Many non-profit organizations will hire people from within their volunteer ranks, and for-profits sometimes look to their internship pool to identify hires.

When we were writing our just launched ebook focusing on the “5 top” things you can do to help you land a job, Hannah Morgan (@CareerSherpa) and I thought about including a chapter about volunteering, but it did not make the final cut. Luckily, we found Amy Neumann’s post covering the topic of volunteering to help your job search for Monster.com and Yahoo! Hot Jobs.

Weâ€re happy to link over to her post, “Five ways volunteering can help you get a job,” as part of our book launch buzz!

You can purchase your copy of You Need a Job: 5 Steps to Get One – 29 chapters outlining the 5 things you need to do to succeed in every step of your job hunt now…If you pick up a copy by June 14th, you will get it for 1/2 price AND get some great bonuses.

photo by Jay.Ling

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Finding a mentor is just one aspect of landing a job. There is so much to do when youâ€re starting your job search. Where should you start?

Starting on the right road for your job search is a major concern for most job seekers.

Hannah Morgan (@CareerSherpa) and I have coached and worked with many job seekers just like you. We decided it would be useful to create a guide to help job seekers approach job search with a laser focus. Our eBook provides the “five things” you need to do for every major aspect of your job search. Don’t forget – we are offering some special bonuses to the first people who purchase a copy. Offer expires on June 14th! 

To continue to celebrate our launch, we are sharing tips from some of our colleagues. (Lots of us focus on “five things” for job seekers…These tips are not in our book, but we thought this great advice would help get you in the mind frame for our “five best” ebook.)

Today, weâ€re sharing a link to a post by Amanda Congdon of the Young Entrepreneur Council: Five ways to find an amazing mentor.

If you donâ€t have a mentor, this is an important topic to consider. When you connect with  the right mentor, your career (and your job search) is much more likely to be successful.

Learn more about our eBook, You Need a Job, 5 Steps to Get One – 29 chapters outlining the 5 things you need to do to succeed in every step of your job hunt.

photo by AlisonQuine

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If I had one hour to save the world, I would spend the first 55 minutes defining the problem.

Think about it – donâ€t we often do the exact opposite in our daily work lives? How often do we spend the time planning that is necessary to REALLY get the job done – and done well?I have a friend who is a reference librarian. The first thing he does when faced with a patronâ€s question is to identify the root of the question – what does the person REALLY need to know?

For example, someone asking for history books or resources may actually be looking for information about period costumes from the late 1800s! Clearly, not everyone is skilled at focusing in on communicating exactly what he or she needs to know. My friend is trained to ask pointed questions before moving forward with what could be a wild goose chase for an answer to the wrong question!

This post (reprinted with permission) originally ran on Fast Track Tools, a site that offers solutions to get you unstuck in your business, sales processes, and communication. (Be sure to visit the site for many insightful posts!)

Look around – you are bound to see this happening all around you: people running after the answers to problems without stopping to identify the goal.

The following is a story that illustrates how important it is to understand your problem before you attempt to solve it.

Motorola has been reducing the size of their cell phones for years. Some of the first cell phones were the size of backpacks and now they weigh just a few ounces. Along the way, Motorolaâ€s customers requested bigger buttons. That is a tough request when the goal is to make everything smaller.

Motorola did some research and learned this request was coming from a specific market: firefighters, rescue workers, construction workers, miners and the like. In most cases, this niche market needed to use a cell phone in low visibility conditions while wearing gloves. Ultimately the solution was to provide a phone that operated by squeezing the phone. The firefighters did not know this was possible—and neither did Motorola—when this request came in.

The firefighters thought they needed bigger buttons, but once Motorola understood what these customers were trying to accomplish—using a cell phone in low visibility with gloves on—it found a reasonable solution. Motorola developed a cell phone that could dial and communicate when the user squeezed the phone in different patterns similar to Morse Code.

There may be a difference between what you think you need and what you are trying to accomplish. That is why you need to plan out your desired destination before determining what you need to get there.

What are you doing to identify your goal?

Post originally posted on Fast Track Tools.

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Don’t forget to read Hannah’s tips today about how to clean up your job search.

If your goal involves getting a job, I have good news! Have you missed the posts from earlier this week? My friend and colleague, Hannah Morgan (@careersherpa) and I have created a guide to job search like you have never seen!

It’s our new eBook, You Need a Job, 5 Steps to Get One. It is an end-to-end explanation of how to get a job: 29 chapters outlining the five things you need to do to succeed in every step of your job hunt. The book will help you figure out your goals as well as what to do once you know your job search direction.

When you are among the first to buy a copy, youâ€ll also get some extra special bonuses…

Update: the eBook is available. If you want to learn how to find a job, learn more here. Don’s miss special bonuses for people who are the first to buy our eBook.

Remember: nothing happens until you take action, and we are guaranteeing that you will learn important tips from our book. Stay tuned!

photo by dnwallace

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Hannah Morgan (@CareerSherpa) and I have coached and worked with so many job seekers just like you. If you’ve been reading my posts, you already know — we decided it would be useful to create a guide to help job seekers approach job search with a laser focus.

Our eBook (available June 11th) provides the “five things” you need to do for every major aspect of your job search; itâ€s 29 chapters of exactly what you need to know. We canâ€t wait to share it with you! Weâ€ll be offering some special bonuses to the first people who purchase the book.

Once you get our guide, you still need to follow the steps and get the work done! As part of our lead up to our launch, we decided to search for advice about a few topics we did not cover from colleagues suggesting some of of their “top 5” ideas relevant for job seekers.

Today, the post is by Alexandra Levit, and it’s all about being more disciplined.

How do you buckle down and get things done? For me, I try to follow the “chunk it down” advice to avoid overwhelm I wrote about yesterday. Sometimes, I follow advice from Alexandra’s post and incorporate some reward for finishing a certain task. Other times, it’s all about “the list.” I love checking things off; sometimes that is a reward in itself. Finally — sometimes, I know I need a break, and I’ve been getting better about giving myself permission to put the computer down to just relax. (Working for myself, I find, is sometimes the hardest job I’ve ever had, since my boss never wants to give me a day off!)

Don’t miss Alexandra’s advice: 5 ways to become more disciplined.  She offers good tips for any job seeker, and we hope you will take them to heart.

Please don’t miss Hannah’s post today, “The not-so-obvious job search help” for some ideas about how to make networking easier and more fruitful!

Keep an eye on this blog for details about our new ebook, You Need a Job, 5 Steps to Get One – 29 chapters outlining the 5 things you need to do to succeed in every step of your job hunt.

When you are among the first to buy a copy, youâ€ll also get some extra special bonuses…Donâ€t miss it!

And, please share your tips for “getting it done” in the comments!

photo by Rickydavid

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The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex, overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” – Mark Twain, in The Success Principles, by Jack Canfield

It seems obvious – you canâ€t be successful until you get started.  You canâ€t get started on everything at once, so break it down and work on one thing at a time. My friend who is a business coach, Cindy Petersiel, introduced me to a term that describes this basic, yet important idea: “chunk it down.” (Although, I have to admit that Iâ€m not a big fan of the term itself. Something about the word chunk doesnâ€t appeal to me. The concept, however, is very sound!)

As a career coach, I advise my clients to “chunk down” their tasks so they wonâ€t be overwhelmed by the process of finding a job. Itâ€s great advice for any of us facing lots to do and not enough time. (That pretty much describes most people I know!)

3.) Focus on one thing at a time. Compile a daily “to do” list. Make sure it is reasonable; donâ€t give yourself too many tasks on one day. Depending on the job and your patience, you may need to further chunk down the steps. (No one should expect to write a resume in a day!)

To decide what to do first, consult your list of priorities. To keep your focus, try to include some fun, interesting or simple tasks early on. If youâ€re doing things you enjoy or finish rapidly, youâ€ll give your project a boost and quickly check things off of your “to do” list.

 
5.) Seek help. It helps to have a good support system. Ask for advice when youâ€re really stuck and to ensure that you are on the right track.

Itâ€s our new eBook, You Need a Job, 5 Steps to Get One. It is an end-to-end guide to how to get a job: 29 chapters outlining the five things you need to do to succeed in every step of your job hunt. When you are among the first to buy a copy, youâ€ll also get some extra special bonuses…Keep an eye on this blog for details…We will be launching on June 11th!

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