Have you ever wondered why job hunting seems like such a bore? It’s because you’re eventually wasting a lot of time looking for the wrong type of job. I’m going to put forward that job hunting can be an exciting time for you… if you follow these steps.
For any millennial, and the Gen Y’s just ahead of them, landing your very first job is a typical right of passage. Cue the casual weekend job down at the local supermarket stacking shelves, ripping tickets at a cinema, or selling jeans to your mates at the local shopping centre. Read more
For my entire time studying at university I often hear lecturers, tutors and students talk about this thing called ‘the real world’. Having spent eight years working and travelling before university, I was confused by this term. Studying at university IS the real world – you’re just not treating it that way.
I am going to put things into perspective for you and show how university is just like working in a big organisation.
When my friends call me for help, I instinctively try to do whatever I can do ‘assist’. But when it comes to something as personal and stressful as looking for a new job, this isn’t always the best approach.
Just doing stuff for the sake of demonstrating your friendship is neither useful nor helpful. Instead, it takes listening, understanding, and employing a whole lot of tact. Read on for five ‘friendly’ strategies on how to really give your friend some job search help. Read more
This blog post is the second in a new series authored by The Job Search Coach marketing intern Jasha Andrews. Jasha has been invited as a Guest blogger to TJSC to help uni students hunt smarter for a position. If you are a regular reader, this could be the refresher that you need on basic job hunting.
Congratulations, you’re ready to jump into the world of job hunting. If you’ve followed my previous post carefully, you should have a concise resume and cover letter ready to go.
Job hunting sucks. We all know that. The usual job search experiences range from seemingly unending rejections to permanent communication black holes from job sites or recruiting firms. The whole experience is definitely no fun, particularly if you are unemployed with bills to pay. Read more
During the last 21 months since we started TheJobSearchCoach, some of our coaches, (me included) have talked to over 300 job hunters about their job hunting or careers. Many of these job hunters express their worries – for reasons we all understand – as they are stressing out about finding new or better employment. Read more
So, you want to score a startup job interview, but you haven’t landed a job interview yet? I guess you need a few essentials?! Well, it’s not an easy task. Just how do you find a job at a business that may only have four or five team members and no real recruiting budget?
Well, for starters, if you’re looking at the big job sites like Seek and My Career you’re obviously looking in the wrong area.
My team and I have worked in the midst of over 70 Sydney-based startup’s for the last 2 years and we have helped a good number of them with their advertisement and selection process. We not only spend a good deal of time looking at candidates, profiles and the usual resumes & cover letters, we are also running a startup ourselves. So, we decided to put our heads together and we came up with this to-do list for a successful startup job search.
I’ve read many applications and the resumes that come through, and as a whole, it’s clear that most people don’t know how to approach getting a job at a startup.
Fluffing around will not get you anywhere. I know it sounds harsh, but that’s the world you are going to enter. If you are a marketer, developer or designer, list that at the top. List it in the subject line even. “Ruby on Rails Developer Looking for Early Stage Start Up” would be a good example. I should be able to glance at your cover letter and know specifically what you are looking to do. Please don’t write a career objective! Get straight to the point.
If you insist on sending a resume, it should be named “yourname.pdf”. Do not wond a word doc.
One of the best cover letters (preferably in the email body) I’ve ever read said, “I’m amazing at creating buzzwords, hot tubbing and finding adventure. I’m also a kick ass Rails Developer, just coming off a long term contract. Early stage startups are a plus.” This sure as hell beats “I’m looking for a challenging and engaging environment to develop my talents.” If you are afraid to be creative, don’t apply. I have not seen a single startup who hired a ‘generalist’. I am dead serious here, if you can’t focus on something, at least in your introduction, you have a <0% chance of landing a job interview. Specialise! Customer support! QA! Development! Marketing! Intern! Product Development! Design! Get it?
The worst case scenario when looking for a job is sending out resumes and getting no responses. startups tend to be different. They know how to deal with applications if you are not wasting their time. Be a human and ask questions that can be answered by friendly folks. Keep the discussion going.
You are looking for a job. Cut the buzzwords. Start Ups don’t work with ATS filtering systems. What is the best fit? Steady? Fast paced? Live in Melbourne? Just say it. Cut the c#%p.
You really don’t need one to work at a startup. A simple email along the lines of ‘this is what I have done… I’m looking to join a team as a _________ to kick some goals’ is a great way to do it. List specific projects and accomplishments. Show that you can be to the point, effective and humble. The rest will be requested when you get an interview.
Yep – again – I am not kidding here. Most company blogs are largely lacking in comments! An easy way to get into the founders inbox is write a post about the company, saying how you admire / like them. Be genuine and say something valuable. Founders tend to look at the blogs, and if in your bio you are clear in what you are looking to do (Front End Developer!) you might just get on the expressway to an interview.
Reply almost immediately. The more out of the usual workday, the more important. Keep your emails concise. “Hey Lisa, just got your email. Quite late here but I would love to respond, a) b) c) d). Feel free to call if you have any questions.”
I don’t care how good you are – if you don’t share – then I most likely won’t look at you. Write posts about what you specialise in. Get people to comment on it. Stand out. You control your personal brand, and if you don’t do this you are showing you don’t care.
Today. Now. Get. On. It.
I’ve seen it many times. There are great fits for people and startups. When you find that special company, do what you do for them. E.g. “I know you have processes to do things like this, but I couldn’t help but see your XYZ campaign is missing some pieces. If I was there I would help by doing _______.” Consider it the interview the others were too lazy to do. When getting a job, standing out helps, a tonne. But, obviously be selective and don’t do this for every app, nor spend too much time on it.
Meet folks there. Follow up from there. We don’t care if you are intro or extrovert – we see you – we will sort it out. Just show up and show initiative.
Don’t let anyone suggest that you are too old. That’s absolute nonsense! Yes, we all know … Gen X and Baby Boomer applicants tend to be more expensive than their younger counterparts. Is hiring more mature candidates a luxury that should be considered by startups often strapped for cash? In fact, I have experienced it right around me that not only can older employees contribute to startups, but failing to leverage their kind of experience has been detrimental to a number of startup companies. Hiring a Gen X or a Baby Boomer for a startup then becomes not a luxury, but a really good idea that can help provide a true competitive differentiator. Remember, startups are all about not following the rules, disruption, flexibility and being nimble. Just because, on average, the startup world is younger doesn’t mean that there aren’t places for more mature employees to shine and add real value.
So get with it, and if you think you have what it takes, apply! Keep it simple, get to the point and remember to hunt wisely.
Uli
PS. Feel free to comment or share this blog post or contact me if you want some further insight and tips.
We all know the feeling when we struggle to go to work.
You know that moment when the alarm goes off and you think, “Bugger, not again!” Personally, I usually can’t get started until I’ve had my 1st double shot coffee near the office. But, what if the dreaded feeling is about more than that? What if that negative feeling about your job follows you everywhere you go and invades your dreams? Does that mean it’s time to change jobs? Are you in trouble? Read more
Welcome and Happy New Year! Are you dreaming of getting a new job in 2015? Someone once said to me in my career that people who have dreams have goals. I agree, but if you dream too much and have your head in the clouds, then you will never get anywhere. I suggest you get real and let go of some or all of these typical job hunter dreams. Get them out of your head if you want to get a job in 2015.
If you want to get a job in 2015, I suggest you get real and let go of some or all of these typical job hunter dreams: get them out of your head now!
Seriously, when did you last apply that practice in your own world? Get real. For realistic people this is simply not how it works. I know, because I hear this at least 20 times each week and it is pretty clear to me that it’s hard for so many job hunters to let go of this dream. If you can manage to think differently about finding work and accept that it really means that you have to get a job and do a job, and that they are two different things, then you will get interviews and jobs.
There’s only one definition of a good resume—it’s the one that gets you the interview. The vast majority of submitted resumes have evolved into ‘data dumps’ and in doing so, what’s been lost to the is the time tested value of telling your story. It’s the story, not the data, that engages the reader and communicates your value. Get it wrong and the reader will not consider you. Facts, figures and numbers, only matter when they form part of a larger story.
This is probably the most evil and most common of all the job hunter dreams, because it can lead to blaming the victim. Not a single week goes by when I don’t read or discover yet another encouragement from self-professed recruiting experts, who tell job hunters to “just work harder.” This unspoken judgment that hard work is all that separates the employed from the jobless is absolute nonsense. Never mind the irrational system we have in place for connecting people and jobs. Never mind luck, chance, connections, age, sex, race, disability, experience or sometimes even talent. Just work harder. Simplistic solutions like ‘work harder’ can feel good because they create the perception that the problem is solved. But it’s not. The dream remains. What you really need to do is search and apply smarter, not harder. That’s how you get job interviews. Call me if you want to know more; simply follow my blog or contact me during our Pro Bono Friday sessions or attend our seminars.
Ask any job hunter or hiring manager what networking means and you’ll get a different answer each time. The word ‘networking’ has become so overused, that it has started to lose its real meaning for so many job hunters. To them, it actually means NOTHING because no one has an outright answer. Networking isn’t everything and it certainly is not wrong; it’s just not enough. And when it’s put forth as ‘the answer’ it becomes a dream. What’s worse is that it becomes a focus on the wrong thing. Networking is not the magic key to a new job.
Oh, and while we are on that subject, just knowing someone, or knowing someone who knows someone, will not get you a job either. You need to do much more than just ‘know someone’. This is probably the weirdest and hardest job hunter dream to challenge or even to dispute because sometimes it’s true! But more often than not it’s really just a start, especially if the connection is only online or simply weak. What’s weak? For starters, so many LinkedIn users believe that networking via their mouse clicks is a connection or a lead to a new job. Need I say more?
What’s even more important than knowing someone via a few mouse clicks or Facebook connection tabs, is actually being a part of something.
Being an active, visible and regular contributor to a community—any community— is real networking. Because it’s from these communities that the genuine connections required to find work are found. You have to put something in to get something out. A mere endorsement or a commentary post in a LinkedIn group does not make you a valuable networker.
We are all for honesty. The problem is the job hunters who confuse including EVERYTHING in their application versus simply including what matters. No small task. And it means something different to every individual. Most job ads are short and simple. So many jobs today are very narrowly focused. That means that the focus in your application has got to be on what matters, NOT on telling your life story. I just looked at another 8 page resume. I am not kidding. 8 pages?!
Telling what matters is what counts. Bottom line? Instead of a focus on being honest and including everything, change the focus to reading and LISTENING and speaking to what’s needed and what matters the most. Less is More!
It is like saying, “Google Translate will solve your language problem.” Get real—LinkedIn is a database. As one of many tools, it might help you find work. But it’s a database, not a magic online kingdom. There are at least 10 alternative sites who do more for you depending on your industry and job search segment.
There are lots of published speculations on the percentage of time job board’s lead to jobs and they range from 5-15%. Is that really true? Maybe. Maybe not. What’s consistent is that the numbers are never more than 20%. What is larger than 20%? The dream that online job boards will do the work for you. Approximately 70% of all job hunters focus their job search energy on online job boards hunting for less than 30% of the actual job opportunities.
Yep—the gatekeeper used to be the receptionist or the protective ‘HR guy’; nowadays the first gatekeeper can be resume parsing systems and software. The idea is the same. The dream that if you could just get past something, or someone, is a silly idea. Wake up. Job hunting is about doing things smarter—not harder—and with consistency.
If you want to get a job in 2015, get your head out of the clouds, focus on what really matters and remember to hunt wisely!
TheJobSearchCoach
Uli
