Category: Career

Building Your LinkedIn Network

Linked In is one of the best professional networking tools available. It offers the ability to find and meet professionals in almost any field, company or region. With over 45 million users, it is very likely you will find people who can influence your career.

LinkedIn is one of the best professional networking tools available.  It offers the ability to find and meet professionals in almost any field, company or region.  With over 45 million users, it is very likely you will find people who can influence your career.

If you are new to LinkedIn, you will need to build a profile and start inviting people.  This is very easy.  Your profile is similar to a resume, but you have much greater flexibility in what you include and emphasize.  Building your network is easy too.  It is likely a lot of people you know are on Linked In.  All you need to do is search for them and invite them to connect.

Linked In is relationship based.  You need to link to people to get value.  It may seem difficult to build a large network.  Connecting to 45 million people may seem like an impossibility.   Fortunately, you only need to connect to a few people to build a valuable network.  The reason for this is simple.  You have access to the profiles of anyone within three connections.  The key is linking to people with large networks.

When I started with LinkedIn a few years ago, I added a couple dozen connections almost immediately.  I then struggled to figure out who to invite.  Most of my connections had only a few connections.  My network was small, a few thousand profiles.

I was recruiting and met a candidate with a couple thousand contacts.  I connected with him and instantly, my network increased to close to a million.  I had access to key decision makers in hundreds of companies and an ability to research companies and people.  It became clear that a huge network has tremendous value.  I started looking for ways to increase my network.

There are a few easy steps to increase in your network quickly.  If you set your profile up right, your network will build itself.

Step 1: Search for Open Networkers
You can do a keyword search for common email addresses.  The easiest is gmail.  By running a keyword search for the word gmail, you will get over four thousand people on Linked In who have put their gmail address in their profile.  You can then invite them to connect to you.  It doesn’t take many people in this group to grow your network substantially.  Most will have hundreds or thousands of individual contacts.

Step 2:  Join an Open Networking Group
I joined the LIONS, Linked In Open Networkers (Note: the last time I checked, their website was down.), a couple of years ago.  When you join, you can download the list of LIONS, along with the email address of everyone.  You can then upload this list to Linked In and invite everyone at once.  I went from a hundred contacts to two thousand almost overnight.  With the LIONS, you can then add your name to the list.  You will receive a couple of invitations a day from this and your network will grow on its own.  I’ve added several hundred connections over the last year just by accepting the invites I receive this way.  I’ve been stuck around 2,600 contacts for several months and decided to download the lions list again.  There were nearly a thousand new people on this list.  I loaded it and sent invites to all of them.  Because I am on the list, I found I was already connected to half of the people, and sent invites to the other 500.  With the invitations, I will top 3,000 connections this week.

Step 3:  Add Your Email Address to Your Profile
Make it easy for people to invite you.  Add our email address to your profile.  If you have a Gmail account, use it.  It will make it easy for people to find you.  The key is to help people connect directly to you.

Step 4:  Promote Your Linked In Profile
If you have a website, blog or other social media profiles online, include your LinkedIn profile with instructions for how to connect.  This will help generate a consistent stream of invitations coming directly to you.  To connect to me, send an invitation to [email protected].

Step 5:  Join Groups
A good way to gain access to larger networks is to join some LinkedIn groups.  Most schools have alumni groups online.  Professional organizations and companies also have groups established.  I joined a few of them.  In addition to the school, company and professional organization groups, I joined a couple open networker groups.  I’m already connected to most of these people, so the groups didn’t do much for my connections.  The reason I joined was to reinforce on my profile that I welcome invitations to connect.

If you follow these five steps, or even just a couple of them, you can build your network quickly and efficiently.

Branding With Your Email Address

The first thing a hiring manager will see when you send an email is your name. Few people think about how they are marketing themselves with their name, but there are pitfalls to avoid.

The first thing a hiring manager will see when you send an email is your name.  Few people think about how they are marketing themselves with their name, but there are pitfalls to avoid. 

I’m not suggesting you change your identification to something other than your name.  On the contrary, job seekers should identify themselves by name.  Surprisingly, a number don’t.  Typically, this is a result of using a family member’s email address.  The other person’s email has their name in the address, and it identifies them at the top of the email.  Sending an email with someone else’s email can be confusing for a hiring manager.

Many hiring managers receive dozens or hundreds of emails each day.  You can’t expect a hiring manager to remember that emails from “Jane Doe” and the address janedoe @ gmail . com, are really messages from “John Doe.”  Even worse, if you use an email without full names, remembering and identifying who you are can prove difficult. 

For example, I received a resume of a job seeker recently who used a family email address.  The email name was something like “John and Jane,” and the email address was johnandjane @ gmail . com.  The job seeker had sent his resume a week or two ago, and sent me a follow up email.  The follow up email was signed “John.”

Nowhere in the email was the candidate’s last name.  The only way I could find the candidate in my database was to search on the email address field.  This isn’t impossible, and it really isn’t all that difficult.  It is more time consuming than looking up the candidate by last name.  Most databases are set up to make looking up a name fast.  There are so many fields to search on in a job seeker's record, looking up candidates on other criteria is slower.  So, the candidate’s email ended up focusing my attention entirely on the fact that he doesn’t have his own email. 

How to Change Your Email and Email Name

For your job search, you should have a personal email address with your name.  This should have your last name and either your first name or first initial.  It is easy to get a free email account.  Just go to Google and sign up for gmail.

Once your email is set up, select the email name that is associated with the account.  In gmail, you can go to Settings and then to Send Mail As and change the name displayed with your email address. 

If you use Outlook, you can make this change in Outlook.  Microsoft provides instructions at: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA011507601033.aspx.

Finally, you should also set up a standard signature for your email.  A signature is a block of text that is automatically placed at the bottom of each email you send.  It should contain your full name and contact information – although just a phone number is usually sufficient.  You want to make it easy for a hiring manager to pick up the phone.

Will This Really Help My Search?

Setting your email name, email address and creating a signature for your emails are minor details.  They will not get you hired if you aren’t qualified.  They also won’t cause you to be rejected by themselves.  If you’re a superstar and clearly the best person for the job, you can make a lot of mistakes in your job search, and they won’t hurt.  Most people are not clearly better than their competition.  If this is your situation, you want to make the best impression you can every step of the way.  Details like your email are easy to change.  It only takes a minute or two, and then you’re good to go for the remainder of your job search. 

The one way your email might have a large impact on your search is if you have something controversial as an email name.  There are email addresses that are really hurting the job seekers.  I’ve received emails that include made up boastful titles, such as xtreme, big and king.  Others call into question whether the job seeker has a propensity for violence (just a hint here, but “gangsta,” “gunman” and “sniper” aren’t good to have in your email address).  For other words (such as menace, freedom, hotrod and spartan), it’s more difficult to know how different people will interpret them.  All of these words appeared actual email address of job seekers sending me a resume.  The email addresses are eye catching and memorable, but they did not help the job seeker, and in a few cases, hurt their chances significantly.

Too Much Information

Should you volunteer information in an interview that will hurt your chances of getting hired?
When interviewing, it is important to be honest. Lies and fabrications will doom your chances when they are discovered. At the same time, there is information job seekers volunteer that is not essential. Often this information hurts the candidate’s chances. One example of this I have run into relates to spouses of individuals who relocate frequently. The spouse volunteers that they are likely to move again in a few years.

Should you volunteer information in an interview that will hurt your chances of getting hired? 

When interviewing, it is important to be honest.  Lies and fabrications will doom your chances when they are discovered.  At the same time, there is information job seekers volunteer that is not essential.  Often this information hurts the candidate’s chances.  One example of this I have run into relates to spouses of individuals who relocate frequently.  The spouse volunteers that they are likely to move again in a few years.

This is common in the military and in some corporations.  There are individuals who relocate every three to five years.  They know the odds are good a posting will not be permanent.

During the hiring process, a job seeker will often highlight the frequency of the relocations to explain why they are “jumpy.”  Being jumpy is a term for people who do not stay in a job very long.  It usually has a very negative connotation and many hiring managers will assume the job seeker was unsuccessful.  This makes it important to explain why a person changed jobs.  Frequent relocations due to a spouse’s career explain a jumpy track record. 

Unfortunately, there is a question you are almost guaranteed to hear…  How long will you be here before you relocate again?  Most hiring managers want to hire people who will stay a long time.  They don’t want to hire someone they know they will have to replace quickly.  How you answer this question can affect your odds of getting hired significantly.

If you know you are going to relocate in the near future, you need to be honest.  However, there are few people who know with certainty what is going to happen have two, three or five years down the road.  You and your spouse may plan for your spouse to stay in the military for an additional ten years, and it is likely you will need to relocate a few times during that period.  This isn’t a guarantee.  There is a lot that can happen that can change this plan. 

Your plans can change due to your decisions.  Your spouse may decide to leave the military earlier than planned or you may not need to relocate when the next posting comes out.  Your plans may also change due to factors outside your control.  Just because your spouse wants to stay in the military, there is no guarantee this will be an option.  The military grows and shrinks over time.  There have been periods when it was very difficult to stay in the military because of downsizing.  There is a wide range of other reasons that could also change your plans. 

In the corporate world, predicting the future is even more difficult.  No matter how stable a company is, there is no guarantee they will continue in their current form.  Well respected companies fail and mergers can dramatically change the goals and procedures of a company.  A person also has more control of their career in the private sector.  Someone in the military usually cannot refuse a new assignment, but you can refuse a transfer within a company.  There can be negative effects on a person’s career by doing this, but it possible to decline a move.

All of this creates uncertainty.  No matter how you plan the future, it is very difficult to be certain what the future will hold several years down the road.  For this reason, you should be careful when speculating about the future in the future.

When asked if you will relocate again, answer honestly:  You do not have firm plans to move.  You may relocate again, but you don’t know for sure.  There are a lot of factors that could affect this.  Right now, you are focused on building a career here. 

Volunteering more information than this is unlikely to help you and it can create a false expectation with a hiring manager. 

The one exception to this advice is if you know with certainty you are moving.  If your spouse has accepted another position, and you know you will be moving in the near future, you really should be honest about this.

Describe Your Work Experience So a Child Can Understand It

One of the most common mistakes job seekers make is over complicating their background. Unless you are seeking the same job from a similar company, it unlikely the hiring manager will understand all the details of the job. This problem is magnified if the hiring manager is an individual outside your functional area.

One of the most common mistakes job seekers make is over complicating their background.  Unless you are seeking the same job from a similar company, it unlikely the hiring manager will understand all the details of the job.  This problem is magnified if the hiring manager is an individual outside your functional area.

It is common for a team of people to assess candidates.  At least one will be in your functional area, but the others could be from completely different departments.  They may understand the basics of the job being filled, but are unlikely to be experts in the career field you are pursuing. 

Most people assessing your resume and interviewing you will not understand what you have done if you don’t explain it clearly.  Surprisingly, some of the most confusing and difficult to comprehend resumes are also some of the longest resumes.  The problem comes from the detail.  Providing a ton of details, staying in the weeds so to speak, will make it difficult for a reader to understand your experience. 

The solution is to keep it simple.  Explain each role you have had in a sentence or two simple enough that a person with no familiarity with your career field could understand.  How would you explain your job to a child in middle or high school?  If you can explain your background very briefly in a way that is easy to understand, your resume will be much more effective. 

Making your resume easy to digest for anyone requires you to explain very technical terms and to use few if any acronyms.  Use terminology most people will understand and your resume will be easier to read.

Keeping your resume simple doesn’t mean you discard every technical detail.  If you need to provide technical details of what you have done, explain them a little.  If you provide a simple general explanation of what you did and then provide the technical details, most people will be able to understand the significance of what you wrote, even if they don’t understand every detail. 

Bottom line:  If you don’t write about it on your resume, it never happened, and if you write about it a complicated, confusing way that is difficult for most people to understand, it never happened.  Make your resume accessible to as wide an audience as possible.  If it can only be understood by the primary hiring manager, it is unlikely it will ever make it into that person’s hands.  Resume screeners are likely to delete it before it ever gets to the person that can understand it.

Fraudulently Padding a Resume

How to land a job you are completely unqualified to perform (do no try this at home… unless you want go to jail). This system is proven effective (especially step 8) and was used by a woman in Connecticut.

How to land a job you are completely unqualified to perform (do no try this at home… unless you want go to jail):

  • Step One: Make up a bunch of stuff that isn’t true and put it on your resume
  • Step Two: Create a fake industry association and give it an official sounding name
  • Step Three: Announce you won a major award from your fake organization
  • Step Four: Start sending out resumes
  • Step Five: Tell employers you lost the supporting information such as licenses, diplomas, etc.
  • Step Six: Plan an awards banquet for your fake organization and invite 30+ people, including your perspective boss
  • Step Seven: Give the people attending the banquet scripts telling them what to say and how to compliment you in front of your perspective boss
  • Step Eight: Leverage your dishonesty to get free room and board for three to five years from the state prison system

This system is proven effective (especially step 8) and was used by a woman in Connecticut.

Unfortunately, there are people who think this eight step plan is a good idea.  If you’re looking for a job and are missing a key credential, it can be very frustrating.  There are reasons why certain credentials are required – for example, an RN in a doctor’s office should have a nursing license.  For one “Nurse of the Year,” the lack of credentials didn’t stop her, at least initially.

Betty Lichtenstein was recently arrested for illegally using the title “Registered Nurse” and reckless endangerment and criminal impersonation.  Various news outlets are reporting how Betty claimed she lost her RN license.  To get around this, she created a fictitious “Connecticut Nursing Association” and gave herself the Nurse of the Year award.  She staged a dinner with about 30 people where her perspective boss could see the award presented to her (the dinner cost her over $2,000).

I see a fair bit of lying and deception on resumes by job seekers.  The big stuff, like fake degrees is easy to spot.  For other lies, it takes a little more work to uncover.  This is why most employers, particularly larger companies, will not shortcut their background checks.

Lying to obtain a position as a medical practitioner carries with it significantly greater criminal implications than many other fields.  In Lichtenstein’s case, she’s looking at the possibility of 5 years in jail.  There are a wide range of laws that prohibit lying employment applications or defrauding companies or government entities to get a job.

Additionally, the news articles published on Betty’s story will stay on the internet forever.  A simple google search of her name will uncover these stories and will make her ability to get a job much more difficult. Who want’s to hire someone who would lie to this degree.

The most common lie I find on resumes (mainly because it’s the easiest and fastest to check) is the use of a fake degree to boost a person’s education.  There are tons of diploma mills that will sell a Bachelor’s, Master’s or PhD.  Some offer overnight shipping and next day service.  All you have to do is write a check.  These are easy to spot.  Just go to the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) and search for the school (http://www.chea.org/search/search.asp).

If you want to learn more about Betty Lichtenstein, “Nurse of the Year from the Connecticut Nursing Association”, check out http://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local-beat/Nurse-Betty-Plays-Pretend-52626832.html

Sales Tips for a Job Seeker

A job search is a sales activity. You are selling yourself and trying to persuade a company to spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for your time and effort. You need to present an advertising, marketing and sales material to get land an interview and need to make a better sales presentation than your competition. If you don’t, someone else will land the sale and get hired.

A job search is a sales activity.  You are selling yourself and trying to persuade a company to spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for your time and effort.  You need to present an advertising, marketing and sales material to get land an interview and need to make a better sales presentation than your competition.  If you don’t, someone else will land the sale and get hired.

There are a lot of people who detest sales.  They think it’s dishonest and unethical.  This view is completely wrong, but it exists in our society.  If you hold this view and refuse to try to sell yourself in your job search, you will be placing a huge obstacle in your path.  Selling is an activity that helps the buyer.  Buyers are not experts on the products they are buying – the sales people are.  A good sales person will help a person find the right product or service to buy.  You need to do the same in your job search.

A hiring manager is a buyer.  The hiring process is designed to assess candidates, learning as much as possible, so the hiring manager can make the best decision.  You need to make sure you are providing the information the hiring manager needs and show them the value you offer.  If you don’t do this, you won’t get hired.  There are a few key steps in the sales process you need to execute effectively:

Give a Reason To Buy:  The number one task in your job search is to give a hiring manager a reason to hire you.  This may seem obvious, but it is amazing how few people actually do this.  You need to show very clearly why you will provide more value to the hiring manager and employer than your competition.  Imagine going into a car dealer and the sales person shows you a car.  You ask why you should buy it, and the only answer is the car drives and will get you places.  This is what many job seekers do.  Their sales pitch is that they can do the job.  Meeting the absolute minimum requirements is not a sales pitch.  This is essentially saying “I offer the least value possible while still being able to do the job.”  Not very impressive.

Know Your Limitations:  You are not an ideal fit for every job.  There are plenty of positions where other candidates have a better combination of skills and abilities.  This isn’t a bad thing.  You can’t bet the best at everything.  You need to be the best at something.  Too many people try to cover every base possible.  Focus on what you are truly good at doing.  If a hiring manager wants someone with a different skill set, be honest.  You won’t land that job, but your honesty can make an impression and lead you to other positions with an organization.  The hiring manager may have the perfect job for you.  If you aren’t honest about your strengths and weaknesses, you may never discover this position.

Focus on Benefits:  One of the most basic lessons taught in sales courses is to focus on benefits not features.  In a job search, this is showing the contributions you will make.  To do this, you need to show the hiring manager similar contributions you have made in the past.  For example, in some cereal ads, the actors talk about how after eating one type of cereal, their cholesterol was lower, and their family was happier as a result.  Can you show how you exceed the expectations of a former boss and delivered specific results to the company?  This is what a hiring manager wants – the results that will allow them beat their budget and goals.  If you show how you will do this, you will be much more likely to get hired.

Listen:  Great sales people listen much more than they talk.  They learn as much about the needs of the customer as they can.  Because interviews are typically a series of questions by the interviewer and answers by the job seeker, it may seem difficult to listen to the needs of the hiring manager.  It’s much easier to learn what a hiring manager wants if you put forth a little effort.  The first step is to network with people who understand the company and job and learn as much as you can.  This will give you insight into the hiring manager’s perspective.  During the interview, pay attention to the type of questions being asked and ask questions to learn about the position.  For example:

  • What are your goals for this position?
  • What is the biggest challenge for this position?
  • What do you want to see a person in this role accomplish in the first 3 months? 6 months? Year?
  • How will I be assessed and evaluated in this role?

Answers to these questions will show you what a hiring manager wants.  Listen closely to the answers and show how you will meet these needs.

Follow Up:  Good sales people follow up, even after being rejected.  Make sure you send thank you notes after interviews, and stay in touch with hiring managers.  It may take months or years, but each relationship you develop and maintain has the potential to lead to offer. 

If you focus on selling your potential, you will maximize your chance of success.  If you don’t want to do this, you will help your competition gain the edge over you.

Fast Track Your Career

Markell Steele of Futures In Motion is offering the Fast Track Your Career Teleclass on Thursday, August 6, 2009 at 3pm PST.

Markell Steele of Futures In Motion is offering the Fast Track Your Career Teleclass on Thursday, August 6, 2009 at 3pm PST. 

Markell will share her tips for how you can create a career map that reflects your skills, values, interests and desired lifestyle. Your career map will be a planning tool you can use to guide your career in a satisfying direction.  The goal for the teleclass is for you to gain confidence in actively planning your career. Markell will outline the specific steps you can take to discover what’s most important to you and to describe how you can chart your path by creating a career map.

Markell R. Steele, Career Counselor and founder of Futures in Motion, Inc., is a national certified counselor, distance credentialed counselor, author, and speaker. "I help frustrated job seekers find career direction, so they can get the job they want in less time with less stress."

Working directly with clients, Markell helps them gain the confidence they need to create and manage satisfying careers. She is an expert in the career management process and provides her clients with a wealth of knowledge about the world of work and strategies for career success. As a counselor and coach, she facilitates career decision- making, job search action planning, self-marketing campaign development, professional network development, and leadership development.

Markell is passionate about her career and her mission is to help as many people as possible create a career and life they love. She's faced obstacles in her career and has learned from her mistakes and successes. She shares all of that with her clients, so they can avoid the pitfalls that will derail their careers. Her clients appreciate her straightforward, action-oriented approach that is infused with a caring, supportive and understanding attitude.

Markell’s educational background includes a Master of Education degree in Counseling from the University of San Diego (USD) and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). She is a National Certified Counselor and has been trained as a Distance Credentialed Counselor. She also serves on the boards of NAWBO-OC and the UCSB Alumni Association.

You can sign up for the class at:  http://www.futures-in-motion.com/teleclass-fast-track.php

Job Search Webinar Schedule

Next week, I am presenting three webinars, Resume Writing Basics, Job Interview Basics, and Job Search Basics. I taught these three classes online for the first time a couple weeks ago and the response was great.

Next week, I am presenting three webinars, Resume Writing Basics, Job Interview Basics, and Job Search Basics.  I taught these three classes online for the first time a couple weeks ago and the response was great.

This will be the last time I offer the basics series of webinars for free. I have been testing the software and getting comfortable presenting online.  Although I’ve presented these topics in person a number times in seminars, I wanted to practice the online presentation a few times and get some feedback on the presentations.  The feedback was great and very helpful, and I’m doing one last set of free sessions.  Next week will be the the last opportunity you will have to attend the sessions for free –  so sign up today!

The schedule for next week is:

  • Resume Writing Basics – Monday July 27, 11AM EDT
  • Job Interview Basics – Wednesday July 29, 11AM EDT
  • Job Search Basics – Friday July 31, 11AM EDT 

The three webinars form our Basics series.  We are designing Advanced courses on each of these topics.  Our goal is to complete the Resume Writing Advanced Series within the next couple weeks.  This series will start with the Resume Writing Basics course and includes six other webinars on advanced resume writing topics.  Check out the Resume Writing Advanced Series of Webinars.

If the days and times above don’t fit your schedule, check our Career Advice Webinars page for announcements of upcoming events.  You can also register for a special mailing list to receive emails announcing each class.  We plan on presenting webinars during the week with both daytime and evening sessions and are planning a Saturday series offering several webinars back-to-back.

Update:  I know do webinars for APICS.  Check out APICS to learn about the webinars, whitepapers and other career resources available to members.

Replacing a High Paying Job

In the early 90’s, I worked for an engineering firm who built steel mills. This company had a new technology that was in great demand. At the same time, the industry was down and most engineering firms in the steel industry were laying off people. The department I worked in designed the piping systems for the steel mill. It was led by an engineering manager, had a team of engineers, a drafting supervisor and team of draftsmen.

In the early 90’s, I worked for an engineering firm who built steel mills.  This company had a new technology that was in great demand.  At the same time, the industry was down and most engineering firms in the steel industry were laying off people.  The department I worked in designed the piping systems for the steel mill.  It was led by an engineering manager, had a team of engineers, a drafting supervisor and team of draftsmen. 

One of the draftsmen had been the engineering manager for a different firm, but had been laid off.  In taking the drafting job, his income was probably cut by sixty or seventy percent.  When I first met him, I felt sorry for him.  He had a couple of kids in college and was having trouble supporting his family.  My sympathy didn’t last long.  The guy was extremely bitter and spent most of his time criticizing everything around him, especially the company.  He blamed everyone he could for his misfortune.  He ended up being a miserable person to work with and most people avoided him.  He didn't last long at the company, despite being extremely qualified, capable and skilled.

It wasn’t the company’s fault that he had lost his job, or that they were paying him so much less than he had been making.  When they hired a draftsman, they hired him despite his being vastly overqualified.  He had a chance to prove his capability and earn promotions quickly.  The company was growing and there was a lot of potential to move up.  His attitude ensured he would not see a promotion, and he didn’t last long with the company.

Although this story is almost 20 years old, it has a lot of similarities today.  I have been running into job seekers who are struggling to find a job that pays as well as their last position.  During their career, they progressed up and received good raises. Recently, they were laid off.  They are now finding it difficult, if not impossible, to find a job that pays as well as the one they lost.

This is a very difficult situation.  Some people are looking at more than a 50% cut to their pay.  Add to this a high mortgage, falling real estate prices and a stock market down significantly from its highs.  Prospects may look bleak.

Despite the tough economy, many of these job seekers feel that they are owed a job at least as good as the one they had.  Employers don't want to hear about a person's hardships or their expectations.  They don't care what you think you deserve.  They want to hire someone that will do a job efficiently and effectively.  They will also minimize costs and will not pay someone more than they have to. 

I would like to give the secret to replacing a great salary, but there is no “do this one thing and you’ll be rich” tip.  The truth is replacing an income at the top end of the range for a job type may not be possible today.  This isn’t what anyone wants to hear, but it is the truth.  So what do you do?

The first thing you need to do is accept that just because a company paid you a lot in the past doesn’t mean you are owed that today.  This is tough to accept – no one wants to take a step backwards. 

Second, look at the long term potential of a position.  If you could take a 50% pay cut, knowing that within two years you would get promotions and replace the lost pay, would situation be more attractive?  Too many people expect to replace their lost income immediately.  This leads to long periods of unemployment and no potential for promotion.

It can be difficult to accept a major cut in pay, but being bitter about it will only hurt your job search and your performance on the job once hired. 

Job Search Webinar

“Job Search Basics” will provide specific advice for how to manager a job search. I’m going to review some of the websites and tools that are extremely helpful. I’ll also share tips for how to use these tools to get results.

I finished setting up the third webinar I am planning next week.

“Job Search Basics” will provide specific advice for how to manager a job search.  I’m going to review some of the websites and tools that are extremely helpful.  I’ll also share tips for how to use these tools to get results.

The webinar will review:

  • Tools to find job opportunities
  • Tools to help you manage the search process
  • Tools to research jobs, companies and opportunities
  • Tools to improve your networking

This webinar is best suited for job seekers with some familiarity of online resources but questions about what other resources exists.  If you have used the big job boards and want to know what else is out there, I’ll point you in the right direction.

Join me on Friday July 10th at 11AM EDT for this event!  Register for Job Search Basics

Update:  I now do webinars for APICS.  Check out the career resources APICS offers members.