Unemployed in Des Moines

Perry Newman, CPC CSMS is a nationally recognized executive resume writer, career coach, AIPC certified recruiter and SMMU certified social media strategist known for his ability to help his clients get results. You can view his sample resumes at http://www.perrynewman.com/, and email him your resume at perry@perrynewman.com for FREE resume critique.

“An actor never plays a speech. He always plays a scene, an event, a situation, an occurrence. Words are part of the occurrence.” Lee Strasberg

So what does this have to do with you? Your a CEO, an accountant, a programmer, a sales rep, an educator, a medical biller, or a recent college graduate; not a thespian.

Think again; if you’re interviewing for a job the first 2-5 minutes are critical in getting your message across and doing it convincingly. So to get a job offer in today’s competitive job market 90% of you will need a great script, lots of rehearsal time and the proper wardrobe.

How to prepare and conduct a winning interview!

Your interview begins the moment it is scheduled; from this moment on you begin researching the company, honing your image, and anticipating questions you’ll be asked, and rehearsing your responses to them. You’ll also prepare the questions you want to ask the interviewer and ways you can take equal control of the interview.

The most important key to success for any interview…

A fellow coach once told me that she had a client who spent so much time trying to craft perfect answers to each question that her body language was completely off. She was so nervous that she wasn’t connecting with any of the people she was interviewing with.

The key to being a great interviewee is you’ve got to give yourself time to relax. This means you must plan on arriving for your interview 10-20 minutes early. When you get to an interview late or in the nick of time you’re going to look and feel rushed. That is the last impression you want to leave a potential employer with.

Preparing for an interview is not as hard as some of you may think.

You may not know the exact questions you will be asked, but you can count on the questions focusing on two things; whether you have the experience, skills and knowledge to do the job, and whether you fit the perceived profile of the person this company is going to hire.

Taking this into account, here are some ways to develop a winning interview strategy.

1. Compile a thorough inventory of your talents, experience, business, technical and interpersonal skills, and your overall subject knowledge.
2. Review the job posting and develop a profile of the company’s ideal candidate.
3. Check off the skills you possess that appear in the company profile your prepared and rate yourself on each one on a scale of 1-10
4. Now comes the hard part. Prepare a 90 second pitch that describes the new you based solely on the desired profile.
5. Prepare additional 90 second pitches describing accomplishments you have achieved that relate to specific factors, experience, skills and challenges that appear in the job post.

Bonus Tips

1. Dress to blend in, not to impress. Do your homework to find out how others in the company dress and then dress accordingly. The two factors to know are how casual or conservative will be a turn on or a turn off. Research the culture and mirror it. It is not what’s in your closet that will impress people; it’s how well you fit in.

2. When in doubt smile. A smile brightens up a room and is infectious. If the interviewer is having a bad day a smile will turn it around. If he or she is having a great day, it will continue that feeling. Nobody wants to be around a sourpuss and even fewer people want to hire or work with one. Interviewers are looking for a connection, and you make that connection by smiling.

3. Remember, the interviewer is a human being as well. You’re not the only person in a room with someone they haven’t met. The interviewer is there to find out more about you so be polite, friendly and considerate.

4. Mirror your interviewer’s tone. Having the ability to empathize with others will serve you well in the interview and in life at the office. Pay attention to your interviewer’s body language and tone and do your best to match it. If they’re upbeat, you’re upbeat. If they’re not, rein your excitement in a little bit so that you don’t unnerve them.

Though geared towards small businesses, the information learned during this workshop series can be easily applied to someone looking for a job. The “Social Media for Small Business” workshop series will begin with a free workshop focusing on why it is important to engage in social media. We’ll also discuss which platforms you should engage in to get the most out of your time. Bring your laptops to subsequent workshops where we will create a WordPress website/blog, Twitter account, Facebook FanPage, LinkedIn Profile and a MailChimp e-newsletter. I’ve also designed a workshop which will introduce you to the tools necessary to manage all of these platforms and to create content to share with your consumers. You are welcome to attend all the workshops in the series, but I understand that you may need help in only a few areas, so you can sign up for workshop individually as well.

All workshops in the series will take place from 6-8pm in the Conference Room of the Worldwide Amplified Studio located on the Skywalk Level of the Partnership Building at 700 Locust Street in Downtown Des Moines.

*FREE* Social Media for Small Business Workshop Overview,7-Sep

In this FREE workshop, learn why it’s important to engage in social media as a small business owner and how best to engage in which platforms to get the most out of your time.

Create a WordPress Website/Blog Session I, 14-Sep – $25

Bring your laptop and we’ll create a basic website/blog for your business using WordPress. WordPress allows you to develop a website/blog for free. If your business does not currently have a website or blog, this is a great start. We’ll create a few critical pages for your site and focus on the techniques of blogging. Prerequisite: General computer skills.

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Create a WordPress Website/Blog Session II, 21-Sep – $25

This is a continuation of the first session which took place on 14-Sep. Bring your laptop and we’ll continue to create a basic website/blog for your business using WordPress. In addition to the pages we created in Session I, we’ll create a few side-bar widgets. We’ll take a look at the blog posts people wrote for homework and critique. Prerequisite: General computer skills.

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Create a Twitter Account for Your Business, 28-Sep – $25

Bring your laptop and as a group, we’ll go through the steps required to set up a Twitter account and profile for your business. You’ll learn Twitter etiquette and how to engage Followers on the platform. If you attended the fist two sessions in this series and developed a website, I’ll show you how to create a link on your website to your Twitter account. When you leave, you will have a firm grasp on how to find and follow people and how to create relationships that will help you in your business. Prerequisite: General computer skills.

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Create a Facebook FanPage for Your Business, 5-Oct – $25

Bring your laptop and as a group, we’ll go through the steps required to set up a Facebook FanPage for your business. We’ll talk about the tabs and Facebook Ads, edit the Bio section, upload your business’ logo and add some content to the Wall so you can begin inviting your friends to become FANS of your FanPage. If you attended the fist two sessions in this series and developed a website, I’ll show you how to create a link on your website to your Facebook FanPage. Prerequisite: General computer skills and a personal Facebook page.

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Create a LinkedIn Profile and Company Page, 12-Oct – $25

Bring your laptop and as a group, we’ll create personal LinkedIn Profiles and Company Pages for your business. We’ll spend most of our time on the profile, but we will also talk about how to search for people you can build relationships with to help you in your business as either a customer or connector. If you attended the fist two sessions in this series and developed a website, I’ll show you how to create a link on your website to your LinkedIn presence. Prerequisite: General computer skills.

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E-Newsletter Creation using MailChimp, 18-Oct – $25

Having an e-newsletter for your business is a great way to stay in touch with customers – especially when they’re not quite ready to buy. We’ll set up an e-newsletter template using MailChimp (free for up to 500 email addresses) and you’ll leave with a firm grasp on how to draft your first e-newsletter and send it to your email database. If you attended the fist two sessions in this series and developed a website, I’ll show you how to create a newsletter subscription link on your website. Prerequisite: General computer skills.

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Content Creation and Management Tools, 26-Oct – $25

I consistently hear from those not engaged with or new to social media: “I don’t have the time to do this” and “I don’t really have anything to say”. Bring your laptop and we’ll download TweetDeck to make it easier to manage your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn profiles and we’ll set up your GoogleReader so you can subscribe to blogs and searches relevant to your industry as RSS feeds. Prerequisite: General computer skills.

Chris Perry, MBA is a Gen Y brand and marketing “generator,” a career search and personal branding expert and the founder of Career Rocketeer and Launchpad.

One feature you job seekers may not know about or have fully explored is LinkedIn Groups. LinkedIn Groups are free to join, and you can choose to join up to 50 groups from a list of thousands of user-created groups for literally just about anything. Not only do these groups provide you access to connect with and contact fellow group members who could become future partners, employees, investors, customers etc., but the groups’ newly updated discussion board feature can provide more networking opportunities, answers to your questions and insightful advice, tips and support. You can also join the groups’ subgroups and contribute answers, comments and your own expertise to the groups’ discussion boards to establish your own online personal brand on LinkedIn.

Last year, I published a list of the top 20 LinkedIn groups for job seekers which became a very popular resource on Career Rocketeer. It’s been over a year since the list originally went out and some of the groups have changed and new groups have emerged. Therefore, I have updated the list and am pleased to present the Top 25 LinkedIn Groups ALL Job Seekers MUST Join to help you build your brands and launch your careers:

1. JobAngels – Non-profit job search network of professionals helping other professionals find job advice and opportunities.
2. Executive Suite – Community of over 100,000 US-based executive-level and recruiter members.
3. Star:Jobs Professional Career Center – Group working in tandem with Linked:HR, the largest Recruiters’ Group on LinkedIn, to help top candidates find jobs quickly and efficiently.
4. Career Rocketeer – Career Launch Network – Fastest-growing professional network for personal branding, career search and career management, bringing job seekers and employers, recruiters and career experts together for mutual success.
5. The Talent Buzz – Group for job seekers, recruiters and HR professionals interested in expanding their professional networks.
6. Helping Friends Career Network (LI2HF) – Business and career network where entrepreneurs, hiring managers, recruiters, and talented professionals worldwide can make meaningful win-win connections.
7. JobsDirectUSA – Official job search group on LinkedIn for JobsDirectUSA.com.
8. Career Change Central – Group linking job changers and professionals in career transition with recruiters, hiring managers and career coaches.
9. CareerLink Network – Community providing job seekers spiritual, physical, social, mental, economic and personal growth to meet their ever-evolving needs
10. Jobs Alert – Job search group for middle and senior-level managers worldwide.
11. A Job Needed – A Job Posted – Group is for all LinkedIn members searching for employment, posting employment or recruiters helping members find employment.
12. Looking for a Job? – Group designed to allow job seekers to share ideas, network, post jobs, advise on job market trends and ultimately help them find work.
13. MyCredentials – Career Presentation – Group helping members to network, expand their resumes and enhance their interview skills.
14. JibberJobber – Career Management – Network for executives, professionals, students and all those involved in the career services industry, including counselors, coaches and resume writers.
15. ResumeMaker Career Network – Forum connecting qualified job seekers with hiring managers and corporate recruiters as well as allowing candidates to discuss and share career opportunities.
16. Personal Branding Network – Consortium for all professionals looking to build powerful personal brands.
17. Indeed.com – Official job search group on LinkedIn for Indeed.com.
18. Project: Get Hired! – Motivational support group exclusively for job hunters to share creative strategies and stay motivated.
19. Job-Hunt Help – Discussion group for job seekers sharing advice and leads and networking to help one another.
20. IMPACT Hiring Solutions Job Search Network – Discussion and networking forum for executives seeking job opportunities.
21. Global Jobs Network – Network for all professionals who would like to be aware of requirements in their respective fields and for organizations & recruiters who are hiring.
22. Job Openings, Job Leads and Job Connections! – One of the largest groups for job seekers on LinkedIn.
23. JOBS 2.0 – Group helping job seekers find a job online using the latest in social and professional networks.
24. The Job Board – Networking group for professionals seeking jobs and recruiters seeking candidates.
25. Self-Recruiter® – Job Search & Career Management – Discussion and networking forum helping job seekers become their own specialist, their own career counselor, and their own recruiter.

Jessica Holbrook Hernandez is an expert resume writer, career and personal branding strategist, author, speaker and President/CEO of Great Resumes Fast. She creates high-impact, best-in-class, resumes and cover letters that win interviews.

Most jobseekers think of LinkedIn as a tool to network with individuals. While LinkedIn is certainly useful for this purpose, it can also provide invaluable information about companies you want to target during your job search.

LinkedIn now allows you to follow all the activity related to a particular company. You can do this by searching for the company on the site and clicking “Follow Company”. This step adds the company’s activity to your news stream on LinkedIn in the same way that adding a connection adds their individual activity. This is an absolutely invaluable tool for keeping track of events at a company you’re targeting.

This information can give you a sense for whether the company is hiring at all and it allows you to see the backgrounds of the candidates who are landing jobs there. It can be frustrating to see who’s beating you out for particular positions but having that information is also priceless for knowing how to position yourself as a stronger candidate going forward. One more bonus: you can tell when someone was hired for a position even if the company doesn’t directly contact or notify you.

The Follow Company feature on LinkedIn also allows you to see how many other people are following that company. If thousands of people are keeping an eye on things, chances are good that you have a lot of competition for open positions there. Additionally, LinkedIn includes very useful information such as the average tenure of employees at the company, the male/female ratio of the staff, and the median age of employees. Larger companies sometimes even indicate which specific universities a high percentage of their staff attended.

The new Follow Company feature on LinkedIn is a great research tool for job seekers trying to find a creative way in to organizations that they otherwise may not have an open door to.

Harry Urschel has over 20 years experience as a technology recruiter in Minnesota. He currently operates as e-Executives, writes a blog for Job Seekers called The Wise Job Search, and can be found on Twitter as @eExecutives.

Anyone who’s been using LinkedIn for their job search for a while understands the great value it can be. It’s tremendous for creating a profile in order to be found, for finding contacts at companies you are pursuing, and for preparing for an interview by learning about your interviewer and others at the organization.

However, people often miss another way LinkedIn can be used to help them greatly in pursuing their job search with a more laser-like focus… finding and defining your target companies and positions!

In a job search, many people have difficulty articulating the type of position they are looking for, a title, or specific companies they are interested in pursuing. LinkedIn can be a terrific resource for researching roles and finding companies to pursue that may have those types of roles.

Here are some tips that may help…
Search keywords to find job titles! If you are looking for positions that might utilize skills you have, however, aren’t sure of all the roles out there that might use those skills… use the “Advanced Search” function of LinkedIn. In order to find positions where those skills are used, do a keyword search of those skills. Start broad and narrow your search if your results are overwhelming. Start without narrowing your location in order to get a broad swath of results.

The people that come up in your search are people with skills listed that you search. Browse through those results to see the job titles and types of roles those people do. Read how they describe their jobs to see which ones look appropriate, realistic, and interesting to you. That helps you begin to define the types of positions you would like to target.

Search titles to find companies! Once you’ve narrowed the titles of positions you are pursuing, you can find companies that have employees with those titles. Simply do a search, within your geographic area, or more broadly of those titles. The people that come up each currently work, or previously worked at companies that hire those backgrounds. You will likely find large companies, small and mid-size companies, companies that are well known, and companies you’ve likely never heard of. That helps you begin to define your target list of companies you may like to pursue.

Use combinations to narrow your search. If you are pursuing a broadly used title (i.e. Business Analyst), you will likely need to narrow your results by using combinations of keywords of skills, title, and location. Even then, depending on the number of connections you have, you may get hundreds or thousands of results. However, by scrolling through quickly, you should be able to find the relevant information you are looking for.

Use the contact names you find as well. The results you find will help you define the target jobs, titles, and companies you would like to pursue, and will also provide you potential contact names at those companies! Each of the people you find could be a good contact at their organization, and may be able to point you to the best contact for you to present your resume or “Elevator Speech”. You can find multiple ways to connect to them. You can find some help by reading “I got a contact name… how do I reach them?”

Pursuing specific companies whether they have a position open or not is often the best way to gain a new job rather than competing with the hoards that are all responding to job postings and ads. You can gain more insight and help to do it well here and here.

Defining your target positions and companies well, will help you become far more successful in your search. LinkedIn is an ideal tool to help you do it effectively.

Harry Urschel is an independent recruiter with over 20 years of experience in the placement industry and operates as e-Executives in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area. His background has included over 7 years as a top producer world-wide as a recruiter and Director for the largest specialized placement firm internationally. He has hired and trained large staffs of recruiters and developed top teams. His experience has given him a strong understanding of hiring and job search processes, and writes a blog to help Job Seekers at http://www.thewisejobsearch.com/.

Phil Rosenberg is President of reCareered (http://www.recareered.blogspot.com/), a career coaching service, helping great people discover new career paths and beat the challenges of modern job searches. Phil runs the Career Change Central group (http://www.tinyurl.com/cccpost), recently named one of Linkedin’s top groups that job seekers must join. An active blogger about career change, Phil’s articles are republished by Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, ZDNet, CIO, FastCompany and dozens of job and recruiting sites. Phil can be contacted at phil.reCareered@gmail.com.

Linkedin just released a suite of premium tools targeted to help job seekers. Good news – they have some truly helpful features … Bad news – They aren’t free. For serious job seekers, I think it’s worth the small monthly cost, giving candidates better viability and increased job search efficiency.

Linkedin helps job seekers accomplish two basic tasks – Finding target company contacts, and social branding. Job Seeker Premium makes both of these tasks easier and more effective.

As part of this review, I interviewed Parker Barrile, Director of Product Management for Linkedin’s Jobs Business to get Linkedin’s views about how their new tools are intended to help candidates. Parker mentioned that Linkedin has 3 major goals in for its premium job search products:

1) Allow candidates to manage job search more efficiently
2) Give job seekers more ways to efficiently contact hiring managers and recruiters
3) Help job seekers stand out, making it easier to be noticed
Parker stated that Linkedin “wants to be the place that people go to find their next job. We’ll continue to provide free services, but Linkedin will also offer premium services for those who want greater connectivity and visibility in their search.”

From my review of the features and discussion with Parker, I was impressed that Linkedin has made a good start in providing value adds that will help candidates in three areas they pointed out above. Parker also gave hints that this is just a start, and that Linkedin plans to release future user capabilities in its job seekers premium tools (Sadly, he wouldn’t spill the beans to tell me what they would be).

Will Linkedin’s new tools find you a job? No. Will Linkedin’s new tools give you more ways to help yourself find a job? Definitely.

Linkedin offers 7-8 features fine tuned to the needs of job seekers, depending on the package offered. The three that can make the biggest difference are what make the service worthwhile. Other features may be helpful to job seekers as well, but these three are money.

Top of the list - This is the #1 reason for Job Seeker Premium, in my opinion. Businesses have been able to buy their way to the top of Google for years. Linkedin Job Seeker Premium allows candidates a way to get to the top of the list. When recruiters or hiring managers search for specific criteria they may get hundreds of results – Premium user results are listed at the top. Since recruiters and HR reps might only call the top 10-20 matches, being at the top of the list helps a job seeker stand out. If you’re a Java developer, trying to stand out from the thousands of other Java developers looking for a new position – Top of the list is a huge advantage.

InMail - Currently, Linkedin basic users can contact their first level connections. InMail is Linkedin’s version of special delivery, allowing candidates to contact any of Linkedin’s 60M users – even if they are not a connection. Linkedin’s website claims “You’re 30x more likely to get a response to an InMail than to a cold call. Why? Your profile is attached to your message; plus, it never ends up in a spam filter.” In addition, it may be challenging to find emails of people you want to reach – InMails make it quick and easy, saving you time. Depending on the premium package you choose you can get zero, five, or ten InMails with guaranteed response – or choose InMails a la carte at an additional $10 each. If you use them, InMails by themselves make the premium service worth while as packages are 1/2 the cost of individually purchased InMails. Use these for people you’ve just got to reach, or for those who keep their email private.

Gold Badge - Linkedin’s premium service allows anyone to view your full profile and message you, even if not connected to you without either one burning through expensive InMails or Introductions, allowing unlimited free inbound email. As many new candidates haven’t been as active in networking until their job search, having a small network means that few people can see your full profile or contact you freely. While this won’t replace building your network, the gold badge gives job seekers with a small network a quick jump start.

While these are the most valuable services in the package, additional features can help job seekers as well:

Introductions - As a free user, you have a limited number of free introductions that pass your info along through three degrees of separation. Job Seeker Premium gives you between 10 -25 introductions per month depending on the package you choose. Using introductions wisely can help you gain inside information to your target companies, reach hiring managers, informational interview sources, or hubs to help in your networking efforts.

Expanded Search - the two top Premium service levels allow you to expand your search results beyond the 100 results you currently get as a free user – expanded up to 5x as many results. This can be valuable when searching within large centralized departments at single locations within enterprise companies. For instance, if you search for project manager at Allstate Insurance, there are thousands of results – free users only see 100.

Who searched me? Premium users can see the titles and companies of everyone who initiated a search that your name turned up in. If you’ve turned up in a recruiter’s or company’s search, these may be companies you want to put on your target list, or recruiters you might want to work with.

Folders - Linkedin premium services allow folders that job seekers can use to save and organize profiles, and store notes. It’s not a contact management system, but it gives some capability to add some organization to your contacts.

These features have been needed for a while, and Linkedin has been offering premium services to businesses for over a year. When I first saw notices that Linkedin was offering premium services for job seekers I wondered … What took them so long? This makes so much sense.

Linkedin premium has 3 packages priced at $19.95, $29.95, and $49.95. If you want the convenience and direct contacts of InMail I’d recommend the more expensive packages (it’s an inexpensive way to use InMails). I don’t know of any job seekers who couldn’t benefit from being at the top of the list, included in even the least expensive package. That alone makes Linkedin Job Seeker Premium worth the price.

Please note: This is not a paid review, and Linkedin did not give me any free services (not even a lousy t-shirt). I wrote it because I think it’s a true advance for candidates.

Source: http://recareered.blogspot.com/