My guest Lindsey Pollak and I discuss the impact on the office when you have that many generations working at the same time. Although generations are only one aspect of what people are, they impact how we work, communicate, experience the office among other things.

Managing in this new environment can be challenging and according to Lindsey "...it's not about doing it all the old way or all the new way. It's about the combinations of having a toolkit that combines the best of every era's different ways of working to find a diversity of styles in your management toolkit."

We discuss all the recent research about women leaving the workforce in large numbers in 2020 and the need for institutional and governmental solutions.

Lindsey talks about her new book Recalculating: Navigate Your Career Through the Changing World of Work. It's your personal GPS to succeeding today and into the future because Covid-19 has upended job hunting and career planning forever.  

We discuss Lindsey's predictions about what the workplace looks like after COVID-19 and how working from home impacts career advancement and opportunities. Here are a few tips:

1. Look at your culture and what is valued and think about how you can show your value.
2. Get more comfortable tooting your own horn
3. Personal branding is still very important
4. The relationship that matters most is your direct manager

There are many young people who are entering the workforce during this time that never experienced the traditional experience of working in an office and those starting their careers virtually.  "I think we have to really take time to mourn what we're losing as much as thinking about the future." - Lindsey

You can find Lindsey Pollak here:
https://lindseypollak.com/
Preorder her new book Recalulating here: https://lindseypollak.com/books/recalculating/

Making the most of a networking event with Caitlin Hooks - the tips hold true even for virtual events -

Caitlin told us to 

• Step 1: Research thoroughly

• Step 2: Engage pointedly

• Step 3: Follow up strategically

Basically - figure out who’s going to be there and who you want to meet, show up early, be prepared, do some research so you know what you want to talk about with people, and then afterward follow up with people you met to solidify the connection and keep the relationship going. BTW, much of this advice still applies to virtual events. That was episode 2.

Episode 3 was all about Joining a job search group and my guest was my friend Ellen Dalbo. Did you know that people who took part in “job search work teams” got employed 20% faster than those using traditional methods? This is according to the book “Team Up!” by Orville Pierson. Churches run groups, there are MeetUps for every kind of interest and job field and if you’re local to the Raleigh area, join Back to Business. Back to Business – the growth of a community is a big goal of Back to Business, and we have been able to connect women returning to work after a career break with each other, and with employers.  Joining a job search group is a point reinforced by Dr. Dawn Graham in episode 33 who said that a job search is a social event and we should talk about what we’re looking for so others can help us. I love it when it all comes together like that!

And speaking of asking for help with your job search, this is a theme that Steve Dalton, author of The 2 Hour Job Search and I spent some time discussing. I love Steve’s take on why we have to get comfortable asking other people for help. The 2 Hour  

I asked Steve if The 2 Hour Job Search process still holds even in our covid-affected environment of 2020.

Preparing for an interview with Al Dea was episode #4. Al says that before you walk into an interview, you should Craft Your Story. You should take the insights you get from your research about what this company is looking for in candidates, and come up with the narrative that you want to tell about why you are the best person for the job. He even says to think of yourself as a product on amazon.com - and be ready to sell yourself as a solution that the company needs.

Jeremy Schifeling from Break into Tech describes the different tech roles - I love how he makes this so easy to digest and understand. Take a listen, this is masterful as he takes us through everything from business operations to Corporate development to Product management! 

Sometimes you need professional help to get your most important job-seeking assets in great shape. That’s when you’d call my friend Mir Garvy from Job Market Solutions - she’s an expert resume writer and LinkedIn profile writer. I called on Mir to take us through the process of working with a professional LinkedIn/resume writer in episode 7. Here’s Mir talking about how she helps clients develop a resume that will get past that Applicant Tracking System.

Mir came back for an encore in episode 10 to provide us with some great Linkedin tips. Here are my 2 favorite tips for LinkedIn: (1) Have a compelling opening statement for your About section and be sure it’s keyword optimized.  And (2) Tell the story behind your resume in your Linkedin profile and share a heartfelt reason why you do what you do. 

Glassdoor is a good source for company ratings and in E8 I talked to my niece Ellen Dunn who was an Account Executive there about how to make the most of Glassdoor in your job search. Ellen’s best tips: Use Glassdoor to prep for interviews because people share on that site the interview questions they were asked. Also, use Glassdoor to make sure you know your worth when you are negotiating an offer. If you’re going to convince someone to give you more money, you’ll need good data to back up your claim,  and you can get that on Glassdoor. 

Now, in addition to negotiating, one thing you simply must be able to do as a job-seeker is talk about your strengths in a confident manner. So I spent some time with Damien Zikakis, a career coach based in Michigan, to talk about the StrengthsFinder assessment. Damien shared in episode 9 that we can make greater strides in our self-development when we focus our resources on developing our stronger talents into strengths as compared to focusing on fixing weaknesses or trying to develop lesser talents.  If you’re interviewing for a job, Damien says that your ability to describe your Strengths and how you capitalize on them, both individually and as part of a team, will set you apart from other candidates. And that just might be the edge you need in an interview. So take the CliftonStrengths assessment and then lean into your strengths.

Companies have been putting more effort into hiring more diverse teams, and I wanted to understand how this works for candidates. Danielle Pavlil, a Sr. Diversity & Inclusion Manager at SAS, and I spoke in episode 11 about leveraging uniqueness in your job search. I loved that title, which Danielle suggested. I also loved some of the information she shared which helped me understand the importance of being a voice for others to ensure that people with diverse gifts are recognized and appreciated in the workplace.

In episode 12 I spoke with a technical recruiter named Dina Schweitschal about succeeding at technical interviews. Technical interviews aren’t something that every job seeker will encounter, but if you’re interviewing for a position as a software developer, you will definitely be put through a technical interview. Dina shared that candidates should be asking questions during a technical interview, rather than pretending they know everything. And for job seekers in general, you might be interested to know that only 5 or 10 % of people bother to write thank you notes after an interview and only about 15% write a cover letter. And, guess what? She actually reads cover letters and that can set a candidate apart if it’s done well. Now that’s info you can use in your job search right now. We talk with Dina about some ideas about writing thank you notes.

If you’re returning to work after taking time off to stay home with kids, here are a few gems specifically for you:

If you’re deciding if you should take the first job that comes along as you return to work, here are a few things to consider from episode 6. First, it depends on your motivation, so take stock of what’s compelling you to rejoin the workforce. Second, since every big choice we make involves a trade-off, be really clear about the trade-off involved in taking the job so you can make a good decision about if it’s the right job for you. Consider the positives and the negatives. And third, decide if this job might be the stepping stone to get you to your ultimate career goal, and if so, take it!

In episode 13, my guest was coach Farnoosh Brock. Farnoosh is so smart and if you’re not following her on LinkedIn, I suggest you do so that you can benefit from all the great content about career success that she is sharing. Farnoosh and I talked about determining where the right place might be for you to re-enter the workforce if you haven’t had a paying job in a while. She gave a tip that has really stayed with me: in addition to taking an inventory of what you are good at, you have to consider if those particular skills you possess are skills you a...

I was so inspired by her journey and loved the honesty and candor she puts into telling her own story. I can practically guarantee that after you listen to this episode you’ll grab your own notecard and put an amazing vision for your life down in writing. And once it’s written down, it will be hard to stop you from achieving all that you are destined to achieve!

Find Jamie Valvano at JamieValvano.com

Don’t miss her TedX Talk: What I Learned About Leaving A Legacy

Sarah cites 3 factors that conspire to make it difficult for women to remain in the workforce after having children: inflexible workplaces, the reality that women shoulder more of the burden of taking care of running the house and raising the kids and bad public policy. 

Data released in the McKinsey Women in the Workplace 2020 report shows that in August and September of 2020, more than a million people dropped out of the workforce, and 80% of them were women. Furthermore, 1 in 4 employed women and 1 in 3 mothers are thinking about quitting or downshifting their work hours. 

The long-term implications of this trend are alarming. Less diverse teams, fewer women’s voices setting corporate policy, and a diminished pipeline of women for promotion to executive-level roles. 

Join Sarah and I as we explore the data, share our own personal experiences with work and talk through solutions that could help make the workplace a more female-friendly environment. 

Find Sarah Green Carmichael here:

Covid-19 Explodes the Myth That Women Opt Out on Bloomberg

More articles by Sarah Green Carmichael

On LinkedIn

On Twitter @skgreen

Dr. Dawn and I talked about some of the specific strategies she recommends in her book for career switchers, particularly those returning to work after a career break. Join us as talk through: 

• Spotlighting transferable skills (tip: “soft skills aren’t soft anymore”)
• Having a Plan A that is very specific and focused (check out Dr. Dawn’s Bullseye Brainstorming Worksheet on pgs 68-69 of Switchers - it’s amazing!)
• Making a stepping stone switch (a very effective strategy for career relaunchers in particular)

Dr. Dawn also shares what she sees as the benefits of our current Covid situation to career switchers. This crisis has forced change on the job market and she sees some opportunity for career switchers in all of that change. 

As Dr. Dawn says, “clarity comes through action.” So if you’ve been thinking about making a career switch, pick up a copy of Switchers and listen to this episode of the Get A Job, Here’s How! podcast to get your action plan in gear.

Here’s where you can find Dr. Dawn Graham:

Her website: https://www.drdawnoncareers.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drdawngraham/

Twitter: @DrDawnGraham

Dawn’s TEDx Talk is a must-watch for career switchers: Your Next Job Is One Conversation Away

Christine Michel Carter is the Associate Editor for ModernMom, a Senior Contributor to ForbesWomen and her work has been featured in Time and Parents magazines. Big brands seek her out for her insights into how to talk to moms effectively in their advertising and how to hire and retain moms. 

You can find Christine on her website at https://christinemichelcarter.com/

Find out what a “Value Validation Project” is and why it will truly distinguish you as a candidate who can add value to an organization. Also, learn why Austin’s strategy works beautifully during COVID times when we’re not meeting people face-to-face. 

Be sure to check out Austin’s website and the amazing free tools he provides for job-seekers at https://cultivatedculture.com/

And Follow Austin Belcak on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abelcak/

Tip: Austin posts daily on LinkedIn and his posts are always incredibly insightful and helpful. 

Amanda believes that job seeking is a sales and marketing exercise. You are the product, so being able to articulate what your brand stands for is critical. We also talk about some of the crowdsourced spreadsheets that have been created and circulated as people generously help each other out in this difficult job market. 

In this episode, we dig into the importance of building online rapport as you expand your network of personal and professional connections. Also, use your social media to spread the word about what you’re great at and focus on the value you have to offer.

Don’t miss Amanda’s advice on the “Power of 3” - using job boards, recruiters and your personal network to uncover job leads - because relying on just one of these is not enough to bring you success in your job search. 

Here are links to the resources mentioned in this episode (with thanks to Amanda Augustine for cultivating this list!):

This article provides a list of crowdsourced resources, as well as job boards and apps that focus on remote jobs: https://www.topresume.com/career-advice/find-work-during-coronavirus

Some of my favorites are:

• Torch Capital spreadsheet (they actually recently moved it to a website)
• Upstream app-based community platform designed to help professionals give and receive help. You can download the app from the App Store.
• Ryan Robinson's Remote Job Websites Collection - 60 job boards in total
• Levels.fyi, which verifies the open positions with the company hiring

Receive a free resume review from TopResume here.

To find professional associations:

• Director of Associations: https://www.directoryofassociations.com/

To find a recruiter (without a Google search or without going through a job board/social media): 

• i-Recruit: https://www.i-recruit.com/recruiters-directory.php

To find networking events and job fairs:

• 10times: https://10times.com/ (also available as an app)
• Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/d/online/events/
• Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/
• Also, don’t forget to check with your alma mater’s alumni or career services teams. Many are hosting virtual events for alumni, including job-search specific events.

Vicki talks about who should negotiate (hint: everybody!) and suggests that instead of interviewing, you are engaging in Business Evaluation Meetings when you meet with a potential employer. That evaluation works both ways - you are evaluating the company and they are evaluating you. Keep in mind that as you go through these meetings, you want to set yourself up for a successful negotiation. You can do this by having 20 success stories ready to share. 

Prepare your stories by thinking through (1) the challenge you faced, (2) the action you took, and (3) the result you achieved. These are your C-A-R stories! Use these on your resume and in your interviews / Business Evaluation Meetings. 

Negotiate when you have an offer - this is the moment when you have the power. In addition to negotiating salary, you can negotiate vacation time, your job title and level, benefits, bonus, tuition reimbursement, work from home days, cell phone reimbursement, training, and parking expenses. That’s a lot of things up for negotiation! So how do you go about it?

Know your numbers: Check salary.com, The Muse, and Glassdoor.com for salary data. Also, poll your network so you know the compensation structure in the industry. 

When you receive a job offer, don’t accept it on the spot! Ask for 48 hours to consider the offer, then get back to them within 24 hours to initiate a negotiation. Don’t negotiate over email! Use words such as “This is a great offer and I have 3 questions.” Then remind them of your accomplishments (your CAR stories) and ask for what you want. After that, stop talking. 

Vicki shares tons of great phrases you can use in a negotiation as well as some good book recommendations and statistics about women and negotiation.

You can find Vicki on LinkedIn and online at http://coachvickie.com/. Vicki’s book Unleashing Your Inner Leader: An Executive Coach Tells All is available on Amazon. 

Vicki’s book recommendations: 

Women Don’t Ask - The High Cost of Avoiding Negotiation and Positive Strategies for Change by Linda Babcock and Sarah Laschever

Ask For It: How Women Can Use the Power of Negotiation to Get What They Really Want

 by Linda Babcock and Sarah Laschever

Applying habit #1 to your job search: 

First, there is the taking initiative part. Of course in your job search you must be proactive reaching out to people to ask for their help in your job search. Be proactive enough to ask twice for the requests that are important to you. 

As a job seeker, you also have to be able to tolerate rejection. But if you managed to “carry your own weather with you” throughout your job search, it would hurt less. 

Covey also talks about how proactive people handle mistakes. They “acknowledge it instantly, correct and learn from it”, thus turning a failure into a success. As a job seeker, have you ever made a mistake? Maybe you were in an interview and answered a question in a way that made you wish you could have your words back. After the interview, be proactive enough to do a debrief with yourself to evaluate how you performed in that interview. If you made mistakes, spend some time thinking about exactly how you’ll do it better next time. 

Habit #2:  Begin with the end in mind. 

Covey says “to begin with the end in mind means to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you’re going so that you better understand where you are now and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction.” 

Covey further explains this concept by saying that “ all things are created twice”, meaning that there’s a mental or first creation and a physical or second creation to all things. 

One way to begin with the end in mind is to create a personal mission statement. So that’s your homework: craft your personal mission statement. 

Let’s apply habit #2 of “Begin with the end in mind” to your job search.

First, outline clear enough goals for your career that you know what kind of job you are looking for. You might think that applying for every job is a good strategy because it’s a numbers game and if you can get enough job applications out there, you’ll win the game and get a job. But you won’t. It’s not a numbers game. It’s a matching game. And those are 2 very different games. 

Second, apply the habit of beginning with the end in mind to your job search by visualising yourself successfully getting that job. Close your eyes and imagine what it would be like to get up in the morning and go to that job. You can also visualize success in an interview. 

Habit #3: Put first things first

Put another way, it tells us to organize around our priorities.  And Covey weaves these first 3 habits together masterfully by mentioning that “you can’t become principle-centered without first being aware of and developing your own proactive nature (habit #1). You can’t become principle-centered without a vision of and a focus on the unique contribution that is yours to make.”  

Covey says “if we don’t practice habit 2 (begin with the end in mind), if we don’t have a clear idea of what is important, of the results we deserve in our lives, we are easily diverted into responding to the urgent.” Amen to that. 

Planning can be hard to make time to do, because it’s not urgent. It’s one of those important but not urgent activities that you will have to be deliberate about carving out the time to make happen. Here’s the payoff: Covey says “I believe if you were to ask what lies in Quadrant 2 (those are the important but not urgent activities in the time management matrix) and cultivate your proactivity to go after it...your effectiveness would increase dramatically. 

Let’s relate habit 3 to your job search. 

If you’re applying the 7 habits to your job search, you will have a clear goal in mind of the job you want to get and you will prioritize your job search activities so you’ll remain focused on doing the important stuff. 

Planning your days and weeks can help you with the discipline to stick with the important activities and put first things first. Covey recommends setting weekly goals that are in line with the longer-term goals you laid out in your personal mission statement. 

Take time today to organize your next week. Write down your goals for the week and then build an action plan around them. Let that guide you to spend your job search time on high-value activities like connecting with people and having conversations that will help you uncover opportunities that you can get referrals for. Try it for a week and see if this makes a difference. I bet it will.

Habit #4 is think win/win

“Win /win is a frame of mind and heart that constantly seeks mutual benefit in all human interactions. Win/win agreements or solutions are mutually beneficial, mutually satisfying. With a win/win solutions, all parties feel good about the decision and feel committed to the action plan. Win-win sees life as a cooperative, no ta competitive arena...win/win is based on the paradigm that there is plenty for everybody, that one person’s success is not achieved at the expense or exclusion of the success of others.”  Covey’s words there.

Let’s apply this to your job search: 

If you’re in the negotiation stage for a new job. You’ll want to start off the conversation by saying “I am excited about this offer and I want to talk to you about the compensation, so that we can come to an agreement on the offer that we are both really happy with.” You are setting up a win/win if you start like that - both parties share the same goal. 

Habit #5 is Seek first to understand, then to be understood

Covey talks about “empathic listening” meaning listening with the intent to understand. If you do this correctly (and it’s not easy) it requires that you as a listener get inside another’s frame of reference, see the world the way they see the world and understand how they feel. Covey says “you are focused on receiving the deep communication of another human soul.” 

Let’s apply this one to job searching. 

Say you are in an interview talking to a hiring manager who is describing challenges facing her team. If you listen, really listen and she realizes that you really understand her challenges I promise she will be interested in you as a candidate. Covey wants you to rephrase the content and reflect the feeling back to her so she feels understood. Once you do that and confirm your understanding of the situation, you might be able to offer some solutions, some new ideas to solve those challenges. What a way to stand out as a candidate. 

Habit #6 is synergize

Synergy, Covey says, means that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The essence of synergy is to value differences - to respect them, to build on strengths, to compensate for weaknesses. Synergistic communication means your approach conversations with a sense of excitement and security and adventu...

Together, Karen and I tackle the challenge of making a career pivot. She’s got tons of great tips, including these 3 steps you can take to make a new start in a different career: 

1. Figure out why you feel stuck and where you want to go
2. Determine what skills you already have that you can apply to this new field
3. Start talking about it! Do informational interviews, join organizations, read up, share articles and brand yourself as someone knowledgeable in the field. 

Let’s face it, changing careers can be tricky! Karen also offers advice for how you can actually show on your resume that you’re a person with a growth mindset who takes the initiative to learn new skills. If you’re going to start in a new field, you’ll definitely need to impress a hiring manager with your willingness to learn.

Find Karen Weeks on LinkedIn or at Weeks247.com

Listen to her podcast “Getting Off the Hamster Wheel” here

1. Prioritize the universe of possible targets. Steve walks us through the creation of a LAMP list and tells us how to prioritize which companies to pursue first. 

2. Contact people who work at those target companies by determining who best to reach out to and how to do it in a way that maximizes the chances that they will be sympathetic. 

Steve has identified the 3 types of people who will be on the receiving end of your email requests: Boosters, Obligates and Curmudgeons. Find out why Obligates are the most dangerous! He’s also got instructions for writing a 6-point email to ask people who work at your target companies for their time doing an informational interview.

3. Convince those people to be our allies and to help us get an interview. 2HJS includes specifics about how to conduct an informational interview, down to what you should talk about and how much talking you should be doing. 

One of the things I like best about this process is that Steve is not a guy who gives tips or job search advice. Instead, he provides the exact instructions you need to predictably land interviews over time. The 2HJS system is precise and efficient - Steve knows how long each step will take you and focuses his system on those activities that have been proven to provide the best return on your investment of time and energy.

By the way, 2 hours is how long it will take you to set up the system on the first day. Getting set up involves brainstorming a list of companies, prioritizing that list so you know which ones to attack first and drafting outreach emails to people who work at those companies.

The 2HJS is the ideal system for job-searching during a recession. It turns out the 2HJS was born during the 2008 recession as Steve worked with MBA students and identified a need for an effective system that produced results and included detailed instructions for every step of the job search process.

Here’s where you can find Steve Dalton and The 2-Hour Job Search: 

The 2-Hour Job Search available at Amazon.com

Find the system online at 2hourjobsearch.com

Steve’s 2HJS LinkedIn Group is over 5,000 people strong! Find it here: 

The 2-Hour Job Search - Q&A Forum

Barfield Revenue Consulting (BRC) is a multi-faceted resource for both organizations and individuals in search of ways to increase revenue. Whether the need is to recruit and hire key talent, internal sales and/or recruiter training, executive coaching, or assistance with resume repair and job placement, BRC has the tools and the expertise needed to help raise your revenue.

Katie and Will discuss how this recession is different from the 2008 recession and which NC business will likely bounce back quickly and which ones may have a difficult season ahead.

They also discuss the need for improvement in online learning platforms for students in the times of COVID-19.

Bart discusses various businesses who are doing well during COVID-19 and which ones have successfully pivoted their business model to adapt to the changing times. Some companies have risen to the top of the pack and it's been surprising that their business has grown during COVID-19.

It is clear that young people today have never experienced anything like this pandemic and the pending recession. This is going to lead to a very different job market. Will points out how in this "new normal" you need to take the job that you have done and find the core things that made you happy and use that information to find another job like that.

It is okay to ask people for help. If you've found yourself recently unemployed or looking for new employment don't do it on your own. Reach out to your network of professionals, friends, and family to assist you in your next chapter.

Want more information or see the jobs posted on Will's website. Check out barfieldrevenue.com.

Listen to Will's podcast "Raise Your Revenue" today.

With travel off the table as a viable gap year  option, my panel of experts and I talk through the merits of going to code school and then working for 6 months. I’m particularly excited about this idea as it checks all the boxes for me both as a parent and as a career coach: It enables students to have a productive year, gain a future-proof skill set and not only repay the investment in their education but also put some money away for the future. The financials make a lot of sense on this. 

Our panel for today's discussion includes:

• Abby Bittler, M. Ed., College Advisor at Optima Educational
• Jessica Mitsch, Co-Founder and CEO of Momentum 
• Mason Whitaker, Project Manager at Sunrise Technologies. 

Abby coaches students and families through the college selection process, Jessica is the Co-Founder and CEO of Momentum and Mason is a code school and college graduate who is currently crushing it in the career category thanks to his software development skills.

We start the conversation talking about the impact of COVID-19 on higher education. The college residential housing experience seems questionable and for that reason many students have decided to stay closer to home. The economic impact of the absence of international students in particular but also many domestic students will be a huge hit to colleges that were already on shaky financial ground.

And with many people out of work, affordability is going to be at the forefront for parents in making decisions for college this fall. Jessica shared that the cost of college tuition in her life lifetime alone has gone up 160%. This could lead to a more a la cart approach to education where people may turn to higher education throughout their careers instead of just at the beginning. For example, 70% of the students who attend Momentum already have their degree but are coming back to learn new skills and sharpen their existing skills. 

Higher education was ripe for change before COVID-19, but now Covid-19 seems to be quickening the pace of change coming to higher education. 

In addition, many colleges were forced to do a very quick pivotto operating online and they were not equipped for it. This led to a rare glimpse inside college classes for many parents who were surprised by what they were paying for.

One of the only things we can say for certain right now is that your experience at college this year will be very different. Some of the changes colleges are planning on making for this fall include: 

• Mandating the wearing of masks
• Increased social distancing in dorms and classrooms
• Smaller class sizes
• Fully remote classes or a hybrid model with some in-person and some online classes
• Testing and contact tracing and quarantine dorms for sick students.

 This is where the discussion around taking a gap year comes into play and waiting college out a year starts to seem like a really good idea!

If you are planning on taking a gap year, the first thing you should do is contact your university to find out what their policy is to ensure you don't lose credits or scholarships.

Options for students taking a gap year:

• Because of travel restrictions, the typical gap year experience may be significantly different
• Research volunteer opportunities in your hometown 
• Learn to code at Momentum's 16-week immersive software development program and then work as a software developer for 6-9 months. 

Momentum is handling their transition to digital differently than many schools. Since they are training students for a job, they treat their online schedule like a workday done on zoom instead of what many schools are offering which is some slides and an assignment. It's very structured and the teaching is live, a key differentiator from what passes for online learning at many higher education institutions.

The Momentum program is a 16-week program with monthly start dates, including the next start on July 13th.

Mason Whitaker went through code school during the summer before he started college. Now at 24, he's a Project Manager at Sunrise Technologies where he leads  implementations of Microsoft Dynamics 365 for the manufacturing division of a worldwide service organization. He shares his incredible story of why he chose to attend code school and the impact it had on his college experience and career. Coding provided him with entrepreneurial opportunities that set him apart from his peers and enabled him to jump headfirst into a rewarding professional career.

Find out more about how Momentum works

If you're looking for options to be productive and spend your time and money wisely during an uncertain academic year, learning to code at Momentum is a great option and a great way to set yourself up for success for a lifetime.

My guest is Annie Franceschi, bestselling author, speaker, and small business branding expert based in Durham, NC. In 2013, she quit a dream job at Walt Disney Studios to start her own agency, Greatest Story Creative®. Having branded more than 90 businesses, spoken for thousands, and released a #1 self-help book (Permission to Try), Annie is a passionate partner to entrepreneurs who want to unlock the value of their stories.

Annie is a huge movie buff who worked her way into her dream job at Disney and then found the courage to quit because it wasn’t making her happy. She started her own business called Greatest Story Creative and now helps small business owners craft and tell their own stories. 

Annie and I talk about how she made the decision to leave her fancy job, move across the country and start her own business. In her unique style, she shares the lessons she learned finding the courage to make such a bold mo and how you can apply these in your own life as you think about making a big move.

Back to Business is doing a virtual book club discussion of Annie Franceschi’s Permission To Try on Wednesday, July 8 at noon and Annie will be joining us! I hope you’ll join us too! Register for this free event here. 

You can find Annie at www.greateststorycreative.com

Buy Permission to Try on Audible here, on Amazon here and check out the Permission To Try website.

Join the Back to Business community by visiting us on the web and signing up to receive our weekly email full of job search advice and events.

Today we’re going to point you to some really valuable resources that are available through the North Carolina Department of Commerce for job-seekers. Did you know there is scholarship money available for retraining, a fantastic job board and free career coaching out there? And if you don’t live in North Carolina, many of these programs exist in your state as well - these are federally-funding programs that are available in every state. 

My guest is Michelle Muir, the Regional Operations Director for the North Carolina Department of Commerce. Michelle manages a team whose mission it is to support economic development and job growth in NC through outreach, policy, program management and strategic operational management. 

Michelle talks us through these free resources for job seekers: 

NCWorks Career Center - available remotely now and scheduled to re-open for walk-in appointments after the July 4 holiday: www.ncworks.gov

NCWorks Online - multiple online resources providing career exploration tools, resume assistance and job search assistance, including a job board that scrapes other job posting sites and includes additional openings that NC employers are required to list https://www.ncworks.gov/vosnet/dashboards/default.aspx?menuid=MENU_START_PAGE_DASHBOARD&pu=1&plang=E

Workforce Opportunity programs - including scholarships for retraining which can be used for community college courses and vocational schools. https://www.ncworks.gov/gsipub/index.asp?docid=504

Economic Development Partnership of NC - a public/private partnership that set up a job board in response to the pandemic www.edpnc.com

1. Did you have a job offer that was rescinded? Keep in touch with that employer by dropping them an email every few weeks to see how they’re doing and tell them what you’re up to. When the hiring freeze thaws, you want to be the first person they think of to fill their open role.
2. Call your school’s career center. Ask them for advice. Then do whatever they tell you to do! Seriously, these are the people who get calls from companies and alumni who want to hire people. You want them to know that you’ve been doing the work to find a job when an opportunity comes across their desk.
3. Build a professional network. Call the alums of your school. Call your aunts and uncles. Call your parent's friends. Ask your professors for contacts. Here’s what you say: 
   1. “I’d like to learn about your job/company/industry. How did you get started?
   2. How has it been impacted by the corona crisis? 
   3. Here’s my plan for finding a job...is there anything else you think I should do? Anyone else I should talk to?”
4. Write about what you know. Start a blog and publish on LinkedIn. You just finished 4 years of college, so I know you know stuff. Share your ideas.
5. Upskill. Learn to code. Tech will rebound first in our economy and you’ll be ready if you can code. Get exposure initially through a free online course and then do a coding Bootcamp. While others are spinning their wheels, you’ll be adding the hottest job skills to your resume. Pay for it through an ISA (income-sharing agreement), but look carefully at this to make sure the terms are reasonable. Or get a job or two to stock away the money to pay cash: Deliver for Amazon, get hazard pay at the grocery store, deliver pizzas at night. You’ll be so much more marketable. This is the skill set of the future. Just please don’t add to your student debt load if you’ve already borrowed a lot of money!
6. Build your own website. If you don’t know how, learn! Take some of those hours you spend online and learn how all that technology works. Try Wordpress. Even I figured it out, so I know you can do it! Add your resume, your blog, a research paper you wrote that you’re proud of, some of the pictures you’ve taken.
7. Volunteer for something you believe in. Figure out what you believe in and work for it. You won’t earn money, but you’ll grow, you ‘ll meet people and you’ll have great references. Tutor kids online. Mow your elderly neighbor's lawn for free. See beyond yourself, even though this was supposed to be your year.
8. Start a business. Figure out what people need right now - online sports coaching? Website building? Zoom lessons? My daughter is listening to a dad read Harry Potter to his son on a podcast - there is a market for what you know and what you can do. I see a need for someone to engineer online celebrations and graduations, as well as the yard signs that help us celebrate in lieu of parties now that we’re all staying home.
9. Find an internship. I know you want a full-time job, but we’re all recalibrating our expectations. Get a foot in the door. Start-ups always need help. Work for free if you need to. 
10. Learn to manage money. If you learn when times are tight, you’ll be setting yourself up for success. Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover is my personal favorite. Establish long-term goals, do the math so you know how much money you’ll need to achieve your goals, and have a plan. You need a career plan and a financial plan. As we say in my family - Plan your work and work your plan.
11. Come up with your own brilliant idea! You are smart and resourceful. Come up with 10 ideas of your own - you can do it! 
12. Become rejection proof. Check out this TED talk by Jia Jiang to see how he learned to deal with rejection and became unafraid of asking for what he wanted. Every job search entails rejection, so learning how to power through it will serve you well.

Class of 2020 - good luck! I’m here for you. We’re all rooting for you and watching to see how you will turn this situation into an opportunity to show the world how amazing you really are. Try one of these 12 ideas to fuel your job search in a tough market and to use your summer to add to your skillset and grow as a person. 

Katie has asked this question in thousands of interviews and it is her favorite question because it told her so much about a candidate. She could get a glimpse into their communication skills, insight into what they actually did throughout their career, and how they thought about it. Also, when you ask this question, you get at a sense of how self-aware the candidate is.

"Start off with the really important stuff. Tell me that you are what I'm looking for, and then tell me, you can tell me where you started your career." - Katie

Focus on good transitions
Your job is to help the interviewer make sense of the changes you've made in your career path. Focus on your accomplishments, not your abilities. Your path may not have been a linear journey, but you can focus on what you learned and how it propelled your career forward, and always end this section with "I'm here today because," and then tell the interviewer how your skills and experience that you've gained throughout your career make you the perfect fit for the job that you're interviewing for.

Keep it brief
Practice a 30-second version and a 90-second version of your answer to this question. You can use the 30-second version for networking and the 90-second version for an interview setting.

Practice
Practice your pitch by recording yourself on your phone or recording yourself on video. Find someone who can give you feedback to practice your pitch with as well. You don't want to be so professional that you're not enthusiastic.

Don't apologize for any of the career moves you've made. Own every career move you've made, especially the ones where you decided to step out of your career. Mention it as part of your story and move on.

As you go into your interview, know what this company values and work into your answer some things that will indicate to them that you value the same things.

Use bullet point points for structure as you answer interview questions.
Here is an example of how using bullet points when speaking help you communicate clearly during an interview. Why do you want to work at this company? I want to work here for three reasons, number one (your answer) number 2 (your answer) and finally number 3 (your answer).

Here is my absolute favorite strategy for answering interview questions. It's the PAR technique.
This technique involves using a Problem, Action, and Result to specifically address a question that has been asked. This is a very effective technique for any time you are asked a question that begins with "Tell me about a time when..."

There are five different sections of common interview questions.
1. Skills - they are looking to understand if you have the skills for the role.
2. Teamwork -  are you the kind of person they want on their team.
3. Communication - evaluated throughout the interview.
4. Values and motivation - what makes you tick?
5. Work ethic - people want to hire people who will get stuff done.

What if you are asked an inappropriate question in an interview? Respond like this: "This is a question I haven't gotten before, why do you ask?" That way, asking a question in response to that question, we'll put the onus back on your interviewer to really think deeply about why it is they're asking that question and where they want to go from there.

When it was time for Ellen to return to the job force she started doing what she called the indeed death scroll. She would say "I can't do that one." Not qualified for that one. Etc.

In the meantime, she picked up freelance projects because she liked to keep busy. She learned Ruby on rails, a new programming language. She built a SAS and started a company. All while she was looking for jobs thinking "Who would hire me?" Ellen believes many women share her experience.

She decided to go back to school to get her graduate degree. In hindsight, she feels it worked out well for her but she used it as her confidence crutch. She didn't need to do that to return to the workforce, that mentality was in her head.

I understood the importance of confidence, so I really couldn't shake that feeling of how I could go from being so confident to not confident. That is why I founded You are techY.

You do not know what flexibility is being offered until you investigate and pursue it.

How did you start You are techY?

You are techY grew organically from a local Raleigh, NC MeetUp where amazing women (mostly moms) would share their life and work story at the corner coffee shop. 

After hearing them say, "I worked in IT for 25 years or I have a masters degree in Computer Science, but I'm not really very techy", I would stand up and shout across the table YOU ARE TECHY! Tech offers meaningful, flexible, well-paid work and NO you don't have to learn to code (but I know YOU can). We have the resources and community you need to land your dream job!

Tips for regaining your professional confidence.

1. Write it down.

Journaling is a powerful way to grow in your relationship with your own thoughts. Write down your answers for interviews. Visualize the success you want to have. Exactly what is the job look like that you want to have? What does it feel like to have that job? What's your commute? How are you adjusting at home? etc.  Grow in your relationship with yourself.

2. Do the work.

Build your competencies. Do a little bit every day. Give yourself some grace, be patient, and you will get there. Get the skills that you need. Be selective and try to remain focused. Employers are not looking for people who know everything. They are looking for people who can learn.

If you convince yourself, everyone else will follow. - Ellen Twomey

3. Remember your victories

Keep a file of thank you notes and meaningful experiences you can reflect on.

Now that you know how to boost your professional confidence after a break in your career, go do it. I believe in you.

Join her free Facebook group

View her website for more information on courses.

Listen to the You are techY podcast

I’ve met a lot of women who are returning to work in the midst of getting a divorce. Many of them never expected to be in this position and suddenly find themselves dealing with the loss of a marriage and the end of their career as a stay-at-home-mom. 

I’ve always wanted to acknowledge the challenges faced by women getting divorced and returning to work simultaneously, but never felt like I knew enough about it. Not to worry, my guest Sarah Hink, a partner at New Direction Family Law knows everything about this!

Sarah and I talk about divorce settlements, alimony, child support, going to court and working it out. She’s seen a lot of women through divorce and seen that you really can come out the other side.

Sarah and I tackle the question of how getting a job before your divorce is final will impact your settlement, what happens if one spouse has been unfaithful and how to carve out money for upskilling in preparation for returning to work.

A friend going through a divorce shared this wisdom with me: In the midst of a difficult divorce she realized that it was completely up to her to carve out her future and that no one else will share the credit or the blame, so she better make it good. 

Anyone going through a divorce and trying to conduct a job search has a lot to deal with! Support groups can help with the emotional turmoil, so be sure to seek one out. And don’t forget that the steps of a job search still involve networking, having solid job search tools (resume) and presenting yourself as a professional. You can do it!

You can find Sarah Hinks at New Direction Family Law at https://newdirectionfamilylaw.com/

Nishant reached out to people primarily through LinkedIn. He started with people he knew he’d have something in common with, such as alumni of his school, but he didn’t limit himself to just alumni. He did searches on LinkedIn to find people working in tech in California because that’s what he wanted to do. He asked if they’d be willing to have a phone call with him, so he could learn about their job or company.

After doing about 20-30 calls, he realized he had to change his strategy and that the keys to being successful on a networking call were observing proper meeting etiquette by sticking to the time allotted, having great communication skills and convincing people that you are credible.

For every phone call, Nishant had with someone he reached out to, there were 10 others he contacted but who did not respond to him. This is important: set reasonable expectations for how often people will respond to you or you’ll be very discouraged as you expand your network.

Nishant estimates that he conducted over 120 networking calls! And he shares tons of tips so that you can do this successfully too. 

We started out by reframing our current situation from “this is not a good job market” to “hiring is being done differently now - it’s being done over video and to succeed in this environment, we have to learn how to master the video interview.” Ryan shared tons of tips from his years doing video training that we can all use to shine on a video interview.

“Authenticity Works!”

First, remember that authenticity works, but even an authentic storyteller needs to plan how they are going to tell their story. Ryan encouraged “knowing your frame” which is being really aware of what’s around you when you are doing a video interview. Since we’re all living in our home production studios these days, just find a simple, uncluttered space in your home where you’ll set yourself up for your interview. Including a plant in the scene can warm things up. Pay attention to what the audience can see - know what’s in your frame.

Ryan had lots of good advice for how to appear on camera. Here are a few gems: 

• Face your laptop toward a window to have natural light on your face. If this isn’t possible, put a lamp behind your laptop for optimal lighting.
• Raise your camera to eye level or 1-2 inches higher.
• Drop your chin down as you speak. This opens up your eyes to your audience, which helps with your ability to connect to them.
• Use your voice and vary your tone to keep things interesting. (But practice this before to get it right!)
• Eye contact is important - be sure to look at the camera, but just like during an in-person conversation, you can occasionally look away to glance at your screen. You wouldn’t stare into someone’s eyes throughout a normal conversation, so you don’t want to do it on video either.

Your Energy Level

Know how your energy translates to video: Record yourself doing a practice interview and notice how you feel as you do it. Rate yourself on a scale of 1-10 for the level of energy you feel you are putting out. Then watch it back and rate it as an audience member. Ryan says you should push yourself to be an 11 on a 1-10 scale! Bring the energy! Research shows that people won’t remember your message so much as they will remember how they felt talking to you. Your positive energy can leave them with a great impression.

1-Way Video Interviews

For 1-way video interviews, you’ll be answering questions auto-generated by a software package and there won’t be a human on the other end at all. Prep for these by anticipating the questions and rehearsing your answers. Have talking points prepared. And remember to show up with some urgency for these interviews: People tend to slow down while doing these types of interviews because it’s hard to maintain high energy without seeing a person on the other end, so be sure that you’re keeping your energy high.

Video Resumes

Video resumes are a great way to stand out as a job seeker. Remember that these should not be a verbal recitation of your paper resume. Ryan says to keep it to 90 seconds max and start off by getting your viewer hooked. First impressions matter, so lead with the information that’s most relevant and interesting to the viewer and have a unique introduction.

Tools to use for your Video Resume

There are lots of tools you can use to record your video resume such as PhotoBook on Mac or Zoom. Upload it to YouTube and then link to it on your LinkedIn profile and email out the link.

Try Loom

Ryan’s favorite tool for doing a video resume is Loom. Here’s a great idea for job-seekers: Record a customized video introduction that you email out to companies or include in a LinkedIn inMail. You’ll stand out - not many job seekers have a video resume yet.

How to reach Ryan Carey

You can reach Ryan at Ryan@betteron.video for video coaching or to help your business use video to stand out. You’ll find BetterOn at www.BetterOn.video on the web.

And the types of work that I did was what a lot of people would call networking. It's all about building, these amazing relationships. And I was fortunate enough to have surrounded myself with some amazing people. All of the successes that I have had, and I've had a lot of failures too. Don't get me wrong, but. All of the successes I've had have had really nothing to do with me, but they've all like, I really attribute them all just to these amazing people that I've surrounded myself with. - Adam Connors"

A lot of people don't really know what networking is or why we should do it. Adam breaks down what networking is and it's benefits.

Networking is taking a proactive approach to relationship development with the ultimate goal of benefiting someone else. It's not, about what can I yet. That's not it. You don't network for need. HIt's about the connection. Fostering that, building those relationships. That's networking.

There's no question that your network is the single most valuable resource for a successful job search. Hands down. I mean, the hidden job market is found in your network.

Also mentioned in this episode

• Anyone who listens can reach out at networkwise.com directly for a 50% off code for any of the programs talked about today if you mention you are referred by Katie Dunn
• Adam's podcast Conversations with Connors

Warming up cold emails: from Keith Ferrazzi in Never Eat Alone

•       Use an interesting subject line: lead with your connection or your value prop

•       Be Brief and Conversational: Write your note, then cut it in half

•       Have a clear call to action: Request 15 minutes on the phone and offer suggested dates and times

•       Be grammatically perfect

Sample email: 

Hi Beth, 

I have a favor to ask: I‘m looking to go back to work full-time and saw a Digital Marketing Manager position at BB&T posted on LinkedIn.  I know you have successfully juggled work and family for many years and would love to chat about BB&T and see if you can share any information about the position that I've applied for. 

I'm always up for grabbing a cup of coffee but if a phone call fits into your schedule better then that would be great too.  I've pasted the job posting below.  I've also attached my resume so you can get a feel for my background.  Thanks for any help you can provide!

My request:

I have an interview tomorrow for a job at Company with Sean and I saw on LinkedIn that you are connected to him. Just wondering if you have any background on him and what he's like?  

Thanks for the inside scoop!
Katie

Response: 
I went to business school with him and worked with him right after school.  He lives two blocks away from us.  I’ll call him!

Tip for writing a great email;  Write your email and then cut it in half

Use email finder websites like hunter.io to get your message through – this is not stalking!

2 – Master the 15-minute networking call:

1. Greet & Introduce
2. Be thankful 
3. Position the meeting as valuable to them
4. Describe your agenda & confirm

Ask thoughtful, open-ended questions starting your questions with phrases like:

1. Tell me about…
2. My research shows...
3. Describe to me…
4. Why...

Ask about

1. New initiatives
2. Business drivers 
3. How they got there
4. Career advice

This is not the time to ask for a job! You are building a relationship and gathering information.

Convey your messages and share information

1. What 3 things do you want them to remember about you?
2. Use your research to share information
3. Ask for advice

“Here’s my plan for finding a job in software development. Can you think of anything else I should be doing? Who else should I speak with?”

Wrap it up, take notes and follow up

1. End the meeting on time with a thank you & a reminder
2. After the meeting, immediately jot down notes
3.  Follow up

Use your notes to write a personal thank you email

Follow up again after they’ve made an introduction, you’ve read the book they suggested, etc.

3 – Get Active on LinkedIn

Like 

Share

Comment

Join Groups

Connect to people you don’t know

Connection request: 

Hi, xx,

I’d like to connect so I can continue to follow your success.

Thank you.

Hi, xx,

I’m currently conducting a job search. I’ve always been interested in your company and would like to get connected so I can learn more about what you’re doing.

Thank you.

Now that you know how to adapt your job search to a virtual job search, go do it. I believe in you.

In addition to her latest book, The Serving Mindset. Stop Selling and Grow Your Business, Farnoosh is the creator of the Crack the Code to Get Promoted corporate leadership and advancement course, as well as the author of three health books and a wellness program. She is also an avid yoga practitioner, an amateur golfer, and a world traveler.

Farnoosh and Katie discuss that the first step to determining where to enter the workforce is to ask "Why you want to reenter the workforce."

Getting really clear on that helps you to get to know yourself, understand what's important to you at this stage and what is going to energize and invigorate you at your next role.

Sometimes people know what they DON'T want to do, but they don't know what they do want to do. To find the answer to this question, start by doing an assessment of your skills and abilities. Then ask if you are passionate about it. If you are both skilled and passionate that is an area to focus on finding a role. That's the intersection of your skills and passions.  That is your zone of genius.

The statistics used to be that people would have seven different jobs over the course of their career, but now the numbers say that people will have seven different careers over the course of their working years.

As your deciding what type of work to go back to, it can be helpful to ask about each of your skills: "Is this energizing me?" That's a great question to really help guide you toward doing work that you're happy doing. 

This is the part of the interview at a tech company where they will be actively testing your tech skills, and so you want to be at the top of your game. You want to know exactly what to expect and how to prepare and be able to shine in this part of the interview. 

The first thing Dina would say is to ask your recruiter questions:

•  What to expect in the interview. 
• Who are you going to be meeting with? 
• If you can get their titles, if not, take their names and try to look them up on LinkedIn to get a better understanding.
• Appropriate attire.

The recruiter is on your side and they want to see you succeed. 

During the assessment portion of the interview, you will be reviewing your answers with the interviewer(s).

They are looking to see "Why" did you do it that way? But, also they want to see that level of excitement. They want to see how you think about everything. Eventually in the interview, you can expect to not know the answer. Clearly articulate your thought process to get there? Be okay saying, gosh, I don't, I don't know this, but here's how I might go and figure that out. Or here are some of the sources of information I go to when I get stumped like this.

Remember interviews are two-sided. It's not just them interviewing you, it's you interviewing them. Is this the person? Is this the kind of team you want to be on? The technology you want to work on?

Dina, besides being a master at technical recruiting, also does lots of other things, including being the author of a book, and I love this title. "My fat pants don't fit."

The book is being released in early to mid-June and is the story of her life. It starts on the worst day of my life and follows her on a journey of losing 150 pounds getting divorced, falling in love, falling out of love, and ultimately finding like self-love and acceptance. 

Danielle Pavliv is a Sr. Diversity & Inclusion Manager at SAS where she serves as a thought leader and strategist promoting and executing global diversity & inclusion strategies. She's passionate about creating positive change, advocacy, and inclusion of underrepresented groups in the workplace and community. Danielle has two Bachelor’s degrees in Spanish & French from NC State University and a Master’s in Human Resource Management from the University of Southern California. She is also a Certified Diversity Professional. Danielle lives in Apex with her fur babies: dog, Sugar, cats, Smokey and Mr. Man, and her husband, Matt.

Diversity and inclusion feel like kind of, they were the big buzzwords in 2019 but Danielle was interested in this and working on it long before then.

Danielle shares her story about how she found her career in the field of diversity and inclusion, or really how it found her. She sought out working at her current company because of their views on diversity and inclusion.

We discuss the topic of neurodiversity and why it is a benefit to our workplaces.

The first step is to lean into your uniqueness and be your authentic self from the get-go.

Sometimes we go into an interview and we're a little buttoned up and we just show sort of the nice shiny parts of us and we leave some of our uniqueness behind and think, well, I just got to get in the door there. And Danielle is suggesting to have that a little more on display or be a little more open.

What if you are a candidate who is considered neurodiverse? If you are on the autism spectrum or Asperger's or ADHD? Danielle addresses this topic.

The second step is using your advantage to show your potential employer the value that you bring.

The third step is to be a champion and an advocate.

Danielle talks about why being an advocate and an ally for yourself and for others helps every. Not only you, but your organization, and other people who need help breaking down silos, barriers, and stereotypes.

Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Get a Job, Here's How, now that you know how to leverage uniqueness as your competitive advantage, go do it. I believe in you.

LinkedIn facts: (from Kinsta.com)

1. Users only spend about 17 minutes on LinkedIn per month.
2. 39% of LinkedIn users pay for LinkedIn Premium
3. Only 3 million users (out of the more than 500 million) share content on a weekly basis. This means that only about 1% of LinkedIn’s 260 million monthly users share posts, and those 3 million or so users net the 9 billion impressions.
4. With more than 20 million companies listed on the site and 14 million open jobs, it’s no surprise to find out that 90% of recruiters regularly use LinkedIn.

About 45% of LinkedIn article readers are in upper-level positions (managers, VPs, Directors, C-level).

So, to use all of these statistics to paint a picture: 

There are many more or less “inactive” users on LinkedIn, and there are two main groups of people who use LinkedIn regularly: 

1. Recruiters and hiring managers who are using LinkedIn to find and vet candidates
2. There’s the 1% of the 260 million LI users you talked about, Katie: these are ambitious, career-focused professionals who are using LinkedIn to make connections, to stay informed about trends in their industry, to market themselves for future career opportunities, and to build their personal brand. 

So what I’m excited to talk to your listeners on today’s podcast is how to be one of the one-percenters. 

Katie to introduce the three things.

1. Create a well written, complete, and keyword optimized LinkedIn profile

2. Build your network, give/get recommendations, and follow target companies

3. Engage with others and write/post original content for your network/followers

1. Create a well written, complete, and keyword optimized LinkedIn profile. There are a few components to your LinkedIn page and you want to fully flesh out your entire profile. 

Complete Your Personal Profile.

 LinkedIn research shows that users with complete profiles are 40 times more likely to receive opportunities via their LinkedIn activities. Also, LinkedIn takes into account the completeness of your profile in its search algorithm, which means you’re more likely to rank higher on the search results page if your profile is 100% complete.

Get the Headshot Right.

It might be worth hiring a professional photographer to work with you. The photo is crucial. One study used eye-tracking software to find that recruiters spent 19% of their time on any given LinkedIn profile just looking at the photo. So,  it’s important to get it right.

Also, profiles with a photo get up to 21x more views and 36x more messages. You definitely don’t want to leave the photo space blank.

Use good lighting to get a crisp, clean image. Choose the right top, jewelry, hairstyle, and so forth. Smile and look at the camera. Keep the background simple and crop appropriately: head and shoulders. Not too close, not too far away.

I’ve been writing resumes and LinkedIn profiles for 10 years and I think people are now really starting to get the photo right. I used to see a lot more people using photos of themselves in formal wear -- like from a wedding photoshoot, in spaghetti straps or a tuxedo -- or in a much too casual setting -- in sunglasses, with a child, with someone obviously cropped out. 

Use Your Headline to Get Noticed. 

By default, LinkedIn assigns you a headline that consists of your job title @ your company name. So, it might read something like, “Sr. Software Engineer at IBM.” Many people don’t realize that they can use this space more strategically. 

Your headline should clearly explain what you do and who you do it for—in language a hiring manager or recruiter would use. When someone conducts a search on LinkedIn, possibly looking for potential candidates to fill a role, the search results display, at a glance, a few key pieces of information. 

Also, you want to be strategic about keywords; your headline is a great place to include keywords that will position you for the jobs you’re seeking.

What about your job title? There really isn’t one “right” way to address this, but my favorite tactic is to use the headline to promote what you want to do next, while not overtly advertising the fact that you’re not currently working. So, for instance, if your last job was as a project manager, but that job ended five years ago, you put an end date of 2014 on that job and use your headline to say something like: 

Experienced Project Manager

...or go with something more specific and memorable that also builds your credibility, like: 

PMP-Certified IT Project Manager 

For people who want to shift careers, you can’t do too much to change the job titles you have had in the past, but you can use your headline to position yourself for the job you want next. So, for instance, if your career so far has been in one thing and you want to move into another thing, your headline is a great place to highlight that. I’ll use the example of a 12th grade English Language Arts teacher who wanted to leave teaching and get a job with an educational software company as an English language arts subject matter expert. Her headline used to be: 

English Teacher at Sanderson High School

….and, when we gave her a LinkedIn makeover, we changed her tagline to:

Educational Software Development Consultant with an M.Ed. in English Language Arts and 15+ Years of Classroom Experience (remember that you only have 120 characters)

Nail the “About” Section. 

Whatever message you decided to promote in your headline, elaborate on it in your About section. 

Start with a compelling opening statement. If you’ve been on LinkedIn lately, you know that you can only see the first line and a half of the summary and you actually have to click “See more” to continue reading that section. You want to make that first interesting enough to get someone to keep reading. 

Use keywords throughout your summary. You have up to 2,000 characters to play with. Don’t be afraid to inject some personality, tell a story, use a casual, conversational tone, and talk about what makes you unique or what your professional passions are.

Keep it readable by using short paragraphs or bullet points. And definitely highlight your qualifications and skills. These are most likely going to dovetail with some of your most strategic keywords. 

And on LinkedIn: Damian Zikakis. 

Damian joins me via skype from Michigan where he runs DGZ Coaching. Damian shares the background of CliftonStrengths (which used to be called StrengthFinder). The CliftonStrengths assessment uncovers your unique rank order of 34 CliftonStrengths talent themes. Your themes are your talent DNA. They explain the ways you most naturally think, feel and behave. Gallup’s research shows that people who know and use their CliftonStrengths are:

   - more engaged at work

   - more productive in their roles

   - happier and healthier

Many colleges and universities have all incoming freshmen take the assessment and provide coaching to help them understand their results. They have found this increases student retention and graduation rates. More and more organizations are using CliftonStrengths with their employees, too, however, it is typically not part of the hiring process. As of last week, over 22 and a half million people have taken the assessment.

Step 1 - 

Complete the CliftonStrengths assessment and read the Insights Report provided by Gallup. There are many resources provided by Gallup including podcasts, videos, blog posts, and books. Additionally, you can hire a Gallup-certified Strengths Coach to help you understand your results. Gallup researchers identified 34 themes of talent and it is helpful to focus on your dominant ones - particularly your Top 5. A cool thing to realize is you aren’t one in a million; you are one in 33 million. Those are the odds of someone else having the same top 5 as you in the same order. Crazy huh?

Coaches like me refer to this step as learning to Name your Strengths.

Katie: my top 5 strengths are Relator, Achiever, Learner, Harmony, Futuristic. I have to admit when I first took this assessment a few years ago and got my results, my first reaction was “No, that’s not me. They got me all wrong.” But the more I learned about it the more I came to see that these strengths describe me quite well. 

Step 2

Claiming your Strengths. What I mean by that is thinking about the things you do in your work that come from your Top 5 Strengths. For example, my number 2 Strength is Learner which means I enjoy the process of learning. I approach work and non-work activities with excitement about the process of learning more about whatever the subject might be. I can’t help it. It is just one of my natural ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. In fact, that is the definition of a Talent - a natural, recurring way of thinking, feeling or behaving. Our Strengths don’t tell us what we do (or what we should do) but rather how we do it.

Katie: I love that step 2 is claiming your strengths because I find that women, in particular, aren’t always comfortable talking about their strengths. But this is so important in a job search. If we can’t tell people what we’re good at, then who will? Just saying something that starts with “I am good at…” or “This is a real strength of mine” can be hard for people. Having the data from an assessment like CliftonStrengths can add to your confidence when you say things like that. So you’re not just tooting your own horn, you’re sharing evidence-backed assessment results!

Q: Can the CliftonStrengths help me identify a weakness I may have and give me some language to talk about that when I’m asked about my weakness in an interview?

A: Absolutely, however, I like to think of them as lesser talents. And this brings up a good point, we can make greater strides in our self-development when we focus our resources on developing our stronger talents into strengths as compared to focusing on fixing weaknesses or trying to develop lesser talents. Let me give you an example that is relevant to the third step. The subject is networking and there is a talent that is great to have if you need to network as part of your job. The talent is WOO which stands for winning others over. For me, WOO is in the middle of the pack. I can network with strangers but it takes energy from me rather than providing energy. So rather than trying to fix that I developed an alternate approach. 

Step 3 - 

and this is where I get the most excited - is Aiming your Strengths. What I mean by that is thinking about the key aspects of a job and how your Strengths allow you to do those things in a particularly effective way that is unique to you. Then decide how to share that with the hiring manager or recruiter. You can highlight them in your resume, cover letter, and LinkedIn profile as well as during networking and interviews. Your Strengths are like your superpowers. Once you learn to harness and focus them, you can do even greater things. And the ability to describe your Strengths and how you capitalize on them, both individually and as part of a team, will set you apart from other candidates.

Wrap-up & Recap:

1. Take the CliftonStrengths assessment and read the Insights Report provided by Gallup. 
2. Claim Your Strengths
3. Aim Your Strengths

You can access the assessment at https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/strengthsfinder.aspx.

You can connect with Damian at damian@dgzcoaching.com. His web address is dgzcoaching.com.

Damian is also available for keynote speaking engagements and he trains groups on CliftonStrengths. 

Thanks for listening to this episode of "Get A Job...Here’s How!" Now that you know how to talk about your strengths in your job search, go do it! I believe in you.

Ellen shares what it is like working at Glassdoor and she also answers the question, do people review Glassdoor on Glassdoor? 

 
And just for fun, we'll read some hilarious glassdoor reviews.

Here are the steps to steps to becoming an informed candidate using Glassdoor: 

1. Read reviews and ratings at the company level. Once you have a company that you think you are interested in applying in, make sure it's going to be a good fit. Search the company on Glassdoor, and read through reviews. Filter by your specific role/location, look for common themes in reviews. Is it somewhere you see yourself?

             
Example: I am an Account Executive, who is not a fan of making 100's of dials a day. During my job search, as reviewing companies, some reviews specifically mentioned the cold calling, 40 dials a day, smile/dial work environment, after reading these reviews, it gave me a better understanding of what companies were going to be a good fit for me, and which ones were worth my time. 

2. Review interview reviews before your interview. After you apply to a job and land that interview, it's time to prepare! Glassdoor hosts a ton of sample interview questions, for you to make sure you are prepared to answer. More specifically, a lot of companies on Glassdoor will have interview reviews from people who have gone through the process. You'll learn about how many people are on their interview panels, is it good cop/bad cop scenario, and any curveballs you should be prepared for.  You have the ability to understand the difficulty of an interview and in some situations specific questions that have historically been asked. This way, you can feel confident and prepared so you can ace that interview.

             
Example: A client of ours requests that after every interview, the candidate goes on and discusses their interview experience on Glassdoor! This one candidate chose to write about an assessment that they were required to take and where she felt she missed the mark, While this candidate didn't get the job she helped provide insight to future candidates and give the company some feedback on that specific recruiter to where they can improve as well. Companies know this information is out there so they want to make sure you are prepared.

Katie: A company that asks candidates to review it after every interview is one that had better have a good interview process and candidate process! That really keeps them accountable if they know they are going to be reviewed.

I heard recently that some new thinking on interview practices involved actually giving candidates a list of questions they might be asked before the interview. That surprised me! But the thinking was that then candidates that came in and didn’t know how to answer the questions they were asked were people who obviously didn’t bother to prepare and not the kind of people you’d want to hire. I don’t think this practice has been widely adopted. But as an interviewee, I love that you can get interview questions off of Glassdoor because that makes it easy to prepare. And that’s one of those things that I don’t think everybody knows you can get from Glassdoor.

Here are some more funny Glassdoor reviews: This is a company local to Raleigh. They have 4 reviews and here are the 4 headlines from those 4 reviews:

1. The embodiment of engineering disappointment
2. Worst company ever
3. Backward management and dated software
4. Sinking Ship

So I think I’ll avoid working there. 

3. Understand Your Worth. You crushed your interview, and have an offer on the table. Is it an appropriate offer? Having an understanding of what the industry is paying, what the company typically pays, and just knowing your worth is leverage for negotiation. Under the salary tab, you can enter the job title in which you are interested in, experience, and location, to get an average salary. This way you know the offer you received is in the ballpark. A candidate has the ability to take an even deeper dive at the company level, to see if there are any salary reviews from current employees, to see if, in fact, the offer amount is on par. Understanding your net worth is something important, as you are working with recruiters, make sure you are vocal with your salary expectation and why.

           
Example: a colleague of mine received an offer letter from a company that was about $15,000 under the average in Chicago. By pulling data on Glassdoor she was able to make a case and negotiate an additional $10,000 confidently with the data pulled on Glassdoor.  

Katie: This is so important. Knowing what you’re worth gives you leverage in a negotiation. And you can’t negotiate successfully if you don’t have current data. I’ve talked a bunch of MBA students through salary negotiations and we always start with collecting the data that justifies asking for more. Glassdoor is a great place to get that information. We kept a database of student salaries and bonuses at UNC and it gave our students a great source of data for negotiating. In the past, most job-seekers wouldn’t have access to a resource like that, but now everyone does with Glassdoor. 

Wrap-Up:

Let’s review the 3 steps to being an informed candidate:

1. Read reviews at the company level. Avoid the “sinking ships” and the “worst company ever”

2. Review interview reviews before your interview - get interview questions so you can prepare and know what to expect. It’s a great feeling to walk into an interview feeling confident and prepared. 

3. Understand your worth and get the data you need to negotiate successfully

Now that you know how to use Glassdoor to become an informed candidate, go do it! I believe in you.

Working with a resume writer is a great way to ensure that your resume reflects current thinking and trends in hiring. A good resume writer will be a wordsmith, great with language, able to suggest ideas, formatting, action verbs that you might not have thought of.

 If you’re going to invest in a professional to help you with these tools, you want to make the most of your investment by working productively with them. And Mir is going to tell us exactly how to do that.

Career transitions can be so incredibly stressful because they often coincide with other life transitions--job loss, a layoff, a relocation, a divorce, your last child heading off to kindergarten, and so on. 

Sometimes your confidence isn’t as strong as it could be, and I’ve seen that working with my team to write, revise, and finalize that resume leaves people feeling more prepared to speak about their skills and experiences at the interview, more energized about their prospects, and more confident in general.

I’m a firm believer that every job we ever have leaves us with lessons learned and transferable skills. In college, I waited tables at an Italian restaurant and had one of my best managers ever teach me about the importance of ensuring positive customer experience. 

99% of the time, the job seekers who hire my team trust the process and our guidance, and understand how important their input is. In order to create a document that is accurate, persuasive, tailored for the intended audience, and is something that the client is not only excited about, but the client also has to rely on us and we have to rely on the client. It really must be collaborative.

Every now and then, though, we have clients who fall into either one of two camps, and they are on the two extremes of the same spectrum. 

Sometimes we have a client who does not want to be involved at all in the process of writing, revising, and finalizing their documents. Of course, we need to pick your brain, ask you questions, incorporate your answers, and make sure that everything we’ve included in your resume is 100% accurate--from your various jobs’ start and end dates all the way down to how many direct reports you have, what size budgets you manage, and what kinds of outcomes you’ve achieved. 

We can’t write a resume in a vacuum, so I would say one pitfall to look out for when deciding to hire a writer is thinking that this is something you can simply outsource without having to provide any input along the way.

On the other end of the spectrum, we sometimes have a client that doesn’t trust the process and, therefore, doesn’t benefit from all that we can bring to their project. In these instances, the “quote-unquote” “finished resume” often looks a lot like the resume that the client had to start with. That’s because any ideas or suggestions we offered weren’t embraced--or were only adopted in part. In my mind, in these instances, I always wonder, “why did you even hire a writer if you just wanted to write your resume yourself?” So that’s another pitfall to look out for.

What could potentially happen if a job-seeker doesn’t do this the right way?

Well, you’re just not getting the full benefit of the service you’re paying for. Personally, if I’m going to spend money on something, I want to know that I’m getting a great value for the money I’ve spent.

If you can, as a client, come to the table with a truly collaborative spirit, the finished resume and LinkedIn profile will be stronger. After all, you are the subject matter expert in your career, in your industry, in the tools you use, and regarding your career goals. You have to bring that background to the project. 

The expertise that my team and I bring to the project is in knowing the current trends in resume design, understanding how applicant tracking systems work, knowing what hiring managers look for in a resume, experience writing resumes for other professionals in your field, and strong writing, editing, and proofreading skills.

How-To:

Let’s dig in. What would you say is the first step to working productively with a resume and linkedin profile writer?

1. Choose the right resume and LinkedIn profile writer for you.

Ask about who will actually be writing your resume, how much input you will have, how many revisions are allowed, and whether there are any hidden fees (for additional revisions, etc.).

Ask if you can see samples of the writer’s work (both resumes and LinkedIn profiles), read online reviews of the writer/company on sites like Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Yelp.

Ask about certifications they have and whether they attend their industry's annual professional development conference(s).

Compare prices, compare processes and what/how you'll be asked to provide information (online form vs. phone intake vs. face to face). It’s also a good idea to ask about the writer's experience working with professionals in your field. My company writes resumes for all levels of professionals across all industries, but some writers have a specialty--like military-to-civilian, or IT, or recent grads.

Lastly, you should also have good rapport with the writer, and genuinely feel that he/she is invested in you as an individual job seeker (i.e., you're not just another resume). 

To circle back to something I mentioned earlier in the podcast when we write a resume or a LinkedIn profile for a client, we know that we are helping that person move their career forward. It’s a great privilege to partner in this way with someone. Our clients can feel it, too, because we get tons of thank you emails that tell us just how much they appreciated our dedication. In fact, every Friday on my Facebook and LinkedIn feeds, I post an excerpt from my favorite “thank you email of the week.” These are real notes from real clients in real time, and it gives you a sense of the kinds of relationships we develop with our clients. It’s fun to scroll back through our Facebook feed and see all those client comments.

2. Try to keep an open mind about your writer's ideas and suggestions. After all, you hired this person for their expertise in a resume and LinkedIn profile writer.

I touched on this a little bit earlier, but it’s worth repeating here because it IS so important. 

People hire writers because they don't want (or have the time) to write their job search documents, they feel overwhelmed

I’m going to throw a few stats at you, just for fun.

Did you know that Women Account for 46.9% of the Total Labor Force in the US? according to Catalyst.

We need to welcome women back to the workforce after taking career breaks. For starters, what’s more important than raising a family or caring for family members who are ill? I can’t think of anything more important. Also, it makes sense for the economy. Catalyst reports that if women’s participation in the global economy were equal to men, the global annual GDP would be $28 Trillion, yes trillion, dollars higher in 2025. 

I want to talk about how to decide what job to take as you return to work. Women ask me a lot if they should just take any job or wait for the right one. So I hear this a lot and it’s a question that I asked myself often as I looked for a job after being out of the full-time workforce for many years.  Here’s the easy answer: It depends. 

Really though, the answer to this question depends entirely on what is motivating you to go back to work, so step 1 in deciding what job to take is to examine your motivation. Motivation is important here.  If you need to start earning income for you or your families’ survival now, then you should take the best job you can find quickly. By “best” I mean highest paying. Life is expensive, kids are expensive and it takes money to survive.  Pure and simple. 

Divorce often forces women back into the workforce, or your spouse might have been laid off. Whatever the situation, if quickly earning income has become your primary motivation, then find a job and bloom where you’ve been planted. You don’t have to stay there forever but my personal rule of thumb is that you do have to do your best while you’re there.  If you sense that you’re just passing through, work diligently so that when you leave you’ll have a great recommendation and can feel good about the work you did.

While the need for money motivates many women to return to work quickly, others find that their timing isn’t quite so urgent. To you folks, I say - lucky you! You have the luxury of waiting for a job that will check more of the boxes for you. You can do the 3 steps of Reflect, Research and Activate that I think are so important to a successful job search.  The Reflection step is of critical importance in a job search because this is the step where you think deeply about your skills, your past experiences, and your current interests and add them all up to set a course for your future.  

I want a career break to become a very normal part of a person’s career (both women and men) and for employers to view these not as breaks from real work, but as opportunities to develop more deeply as people, as parents, or as caregivers of aging parents. Your ability to reflect on what you’ve learned and how you’ve grown during your career break is a key part of finding direction for your job search.   

If you are motivated to return to work by a desire to re-engage your professional self, to grow as a person in a professional capacity, to put your valuable skills to work and to earn a good income while doing so, then you have the luxury to look until you (a) find the right job or (b) find a job that offers a trade-off that you are comfortable taking. Every decision we make is a trade-off between things that are important to us.  

Step 2 in deciding what job to take is being really clear about the trade-off involved. As much as I’d like to think there is a perfect job out there, well, let’s be real! I really think everything is a trade-off. So consider all the implications of the jobs you are considering. 

Compensation, commute, opportunities for advancement, leadership, benefits, how’s the team… If you’re weighing multiple opportunities - lucky you! - then map these things out to see how they compare. 

 The third step in deciding what job you should take is to consider the possibilities of the job in front of you. 

Especially if you’re returning to work after a career break, If your job search is starting to feel like it’s taking a long time, and you’re considering taking the next job that comes along, here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• Will this job keep me moving forward? (In other words, will I learn here? meet people that will grow my professional network? feel good about the work I’m doing?)
• Can I think of this job as a stepping stone to get me closer to where I’d like to be professionally?

 If you can answer “yes” to any of those questions, then you may have found the right job for you. Honestly, sometimes after a long absence from the workforce, we just need a “starter job” or a job that gets us back into the working world and gets current experience on your resume. You can build it from there. Just get the starting point.

Here’s a related but important question I get a lot from women returning to work:  “Do I have to take a job making less money or with a lower title than I held before I took a career break?”  My guidance is that I want you to aim high, but you must understand that the burden of proving your value to an employer rests with you and only you.  How can you prove that you’re worthy of your previous salary and title?

• By demonstrating that you’ve spent your career break learning and keeping your skills fresh
• By taking courses to refresh your job skills
• By becoming active in a professional association relevant to your field
• By maintaining a network of influential people in your field

 Then develop your personal brand image to illustrate your value.  

And let me add, that I think you totally deserve to not take a salary cut just because you’ve made the decision to focus on other things in life besides your career for a period of time. And you have to believe that you’re worth it too. And you also have to brush up on your negotiation skills if you’re going to go for it with respect to salary. If you don’t ask for more at the time of your offer, you’ve given up a great opportunity. You can’t go back and ask after you accept the job. You have the leverage when they make the offer. That’s the time to show your future employer that you’re well worth a bump in compensation because you know how to negotiate. Sometimes people worry that the job offer will be rescinded if they try to negotiate it. And I think that’s crazy and almost never happens. Now, there’s a right way and a wrong way to approach a negotiation, so enter into this conversation looking for a win-win outcome and you will not lose your offer.

One final thought: When I was job searching, I realized early on that my next job was going to come from someone who knew me personally and not from a resume that I blindly sent out over the Internet.  And this belief changed my job search activities from sitting behind my computer sending out resumes to instead viewing every opportunity to talk s...

Jeremy had a passion for teaching and considered himself to be a self-proclaimed tech nerd and was looking for a way to combine his passions. When he discovered that people without a background in programming and writing code, did, in fact, have a seat at the table in tech organizations and that there were so many types of tech companies beyond what most people consider to be the big organizations he wanted to help others break into the tech field as well.

"You might've been like me, you might've said, if I want to get a job at Google, I have to have gone to Stanford or Harvard. But now with a simple search on LinkedIn, you can find out that 8,000 Googlers went to community college and you could find the exact one who went to your school and reach out to get your foot in the door." - Jeremy

Tell us about one cool way you see technology improving our lives. 

Jeremy tells us how to land a job in tech and he’s got 3 steps to share with us. 

1) How to understand the different tech roles 

2) How to find the right role for you

3) How to break into that role

Listen as Jeremy breaks down the 12 roles in a tech company through a story of Apple's development of an electric car. And none of them require technical expertise! 

You can find Jeremy online at breakinto.tech. If you’re serious about working in tech, especially if you’re making a career change to work in tech, you have to look Jeremy up and take advantage of the great courses and resources he has created. He’s got the formula. Don’t fight it, just go get it! 

Listeners, now that you know how to land a job in tech, go do it! I believe in you!

Al is a product marketing manager at a tech company in San Francisco and he’s the founder of the MBASchooled digital content platform that educates MBA applicants, students and grads with advice on all aspects of the MBA experience. Al earned his MBA at UNC Kenan-Flagler and is now the author of the book MBA Insider: How to Make the Most of Your MBA Experience. The book is available on Amazon for pre-order and will be released on January 28th 2020. Al is also a frequent speaker at top business schools. Welcome Al and thanks for joining me today!

Al, tell us how you got interested in helping people navigate careers and business school. 

I’ve read the book and it’s the guide that when I put on my MBA Career Services hat, I wish every incoming student had as required reading.

3 steps to preparing for a job interview:

1. Do Your Research - know the company, industry, market, competitor landscape, interviewer, role, function, etc

2. Craft You Story - take those insights, and come up with the narrative that you want to tell about how you are the best for the job. Think of yourself as a product on amazon.com - what does a great product story have?

3. Practice Practice Practice - Take the common interview questions and practice them, by yourself, and with someone else. Find the hardest ones, and practice those more. If practicing with someone, have them throw in a few curveballs, just to get the mindset of practicing

Energy / enthusiasm – don’t be afraid to be excited (common feedback from recruiters)

Follow-up

Find out more about Ellen's current role at  Lazy Lizard Travel If you’re planning a trip, call Ellen!

I’m excited to have Ellen here with me today to talk about How & Why to Join a Job Search Group

We’re going to cover 3 main ideas:

1. How to find a local job search group (including benefits of doing this)
2. How to Join a LinkedIn Group (why you should do this, how to find them, how to participate once you've joined)
3. How to start your own group if you can't find one

Orville Pierson’s book “Team Up!” His research found that people who took part in “job search work teams” got employed 20% faster than those using traditional methods. 

The value of teams in general, not just job search groups: There is research that confirms that when people work together, smartly, it can unleash energy that boosts creativity, productivity, engagement, communication, and efficiency. - from Atlassian.com

Benefits of job search groups:

• Accountability 
• The camaraderie of going through a transition with others
• Motivation, confidence boosting
• Just meeting new people and having to talk about yourself and your career interests is great preparation for interviewing
• Get feedback on your resume and cover letter
• Practice interview skills with mock interviews
• Get ideas about companies or jobs you weren’t aware of
• Learn from other’s mistakes 
• You can get feedback from group members that might help you perform better in interviews
• You might be encouraged to take risks if you know you have the support of your job search group behind you - going for that stretch job for example.
• Get out of the house! Job searching can be isolating, so this is good for your mental health.

A good job search group has structure:

• speakers,
• an agenda for each meeting,
• time for members to meet each other and share contacts and ideas

Biggest benefit: You share your contacts with others in the group and they do the same for you – which can grow your network incrementally

2 good ways to make an introduction:

1.  Email both people, provide a quick background on each and why you are connecting them; then let them take it from there
2.  On LinkedIn: go to a person’s profile, click the More button, the first choice on the drop-down menu is “share profile via message” and you can send that person’s profile to another LinkedIn user via Inmail. I just did this the other day – someone I know applied for a job at a company in Raleigh and saw that I was connected to the recruiter there, so he asked for an introduction and that’s how I did it.

Examples of job search groups:

Churches run job search groups which are often staffed by people with real expertise such as recruiters, hiring managers, etc. who like to give back

MeetUps – there are job search meetups, but there are also Meetups focused on things like social media marketing, project management, and other industries or skill areas. Some bring in speakers each month, most are free or really low cost, and this is a great way to meet people in your field and get advice and introductions.

Back to Business – the growth of a community is a big goal of Back to Business, and we have been able to connect women returning to work after a career break with each other, and with employers. This year I’ve also been doing a lot of connecting people inside companies who have started returnship programs with people at other companies who want to start these programs. Total win-win! 

Conferences – you can meet people and start your own group. At Back to Business conferences we seat women at tables with others by zip code so you’re sitting with people who live near you. One woman organized others at her table to start a monthly group that met for lunch and to hear a speaker. It went on for over a year, women cycled out as they got jobs, but word had spread and they were replaced with others who were looking for a job.

Professional Associations often have job search groups. For example, in Raleigh, the Triangle chapter of the American Marketing Association has a job search group called Transitions Mastermind. They bring in a speaker each month, it’s very structured, each meeting starts with everyone introducing themselves and telling the group about their background and what they’re looking for so others can share contacts or ideas that could be helpful.

Other groups you can join:

• Your college alumni group
• Some companies have alumni groups (IBM, consulting firms)
• There is a group for everything!

LinkedIn Groups –

• Get virtually connected to others to expand your network
• These are targeted audiences 
• Stay up to date on your career field:

how to find groups: click the work icon on the top menu bar, then click the group's icon. This will show you the groups you already belong to and at the bottom will say Search other trusted communities that share and support your goals.

If you click that it will recommend groups based on what LinkedIn thinks are your interests (which is based on the companies you follow, keywords in your profile, your LinkedIn activity)

Or search for groups using a keyword in the search 

How to contribute: 

Get in the habit of commenting daily on other’s posts, posing thoughtful questions and asking for responses, and liking and sharing other’s posts that you found helpful; remember to keep your contributions relevant to the group’s purpose

Benefits: 

• you will become known in that space as a contributor, hopefully, a positive one, and that enhances your own personal brand. 
• You also can get access to people with expertise in this way and you can ask them questions and learn from them.

 Starting your own group if you can’t find one:

• Invite job seekers to join your group - you could put an invitation on NextDoor or Facebook if you don’t know anyone personally to invite
• Find a location: coffee shop, library, free co-working space
• Have a leader: to handle scheduling, securing a venue, getting a speaker, communicating with members. This could be a rotating duty or you could have 1 person handle this.
• Meet consistently: follow-through is the key to being effective!
• Set ground rules for the group: stay positive, make sure it’s a give and take.

Also mentioned in this episode:

Our guest today is Caitlin Hooks and she is going to save us all from that awkward-ness by telling us how to make the most of a networking event. 

Caitlin Hooks is the Director of Client Development for Technology Solutions at Greene Resources here in Raleigh. Greene Resources is a recruiting firm, started 19 years ago by Gary Greene who seems to be involved in just about every community event in the Raleigh area. They have offices in Raleigh and Wilmington and have a fantastic reputation as a great firm to work with, both for companies and job-seekers. 

Caitlin is a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill where she worked with the sports programs, then spent a few years working in campus ministry at ECU before joining Greene Resources as a Recruiting Coordinator, then a Technical Recruiter and then moving up the ranks to her current role as the Director of Client Development for Technology Solutions. Caitlin is also a CrossFit coach, so you know the energy level is pretty off-the-charts here!

Caitlin talks about her pretty massive career change from campus ministry to recruiting and how did she made that shift?

I met Caitlin at a networking event! And then, at every networking event I’ve been to since, I’ve seen Caitlin! So I can tell you that I’ve seen her in action and she is fantastic at meeting people and building relationships, which is what networking is supposed to be. 

Caitlin shares about why she chose the topic of networking and why she believes it is critical for those building a network or looking for a position. 

The How-To Process:

Caitlin drops a few gems about how to make the most of a networking event:

What are your 3 steps to making the most of a networking event?

·       Step 1: Research thoroughly

·       Step 2: Engage pointedly

·       Step 3: Follow up strategically

We also discuss things you should not do or stop doing at a networking event.

Caitlin shared her go-to networking events for the Triangle area:

• WRAL TechWire for networking events
• NC Tech Events
• RIOT Events
• The Startup Summit

"I recently attended the TEDx Cary Women event and that was fantastic! It had all the elements of a great networking event: It was really well-organized, it brought people together with a common interest of hearing TED Talks, mostly by women and many on issues that are of particular interest to women, they had great food! And it was just so easy to meet people there and have great conversations." - Katie Dunn

"Sometimes people look at me like I’m crazy when I tell them they have to get out there and meet people to be successful in their job search. It sounds uncomfortable, so thanks for breaking this down into an easy-to-follow-process." - Katie Dunn

Thank you to Caitlin, for telling us all how to make the most of a networking event! No more hiding in the bathroom! 

Now that you know how to make the most of a networking event, go do it! I believe in you!

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...