If you’re looking for a job, I want you to know how to get started and just what to do next. I’m going to give you 3 things to do to get started: These are 3 action items. How did I come up with these? Well, for starters, I have been in your shoes, looking for a job. And I made a lot of mistakes that I hope to prevent you from making. I’ve also coached MBA students at a top-ranked business school on job search skills, and I’ve taught a job search class. In order to be good at that job, I’ve probably read just about every article on job search ever written, and I’ve interviewed thousands of candidates for admission to the business school. I also have recruiting experience, have coached women returning to work after taking a career break and have been a hiring manager, so I know what it’s like to be on both sides of the job search equation.  So let’s go! 

Here’s how you can get started on your job search (1) define your personal brand,  (2) make personal connections and (3) make yourself visible. Let’s dig into these.

Step  #1 – Define Your Personal brand. You must know who you are and what you have to offer. How do you do this? Well, think about your strengths, your skills, and what you enjoy….  If you’ve been out of the workforce for any length of time, maybe as a stay at home parent, defining your personal brand might start with properly valuing the work you are doing for your family, schools, churches and wherever else you’ve been using your skills as a volunteer. You probably did things during this time that helped you develop new skills you can use in the paid workforce. I like to say “paid workforce” because I know that being a stay-at-home-parent involves a lot of work that you don’t get paid for with money. You get paid in other ways of course. It’s so rewarding. Those were my favorite years, being home with my kids. 

OK, so back to your personal brand. Define your point of differentiation. Knowing who you are and what you have to offer means knowing what makes you different, what your unique point of differentiation is. 

I want you to Develop a one-liner that captures the key skills that make you unique and valuable to a potential employer. Here are a few examples:…

I’m a marketing manager and I’ve worked with 3 different web application software products. 

I’m a project manager with expertise in Project and program planning, scheduling, budgeting and estimating for tech companies.

I specialize in research for medical device companies and I oversee clinical research studies and ensures compliance.

Once you have your one-liner, practice using it when you introduce yourself to people at conferences or events or when people ask you what you do for a living.

So step 1 to getting started with your job search is to develop your personal brand. 

Step  #2 – Make personal connections.  You have to use and grow your network.

There’s a guy who built a robot to apply to jobs by submitting customized emails with his resume and cover letter. His name is Robert Coombs and he wrote an article in Fast Company magazine called I Built A Bot To Apply To Thousands Of Jobs At Once–Here’s What I Learned. This is one of my favorite articles on the job search because it illustrated so perfectly why applying to jobs blindly online is a waste of your time. We’ll put a link to the article in the notes for this episode.

Robert built this bot because he knew that only robots or Applicant Tracking Systems would read his resume on the other side. He applied to 538 jobs in 3 months. Result: 43 companies reached out to him to request an interview and these were all small companies that didn’t have an ATS screening resumes. His conclusion – you’ll never get a job submitting resumes blindly online. Although I might add that if you are applying to a small company, there is a higher likelihood that a human will read your resume and cover letter.

Why can’t you get a job responding to online job ads? Because it’s estimated that 80% of jobs are never posted– and that percentage is even higher for senior-level jobs. The most efficient way to get a job is through networking.

You’ve probably heard people say that It’s wise to pursue companies not jobs – and this really means pursue people. To go about this in an organized way, make a list of target companies you’d like to work for. Then find people who work there. Invite them to coffee. Do informational interviews. Remember, there’s Less competition if the job is not posted.

When a job is posted,  if you’re not a perfect fit, you won’t be selected. THAT’S WHY YOU HAVE TO GET OUT FROM BEHIND YOUR COMPUTER TO GET A JOB.  Even if you have the skills and experience, you are probably not the only one who does. So you’ll need to know someone at the company who will advocate for you. In order to meet those people, you have to attend events, introduce yourself and talk to people. Applying to jobs on job boards is a very safe activity but it’s very ineffective. Please don’t waste your time. This is a mistake I made. Now I know better.  If you’re going to apply to a job on a job board, you have to find an advocate inside the company to put in a good word for you.

Let me tell you about a person we hired for my team when I worked in the career center at a big university.  It was a man I met a year and a half ago at a conference for MBA students. I was there with my MBA students and he was there with students from an international business school. We connected on LinkedIn and stayed in touch after the conference. When I had this opening on my team that was hard to fill and I saw on LinkedIn a post that he was leaving his job to move back to the US to be closer to family. I reached out to tell him we had this opening and that we’d be interested in having him apply. He got the job!  Another job earned through networking!

If you are a career switcher, or you’ve taken a career break, you are what they call an “Out-of-the-box hire”. And people who are switching careers or take career breaks rarely get jobs through online applications. They get jobs when someone who knows what they’re capable of decides to advocate for them at their company.

And here’s my favorite rule of making personal connections. When you meet someone and they take the time to talk to you about their job or their company, always ask “What can I do for you?”  

So step  #2 is Make Personal Connections. I hope I’ve convinced you to stop spending time applying to random jobs online. Work through your network instead. 

Key #3 is to make yourself visible.  Here are a few ways to do that:

·       Find Meet-ups in your area where professionals who do what you want to do go to learn and share ideas

·       Join a professional association

·       Find a networking group

·       Volunteer for pro bono work with a non-profit in your field

·       Invite people out for coffee, lunch, drinks who you can learn from or who work at companies you’d like to work at

You should be out a few nights a week if you're actively job searching.

Tap your network to keep it active  -  having an active network is going to be key to finding a job.

When I was looking for a job, I went to a meet...