Journal of Office Workers
Archive for October 14, 2014
How To Get A Recruiter’s Attention On LinkedIn
Job searching can be a lengthy process, especially if you’re just depending on the submission of your resume to job postings through job boards. On the other hand, if you are working with the right recruiters, they can put you in front of the right opportunities and help you get your dream job quicker.
Related: How LinkedIn Endorsements Can Improve Your Job Search Efforts
The fact is, there are some jobs that never even make it to job boards. Employers may hire a recruiter as the main avenue to finding the right job candidate, and if you’ve grabbed that recruiter’s attention, you have a chance at the job.
How To Get A Recruiter’s Attention On LinkedIn
So, the question now is how does one gain the attention of recruiters? Here are some tips.
Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile
Every recruiter will seek talent through LinkedIn so if you’re not on it, there’s a slim chance you’ll grab any recruiter’s attention. Make sure your Profile is complete and contains keywords recruiters will use in their search. Optimize your Profile to contain the job titles and skills they are seeking so you get a high search ranking. See How To Keyword Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile for more information on this.
Be Active In LinkedIn Groups
Make sure you join LinkedIn’s relevant industry groups as recruiters regularly scour groups to find talent. Start or join in discussions to make yourself stand out and showcase your strengths and expertise.
Get Recommendations
The person with over 20 recommendations will be called before the person with two. Spend the time to add recommendations to your LinkedIn profile under the relevant jobs.
Add Skills Endorsements
The same thing holds true for skills endorsements and you want to get as many endorsements as you can. Start by identifying the top five skills for your industry and start reaching out to people. This not only makes you stand out, but it is also a big part of how well you rank in recruiter searches.
Just remember, recruiters are highly motivated to fill their open positions, so it’s not about hounding them for job openings, but demonstrating you have what they are looking for to fill the job.
Related Posts
5 Tips For Building Your Brand On LinkedIn
7 Reasons Why You Need A LinkedIn Routine – Employed Or Not
5-Step Quick Guide For Getting Started On LinkedIn
About the author
Don Goodman’s firm was rated as the #1 Resume Writing Service in 2013 & 2014. Don is a triple-certified, nationally recognized Expert Resume Writer, Career Management Coach and Job Search Strategist who has helped thousands of people secure their next job. Check out his Resume Writing Service. Get a Free Resume Evaluation or call him at 800.909.0109 for more information.
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by a CAREEREALISM-approved expert. You can learn more about expert posts here.
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How To Answer, ‘Have You Ever Been Fired?’
Job seekers often struggle with a termination. Take this example: “I’ve been working in the construction industry. Since the housing bust, business has dramatically declined. Recently, I had a disagreement with a co-worker and got fired over this trivial thing I never would have gotten fired for five years ago. What do I say about this?”
Related: How To Turn ‘Fired’ Into ‘Hired!’
This client is not alone. We’ve all had positions that didn’t go as well as we had hoped. It could have been the company culture, maybe a lack of support made a job difficult, or it could have been something we did. Whatever the reason, it’s a tricky thing to talk about in an interview, especially if your interviewer has insider information about the situation.
If you are in leadership, you have to be prepared. Your target company might be getting insider information through their networks. You have to assume they know something about what happened in your last role.
The interviewer’s job is to get you to reveal errors in judgment or performance – things they can use to weed you out so they can move on to the next candidate. Will you be “totally honest?” Show negativity or resentment? Be so nervous that you look like you’re hiding something?
Answering, ‘Have You Ever Been Fired?’
The ideas in this article will help you to avoid those mistakes, and will boost your confidence level dramatically. The best strategy to answering to “Have you ever been fired?” in an interview, is to prepare yourself, acknowledge the situation, and move on. Quickly. Here’s where to start:
Process Your Thoughts
In order to talk about what happened calmly, you need to examine the details of what occurred. Write down exactly what transpired, introspectively acknowledging your part in the events that led up to being let go. Perhaps the firing really was unfair, but to answer this question in an interview well, you need to take the time to process the events so that it doesn’t frazzle you when the question is asked.
To best prepare, deal with what makes you nervous before you go in. Wrestling with your darkest employment demons IN an interview will leave you sweating and stumbling over your words. In order not to blow it, be honest with yourself on paper about what happened, what your fears are, and talk things over with a friend. Then, make peace with yourself, and move on.
Talk To Your References
Talk to the people who are in your corner. Ask them what they will talk about if they are called by your target employer. Make sure they have a copy of your resume so that they can have a detailed reminder of your accomplishments.
Next, and this may be a hard one, but call the employer that let you go. Talk to your superior, and acknowledge your role in the termination. State that you have learned from the experience and that you hope to be more successful in your next position. Remind him that you are still looking for work, and ask what he might say about you if he were contacted.
This strategy takes a lot of guts, and it will speak directly to your ability to self-assess, make amends, and strive for improvement. Plus, it diminishes the chances of your previous employer bashing you to the new one.
Show How You Have Grown From The Experience
Determine what can you say to put a positive spin on things. What will make you look more desirable? Perhaps you should have realized sooner that the position was not a good match for your talents. Should have communicated better? Delegated more of your responsibilities?
Think through how your firing has actually turned you into a better leader. Focus on that when developing your answer.
Script Your Answer
To give the most confident response, you will need to write out what you are going to say and rehearse it. Here is a script you can modify with your details to get you through this question and onto the things you really want to talk about — your successes.
“I really enjoyed my work at the ABC Company and gained valuable experience from working there. I was able to improve sales and customer service. I developed a great team through my new hiring initiatives. It’s unfortunate that things didn’t work out because I enjoyed the work. But, I learned that to really be successful, I have to delegate more to my team. So, I took an online course on personality type so that I can better analyze what others’ preferences might be. I know I’ll put that to use. That is what attracted me to your company, you value…”
Then, turn the conversation back toward the new position and how your abilities match what is needed.
Of, course, if they don’t bring it up, you don’t need to volunteer that you were let go. And, NEVER lie or speak negatively about your previous boss, co-workers, or company. Keep it positive and move it toward how it makes you a better candidate today.
This post was originally published at an earlier date.
Related Posts
How To Create An Effective Resume Even If You Were Fired
What Is The Best Way To Explain Being Fired?
Got FIRED: How To Explain It To Potential Employers
About the author
Kristin S. Johnson is a TORI award-winning, 6-times certified resume writer, job search coach, and social media consultant. Her approach is cutting-edge, creative, and kind. As owner of Profession Direction, LLC, she works with professionals and aspiring executives across the country.
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by a CAREEREALISM-approved expert. You can learn more about expert posts here.
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10 Ways To Turn Your Job Search Into A Full-Time Job
Well-known fact: Job search and unemployment can be some of the most discouraging and ego-smashing things a person could ever experience. Rejection is common, and there is a tendency to end up in a very unhappy place.
Related: 6 Job Search Tips For New Graduates
Then, there’s the chaos. If you’ve previously been working for most of your career in a full-time position, you’re used to having structure and routine to each day. Being out of work, you find yourself in a drifting miasma of “What do I do today?”
How To Turn Your Job Search Into A Full-Time Job
Someone once told me, “Looking for a job IS a full-time job. You need to adopt that mentality.” Here are some suggestions on how to chart your course, add some structure to your day, and give yourself definable goals to give you that sense of order you had within the workplace:
1. Appoint A Job Search ‘Buddy’
This person will be someone you report to on a weekly basis. This person will hold you accountable and be your ‘cheerleader’ at the same time. NOTE: Make sure that this person is someone who is a friend, mentor, or colleague. Don’t rely on someone in your household… this could be a potential sticky wicket with family relationships if you somehow fall off the bandwagon and could lead to arguments!
2. Read Articles Weekly
When you are unemployed or out of work, it is easy to feel you are getting left behind on industry trends and issues. It’s amazing when you have a clear command of what’s going on in the world how easy it is to find opportunities to talk about what you’ve read or learned.
3. Attend Networking Events Weekly
Shy? Get over it. The ocean is full of sharks right now, and you need to be one of them. That means getting out of the house, and getting out to networking events. Take a completely different approach: my friend Cleon Cox, who is the founder of the Portland Job Finders Support Group, has this mantra (which is perfect): Meet people, learn something, and have fun.
4. Attend Educational Events Monthly
When you are not working, again, there is the fear you are getting ‘off the merry-go-round’ and losing ground to competitors. But smart job searchers realize that there is a huge opportunity to be gained during this time: go take classes. This could be a great way to help catapult you into a new career, enhance your professional credentials, or hone your skills.
5. Volunteer Regularly
Volunteering can provide exceptional opportunities to network, learn new skills, become a known quantity within an organization and even find out about industry or company job openings before they are even posted. Plus, you’ll feel good while doing it!
6. Join Member Organizations
If you have a target industry, chances are that there is some kind of related trade association or membership organization that you could join. The benefit of these organizations is that your involvement can add ‘gravitas’ to your credentials.
7. Attend Informational Interviews A Few Times Per Week
Part of the ‘getting out of the house’ aspect of this job search plan is to meet people… one-on-one in informational interviews. Many people mistakenly believe and take the approach that informational interviews are all about finding jobs. WRONG! Informational interviews are precisely about finding INFORMATION.
The best part about informational interviews is if you treat the person right who took the time to meet with you, they can become a great internal advocate for you. ALWAYS thank interviewees for their time by mailing a hand-written note.
8. Talk To Friends Regularly
Who do friends know? People. Employed people. Don’t be afraid to reach out to your entire network. The key is to tap into your social circle and ‘refresh’ your connections. You never know what might happen.
9. Follow Up On Sent Applications
One of the biggest failures of job seekers is they are constantly looking forward for the next job opening to apply for that they don’t go back and follow up on the positions for which they’ve already applied. Sometimes, the position opening didn’t turn out to be the right fit for your skills. But if you treat the hiring manager or the human resource representative right, you could impress them in a very good way. That could put you on the “A” list for other jobs that come open.
10. Focus Your Resume On Key Themes
You probably have several different theme areas you could develop separate resumes for based on your background. Explore how you might have different incarnations of your resume, and take the time to develop these fully. You might be pleasantly surprised at how you can reinvent yourself and create new flexibility in your employment search.
My blog seems like, wow, a whole lot of homework, but the goal is to provide structure, stability and goals to you in a time where there is a lot of chaos, unclear objectives, and confusion. By structuring yourself and your time while unemployed, this will give you the sense of purpose you need and also a boost to feeling productive.
This post was originally published at an earlier date.
Related Posts
4 Tips To Help You Shorten Your Job Search
8 Tips For Conducting An Effective Job Search
Moving? 3 Helpful Tips For Your Relocation Job Search
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10 Positive Habits That Could Change Your Life
Originally posted on TIME:
Answer by Sarah Chen Lin on Quora.
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Trust karma.
But when you do something good, be genuine and do it from your heart, not because you’re expecting something good to happen to you later. -
Volunteer.
That one hour you spend talking to that pregnant teenage mother or that one hour bonding with that orphan might (just might) change the course of their lives more than you could ever imagine. -
Embrace your emotions (So long as you’re not hurting others).
We’re meant to feel happiness, fear, sorrow, anger, disappointment, jealousy, passion, love… the full spectrum. I believe it’s what makes us more humble, human, more accepting and patient. -
Count your blessings… Every. Single. Day.
Never take anything for granted. There’s always someone out there in circumstances far worse than yours. So stop pitying yourself, pick yourself up, and be the fighter you know you are. - Cherish every moment with loved…
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Why Following Your Passion Is the Worst Kind of Career Advice
Originally posted on TIME:
Standard advice on how to pick a career? Find one that amalgamates your key skills, interests and values. Alas, that too often doesn’t work.
The standard advice often fails for one or more of these reasons:
- You have too many interests but none stand out.
- You have many abilities but none stand out.
- You think you have no worthwhile abilities.
- You can’t come up with a career that amalgamates your skills, interests and values.
- You come up with too many careers that amalgamate your skills, interests and values.
- Your skills, interests and values are common, so you end up wanting a popular career, for example, ahem, journalist.
The irony is that even if you find a career that fits and you actually land a job in it, that’s far from a guarantor of career contentment. Let’s say you pick a popular career like the aforementioned journalist. Employers know that, with…
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