The 1-Day Job Search Prep Strategy Building Your Future Now

The 1-Day Job Search Prep Strategy Building Your Future Now Looking for a new job can be one of the most stressful experiences. But the experience can be a great one if you have a plan! Here is what you need to do for your 1-Day Job Search Prep Strategy: 1.Update and Polish your resume to get it ready for applications 2.Do a quick summary of the job market. What are some hot segments of the job market should you be focusing on? 3.Tapping into Your Network ia vital to finding a new job. About 80% of jobs offered arent advertised so it is up to you to network, promote your brand and find if there are any unadvertized opportunities out there. 4.Research companies you want to work withthe reason why and how you can help them! 5.Connect with professionals who you like to learn more fromyou never know: a simple message can turn into a difference maker when it comes to your next job. Obviously, there are more great ways to build and prep a strategy for your job search. Just rememberkeep positive and open to new opportunities! Image: Geralt

Overcoming Conflict

Overcoming Conflict Imagine you have been given plastic bag filled with breadcrumbs to feed the birds on the beach.   You go out there, and suddenly the birds are squawking, diving, fighting over the handful of bread crusts you throw in the air as fast as your little arms can fling. It feels uncomfortable for you â€" you don’t have enough bread to feed these birds all day and they are plunging towards you wanting more, and you do not have more to give! Conflict:  Someone wants one thing. You either a) do not know what they want or b) are not able/do not want to give them what they want. So how can you overcome  this? Well, in the case of the birds, I RAN LIKE HELL off the beach as soon as I was out of bread crumbs, traumatized for the rest of my life and grateful for that blue visor shielding me from birds definitely trying to peck my eyes out. In real life, sure, you can run from some conflicts. And sometimes you can’t. Sometimes, one way to handle conflict is to meet with your tribe.  Talk to your people. Perhaps they can join you in resolving the disagreement or offer their opinions on what they would do to settle it if they were in your shoes. Of course, you do not have to do what they say, however, something they suggest might resonate. You could also take a break from the issue. Go play. With your body in motion, solution oriented ideas may pop into your head. You return refreshed and with a creative fix. Sleep on it…or maybe just snooze for 20 minutes. Naps improve mood and anxiety management. Finally, I’m reminded of a turtle I saw while biking on the Legacy Trail last weekend. On the way out, she was crossing the paved path from the East to the West. You might be thinking, here comes the cliché! ‘Slow and steady wins the race’. Dear friends, while that is trueâ€" it is not the point I am about to make today, because on the way in, there she was again, crossing right back from the West to the East! The grass/marsh/swamp is not always greener. Sometimes realizing this makes us feel empathy for the other party. We can put ourselves in their grass/march/swamp and this paradigm shift can help us calm down and get through the awkward conflict. After all, can we really blame birds for eagerly expressing their excitement for delicious stale breadcrumbs? What other resolution  insights can we glean from  animals? @kellymc247 Columnist Archive

Start Your CV with I Am Stupid

Start Your CV with I Am Stupid Yes, you read it right, start your CV with I am stupid. In fact, you might have done it and your CV already starts that way. Up to 2009, my CV started with I am stupid. Any surprise the whole of that year I did not get a job or an internship? Not at all. But I didnt care. The rest of my CV was even better to a recruiter it must have read like Dont hire me or I am a complicated person. Image Credit: sciencewritingblog.wordpress.com HOW TO START A CV? Almost all of us start our CVs with our name and contact details, probably email address under that. How to make sure your CV screams out I am stupid? Just be sure to write your casual email address. For example pink_princess@xyz.com                           master_class1987@xyz.com                   name.lastname@wwe.com!                     andyhacker@xyz.com                               crazy_name@xyz.com       To a recruiter, any of the above examples, or similar read as I Am Stupid So, there you go. Youve started your CV by stating I am stupid. I had one of those email addresses on my CV as a contact ID (similar to the second example!). Didnt get anywhere with it. But hey, the point of this post is to make sure we say we are stupid on our CVs. Obviously, you can avoid putting up such an email on your CV. So you start off on a good note and in a professional manner. Might be less fun, but in the end will pay more! Put up a formal email address, or your university email ID and youve started your CV on the right foot. CONTENT OF A CV? Content is king. Whether it be running a blog, or writing a CV. You need to grasp readers and recruiters attention! Now, how to make sure the content screams out Dont Hire Me. Its very simple, you might have done it, but I will still share how I made sure I wasnt hired and you can do the same on your CV to help recruiters not hire you. Write unclear sentences and mess up priorities on the CV. Why not start off by writing what your interests are, like music, knitting, eating at Nandos etc.? OK, this is a bit of an extreme example, but what I mean is, make sure your content is inconsistent, to make sure you are not hired. For example Having dates in no-order or wrong order Incomplete information on jobs Grammatical mistakes As a graduate, 1-page CV 3-page CV All of the above points read as Dont Hire Me to recruiters As you can see, all the above are the best ways to make sure you are not hired. You could reduce the fun and do the opposite, make sure you put the latest academic and work qualifications before the older dates. It gives a good flow and helps recruiters visualise a timeline. Have complete information and keywords on your CV that are attractive to the recruiter. Avoid any grammatical mistakes and keep the content to 2 pages. This is my top advice to optimise your CV. Do this and any recruiter would be interested to know more. Remember, a CV is like a website, the easier to navigate around, and connect with, the better experience to stay on site for the user. Its the same for a CV. Better layout and information means the recruiter finds going through it quickly less stressful. Dont do all this, and your CV will scream Dont Hire Me, because you are un-organised, complicated to deal with, and maybe slightly unprofessional. HOW TO WRITE A SUCCESSFUL CV? A successful CV is one that is well designed and has good content. Follow the two points above and you will have something concrete to sell yourself. Of course, you can even download a free CV template from here. And fill in the information. We also have a post on key skills and keywords to have on your CV, which might help you further. If you want to comment or criticise anything in the post, feel free to comment in the box below. Please note, WE DONT encourage you to make your CV scream out loud: I Am Stupid or Dont Hire Me. Subscribe to Career Geeks Bi-monthly Newsletter  to stay up-to-date with careers information and tips tricks. 16

Interviewing is Emotional and Logical - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Interviewing is Emotional and Logical - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Interviewing is a combination of art and science thus it has a part which is emotional yet another part which is logical. It very much reminds me a game of Chess. While the interview is typically amicable the “players” are adversaries. One is the seller yet the other person is the buyer who is merely doing his due diligence.     And the buyer knows that making the mistake of hiring bad people is very costly. The interview process is a challenge for both the interviewer and the candidate because interviewing is not well understood by either party. On one hand, the interviewer knows that several preselected qualified candidates have to be interviewed in order to anticipate and decide which one will perform best for the organization in the future. On the other hand, the candidate knows he is onstage and has to be at his best in every respect because he is in a tough competition for a single opening. A good interviewer should review the candidate based on four different aspects: communication skills, competency via specific skills, organizational fit, and motivation which is exhibited by ability to show passion and excitement. Those are the most crucial areas, even if there are of course several other relevant aspects to explore. When exploring the candidate’s communications skills, I always start with the request, “Tell me about yourself.” The request serves as an opener for me, the interviewer, in an attempt to get a first impression of the candidate as a way of assessing communication skills. It is a baseline reading against which I will compare the rest of the interview questions. If answered well, all future answers will be viewed through a positive prism. But if the answer to that first question is not viewed favorably, the candidate will have a difficult time convincing me to reverse my opinion. A good answer should: Be intriguing and memorable Include an example of an impressive accomplishment Be responsive, informative, brief, and succinct Engage the interviewer via a question in turn about the interviewer’s own priorities or challenges A poor answer is: Lengthy and recites chronologically the candidate’s career Unfocused or rambling Boring Challenging to the interviewer because of regional or foreign accent or speech impediments When trying to assess the candidate’s competency for certain specific skills crucial to the job, I request an answer to following: “Tell me about one of your major accomplishments and its outcome.” By that, I can test the candidate’s specific competency in an area where in my mind he has to show experience and strength. I’m looking for hard skills and wanting to hear how they were deployed in the past. A good answer should: Show the candidate’s ability to recite an example that gives a brief background overview Include a specific example that highlights a required skill and that resulted in a successful outcome Tell the actions the candidate took Be cited as recognized by othersâ€"such as supervisors, peers, and customersâ€"for credibility A poor answer is: General and nonimpressive Not focused on specific skills Lacking in a specific example of accomplishment achieved via the skill Blatantly self-praising but without evidence Then comes my follow-up: “Tell me about a specific, work-related problem and how you went about resolving it.” Here I am drilling down to details and anticipating hearing the step-by-step approach the candidate took to resolve the problem. The next area I explore is the candidate’s cultural fit into our organization. Cultural fit could be subjective and influenced by prejudice. It is heavily influenced by the top leadership. It includes such elements as values, attitudes, office language, tone of communication, the team or individual decision-making process, and daily work practices, often made up of unspoken and unwritten rules of behavior. Via this question I’m looking to ascertain whether the candidate will blend in naturally and become a welcome contributor to the team. I’m also paying attention to the applicant’s past behavior. Here are a few questions as examples. “What do you know about our company?” That one tests whether the candidate has done his homework and is well prepared or really interested. “What is your management style?” Here I’m listening to hear whether he says only the obvious and whether he’ll be able to adapt to the companys needs. I am looking for maturity, competency, and how he handles relationships with others. The last area I explore is motivation. Typical questions would be, “Why are you interested in this position?” Then I watch to see whether he talks about self or company needs, whether he understands challenges, how he envisions contribution to organization, whether he clearly demonstrates passion and excitement, and whether he’s just plain likable. Other questions whose answers reveal motivation might be: “Why do you want to leave [or did you leave] this position? What would be your perfect job? What would you do in the first 90 days after being hired? What are your interests outside work? People who do a lot outside work are also motivated at work. Most people need to prepare extensively for upcoming interviews in order to feel good about themselves â€" otherwise is showing. Some people seem to have a knack for interviewing and here two people come to my mind: Presidents Bill Clinton and Barak Obama. They make interviewing on camera seem so simple.

Writing a Resume and Cover Letter When You Have No Experience

Writing a Resume and Cover Letter When You Have No ExperienceSo you want to write a resume and cover letter when you have no experience. I understand the frustration of not having any work experience whatsoever, but here are some suggestions on how to make your job hunt much easier.The first thing you need to do is think about your current level of expertise and the needs of the person in question. Some of the most common scenarios that involve a person with no experience applying for a job is because of their industry. They are looking for someone to perform an entry-level position, or they need someone to take on the responsibility of some higher-level role.These can be very lucrative fields, but the fact is that in order to advance to the next level in this industry you need to have many years worth of work experience under your belt. In other words, if you've never worked in a certain industry you will have to gain experience or else you will never make it past the interview stag e.So, what if you are employed and have tons of experience? Well, that's something else to worry about. What if your employer doesn't feel the need to hire someone with no experience? What should you do?Now you might be thinking that this is just another situation where you shouldn't bother getting experience. But I would advise you to reconsider. After all, employers don't like to pay someone to learn how to do things; they want someone who already knows the ins and outs of the company.Instead of taking on extra responsibilities that can take time away from your normal duties you should devote those hours to the interview process. The employer wants to know everything about you and your background. You might want to put together a spreadsheet filled with information about you and your accomplishments.Once you have filled out the spreadsheet make sure to send it to your references as well as your boss and ask them to read through it to see if you really have the necessary experience to be hired. Some people like to ask for referrals in order to be competitive; others may prefer to send the resume to the employer themselves. It really depends on your personality.Your job search will become more efficient if you find yourself prepared. You'll avoid the pains of being unemployed and have something to look forward to once the interview process begins. All you need is a little planning and effort and you'll be good to go.

Summary Sunday Invest Time In The Right Job Search Habits

Summary Sunday Invest Time In The Right Job Search Habits To make the most of your time during job search, you want to invest in the right job search habits and activities. Its easy to slack off during job search. There arent any deadlines and no one is looking over your shoulder. So this weeks summary will help you build a better routine and help invest your time in the right job search habits. Youll find daily LinkedIn activities, interviewing answers NOT to use, ideas for Twitter lists to help you keep up-to-date, and ways to find target companies and more! LINKEDIN 10 Things To Immediately Start Doing On LinkedIn Frequently by John Hall | Forbes These are 10 daily actions to take on LinkedIn to help you stay connected and grow your career. From quick shoutouts to creating your own content and tons of ideas that range somewhere in-between, being active on LinkedIn doesnt have to take much time. INTERVIEWING These Are The Worst Answers To The Most Common Job Interview Questions by Anisa Purbasari Horton | FastCompany Hiring managers and recruiters provided some of the worst answers theyve heard during job interviews. Dont use these when answering tell me about yourself? why do you want this job? or the other four questions! TWITTER 23 Seldom-Used Ideas for How to Use Twitter Lists by Kevan Lee | Buffer Twitter lists are invaluable for filtering out the noise in your home feed. Here are 23 list ideas to help make Twitter more valuable and worth your time. PS if you didnt see my recent list, check out  50 Best Twitter Accounts For Job Search Advice 2019 JOB SEARCH Experts Guide to Creating Targeted Company Lists by Sarah Johnston | Briefcase Coach You know you should have a target list of companies to guide your job search activities, but sometimes you dont know where to go to find them. Here is a collection of 10 expert-recommended sources you can use to expand your target list. CAREER These CEOs work 40 hours or less a week (and think you should too) by Pavithra Mohan | FastCompany 8.5 hours at work on a weekday. Thats how long the average person spends at work. But at least three CEOs have found ways to balance their time between work and pleasure. See how (and why). MENTIONS Are Boomer Parents Giving Their Kids Bad Career Advice? by Nancy Collamer | Next Avenue Here are four dated job-search tips some boomers give their millennial kids and the updated advice (from the MBA students, other career coaches and me) that’s much better. Thanks to Nancy for allowing me to chime in on this! What a Job Search Strategy Looks Like by Jason Alba | JibberJobber Jason Alba featured my job search strategy a few years back, but hes focusing on it again. Jason has just released his 6-week online job search training. You can learn more The JibberJobber Job Search Program.

How to answer these 2 common interview questions - Margaret Buj - Interview Coach

How to answer these 2 common interview questions You can never predict all questions you could be asked in a job interview, but there are 2 that very often come up: “What are your strengths” or “Why should we hire you?” “What is your greatest weakness?” Without trying to provide you with scripted answers to each question that everyone is already using, I think it is more valuable to discuss how to structure your answer to each question based on your specific situation and to understand why employers tend to ask these questions. What can you do for our company?/What are your strengths/Why should we hire you? The questions might be slightly different but the answer should be the same and it should focus on what you can offer the company. When a company hires a strong candidate, they are making it harder for their competitors to compete with them. Basically, you want to try to answer this question by letting the interviewer know what you can do, that other candidates cant. Companies hire people to solve problems so let the interviewer know what problems youve solved and how your employers benefited as a result. Focus on specific tasks in the job description that are critical to the position and tell the interviewer why you are the person to handle them.   To demonstrate why you are the best person for the job, focus on answering the question by describing your experience, skills, problem-solving accomplishments and how the company will benefit by hiring you. Tell them why you are the answer to their problem(s). Back your answers up with examples. Anyone can say that they have good organizational skills for example, but if you say something specific e.g. I have excellent organizational skills and in the past 12 months I have personally organized and supervised 10 corporate events with up to 300 participants on each one, you are definitely going to make a better impression than someone giving a generic answer. What is your biggest weakness?   This question is a bit tricky. On one hand, you dont want to make yourself look bad by admitting a weakness, but at the same time the interviewer will not look at you favourably if you mention a fake weakness that really isnt a weakness and then simply brush it off. Instead, you could structure your answer by mentioning a weakness that you have or used to have and following up with how you are working/have worked to improve upon it.   If you are taking training courses to improve your lack of computer skills for example, this would illustrate that you are a proactive person who understands the need for self-improvement and that this weakness is under control. Everyone has a weakness, thats natural. The interviewer really wants to see how you answer this question and may not be as interested in the specific weakness that you mention, unless it is a big one of course. What the interviewer most likely does not want to hear is you using what is known as strength as weakness answer. Listing a clichéd weakness such as I work too hard or Im a perfectionist and things of that nature are answers theyve probably heard hundreds of times already. There is a great article on The Ladders’s website which explains how to answer this question using STAR format.  Theyre also a good source of general career advice so check them out if youre job searching! If youd like to learn more information about interviewing with confidence, marketing yourself effectively to potential employers as well as creating winning resumes and covering letters, Id encourage you to check out my very comprehensive e-Guide Land That Job! which will help you make the best out of every interview. You’ll also find sample answers to some of the most common interview questions. This is what one of my subscribers said about this e-Guide: I have secured a new role recently and wanted to let you know that I found Land That Job a real help. Much of the information available on the web is old, tired and poor at best. This was not the case with the advice you provide. Heres the link: http://www.landthatjob.co.uk/ As a thank you for reading my blog, you  can have this eGuide for only £15 instead of the usual price of £27. Simply enter VIP15 in the coupon code when you check out. Margaret Buj is an interview coach who specializes in helping professionals get hired, promoted and paid more. If you want to find out how recruiters read resumes, why you’re not getting hired, how to sell yourself successfully in a job interview and how to negotiate your best salary yet, you can download her free “You’re HIRED!” video course.