Hi guys, it's Caroline from newhorizoncoaching.com.au, career coach and job search strategist.
Basically, I help anyone who needs help with their resume, needs interview training or
need to master negotiation techniques, anything from net building, network strategies, to
full on job search strategies.
Today, somebody asked me a very, very clever question.
They said, "If you were to lose your job today, what would you do from a job strategy point
of view?
You have to imagine that you don't have that many connexions and that you actually are
looking straight away for opportunity, what would you do?"
It got me thinking.
I said, "Okay, there are a couple of strategies," and I talked that through with this person.
Then afterwards, I was thinking, "Okay, I better write these down, make a little brief
video for you guys, so you guys can actually see what I would do," because basically, those
strategies are some of my most effective job search strategies too.
I know, I can guarantee you, they will double if not triple your interviews if done well.
It's pretty exciting stuff, right?
All right.
It's quite warm here in Sydney, so I have the window open.
I hope there is not too much background noise.
All right, so first of all, it's leveraging your LinkedIn connexions.
Even if you don't have an active presence on LinkedIn and you want to use LinkedIn to
find a job, there are very clever ways you can do and use your LinkedIn network.
For example, so first thing I would do is join relevant groups.
I don't mean groups that you can say other job seekers are hanging out.
No, I mean, groups that where you know that your hiring manager hangs out.
For example, if I'm a marketing manager, I might join the group for CMOs, so chief marketing
officers, for those who are not in marketing.
Those are the groups that I would join.
When you join a group, that actually means that you have access to that network of connexions.
Basically, you don't have to have a broad network to be able to tap into a really extensive
network then.
That's the first thing.
The second thing I would to is actually look at the companies that I think I would be perfectly
suited to.
I'm going to give you an example.
Say, I used to work for PepsiCo and I want to work for Coca-Cola.
Now, instead of really looking at my connexions in my immediate circle and my immediate network,
I'm going to look outside who is connected with them that works at Coca-Cola, which actually
broadens again the circle.
Then I will actually say, "Okay, I have to do a little bit of research at this stage,"
so the first thing you're going to do is you're going to use LinkedIn, the advanced search,
to look up a contact's name, and you're going to say, "Okay, if I work in Coca-Cola as a
recruiter, who would I report into?"
Oh, the HR manager.
Okay, who is the HR at Coca-Cola?
You type that in into LinkedIn, you come up with a name, and there, bang, you have it.
The next step that you're going to do is you're going to have the person that you're connected
to if they know that person personally.
They might say yes or no.
It doesn't really matter, but it gives you ammunition to actually reach out to that person,
to the HR director and say, "Hey, I'm actually exploring the market, the job market at the
moment, and my contact or my colleague or my ex-colleague, or my friend is working for
you guys and speaks very highly of your company culture.
I wanted to actually explore if there would be any opportunities now or in the future
for me to work with your company."
Now, what you're doing by doing this is first you refer somebody that works in the same
organisation, so it's a referral, whether that person, they know each other or not,
it doesn't matter.
It really lifts up the way that people are going to ... Responds to your answer.
If I don't know you and you text me out of the blue or send me an email out of the blue,
then I'm going to look at your email very differently than if you've mentioned, "Oh,
I know Sarah that works at your organisation.
She speaks very highly of the company culture, and blah, blah," I'm going to look very differently
at it because they're two different ways of approach.
That's how I would leverage LinkedIn and the connexions, and specifically the second degree
connexions.
It's not always a matter of speech of who you are immediately connected with.
It's also who you're connected with in a second degree, if you know what I mean?
All right, so the second strategy that I would really get together is my story.
Like most people that are job searching, they just list things that they can do and they
just say, "I have this many years experience.
I can do this.
I can do that.
I've had these responsibilities.
I've worked with the director," but they don't really package their story.
They don't, in marketing you call it an elevator speech, one of those speeches that in 90 seconds
you can tell who you are, what your added value is, who you worked with, why companies
should hire you.
It's not something you can wing and just say, "Hey, I am a Caroline.
I'm a career coach."
No, it's something you really need to craft and really think about, how am I going to
put together my story?
What is my added value?
The key to this is, because this is an awesome piece of content you're creating, you put
that piece of content on your resume, you put it on your LinkedIn profile, and it is
the answer to the question like, "Tell me about yourself," in an interview.
You use that in three places, and it's that consistency that really sets you apart from
your competition.
It's really important to get your story right and to get your elevator pitch.
It's not about you.
It's about what problem you can solve with your skills and what your talents is, what
your strengths are, and how you can package that up into your personal brand.
As you can tell, probably, I'm very, very passionate about that, because if you get
that right, that's the foundation.
Everything falls into place.
That's the second strategy that I would do, is get my story right.
If I get my story right, then I can use it on my resume.
Then I can use it on my LinkedIn, and I can use it in a cover letter.
I can use it in interviews, and all my resume material or my marketing material, when I
say my marketing material, it's your resume, your cover letter, your LinkedIn profile,
anything how you brand yourself and go out to the world, that is your marketing material
because you're selling brand you.
Basically, that will set you apart is your collateral basically, and it has to have a
very powerful message, because I know when I send it out that I will get callbacks because
my story matches up to what problem I can solve, the added value I can add to an organisation.
When people check out my LinkedIn page, my LinkedIn profile, they see it's consistent.
When people invite me for an interview, again, they have that consistency, that consistent
feel of what I'm actually telling them.
Basically that's my second strategy is get my story right and making sure that when it's
read by the hiring manager or by an HR, it resonates and they are so excited then to
actually pull me in for an interview.
The third strategy is to be proactive.
Everybody is saying, "Oh, you have to be proactive in your job strategy," but what does that
actually mean, being proactive.
It's so easy to say, "Oh, you have to be," but what do you have to do?
I thought to actually talk you through the process.
You have two ways of being proactive.
One way is basically you have your target companies.
The easiest and simplest way to get your list of target companies together is you look at
the companies that you have worked at, and you literally look at the competitors, look
at the suppliers, look at the partners, and so on.
These companies, that list that you're making is going to love your skillset and your knowledge.
They're going to think you're the next best thing that happened to them because the added
value is massive.
That's a list that I would first make.
Then you actually use LinkedIn to gather information.
You put into an advanced search, again, the name of the company, the person that you probably
would report into, not their name, their job title.
You put current.
You put your country in and you press search, and you see who comes up.
Now, when you have a name, you actually reach out to them.
You can do this via LinkedIn, sending an email, or you can do that directly to send them a
personal email and say to them, "Hey, I've actually have skillset that are very similar
and I'm currently exploring the market, and I wanted to have a confidential chat with
yourself to see if you have any opportunities now or maybe in the future, looking forward
to your thoughts."
This is really a proactive way and you don't have to expect a job out of it straightaway,
because that is most of the time what blocks people.
They have this expectation that if they do it once, then they should have a reply or
they should have a job out of it.
That's not the reality of it.
The reality is that you have to be persistent, that you have to do this over and over, and
that you have to establish a network.
People who don't have a network, that is the way you actually start to connect with people.
You have to start somewhere.
Everybody did.
It might be pushing yourself a little bit outside your comfort zone, but believe me,
it's worth it if done right.
Okay, so next to that, you also have another approach, and that approach, if you, for example,
see a company, going to take Coca-Cola again, if you see Coca-Cola advertising, and I'm
from PepsiCo, but I now, like, "Oh my god, I would be brilliant for this opportunity,"
and the ad says, "Look, join the Coca-Cola team.
We're very innovative and ambitious.
This role will be reporting directly into the HR director, blah, blah, blah," what I
would do them is actually plug that into LinkedIn again.
LinkedIn is my best friend.
Plug that into LinkedIn again and actually see, you put Coca-Cola, you put HR director,
and you put the country in, and you see who comes up.
You have a name, and then you, again, reach out to that person and say, "Look, I've been
made aware that you're advertising for a recruiter, I'm quite interested in this position.
I've been actually recommended also by my contact, Anna or Sarah, whatever you want
to say, Sarah who work for your organisation.
I was hoping to have a confidential conversation with you before applying so I can find out
a little bit more about the position and about my suitability and understand what you're
looking for."
When you do that, you have multiple elements going in your job search.
You're not only relying on hit apply and just cross fingers or fingers crossed, I always
get that wrong, that things will work out and that the person will call you back.
You're being more proactive and taking control of your own job search and making a big difference.
That's what needs to happen.
I believe not in all cases but in most cases, the job market is not more difficult.
The job market is different.
You need to have a different approach to actually be successful.
You have to really look at the ways you look at jobs and embrace really that you might
have to position yourself different, do your personal branding different.
Even if it feels yucky and uncomfortable to talk about yourself, because you think like,
"Oh, I'm blowing my own trumpet here," it's thing that, okay, you have to get comfortable
with.
There are degrees.
You have people that go far and are very comfortable talking about themselves and exaggerate it
even, or you have people that actually just can articulate clearly what they do and the
value they can bring to an organisation.
That is basically what most people need to do, is really being able to articulate what
they can bring to the table and the value they can add.
My three most efficient and effective job search strategies are, to summarise, first,
leverage LinkedIn connexions and the power of your second degree connexions, so not only
your immediate circle but also the broader circle.
Two, is getting your story right, your elevator pitch that you'll use on your resume, your
LinkedIn profile that you will use when people ask you in an interview like tell me about
yourself, that you will use networking events to being able to convey what you do very clearly
that that person immediately understands when they can refer you, so your unique value proposition.
Third strategy would be to be more proactive, whether it's through putting together a list
of targeted companies, or if it's being proactive with jobs that are actually are advertised
and approaching the hiring manager before you apply online to have a confidential conversation
with them, that's it.
That's what I would do, and I know it works because I've done it before.
This is it.
I hope that this helped.
If you have any questions at all, let me know.
Send me an email on Caroline@newhorizoncoaching.com.au, ask me the question that you have.
I'm more than happy to make a video like this and actually come back to you, or you can
actually just write below this video.
Don't forget to share this video.
It's really good to reach other people that might be struggling also, because I love advising
people on their job search, resume, strategies, and even interview strategies.
Let me know what you need, and I will give it to you.
All right, thank you very much.
Bye-bye.