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Four Halloween Songs to “Boo”st Your Job Search

October 31, 2014 — Leave a comment

Job search can be unnerving and frightening. No need to be alarmed.

You can be scary good at job search!

Within these 4 Halloween songs lie tips that’ll help you take the veil off the darkness of your job hunt. Have a listen while I decrypt these for you, and when you give these tips a try, you’ll no longer feel that job search is like a gravedigger digging into unyielding, frozen ground.

1. “Monster Mash” by Bobby Pickett

For you, the living, this mash was meant too
When you get to my door, tell them Boris sent you.

Then you can mash, you can monster mash
The monster mash and do my graveyard smash
Then you can mash, you’ll catch on in a flash
Then you can mash, you can monster mash …

Yup, you gotta do the Monster Mash (i.e. Networking).

Just sending your resume to Monster.com and answering job ads won’t bring your job search to life like meeting up with Boris, Igor or Drac (a.k.a. the employees and managers who work where you’d like to work). Imagine if you got to know Boris and they/your targeted employer invite you in because Boris sent/recommended you, just like in the Monster Mash song?

Your mind swirls as murkily as the nasty brew stirred in the witch’s cauldron because you’re not sure how to find the hiring manager (or employees) of your targeted employer. No worries because Donna Svei (@AvidCareerist) walks you through a very practical (and successful) process in her post: “Hiring Manager Inactive on LinkedIn? Four Terrific Options!”

As weird as it may sound, the Halloween party you’ll be attending (whether it is an adults costume cocktail party or kids trick-or-treating alternative) is a Monster Mash opportunity. Strange place to make a connection, you say? Not as strange as you may think. What if I told you that I had gotten a teacher apprenticeship at a entrepreneurship graduate school through the airport massage guy?! Read more by clicking here.

2. “Somebody’s Watching Me” by Rockwell

I always feel like somebody’s watching me
And I have no privacy
I always feel like somebody’s watching me
Tell me it is just a trick …

Creepy as it may feel, this is exactly what you want when you are in job search.

You want recruiters, human resource managers and hiring managers (even colleagues and acquaintances) crawling over your social media profiles.

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Job Search: Is That REALLY You?

January 30, 2014 — 4 Comments
Are You Being Authentically You, Like Ginger Zee? Photo From Ginger Zee's Twitter Bio

Are You Being Authentically You, Like Ginger Zee?
Photo From Ginger Zee’s Twitter Bio

Did you catch Ginger Zee doing a snow angel as part of her weather segment on Good Morning America?

She’s not shy about showing her fun and exuberant personality.  She’s being authentic and this engages her audience.

I’ve written about Ginger Zee before in my post, “Makeover Your Too Technical Resume”.  Ginger is my muse for good reason.  Since my post, Ginger’s gotten a promotion from the Weekend Edition of Good Morning America to the Weekday Edition of Good Morning America!

And that prompts me to ask you and my coaching clients…

Are you like Ginger Zee? 

Or are you suppressing the authentic you in your job search?

Many of us are hiding ourselves.

Take a look at the majority of LinkedIn profiles or listen to the typical answer to the interview question: “Tell Me About Yourself”.

It’s a robotic litany of roles, dates and skills.  Assembly-line, boredom-inducing sameness from one candidate to the next.

Are you feeling your mind drift?  Is the gray matter in your head turning more gray, tipping into the blackness of zone-out?

Guaranteed that’s what happening with the hiring manager’s mind.

You Are More Than Roles, Dates and Skills

You say “Sure, I know I need to highlight my accomplishments, not just roles, dates and skills”.

You've Got The Job! Image courtesy of stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

You’ve Got The Job!
Image courtesy of stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Absolutely, right — accomplishments are key.

But, reciting dry facts and figures and even awards and recognition aren’t enough.

The beef is still missing (paraphrasing that iconic Wendy’s Hamburgers commercial) — and the beef is you.

Let’s say you’ve made it into the final round.  It’s between you with your accomplishment of a 35% increase in productivity and that gal with her accomplishment of a 45% increase in productivity.  Will she beat you out for the position?  Will that 10% be the deciding factor?

As a former hiring manager I can attest that what can count more is you being you and getting a resonance going between us.

If you can do that, the extra 10% achieved by the other candidate will be looked at as a rounding error — and you’ll be able to say “I’m so excited to accept your offer!”.

Here’s The Best Way To Get “YOU” into Your Job Search…

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Makeover Your “Too Technical” Resume

August 18, 2013 — 4 Comments

I’m a Ginger Zee fan!

She’s the meteorologist on the Weekend Edition of “Good Morning, America” and I try to catch her every weekend.  As I was watching Ginger today, my mind started to imagine what her resume might be like.  I’m thinking it must be fairly technical.  Meteorologists need to talk authoritatively (and Ginger does!) about the technical aspects of all things having to do with weather from haboobs, ball lightening, shelf clouds, macrobursts, tropical storms to the Arizona monsoons and much, much more. 

Is a Meteorologist's Resume Too Technical For the Co-Host Position?

Should Ginger Zee “De-Tech” Her Resume If She Wants the GMA Co-Host Position? (Image courtesy http://americanprofile.com/articles/why-gma-weatherman-ginger-zee-became-a-meteorologist/ )

Her resume would need to highlight her technical prowess.

But, not so much if she had eyes on Bianna Golodryga’s or Dan Harris’ GMA co-host positions (not that I have any inside information!).

If Ginger used the same resume for her meteorologist position as for the co-host position, she would be told:

“Way Too Technical!”

Worst yet, she might not even be told, as her resume is tossed overhanded into the wastebasket.  You certainly don’t want that to happen to you.

My musing about Ginger Zee and her resume came about because recently a couple of my clients (engineers) had the feeling their resumes were “too technical” for their next position, plus a TwitterFriend was looking for help to rewrite a friend’s resume with less technical jargon.

A change to your resume is certainly called for when your next job or position is one where the technical no longer serves or won’t play as prominent a role.

Here are 3 things that I coach my clients to do to “De-Tech” their resumes — and if you are finding yourself under similar circumstances, you can easily do these, too!

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The Massage Guy & The Jackalope – A Job Search Networking Story.

April 6, 2013 — 7 Comments

Him: What will you be doing after you take early retirement?

Me: Hmmm…I’m not sure.

Him: You can’t just sit around watching TV all day. Really, what will you do?

Me: Maybe teaching…. maybe coaching?

Him: Just a minute…. (he runs off to grab his black book)

Him: (back with a business card) …. Call this guy.  He’s the founder of a small graduate school and he’s looking for teachers.

Him is not a recruiter, headhunter, job matchmaker, or career coach — at least not officially.

The Consummate Networker --- The Airport Massage Guy

The Airport Massage Guy. He’s Really A Recruiter, Headhunter, Job Matchmaker and Career Coach

Him is the airport massage guy.

The consummate networker.  And a recruiter, headhunter, job matchmaker and career coach.  Think about it.  Who does he connect with every day?  People who travel and need massages including (!) Road Warrior Executives and Managers, Movers and Shakers, Decision Makers.  Yes, Hiring Managers. (!)

You can get leads like this, too.  Just be sure to do these 3 things while networking on job search…

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