Know someone looking for work?

Send this post along as a 

reminder of HOW to look.

As editor of a 100-page JOB HUNTER Action Guide for outplacement counseling, and a former professor of career development, I have three critical observations to share with today’s desperate job search market:

1. Learn what you have to about yourself, and about how to manage your stress (take some deep breaths) effectively enough to not allow others (anyone, really) to pick up on your desperation feelings.

No one wants to refer or hire a person who’s busy scraping and scrambling to stay alive.

So even if scraping and scrambling is in fact what you’re doing, pack it away when you start each day. Keep your mind on positive thoughts even when you’re staring negativity in the face.

Surround yourself with positive people and positive experiences every chance you get. This includes the TV shows you watch, the music you listen to, the emails you send and FWD, the room(s) you live in, and the things you read.

2) If you’re not on Twitter, figure it out. Do it. It will force you to be concise, think on your feet, and be responsive. It will provide job connections and opportunities you won’t find in your local newspaper or even in key industry publications. If you keep your Twitter account (which is free) and activity focused on getting a job and on being social without over-indulging in chit-chat, there IS payback.

When you go back and forth on Twitter, and gain confidence that somebody out there loves your comments (called Tweets), you will simultaneously be training yourself to think and communicate in resume terms.  Your resume will get tighter and more impressive as it gets Twitter-streamlined.

Twitter’s 140 character per Tweet limitation is like boot camp for your job hunter brain.

Your interviewing process will likewise benefit by the 140-character discipline habit because you will start getting to the point of what you are trying to express quicker, and more simply. Bosses want responsive, uncomplicated job candidates. Long-windedness and fat vocabularies are great if you’re looking to be a politician or librarian, but send out the wrong signals otherwise.

3) No matter what your background or skill set, and no matter what the job you seek is all about, you must recognize that you and you alone are –in the end– the one who has to land the job. No resume writer or career coach or counselor can do that for you. That means one thing: You must learn and practice everything you possibly can about marketing because you are marketing yourself!

Your resume needs to accomplish one task only. And more than one page (unless you’re seeking a professional position requiring a CV) won’t cut it!

It must get your foot in the door. It must land you an interview.

More than one page says you don’t know how to be concise and you don’t know how to prioritize, and you don’t know what’s important. Most interviewers throw these out without a glance.

You need –like a professional marketing program– to play out EVERY contact, THANK every contact, and focus on AIDAS: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action, Satisfaction . . .

• ATTRACT ATTENTION (with your demeanor, not flamboyance)
• CREATE INTEREST (by HOW you present yourself –format, as well as WHAT you present –content)
• STIMULATE DESIRE (by demonstrating your own desire for the challenges and opportunities, not the salary and benefits)
• BRING ABOUT ACTION (by asking for follow-up, a test period)
• PROMPT SATISFACTION (by providing follow-up; this can be tricky; consider consulting a professional career coach)

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931.854.0474 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US  

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals!

 “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson] 

Make today a GREAT day for someone!