Informational interviews are an invaluable tool for today’s job search. While you never actually ask for a job during an informational interview, many do lead directly or indirectly to employment opportunities down the road. In part one of our series on information interviews, we look at why you should do informational interviews. Read More
Action Items to Jump Start 2013
The New Year brings new hiring, so for job seekers it’s critical to be diligent and strategic about your job search as 2013 begins. Here are five things you should be doing this month to get the year off to a great start and increase the chances of job search success. Read More
Goal Setting For Your Job Search
A recent blog focused on “spring cleaning” your job search. To help with this process of revitalization, here are some ways to set goals to keep your job search efficient and productive.
Getting the Most Out of Your Internship: Goal Setting
Internships are an increasingly important way for job seekers to gain experience, master new skills and position themselves in the job market. To optimize your internship, it’s important to have specific goals and a plan for meeting them. At the highest level, your goals are: gaining valuable experience and growing your network. But once you’ve determined where you’ll be spending your internship, you need to go deeper.
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Creating a Job Search Strategy
If you plan to find a job sooner rather than later, and hope to succeed even in a struggling economy, you need a strategy for that success. A job search without a strategy can quickly become random and non-productive. Applying scattershot for jobs, following up on leads without prioritizing, lacking goals and ways to measure progress often plunges a job seeker into frustration. With a strategy, progress is planned and steady, and good results follow. Read More
Break Your Addiction to Job Boards
Fortune Magazine has made it official: Job Boards are not the most effective way for most people to find employment. The article notes it would be more effective to have lunch with one good contact than to send 50 resumes for openings through job boards. Read More
Persistence and Job Search
Many job seekers, especially those who have been out of work for awhile, experience a sense that “nothing is working.” They may feel they have “tried everything” without success. The temptation is to give up. But if you want and need to work, quitting your job search is not an option. Instead, it’s more productive to find ways to stay strong and motivated in the face of discouragement and rejection. Read More
When Your Job is Looking for a Job
If you are between jobs, people probably assume you have lots of free time. But the truth is, if you’re actively seeking a new job, you should be pretty busy. Here are some ways to bring organization and discipline to the job of looking for a job.
Set up workspace. Organize your papers, have a place for your computer, good lighting and a comfortable chair. If possible, pleasant, quiet workspace set away from the rest of the home is ideal. But, if your workspace is the kitchen table, that’s OK, too. Just set it up for function and efficiency and be clear with yourself that, when you’re sitting there, you’re at work.
What are You Doing with Extra Hours?
If you had an extra hour each day, what would you do with that time? A recent study says “not much”. The study shows that due to unemployment, retirement and other factors, we have more free time than ever but we’re spending most of extra time watching TV and sleeping. For job seekers, this is probably not the most productive use of extra time. But it’s tempting to kick back when you feel you have so much time on your hands.
Are You A SMART Job Seeker?
If you want the qualities of a successful job seeker, consider:
1) Strategy: Most job seekers have none, or poor strategies for approaching job search. There are hundreds of applicants per job via electronic listing and many looking for work still use this method as their main approach when only 15% of jobs are found online.
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