reinventjen

I have read time and again about the importance of “doing your homework”. But researching a prospective employer is not the only homework to do.

It’s become pretty clear that I also need to be looking at the industry in which I am interested in working. Especially since my primary experience has not been specific to the job I am seeking. One of those catch phrases I keep hearing is “position yourself”, show your unique value-add for the prospective company. I don’t think you can fully understand how you are different from your competitors or what you bring to the table unless you have a complete understanding of industry news and trends.

I’m still learning about all the great tools out there, and I recently discovered Technorati. You can search by topic for blogs. It is tracking 25.4 million blogs! I’ve begun reading around to find a voice I find valuable in this quest for knowledge.

So, I have given myself an assignment. Follow industry news, track blogs, and join industry-specific professional organizations. I’ll share with you what I find…(but only if it’s interesting).

MSNBC.com published a great interview with former editor-in-chief for Monster.com, Doug Hardy, who shares his advice for a strong job search.

Day 2 of TheLadders’ SeekWeek Webinars was about “Managing your many faces: What to say about yourself and where.”

The focus of this program was on personal branding, from the resume and cover letter to having an online presence.

A personal brand is important because:
-Credentials are not enough
-People pay more for brands (Tide is more expensive than the store brand)
-Technology has raised the bar (It’s even harder now to stand out)
-You want recruiters to seek YOU out (you have to be visible)

There were three speakers: Deb Dib, President of Executive Power Group, Kirsten Dixson of Bradego, and William Arruda, President of Reach Communications. To view the archive of the presentation, click here.

The speakers focused on 5 steps in branding yourself for the job search:

1. Know your brand: It is important to know your VPs (Vision, Purpose, Values and Passions) when establishing your brand, which is also your reputation. Determine what attributes describe you (visionary, rainmaker, outspoken, charming, etc).

2. Put Your Brand in Context: You have to know your audience, which can be hiring managers, recruiters, companies, and industries. You also have to know about your competition - what do you have that is the same as your peers? What is different? Then perform a gap analysis to determine what unique benefit you bring that makes you irresistible to others (besides your looks, of course).

3. Express Your Brand: After you have established your brand and completed the gap analysis, you have to design your “marketing materials” (resume, cover letter, etc). With regards to resumes, it was suggested the document begin with an executive summary that includes your brand statement. This catches the recruiters’ eyes quickly and hopefully entices them to read the rest of the resume more carefully.

(Note: I revamped my resume based on their comments and suggestions. I’m really happy with it and hope to get favorable results.)

4. Build Your Brand in Bits and Bytes: Google yourself. It is important to be visible, and one way is by “being found” on the Internet. Some suggestions included starting a blog or creating an online portfolio.

5. Exude your Brand - Get the Job you Deserve: A brand must be Clear (precise message), Consistent (across all channels - resume, cover letter, bio, etc) and Constant (always visible to the target audience).

In addition to these 5 steps, there were also tips on “collateral” material like resumes, cover letters, bios, resume addendums, executive summary, etc. For more information, link to the webinar.

In an earlier post, I mentioned TheLadders is hosting job search-related webinars all this week. If you missed the live version, you can view an archive.

I listened to Monday and Tuesday’s sessions. The topic on Monday was “Recruiters Speak! Insider perspectives on recruiting today.” Three professionals gave insights into how their recruiting process works.

Sarah George of Wachovia said they receive between 62,000 and 65,000 applicants per month. To handle this huge volume of resumes, Wachovia has instituted an electronic system to screen out candidates who are not the best qualified. So beware of the “Resume Robot” that can disqualify you before human eyes even see your resume.

George also explained that the Wachovia culture plays an important role in the hiring process - candidates go through multiple interviews to ensure they are a good “fit” in the company culture. I have to commend them for that. It has become rather clear during my professional experience just how important culture is to a company. The culture has to be healthy, and in order for it to remain healthy, it must be nurtured and carefully guarded. Hiring the wrong candidate can adversely impact the culture.

Kent Burns of MRINETWORK (executive recruiting firm) offered some very valuable advice. Here are his Top 10 Reasons candidates don’t move forward in the hiring process:

1. Poor Resume Development (typos, grammar): You must articulate your VALUE.
2. Lack of Energy: Let them see your passion!
3. Answers are not specific: During an interview, give examples of concrete situations where you exhibited a trait.
4. Weak Value Proposition: You must differentiate yourself.
5. Can’t Build a Bridge: Bridging the company’s requirements and your skills, so they see the match.
6. Not being a “Businessperson”: You have to show you understand the business. Have an economic mindset. You can show your acumen through carefully crafted questions.
7. Can’t Articulate Desires: Know your mind; know what you want.
8. Poor Questions: It’s so important to ask good questions. Write them down so you don’t forget!
9. Not Closing: Sell and close the deal!

I found a lot of value in Kent’s Top 10 List. It was point-on. I think for me, right now, building that value proposition is critical. And then articulating it as best I can in a resume that will be scanned by a hurried recruiter/hiring manager for about 10 seconds. I have to grab their attention. And quickly.

I’ll be posting more on what I learned…so stay tuned!

Jason Goldberg on Jobster’s blog had some great tips for the online job search.

Goldberg describes Job Search 2.0 (a reference to the new buzzword Web 2.0 which alludes to the online revolution taking place on the Web).

There are online job search tools where listings from hundreds of job boards are searched and presented for you on one site. One I use quite often is www.indeed.com. In an earlier post I mentioned Bloglines as a feed service to help track any new entries. It’s been great for wading through the huge volume of jobs posted every day.

I only recently found some of the other tools mentioned in Jobster’s blog, so I still have a lot of work to do! But, I will definitely be using his advice and incorporating these 8 Tips into my job search plan. I hope you find them helpful as well.

When I decided to change careers, I bought a book called The Pathfinder by Nicholas Lore. It’s supposed to help you really evaluate what it is you want from your career, what your strengths are, and where your interests lie.

In the first chapter, Lore made a very good observation. He said no one teaches us how to find a career.

One day, probably your junior year of high school, someone told you to start thinking about what you want to do in life (what a huge thought for a 17-year old). You pick a couple of colleges, take the entrance exams, and eventually enroll in school. In freshman orientation, they encourage you to choose a major. You choose one that sounds good and maybe a year later you change it. Who knows how many times you might change your major before you finally stick with one that will allow you to graduate the fastest.

You graduate. The Career Center is probably more interested in helping you find a job rather than a career. You eventually land your first job, but is this really the field where you can be the most fulfilled, using your strengths and talents to their fullest capabilities?

Decisions you make as an 18- or 20-year old can determine the path you follow for the rest of your working days!

This is a somewhat familiar story for me. Although I didn’t change my major the average of 5 times like so many other students, I can say no one ever took the time to help me discover what career I wanted to follow or even how you do that. I found a job with the help of the Career Center, but it didn’t take me long to realize, it was a job – not a career I was interested in pursuing long-term.

So I’m learning how to carefully choose my career –one in which I can be fulfilled and find satisfaction in my work. This is a skill I wish every freshman in college could be taught.

It’s all about self-discovery. What are you strengths? What are your interests? What do you want out of your career? What would be fulfilling work for you? This book helps you ask all the right questions so you might be able to truthfully answer that fateful question, “So, What do you want to be when you grow up?”

TheLadders.com is hosting five days of SeekWeek webinars about the job search. Click here to sign up. The webinars begin on January 9 and run all week.

Topics to be discussed:

*Recruiters Speak! - Insider perspectives on recruiting today

*Managing Your Many Faces - Perspectives on how to best utilize the tools available today: resumes, online versions of resumes, blogs, etc.. What to say about yourself and where.

*Job Search 2006: Best Practices - Tactics and other best practices for managing your job search in the new millennium.

*The Changing Face of Online Recruiting - How the online environment impacts job search. What evolutions are to come? How does one effectively navigate the online world?

*You’ve Gotten Your Dream Job, Now What? - Thoughts and perspectives on career fulfillment and managing your career going forward. Networking for continued success.

Everyone needs some inspiration and motivation, especially after making big decisions – like quitting your job to find a career that makes you happy… You need some confirmation that you made the right choice.

Back in June, Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer, spoke at the graduation ceremony at Stanford University. I know it was a while back and bloggers have already posted many comments about the speech, but it’s good enough to talk about again, Follow the link above to see the entire speech. I have excerpted pieces that were most inspirational to me:

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

“You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.”

“Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.”

And my favorite: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.”

For this time in my life – a time of re-invention, of pursuing my dreams, of actually taking action to make those dreams reality – these words have been confirmation and an inspiration to me. I guess I’m trusting that Decision 2 was the right decision to make.

So in the words of Steve Jobs, “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”

Blogging is a somewhat new thing for me. I have only recently begun following web logs, or blogs, and only days ago set up a Bloglines feed. This service tracks all my favorite blogs and lets me know when there’s new content.

Through exploration and probably a little bit of luck, I have found some great blogs on the Job Search. You see, I’ve been struggling a bit figuring out where, exactly, to start. It can be overwhelming – all the websites you can search…but are they really all that effective? And engaging your network can be time-consuming and a little nerve-wracking. I’m supposed to tell the world that I don’t have a job – I’m unemployed. YES, I’M UNEMPLOYED! And I want your help to change that!

Gulp. Swallowing the pride right now.

So, I’m scouring the Internet and the World of Blogs for advice and assistance for my job search “plan”. I found a great article about how to have a well-rounded job search. In summary, the Internet is a great tool, but it’s not the end-all, be-all. In fact, something like 60% of all job hires were facilitated through personal contact, or networking.

One skill of mine is planning. That’s why I enjoy project management so much, I guess. I decided I should use that skill and create a job search project plan, complete with goals, search channels (word-of-mouth, Internet, etc), and timelines. I think perhaps setting goals and then planning out how to reach those goals is a good start to making this overwhelmingly big task ahead of me not seem quite so big. One task at a time, one application at a time, one interview at a time. Small victories!

I recently made two very big decisions. 1) I agreed to marry my best friend and the love of my life – not a bad deal, and a pretty easy decision to make! 2) I decided to quit my good-paying, stable job in finance to search for a new job in a more creative industry. I guess you can say I’m a romantic, an idealist – I want to find a job where I can be happy and fulfilled, not just secure. Decision 2, as I’m sure you can imagine, was a bit more difficult to make. Luckily, because of Decision 1, I have a supportive fiancé who can bring home the bacon until I’m making money again.

So, here I am. This blog will be dedicated to chronicling my job search, the self-discovering that will inevitably happen (I hope, anyway), and tips I can share with those who are searching for that “perfect” opportunity, too. It is my hope that this becomes a forum for readers to share their thoughts, discoveries, and lessons learned.

I’m confident there are others out there, just like me, looking for a fresh start, pursuing their dreams, or who are perhaps recent graduates, searching for their first job after college. No matter who you are or what your specific circumstances might be, I wish you the best of luck.

Now it’s time to reinvent Jen!