How Can You Find the Best Job Search Content?

Who are your favorite bloggers that you read regularly to discover how to improve your job search?

Oh wait – let’s take a giant step backwards before we try to answer that question.

Are you searching, reading, devouring the content about effective job search put out by some extraordinary individuals who offer tons of golden nuggets in every post?

Could you rattle off the top ten bloggers on job search who are at the top of their profession? Who are the most respected on the Internet for publishing how-to articles, helpful hints, case studies, and step-by-step tactics to improve your job search?

You might respond back by saying “Barry – I just don’t have the time to search these blogs, follow the various authors, and digest all the information I can on a daily basis – it borders on overwhelming.”

If you’re that person – we have a solution for you.

We’ve created a site that aggregates ALL THE TOP BLOGGERS on job search in one place. No longer do you need to type various search strings into Google, try to remember which blogs you visited, and how to stay current on best practices.

This resource – our IMPACT Hiring Solutions FREE Job Search Resources Blog –  pulls the best bloggers into one place, allows you to subscribe by RSS or email, features reviews by Brad and I, and incorporates articles/links from our various job search archives and libraries.

Take a look – subscribe by RSS – and never worry again about being up-to-date on the latest best practices and trends in conducting an effective job search.

The site is http://www.impacthiringsolutions.com/freesearchjobresources

Barry

P.S. Don’t forget to join our LinkedIn Discussion Group where we discuss many of the best practice topics related to conducting an effective job search.

Take The One Question LinkedIN Poll On Unemployment

We have a one question poll dealing with unemployment that is currently active. Please take less than a minute and voice your experience. Just CLICK HERE to participate in the poll.

We will post the result shortly, however, once you take the poll you can see the very surprising results. Many have already commented on the results.

Brad

So Many Candidates Are Only 70% Effective In Their Job Search

There aren’t too many things one can do only 70% effectively and be successful. Can you imagine doing your job 70% effectively? Would you hire someone that told you in an interview,” I work great 70% of the time?” Would you keep a person working for you the was only 70% effective?

I certainly hope you answered NO to all these.

So why then do so many candidates think they can find a job or conduct a job search at a 70% effective rate? I think in many cases I’m being generous in the 70%. I have worked with many that struggle to get to 50%. Stunning, but true.

Too many candidates just don’t know how to conduct a truly effective job search. That isn’t to say that they don’t try, as I’m sure they do, but trying in a job search isn’t what you are striving to achieve. You shouldn’t be ashamed of this. It is not your area of expertise. It would be like me doing your job. How effective would I be? Probably less than 50%.

In an economy like this in which companies will receive hundreds of resumes, receive numerous referrals, and will interview until the perfect candidate shows up,  one can’t afford to be ineffective or inefficient. This is the time to be at your best, 110% not 70% or less.

Here are some simple examples that might help you to identify how effective  your job search is (you can download our 8-Point Job Search Self Assessment for free to assess your search CLICK HERE):

1. How good is  your LinkedIn profile? I have reviewed thousands of profiles and most are incomplete, lacking important data, not optimized for a search, and provide limited information. Yet like it or not, LinkedIn is more powerful than most resume databases.
2. Many candidates have no idea how to properly network. Most think it is a numbers game. Meet a lot of people, shake a lot of hands, go to a lot of meetings and so on. WRONG. This is just a bunch of activity. Meaningless activity most of the time. How effective has your networking been for providing the right job leads?
3. Candidates focus on only one type of key word search. The electronic type. They optimize the resume for the automated/electronic resume system that scans the resume to identify certain key words.  There are two types of key word searches that must be optimized. In my opinion the second one is more important. I have written an article explaining this. CLICK HERE if you want more information on the second type. I don’t have the space here to include it.
4. What prompted this article is  that I had lunch today with a VP of HR and we were discussing just how poorly so many candidates are at phone interviewing. She brought it up, not me. She asked me if I had the same bad experiences conducting phone interviews as she. Yes, I replied.  Way too many candidates treat the phone interview the same way they treat the face-to-face interview. They are completely different and you have to adjust. This is so important that we actually offer this chapter from our job search workbook for free. Not because we have to offer it for free, but the phone interview is the most important interview. So many candidates just take it for granted. CLICK HERE if you want to download it.
5. “I already know this stuff” syndrome. I get this all the time. You might even say this after reading the phone interviewing chapter. My answer to the comment, “I already know this stuff'” is “So what.” That isn’t important. We all know a lot of things, but we don’t do them and do them well. I know to keep my head still when I hit a golf ball. So what.  I know it but doing it isn’t the same. I’m only 50% effective at doing it. I firmly believe this is one of the biggest reasons candidates aren’t as effective as they should be. They think they know it, but don’t do it and do it right.
6. Working hard and putting  in long hours isn’t the answer in a job search. A job search is an endurance race. It is very much like running a marathon so candidates must be efficient or like a marathon you will burn out. I find many candidates are just running in place and get burned out quickly.

The sad part is that there are so many tools and resources available to candidates. Never before in my 30 years have I seen so much excellent information readily available. Experts blogging, articles in newspapers, YouTube videos, and social media groups are all out there for candidates to tap into. Yet so few do, and even fewer actually implement the suggestions effectively.

I encourage all the candidates I represent to actively research. There are great tips and ideas out there and 90% are free. Spending an hour each night will dramatically impact your job search.  Reading blogs on resumes, branding, social media, or watching some of the outstanding videos on YouTube can change the direction of your search very quickly.

Our contribution to you are our many free tools and resources. For example our audio library (CLICK HERE) has over 50 great audio recordings from our weekly radio show, the free chapter on phone interviewing (CLICK HERE) and our free LinkedIn Profile assessment (CLICK HERE) are just a few of the tools we offer.

Don’t forget to join our LinkedIn Job Search Networking Group for many more free resources. CLICK HERE to join.

I welcome your comments and thoughts.

Brad Remillard

Job Search Firestorm of Controversy

As many of our loyal readers know – I’m not shy about vocalizing (can you do that on a blog?) my thoughts related to job search.

In fact, I’m probably one of the more (along with my partner Brad Remillard) controversial figures in job search blogging. Brad and I give “straight talk” (better known as ‘”tough love” by the girls on my high school basketball team) about why most job seekers conduct ineffective job hunts and why it takes so darn long to find a job.

We’re also two of the most prolific publishers of FREE and inexpensive job search content on the Internet. If you can’t find the answer to your job search question in our extensive library and archives, then it probably doesn’t exist.

We can make this bold statement since we’ve got the credentials to back it up through real experience of over 250,000 candidate interviews, over 1,000 search assignments, training over 5,000 recruiters, and 30,000 hiring executives and managers over the last 30 years.

Now to the real purpose of this blog post – why have I just generated a firestorm of controversy surrounding one of our most recent blog posts?

I put forth the idea in my last blog post that most candidates are NOT effectively using all the FREE job search tools that LinkedIn provides – and as a result – their job search is ineffective and taking far too long.

It’s not the only reason your job search is ineffective (there are hundreds of reasons), but it is a significant reason.

Oh my! You’d think I had just refuted a major law of universal physics.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many candidates weigh in with their opinions.

We can divide the opinions by those writing comments into two main camps:

Group 1: You’re right – I’m ineffective and need to get my act together to learn how to more use LinkedIn to improve my job search

Group 2: I already know everything there is to know in how to use LinkedIn and it’s useless. Being on LinkedIn has not helped my job search and I cannot see any value spending more time on LinkedIn.

To the first group, I applaud you for trying to learn everything you can that might help you in your job search. There are literally hundreds – perhaps even thousands of things you can be doing in your job search to make it more effective.

In coaching high school basketball, we have a saying “It’s the little things that make a difference”. Success doesn’t come from huge or amazing changes, it comes from all the little things someone does that their peers are not willing to do, such as diving on the floor for loose balls, boxing out, saving a ball from going out of bounds, sprinting back on defense (interesting parallel to job search).

Al Pacino, in his role as the Coach in “Any Given Sunday” talks about the success that comes from doing the little things in his locker room talk about “inches’. Again, interesting parallel – metaphor – for job search. The Coach talks about the “inches” (read: opportunities) that are all around us – yet most never reach for the extra inch. The inference is that unless you reach for the extra inch – success becomes elusive.

To the second group, I would say shame on you for thinking you’ve cornered the market on how to leverage LinkedIn. There is such a wealth of knowledge to be gained from reading books on LinkedIn, testing different ideas, experimenting with the tools, checking out how others do it, reading the blogs dedicated to LinkedIn, or taking one of the myriad of courses/classes/webinars on leveraging LinkedIn.

Can someone answer this question:

Why do most candidates not take advantage of the wealth of information, tools, resources, and techniques to improve their job search?

Is the reason most candidates don’t know what information, tools, resources, and techniques are available?

Or maybe the reason is that most candidates just don’t want to grab those extra “inches” that are everywhere around us.

Here are two examples from our own library/archive and resources:

How many of our readers have downloaded our FREE LinkedIn Profile Self-Assessment Tool to improve their chances of being picked by a recruiter or HR manager?

How many of our readers signed up for the webinar my partner, Brad Remillard, just taught on how to use SEO techniques on your LinkedIn Profile to improve where you appear in a search of candidates by hiring managers, recruiters, and HR professionals?

Why do you think most candidates do not take advantage of the myriad of resources available to help improve their job search?

Barry

LinkedIn Profiles Are Worthless, If People Can’t Find You

I firmly believe that most LinkedIn profiles are worthless, even the really good ones. I even teach a webinar on building a compelling LinkedIn profile. This is not to say that profiles on LinkedIn are not important. They are definitely important. Most are just worthless not only because they leave out valuable information, but also because they are not optimized so you  show up during a LinkedIn search.

I know this because recently for a search I’m doing I spent hours using LinkedIn to search for potential candidates. Then I received a resume from a person and looked him up on LinkedIn. I couldn’t understand why I didn’t find him during my search process. He was on LinkedIn but his profile was poor and clearly not optimized for someone searching on LinkedIn.

• He lacked key words in  his profile.
• He didn’t have the right key words that people will search on.
• The information was not placed in the right locations on the profile.
• He had not done any research or even thought about optimizing his profile.
• His profile lacked or completely missed how LinkedIn prioritizes profiles results from a search.
• He wasn’t optimizing his connections and groups so as to leverage his profile for a person searching for his profile type.

As a result of these and other issues I missed him. This almost cost him a job lead, an interview and potentially a job.  He is still in the hiring process so don’t know whether or not he will get the job. Yet,  all this stuff is easy to fix.  It doesn’t require a lot of time, but it does require understanding how to optimize  your profile and how LinkedIn works when conducting a search for people.

Even a great profile that can’t be found is like having a great website that nobody visits. Not a lot of value.

Is  your profile optimized? If not think seriously about doing it. I would recommend doing two things.

1. First develop a great profile. Make it compelling, identify the key words, have it complete including your work history, groups, education, interests, specialties and contact information. This has to be done first so you can optimize it for a LinkedIn profile search. Plus when someone views your profile, you want them to call you.
2. Only after you complete and compelling profile is it time to optimize it. I say after because it is almost impossible to optimize your profile if it isn’t complete. Identify key words, include them in the right locations, test your profile by searching for yourself and ask others to search for you. What page do you show up on? Keep playing with it until you are at least on the first 5 pages. Change the words, move the locations, add more words, re-test and have others re-test. It may take a little time but it is worth it.

Taking a little extra time to optimize  your profile will pay off. I’m glad this person found me through his network, but I wonder how many other opportunities he might have missed because he wasn’t findable on LinkedIn. I believe this is one of the most overlooked aspects to LinkedIn. Candidates just assume they will put up a profile and people will come. Not true. You must bring them to you.

To help  you create a complete and compelling profile download our free 8 Point LinkedIn Profile Assessment. It will help  guide you with the first step. CLICK HERE to get  your free copy.

Check out our audio library. There are many recordings there about using LinkedIn and they are all free to download. CLICK HERE to review the audio files.

Join our LinkedIn Job Search Networking Group. Over 5400 members with active discussion, news and information to help you in your job search and your LinkedIn profile. CLICK HERE to join it is free on LinkedIn to join groups.

WARNING: Those and many other resources on our website are 100% free. I’m conducting a webinar on Thursday, July 21, on ADVANCED LINKEDIN – MAKING YOURSELF FINDABLE. This webinar will show you exactly how step-by-step to get your profile on page one when people are searching for you.This is not theoretical it will show exactly how to do it.  If you are interested in getting your profile on page one then CLICK HERE to learn more.

I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Brad Remillard

Why Don’t Candidates Use LinkedIn Effectively?

Are you leveraging LinkedIn in your job search? If not, you could be dragging your job search on for a longer period of time than is necessary.

LinkedIn provides one of the greatest sets of job search tools – practically for FREE!

Why then are so many candidates so bad at using it for their job search?

This just makes no sense to me.

If you’re in a job search, help me to understand why you’re not effectively using LinkedIn to cut the time it takes to find a great job by at least 50%.

Here’s a great fresh example: I was interviewing a candidate for National Sales Manager Position this morning. This is a senior level job – compensation is in the $150K-$200K range.

She’s been out of work for an entire year. I asked her how many phone interviews she had in the last year. Her answer was “roughly about 10”. I asked her how many physical interviews she had in the last year. Her answer was “less than 5.” Her activity level is so low it would have been a miracle to get a job offer.

I then asked her how she was using LinkedIn in her Job Search. She says
“I’m really using LinkedIn. I logon all the time. I look at the job ads being posted. I check out the status updates of all my network contacts.”

You’re NOT effectively using LinkedIn. You might not be found by a hiring manager or recruiting unless pure random luck intervened.

You’re lurking. You’ve faded into the woodwork. You’re invisible.

Start to leverage all the great tools LinkedIn provides for your job search, such as:

• Ability to participate in Questions and Answers
• Ability to constantly evolve and change your Profile
• Ability to Get Testimonials/References to say good things about you
• Ability to share books/reviews/thoughts with others
• Ability to participate in group discussions
• Ability to post useful information into groups
• Ability to contact directly potential hiring managers and recruiters
• Ability to post rich content/media of Powerpoint presentations, white papers, video, and audio
• Ability to “LIKE” and comment on the status updates of people in your network
• Ability to easily build a powerful network to generate an abundance of job leads and referrals.
• Ability to include your twitter stream and blog postings

I’m almost embarrassed to ask candidates about their use of LinkedIn in a job search. When I hear their answer of how much they think they are using it and how they see themselves as a “power” user of LinkedIn for Job Search – I want to double over in laughter. I know that in 99% of the time when I go to look them up on LinkedIn, their activity level and sophistication of using LinkedIn is usually in the bottom 10%.

Why?

There is NO EXCUSE not to become a power user of LinkedIn for Job Search. The resources are astounding. For example, Brad and I have authored numerous articles, blog posts, and radio programs on this subject. We’ve got FREE tools to help you – such as our LinkedIn Profile Self-Assessment Scorecard which you can get by clicking here.

Special NOTE: My partner Brad Remillard is facilitating an upcoming inexpensive Webinar on How to Use LinkedIn to pop to the top of a hiring manager/recruiters search for candidates?

Can you afford to end up on page 3 of a search a recruiter is conducting for someone just like you? If you’re not on page 1 – you’ll never have a chance to get noticed. Check out the description of this LinkedIn Webinar by clicking here. I’m really excited about this unique technique Brad has developed to get you to the top of LinkedIn Candidate Searches by Hiring Managers and Recruiters.

This technique of leveraging “SEO” on LinkedIn for your profile is just one of the hundreds you can use to dramatically improve the effectiveness of your job search.

In This Market You Need An Edge. This Might Be That Edge.

Some candidates will enter the job market with the desire to learn everything they can about the best way to conduct a job search. Many will use outplacement firms, attend a webinar or two, read articles on interviewing or resumes, and begin networking.  All good stuff.

However, I believe they leave out one of the most valuable learning tools for a job search. All of the above is important, but what about the other side of the hiring process which is understanding a job search from the recruiter’s or company’s perspective?

Why not read about the hiring processes companies use? Seems to me this would  add a lot of value to one’s search. I ask candidates to start reading and researching articles and books written for hiring managers. There is an enormous amount of information on the Internet that will help you understand exactly what the company is thinking and how they want to  hire.

Many, if not most companies today use some form of behavioral interviewing. There is a wealth of articles, videos, and blogs dedicated to this topic. Just Google “behavioral interviewing”  and over 309,000 results come up. You can discover nearly the exact questions you will be asked in an interview. It is as close to an open book test as you can get, yet few candidates take the time to do this. It is like trading stocks with insider information.

Our book for hiring managers, “You’re NOT The Person I Hired,” goes into great detail how companies should implement an effective  hiring process. It details what questions to ask, how to probe deeply, what other sources to use to  help with candidate selection, how to write a job description that aligns with the real job, and much more. So far over 10,000 CEOs and key executives have this book on their book shelf.  Just reading this book alone will help prepare you for the best way to prepare for an interview, how to align your resume with what the company needs, how to prepare your references, and much more. All you need to know is what the company is going to do and then plan accordingly.

The best defense is a good offense. Understanding exactly how companies do their hiring is one of the best ways to prepare yourself for a job search.

Reading everything you can about how to conduct a search is important. Focusing on how companies hire and learning their methodology is also important. Take the time to prepare yourself for their hiring methodology. You will see a big difference in your results.

You can obtain a copy of our book, “You’re NOT The Person I Hired” from our website if you’d like. There are many good books, blogs, articles, videos, and resources in the market for you to take advantage of. In this market you need an edge  over your competition. Every little bit helps. I encourage you to consider coming from the recruiter’s or company’s perspective.

For more on conducting an effective job search, take a look at our audio library. All of the recordings are free to either download or stream. CLICK HERE to review the titles.

I welcome your comments and thoughts.

Brad Remillard

Don’t Assume You Will Get A Good Reference

Time and time again candidates assume when a person tells them they will be a reference, it means a good reference. Not true. In a recent poll 54% said they were given a reference and it turned out bad. This busts the theory that people will only give references they “KNOW” will give them a good reference.
This radio show explores who your references should be, what is expected for a GREAT reference and how to properly prepare you reference.
You should never fall in the 54% again. A GREAT reference can be the tipping point for you to get the position versus someone else that gets either bad or just a good reference.

If you want to listen to this recording or to download it CLICK HERE.

Recruiters Are Your Friend And Your Best Job Search Resource

I read hundreds of blogs, LinkedIn comments, responses to our articles, tweets on Twitter, and emails from candidates every month about recruiters. Many are negative. Most complain about recruiters. Many are justified and many are not. Like everyone in a personal services business, you can please some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time. Regardless of  what we do, we can’t help everyone.

I believe, (make that I know), that we provide more free tools and resources for people in a job search than any other recruiting firm on the Internet. If you know of any that does more, I’d like the link. However, even though many of these resources are 100% free, people still complain to us.

Recruiters are the best resource for candidates to go to  for job search help. I believe that is because recruiters are the only people that have the experience to really help. It is recruiters that know what companies are looking for, what the market is like, what companies want to see and not see on a resume, if you interview well or not, how you will be viewed by a company, and so on. Recruiters live with all of this every day. Who better to have the knowledge of what makes one person very marketable and another person not as marketable.

Good recruiters look for top talent. They know it when they see it. After all, for the last 30 years, all I have done is evaluate talent. Any recruiter who has been around for some time can be a valuable resource for your job search.  I encourage you to take advantage of the advice and knowledge of recruiters. Don’t be afraid to ask for constructive feedback. Most recruiters will gladly give it to you.

If you have a relationship with a recruiter, this is the person you should seek out advice from. They know you and hopefully will be honest with you. So many candidates will never use recruiters for the real value they can bring to your search. Just one suggestion can dramatically change the results in your job search. Our cover letter is one example of that. I have seen so many examples of how one small tip, suggestion, or constructive help has impacted a candidate’s job search. Most of the time the candidate doesn’t even know they are making the mistake. Only a person trained to look for, or notice, these small issues would catch them. That is what recruiters do every single day.

One of the best resources we can offer you is our  sample cover letter. We get more positive feedback on how this tool has impacted a person’s job search than any other resource. I encourage you to download it and use it. We make this available for FREE because we want to help you. CLICK HERE to download.

Join our LinkedIn Job Search Networking Group. It has 5,400 members and is one of the most active job search resources on LinkedIn. CLICK HERE to join.

I welcome your thoughts and feedback.

Brad Remillard

Most Recruiters are Wasting Your Time

How do You Find a Recruiter that will work with you?

Networking – Networking – Networking (more on this subject later)

Many candidates assume the recruiter is “working with them” if one of the following scenarios take place:

1. The recruiter accepted your resume
2. The recruiter called you back on the phone and interviewed you
3. The recruiter asked you into their office for a formal interview
4. The recruiter sent you out to interview with one of their clients

Is the recruiter working with you – helping to identify great opportunities, thinking of you first when an appropriate search tumbles across their desktop, giving you ideas/suggestions/recommendations on how to improve your job search/career management?

Absolutely NOT!

You are nothing more than a piece of paper at this point. Perhaps, your “filler” because their client needed to see two other candidates before making a decision on the real candidate they wanted to hire.

There is no relationship – no chemistry – no mutual support.

AND the worst thing is that the recruiter you’ve called or sent a resume to could be the WRONG recruiter. This is THE primary reason most candidate-recruiter relationships never develop – you’re talking to the WRONG recruiter.

How do you find the right recruiter?

The right recruiter is someone who consistently makes placements of candidates just like you – frequently – successfully – consistently – regularly.

NOT occasionally – infrequently – sometimes – maybe – once in a while.

Have you ever asked a recruiter how many times in the last year, quarter, month (take your pick) did they place someone in a job just like the one you’re seeking?

You would probably be shocked by the answer you hear.

How do you find recruiters who frequently place talent just like you?

Below are a few key steps you can follow to identify appropriate recruiters and begin to develop a “tight” relationship. How could we define a “tight” relationship – it’s one where the recruiter passionately pitches you to their client, you’re the one they think of first on a search assignment, and when the hiring manager rejects you – they fight to the end to convince the hiring manager to meet you.

Can you claim to have this type of “tight” relationship with any recruiters? Probably NOT! Perhaps, the reason is that you’re spending time trying to develop a relationship with the wrong recruiters.

The STEPS to Recruiter Nirvana:

1. Ask your peers which recruiters they are working with
2. Ask hiring managers/executives which recruiters they use to fill jobs like the one you want
3. Look in recruiter directories on the internet for which recruiters specialize in your function, industry, or geography
4. Read the blogs of the very best recruiters (unbiased impression coming up here  – like Brad and I)
5. Which recruiters are ranked in the top 50/100 on twitter and other lists?

Let me throw out a couple of examples:

You live in Los Angeles and are seeking a Chief Financial Officer Position. Who are the top 3 executive search firms who specialize in financial management search in the LA metro area? If you don’t know this answer, you’re flying blind.

You live in Boston and are seeking a Vice President of Marketing Position for a Consumer Products Company with global operations. Who are the top 3 search firms in the US focusing on International Vice Presidents of Marketing for Major Consumer Product Companies? Again, if you don’t know this answer,  you’re flying blind and probably have been wasting your time with other recruiters.

Is it time in your job search to leverage yourself and start spending time with the “right” recruiters so that you can develop a “tight” relationship?

Barry

PS Download our FREE Job Search Self-Assessment to determine if you are effectively leveraging recruiters and other key elements of your job search.