (yours truly) becomes a sales rep for a computer division of Xerox -- a real change yet the similarities in needs assessment and then applying solutions were so close that they landed me the job and got me started in 10+ years in sales.

A career change means that not only does the work itself change, but the customer/client changes, the organizational culture changes, and so forth. A career shift is as explained above: you step sideways but you're still in a very similar culture and dealing with very similar customers. And a job is one piece of the flow we call a career. The word "career" as a noun means "direction" or "course" (as in direction).

I can say that in the 20 or so years I've been doing this work, after working with literally thousands of people while in outplacement, at career centers for dislocated workers, and at colleges with older students, that I have seen perhaps 1-2 people change careers more than 2-3 times. I suspect that using one's life to experiment with careers, rather than working with someone who can help you determine a valid direction, represents a deeper problem, such as Peter Pan Syndrome ("I don't want to grow up..."). But I'll leave that to the psychologists to determine. In short, it just doesn't happen with 99.9% of real people.

So where did this "7 career changes" story get started? No one seems to know. Evidently it's just been repeated so much that people assume it's true. The statistic has been attributed to the US Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Now The Wall Street Journal's Carl Bialik (9-11-10) says the BLS does not track the numbers of career changes, but they keep track of the numbers of jobs in a lifetime, not the same statistic at all. So he, a statistics lover, asks the question "Where does this 7-change number come from?", and ends up saying a few different things, including that people who do what I do keep the myth alive so that we can get more customers! (You can't hear this: the sound of me suppressing a loud laugh). More on that in a moment. But thank you, Mr. Bialik, for finally questioning this statistic.

I do think that the terms "jobs" and "careers" often get confused by researchers or those interpreting researchers' numbers. Bialik also says, "No one knows for sure the true average numbers of careers". That's how I see it, too.

Over the years, when I've done workshops or have sat with an individual client and get asked about it, I've said "That's what 'they' say but I've never seen it".

Just re-reading my first two paragraphs would tell you that I've never believed in the "7 career changes" myth myself, so needless to say, I'm not promulgating the myth, yet it hasn't affected my business.

Do I tell clients that they need to be ever ready for changes and shifts? You bet. Do I tell those laid off that chances are they will get laid off again, so don't stop networking and don't stop planning their next step? You bet. Do I emphasize that whatever career they choose, they think of it not as a job but as a long-term commitment that they need to enjoy AND invest in? Absolutely.

Those aren't myths at all.

Posted by Joanne Meehl | in Career coaching, Change, interviews, Job Search, Uncategorized, Your time, | No Comments »

They Need You

October 23rd, 2010 @ 01:10pm

They need you.

Companies and organizations have problems they need to solve. Some are hiring. You have skills, strengths, talents, the right personality, and you solve problems. Meaning, you have something to offer.

They need you.

They have problems to solve. So they are looking. But they need to find YOU. Are you getting away from the keyboard, and talking eye-to-eye with human beings? Are you letting it be known that you are available? Are you talking about your achievements, your successes?

Or are you hiding your talents, equivocating when it comes time to tell them why companies should hire YOU? Hedging when you're asked, "So what's your reason for success?" Feeling like you're bragging if you try to answer, "What do you have to offer?"

They need you.

They need you to tell them how you can help them, so that they can tell others in their company "I found the right person for the job!". And so that they can hire you. So help them do their job in selecting the right person: tell them about yourself. And what you do well. Don't hide this. You would be doing the world an injustice to do so. Minister Marianne Williamson says it best in her piece called "Our Deepest Fear". I've bolded some key phrases for you in your job search:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

They need you. You need them. Now go do your job well of looking for a job, and get hired.

You're already amazing. In your new job, you will be even moreso. The world cannot wait.

Posted by Joanne Meehl | in Your time, | No Comments »

Job Search Mistake to Avoid: Doing a Serial Job Search

January 28th, 2011 @ 02:01pm

A serial job search is one in which a candidate we'll call Kim goes after one opening or one company at a time. She finds an opening online that she fits, she pursues it, is interviewed for it, and then (so far) is not made an offer and the job goes to someone else. Because she has nothing else going on, she then crashes. And it takes her 1-2 weeks to "get over it", regroup, and start going after another company, another opening. Meanwhile, another month has gone by. She begins to think "It must be me...I must not be good at what I do...".

And that is so not it.

This kind of serial, one-after-the-other approach leads to only one thing: A painfully long search. "Painful" and "long" are two things I help my clients avoid. If they follow their plan, they learn it doesn't have to be this way, even in this stumbling economy.

For contrast, let's look at Trevor. Sure, he's answering ads, but he's in one-to-one networking meetings so much that it takes up about 25 hours a week. (For those of you between jobs, if you're not that busy in your search, you're not doing enough.) He's focused on his target companies, using varying methods all at once. His approach is multiple, and it's constant, week in, week out.

Because he's generating so much activity, leads, and interviews, here's how Trevor reacts to "Sorry, you're not our top candidate": he says to himself, "Oh well, on to the next thing, I have so much going on, I just know that something else will pop up." He does not miss a beat. His search generates results constantly, and it's going to happen that he WILL land -- at a company of his choice.

Note those words: "...I have so much going on, I just know something else will pop up." He's right.

The point here is you can go one way or another: The serial search, painful and long. Or the multiple and constant approach that expands your network AND gets you the job your after, sooner.

Your choice.

_______________________

Joanne Meehl helps professionals in job hunt do an intelligent search by setting an individualized strategy. Contact her for her ideas for you.

Posted by Joanne Meehl | in interviews, Job Search, job search strategy, Networking, Your time, | No Comments »

Two New Steps to A Painless Resume

March 6th, 2011 @ 03:03pm

A client I'll call Jake called me about updating his resume. He still liked his job, but a networking contact called about an opening that Jake would be perfect for. Seeing the full job description, Jake decided to send his resume.

He said "My first thought was 'Oh no, now I have to update my resume, what a pain'." He added, "Then I opened it and found I had very little to do except to update it with my latest position, update the key words, and highlight key words for this new opening!" Then he said "When you worked with me on my resume three years ago, I had no idea that it would be so painless to update. Wow!"

Why could Jake say that? Because when he and I redid his resume three years ago, we added two sections not always found on resumes, sections that tell the reader about Jake and what he offers. Those are all classic things about him. Sure, his jobs will change, but he will pretty much be the professional he is now.

Who is that person? Someone who gives companies value by being a technology leader, by testing and then adopting new technologies. New technologies that save a company a ton of money and time (which is money). The technologies may change, but Jake is always there to learn about them AND use them before anyone else. That won't change about him.

When I say two "sections", what I do mean? The first, at the top of his resume, is a professional Summary. I do not use "Objectives", and all the reasons why are in this blog entry of January 2010. Also, a Professional Summary is NOT a listing of your skills. Instead, it's short, punchy phrases about you. In Jake's case, here are a couple: Early adopter of useful new technologies. And Enterprise-wide consultant who quickly gets users on board. Wherever Jake is, he will always be doing those two things, and more. Like Jake, taking this step on your resume will make it so much easier to update yours as you use it.

Note that those are not empty phrases like "Goals-driven sales rep" -- if you're in sales I sure HOPE you're goals-driven! Don't waste that expensive resume real estate by stating the obvious. Or in puffery like "Seeking challenging position in a growing company blah blah blah", which no one reads any more.

Rather, do what Jake does. Tell the reader that which is classically true about you, from job to job, changing over the years to who you are -- and what you have to offer today.

The second "section", or step to having a resume that's painless to update, is the Strengths section. I don't mean StrengthsFinder strengths, which when plopped onto a resume look silly to me (my preference: weave those words into your narrative, if they're that telling about you). By "Strengths" I also don't mean "Skills". Instead, I mean skills that you have used AND with which you have generated successes. By "successes", we mean making or saving money for your organization. These are more specific than what you have in your Professional Summary, and they should include key words of your field.

So Jake's strengths include "Current versions of x, y and z programming languages". And "Tapped to be speaker at leading conferences". Both help him do his job and make his company look good.

For Tanika, who is the VP of Marketing at a resort, her strengths include "Highly connected with wedding planners", and "Cited as expert by all leading society magazines".

For Jason, a budding New Media guru, his include "Social Media addict" and "Seeks out newest marketing technologies".

What are you saying about you?

Your resume will certainly change over time. But focus on what's classic for you, what makes you successful over and over again, and when you need to update it, you won't be in pain.

_____________________

Is your resume landing you interviews? Make it happen: contact Joanne at Joanne@TheJobSearchQueen.com.

Posted by Joanne Meehl | in Job Search, resumes, Your time, | 1 Comment »

Don't Wait for the Job Postings Tidal Wave -- or You'll Miss Getting a Job

July 29th, 2011 @ 07:07pm

From time to time hiring warms up and candidates get hopeful that finally, things are "back to normal". People around them are landing, and they see more jobs posted. Finally, the tidal wave of openings is coming back! Or is it?

All indications are that just as 2008 changed the economy for the last 2-3 years, it will have changed it *permanently*.

And that means that job seekers will not see any big wave of openings like there used to be. Yes, there are rare exceptions in certain locations and certain markets. But generally speaking, there will be no big rising tide that will lift all job search boats automatically.

Think about why: Today, companies are much more savvy about finding candidates in other ways, mostly by depending on current employees to find them. They are also attracting future employees through social media and inbound marketing. Their own screening systems are getting more and more sophisticated.

Yes, this month I've seen more job postings AND more job landings in my contact world than since the end of 2008. But 95% of those who've landed -- yes, a full 95% of them -- have come through networking, not by answering job postings and waiting for a response.

And just this week, Delta Airlines announced a workforce reduction of 2,000...and Boston Scientific announced cuts of 1,400 jobs. Despite there being some more postings lately, the cuts continue, unfortunately. One step forward, one back.

Lesson? Those who are looking must network: It's how people are landing jobs. If they continue to wait instead at their computer for the mythical wave of openings, they'll likely miss getting a job anytime soon. I've seen executives make this mistake as much as individual contributors.

So there's good news: With networking, you have more control over your search than you've ever had before.

So take control. Don't wait for waves that aren't coming.

____________________________________

Stuck in your search and not sure how to break free? Contact Joanne Meehl.

Posted by Joanne Meehl | in Job Search, job search strategy, Networking, resumes, The job search roller coaster, Your time, | No Comments »

Conquer those Monday morning job search blues

September 25th, 2011 @ 10:09pm

Whether you're IN a job or between jobs, Monday mornings during job search can be tough.

You're in a job and can't wait to find a new one. So Monday mornings are a reminder you're still stuck where you are.

You could be a new grad who's overwhelmed and doesn't know where to start, and each Monday means you're wondering where to begin.

Or you're between jobs and Monday mornings remind you that there is no office to go to. Especially if you're a manager or executive, your energy has nowhere to land for the day. The sense of loss is profound and can be powerfully dispiriting.

This is Monday Morning Syndrome. Or the Monday Morning Job Search Blues.

How to beat the blues? Here are a few ideas.

- Get out of the house! Getting out of your house or apartment, and being at the library or local cafe, will reset your energy. Bring your laptop or tablet and make a list of target contacts for the next week or two, or do research on companies, for example.

- Schedule networking meetings for that time slot. Make good use of Monday morning; don't use it to start planning your week, something you should have done last week. You'll have that to look forward to instead of an empty, lonely morning.

- Meet with a job search "buddy" at a coffee shop, each with your own set of goals set from the week before. See how you each did with your own goals, and how you rewarded yourselves for meeting your goals.

- On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, send invitations to contacts to do networking meetings this week. As a client of mine, Jim, says, "The replies will come in on Monday, making your email that morning full of replies, and many will be 'yes'. It's great!"

- For those IN jobs who are always struggling with inadequate time for their search, working with a job search coach can keep you on track will give you a sense of "I'm doing something for myself and my search", instead of you having yet another week slip by.

What about YOUR ideas?

_______________________________

Shake the blues: talk with Joanne about how you can manage your search so that YOU are in charge, not your emotions. Contact her today at www.TheJobSearchQueen.com.

Posted by Joanne Meehl | in Career coaching, Change, Job Search, job search strategy, Networking, The job search roller coaster, Your time, | 2 Comments »

Be Proactive Pete, Not Last-Minute Lucy

November 25th, 2011 @ 11:11am

A handful of times in the last couple of weeks, I've heard from people who have interviews they need to prepare for. Their interviews are in days, and the people asking for help are panicked. They say, "I haven't interviewed for 5 years", or 15 years, or "ever".

First, let me say it's great that candidates are getting more interviews. Maybe the slow-hiring logjam is shifting a bit more.

But back to those calls. Are these candidates thinking, "I'll get prepared only when I have to"? That just does not make sense. Or, "When I get an interview on my schedule, then I'll begin to think about it"? Again, I don't get it.

In one case, the deadline was so short I simply didn't have available time for the candidate.

These calls make me want to say, People! If you need to practice your interview skills, I'm happy to help -- but do it WAY BEFORE you really need it.

Why?

Whatever the reason for their delay, these anxious candidates are now up against a deadline. So they do not have time to get really ready by talking with people who work there, or connecting with those who know a lot about the company, or learning about the culture. They just don't have enough time to do this really important stuff before the interview. Which compounds their panic.

Instead, they are going to be rushing to learn or review the basics that they should have taken care of a long time ago, and then which would be easy to "brush up on" days before an interview.

So don't cheat yourself: do a prep session with someone now, before you "have to", and you'll be so much more competitive. And much more likely to get a second interview.

___________________

*My one-on-one Intensive Interview Prep is 1-1/2 to 2 hours, either in my office or via Skype. You'll be taped as you answer typical tough questions. We then play back the video and discuss it, and repeat parts as necessary. We also talk about interview dynamics, interview psychology and employer expectations, so that you know the finer points of the interview. Almost everyone who does "interview prep" with me tells me later that my practice session is way harder than the actual interview, so they felt more confident and came across as prepared. Contact me for fees and available times. I book at least one week out.

Posted by Joanne Meehl | in career change, career shift, interviews, Job Search, job search strategy, Networking, Your time, | No Comments »