My first week, after I lost my job, was a week of looking for my resume. After not finding it, I spent time trying to recreate it.

Looking back on it now I see that week as a colossal waste of time.

I recently heard of a job seeker who did the same thing I did… spent the first week looking for his old resume, then recreating what he remembered to be the most amazing document.

Knowing what I know now, here’s how I would spend the first week (it’s a GIVEN that I’d use JibberJobber to organize all this stuff :p):

1. Listing my Target Companies,
2. Looking for people on LinkedIn that work at (or have worked at) those Target Companies.
3. Making contact with those people, as well as others in my industry and town/city, and asking for informational interviews.

I would do this the very first day.  I might not get any informational interviews for a week or two or three, but I need to get that “pipeline” filled up.

I’d also learn everything I could about informational interviews.  I’m guessing 98% of job seekers do them wrong.

In my spare time, and only after I’ve reached out to contacts for informational interviews (which I should do every day), I would work on my LinkedIn Profile, and start the resume creation process (it would be worth the few hundred dollars to have a professional write my resume.  I learned that the wrong way).

I had to get my resume done so I could apply to job openings I found on job boards…. right?  That’s what I thought.  I went about it all wrong.

Please don’t waste the first week of your job search like I did.

Job loss is one of the most traumatic things we go through, supposedly.

Why?

Is it because we lose our entire income? That can be replaced. People replace their incomes in various ways (new job, side gig, start a business, etc.).

Is it because we lose our status in society? My “general manager” job title definitely gave me a sense of social security. I’ve since learned that using a title to define your self-worth, even your professional self-worth, is not healthy.

Is it because we find out how “mortal” we are, with regard to our career? I thought I was in the “inner circle,” and safe… little did I realize how powerful politicking was… and how someoneelse could impact my security.

Is it because we were once secure, and now we are thrown into complete unkown? We worked hard to get where we were, and now we have to start over, trying to prove ourselves against thousands of others….

Is it because… ____________________________?

Why?

And, looking at it from an emotionless perspective, are the reasons justified?  Should it really hurt that much?

This is a guest post from Will Kerr, who lives in the UK. Enjoy the language and spelling. It’s cool to get his perspective from “across the pond” on something I hadn’t heard about before, but it makes a lot of sense.

It should go without saying that, in order to stand any sort of chance at landing a job
by responding to an ad, you’re going to have to pay close attention to the language
it uses, and write up your cover letter and CV to make sure they chime with the tone
used by your potential employers.

However, as well as using the ad’s wording to try and discern how to most effectively
sell yourself, you should analyse it to see how the job is being sold to you. After all,
a job ad is an advert, and just like any other advert, it’s wise not to take everything it
says at face value.

This is an important skill to develop as a job hunter, as it will help you preserve
your most precious resource: time. A successful job hunt is all about having a set of
focused targets. By being able to decode the jargon and euphemisms so prevalent in
job ads, you can save yourself the effort of applying for a role that just isn’t suited to
you.

For example, you’ll see the phrase ‘self-starter’ used a lot and, whilst on the one hand
it implies that you’ll be working in an environment where you’re not going to micro-
managed and your talents for taking the initiative will be given space to flourish, it’s
worth your while being a little cynical about such a phrase. Ask yourself why being
a ‘self-starter’ is such a necessity. The likely answer is that you’ll need to improvise
solutions on your own because the company just doesn’t have the resources available
to give you all the support you might expect – a less enticing prospect.

Likewise, the working environment will almost invariably be described as ‘fast-
paced,’ which creates the image of a frenetic office trying to keep up with all the
business that’s being generated. If that’s the case, wonderful. But is it not just as
likely that employees are forced to work at a fast pace because of understaffing?

A ‘highly varied’ role sounds great. After all, nobody wants to do the exact same
thing day in day out. However, using this term ambiguously could well suggest
that there is no clear designation of responsibilities within the business, and that
said ‘variety’ will arise primarily from the fact that you’ll be picking up the pieces all
over the place rather than focusing on your own work.

As well as working out when an add is doing its best to make the company sound like
a more attractive place to work than it actually is, you also need to be aware that ads
will also occasionally do the opposite and attempt to put people off.

Often, to try and deter lesser candidates and thus speed up the process of filtering
the wheat from the chaff, firms will exaggerate the skills set a job actually requires.
This can result in some stipulations that are bizarre, or sometimes even impossible,
especially if the people responsible for recruiting don’t really understand the role.

Job ads for IT roles, for example, have been known to demand that candidates have at
least three years of experience working with a certain technology, despite the fact that
it’s only existed for two years! (Aside from anything else, this might indicate that the
business in question doesn’t have the keenest eye for detail…)

Therefore, when reading a job ad’s person specification, don’t be too perturbed if
there are one or two criteria that you can’t quite fulfil. If you offer 80% of what
they’re asking for, you should be in with a shot (though, as focus is key in a job
search, it is preferable to target jobs you know for certain you are 100% qualified for).

At the end of the day, when businesses recruit – as with every other aspect of
their operation – what they’re looking for is value. They want the most talent and
experience they can get their hands on for the salary they have to offer. If they say the
role requires at least three years of experience in the industry, they are far more likely
to receive applications from people with five to ten years experience. This doesn’t
necessarily mean that if only have one and a half years experience that you’ll find the
job impossible.

This also needs to born in mind if you are a highly experienced, highly skilled
professional on the look out for job opportunities. A recruiter may be overstating the
skills set required to reel you in and this could result in your taking a role where you
don’t get to make full use of your abilities.

Will Kerr writes extensively on the varied world of job hunting, from the latest
guerrilla tactics, to the ins and outs of old fashioned networking. You can read more of his work on http://www.job-centre-vacancies.co.uk/.

I kind of disregard the stats about how people find jobs.  I think the survey is too old, and too general.  It all boils down to networking anyway, no matter how you look at the stats.  I tend to say anywhere from 60 – 95% of jobs are found through networking … with a number of variables (like, the type of job, industry, etc.).

I think informational interviews are the bomb.  THE BOMB.  Most people bomb them, though, because they don’t know what they are doing.

I also think Micheal Webb developed one of the best systems to find a job I’ve ever heard of.  It’s simple… very simple.  But it is too scary for most people, because it involves picking up the phone and talking to … people! AAAAAH, people!!! Scary!

It’s much more comfortable to just hide from your job search doing things like applying online, and “networking” online, etc.  But folks, if you want to end the unemployment, get good at picking up the phone.

David, one of my favorite JibberJobber users, sent me an  article on Recruiter.com titled Cold Call Your Way to a New Job.  It is short, and brilliant.

The length of the article doesn’t matter.  Getting a book on cold calling won’t necesarily help you, if you aren’t willing to actually pick up the phone and call.  You have to do this.

Here’s a bonus: if you can do it, and get good at it, and comfortable with it, you will be a better professional.  Cold calling, and communication skills, will only help you in your career.  Getting through fear and making the call… getting “no’s” and having successes, will make you stronger, and better.

In Marie Larsen’s article she has four points (with my thoughts):

1. Reasearch who to call. I use LinkedIn and Google to do this research, and usually find contact information readily available.
2. Make a script. YES.  Don’t read it word-for-word… practice it until it is second nature.  Keep things short.  Know your objective of the call, and don’t let the conversation stray away from that objective. Sometimes the objective is to simply schedule another call, with more time or more focus.
3. Know your etiquette. You are not BFFs on the first call.  Respect their time,  respect yourself as a professional.
4. Release your fear of the unknown. They aren’t going to reach through the phone and punch your teeth out.  It’s okay to talk to people who are too busy to take your call, or brush you off.  Move on, and make the next call.  You’ll get successes, as long as you keep calling.  (If you don’t, have someone critique your approach)

Read the entire article here.  And then pick up the phone and call someone!

I did a search on Google for how to organize your job search, and JibberJobber came up on the second page.  I thought that was pretty lame, so I figured I’d write a simple post on how to organize your job search.

Why would you want to organize your job search?  I sometimes think organizing your job search is like balancing your checkbook… boring, mundane, unnecessary.

Well, it can be those things.  But I found in my job search that I had to keep organized, or I would quickly forget too much, especially who I was supposed to follow-up with.  Here are some reasons WHY you should organize your job search:

• To help you feel more in control. It’s easy to feel out of control in your job search (after all, you lost your income, your title, your status, perhaps your dignity, and maybe more).  This is something you can be in control of. Don’t take this lightly – feeling out of control will not help you at all.  Feeling in control will help ensure your attitude is in the right place.
• To help keep track of new contacts you meet. Networking is a big part of anyone’s job search, and if you are doing it right you are meeting dozens of people each week.  Dozens times weeks = lots and lots of contacts.  From personal experience, I can atest that it’s super easy to forget people… names, importance, titles, etc.  It’s even easy to forget who that most important person is that can help you network into your target company.  No big deal if your job search is ONE DAY.  For the rest of us, though, it’s critical to keep track of key people in our job search.
• To help keep track of Target Companies. I prospect target companies.  I meet multiple people that help me network into the company, and I do different things with different people.  For example, I might send a resume to one, have a phone call with another, have lunch with another, and have a panel interview with four others.  How in the world do you keep track of all that in your head?  You don’t.  My sophisticated job search spreadsheet imploded around the time I had five applications I was working on at eBay.  It was just too much information for a spreadsheet.
• To help keep track of jobs you apply to. This is obvious, right?  The devil is in the details.  Keeping track of jobs you apply to means tracking which version of what resume you sent to who, and when you need to follow-up.  It means logging when you had an interview, who was there, what you need to follow-up on later (questions you might have to research), and whether or not you sent a thank you letter.  It means tracking the relationships of people you interviewed with, whether you got the job or not, because those relationships might lead to something much better.
• To help track what job search marketing tools (resumes, cover letters, 30 second pitches) you use where, and for what. It gets really confusing trying to remember what job you applied for, what was in the job specs, when you should follow-up, etc. This gets really complicated.

That, my friends, is just the tip of the iceberg.  There are other things to keep track of.  But you must keep track of those things.

How do you do it? Here are some options:

Job search spreadsheet: I tried this.  It worked for about two weeks, then it started to get too convoluted and confusing, and I missed appointments and call-backs.  FAIL.  Oh yeah, here’s another failure with a spreadsheet – some people spend too much time tweaking and retweaking their spreadsheet, all in the name of doing a job search. They are usually just hiding from the phone, or networking, and “optimizing” the spreadsheet as an excuse.

Sticky notes: Um, seriously?  I tried this system for organizing other things for a few years… it resulted in a ton of random sticky notes all over my desk, in books, in binders, etc.  No way to do a quick search, scan or any other reporting function.  Imagine this – a recruiter calls you and says “are you still interested in the job you applied to here, four months ago?”  Yeah, find the sticky note on that one!

Your PC, documents, etc.: I’ve had too many hard drive crashes to trust one PC.  No way.

Online Google Docs or something like that: Nope. If it’s not a database, it’s not what I need.  I want something that can make those logical connections (5 people at one target company; three jobs I applied to at that company; etc.)

Any of JibberJobber’s competitors: Go for it.  There are about 12 me-too sites.  Make that about 9, since a few have already gone out of business.  I have no idea what the other companies are doing with their technology, or what their users think.  But I do know this: after going to conferences with career coaches for the last 5 years, in general, no one has heard of any of the competition.  Not that that means they aren’t awesome, but if they aren’t getting their name out, and getting customers and users, they might not be the best place to trust your data for the long-term.

JibberJobber.com: Disclaimer: I’m totally biased. I know where we’ve come from, six years ago, where we are at, and where we are headed.  We are beyond dedicated to helping you not only organize and manage your job search, but have a personal relationship manager for the rest of your career, even if you are inbetween job searches.

How do you organize your job search?  Jump on the next JibberJobber user webinar to learn how.  It’s live, so come with questions, and get a sense for yourself if this is the company you want to trust your information with.

When I lost my job I didn’t want to file for unemployment benefits.  I thought I would have a job before my unemployment insurance (aka, the weekly check I got from the state) would kick in.  Plus, it was only a few hundred bucks per week, if I remember right.

But I did.  I took the time to apply. As days of unemployment turned into weeks, and then months, I was glad for that few hundred dollars here and there.  It wasn’t close to replacing my previous income, but it saved my family.

In Utah, I had to report every week that I was in a real job search.  Among other things, I had to say that I had made contact with two new (new-to-me) companies every week.  In other words, in order for the state to give me money each week, I had to show that I wasn’t just sitting around watching TV.

Personally, I felt only making contact with two new companies a week was a very weak requirement, but I wasn’t about to argue with the State.

My job search spreadsheet was the tool I relied on, in case I got audited.  I never got audited, and of the hundreds of job seekers I met, none of them told about being audited.  I’m not sure how common auditing is now, but it wasn’t common when I was filing.

There’s a better way, now, to track what you are doing in a job search, if you are filing for unemployment insurance.

When you use JibberJobber to organize and track your job search, your activities show up in an “unemployment report.”

Simply click on Report, then the first menu option is called the Unemployment Report (make sure you choose the time frame from the drop down).

This report shows you what companies you are contacting, and what kind of contact you are making (submitting a resume, going to an interview, etc.).  I’m guessing it contains the information any auditor would want to see.

This is a free report (used to be Premium).  All you have to do is use JibberJobber to track your activities in your job search

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More information:

The Texas Workforce Commission wants you to keep a “work search log,” which you can find online. They say: “TWC requires that you actively search for work to be eligible to receive unemployment insurance benefits. TWC may request your work search log anytime during your benefit year to verify your work search activities. If TWC cannot verify your work search activities, you could be held ineligible for unemployment insurance benefits for the requested week.”

Here’s an article from the lawmakers in Tennessee, who want job seekers collecting UI benefits to be more accountable.  You get the typical rhetoric from heavies like Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, who says: “Anecdotally, we’re pretty confident there’s a lot of folks who aren’t doing that. They’re just sitting at home collecting their benefits.”  Right after that you read they are apparently sending UI money to people who are in jail, because they haven’t “redefine[d] “misconduct” that disqualifies workers from benefits and ban people who are incarcerated from collecting unemployment while behind bars.”  Oops.  The point is, though, there might be more stringent reporting requirements.

Wednesday at 8pm EST (which is 5pm PST), Kim Bilawchuk is doing a webinar titled How to Find Your Dream Career When You’re Stuck in a Job You Hate.

I wish I would have had access to this webinar when I was in the last year of my job, before I got laid off. I was miserable. I had lost a couple of key employees. My old boss was secretly politicking for his job back (which he did successfully).

But I felt stuck. My salary made me feel stuck. My benefits, even though they were pretty weak, made me feel stuck. What I had worked for for years, the personal (time) investment in my company and products and projects, made me feel stuck.

In reality, I wasn’t stuck. I learned that when I got laid off.

If you feel stuck, I have to tell you, your bosses probably don’t feel stuck with you. When they are done with you… well… you get the point.

Jump on Kim’s webinar. It’s free. She’s awesome. I know it will be worth your time.

Check out this brilliant (and short) article on Inc.com: What a 9-Year-Old Can Teach You About Selling

JibberJobber’s 2012 theme is that the job search is 99% communication.

In the last 18 months, as I’ve spoken to thousands of job seekers and coaches, I’ve been down on the 30 second elevator pitch.  Too many people do it so poorly, they can hardly stand to make it to the end, and their audience turns off.

Why?

It’s all in the Inc article.  The best part is the bottom section: Daddy, What Do You Do?

Read that, internalize it, and change how you communicate

I get a lot of people asking me for help in their job search and oh by the way here’s my resume.

The problem is, I don’t like to read resumes.  I think they are long and too detailed for my mind.  My mind shuts down, so I can’t get the message and know how to help you.

If you were to NOT send me your resume, but help me know how I could help you, that would be better.  Much better.

I recently wrote an email to a buddy who sent me his resume.  I know a bit about him, professionally, but I still thought this advice would be helpful. If you’ve sent your resume to friends/family for them to “check out,” please take this to heart:

Can you identify 3 – 4 ideal companies/roles? If you can, in short paragraphs, paint that picture for me, with those 3 or 4 ideal companies, I can get a much better idea of how to help you, who to introduce you to, etc.

Instead of saying: “here, read this long, detailed document with jargon and buzzwords,” you could say “I would work best in a company like ______ doing ___________.  The title might be ___ or ____.  My typical day might consist of _____ or _____ or ______.”

Do that a few times, help me understand you better, and then let me digest that.

What do you think?

This post is for anyone in a job search, no matter how long you have been at it.

Looking back at my job search I found I did activities that were safe and comfortable, but of very little value to my job search.

I refer to this as HIDING from the job search.

Some people hide, in the name of being busy in a job search, by doing things that are seemingly good:

• going to networking clubs/groups/meetings (but just to go, not to actually network.  And if they “network,” they aren’t following up – they are just collecting business cards),
• applying to jobs online, as if it were they most important thing to do in a job search,
• researching (companies, industries, trends, current events (um, that’s called reading the newspaper… reading the newspaper doesn’t necessarily land you a job),
• going to one-on-one networking meetings (coffee, lunch, breakfast, etc.), but without a real purpose or strategy that is directly tied to getting a job,
• ______________ (what are YOU doing that is not leading towards your job?)

I was HIDING from my job search with these activities for three reasons:

1. These activities are comfortable. And I gravitated towards comfortable.  Heaven forbid I got outside of my comfort zone, even if it meant I was doing a something that could produce a high value.
2. I didn’t know any better. I *thought* I was a smart guy, and I could figure it out on my own.  I didn’t want to read books, articles, blogs, etc. about how to do a job search.  I was better than that advice written for “most people.”  I wasn’t “most people.”  I was unique (just like you think you are unique).
3. Doing those activities are socially acceptible, and at the end of the day you can “feel good” about how hard you worked. When someone asked how it was going, you could tell them how many jobs you applied to, or how many network meetings you went to, or some other metric.  Metrics seem meaty, but they were the wrong things to focus on.

I should have been more consistent at picking up the phone and calling people.  I should have realized (or learned) how to identify target companies, network in, and do real informational interviews.

If I would have spent time on other activities my job search would have been completely different.

Do you want YOUR job search to be different?  Where are you spending your time?  On activities with potential for high return, or HIDING from the hard stuff?