It's Not A Race It's A Marathon: Starting Your Job Search

Starting your job search is the must frustrating part of the journey. Especially when you have no guidance on how to attack this new chapter of your life. Well I have a couple of pointers that hopefully will help you in executing your “job search,” thanks to the book “You’re Better Than Your Job Search,” by Marc Cenedella and Matthew Rothenberg.

(1) The first step is defining your JOB GOALS. You want to ask yourself two important questions…

• What is it you hope to achieve next?
• What are you willing to do to get there?

Well that might seem like a funny question to ask yourself “what are you willing to do?” technically you are willing to do ANYTHING, but there is more to this question. You have to determine what is important to you; is it the money, location, enjoyment, security, ect. Then it is important to look at these elements and think about what you are willing to change. For example, location for me is something I’m not willing to change. New York City is where I’ve always wanted to be and that’s where I’m committed to finding employment.

These are some key areas to look at and determine what your willing to be flexible on:

-       Company

-       Function

-       Industry

-       Size of Company ( fortune 1000 or start-up)

-       Compensation

(2) Second important matter you want to have done before starting you job search is perfecting your ELEVATOR PITCH

Point of the elevator pitch is the fact that these days everybody and their mama are busy! You need to be able to explain yourself in 30 seconds. Whether your networking or talking to a friend you’ll need to be able to explain what you want to do, why you’ll be good at it and how they can help. For example:

WRONG: “ You know, with everything that’s happened, I think it’s time to get out of the derivatives industry, so I’m hoping to find somebody else that wants a guy with a decade of finance experience and a Wharton MBA.”

RIGHT: “I’ve really enjoyed leading the development of software at B2B companies and I’d like to find an opportunity at a growing, VC0backed start-up where my skills in building teams, architecting scalable systems and developing code would make a real difference.’

(3) Put Aside Your Impatience and Insecurity:

This is one of the most important tips I could give you and it is definitely a personal challenge, but its important to analyze the work environment your entering and understand it takes time! As long as you stay dedicated and keep plugging you will make it to the finish line.

(4) Create Your Brand

I talked about this in an earlier post of my blog, that you have to think of yourself as a BRAND and no one knows you better then yourself. A brand however is more then a name and a logo. It includes the design of a product and the experience the consumer has using it as well as all the marketing and advertising activity that surrounds it.

Right at the beginning of your search, decide what job you are looking for and what, specifically, you’re offering, including your unique value and approach. Then make sure your resume, references, background, job-searching techniques and even your clothes, grooming and behavior reflect it!

(5) Plan of ATTACK!!!!

In this digital age locating jobs is easy but yet extremely hard because more people can access the same information you can. Here are some tips in dealing with the digital job search…

-       Tune you resume: make it the best, most concise, most focused, most SEARCHABLE document you can.

-       Get your resume online and searchable: it can take over the search for jobs while you’re doing other things

-       Apply only to jobs that are right for you: Don’t waste time tuning letters and resumes for jobs you don’t want, even f they’re the only ones you can think to apply to right now.

-       Save you searches: Don’t retype the same queries several times a day

-       Sign up for e-mail alerts: Sites such as TheLadders let you create search agents and e-mail you when a job opens up

-       Don’t ever be offline: Even when you are offline, don’t ever stop searching ro thinking about your search,, That way you’re always ready to jump on an opportunity

-       Create a “plan of attack.” Random job searching doesn’t work any better than random weight-loss. Evaluate the health of particular industries by evaluating the number of jobs available that are relevant to your skill.

(6) Organizing you Plan of Attack ****

Creating Logs will keep you focused and organized, which is the MOST important tool to have while job searching.

I use an excel spreadsheet this way I also know if I have already applied to a company. Break the columns to what is most helpful for you. My columns are broken into:

COMPANY….COMPANY URL…JOB TITLE…WHEN JOB WAS POSTED…WHEN I APPLIED…NUMBER…EMAIL…ANY NETWORK OPPORTUNITY…FOLLOW UP DATE

Also stay organized with creating a check list of daily, weekly and monthly tasks:

Daily:

-       Create an activity log

-       Check job ads: Linkedin, Twitter, New York Post, Monster, The Ladder, School Career Site

-       Make and Return Calls

-       Make at least one call to a new network contact

Weekly:

-       Follow up on resumes you’ve sent

-       Make a list of all you potential networking contacts

Monthly:

-       Sharpen your job-hunting strategy: identify areas that are most and least productive and those you haven’t exploited far enough

-       Evaluate your collateral material: talking points for the interview, tag line for the resume and introductions, elevator pitch for the resume and opening conversations. 

I know this is a lot to take in and everything is done in baby steps but remember to keep networking, stay organized and stay POSITIVE. If you stay persistent something will come your way, might not be as fast as you want it to but your time is coming.

REMEMBER ITS NOT A RACE IT’S A MARATHON!!!

If you would like me to expand on anything I mentioned today please feel free to email me.

Dos and Don'ts of Interviewing

Dos  and Don'ts of interviewing might seem like common sense, but there are little things that one might forget. A UCLA study showed that while interviewing 7% of your impact comes from words, ONLY 7%! While 38% is how you say it (tonal quality) and 55% from what your body is doing while speaking. Remember that there are multiple ways of communication and like they say “its not about your words but your actions.”

So right when you walk in that door you should be smiling. “I’m happy to meet you.” (Look the interview in the eye and shake their hand firmly) It’s been shown that majority of people are uncomfortable with looking strangers in the eye and a firm handshake demonstrates your confidence and security. Show that you mean BUSINESS, your not here to waste their time, your there to DELIVER!

Make sure you walk into the interview with concrete goals in planning for your  future  and how this position brings you to your career goals. There is nothing worse then a candidate with no goals and uncertainty. 

Know the ins and outs of the firm. Knowledge about the industry, employer and possible position. This also comes in handy when its your turn to ask the questions. You will stand out amongst the pack if you have thoughtful questions that display your prior research. (Prepare questions that apply to the company and questions that apply to the employer.)

Dress the part, make sure you understand the difference between casual, business causal and business attire. If you can, get a sense of the office style off their website. 

Bring Multiple copies of your Resume and Cover Letter

Make sure you get business cards from everyone you interviewed with! 

Follow-up with a thank you email or note which will restate your interest in the position. Make sure when you send these thank emails, that none are alike. Trust me they will compare, especially females. 

*** Make sure you arrive AT LEAST 10 minutes early! Early is on time and to be on time is late! You never know if you'll have to fill out paper work and it makes you seem punctual. 

Don’t make negative comments about previous employers or professors. No matter how much you might have hated your previous job experience, walk in having a concrete reason of why you left without putting anyone down. Trust, talking negatively about other people says a lot about your character.

Don’t act as though you would take any job or are desperate for employment. Yes, times are tough but you have to demonstrate the passion for why this company stood out to you over the rest!

Don’t be unprepared for typical interview questions. You may not be asked all of them in every interview, but being unprepared looks foolish.

Don’t sit with a “too cool for school” attitude (leaning back, one leg crosses over the other, one arm thrown over the back of the chair.) Sit up and forward in your chair. Lean toward your interviewer. This demonstrates your dying attention, interest and professionalism.

Don’t wear offensive amount of body scent (perfume or cologne). You don’t want to wear anything that might be distracting.

Don’t be too confident. It’s important to show your securities with  your talents but nerves are normal. You don’t want to come off arrogant or so confident that it might seem that you not taking the interview seriously.

Don’t answer questions with “Yes” or “No.” Remember the most intelligent people support their answers with facts.

Don’t rely only on your resume or cover letter. Make sure you reiterate aspects on your resume that are perfect for the position and explain them more in detail.

Don’t lie! Its really easy to lie during an interview because you’ll do just about anything to get the position but even if you don’t know how to do something make sure you example and demonstrate your ability to adjust and learn the task at hand.

Don’t say you have a weakness. Many interviewers will ask you what is your weakness but you don’t have one. Whatever you answer maybe, turn it around into a positive. I’ve used as a weakness that I’m a perfectionist or workaholic.

Coming Up: Dressing the Part 

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