Laura’s Winning Ideas

My brother is wondering whether he’ll have to launch a job search after 20 years with his employer. Over the last week, I’ve sent my missives written for my brother, to several more folks, as well as posting them here.

As a consultant, I look for work constantly. Here’s my advice for job hunters.

Local Networking is important when you plan to remain in your current community.

I’m lousy at networking events, but here is my best advice to priortize your networking. First, find industry organizations and their local chapter meetings. These are a “must” for you to become a regular at, and once you sign on with a new employer, continue attending these meetings occasionally so you aren’t a stranger when/if you find yourself searching again.

Second, find professional events which executives, from the firms you are most interested in, might attend. Almost all organizations welcome newcomers to several meetings before they seek your membership, so scout out these events for likely groups to get to know.

Third, consider networking events. There are a variety of these, some inexpensive, such as Chamber of Commerce events, and others less so, professional tip exchange venues.

For all events, arrive early so you can get a look at the name tags or roster of attendees. You may be able to identify folks with firms you want to know more about, and watch for them.

Another good idea is to have your own name tag. If your name is unusual, or somehow your name tag is imperfect, folks will remember you more easily if you have a printed name tag instead of a hand written scribble on a sticky label.

Follow up with everyone you meet of interest. I call everyone who is a lead, and email everyone else I meet. I put everyone in my address book with a note of where and when I met them.

As I mentioned, I’m lousy at finding leads for myself at these events, but often can help match folks between events. So if you see me out, be sure to let me know what you are looking for, because I’m happy to help!

New Book Offers Quick Start on Linked In

If you are responsible for Business Development at your firm, Linked In will expand your network of contacts and impress your boss someday.

IMHO everyone with a career should get a profile up on Linked In for these reasons:

• You never know when you’ll want to investigate new opportunities.
• Prospects, contacts of prospects and other important folks for you to meet likely have profiles on Linked In.
• Head hunters and Recruiters use Linked In to find candidates.
• Linked In offers search capability so a developer new to your community can search for a Civil Engineering firm.
• When you aren’t finding a match with Google, Linked In may lead you to a member of the industry willing to answer a few questions so you can find what you need. “Oh. They call it remediation instead of restoration. That’s why my search didn’t turn up the right kind of help.”
• You never know when you’ll need to investigate new opportunities.

Jason Alba wrote this quick read, and it offers exactly the advice I would give if I were sitting at your elbow helping you get your first profile up on Linked In. This book is perfect for folks new to Linked In.

Well, and I’ve been on Linked In for years now, and I learned several things I hadn’t known, got some good tips to improve my own profile, and generally improved my on line presence.

Besides, who wants to have just their Facebook and MySpace pages show up when someone Googles you?
(or if you’re too old for FaceBook)
Besides, who wants to be considered old because you don’t have any Web 2.0 cred?

My brother is wondering whether he’ll have to launch a job search after 20 years with his employer. Over the last week, I’ve sent my missives written for my brother, to several more folks, as well as posting them here.

As a consultant, I look for work constantly. Here’s my advice for job hunters.

Next, you’ll need to set up your on-line search engine to look for opportunities and get yourself exposed to hiring managers and headhunters on-line.

Here are the websites I have on my computer. Visit them all, bookmark them and create an account for those which require it. Just look around a bit for now. You’ll come back to add your resume in the next step. Don’t buy any services from these sites. You may want to do that later, but use the free version first, and decide which ones specialize in good fits for you.

http://www.salary.com/
This site allows you to check on the salary range for many positions. You define the responsibilities, industry and location for the job and then see a good deal of information about salaries for that position. Run your current position and see what it pays in Detroit, as well as other parts of the country. Play around a bit and see how changing the job title and a few details changes the salary. This is important to have a sense of where the market is for your openings.

http://www.indeed.com/

http://www.simplyhired.com/
Search engines to search all job boards. I found this helpful, though not entirely complete all the time. Sometimes jobs don’t appear here, and sometimes the sort of jobs isn’t perfect. However, it sure saves time to see everything in one place instead of visiting multiple sites. You can set this up to search for a variety of parameters. Set it up VERY BROADLY for the time being. You’ll get too many results, but in the next few weeks you’ll work your way through the list and improve your ability to skim over the posts that don’t fit.

http://www.careerbuilder.com/

http://www.6figurejobs.com/

http://marketing.theladders.com/
Job posting websites for managers. The biggest websites (Monster, DetroitJobs, etc.) cause more headaches for employers than solutions. Because they get an avalanche of resumes to management posts, many no longer post these positions to the largest boards. These few, and there are probably more, try to solve the problem by focusing on the more highly compensated jobs rather than the entire marketplace. Some employers don’t use the job boards, but their own corporate website gets scoured by both the job boards and the previous job search sites.

http://www.us.manpower.com/uscom/index.jsp

http://www.kellyservices.com/web/global/services/en/pages/

Temporary work sites. Sometimes this is helpful because you can work for a firm on temporary assignment which sometimes turns into a full time offer, or gives you an insider look so you can decide whether to start targeting the firm for your job search. Since you are located in Detroit where you are among many looking, this is probably not the best use of your time. These might be helpful if you decide to move before you have a job. Yes, folks do that!

http://www.bankrate.com/calculators/savings/moving-cost-of-living-calculator.aspx

Cost of Living comparison. Bookmark this page because it is very hard to find. It is the best among many cost of living comparison charts, and gives you detail that will be especially helpful. For instance, the cost of living in Austin TX is lower than Milwaukee. However, on this page, you can see that this is true only for homeowners. House prices are lower, but living expenses otherwise are equal or a bit higher, and rent is higher. Good stuff to know before you negotiate a job offer.

My brother is wondering whether he’ll have to launch a job search after 20 years with his employer. Then yesterday, I met another fellow looking for work who is looking for tips.

As a consultant, I look for work constantly. Here’s my advice for the first few hours after you realize you might leave your current employment.

EMAIL – 0-5 minutes

You need an email address that is NOT your employer’s email address. Hard to believe, but folks actually start job searches using an email address that will be discontinued when they leave!

Free email is available at Google Mail (gmail), and is generally considered a professional address. Later, you’ll be able to forward your mail automatically to another address, so this can be a good choice long term. Do not use a cute family email address like BambisBabies@aol.com . Keep your address professional and exclusive to yourself. No employer wants to think that their correspondence is being looked at by stray family members.

FAX – 0 minutes

You won’t need fax capabilities. I hardly ever use my fax. Everyone emails PDFs, and if you must fax back, you can always make a trip to Kinkos to fax an acceptance letter.