Want a way to find a job that most people will overlook? Try newspapers or Craigslist.
In the short video below, I will tell you why these can still be good opportunities for you.
Click on the video to watch.
Now, read my blog article to learn different creative ways you can use newspapers or Craigslist as a resource to give you an edge in your job search: Fastest Way To Find a Job Tip 17.
Then go and check out my entire blog series, Fastest Way to Find a Job - 25 Tips for a Super-Fast Job Search.
Do you want to stand out in today's job search? If so, then you can't just do what everyone else is doing. Sometimes, you've got to make a big leap out of the box. One way to do that is to use YouTube in your job search.
In the video below, I've got a great story of someone who used video to land a job in 3 weeks. Would that work for you? Click the video to watch.
Now, read my article about this: Fastest Way to Find a Job Tip 11. I'll give you more ideas for using video in your job search, and even give you some technical tips so you look good on camera!
Don't forget to check out my entire blog series, Fastest Way To Find a Job. In the series, there are 24 other great ways to stand out in your job search.
How many times have you interviewed for jobs but didn't get it? Even though you were qualified, you were interested, and you had a great interview conversation? Probably at least a few....we all have. Or maybe you were offered the job but had to turn it down.
If you are in the job search right now, make a list of those companies and contact them again. Not to ask for a job--to ask for information.
In the video below, I will tell you about my own experience and how you can use this rich resource in your own job search. I'll even tell you what to say when you call. Click on the video to watch.
Should career counseling centers have a place in your job search? Maybe...IF you use them right. Just like there's a right way and a wrong way to write a resume, contact a company, or answer an interview question, there is a right way and a wrong way to use a career counseling center.
A job search should be an aggressive, all-in kind of effort that gets you hired fast. In the video below, I'll tell you how you should incorporate career counseling centers into your job search--it's not what you think.
When you need to find a job, you shouldn't be picky about where that job lead comes from.
You might not think about your friends or family or your church family as a network, but they are. They know you well, they know how great you are. And because they probably don't work with you, they have contacts that you don't...outside of your normal work space. That can be a powerful resource.
Watch the video below and I'll tell you more about this.
I also have an entire blog article that will tell you more ways you can utilize this valuable resource. Read it here: Fastest Way to Find a Job Tip 23.
Even if you can't (or don't want to) work for your previous boss again, that person is still an amazing resource to help you find a job. How? Watch the video below to hear several different surprising ways a previous boss can be a fast way to find a job.
Don't know what to say? Maybe you're not sure about your relationship with your previous boss? Read my blog articleFastest Way to Find a Job - Tip 2 - Previous Bosses to learn more about why your previous boss is worth a phone call, what to say to him or her, and what to do if you haven't kept up the relationship. I'll even tell you how you can use this resource if you were fired. Read the article here.
Alumni organizations are great resources for you as a job seeker. Why? Because job searching is (often) all about your network. Watch the video below and I'll tell you how one job seeker used his connections, and how folks in your alumni group can help you, too.
Offbeat Ways (Sandwich Boards, Dating Services, Your Child’s Ball Games, and other Desperate Job Search Measures )
If you’ve been out of work for a long time, you’re ready to try anything to find a job. Some of today’s suggestions are a little tongue-in-cheek, but some of them could be crazy enough to actually work for the aggressive job seeker…and I thought you might enjoy them.
Sandwich board
If you’re standing on the side of the road with a big sandwich board announcing to the world that you need a job, you would count as desperate—but maybe not crazy. I’ve seen job seekers get featured on the news by trying something like that, especially in big metro areas. If you were a business owner, wouldn’t you at least take a second look at someone who obviously wanted to work so badly?
And actually, in some instances this method could work in your favor. If you’re a graphic designer, someone in marketing or advertising, or some kind of artist, you could do some kind of attention-getting, attractive graphic on your sandwich board and get some attention that way.
That kind of in-your-face advertising works. I know you’ve seen cars rolling around town with big whole-car vehicle wraps that advertise some business or other…same principle. It brings in customers for those businesses. Maybe you should put a sandwich board on your car…
Dating service
I know someone who married through a dating service and has been happily married for 10 years, but I don’t know anyone who ever got a job that way. But doesn’t it make you smile to think about meeting someone for a “first date” and instead picking their brain to see if they’re a good networking contact?
Your child’s ballgames
I know one guy who sells insurance and wears t-shirts that advertise his company to his child’s ballgames and he swears by that. He says that people end up calling him and giving him business.
Are you the kind of person who chats with other parents during your kid’s games? Then you’re a networker. Not that I think you should spend all your time talking about your job search at social functions…I don’t. But neither do I think you should be shy about saying when it’s appropriate, “I’m looking for an opportunity in X. If you happen to think of anyone I should call, let me know.”
Sometimes those social connections can be more valuable than business ones. The wider variety of connections through a less-homogenous social group means a wider variety of people they know. And your social connections know you better and are often more interested in helping you out as a friend.
You might be tempted to try some desperate measures in your job search. A few might pay off. But the real key, in any job search, is to focus on the things that reward you the most. Work smart. Use the 80/20 Rule. Know what actions will bring you the greatest chance of reward. Always, always, what will reward you the most is direct contact with hiring managers. They are the ones with a problem to be solved, a job to be filled, and the authority to say “Yes, you’re hired.” Use every bit of aggressiveness, creativity and enthusiasm you have and channel it toward finding and contacting as many as you can and find your new job.
This information is so important I'm willing to 'bribe' you in order to get you to attend. Of course it's an ethical bribe. In fact I am willing to bribe you three times. You NEED to get this information if you are in a job search.
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There are two types of career counseling centers: college counseling offices and post-graduate work centers. If you’ve gone to college you’re familiar at least with the first kind of career counseling office, but I’d be willing to be that you didn’t especially think your college career office was that helpful. Career counseling centers geared toward working (or previously working) adults are a different breed of cat and can run the gamut from very helpful to a waste of time.
Mostly what career counseling centers advertise is that they will help you through the process of choosing what it is that you want to do with your life. If that’s what you need, then maybe that’s an option for you. But I’ve seen those same centers also advertise resume-writing help, interview help, and job search help. They are often heavily recommended to folks who have been laid off, downsized, or otherwise displaced from their jobs. This is not the same as career coaching.
Aside from the career-choice advising, I have not heard great stories about career counseling centers and their ability to help you find a job. In other words, I think career counseling centers might be able to help you choose a job, but not able to help you actually get the job you’ve chosen.
Mostly my impression is that their advice is outdated (like resume blasts), their advisors are unqualified, and their work isn’t very specific or cutting-edge. I hate it that people who get laid off rely on this kind of a service to help them because it’s free and they think it’s going to be valuable. And then what happens is that it doesn’t work and they’ve lost all that time.
And if your career center offers classes to help you brush up on your skills, that doesn’t mean it’s worthwhile. Don’t spend your time in a class that isn’t teaching you anything if you know that there are more productive ways you can teach yourself things. The internet is actually a very good, incredibly under-rated way to educate yourself on an incredibly wide variety of topics (including the job search itself). I’ve seen Ivy-league university class lectures on some fascinating topics. I’ve seen “how-to” videos on YouTube. There are papers and articles and blogs and videos of all kinds, and it’s all free.
I’m sure there are some outstanding career counseling services somewhere. But if you use one of these services, please be judgmental about what you’re getting. Do your own research about what you need in a resume to represent you strongly in a job search. Be logical about who it is that you should be talking to about getting hired. It’s the decision maker, the hiring manager, that you should be spending time contacting…they’re the ones who can say “yes, you’re hired,” so it makes sense that you should be aggressive and go talk to them, right?
This information is so important I'm willing to 'bribe' you in order to get you to attend. Of course it's an ethical bribe. In fact I am willing to bribe you three times. You NEED to get this information if you are in a job search.
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It is so important to talk to your friends, family, and church family about your job search situation if for no other reason than they are your support system. The job search is too stressful to carry it on your shoulders alone.
I’ve known job seekers to leave the house every day at the same 8am time just like they were still going to their job because they didn’t want to let their family know they’d been laid off. They didn’t want them to worry. And they then went off to try to look for a job and come home at 5 just like nothing's changed…even though it did, in a big way.
That’s a terrible way to handle this situation. That means that you, the person who’s looking for the job is bearing the weight of the job search all alone, and it’s crushing. It’s just too much.
So the first thing I want you to do when you find yourself out of a job is tell your friends and family and church if you have one. It’s good for you.
If you want a more practical reason than that, think of this: if it’s good for you, it will be good for your job search. If you have a happy, healthy attitude, it will show. You project what you’re feeling inside to potential employers. There have been studies that show that people with positive attitudes get jobs faster than those with negative attitudes.
And here’s an even more practical reason: your friends and family and church peeps know people, just like your “official” network does. For instance, I’m someone who knows a LOT of people. I have hooked so many people up with jobs in so many ways, completely outside of recruiting. You have no idea what connections your friends and family might have, and very often the most informal relationships can hook you up with a great job lead.
But friends and family could easily prove valuable even if they don’t have a lead or someone for you to talk to. For instance: I know someone who wanted a waitressing job at a restaurant and couldn’t get hired. She was their hostess, but they wouldn’t move her over to waitressing for a year, they said. So she talked to a friend of a friend, and that person started coaching her on how to move up faster. They told her to first memorize the menu. Then, on a slow day, find a waiter to follow around and see how they do their job. When someone doesn’t show up, offer to take their shift. Help the waiters clean up so they can see that you’re dying to do their work.
Not everything is as easy to transition into as a waitressing job…but: Every job has “insider” tricks and tools that would help you move into that job if you knew what they were. And someone in your network just might know what you need to know to do that.
Talking to your friends, family and church family is not as valuable as contacting hiring managers, but it can definitely help you into the job you want.
This information is so important I'm willing to 'bribe' you in order to get you to attend. Of course it's an ethical bribe. In fact I am willing to bribe you three times. You NEED to get this information if you are in a job search.
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I included resume blasts on my Fastest Way to Find a Job Series not because I like them, but because some job seekers think these are the way to go, and I have a better alternative.
Resume blasts used to be the hot, hot thing back in 1999 and before. When I got my first job back in the early 90’s, I sent out 1000 resumes to hiring managers in my field all over the country….lots of envelope stuffing and stamp-licking. My ambitious peers were doing the same. And then that moved from snail mail to email, complete with services to do it for you. All those people who were doing resume blasts were making a lot of money from providing that service with the lists they had created… although they weren’t getting people very many jobs. Not that they told you that. And now they’re getting people even fewer jobs…because they send emails.
I get the theory: the job search is a numbers game, so you should send your resume out to as many people as you possibly can. (I used that theory myself, back when I didn’t know any better.) SOMEONE is going to have a job opening to talk to you about. That’s the idea behind resume blasts.
But here’s the problem, especially now: No one’s getting email they don’t want. Spam filters take care of that, and you wasted all that effort on something that hits the spam folder rather than the inbox. Plus, now you’re married to that service and give the impression of a spamming mass marketer. It’s not the same as if you wrote that person a personal message.
So I’m negative to resume blasts, but I am positive to contacting hiring managers directly. Why is that different? When you contact hiring managers directly, you are personalizing your message for them. You don’t send it as a resume blast, because it won’t get seen. If it’s not personalized, it will be dismissed because of how “form letter” it looks.
The truth is, the job search is a numbers game…but you have to play it differently than you used to. You have to play smarter, not harder. You have to find enough hiring managers in your field and contact them to give yourself the opportunities you need in today’s market. Most jobs aren’t posted, anyway, so the only way you’ll know about them is if you ask. The key is to find them and send them not a generic resume, but a personalized message that sells you as a potential solution for their problems. That’s the fastest way to find a job.
This information is so important I'm willing to 'bribe' you in order to get you to attend. Of course it's an ethical bribe. In fact I am willing to bribe you three times. You NEED to get this information if you are in a job search.
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If you’re in the job search, you have certainly heard advice about job boards, networking, or even temporary work. But have you ever considered a career coach as a path to a new job?
When I say “Career Coach,” I do not mean the kind of life coach who helps you decide what you should do with your life. Don’t get me wrong, they have their place, but what I’m talking about is a coach who helps you with your career: finding and getting a job that will help you further your career goals.
This one is near and dear to my heart, because I am a career coach as well as the CEO of Career Confidential. In my career coaching role, I help people on an individual basis knock down the barriers that are holding them back. These barriers could be anything from negative internal voices that cause them to not step out and do the things that they should; to resumes they think are good because they were professionally written but don’t actually sell them as a candidate; to people who don’t know how to sell themselves in the interview and only need coaching on how to answer interview questions (practice and role-playing interview questions is incredibly helpful). That’s the kind of career coaching I do.
That’s mostly what I do, although I do have a few people calling me to talk about what they want to do when they grow up. Maybe you need a career coach to talk to you about what career field you should be in. If they know a lot about that field, they are an incredible resource for you. To me, that’s more valuable than a personality test (although I do think personality assessments are valuable) because that’s first-hand knowledge that you can tap into and see if you think it would fit you or not.
I have a lot of people who want to talk to me about transitioning into medical sales because I have such a strong background there. A lot of people I just shepherd into the role they want, but one man spent time with me talking and learning about medical sales and eventually got enough information that told him that career was not for him. That time he spent with me as a career coach saved him hours and hours of effort and a large amount of money that he would have spent on getting himself ready for that career. It helped him clarify.
When you are choosing a career coach, make sure the person you’re listening to has real experience. Either someone in your direct industry with experience there, or a recruiter who understands what hiring managers are looking for and can show you how to sell yourself for the job. Your coach should be an expert you can learn from and grow with.
This information is so important I'm willing to 'bribe' you in order to get you to attend. Of course it's an ethical bribe. In fact I am willing to bribe you three times. You NEED to get this information if you are in a job search.
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Freelancing, temping, or consulting are all great ways to fill your time in between jobs. Sometimes it’s just a financial necessity, and that’s OK. But these activities also offer some great benefits for you while you’re in the job search. Sometimes they lead to a full-time opportunity, sometimes they build your skills or add to your knowledge, sometimes they build your network, and sometimes they just communicate to potential employers that you are an active person who wants to keep their hand in while they’re looking for the right opportunity.
This temporary, or project-based, work is an outstanding way for a potential hiring manager (or even just someone who would be an extremely strong reference for you) to get to know you and your work. It helps them feel more comfortable.
The ideal outcome is that they end up offering you a job. If they get some experience with you and see firsthand how great you are, they could very well offer you a job right there. I can tell you that I love to start people part-time before I make the big commitment of offering them a full-time job. When people do good work for me, I give them more and more opportunities. It’s a natural progression. The ability to see what your work is like, what your attitude is like, and how you deliver really goes a long way.
But a still fantastic outcome is that they become a great reference for you in your job search. References carry you a very long way in a job search, and previous managers, supervisors, or anyone you’ve done work for are the best references you can have. If for no other reason, this would be a good use of your time.
So how do you find a temporary job, a consulting gig, or a freelancing project?
Temporary jobs are fairly easy to find. Lots of agencies specialize in hooking up temp employees with companies. Manpower is one of the biggest, but a little research will show you others. All you have to do is register with the agency and then you are eligible for opportunities. Other options? Retail stores always hire at the holidays, resorts and theme parks usually hire more in high season, politicians hire more staff during election season, and so on. All these options will pay you directly, but temporary agencies are the issuers of your paycheck if they find you a spot.
Consulting is a little more difficult to do. It helps if you have a network already in place. Basically, consulting is just like having your own business and you have to act accordingly. Promote yourself online and know what you’re doing when it comes to contracts and setting fees for work. Payments go directly to you.
Freelancing is maybe the happy medium in between these other two. It’s almost always strictly project-based (like consulting, but on a smaller scale). One of the biggest freelance sites is Elance. You just set yourself up with a profile and examples of your work, if you can (works best for writers, designers, artists, etc.). You can be contacted about jobs and you can search for projects to bid on. All payments are through the site.
This kind of work can offer you some great benefits, but be careful if your ultimate goal is to find a permanent job. Don’t ignore your “real” job search and don’t stop contacting hiring managers while you’re looking for these temporary opportunities.
This information is so important I'm willing to 'bribe' you in order to get you to attend. Of course it's an ethical bribe. In fact I am willing to bribe you three times. You NEED to get this information if you are in a job search.
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HOW TO WRITE A 306090 DAY PLAN - These do take some work to research and put together, but the investment you make in time and effort is going to pay off big for you in terms of money and job offers
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