GARY BREWER

Relationship Management Specialist

Americas Future Job Market

Posted by admin in Job Search on August 29th, 2009 | No Comments

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Jonathan Browning of Screaming Frog Productions produced this wonderful video called “The Job”. They’re an Los Angeles based independent Production company specializing in short films.

Current Mistakes Job Seekers Are Making

Posted by admin in Job Search on April 5th, 2009 | No Comments

By Daryl Piga, Career Consultant with Robert Half International

Here are six key mistakes that job seekers keep making during this down economy:

1. Sticking to a job search routine that isn’t working.

Often, job seekers will spend all of their time looking at job boards for listings and e-mailing resumes in response. Then, when they don’t find anything, they give up. This strategy typically doesn’t bring positives results by itself. While it’s important to search all the top job boards, you also should be spending your time networking and staying up to date on your industry trends. Just remember, if your current strategy isn’t working, it’s probably time to retool your approach.

If you’re in a highly competitive field, for example, you may be one of hundreds of applicants for a job that’s posted on a prominent site. You can reduce the competition by posting your resume on niche job boards and searching business journals for companies that are expanding and contacting them directly. Or perhaps you can sign up with a recruiting firm to learn about jobs that aren’t necessarily advertised.

It may be that you need to look for a different type of job, or in a different industry or city, as well. Don’t pigeonhole yourself in your search. Be as open-minded as possible.

2. Appearing defeated or desperate during the interview.

Sometimes there can be a fine line between someone who is aggressive in their job search, and someone who is desperate.

It’s smart to be somewhat aggressive and go a bit out on a limb. That could mean following up with potential employers after you’ve sent a resume, asking your contacts for help (politely, of course) or even offering to work for someone on a trial or temporary basis while you both evaluate whether it’s a fit.

Desperation consists more of attitude than actions. Try to maintain a sense of self-confidence and remind yourself of your self-worth. An extended job-hunt can take a toll on your self-esteem, but you want to project a positive image during an interview. Try not to be too hard on yourself and keep as positive of an attitude as you can.

3. Being inflexible in your job search targets.

Creativity is essential in a job search, and often that entails being able to envision yourself in new roles. This might include targeting jobs in other cities where your industry is more active, looking for project work, or considering jobs that aren’t ideal but you think you would be good at.

4. Not following up with potential employers.

While you don’t want to be a pest, it’s often wise to follow up with employers who you don’t hear from after submitting a resume.

Whether communicating in writing or over the telephone, job seekers should demonstrate their knowledge of the company while reinforcing their qualifications and sincere interest in the position. This extra step can give professionals a significant advantage over less-proactive candidates

5. Having an unflattering digital footprint.

Think your friends are the only people who viewed those less-than-professional vacation photos you posted online? Think again. With a few mouse clicks, potential employers can dig up information about you on blogs, personal websites and networking site profiles. Make sure you do a thorough self-search and take any necessary corrective action.

6. Being caught without networking business cards and an updated resume.

Make it a point to never leave your office or home without business cards and an updated resume. It doesn’t matter whether you will be in a business or personal setting. You never know who you will meet and when you will need to give your business card and resume to someone.

Job Seekers: Three quick job search tips

Posted by admin in Job Search on March 25th, 2009 | No Comments

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — First: Create your own momentum, “The Big Mo” — you hear about it all the time in sports. Teams with momentum get on a roll, score-more often and win more games than teams without it. If your job search is stuck, you can create your own momentum and move toward the position you want by starting each day with a victory of some sort, no matter how small.

Second: Ask for help, listen — and act! Question: How many people have you asked this month for advice about your job search? If you’re absolutely honest in your answer, the number will be small. Too small. Why put all the pressure on yourself to find all the employment answers? Why not ask and discover what’s worked for other people? Stop trying to figure it all out on your own. Instead, start multiplying your brainpower by asking others for advice.

Third: Know that change is your friend. According to the US Bureau of Labor, voluntary employee turnover across America was 20.20% in 2004, the most recent year available. This means that on average about one in five employees quit their jobs every 12 months. What does that mean for you? In a company with 100 employees, approximately 20 of them will quit within the next year. So, don’t despair. Keep in regular touch with the companies you want to work for, because it’s only a matter of time until something opens up for you.

Job Search Networking Traps To Avoid

Posted by admin in Job Search on March 13th, 2009 | No Comments

We’ve heard it a hundred times: networking is essential for job seekers.

We may have read up on networking techniques and may feel supremely comfortable talking to strangers. None of that makes much difference when we find ourselves networking in a job hunt. Most of the rules of non-jobsearch networking simply don’t apply when our networking is focused on getting a new job.

Here’s why: the networking conversations we’d be holding wouldn’t include the statement, “I’m looking for a job.”

Networkers’ eyes glaze over when they hear those five little words. These aren’t mean or inconsiderate people. It’s just that the stereotypical job-hunting networker can’t talk about much besides his job search. It becomes hard to maintain a conversation. People drift away, because it’s awkward to say more than “uh huh” and “how frustrating” when the subject turns to “My Hideous Job Search.”

Here are five common job-search networking traps to avoid:

1. Detailing your Audio Resume

Most experienced networkers by now have learned that a new acquaintance doesn’t need to hear our entire business spiel. Job seekers often forget that conversation is a two-way street, instead showering a new contact with details about the job we left, the job we’re looking for and a hundred reason why we’d a be a great employee. That level of detail doesn’t help; it hurts.

2. Asking for Introductions

Face-to-face networking events are great for making the acquaintance of people you didn’t know before you arrived. Be happy if you leave a networking soiree with one or two good new contacts, people who’d be comfortable continuing the conversation at a later date. People don’t go to networking events to be hit up for introductions, and that’s why we shouldn’t ask for them. A 10-minute networking conversation doesn’t create enough relationship “glue” to justify our asking such a favor.

3. Handing Over a Resume

Your paper resume is something to bring along to job interviews and job fairs. Most resumes change hands via email these days, and that’s why there’s no point in bringing your paper resume with you to a networking event. Don’t email your resume to a person you’ve met at a networking event, either, unless he or she specifically asks for it. Forwarding a resume is much less likely to get you an interview than creating solid relationships based on conversation.

4. Asking for Leads

It seems like the most obvious thing in the world: You’ll go to a networking event, tell the people assembled there that you’re job-hunting, and ask them for job-search leads.

That’s a great thing to do when you go to a gathering designed for that purpose. But asking for leads in your job search is not appropriate during your first meeting with a new acquaintance. Most of us are unlikely to be aware of the job openings in our own companies, much less in others. We can ask, “Do you have any advice for me?” but that’s it. The greatest value of attending a networking event will be the one, two, or maybe three follow-up-worthy contacts you make there.

5. Sharing Your Job-Search Pain

We all need sympathetic ears, and a live networking event might seem like just the place to regale a listener with a gripping layoff story or a tale of job-search frustration. However, it’s not. That’s what our friends are for.

It’s tough to be unemployed, or to be in a job you hate. It’s just as tough to be an entrepreneur in a tough economy. Yet we don’t go to networking events to spill our entrepreneurial woes, and our job-search challenges are off-limits as well. Keep the conversation friendly and professional, and if you strike the right chord with a certain person and decide to stay in touch, you can open the vault at a later date.

Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn to Find a Job

Posted by admin in Job Search on March 13th, 2009 | No Comments

Searching for a job can suck if you constrain yourself to the typical tools such as online jobs boards, trade publications, CraigsList, and networking with only your close friends. In these kinds of times, you need to use all the weapons that you can, and one that many people don’t—or at least don’t use to the fullest extent, is LinkedIn.

LinkedIn has over thirty-five million members in over 140 industries. Most of them are adults, employed, and not looking to post something on your Wall or date you. Executives from all the Fortune 500 companies are on LinkedIn. Most have disclosed what they do, where they work now, and where they’ve worked in the past. Talk about a target-rich environment, and the service is free.

Here are ten tips to help use LinkedIn to find a job. If you know someone who’s looking for a job, forward them these tips along with an invitation to connect on LinkedIn. Before trying these tips, make sure you’ve filled out your profile and added at least twenty connections

  1. Get the word out. Tell your network that you’re looking for a new position because a job search these days requires the “law of big numbers” There is no stigma that you’re looking right now, so the more people who know you’re looking, the more likely you’ll find a job. Recently, LinkedIn added “status updates” which you can use to let your network know about your newly emancipated status.
  2. Get LinkedIn recommendations from your colleagues. A strong recommendation from your manager highlights your strengths and shows that you were a valued employee. This is especially helpful if you were recently laid off, and there is no better time to ask for this than when your manager is feeling bad because she laid you off. If you were a manager yourself, recommendations from your employees can also highlight leadership qualities.
  3. Find out where people with your backgrounds are working. Find companies that employ people like you by doing an advanced search for people in your area who have your skills. For example, if you’re a web developer in Seattle, search profiles in your zip code using keywords with your skills (for example, JavaScript, XHTML, Ruby on Rails) to see which companies employ people like you.
  4. Find out where people at a company came from. LinkedIn “Company Profiles” show the career path of people before they began work there. This is very useful data to figure out what a company is looking for in new hires. For example, Microsoft employees worked at Hewlett-Packard and Oracle
  5. Find out where people from a company go next. LinkedIn’s “Company Profiles” also tell you where people go after leaving the company. You can use this to track where people go after leaving your company as well as employees of other companies in your sector. (You could make the case that this feature also enables to figure out which companies to avoid, but I digress.)
  6. Check if a company is still hiring. Company pages on LinkedIn include a section called “New Hires” that lists people who have recently joined the company. If you have real chutzpah, you can ask these new hires how they got their new job. At the very least you can examine their backgrounds to surmise what made them attractive to the new employer.
  7. Get to the hiring manager. LinkedIn’s job search engine allows you to search for any kind of job you want. However, when you view the results, pay close attention to the ones that you’re no more than two degrees away from. This means that you know someone who knows the person that posted the job—it can’t get much better than that. (Power tip: two degrees is about the limit for getting to hiring managers. I never help friends of friends of friends.) Another way to find companies that you have ties to is by looking at the “Companies in Your Network” section on LinkedIn’s Job Search page.
  8. Get to the right HR person. The best case is getting to the hiring manager via someone who knows him, but if that isn’t possible you can still use LinkedIn to find someone inside the company to walk your resume to the hiring manager or HR department. When someone receives a resume from a coworker even if she doesn’t know the coworker, she almost always pays attention to it.
  9. Find out the secret job requirements. Job listings rarely spell out entirely or exactly what a hiring manager is seeking. Find a connection at the company who can get the inside scoop on what really matters for the job. You can do this by searching for the company name; the results will show you who in your network connects you to the company. If you don’t have an inside connection, look at profiles of the people who work at the company to get an idea of their backgrounds and important skills.
  10. Find startups to join. Maybe this recession is God telling you it’s time to try a startup. But great startups are hard to find. Play around with LinkedIn’s advanced search engine using “startup” or “stealth” in the keyword or company field. You can also narrow by industry (for example, startups in the Web 2.0, wireless, or biotech sectors). If large companies can’t offer “job security,” open up your search to include startups.
  11. Build your network before you need it. As a last tip, no matter how the economy or your career is doing, having a strong network is a good form of job security. Don’t wait until times are tough to nurture your network. The key to networking (or “schmozing”), however, is filled with counter-intuitiveness. First, it’s not who you know—it’s who knows of you. Second, Great schmoozers are not thinking “What can this person do for me?” To the contrary, they are thinking, “What can I do for this person?” For more on schmoozing, read “The Art of Schmoozing.”

relationship management specialist, gary brewer