Two More Job Search Frustrations
by Kevin Donlin

To learn about Guerrilla Job Search secrets caught on video, visit http://bit.ly/188UT5

“Last week, I wrote about four common frustrations found in the hundreds of emails I’ve received this year from job seekers across America.
This week, I’ll address two more problems and offer solutions to help you get hired faster.”

Last week, I wrote about four common frustrations found in the hundreds of emails I’ve received this year from job seekers across America.

This week, I’ll address two more problems and offer solutions to help you get hired faster.

Do either of these apply to you?

Frustration #1: There just aren’t enough jobs out there to apply for.

Solution: Let’s unpack this one:

When I speak to job hunters, in seminars, by phone, and via email, I ask the same question: “How are you looking for jobs?” Almost invariably, the answer is: “I look online or in the paper.”

So the actual frustration here is this: There aren’t enough advertised jobs to apply for.

Now. If you look only for advertised openings, as most job seekers do, you set yourself up for the sort of frustration most job seekers face.

You’re like a penguin, scrambling with 5,000 other penguins for a handful of fish scattered on the tip of an iceberg. (Visualize that.)

Pssst! If you dive below the exposed (advertised) part of that iceberg, you’ll find: fish (jobs). Plenty of them. And almost no competition.

In fact, for every job posted online or in the newspaper, I’ll bet there are at least four other openings NOT advertised.

Should you ignore advertised job postings altogether? No. Should you spend most of your time chasing them? No.

Spend no more than 20% of your day on posted job openings. Spend the remainder — fully 80% of your time — making contact with people at your target employers.

In other words, networking.

But ordinary networking will likely get you: ordinary results. And how are ordinary job hunters doing these days?

So, analyze your networking efforts to date. Ask yourself three questions:

1. What have I said to or done for people in my network that has led to interviews? Examples: Being useful to others by sending them news, information, leads, etc. to help them do their jobs. Do more of this.

2. What have I said or done that has NOT produced job leads? Examples: A 30-second “elevator pitch” that seems to fall flat, or conversations with personal (as opposed to professional) contacts. Change or stop doing this.

3. What will you do to meet your goals by this time next week? You must set specific, measurable goals in networking — and all your job-search efforts.

Example: There are 40 people in your professional network and you want to add 20 more this month, resulting in four job interviews. When you break it down, that’s one person added to your network per weekday and one interview per week. Measure your progress weekly, correct as necessary, and you will reach your goals. But you can’t improve what you don’t measure, so start measuring today.

Frustration #2: After job interviews, I get no email, call or letter from employers. What am I doing wrong?

Solution: This has two parts: Stop waiting for employers to contact you. And find out what, if anything, you’re doing wrong in interviews.

First, ALWAYS take the initiative on follow-up. At the end of every interview, ask when the employer expects to make a decision. Tell them you will follow up by phone, giving a specific day and time. Then – call on that day, precisely at that time.

Congratulations. You’ve proven that you’re detail-oriented and organized — two traits every employer wants. If you get voicemail when you call, state that you’re calling as promised and that you will write, call, fax, or drop by (pick one) to follow up after this contact. Repeat as necessary.

Second, when it comes to interviewing, you can never be too good. Think of a major league baseball player analyzing his swing. He hits off a tee and with a batting practice pitcher. He videotapes his swing and watches it in slow motion. He works with a coach, etc.

Why all this work? If he can’t hit, he won’t play — and he won’t get paid.

Right now, if you don’t make a “hit” with employers in interviews, you won’t get paid either. So practice and analyze how you interview — video and/or audiotape yourself, review your answers, work with a coach (if necessary), and keep improving until you get hired.

Now, go out and make your own luck!

Dave Mendoza is the author of the influential, multi award-winning Recruitment industry blog, SixDegreesFromDave.com and frequently-invited global conference speaker. Mr. Mendoza’s unfaltering dedication to fostering the art of sourcing in mainstream recruitment has established him as one of the most widely-read voices in recruiting. Through his blog posts and email newsletters, Dave selflessly labors to catalyze the networking connections of his readers. His in-depth stories profile heroes of the employment industry: innovative recruiters and sourcing gurus that labor every day to devise ways to meet employers’ most pressing demands for talent. Through their stories, he spotlights global staffing practices, leading-edge sourcing techniques and best practices.

Kevin Donlin is contributing co-author of “Guerrilla Marketing for Job Hunters 2.0.” Since 1996, he has provided job-search help to more than 20,000 people.

To learn about Guerrilla Job Search secrets caught on video, visit http://bit.ly/188UT5

If You Don’t Try Something Different, You’ll Keep Getting More Of The Same.
And How’s That Been Working For You?

To Learn More, Click

By Dave Mendoza
* In Response to "Job Hunting Case Study: Kevin Watson – Supersizing your LinkedIn Network" by Dave Perry

Dave is renown at a level all his own, having been written about in the Wall Street Journal and authored several books, one of which I was honored to contribute too on behalf of his Guerrilla Job Seeker book series.

With that background understood, I can say honestly every two or every third conference I attend, I am pleasantly surprised to see Dave Perry and even more fortunate if he joins our circle of fellow travelers for dinner. Last week and the days since, Dave has been on my mind because he surprised me with the focus of a recent article post. Essentially, Dave Perry featured a job seeker and his own personal success story utilizing the networking resources of “Six Degrees from Dave” – The Networking Engine.

I can state with all due candor, that never has anyone so clearly articulated the ethos of our efforts, nor the personal effects at sch a sincere and heartwarming degree as my friend Dave Perry. And to add emphasis, I had no forewarning, .. no expectation that one man’s career journey took the highway of SixDegreesfromDave the group would be told and done so eloquently. I was in all earnest, moved. It was a poignant reminder of community and how the power of many can help the one.

“….Dave Mendoza’s mission is to help others connect to people he thinks they would want to connect with if only they knew they could – like the world’s leading headhunters, top thought leaders and corporate recruiters around the world. For Kevin Watson, Dave’s personal rolodex is a who’s who of the people he needs to connect to for his job hunt. Mendoza does all of this for free. FREE – when he could easily be charging and getting a lot of money. For job hunters this is THE place to start building a powerful network. All the instructions for downloading, importing and inviting 100s of people at a time each with huge networks of their own are right here on his site. First Kevin downloaded Dave’s mega list and then he followed Dave’s “HOW TO SEND MASS NETWORKING INVITES: STEP BY STEP” word document. So simple any non-techie can do it. What follows is the good part. ….”

In this economic climate, the veteran’s of the last recession tell tales of their plight and lessons learned, for those without perspective since … we huddle together and we tell them there is a path and it is an emotional one as much as one of Reason. John Sumser calls such tribulations “Opportunities.” It’s true, to a large degree, economic strife reawakens the ‘back to basics’ approach to rediscovering why we are in this business.

I have told good friends that in times, both good and bad, I overcome the temptation of hubris by recalling actual instances years past and months after 9/11 when I experienced the effect of giving an offer to a candidate. Upon confirming an offer, in at least two occasions within as many weeks of each other, I could hear the successful candidate lower the handset and start to weep. Still clearly audible, I heard an announcement to their respective families, “We’re gonna make it – I got the job, honey.” Little did they know I was thinking the same emotion silently knowing this placement just bought me and mine – more time.

We are ultimately all job seekers at some point, and the endurance factor is where we are best suited to be labeled, survivors. It is in such moments that we ultimately come face to face with understanding the power of “Why.”

“Why did we choose this path? Is my vocation an honorable one?”

It is in those days, when the lights are out at night and we succumb to our grievances and allow financial concerns to haunt the darkness as we feign slumber as our spouses are unaware – that we hopefully understand. An ‘honorable’ career is one of the more valuable attainments of how we perceive our personal success.

I made my peace years ago. To be a recruiter is to serve one’s fellow man. We ideally hire the best person for the right position – but when it happens to be in the knick of time whose outcome means food on a family;s table or a roof over their head, it’s one more reminder we make an impact if we do our jobs right and for all the right reasons.

Thank you Dave Perry. You are a Recruiter’s recruiter. You told the story of “Why” to the vehicle of community that inspires SixDegreesfromDave better than I ever could.

All in all, Dave Perry inspired my new catch phrase, “”One Need Not Be the Loneliest Number.”

We truly are in this together and we must foster our own tide to lift all ships.

Friends, be resourceful for others as you would for your own. Bask in the Power of Good. Be The Power of “Why.”

PS: Congratulations Kevin Watson on your new job.

Dave Mendoza
SixDegreesfromDave
Adjunct Faculty, JobMachine
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By Dave Mendoza, Master Cybersleuth Consultant, A JobMachine Inc. Affiliate Partner

View my profile on RecruitingBlogs.com

* Dave Perry’s Company
* His Blog
* His Book

Because of the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, a growing number of mortgage and finance professionals are hitting the streets, looking for jobs. Yet, these layoff victims largely lack the most important career skill of all: How to market themselves.

“The moves most mortgage and financial professionals have made to advance their careers to this point are probably exactly the wrong things they should do to find work in the current job market,” cautions recruiting professional David Perry, managing director of Perry-Martel International.

Here are 3 typical wrong moves most mortgage/finance job seekers are making now:
• Networking with colleagues
• Searching on Monster.com
• Reading help wanted ads in the newspaper

None of these techniques address the real problems in finding a job today, according to Perry and job-search expert, Kevin Donlin, President of Guaranteed Résumés.

During the FREE webinar, mortgage professionals will learn how to:
• Google for the best jobs
• Craft a compelling resume that cuts through the clutter
• Apply “job search judo” techniques in the interview
• Get more job leads using Social Networking tools like LinkedIn and ZoomInfo

“In today’s job market, if you don’t actively sell yourself to employers, you don’t eat,” says Donlin. “Odds are you’ve never thought of yourself as a product that must be sold, like a vacuum cleaner or a set of snow tires. Good news: You’re not alone. Bad news: You’re part of a whole generation of people who don’t know how to ferret out career opportunities.”

“To get noticed and get hired, you must get inside the head of your future employer and do a rain dance. Specifically, you must show that you can make it rain profits,” urges Perry. “How? You match employers’ needs to your detailed achievements. By detailed I mean exact dollars, percentages and numbers. It’s that simple. And that difficult. Because 90% of job seekers — even those in the financial sector — have never been trained to understand their true, value at work.”‘

I encourage job seekers and those interested in the power of personal branding to review David Perry’s various links provided. I can speak on a personal level that I have long admired David Perry’s contributions to the recruitment industry, and my Linkedin endorsement speaks loudly to that effect:

“David Perry is renown as a respected thought leader, published author, and recruitment blogger. He speaks with the credibility of being a Big Biller, and as an evangelist for the methods and technologies we foresee as encompassing Recruitment 2.0 I have blog linked, emailed, and had the pleasure of meeting with Dave and breaking bread at industry events. Within each venue, he has made a lasting impression as a formidable industry leader. I am now glad to call him my friend.” Dave Mendoza, May 14, 2007

To Register for this Free Webinar Today,

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