The Most Effective Way to Network. It's Not What You Want to Hear

The era of Social Networking is in full swing.  We can reach out to each other across the planet and meet people we probably never would have otherwise.  All it takes is a simple tweet or LinkedIn post.  A comment on a Facebook page or blog can start a great conversation.  And we can do it all from the comfort of our own homes.  We can connect with the world without ever opening our front door.  It's great.  It's beautiful, really.  We've never been more connected with each other than we are now.

Related: Lesser Known Places to Find a Job

But, and you knew the but was coming, don't pretend you didn't, how truly meaningful are these networking connections when it comes to doing business together?  Or finding a job?  It can lead to opportunities, for sure.  But the truly best way to network is to actually leave your house and talk to people in person.  

Now, don't panic.  It's ok to talk to other people.  They want to talk to you and with all the time you spend online keeping up with world events and your industry's latest developments you have plenty to talk about.  Spending so much time interacting with people online can make you forget how much fun it is to actually meet people face to face.  And it is fun.  It also makes a more meaningful connection.  People want to work and do business with people they know and like.  It's not just about networking, it's about building a relationship.


Yesterday I attended a new networking group meeting.  It was new for me, not them.  They've been meeting for a while now and I just joined.  I got to talking with one of the members who mentioned that the group had been growing.  This person had been a member of another networking group but found that the other group was focused on just passing around business cards with promises to send business to each other.  As a result, that group didn't build relationships with each other and started losing members.  Turns out, the group I joined focuses on building relationships.  They were asking after each other's families and vacation plans.  They had inside jokes and laughed and actually enjoyed each other's company.  It was one of the most fun networking meetings I've been to.  I came away with several leads to generate new clients, an invitation to coffee to discuss how another member and I can help each other and a new friend.  Although I enjoy the online connections I make, this was much more productive and gave me real world results.  And it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't left the house.

Related: A Great Attitude Gets Great Results

There are lots of places to network with people, keeping in mind networking is another word for building relationships.  You can join the Sierra Club and go hiking, you can do volunteer work (The Red Cross always needs volunteers) or you could find a networking group in your area.  Business Networking International is a formalized group you can join.  There are also local networking groups, such as Contacts and Coffee which is based in the central to southern California area.  Your local Chamber of Commerce can help out, too.  Give them a call and ask if there are groups meeting in your area.  They're pretty good about helping out.

Your next job is most likely going to come about through someone you know.  People like to hire people they know or someone that's been referred to them by someone they know.  So get out there and start talking to people.  It's fun, you build relationships and it gets you out of the house for a bit.  Your computer and all your online connections will still be there when you get back.  I promise.

How to Use Twitter to Find Job

Gone are the days of Twitter being solely a means attention whoring for vapid, self-centered celebrities.  You can still find that, if that's what you're looking for.  I don't know what you're in to.  Who am I to judge?  But there's a whole lot more to Twitter, you just have to know where to look.  And when you're looking for work, every little bit helps.

Related: Using LinkedIn to Find a Job

And Twitter can be a big help if you use it right.  So I've talked before about finding blog posts and articles that tell you what you should do but never how you can do it.  I'm not just going to go on about how great Twitter is to find job postings, I'm going to give you directions on how to actually find them.  And how to make it easier on yourself.

More and more companies and recruitment agencies are posting their job openings on Twitter.  They have a variety of reasons for doing so, the main one being that it's free.  Following a company on Twitter that you'd like to work for is a great idea, whether they tweet jobs or not.  Because when you do apply for a job with them and they take a look at you online - and they will, make no mistake - they're going to be more interested in you if they see that you've taken an interest in them.  But besides that, when a company does tweet a job opening it's usually before they've advertised it anywhere else.  That gives you a jump on the competition.  So if you respond and you're already following them and they see your online presence looks outstanding, you're much more likely to get that interview. 

Related: Is Twitter Worth Your Time?

So how exactly do we find the companies that post jobs?  You can just use the search bar at the top of your Twitter feed.  Search topics like "job postings" "post jobs" "looking for work"....you get the idea.  When you find accounts that post jobs start following them.  A lot of times they'll follow you back.  You can also direct message them to let them know you're looking for a job.  An actual person will see this and in return, they're going to check you out.  If you direct message a recruiter or hiring manager and include links to your information like your LinkedIn profile, Career Presentation, and online resume, you put that hiring manager in a great position to contact you about open jobs.  Just make sure your online presence looks professional, just like your resume.

But if you're following hundreds of different accounts, how do you narrow in on the ones tweeting jobs?  You make a list!  It's very easy.  Just click on Lists on your Twitter profile page.  Next click Create list.  Enter the name of your list.  Name it anything you want, get creative!  Ok, not too creative if you make it a public list.  Remember, people can see it.  If it's public that means others can see and subscribe to your list, but we'll get to that in a minute.  If it's private only you can see what's in there.  When you're done just click Save.  Now you can add certain accounts you follow to your list.  On the list you'll only see the tweets from those accounts that you've added.  If you only add accounts that are posting jobs you've just created your own, personalized job post listing.  Congratulations!

You can also follow other people's lists.  Our Twitter account @CareerDragon has a list called "Job Postings" that you can follow.  We've set it up to contain the tweets of companies, recruiting agencies and job boards that are focused on posting open positions.  Subscribing is easier than setting up your own list.  You don't have to search out the accounts to follow, for one thing and you don't have to set up a list on your own.  It's easy!  Ok, here we go...

First, go view someone's profile.  Like ours.  Click on Lists.  Select which list you'd like to subscribe to.  In our case the list you're probably most interested in is called "Job Posts".  We also have another list composed of recruiters you can join.  It's called "Recruiters".  See? Easy.  Ok, next...after you've selected which list you'd like to join you'll end up on the List page.  Click Subscribe and you'll be all signed up to follow the list.  

Finding a job is challenging these days.  Things have changed and you can't approach it like you used to.  There are a lot of ways to search for a job, you just need to know how best to use them.  It's not impossible and you will find what you're looking for.  It'll happen.  It will.

 If you have any questions about the instructions or want more information just put it in the comments and I'll be happy to answer.  

Submit Your Resume More Effectively

Searching for a new job is time consuming.  It's great when you find one you want to apply for.  So it's just a simple matter of "click here to apply", attaching your resume and you're good to go.  Nope.  It's not.  Once you actually find a job to apply for the application process itself can take an eternity.  And when you're trying to apply to as many jobs as you can, it gets frustrating.  Especially when you don't get much response from all those applications.  So what can you do differently that would get better results and not make you so miserable?

Related: What Should be on Your Resume

Looking for and applying for jobs can lock you to your computer for the entire day.  First, you're asked to upload your resume.  Easy.  You've taken some time to tweak it to reflect the language and requirements of this particular job so it's ready to go.  You upload the resume and the next field asks for a cover letter.  Ok, it's not unexpected.  So take some more time to write a thoughtful but concise cover letter demonstrating how you're a perfect fit for the job.  There goes another half hour.  Maybe an hour, depending on how good of a writer you are.  

So you got your resume uploaded and wrote a great cover letter that you copied and pasted into their form.  Yay!  Done!  Oh.  Wait.  There are questions to answer.  All of which is information contained in your resume.  Now you get to fill in their form by repeating your resume.  And once you're done with that, some sites have another round of questions.  The entire process can take hours.  For one job.  It gets to the point that I wonder if some of these companies really want people to apply at all.

Trying to apply to as many jobs as possible, every single day is not only exhausting but it's not a great use of your time.  It gets frustrating, boring and demoralizing.  Being in that frame of mind when you're writing a cover letter isn't going to let the dynamic, confident, successful you come across.  And you'll stop customizing your resume for each position because it's a lot of work.  And when you're doing a lot of work without much to show for it, that makes anyone miserable.

Related:  How Your Attitude Affects Your Job Search

A more effective way to go about this whole process is to find two jobs each day to apply for.  Just two.  And apply the hell out of them.  Give your best effort on tweaking that resume for each position.  Write two different very well crafted cover letters.  Take your time filling out the forms giving a bit more detail than your resume does.  This extra effort will come through and show that you're serious about this job, not just any job, but this one in particular.  Each resume and cover letter you submit will be of a higher quality than if you make yourself crazy trying to submit as many as you can each day.  And higher quality submissions will get you more responses.  Which is what you want.


The best part is that this will free up your time to do other things.  Just because you may be unemployed doesn't mean you can't still enjoy life.  Instead of spending time frustrated at your computer you can go for a walk, spend time in your garden or start working out (you know you always say you're going to). The time spent unemployed can be used to do things that enrich your life, not just applying for another job.  Besides, when you do go on an interview, and you will, what are you going to say when they ask what you've been doing while you were out of work?  Looking for a job isn't a good answer.  Talking about all the other cool stuff you did, is.  At the least, it makes you more interesting.  Which is good because nobody hires boring.  

So apply for two jobs a day and use the rest of the time to enjoy life, learn something new, get fit and enrich yourself in a way that you can show off to the world.  Then your time looking for work will have been very well spent.  Because you're going to find a job, not if but when.  And this time will pass either way.  Be productive.  Don't waste it.  

3 Important Interview Questions and How to Answer Them

I've talked about this problem in articles and blog posts, before.  You find these great articles that tell you what you should be doing but they forget to tell you how to do it.  There are lots of articles that tell you what type of questions interviewers will ask.  They also tell you to be prepared with an answer.  That's great advice.  Know what you're going to say when you're asked a particular question.  Great.  Got it.  Um...so, what's a good, prepared answer sound like?  That's the useful bit, isn't it?  And the part that's usually left out.

Related:  How to Use LinkedIn

After interviewing lots of people over the years and being interviewed myself, I've learned there are good ways, ok ways and really bad ways to answer interview questions.  We're just going to talk about 3 of the more common questions.  Even if you're not asked these questions exactly, you'll probably be asked something similar.  So you can use a similar answer.

We're all fine talking about our greatest strengths but how about our weaknesses?  Here's the first one:

1.  Tell me about a work related weakness?  Or sometimes, Tell me about your strengths and weaknesses.  Here's how you answer that:  Your strengths are easy.  Just talk up your accomplishments and how you achieved them.  But the weakness, that's the harder one.  Everyone sees through the cliche answer of "My weakness is not asking for help because I work so hard".  Don't say that.  Everyone works hard, it's not a weakness and we all know it.  Pick one thing that you knew was a weak area of yours in the past and talk about how you worked on it and overcame it.  Now you have a valid weakness to share but make yourself look good because you recognized it, worked on it and overcame it.

Related:  What to Include in Your Resume

2.  Tell me a little about yourself.

This used to be the hardest one for me to answer.  Do you want to know about me personally?  Professionally?  Are they trying to get info that they're not allowed to ask, like if I have kids or how old I am?  I ask this question of people I'm interviewing just to hear what they say so I can get ideas on how to answer it myself.  The best way to answer this is to talk about your professional self.  You're there for a job interview, after all.  So talk about why you became interested in your field.  If it was something that interested you as a kid, mention that.  Talk about what you enjoy about your work and how it gives you a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment.  That segues nicely into talking about your achievements and you managed them.

3.  When was a time you had a conflict with a coworker and what did you do about it?

Ok, here they want to know a few things.  Are you a troublemaker or a peacemaker?  What kind of conflict resolution skills do you have?  Do you actually resolve conflicts or say nothing and keep it inside?  It sounds like a simple question but it actually involves quite a bit.  So, how do you navigate this landmine of a question?

We've all had conflicts with coworkers but openly resolving the conflict may not always have been the best course of action.  But you can't say that in an interview.  They want to see that you resolved it like a well skilled diplomat, so give them that.  It doesn't have to be a work related conflict, necessarily, if you don't have a work example.  Talk about what the conflict was and why it was a problem.  Then go through the steps you took to resolve it.  Make sure to mention that you spoke to the person about it in a non-confrontational way focusing on a resolution, not blame.  Whatever example you choose make sure there was a positive outcome and talk about why it was positive.  And at no point should you ever talk bad about the person the conflict was with.  Even if they were a real jerk.

Interviews are stressful but they don't have to be hard.  You know you have to be prepared but now you know how.

Related:  Help for Your Job Search

Finding a Job - Less Likely Places to Look

Everyone needs a job.  Preferably one that pays enough to keep the lights on.  It's a fact of life and applies to all of us.  Unless you were born into money.  And if you were, you're probably not reading this so we're just going to assume that anyone reading this needs a job.

But where do you find one?  There are lots of job boards like Monster and Indeed.  You post your resume, look for and apply to jobs listed and then sit back and wait.  And wait.  So you try another approach.  LinkedIn has jobs listed so you go there.  Now, this is actually a really good idea.  You can find jobs listed that you can apply for but before you go through what can be a lengthy process you can also see how many other people have already applied.  When you go to click the "apply" button it usually says just below the button how many others have clicked or applied.  If it's a high number you're probably better off continuing your search.  But if it's only a few it may be worth your time.

Related: Using LinkedIn

These are the most common places and approach to finding a job but not where you'll probably end up getting one.  Things have changed quite a bit in the last few years and old methods no longer work.  The best way is to use your network.  Let people know you're looking and ask if anyone has any leads for you.  It's ok to ask.  When they're in the same position, they're going to ask you.  But there are other places to look for jobs that you may not have thought of.  And if you haven't thought of it, chances are most other people haven't either.  Which means your likelihood of landing that interview increases because you have less competition.  And in today's hyper competitive job market, less competition is a fantastic 
thing.

Related: How a Positive Attitude Helps Your Job Search

The first place you should wander on over to is Craigslist.  We all know Craigslist has job listings but how many of you actually go look?  And how many of you go back on a regular basis and keep checking?  Probably not many which means less competition.  Another great thing about Craigslist is that when you send in your resume it ends up in the hands of a person who will look at it.  When you apply to the big job boards your resume is filtered through a program designed to look for certain keywords.  If your resume doesn't have those keywords or not enough of them, it gets deleted and no actual human ever sees it.  And what are those keywords, you ask?  Only the person who set up the filter knows that.  And they're not talking.  That doesn't happen on Craigslist so at the very least you know someone will actually see your resume.

Another great place to look is Mashable.  They're an online magazine that specializes in technology articles and information as it relates to business in various industries.  They have a really good job search page.  You can find it here.  It lists jobs from all over the US and allows you to filter based on location, company and job category.  Even if you don't have tech skills like writing code you should take a look.  Even tech companies need admin and HR help.  And again, since this isn't an overly common place to look for a job you'll have less competition and more chance that you'll get noticed.  You'll also find more interesting jobs listed.  More interesting is always better.  

So next time you're cruising around the interwebs after having filled out lengthy, time consuming applications take a minute to search the news or social media site you're on.  See if they have a jobs list, even if it's just for that particular company.  You never know, you may just find your next job where no one else thought to look.

What You Should, and Shouldn't, Have on Your Resume

For a long time resumes stayed the same.  It was a list of jobs you'd held, hopefully not too many, with a list of duties you performed at each.  Not too many jobs was considered a good thing.  It showed how stable you were.  The ideal resume was one page, with your name, address and phone number listed at the top.  Easy.  And simple.  




Like everything else on this planet, the resume has evolved.  Rather than being a simple list of job duties with your contact information, it's turned into your own personal marketing sheet.  It has to sell a product.  You.  And a short, boring list of skills isn't going to do the job.  It has to be interesting and engaging.  It has to be nice to look at and well organized.  And most importantly, it has to list what you've actually done with all those job skills.  And it has to be done in a way that makes the reader want to meet you.

It's a tall order for anyone.  Your best bet is to have it done professionally.  Then you can see yourself and your career through someone else's eyes.  Seeing your career from another person's perspective will show you how much more accomplished and impressive you actually are.  Most of us are pretty humble and see our accomplishments as just doing our job.  A fresh, outside perspective can highlight the extraordinary things you've done that you hadn't noticed.  It's ok.  You were too busy doing it to notice that you were doing something special.  That's actually a good thing.

But if you want to do it yourself, here's what you should definitely include.  And what you shouldn't.

Include:

1.  A brief, descriptive paragraph at the top of your resume just under your name.  Use this to talk about your great qualities, sell your product.  It doesn't have to be complicated, short phrases and incomplete sentences are fine.  Just make sure it makes sense.

2.  A short paragraph at the beginning of each job you list that highlights your main accomplishments.  Make it brief but descriptive.  Show the contributions you've made in the past and what you can offer to your new employer.

3.  It's ok to have more than one page.  The standard now is two pages.  People have more jobs over their career than they used to.  It's just how the job market is.  No one stays for 30 years at the same company, anymore.  If you're one of those rare few, expect that people will assume you've made some sort of arrangement with one dark force or another.

Do not include your full address.  Each of us has, on average, 3 different ways to be contacted.  You have email, your phone and your LinkedIn account.  If you don't have all 3 of these at this point, call us.  Seriously.  You need some help.

But don't put your street address.  Maybe put what city you live in but leave off the rest.  Besides taking up space it's completely useless.  No one is going to take the hint and write you a letter.  It isn't happening.  Ever.  

Put some of these suggestions into practice on your resume and you should start to see better results.  The very worst that will happen is that your resume will look and feel more modern and in line with current job market expectations of applicants.  Which makes you look and feel more modern, too.  But if you need help, we're always here.

How to Actually Use LinkedIn to Check Out Your Competition

The other day I was browsing around the interwebs finding interesting topics to write about.  I kept finding articles about what a great idea it is to use LinkedIn for various things.  Using LinkedIn for finding a job is essential!  Or, use LinkedIn to check out your competition...things like that.  The problem is, no one ever tells you how to actually go about it.

Related: Why You Should be Using LinkedIn

Using LinkedIn to see what other people in your industry, and your potential competition for jobs, are up to is a great idea.  Tons of benefits, compare yourself, improve your profile, make yourself stand out...  It all sounds great.  Fabulous advice.  What are you waiting for?  Go do it.  How, you ask?  Well that's the problem, isn't it?  Everyone wants to give you great advice on what you should do but they don't have a clue (or aren't willing to share) on how to actually do it.

So, you want to see how you compare to your competition on LinkedIn?  Here are a few great ways to do exactly that, instructions included.


1.  On your LinkedIn page, go to the search bar at the upper right corner.  There's a drop down of search options.  Choose people.  Then, in the search field enter your job title or job description.  You'll find people in your industry who are using those same words/phrases in their profiles.  Start clicking on them and looking at their profiles.  You could spend all day comparing yourself to everyone else.

2.  In the same search box use the search option drop down again but this time select companies.  Use the same words/phrases as before and you'll see a list of companies that hire people in your industry.  You can look at their LinkedIn pages, learn more about them and find links to their job postings.  You just have to look around on their business page a bit.  They're all different, some will include links directly to openings and some will include links to their main website.  If you go to the main website there should be a "careers" or "jobs" button.

3.  Once again, in the same search box use the search option drop down and select groups.  Using the same words/phrases you can search for groups that are set up specifically for your industry.  Join some of the groups.  Not only will you start to see who your competition is, but you'll be able to engage them in real conversations.  And if you start contributing relevant content to the discussions, they're going to see you as their competition.  And then they're going to start checking you out.

Joining groups like this has another huge benefit that gives you a great advantage.  Recruiters and hiring managers will be members, too.  And they use these groups to help find potential job candidates. Like you.

Related: How to Grow Your LinkedIn Network

Now you're all set to go off and explore LinkedIn like a pro.  Go find who you're up against, who's hiring, learn about new companies in your field, and get noticed by the people doing the hiring.  No excuses, either.  I just told you how to do it, so go.  And if you have any questions or need more of an explanation, put them in the comments.  I'm happy to answer.  Who knows?  Maybe you'll be the inspiration for my next post.  You know, in a good way.

LinkedIn Etiquette

Everyone in the working world has heard of LinkedIn.  And everyone should have an account.  Seriously.  If you don't have one, stop reading this and go there now.  Start your account, it's free, and then come back and keep reading.  I'm not kidding.  If you don't have a LinkedIn account it'll be nearly impossible to find a job today.  

LinkedIn: Why you should have an account

It's not just that it's a great resource to look for jobs and find people in your network who can help you but it's the first place a hiring manager is likely to look for a potential job candidate.  And you want them to find you.  Recently I had a client tell me the resume they submitted for a job was turned down because they didn't have a LinkedIn account.  The hiring manager told them to go make an account and apply again.  Which is why they came to us.  If you're going to have an account, make sure it looks outstanding.  If your account looks great, so do you.

So you have your account and you'd like to go about growing your network.  Or maybe you've found someone at a company you'd like to work for and would like to talk to them.  How do you go about it?

Fun Fact: Dragons only eat rude people.  Politeness saves lives.

When you hit the connect button a pre-populated request pops up.  Now, you have the option of taking about 10 seconds to delete that and personalize it or you can just hit send.  Guess which one you should do?  Yeah, the one that takes a little extra time.  It's always the option that takes more time.  That's just life.  Don't fight.  Just roll with it and take a few seconds more and personalize that response.  

Sending the pre-populated response makes you look, at best, lazy and at worst, disinterested in the other person.  Writing your own request shows more respect and consideration for that person and their time. Which also greatly increases your probability of a positive response.  

It's pretty easy, too.  In fact, you can write your own request and use the same one for everyone you want to connect with.  You know, with a few changes for each one.  Like the name.  Seriously.  Don't forget to change the name.

Try something like this:  "Dear/Hi Person I'd like to connect with (use their name, don't say this)

I'd appreciate connecting with you.  (Introduce yourself) We worked together at/we're members of the same LinkedIn group (name it)/you work for the company I'm interested in.  I enjoyed working with you/the articles/comments you post to our group/would like to learn more about the company you work for.
                                         Thank you for your time.
                                          Your name 

See how easy that is?  And completly customizable for anyone you want to connect with.  Now you look thoughtful and considerate.  It looks like you actually care about connecting with this person and best of all, you don't look lazy.  Isn't that better?         
                                         

A Positive Attitude

When you're looking for a new job or just want to change from your current one it can be hard to keep a positive outlook.  Finding a job takes time and there's more rejection than anyone should have to handle.  You apply for job after job and never hear anything back but see the same job posted for months on end.  It's depressing.  It's enough to bring Pollyanna down.

Even though it's difficult at times, keeping a positive attitude can do wonders for your job search.  Not only will it keep you motivated but the way you present yourself will benefit, too.  When you get into a negative place and can only see the down side, it affects everything you do.  If you're feeling down it's going to show.  Including in the way you communicate with others and the first impression you give.  

Think about it.  When you're feeling happy you smile and laugh more.  You're more agreeable to everyone around you.  You're probably friendlier and showing your sense of humor.  This comes across when people speak with you on the phone or meet you in person.  You smile, make them laugh, laugh at their joke and generally enjoy yourself.  You see the opportunity coming your way, however slight it may be.  If you're optimistic, you can make it work.  When your attitude is positive you also come across as more confident.  That's always a good thing.  People like confidence.

The flip side is that when you're feeling down or negative about things, that gets communicated to everyone, too.  Your body language is even different.  You don't stand up as straight or smile as much. You don't laugh and have less tendency to look someone in the eye.  Even when an opportunity presents itself to you all you'll be able to see is the down side.  You may even talk yourself out taking advantage of that opportunity because you just can't see it working out anyway.  All of this gives a less than great first impression.  To a person meeting you for the first time you'll seem low energy and disinterested.  You'll give the impression of only seeing the down side of anything by looking for the negative.  That's not what you want.  You want to be seen as the enthusiastic go-getter you know you are.

You're a hardworking, conscientious and accomplished professional.  And everyone should know that, especially when you're looking for a new job.  So show yourself off!  A great way to maintain a positive attitude is to focus on your accomplishments.  Keep in mind the contributions you're capable of making, and have made in the past.  Focus on the fact that you have something unique to offer the company that hires you.  You'll come across as confident, knowledgeable and with a purpose.

It gets hard looking for a new job but don't give up.  Stay positive and you'll do yourself a favor.  Happy, positive and confident people are the ones who get hired, too.  You never know, your great attitude may be exactly what you need to get you where you want to be.