Keppie Careers

Social media speaker, social media consultant, job search coach

How to stay upbeat for your job hunt, Part 1

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sun711161806_fcf773a330_mYou’ve already heard – having a positive attitude is important for your job search.  We all know it is not easy to keep a cheery disposition when the news around every corner doesn’t look so good. But the disgruntled job seeker is less likely to land a job. Who wants to hire Bitter Bob, Sarcastic Sue or Desperate Derrick?

Susan Strayer reminds us that it isn’t easy to keep your spirits up. She offers “10 tips for handling a job search during a tough time.” Here are her top 5, stay tuned tomorrow for the rest. (Commentary is my own.)

1) Every job search needs a plan.
Identify your goals. You can’t get anywhere until you decide the destination! Stop and evaluate. What characteristics and traits make you special? What are you (or do you hope to be) known for in your field?

2) Planning is key. Seriously.
I tell my clients to set realistic goals. How many people will you contact to request informational meetings? How much time will you spend online? When are you going to set aside time to tweak your resume to target specific employers? Plan your time so you can avoid feeling like you are spinning your wheels and not getting anything done.

3) Be honest with yourself and your family.
Rely on them for support. Susan suggests sharing if you’ve had a bad day and letting your kids or other family members help cheeer you up.

4) Variation
Change up your job search preparation. Use your plan to help vary your day. Don’t spend 8 hours in front of the computer in the row!

5) Quality not quantity
So many people sit and zap out 100 resumes in one day and call it productive. Don’t be that person! Applying for jobs online may be a small part of your plan, but sending the same resume out 100 times is useless. Have you experienced the feeling that your resume is going into a “black hole?” If your strategy is about how many jobs you can apply for and is not focused on how well to apply for them, it probably IS going into a black hole.

Spend your time networking and connecting with people who can share information with you. Connect and share what you know about your industry and offer your expertise. Look for opportunities to grow the circle of people who know you and would be willing to share information about you if an opportunity does come up.

You do control how you approach your hunt…Take the wheel and drive your own career bus! Let me know if you need help!

Stay tuned for 5 more tips tomorrow!

photo by jalalspagues

Change your "look" to help with your job search

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459997695_5429b7d0c9_m1Did you watch the Oscars? Admit it – were you most interested in what everyone was wearing? I know we’ll be hearing about whose dress scored a hit and who was a miss for at least the next week. When you are a high-profile star, what you wear matters as much as the award that you win. 

For a job seeker, how you look can be just as important. This week, in focusing on how small changes you may make can result in big changes for your job hunt, I would be remiss if I did not focus on appearance.

In my last post, I shared a lesson from one of the participants in the Land Your Dream Job Seminar I am offering with Carolann Jacobs from Vivid Epiphany, brain based coaching.

Melanie, one of our participants, landed a job after she made a concerted effort to look for positions that were a good fit for her. Another change she mentioned? A haircut that was more up-to-date and made her feel more confident. She remarked that her interviewer even complimented her on it!

A small change helped make a big difference for Melanie. Have you thought about your appearance? Are you wearing glasses from 10 years ago? Could you use some professional tips to learn how to apply your make up in a more flattering way? You’re in a “youth” industry and haven’t considered touching up your grays? When did you buy that suit you use to interview? What about those shoes? 

I’m not suggesting plastic surgery or even botox, but taking a good look in the mirror and making a change that could make the difference can’t hurt. I met a man at a networking event several months back. We started talking about his job hunt. He said, “I keep coming in number two. My wife says I should dye my hair.” What a shame if that small change could have made the difference (however small), but he hadn’t acted on it.

It would be nice if appearance didn’t matter. If your haircut or suit made no difference in the outcome of your search. Fact is, everyone knows that looks DO make a difference. It’s a competitive market. Anything you do (or don’t do) can make a difference. If a small change can give you more confidence and a possible leg up on the competition, take advantage!

Could you use some help making a few changes in your job hunt? I am happy to help! Contact me to learn how a revised resume and coaching can help make all the difference!

Identify a target for your job hunt

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targetThis week, I am focusing on how small changes in your job search can make a big difference. Today, a lesson from one of the participants in the Land Your Dream Job Seminar I am offering with Carolann Jacobs from Vivid Epiphany, brain based coaching.

We were so pleased to hear that Melanie actually landed her dream job! Even more exciting (to me) was the lesson behind her success, which fits so well into the theme of “doing something different.” 

Melanie said, 

“I had been out of work for 6 months.  Unlike others, I was not laid off.  My options at the time were to resign or be fired.  I opted to resign.  So no severance for me and I was working very part time hours.  When I first joined your program, there was something you said that made me think.  It was “Do you find yourself in the same situation with each job?” and “Are you looking for a job that fits who you are?”  Those two questions made me do a more “focused” job search.  I hated having my family pay my bills and I knew I was originally just looking for a job…any job that would get me back on my feet without any additional financial help.  I knew in the long run it probably would result in traveling again and being miserable. I truly did not want that again.”

So, Melanie re-focused and targeted her job search. Instead of haphazardly applying to “any job” just hoping to bring in some income, she really identified what she wanted to do and determined where her skills would be most useful. She used her time, efforts and energy to apply for opportunities that were good fits for her.

Stay tuned for additional lessons from Melanie’s success story, which I hope will help inspire you to look at few things YOU can do differently for YOUR search!

Could you use some help making a few changes in your job hunt? I am happy to help! Contact me to learn how a revised resume and coaching can help make all the difference!

photo by pbo32

Get help for your job search before desperation sets in

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Looking for a job can be a lonely process, even when it is clear that no unemployed job seeker is alone. All you need to do is read or listen to the news to know that you are in good company if you’ve been laid off of your job. However, knowing that you’re not alone isn’t usually enough to help keep job hunters motivated and on track. In anything, the negative news may just send more people to bury their heads under their pillows to escape the incessent bad news

My colleague Alexandra Levit recently wrote about how job seekers are turning to “accountability groups,” teams of job seekers whose goal is to help each other stay motivated and on track.

She shared information from a New York Times article that reported on one such group in suburban Chicago. The article notes what we all recognize: being out of work and job hunting can be difficult and demoralizing. It may be a very lonely process, especially for those unaccustomed to job hunting and for job seekers who don’t know how to conduct a successful search.

The benefit of an accountability group is that job seekers encourage and support each other, network and keep each other motivated and on task in what might otherwise become a very unstructured time.

Alexandra notes,

According to the Times, membership in various networking organizations across the country for unemployed executives and other professionals has ballooned in recent months as the recession has continued its march, sparing not even the highly educated and skilled. Providing a spur as well as solace, the groups offer transition assistance for people who previously led comfortable lives in the middle and upper-middle class.

One thing that struck me about the group described in the New York Times article was that it was organized and run by the job seekers themselves. “Seven of nine members have been out of steady work for six months or longer; the other two are approaching the six-month mark.” The organizer of the group lost his job 16 months ago, struggled to get interviews and wondered if he was “spending too much time applying for jobs online.” The article quotes him as saying, “I’m not doing something right yet.”

Honestly, reading about this group breaks my heart! Clearly, these job seekers could benefit from some professional job hunting advice. What if they knew how much time to spend sending out online applications and had expert feedback about their resumes and other job search correspondence? I am sure they could benefit from up-to-date information about using online tools and social networks. I wonder how different their stories might be if they had engaged the services of a coach before things began to look so glum?

I am happy to announce that I will be facilitating “virtual” accountability groups to help job seekers succeed in this difficult and competitive market. Help is just a phone call away! Participants will benefit from targeted professional coaching, an understanding team of other job seekers for networking and support and a structured program to help keep their job hunt on track.

Please CONTACT ME if you are interested in learning more about these groups.

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Diversity in the workplace

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Inspired by the King holiday and the inauguration, it seems timely to write about the issue of diversity in the workplace and offer some links to online resources for members of a variety of diverse groups.

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers says the following about diversity on their website:

Valuing diversity means acknowledging that other people, other races, other voices and other cultures have as much integrity and as much claim on the world as you do. It is the recognition that there are other ways of seeing the world, solving problems, and working together.

Read more thoughts on diversity and find useful resources and online links at my blog at GreatPlaceJobs…


photo by olivia hotshot