Job Search Strategies

Where Do You Want to Work? Make a List of Target Employers

February 16, 2013 by Joellyn Wittenstein Schwerdlin Leave a Comment

When searching for your next job, you’re probably focusing your efforts on postings you see online or opportunities pitched by recruiters who find your resume on LinkedIn or major job boards like CareerBuilder or Monster. However, you can be more proactive and broaden your employment possibilities by creating your own target list of 50-100 companies.

Before making this list, consider these important questions:

What types of positions are you suited for? Where have you gained most of your work experiences and cultivated your knowledge?
Which industries will get the most value from your skill set?
What industries, companies and products match your personal interests and passions?
Where are you willing to work, in terms of preferred cities and states?
What size of company do you want to work for, i.e., a large corporation, smaller privately-held company, mid-sized firm or start-up?
Which companies would be on your “dream employer” list?

By answering these questions, you’ll be establishing a solid foundation for your list, which makes the list-building process less daunting. With this criteria in place, you can search for specific companies with greater ease. For example, if you’re a lawyer in Southern Wisconsin, you can search for firms (in your area of practice) that have a significant presence in the greater Milwaukee area.

Here are some free resources that will help you find target companies:

1. America‘s Career InfoNet Employer Locator: This comprehensive database offered by CareerOneStop.org is searchable by industry, occupation, location, and keyword: http://www.acinet.org/acinet/employerlocator/employerlocator.asp?nodeid=18

2. ReferenceUSA.com: This resource is available in most libraries, which allows you to access it from home using your library card and PIN number. Companies can be searched by name, industry, region, sales volume and other specific criteria: www.referenceusa.com

3. Inc. 5000: This is a list of the fastest-growing privately-held companies in the U.S. Considering that large corporations are usually the first to have massive layoffs in troubled economic times, these smaller, privately-held companies will allow you to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond. http://www.inc.com/inc5000/list/2012

4. Regional business journals: These often overlooked publications provide a wealth of information about what’s new in companies within your local area, which will expand your scope of employers beyond what you’ve seen on job boards. To find a regional business journal in your area, check out: http://newslink.org/biznews.html. (Side note: There’s usually an annual fee for print publications, but many offer free, abridged online versions.)

5. LinkedIn: Scan through your LinkedIn contacts to see where they are employed and where they previously worked. You’ll get more ideas for target companies, while setting a foundation for future networking. If certain companies appeal to you, add them to your list. Then, consider reaching out to your contacts for referral meetings, networking conversations, or informational interviews, to get a “feel” for what it’s like to work in those companies, as well as for possible connections to hiring managers.

When you have your list together, you can also use it to create targeted direct mail campaigns or to make outreach calls to hiring managers. One of my CPA clients compiled a list of small accounting firms in her area, sent a letter of interest to each one, and made follow-up phone calls to these firms’ managing partners. This effort landed her a job just in time for the 2013 tax season!

Whichever way you plan to use your target list, you’ll have an effective and practical alternative to relying on Internet job boards or recruiters.

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Filed Under: Job Search Strategies Tagged With: Target Employer List

Got Gaps in your Work History? Don’t Despair!

May 16, 2012 by Joellyn Wittenstein Schwerdlin Leave a Comment

Employment at one company until retirement has become the exception in the US, rather than the rule. With the evolution of a global labor market, the 9/11 crisis, and the 2008 economic meltdown followed by “The Great Recession”, “job security” has literally disappeared. These trends have also led many companies to cut their workforce, leaving downsized workers with gaps in their employment history and/or long periods of unemployment.

Gaps in work history can occur for other situations besides the economy, such as family/maternity leave, caring for an ill relative or returning to school full-time. Whatever the reasons might be, the challenge for jobseekers is how to skillfully handle these gaps on resumes, social media profiles and in conversations with hiring managers, without jeopardizing their candidacy.

Given today’s economy, hiring managers are usually more accepting of gaps than in previous years. Even so, it’s wise to show them that you haven’t been idle during a period of unemployment. You want to confidently answer the questions: “Why did you leave your last employer?” or “What were you/have you been doing between Job A and Job B?”

Start by filling in the gaps on your resume and on social media profiles with temporary or contract work, survival jobs or volunteer assignments. Here are some examples from my client case studies:

Educational Programs: An unemployed business analyst returned to school full time for a certificate in data warehousing. She moved the “Education” section to the first page of her resume, then listed the name of her school, the program she was enrolled in, the core curriculum and expected graduation date.
Caregiver: Several clients who have been primary caregivers for loved ones have listed this as an actual job on their resumes. To properly serve in this capacity, they had to resign from their full-time jobs.
Contract/Temp Work: A laid-off accountant registered with several contract/temp firms. Because one agency kept him busy, he listed it on his resume as his current employer and wrote key bullet points about what he accomplished for each client company.
Survival Jobs: A downsized marketing exec took a job in retail to bring in money while searching for another marketing position. He created an “Other Employment” section on his resume, and listed the retail position there.
Volunteer Work: One client handled a major campaign for a high-profile foundation as a volunteer and listed that as her current status on LinkedIn.
Workforce Re-entry: One woman had a nine-year gap when she took time off of work to raise a family. She inserted “Resigned to start a family” as one of the bullet points in her last job; then she listed the volunteer/leadership activities she was involved in while being a stay-at-home mom.

On LinkedIn, you can even set your current status to: “In Transition,” then include a few sentences to explain that you are actively engaged in job search.

For interviews, prepare scripts to back up your gaps. Your scripts should be short, matter-of-fact and close-ended, e.g., “I was downsized because my company closed down the department I worked in.” <period> Then, redirect the interview about why you are perfect for this job.

Gaps in work history are part of life. When you have a strategy in place for handling them, you’ll overcome a major hurdle in confidently marketing yourself for the job you want.

* This post originally appeared in the May 2012 Edition of Career E-News.

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Filed Under: Job Search Strategies, Mindset & Motivation, Resume Writing

Get Hired Faster: Diversify Your Job Search Activities, Dial-Down Desperation, and Detach from the Outcome

December 15, 2011 by Joellyn Wittenstein Schwerdlin Leave a Comment

Job searching can be an agonizing waiting game. You apply for jobs, sit down for promising interviews, and anxiously wait for responses. Yet your phone stays silent and the emails don’t come.

But have you also noticed that when you take a break from waiting and focus on something else, your much-desired response finally comes in, or even pleasant surprises you weren’t even expecting?

This is a basic universal principle at work: the less you appear to need something, the more you will attract it.

Talane Miedaner, author of Coach Yourself to Success, calls this “detaching from the outcome” (Ch. 94, p. 228). She explains: “To attract what you want, you need to want it with all your heart and at the same time, not need it or have to have it.” “If you really want a particular job,” she says, “it helps to have offers at a number of places, to increase your bargaining power.”

Focusing on getting that ONE particular job — to the point of desperation — will have a harmful effect on your search. “People can sniff out desperation a mile away,” says Ms. Miedaner. “If you rely on one person or organization to meet your needs, you’ll soon be in trouble because you will depend too much on them and wind up repelling them.”

Acting in such an anxious manner is especially unattractive to prospective employers. Hiring managers don’t care how badly you need a job to pay your bills. All that interests them are the problems you can solve for their company.

If you want to get hired faster, it is critical to detach from the outcome. You must dial down your desperation and diversify your job search activities to reduce your neediness and create more possibilities for yourself. Here are 10 things that can help you accomplish both:

1) Edit out “desperate jobseeker” language from your LinkedIn profile. Here are three strategies you can implement right away.

2) Rework your finances to live on less during a period of unemployment. Doughroller.net offers a list of 10 free and low-cost online budgeting tools.

3) Practice meditation to reduce anxiety and stress. Learn how in Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation: a 28-day program by Sharon Salzberg.

4) Stop reading negative news reports about the labor market. Instead, read the business section of your local newspaper, to learn about employment trend updates and breaking news that can help your job search.

5) Take a temp, contract, consulting or part-time position. Besides making money, you’ll keep your skills fresh and be more employable; one job will attract another.

6) Engage in offline activities to expand your network, like joining a professional association or visiting a job club.

7) Get off the job boards and try a targeted direct mail campaign. Build a list of 75-100 companies you’d love to work for, and then send a letter of inquiry/interest to the decision-maker.

8) Showcase your value. Start a blog and write about what interests your target employers. Use free tools like Blogspot.com or WordPress.com; add your blog link to your LinkedIn profile; tweet your posts on Twitter.

9) Resist the urge to rewrite your resume over and over again. Tell yourself “it’s good enough;” then spend more time on networking; because people hire people – NOT resumes.

10) Ramp up your networking activities. Follow the guidelines in the book: Highly Effective Networking: Meet The Right People and Get a Great Job by Orville Pierson.

Detaching from the outcome will help remove the unattractive affect that desperation can have on your job search. If you follow some of the steps above, you’ll notice an increase in job-search responses, leading to more interview and offers!

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Filed Under: Job Search Strategies

Getting Started with Twitter for Job Search

December 3, 2011 by Joellyn Wittenstein Schwerdlin Leave a Comment

Since Twitter’s launch in 2006, it has been emerging as robust job search tool to find opportunities and be found by hiring decision makers.Twitter can help build your online credibility as a candidate and showcase your expertise in an industry or a specific subject area.

Most hiring decision makers are researching candidates online before bringing them in for interviews, so be mindful of how you build your professional presence on Twitter. You may not be aware of this but all of your tweets are permanently indexed by Google.

Here’s how to get started on Twitter and build a solid foundation for your career campaign:

1) Go to www.twitter.com and click “Sign Up” You’ll be asked for your name, a user name (which becomes your Twitter “handle”) and an email address connected to your account.

2) Choose a Twitter handle (up to 20 characters) that reflects your professional persona or even your name — whichever presents you in a positive light. Mine is @Career_Success because it’s an extension of my website: www.career-success-coach.com. Your Twitter handle becomes part of your Twitter URL, like mine is www.twitter.com/career_success.

3) Build your profile at www.twitter.com/settings/profile, where you can upload a professional headshot, provide your location, and list a website (if you have one) or your LinkedIn URL.

4) Write a compelling 160-character bio (last section of the Profile page) that reflects your professional brand. Mine is “The Career Success Coach: Helping Executives, Managers and Professionals Find Perfect Career Paths Since 1991.”

5) Use “Twitres” http://twitres.com/ to display your resume. Simply upload a copy of your resume and it will appear as the background on your Twitter page.

6) Find people and places to follow, such as target companies, recruiters and thought leaders in your industry. Use Twitter’s advanced search feature (http://search.twitter.com/advanced) to locate company names and inside contacts. One of my clients found a former supervisor on Twitter; he followed him, they connected and he wrote my client a LinkedIn recommendation.

7) Listen carefully for hidden opportunities in your Twitter feed. Hiring managers or other decision makers may mention some unmet needs or possible positions in your industry or target companies. Initiate conversations with people you follow, using the “Message” feature on their Twitter page.

8) Tweet value-added posts (up to 140 characters) that convey your expertise to your network, recruiters and potential employers. You can tweet your own blog posts or links to industry-related articles. Here’s an example tweet from someone in sales: “New sales lead tracking software to replace ACT is here: <article link>”. Use http://bit.ly/ to shorten links.

9) Open a free account with www.TweetMyJOBS.com, to access thousands of targeted jobs matching your account profile. You can also get instant notification of new jobs in your Twitter feed or on your mobile device, and be able to post (and tweet) your resume and profile to numerous recruiters and hiring managers.

10) Go to Job-Hunt.org to get free job postings of employers who recruit through Twitter: www.twitter.com/JobHuntOrg/employers-recruiting. To see what that was like, I signed up for a trial and was amazed at the quality of opportunities offered from companies like Citibank, Hertz and Kaiser-Permanente, to name a few.

Of course, no single online platform will ever replace the relationships you’ll build offline. Nevertheless, with so many job seekers and hiring decision makers using Twitter, it certainly makes sense to add it to your job search toolkit.

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Filed Under: Job Search Strategies, Social Media Tagged With: Twitter

Job Boards Got You Down? Try The Direct Mail Approach

November 9, 2011 by Joellyn Wittenstein Schwerdlin Leave a Comment

Many job seekers make the mistake of investing too much time and energy looking for open positions on job boards; then they struggle to make their skill set match those job requirements. The reality is that only a small percentage of job seekers find positions through job boards.

A better strategy is to research companies you’re interested in and market yourself directly to the decision-makers in these companies, whether there is an open position or not. The idea is to get your foot in the door and create relationships with these decision-makers.

One way to reach these decision-makers is with a targeted direct mail campaign. By incorporating direct mail marketing into your job search plan, you can: (1) increase your chances of meeting people in a position to hire and (2) potentially shorten your search time.

Start out by analyzing the following criteria:

What types of positions are you suited for?
Which industries will get the most value from your skill set? Those might be the industries you wish to target.
Which cities and states are you willing to work in?
What size company do you want to work for? Large corporations, small, privately-held companies, or mid-sized firms?

Once you’ve determined your search parameters, you can research specific companies accordingly. For example, if you’re a financial service professional inNew York City, you can research firms that have a significant presence inManhattan.

To find company lists, check out these three free resources:

1. America‘s Career InfoNet Employer Locator: http://www.acinet.org/acinet/employerlocator/employerlocator.asp?nodeid=18

2. ReferenceUSA.com: Available in most libraries, which you can access from home using your library card and PIN number: www.referenceusa.com

3. Inc. 5000: A list of the fastest-growing privately-held companies in the U.S. Considering that large corporations are usually the first to have massive layoffs in troubled economic times, these smaller, privately-held companies will allow you to be a bigger fish in a smaller pond. http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2010/index.html

Other resources, including search engines, local newspapers, business magazines and even the Yellow Pages, can also provide valuable information about companies that meet your search criteria.

Your goal is to make a list of 75-100 target companies, then compose and mail a one-page letter of interest/inquiry to the decision-maker.

When writing your letter, be sure to:

1. Explain your reason for writing to this particular person; emphasize your research and knowledge of the company.

2. Give a brief summary of your career background. (Decide whether sending a résumé will be helpful or not.)

3. Mention your intense interest in the company and ask if they are open to having a discussion of how you can contribute now or in the future.

4. Indicate when you will call to set an appointment.

For a good presentation, be sure to print your letter on high-quality paper, and mail in a flat 9 X 12 catalog envelope. By sending a hard copy instead of an email, you’ll stand out and be more memorable to decision-makers whose inboxes are flooded with email messages.

You will probably ask, is direct mail worth the time and money? The “rule of thumb” in any direct mail marketing campaign is that you can expect a 1-3% response rate. Just remember, it only takes one good lead to turn into a potential job offer!

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