Find Your Dream Job: Insider Tips for Finding Work, Advancing your Career, and Loving Your Job

If you have the skills and passion for a position that doesn’t yet exist, there are some specific steps you can take while you wait for that position to be created. Networking to build relationships, volunteering to keep your experience current, and finding a group of people who share your vision will allow you to be patient while you wait. On this bonus episode of Find Your Dream Job, Julie Magers and I talk about how she worked to create a position that didn’t yet exist. It required patience, staying engaged in her profession, and building relationships every step of the way. Two years later, she is still loving the dream job she created for herself. Learn more about Julie’s career history below in this installment of our Success Stories series.

 

What do you do for a career? Who do you work for?

I work at OHSU’s Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry as their one and only Family Support Specialist. In fact, I am one of two total employees filling this role in the entire University!

In this role, I am developing strategies to enhance and elevate the inclusion of Family and Young Adult Support Specialists across Oregon, specifically in two programs: the Emergency Department Diversion (EDD) Pilot Program and the Early Assessment and Support Alliance (EASA). People in these positions have lived experiences with navigating the systems of care that serve youth living with mental health conditions and/or developmental or intellectual disabilities. We help by walking beside the family, sharing what we have learned through experience, providing emotional and educational support, and helping them learn to advocate for their needs to be met. We also help to “translate” the communication among families, youth and their health/education/insurance providers in order to promote collaborative approaches to serving the child and family’s needs.

How long did it take you to find this job?

I was searching for this particular role for about eight months.

How did you find your job? What resources did you use? What tool or tactic helped the most?

Because this is a somewhat newly emerging workforce, my best tactics and strategies to find this position included networking, serving in volunteer roles on advisory councils, researching the agencies and organizations that hire Family, Young Adult, and Peer Support Specialists, and being ready to submit my application as soon as the most favorable position was announced.

What was the most difficult part of your job search? How did you overcome this challenge?

I had been working as a Family Support Specialist at a local non-profit with a focus on mental health and developed one of the field operations for the EDD Pilot Program in that county. I was very interested in serving in a role to improve the support, training and inclusion of this workforce in all of the program sites across the state, but that position didn’t really exist. I think the most difficult part of this journey was being patient and waiting for the systems serving children and families to create the position. To overcome that challenge, I remained “plugged into” the work in any way possible and stayed in touch with industry leaders in the field.

What is the single best piece of advice you would offer other job-seekers?

Do what you have to do to have the income you need to pay your bills, while simultaneously pursuing your dream job!

Why do you love your job?

I have the honor to walk beside families who are in crisis with their children, spun around in a system of care (our mental health system) that does not readily guide them in getting their children access to critically needed care. When I was in a similar situation, I had a mentor who helped me learn how these systems work so that I could make them work for my daughter – now I get to pay it forward and share that knowledge with others.

I also have the privilege to work with mental health service providers and bridge the communication with their clients, promoting family and youth driven care. Everyone wins when all parties are able to collaborate for the best possible outcomes for children and youth experiencing emotional and behavioral health-related challenges.

Learn more about Julie on LinkedIn and her company website, or follow her on Twitter!  

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Every job search requires references. You need people who can attest to the work you’ve done and the skills you possess. But did you know that many employers have a policy against giving references? There is also the possibility that you may have to handle a bad reference. Today’s guest on the Find Your Dream Job podcast, Vicki Lind, says that you need a strategy for dealing with references. The best reference is someone who supervised you closely and is a fan of your work. Once you choose your references, you need to coach them and keep in close contact with them.

About Our Guest:

Vicki Lind (linkedin.com/in/vickilind) is a career counselor and job search coach. She’s also the founder and owner of Vicki Lind and Associates (aportlandcareer.com). Vicki and her team help clients find the sweet spot where meaning meets money. And she’s the co-author of “Landing a Job Worth Having.” It’s a new book full of tips on how to use job boards, tailor your resume, and interview for your next job.

Resources in This Episode:

• If you need help changing careers, finding a new position, writing a stellar resume, or achieving higher job satisfaction, Vicki and her colleagues are ready to help. Visit her website at aportlandcareer.com/services/ for more information.
• Vicki and her team spent a year doing research for her newest book, “Landing a Job Worth Having.” This book is full of tips from experts along with motivating stories to help you find the spot where meaning meets money. Visit aportlandcareer.com/books/

If you wait for employers to bring up salary, you’re wasting your time and energy. My new guide, How to Talk About Money in an Interview, shows you how to do salary research before meeting with a hiring manager. Learn how to be more comfortable talking about money and possibly get a higher salary. Download your free copy today; go to macslist.org/moneytalk.

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If you have the desire to work in local government, you may wonder what you can do to have the best shot at an open position. Some of these positions receive hundreds of applications and the hiring process can be grueling. Today’s guest on the Find Your Dream Job podcast, Serilda Summers-McGee, says that relationships matter more than ever when pursuing a local government job. She tells us that the first relationship you build should be with a recruiter. You also need to understand how the local hiring process works and be ready to face stringent deadlines. If you want to serve your local city or town, learn how to stand out from the crowd and what you can do now to help your chances of getting the job you want later.

About Our Guest:

Serilda Summers-McGee (linkedin.com/in/serilda-summers-mcgee-mba-m-ed-8222964/) is the chief human resources officer for the City of Portland. She has more than 15 years of experience in human capital management with expertise in a range of HR disciplines. She’s also the author of Change The WorkGame: Building and Sustaining a Diverse Workforce.

Resources in This Episode:

• Serilda’s book, Change The WorkGame: Building and Sustaining a Diverse Workforce, contains strategies that will help any employer establish and maintain a diverse workforce throughout all strata of their business.
• Read more about Serilda’s work on the City of Portland website (www.portlandoregon.gov/bhr/26588).

Your presence online is critical in order for employers to find you. Learn how to use your social media to make a favorable impression with a free resource from Mac’s List. Visit maclist.org/wow to download “How to Wow and Woo Employers Online.”

 

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Your job hunt is going well, and you’ve interviewed for several different positions. You are offered one of the positions and you accept, only to receive a more lucrative offer, or one that’s a better fit for you. How do you tell that hiring manager that you’re going in a different direction? Or, let’s say you have been offered a job but the salary or benefits don’t meet your requirements. How do you turn down the offer without burning the bridge with that employer? Today’s guest on the Find Your Dream Job podcast, LaKiesha Tomlin, says that as long as you handle the rejection with professionalism, you should be able to move on and even apply for jobs at those same companies in the future if a great opportunity becomes available.

About Our Guest:

LaKiesha Tomlin (linkedin.com/in/lakieshatomlin/) is a career coach for talented leaders in science, technology, and engineering. She’s also a mechanical engineer who has worked as a manager in the aviation and technology industries. LaKiesha’s company, Thriving Ambition (thrivingambition.com/), helps clients improve employee engagement and retention, grow careers, and build five-star networks. Her work has been cited in Forbes, Self Magazine, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

Resources in This Episode:

• Feel more satisfied with your career. Know that your skills, knowledge, and experience are truly being utilized and appreciated. Plus, learn how you could earn twice as much as you are currently earning, by visiting Thriving Ambition (thrivingambition.com/) to sign up for LaKiesha’s course, Dream Job (thrivingambition.com/network), which will be opening again in early 2019.
• Do you find yourself applying for any job that you think you could do? Before you send out your next application, get clear about your own goals. Stop chasing every lead. I’ve got a resource that can help. It's called Finding Focus in Your Job Search. Download your copy today at macslist.org/focus.

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Have you ever considered the fact that hiring managers have bosses too? They have to answer to a CEO or shareholders for the person they hire, which means you need to put yourself in their shoes when you go into an interview. Find out what problems the company is facing and what keeps that hiring manager up at night. Once you have that information, you can show them how you can solve those problems for them. Today’s guest on the Find Your Dream Job podcast, Joel Quass, says that telling a hiring manager what you can do isn’t enough; you have to demonstrate it through stories and past experience. Joel also shares how paying attention to your surroundings can help you make connections with the hiring manager.

About Our Guest:

Joel Quass (www.linkedin.com/in/joelquass/) is an expert in job interviews, resumes, and LinkedIn profiles. He’s also a manager with more than 35 years of experience. Spending more than 3 decades on the “other side of the desk” taught Joel that people don’t know how to be interviewed anymore. He built his website, Six-Second Resumes (six-second-resumes.com/), to provide resources for job seekers that will help them land their dream job. Joel is also a published author and a podcast host (six-second-resumes.com/podcast/).

Resources in This Episode:

• Learn how to package your personal brand and use it to find jobs in Joel’s book, “Write This Down, You’ll Need it Later.”
• If you are a manager, Joel’s book, “Good Management is Not Firefighting”, will show you how helping your staff perform at their peak brings success to the whole company.
• On his website, Six-Second Resumes (six-second-resumes.com), Joel teaches interview skills, helps with career growth, and provides writing services for resumes, cover letters, and LinkedIn profiles.
• Nail every behavioral interview question in your next interview by learning how to prepare for them. Download 100 Behavioral Interview Questions You Need to Know, the free Mac’s List resource that will give you a solid foundation for any question an interviewer may ask. Visit macslist.org/questions.

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In years past, it was common to work for the same company from entry-level until retirement. But those days are long gone. There are no longer obvious ladders to climb or well-trodden paths to follow. Today’s guest on the Find Your Dream Job podcast, Bev Jones, says that if you want to be successful in your career, you have to behave like a CEO. This includes realizing that job hunting is a numbers game, and there will be losses on the way to the wins. Bev also shares how a mindset shift can help you bring new energy to your current job, and how to motivate yourself to do the things you don’t enjoy.

About Our Guest:

Bev Jones (www.linkedin.com/in/beverly-jones-coach-author/) is the author of “Think Like an Entrepreneur, Act Like a CEO: 50 Indispensable Tips to Help You Stay Afloat, Bounce Back, and Get Ahead at Work”. She also hosts the NPR.org podcast, Jazzed About Work (www.npr.org/podcasts/524588388/jazzed-about-work). Bev helps professionals enhance performance, address career challenges, and continue to grow. She regularly writes and speaks about leadership, communication, and strategy.

Resources in This Episode:

• For more ideas on how to be fully engaged in your current job, listen to Bev’s podcast, Jazzed About Work (www.npr.org/podcasts/524588388/jazzed-about-work).
• Bev’s book, “Think Like an Entrepreneur, Act Like a CEO: 50 Indispensable Tips to Help You Stay Afloat, Bounce Back, and Get Ahead at Work” offers practical ways to handle difficult situations in your workplace.
• If you wish you had more podcasts like this one to listen to, I have good news for you: there are dozens of great career-focused podcasts out there. But they can be hard to find if you don’t already know about them. That’s why I created a guide to the “Top Career Podcasts of 2018.” Download your free copy today by visiting www.topcareerpodcasts.com.

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One of the most difficult obstacles to overcome in a job search is leaving your job for a new one after only a few months of being there. Will the new hiring manager see you as a flight risk? How can you overcome the appearance of being a job-hopper? On this bonus episode of Find Your Dream Job, Andrew Peters (www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-peters-6170929/) shares the strategies he used when leaving his job after only 10 months. Andrew and I also talk about how to use your network, including people you may not know very well, to get your resume in front of the hiring manager and how to build relationships so that you have connections to draw upon in the future. Learn more about Andrew’s path to career satisfaction below in this installment of our Success Stories (www.macslist.org/stories) series.

 

What do you do for a career? Who do you work for?

At different times, I’ve called myself a lobbyist, an advocate, and a policy professional. I started my career working with large philanthropic clients in health and health care, transitioned to a narrower focus on state law and policy for several years, and now am returning to work in philanthropy.

I recently joined the team at Arabella Advisors, a certified B corporation that works with philanthropic clients to create social change across many sectors, including health, environment, human rights, education, and more. My role as a consultant at Arabella is to work with clients who are interested in making investments in advocacy and policy change.

How long did it take you to find this job?

It took me about about two months of searching to find this particular job posting, and then another three months to go through the interview process.

How did you find your job? What resources did you use? What tool or tactic helped the most?

I am based in D.C., and I subscribed to a service called Brad Traverse Job Listings, which is an amazing site for government affairs, policy, communications, and government positions. Most of them are in D.C, but there are listings from all over the country. This is the second job I have found from Brad’s service. The job had also been listed on Glassdoor, LinkedIn, and a couple other places.

After applying, I mapped my connections to Arabella Advisors on LinkedIn. I saw that two of my former colleagues were connected to people that had worked at Arabella, so I asked them for a connection to those people. I spoke with one former employee to get a sense of the organization, and a former colleague passed my resume to a current employee.

What was the most difficult part of your job search? How did you overcome this challenge?

One of the hardest parts of this search is that I had only been with my former job for about 9 months. It can be difficult to explain a short period of employment to prospective employers. There are lots of guidelines out there about how long you need to be at a job before it “looks good enough” on your resume to leave, many of which I had to ignore.

I was honest in my interviews about my reasons for wanting to leave and my intention to find a better employment match. I praised my former employer in interviews, just noting that the role I had was not for me.

Another challenge for me was being realistic with myself about the jobs for which I could solidly demonstrate expertise. Sometimes, you’ll look at a job description, tick through the qualifications, and, whether or not you have the experience to back it up, you’ll think, “yeah, of course I could do this.” That’s a rationalization trap I have fallen into and it has led to a lot of rejection.

This time, I tried to put myself in the hiring manager’s shoes and ask whether my resume and cover letter spoke directly to the experience they were asking for. I admit that trying to get into a recruiter’s head might be a recipe for disaster, but thinking hard about whether a job was really a good fit is an important step.

What is the single best piece of advice you would offer other job-seekers?

Make sure your resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile are all perfect: good design, concise bullets, no typos, and quality content that speaks to the position(s).

Even with a perfect package, job-searching is a stressful and painful process. With each job I applied for I started to imagine what it was going to be like and what I’d do once I got it. I got emotionally invested, and I think that’s pretty natural. But that also means it hurt more when I didn’t get the job. It’s really easy to let your sense of self-worth get run down by rejections, especially if the process takes months or even years. My advice, even though it’s difficult, is to stay confident in your talent and abilities.

Why do you love your job?

I am a week into work at Arabella, and so far I really appreciate the passion that my colleagues bring to their work. They’re deeply professional and very motivated to help clients achieve positive social change. It’s exciting, and feels like a great fit.

Want to learn more about Andrew? Connect with him on LinkedIn

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If the word “networking” brings to mind an event held in a hotel ballroom consisting of meeting new people and shaking hand after hand, it's time to change your mindset. Do large events and small talk with strangers make you uncomfortable? If so, you might be an introvert. Learning how to engage with a variety of people in a genuine and sincere way can help introverts (and everyone else) build the strong connections to help further your job search. Today’s guest on the Find Your Dream Job podcast, Tammy Gooler Loeb, says you need to think of networking as research and look for the types of interactions that make you feel more comfortable.

About Our Guest:

Tammy Gooler Loeb (www.linkedin.com/in/tammygoolerloeb/) is a career and executive coach who focuses on job search strategies, workplace communication, and leadership development. Tammy is passionate about helping people find professional meaning and satisfaction. Through personal coaching, she helps her clients clarify their professional goals and take a more focused approach to achieve success.

Resources in This Episode:

• For helpful articles and information about Tammy’s career coaching services, visit her website at tammygoolerloeb.com.
• Tammy’s new podcast, “Work from the Inside Out,” (tammygoolerloeb.com/podcasts/) focuses on people who have made significant transitions to a more meaningful and satisfying work situation. 
• Your presence online is critical in order for employers to find you. Learn how to use your social media to make a favorable impression; visit maclist.org/wow to download “How to Wow and Woo Employers Online,” a free resource from Mac’s List.

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Imagine that you are a candidate for a great job. You put together the perfect application, you nail the interview, and it looks like the job is yours on a silver platter. But in your thank you note, you misspell the name of the hiring manager. That simple mistake can mean that the phone call you’re waiting for, offering you the job, never comes. Our guest this week on the Find Your Dream Job podcast, Donna Svei, says that even the most experienced professional can make writing mistakes. Donna shares how to avoid these mistakes, the best way to present yourself when crafting a resume, and whether or not you need a cover letter.

About Our Guest:

Donna Svei (https://www.linkedin.com/company/donna-svei-executive-resume-writer/about/) is an executive resume writer and a former retained search consultant. She has read over 100,000 resumes in her career and seen the same mistakes over and over, even in the resumes of top CEO’s. Her company, Avid Careerist (https://avidcareerist.com/), helps clients craft interview-winning

Resources in this episode:

• Visit Donna’s website, Avid Careerist (https://avidcareerist.com/), for several sample resumes, along with helpful articles, for job seekers to get an idea of what a professionally written resume looks like.
• If you tend to make writing mistakes, it could be helpful to work with an editor. Donna suggests online tools such as Grammarly (https://app.grammarly.com/) or opt for personal support with Editorr (https://www.editorr.com/).

Avoid the resume pitfalls we consistently see job seekers make with my free resource, "Don't Make These 8 Killer Resume Mistakes." In this guide, I’ll show you how to avoid the most common errors and get employers to take a second look at your resume. Download it today at macslist.org/resumemistakes.

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Some people never apply for jobs. Rather, they are approached by recruiters or called by employers about jobs that don’t get advertised. Our guest this week on the Find Your Dream Job podcast, Laura Gassner Otting, says this doesn’t happen by accident. These people have learned how to use networking differently than most of us. If you would like to have opportunities come calling at your door, listen in as Laura shares how connecting with others can bring your own opportunities.

About Our Guest:

Laura Gassner Otting (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauragassnerotting/) is a professional keynote speaker and author. She inspires audiences to push past doubt and indecision. She’s also is an expert in leadership, executive recruitment, and career change. Laura previously served in Bill Clinton’s White House, worked for a nonprofit search firm, and helped grow the startup ExecSearches.com. Her new book, “Limitless: How to Ignore Everybody, Carve Your Own Path, and Live Your Best Life,” will be out in April of 2019.

Resources in this episode:

• Visit Laura’s website (https://lauragassnerotting.com/), where she helps readers align what they do with who they are in order to achieve their limitless potential. On her site, you can watch her TEDx talk, read helpful articles, and learn more about Laura’s books and speaking.
• Laura’s first book, “Mission Driven: Moving from Profit to Purpose,” helps job seekers learn how to take advantage of all the opportunities available in the nonprofit sector. Her new book, “Limitless: How to Ignore Everybody, Carve Your Own Path, and Live Your Best Life,” will be out in April of 2019 and is now available for preorder.
• Your presence online is critical in order for employers to find you. Learn how to use your social media to make a favorable impression, visit maclist.org/wow to download "How to Wow and Woo Employers Online," a free resource from Mac’s List.

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