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!

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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.

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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.

BUSINESS CARDS - 10-20 minutes and $15.00

Get business cards printed right away so you can start handing them out both to folks you know at work, and to others you meet along the way. Start handing them out at work ASAP. When you leave, you won’t have the same access to folks, and will regret not getting your contact information out before you lose touch.

Move fast on getting the business cards handed out. i.e. take them with you always, and give one to EVERYONE you see. You can’t predict the next layoff, and you want your card in the hands of folks who may leave before you. They’ll get the idea and soon there will be many of you exchanging cards. If an executive questions you, explain you don’t want to miss the chance to be on everyone’s Christmas Card list.

Don’t stuggle to come up with some pithy marketing phrase, nor claim to be a consultant. That’s silly, and everyone sees through it. Just keep it basic so you can hand it out liberally without wondering whether you want to expose your job search to each individual.

Have the cards printed with your name and contact information (Mailing address (for fedex), phone, email) and LinkedIn URL (see below). Cheesy “pitches” on a business card look desperate.  Don’t use a job title. Every firm has their own vernacular, and you don’t want to be typecast because you put a title on your card.

Leave the back of the card blank so folks can make notes on it about their meeting with you.

Don’t buy microperf paper and print your own business cards. They are expensive (you’ll be needing many cards) and everyone recognizes them as home-made. You need to look professional in your search.

VistaPrint.com is the printer I use. For $10 (to remove the VistaPrint imprint on the back of the business cards) you can get professional business cards that look great. If layoffs are already announced, walk to a local printer and get cards printed immediately. If you don’t have time to get your LinkedIn profile up, order 250 cards immediately and re-print when you have your LinkedIn profile available.

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.

RESUME MASTER FILE - 2 hours plus many hours over time

Here are several of my own resumes, using a template I especially like as a hiring manager, and my own master resume. Download these files and look at the differences:

1. Master Resume
2. Sample Resume
3. Electronic Resume
4. Another Sample Resume

You’ll see there are differences in each resume, tailored for the specific opportunity for which I was proposing. I would recommend that you begin by creating a “master resume” from which you can pull paragraphs for each job you seek. This way, you have one place where you put all the things you remember along the way, so they are available the next time you write a resume.

I’m a consultant, so I have to send a new resume with each new proposal for work. If you find work quickly, your master resume will be tucked away and waiting for your next job search. If this job search takes longer than you would like, having a master resume file will save you lots of time as you respond to opportunities.

As you go along, you’ll remember tidbits that help qualify you for a specific opportunity and which should be added FIRST to your master resume, and second to the resume which triggered the memory. Your master resume grows over time. The guideline I use is that you should have almost one page for every year of your career in your master resume.

A few months ago, I lost an opportunity because I was on deadline for a client and couldn’t respond with a proposal within 24 hours. Another person answered with a full proposal and got the contract.  If I’d been more hungry, I could have sent a resume right away, with the promise of sending a proposal the following week. The market is swift, and you need to make preparations that allow you to send a tailored resume out within a very short period of time.

No one prints a stack of resumes anymore.

Recruiters hang out at LinkedIn. You and your colleagues will scatter to the winds over time and LinkedIn is a good place to find them again. So, create a profile on LinkedIn.com. Get the free account.

Keep it basic at first. You’ll be able to enhance it and change it as you perfect your offering. For now, just get it on-line. You will receive a URL for your own page. Put this on your business cards (see above).

GET THIS BOOK – 5 minutes and $12.00

Damn Good Resume Guide by Yana Parker

There is an industry specializing in books on job searching. You can look through those later. For now, you need this slim volume so you can get help writing your best resume.

Start acquiring connections. Search for your current firm, and other firms for which you’ve worked. Invite people you know to link to you. DON’T invite folks who won’t recognize your name. Anyone you invite can click a button to say they don’t know you, and LinkedIn will ban you with just a few of these.

Then search your alma maters (you can search by the years you were there) to find classmates.

Send me an invitation to link.

I always write a personal note when I send an invitation. I don’t want to take chances that my name isn’t an immediate trigger for them. Just a sentence about finding them on LinkedIn and remember when you worked together on the widget project, or commiserated over the term project in Econ class.

For the time being, accept all invitations to link. There are some folks who work LinkedIn very hard to acquire links. Having a few of these folks in your network will be helpful when you start using LinkedIn for your job search.

Later, you’ll be more selective. I tend to reject invitations from recruiters, but then, I’m not using LinkedIn for a job search. Your experience may vary. Needless to say, meaningful links are more valuable than strangers. You will have difficulty using a recruiter to get your job inquiry forwarded to someone, which is the purpose of having a link. (more on this later)

Most often, my team has put out our shingle and spread the word that we would help with resumes. If your team has the ability, and your organization is going through change, you might consider doing the same.

Here’s the first steps I recommend:

1. Suggest they get a book to help

My favorite is The Damn Good Resume Guide by Yana Parker. This book is short, has lots of examples, and guides you through the process of writing a great resume. The resume and cover letter are simply a proposal, and getting an interview is the same as making the shortlist. In this book, the page of action verbs is worth the price of the entire book.

2. Suggest they start a master resume file

The goal is to look like you’ve been preparing for the specific opportunity at hand for years. The goal is not to work hard on the perfect resume and then make 200 copies to send out.

Sigh. Everyone should update their resume regularly in your proposal database, but not everyone does this. Sigh. Your corporate resume database should include career long activities so you have lots of fodder to customize resumes for proposals, but many organizations only maintain the latest version of each person’s resume.

Therefore, most folks will need a list of everything they’ve accomplished in their career, not just their latest activities. As they remember brilliant things they’ve done, these should be added first to the master resume file before using them in a current resume.

Most job searches will take longer than hoped for. You’ll need to create custom resumes on the fly, responding to opportunities within a day. With a career long master resume file, you have a checklist of your experiences from which to quickly build a responsive resume.

As a consultant, I’m always looking for work. I often find an opportunity in another industry, one with which I’m familiar only because I worked with that industry many years ago. My master resume file jogs my memory for those less recent activities.

A master resume file is just a list of all your previous activities. You’ll edit the ones you use for a resume, and update this file every time you create a new resume. I keep mine in MS Word, and any software will work.

3. Order personal business cards

If possible, they’ll want to hand out new business cards to everyone as they depart. And they’ll want to have them handy to give to everyone they meet along the job hunt.

Don’t be cute. Just have name, address, phone and email on a professionally printed card with a blank back so folks can note where they met and how impressed they were!

My favorite printer is VistaPrint. Pick a style from the FREE BUSINESS CARDS and then pay ($9.99) to leave off their logo on the back. Don’t use the microperf business card stock you print at home. It looks unprofessional, and costs more.

4. Bring in their sample resume for editing

Finally, you can edit their resumes. Fresh eyes and a professional writer are valuable gifts you can offer. Sometimes outplacement is offered, and you may be just an extra option. Sometimes placement doesn’t cover resumes right away and your offer may calm nerves. If no placement assistance is offered, you will be most welcome.

Yesterday I read Fortune Magazine’s article about Teamwork, the new buzz word, responsibility. Dr. Christopher Avery, a friend of mine, wrote THE book about responsibility, Teamwork is an Individual Skill and was cited in the Fortune article.

And Tom Peters has been ranting and spitting about Brand You for several years.

In case the message is unclear, no one else is responsible for your career, work satisfaction, or success. It’s just you. Well, not “just you,” it’s YOU!

When people whine about what is keeping them from succeeding, I hear about their boss, their co-workers, their family, their upbringing, and so on.

The fact is, you have unlimited resources available anytime you are ready to improve your skills, mind or opportunities. If your firm doesn’t offer training classes, check out the local colleges and industry organizations.  If your firm can’t/won’t help with the expenses, use your own money.  Assign your own reading list and do independent study. If you can’t buy the books, check them out at your library.

Someone (I’ve forgotten who) said they reserved one percent of their gross salary to “give back” and reinvest in their career. Therefore, if you make $45,000 a year, you should be spending at least $450 on your career. In the beginning of my career I spent this on books and classes. Later, I spent it on the people who were making me successful. Those expenses that don’t meet the company reimbursement criteria I was happy to pick up, knowing it added to my “give back” contribution.