Boston Career Counselor Blog

While it’s important to set up longer term goals in your job search, sometimes it’s even more critical to set up a list of things you can act on right now today! If anyone has ever read Tim Ferriss’ 4 Hour Work Week, this is like step one in the dreamline. The best way to accomplish any goal is to figure what you can do today and tomorrow. So here are today’s recommendations for job seekers:

10 things you can do TODAY to advance your job search:

1. Invite an old coworker or contact for coffee and reconnect.

2. Search linkedin for someone in a company or job you’re interested in and get introduced to them through your connections. Request an informational interview.

3. Read your resume and see how it sounds. If you find it boring and uninspiring, imagine how someone else would feel. Do you highlight the things that make you qualified for the job you’re seeking?

4. If you don’t already have them, get business cards printed. Networking is much harder if you can’t easily hand out your contact information.

5. Sign up for a networking event. Try using meetup.com. If you’re in Boston, go to http://www.meetup.com/Effortless-Networking-for-Job-Seekers/.

6. Do something fun today that has nothing to do with job search. Come on, you’re still a person. Meet a friend for dinner, go to a movie or spend the night relaxing on the couch.

7. Find two new companies where you’d like to work and follow them on twitter or facebook. Or search for them on linkedin and try to set up an informational meeting over coffee with an employee.

8. Develop and practice your elevator speech. Better yet, try to find an excuse to use it in the next 3 days (at a networking event, social event, party, on line at the coffee shop…).

9. Improve your linkedin profile by asking someone for a recommendation, and making sure your profile includes keywords specific to your industry.

10. Contact a fabulous career counselor for help! Oh come on, job searching is all about self-promotion. I’m practicing what I preach!

My disclaimer to the following open letter is that I don’t pretend to know the mind of every job seeker. Everyone is different and has different desires, personalities and goals. But this is a sentiment I get a lot this time of year. All I’m trying to say is to please tread lightly this holiday season. Let your job seeking friends and loved ones enjoy the festivities and relax for a brief while. Happy holidays to all!

On Behalf of Job Seekers…

Dear Family and Friends,

We, the people looking for new jobs around the holidays, appreciate that you care about us and want to help. And there are many ways you can help us. But please, please, from the bottom of our hearts, while we’re cooking turkey together, buying stocking stuffers or lighting the menorah, please…

Don’t ask, “So do you have a job yet?”

Why not, you might ask. Because we’ve heard it, many times, and unless the answer is “Yes, I just got a fantastic new job that’s everything I hoped it would be,” we don’t really want to talk about it. If we do want to talk about it, we’ll bring the subject up ourselves. Otherwise…

What we want to do is to be around our friends and family whom we love and perhaps haven’t seen in a while. We want to have some laughs and good conversation, maybe a glass of wine or two, and some time to relax and de-stress. Job searching is mentally and emotionally draining and around the family dinner table we’d like to forget about it for awhile.

“But I just want to help you!” you might argue. Well, that’s fantastic. No, really, it is a wonderful sentiment! Here are a number of ways you can help…

1. Take us out for a nice lunch and talk about anything but the job search.
2. Let us know of any helpful contacts you may have (which does require talking about the job search, but this one is a good exception!).
3. Enjoy our company and let us relax and have a good time together.

For more great ideas check out: Holiday Gifts for Job Seekers

Sincerely,
Those Job Seekers You Know and Love

Okay, I know what you may be saying.  I’m a career counselor.  I’m supposed to recommend networking to help people find a job.  So enough already!

But here’s the great thing that many people may not realize about networking: Not only do you get better at it the more you do (many people will tell you this), but even better is that the more networking you do, the more FUN it gets!

I mean, think about it.  People pay lots of money, buy lots of drinks, stress themselves out to plan events and parties.   And why do they do it?  Because it’s fun to interact with friends AND potential friends.  Most parties are made up of people who know each other and some who don’t, but it’s enjoyable talking to old and new friends.

That’s the thing about networking, even networking as part of your job search.  It doesn’t end when you leave the official “Career Networking Group.”  The best networking is a mindset.  It’s an attitude toward all the interesting, potentially fascinating (and yes, potentially helpful on the career front) people around you all the time!

Go forth.  Talk to people.  Make new friends.  Have interesting conversations.  And, when the time is right, you should probably mention that you’re looking for a job, but that must be secondary for the most successful informal networking.  Connect with the person, and then of course feel free to confidently answer the question, “So what you do?” and see where it leads.  And even if you don’t get a job, you just met a pretty cool person.  Isn’t that great?!?

And that’s why I love networking!

What kind of  job are you looking for?

Anything!

“Anything” is about as engaging, passionate and interest-catching as a plate of plain, butterless toast.  It’s dry, flavorless and leaves the listener looking for alternative options.  Even if you ARE looking for just about “anything” available in the job market, it is never a good answer to this question!  And equally bad is answering “nothing” when an interviewer or prospective job contact asks what kinds of things you’re passionate about.  I mean, think about it.  Would YOU want to work with someone who isn’t passionate about or interested in anything?  And furthermore, I very much doubt that you’re as dry as plain toast.  You are most certainly a fascinating person with lots of value to add to any employer.  So make sure you let them know that!

But if you really are looking for just about anything in the job market (either because you need a job ASAP to pay the bills or don’t know what you want to do and have to start somewhere), what can you say without being dishonest?  (Lying to an interviewer is a BAD idea!)

I’d recommend something like this: “I’m looking for a job in business.  I have a wide variety of interests and am happy to consider a range of different areas including marketing and human resources.  I’m specifically interested in THIS job because…”

Obviously you would need to change the italicized words.  And yes, this means you have to have a small idea of what kind of job you’d like to do, but surely you’re not really interested in doing anything anything!

Another important thing is that if you’re talking to someone about a specific job (say in an interview), you must have a reason for wanting that job specifically.  “Just because you found the posting” is not an acceptable reason.  If you can’t think of any reason you’d want the job, the interviewer is not very likely to hire you.  And more importantly, you’re not likely to be happy in that job!

So avoid answering “anything” and focus on all the great fascinating things that make you you and you’ll be on your way to finding a good job!

This may sound like a strange question, but it’s one that friends of mine, as well as I myself, have had to answer.  When you’re just out of college or recently laid off from a job you never really liked anyway, for instance, and the great light of career path inspiration has not yet hit you but you still need *A* job, what should you do?

Well, first of all, the ideal answer (from the perspective of a career counselor, mind you!) is that you should take the time to do some introspection.  What do you enjoy?  What interests you?  In what environment do you like to spend your days?  I would even suggest enlisting the aid of a fabulously talented career counselor (shameless self-promotion?).

But if you really need to start looking for a job TODAY, here are some things to keep in mind:

1. To give yourself a better shot at success in a potential job, at least look for jobs with at least one thing that intrigues you.  Perhaps you’ve heard the company has a very casual, fun environment.  Perhaps, like me, you start out with a job mainly because it will let you use your French language skills.  Or perhaps the job is located next to your favorite lunch spot.  Find one thing you are actually excited about and you’re likely to be happier while you take the time to figure out what you really want to do (and who knows? maybe this will be it!).

2. Never let on to employers, whether through sending a very generic resume or cover letter, or by your blase answers in an interview, that you’re just looking for any job to tide you over for the moment.  Employers dislike this for three main reasons.  One, they don’t want to hire someone, spend time and money training them, only to have them leave shortly thereafter.  Two, someone lacking in focus and energy is unlikely to make a good employee.  And three, employers are people too.  They want to believe that you’re interested in their industry just as they are!  So make sure, without lying, that you can at least gather up some interest and enthusiasm for any job you apply to.

3. This may sound obvious, but don’t apply for any job that sounds completely awful just based on the job description.  Even if you’re looking for “any” job, it’s unlikely you’ll stay any length of time in a job if you had negative interest in it in the first place!  And then you would quickly find yourself back at square one!

4. Finally, once you succeed and get that interim job, don’t forget two very important things.  First, don’t write off the job as temporary or “just an income source.”  Put in your best effort.  You may even come to like the job or industry where you end up, or at the very least you’ll have an excellent reference for your next place of employment.  And second, just because you’re now financially secure and gainfully employed, don’t give up on figuring out “what you want to do for a career,” now that the issue is no longer so pressing.  Now is exactly the time you should be thinking about it, while you don’t have financial woes.

In any case, good luck with your search and be sure to keep  your energy and enthusiasm up!