Get in the Game!

"No (one) is an island..." John Donne

Job search is a team sport.

The first and biggest mistake most make when searching for a job is to go it alone.

And when you do connect with others, and you must do so right up front, you need to engage them as members of your job search team.

Approaching your network of contacts asking them to help you find a job without helping them understand how they can help you specifically guarantees you last place in the standings.

Get in the game by scouting, then recruiting, first and continually, your job search team.

Start with your existing network by asking for advice, direction and guidance regarding your job search. Share with them what you plan on doing, what you have been doing, to find a job. Those who want to be on your team will be helpful. And that is how you know who to keep on your team.

Expand your team by scouting for people who are working in the types of jobs and within the companies where you want to work.

Use resources like Indeed and LinkedIn to find the right people.

You are on your way to winning your next job once you go beyond just looking for leads and start looking for people in the places you want to be.

Set out to assemble a team of about twenty. Research has proven that around twenty connections are sufficient to start the network that can put you in contact with just about anyone. Also, you can manage to stay up close and personal with twenty.

Ask your core job search management team to help introduce you to those right people that you have identified in your research.

My next post will begin with your job search team's training camp.

"Players win games; teams win championships." Bill Taylor

JVS and I want to be on your team.

Visit www.jvsdet.org for job postings and upcoming events.

And contact me at wtarrow@jvsdet.org.

The Secret to Getting Help

"Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most agreeable." Francis Bacon

If you want help in getting your next job, finding your next career, you need to be useful.

What does it mean to be useful?

Being useful means being of value to others. Regarding a job, it means being of use to your employer. Have you identified how, as specifically as possible, you are going to help your next employer? When you apply for a job, does your application and/or your resume clearly indicate, in as many of their words as possible, that you CAN do the job? Does your experience and education support your claim that you can do the job by showing you have done the job and know how to do the job?

Even if you are useful, if you do not handle problems or become a problem yourself, then your value is diminished. Being useful has a definite cost/benefit ratio. Your benefit to your co-workers, your boss, your company has to outweigh your cost. When you apply for a job, do you take the initiative to make it easier for the people reviewing your resume to see how you can be of help in that position? Do you behave in a useful, helpful manner when you make your follow up contacts? Are you involving other people in your network in the process and showing the potential employer how you work with others?

As you apply for jobs and follow up on your applications, you create opportunities to demonstrate how useful you can be in how you behave, how you handle situations, how you deal with others. If you are helpful to others, if you act in a helpful way by at least expressing your willingness to help them, you create a more positive, more appealing, impression.

Expressing in your cover letter, email, initial phone call and follow up contacts a desire to be helpful throughout the hiring process grows a more agreeable relationship. Also, respecting their time and effort by staying in touch without demanding they do the same is both agreeable and helpful.

There is a reason why every customer service contact begins "How may I help you?"

Are you helpful or are you demanding?

Who would you rather hire?

Let us at JVS help you be helpful to your next employer.

Visit us at www.jvsdet.org


And you can always reach me at wtarrow@jvsdet.org and meet me on LinkedIn.

Walt

The Lucky 13 -- Websites for Job Finders

Here is a quick list of helpful websites for job search and job acquisition. Actually, you really do not need to do much more on the Internet outside of these Lucky 13.

1. www.google.com – Search the Internet and much more

2. www.YouTube.com - the most widely used search engine where one video is worth a billion words

3. www.jvsdet.org – main website for JVS where you click on Find a Job to see what jobs we know about personally. Also, click on Seminars & Events to find and register for upcoming job seeker activities.

4. www.mitalent.org – Pure Michigan Talent Connect; the State of Michigan online job and resume banks; also explore the site to access much more career and job resources

5. www.careerinfonet.org – the CareerOneStop for the US; anything and everything related to jobs, careers, employment

6. www.indeed.com – a gatherer of job leads from other job boards and company websites. Gathers job leads and ideas for other companies to contact from just about everywhere on the Internet which frees you up from wasting countless hours online applying over and over and over again when you should be making those leads into personal contacts using resources like

7. www.linkedin.com – social media for business and jobs; create your online profile and more, connect with others in your target areas and with companies of interest, find the right people and, in turn, be found by them

8. www.facebook.com – the world’s largest online social community

9. www.twitter.com – texting the world, listening in on what other people and companies of interest to you are saying including available jobs

10. www.socialnomics.net – the wellspring of all things social media

11. www.wikipedia.org – encyclopedia of the Internet

12. www.jobhuntersbible.com – a relaxing place to learn about job search, resources, etc.; the website of Richard Bolles, author of What Color Is Your Parachute?

Lucky 13. Use your local library website to access ReferenceUSA to learn more about companies and find key people within. One way to find the website of your local library in Southeast Michigan is through The Library Network at www.tln.lib.mi.us.

Consider limiting your online hours to less than four per day.

Every online contact represents the potential for real life connections that need to be forged.

Get out there! Jobs have never gone door to door. You have to do that.

And we at JVS can help you get it done. Visit our websites listed above for more information and to connect.

And you can always contact me at wtarrow@jvsdet.org.

Let's get started!

Walt

Staying Happy During Your Job Search

"Remember happiness doesn't depend on who you are or what you have; it depends solely upon what you think." Dale Carnegie

Colleen Oakley, www.colleenoakley.com, had a quiz, Sunny Side Up, in the July 31st issue of Parade magazine about being happy.

I would like to share her ten points, with an additional comment from me, which may be of help in keeping that happy face while you look for that dream job.

1. Cheerful people generally don't give happiness much thought. My thought is that happiness happens most when you are not looking for it. Remember the old axiom "ignorance is bliss."

2. Research shows that vacation-goers feel happiest a month before they take off for their destination. Nothing beats the fun of anticipation. Use the positive power of visualization to keep your spirits up.

3. How happy you are is 50% genetic, 40% influenced by how you think and act every day and only 10% influenced by life circumstances. Happy people tend to be happy even when life would seem ready to get them down.

4. To get the most enjoyment out of your work life, you should make friends with your coworkers. And to get the most productivity out of your job search, make friends with your fellow job seekers.

5. If you're sad, reading a novel is more likely to cheer you up than watching reruns of your favorite sitcom or tuning in to the news. Reading works your mind in a way that watching TV never can. An active mind is more likely to be a happy mind.

6. If you have a little free time, the activity which will bring you the most pleasure is spending time with nature outdoors. Physical activity outside has continually been shown to have positive effects, even biochemically.

7. Optimists are not necessarily happier than pessimists. Realistic expectations may prove to keep disappointment at bay.

8. Music, any kind of music, is an instant mood booster. Enough said...

9. Taking fish oil every day can actually help battle depression. Proper diet and daily exercise are essential basic steps toward success and well being.

10. Disney's Peter Pan was right in saying "think happy thoughts." And back to Dale at the top.

Share your tips for keeping positive with me at wtarrow@jvsdet.org and help us help you by visiting www.jvsdet.org and www.parnossahworksdetroit.org.

Walt

The Best Way to Hunt for a Job

According to the 2012 edition of Richard Bolles' What Color Is Your Parachute?, the best way to hunt for a job is Doing An Inventory of Yourself.

That way is successful about 86% of the time!

Another way to put it is if 100 job seekers used this approach, 86 of them would find their next job.

This inventory of yourself is thinking about WHAT you enjoy doing most, WHERE you would enjoy doing what you enjoy doing most and HOW to get there.

First, find the particular jobs that fit this bill.

Second, find the specific places where you can do those jobs.

Third, find the person(s) who have the power or influence over hiring.

This way works because, accordingly to Bolles, you more precisely identify your true target(s); you can help others help you with clear, direct and doable requests; you are better prepared than the competition because you can present to an employer your unique features and benefits.

However, one factor about this approach discourages most job seekers.

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work" Thomas A. Edison

Having to think about who you are, what you want, where you want to go and how you plan to get there takes some effort. Most job seekers just want the job and do not see the need to do the work.

Another reason why this method has an 86% success rate is probably because those who choose to do it are, by definition, hard workers.

"The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work." Harry Golden

Helping hands to make this hard work doable and success possible are here at JVS.

Visit us at www.jvsdet.org.

And you can always email me at wtarrow@jvsdet.org.

Walt

What's the Problem?

How you behave in your job search often is seen by others as an indicator of how you will behave on the job.

For example, how someone deals with problems during unemployment or a job change might indicate how that person handles problems at work.

Of course, employers do not want to hire people who create problems. But what about people who may not create the problem, but make problems into bigger problems? Or people who dwell on the problem without offering any help in solving it?

Companies seek employees who minimize or eliminate problems. Problem solving is a highly valued skill in the work world.

How would you rate your problem solving skills?

Do you appreciate, maybe even seek out, problems or challenges as opportunities to apply your problem solving skills?

Do you approach problems as experiences to learn new ways of doing things?

If you get frustrated or angry with a problem, maybe even quit trying, is that how you are going to handle problems on the job?

Do you fixate, obsess about the problem without moving forward, without seeking a solution? Do you complain about the problem repeatedly to anyone and everyone you meet?

Does the problem become so much a part of you that others start to see you as the problem?

"We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems." John W. Gardner

If you show that you can deal with, can seek solutions to the problems that come with unemployment and job change, you send a message to prospective employers about how you will handle problems on the job before you make them the employer's problems.

And that's a good thing.

We at JVS can help you with your problems.

Check us out at www.jvsdet.org.

And you can email me with your problems, questions, concerns and needs at wtarrow@jvsdet.org.

Walt

What Kind of a Job Getter Are You?

Are you a Job Seeker?

Or a Job Hunter?

How about a Job Developer?

Or are you a Job Settler, maybe even homebound?

If you are a Job Hunter, do you know your target? Know how to find your target, know how it thinks, and how to capture it. Are you properly equipped? Know how to attract your target, how to lure it to you. Is your resume, your application, your bait, appealing? And when your target is in range, are you equipped to spring the trap? Do you have a winning interview as one of your primary weapons? Are you prepared to camp out as long as it takes to make the capture?

If you are a Job Seeker, are you making contact with the right guides, those who can help you find your way? Are you setting up your scouts who are familiar with the natives within the uncharted territory of the companies where you want to work? Are you asking for directions? Are you open to exploring companies and opportunities without necessarily arriving at your job destination? Keep your eyes, ears and mind open to possibilities along the way to reveal new hidden treasure.

If you are a Job Developer, have you created mutually beneficial relationships with others? Are you making contacts first and foremost to offer your assets, your talents, your resources, your time and effort to be of help? Take care of your relationships to develop opportunities. Make it all about how you can be seen as a creator and connector. Plant seeds, nurture the relationships you have with others and tend to their growth. Your harvest will be much more fruitful.

Or are you a Job Settler waiting for the phone to ring with an offer for a job, any job? Are you willing to settle for whatever comes your way? Unfortunately, for Job Settlers, there is no home delivery for job offers. You have to go outside to get your next job. Once you get your job is the time for settling in. First you need to locate your employer and build your office home before you can settle in.

If you need help to be prepared for the job hunt, information about how and where to search for jobs, connections to develop job opportunities, contact us at JVS.

And you can always email me, call me or find me on LinkedIn.

Don't just settle, make it happen!

Walt

A Rule

Make it easy for others to help you.

Yep, that's it.

Nothing more.

If you are unemployed and need to find another job, you need other people to help you in a countless variety of ways.

Searching for your next employer is a team sport.

So you need to assemble your team. But your team needs to know what to do and have the right equipment, knowledge and skills to help you succeed.

You have to give others direction, the more precise, the more detailed, the better.

You have to share your goal, your objectives, your plan, your progress with your team. Share with them what you have done and what you plan on doing on a regular basis. Let them know where you have applied, where you plan to apply and with whom you would like to connect.

All these pieces are what will equip your team to be able to help you. And your activity, your efforts and your initiative will motivate them to keep on helping until you reach your goal.

If you wait for something to happen, you will keep your team waiting and they will not wait for very long, if at all.

If you depend entirely on your team to make it happen, then you are showing them that you are not ready, not willing or even able to help them help you.

When you do not share with others what you have been doing in your job search, to them it is the same as doing nothing.

Even if you are very active, without keeping your team informed, naturally they will assume you are doing nothing. And then they will do nothing in return.

And do not ask of others what you can do yourself. The more you do yourself, along with the more detailed direction you can provide, the easier you can make it for others to help and the more likely you will get the help you need.

And do not forget to offer and give help to those who help you.

By the way, if you limit the information you give to employers about your qualifications, experience and education to just applications and resumes, then you make it harder for employers to learn about you. And chances are they will be in contact with other applicants -- not you.

Make it easier for them to select you for the interview. Make other and more direct contacts like in person visits and referrals from your connections. LinkedIn and Facebook are used by 95% of employers because those sources are quick and easy ways for companies to learn more about applicants of interest.

If you are not using these online resources, what else are you doing to help the employer learn more about you?

Make it easy for others to help you.

Make it easy for JVS to help and take the first step.
Visit our website, www.jvsdet.org for more information.

And you can always contact me, Walt Tarrow, via email, wtarrow@jvsdet.org, on LinkedIn, and by phone at 248.233.4231.

The Lonely Resume

Is your resume without any friends?

Do you send out or post resume after resume and get no responses?

When employers are having their hiring party, is your resume, your application, standing all alone in the corner? Or maybe you could not even get in the door...

Take a closer look at your resume.

Better yet, take a really close look at the people at the hiring party.

What did they ask for on the invitation? What types of people did they invite to the party?

What type of person did they describe in the job posting?

Does your RSVP to the party, your response to the posting, your resume, your application, read like, sound like, look like the kind of person they described in the invitation, the posting?

Or are you just anybody, just anybody looking for a party, any party, to crash?

If you do not present, communicate, that you are one of the invitees, one of the persons who meets their basic qualifications for a welcome party goer, why would they let you in, let alone want to party with you, or even talk to you?

Anyone who is looking for anything, any type of job, is a party crasher. Even if you have the potential to be a productive, successful and valuable employee, without making that clear up front, you are likely to be ignored. Employers will not spend the time with a stranger outside the door trying to figure out if it is okay to let you in.

If you think you would spend the time with that stranger, keep that in mind the next time a door to door salesman visits your home. At least that salesman has a pitch that might be of interest. Do you have anything of interest to say to anyone at the employer's hiring party?

At the least, match your resume as much as possible with the same keywords and related experience and education as stated in the job posting. If you don't show even that much interest in, that much consideration for, the employer, your resume will always be kept outside and never allowed into the party.

A resume in search of anything, any job, is a lonely resume.

Don't let your resume be that resume.

Get in touch and stay in touch with us at JVS and let us help you join the party.

Our main website is www.jvsdet.org.

Our job posting site is www.parnossahworksdetroit.org.

And you can reach me by email at wtarrow@jvsdet.org

Get Real and Get Noticed!

Lookin' For a Job Ain't What It Used To Be

"Everybody is for progress, but nobody wants change." Will Rogers

It seems that looking for a job has become so very, very hard and so very, very discouraging.

This "tough economy" has high unemployment and fewer jobs.

But I just searched on Indeed.com for jobs near my office and came up with 2,680 job leads for the city of Southfield, MI alone.

No doubt the economy has affected job search; but what is really at work here and now?

First and, by far, foremost, the process and mechanics of the job search have changed ginormously.

The use of computers and the Internet as primary, if not exclusive, tools for employers and recruiters looking for qualified candidates has had the greatest impact on the job search of today.

And very often not in a good way.

It has become very quick and easy for job seekers to apply to many jobs. Just a click of the mouse and you can send out thousands of resumes. And all from the convenience of your home or your local library.

One study revealed that 97% of applicants to a variety of positions did not meet the minimum requirements for the job!

That means the employer has to dig through the haystack of all those applications and resumes to find the needle of 3%.

No wonder, on many occasions, employers will opt out of the resume mountain in favor of the personal, word of mouth, molehill.

More and more businesses are paying their employees bonuses for personal applicant referrals. In some cases, bonuses of several thousand dollars.

And that's the good news.

If you can make the personal connection with an insider or key person within the company, you increase your chances of a job offer immensely.

Maybe your job search starts in cyberspace, but it really works when you are face to face.

If you need help in making those up close and personal connections, get in touch with me and the employment services at JVS.

Walt Tarrow, wtarrow@jvsdet.org
www.jvsdet.org
JVS Job Posting Site at www.ParnossahWorksDetroit.org

Fools Rush In...

I get asked these questions many times. "Is this the right thing to do?" Or "is it okay for me to ...?" Or "should I try this?"

Much more often than not, the question is being asked because the people asking do not want to take certain steps. They are afraid they will get into trouble, be seen as pestering, inappropriate, or that they will fail. Maybe they fear that they will appear foolish.

"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread." Alexander Pope

But history has shown us time and time again that many who have rushed in have achieved success. Success was theirs only because they had the courage to try some things even if those attempts were foolish. Even when those attempts failed. And many of these attempts were at the risk of putting everything, everything they had, everything they treasured, on the line.

"Fortune favors the bold." Virgil

Famous Failures Video

A good example of a successful person who first was thought of as a "fool" is Robert Goddard who today is hailed for his research and experimentation with liquid-fueled rockets, but during his lifetime his ideas were often rejected and mocked by his scientific peers who thought they were outrageous and impossible. Today rockets and space travel don't seem far-fetched at all, due largely in part to the work of this scientist who worked against the feelings of the time.

Click on this link for an article on 50 Famously Successful People Who Failed At First which includes Goddard.

So, why not be foolish, why not try something different, why not go out on a limb?

What have you got to lose?

Maybe you even will have to face your greatest fear...success!

If you are still afraid to take the next step, I am here to help.

Contact me at wtarrow@jvsdet.org, or on LinkedIn, and be sure to visit JVS at www.jvsdet.org.

Happy April Fools Day!!

Wishing You Good Will

"May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night, and the road downhill all the way to your door." Irish saying

Are you making the first steps in your job search about how you can be of help to others?

What skills, experience, education and knowledge, successes can you use to help your next boss, your next co-workers, your next company?

Have you identified what you have of value and appeal to your employer market?

Make that your first step.

Identify how you can help potential employers be successful.

How can you put a smile on their faces, joy in their hearts and money in their pockets?

And how can you do the same for your fellow job seekers?

How can you be of help to those who are ready, willing and able to help you?

Do you have "warm words" for them on those "cold evenings" during this tough economy?

Do you bring the light of hope, the "full moon," when it is hard for all to see that during "dark nights?"

Do you help make the road easier, "downhill all the way to their door?"

Start by thinking first and always foremost about how you can spread good will and be of help to your next employer and to those who already care about you.

We at JVS want to help.

Visit us at www.jvsdet.org.

Attend any or all of our events, meetings, and seminars as shown on our calendars at www.ParnossahWorksDetroit.org and our main website.

Join me and my groups on LinkedIn.

"May good fortune be yours. May your joys never end."

Take Action

"Be bold. If you're going to make an error, make a doozy, and don't be afraid to hit the ball." Billie Jean King

One sure way to achieve your goals, to realize your dreams, is to get started!

Get your job search house in order.

Visualize your desired, your ideal, job and worklife. Identify what aspects of that job are important to you and picture the actual work place. If you have a difficult time imagining any of this, consider working with a career counselor. JVS offers career counseling services. To learn more, go to www.jvsdet.org or contact me directly at wtarrow@jvsdet.org.

Learn how to ride your job search emotional roller coaster. The ups and downs are, and will, certainly be there. So find ways to survive, maybe even enjoy (and even get a picture afterward...:-)), the ride. Seek out support and use your personal network. If you are having a hard time and need help in finding support, please contact me by email or call me at 248.233.4231. I can also provide you with a list of area job seeker support and networking groups.

Prepare your marketing materials. Again, if you need help with your resume, your cover letters, your personal card, portfolio and the like, get in touch with me.

Have a plan and put it into motion. Assemble your job search team, use any and all resources at your disposal. And, regardless of how and where you are stuck, contact me to help get you unstuck.

"Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action." Benjamin Disraeli

Beware the Ides of March

What is holding you back from your job search?

Are you afraid, anxious or worried about what may happen if you take action?

Is it difficult for you to take steps because you are not certain of the outcome?

"Remember that fear always lurks behind perfectionism. Confronting your fears and allowing yourself the right to be human can, paradoxically, make you a far happier and more productive person." Dr. David M. Burns

Do your steps have to be perfect before you make a move?

"If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin." Ivan Turgenev

What is it that is blocking you from taking steps in your job search?

If you are unsure, confused, not certain of what to do, where to start or how to keeping going, help is out there.

You can start with us at JVS and go from there. Visit our website at www.jvsdet.org and take advantage of our Online Job Search link and plan on attending a weekly job seeker support group meeting or job search seminars listed on our monthly calendar.

Contact me by email at wtarrow@jvsdet.org or call me at 248.233.4231

Don't let this quote be where you are and where you are stuck.

"Fear is that little darkroom where negatives are developed." Michael Pritchard

Flattery will get you everywhere...

A thank you goes out to Claudia Mills, claudia.mills@homeinstead.com, of Home Instead Senior Care, www.homeinstead.com/283, for her invaluable advice about recommendations on LinkedIn, www.linkedin.com.
At our JVS Employer Forum event last Tuesday, February 15, Claudia suggested to get recommendations on LinkedIn, first you should give recommendations.
What a wonderfully wise idea!
First seek out others who have qualities, or experience, or situations you admire. People who are working, or have worked, where you would like to work. Others who have the background, the education or training, or skill sets you find of interest. Fellow professionals or workers who are where you want to be; who have taken the journey you may need to take to get where you want to be.
Include those who have connections to those people with whom you most closely want to identify.
Then read their profiles and invite them to join your network if you already know them or have a connection in common.
Get to know them to learn what you admire, appreciate, the most about them.
And, most importantly, compose a recommendation and send it to them.
By taking these steps, you also learn about yourself.
You learn about what is important to you, what interests you and what you admire.
By finding it in others, you gain a better understanding of what strengths you have already and what strengths you need to develop.
And you take action to enlist the aid of others who have developed those strengths to show you the way.
If you need help with your recommendations or in learning about and navigating LinkedIn, attend my LinkedIn series the first week in March. Go to www.parnossahworksdetroit.org and click on the Seminars/Events tab for more information and to register.
You can also follow me and JVS on LinkedIn, the JVS website at www.jvsdet.org, and JVS Detroit on Facebook.
Or email me at wtarrow@jvsdet.org.
Recommend us to your friends and connections, especially anyone who is looking for help in finding employment or changing careers.

Be a Source of Good Feelings

Why would anyone want to take your phone call or read and answer your email?

If you are looking for a job and the extent of your contacts is limited to sending resumes and completing applications, then you are no different than any other job seeker.

How can you make yourself special?

You certainly have to apply for jobs, especially those that are not being advertised, the hidden job market, but what else are you doing to be memorable?

How about adding good feelings to the equation?

Success in your job search has as much to do with fostering good feelings as with being qualified for the job.

You have to be positive, professional and patiently persistent, but also consider being the bearer of good news, good thoughts, good wishes.

A counselor friend of mine built her business by creating a Good News newsletter that she mailed to several dozen CEOs of major corporations. Several of those supposedly unapproachable executives contacted her personally to thank her for bringing some good feelings to their otherwise stressful day.

How about sharing a good natured, inspirational quotation with some of the hiring managers with whom you are trying to connect? Nothing more than a gesture of good will.

No resume, no application, just good feelings.

That might make all the difference in being remembered when that hiring decision is being made.

For ideas for motivational quotations, send me an email, contact me on LinkedIn, or follow JVSDetroit on Twitter.

Walt Tarrow
wtarrow@jvsdet.org

The Four Basic Steps to a Successful Job Search - Step 2

As stated in Step 1 - Make Contacts, a job search is really very simple.

And this bears repeating.

No secrets, no magic, no special skills or hidden markets...just four simple steps.
BUT you do need to take action. You do need to make the effort. And you do need to keep at it, to stay the course. It is your responsibility, and your responsibility alone, to start and to stop.

Step 2 is Follow Up.

"Success comes from taking the initiative and following up..." Anthony Robbins

Once you have started, initiated contacts, then you assume the responsibility to stay in touch. It is up to you to keep the contact going.

Not only is it very unlikely that the employer, recruiter, contact, with whom you are trying to connect will have the time or be able to make the effort to respond to your application, resume, email or phone call; but when you follow up you also take the opportunity to demonstrate your interest, seriousness, commitment, persistence and many other desirable qualities.

In fact, most employers await your follow up to see how you handle yourself. And the applicants that follow up are always more likely to get the employers attention.

Add to your follow up efforts by thinking of, and doing, things that add value to your application.

Share information of interest to the employer. Email a website, an article, or news that shows your deeper interest in the company and gives something of value to them.

But, above all, stay in touch. Even if it is a 30 second phone message or a brief email message that expresses your continued interest and availability, staying in touch is a requirement.

If you need help in following up and staying in touch, do so with us at JVS.
Visit us at www.jvsdet.org
Let us help.

Walt

Walt Tarrow, wtarrow@jvsdet.org, www.LinkedIn.com/in/walttarrow

The Four Basic Steps to a Successful Job Search - Step 1

A job search is really very simple.
No secrets, no magic, no special skills or hidden markets...just four simple steps.
BUT you do need to take action. You do need to make the effort. And you do need to keep at it, to stay the course. If you stop, you are the one who quit.
Advisors and experts and coaches are creeping out of the woodwork promising you amazing results by sharing their secrets of how to get your dream job.
But the answer, the way, the method is very simple, very basic and really no mystery at all. And this truth does not get attention, does not sell books, does not fill seminars, does not put money in their pockets.
By the way, what kind of secret, magical method, is it if you tell anyone who is willing to pay the fee?
Step 1 is Make Contacts.
"The secret to getting ahead is getting started." Mark Twain
You get started by making contact.
Start with a website like www.indeed.com and search for jobs of interest. Use the titles and keywords of jobs which you have done, or believe you can do, and in which you have an interest. You can also search using the names of companies for which you would like to work.
Then apply according to the instructions -- online, submit a resume and a cover letter, email, fax, mail, in person, and/or phone.
Just make the contact! Don't delay by continuously reworking your resume, your cover letter. Capture the keywords from the posting, incorporate them into your application, resume, letter and send them on their way.
"If you keep thinking about what you want to do or what you hope will happen, you don't do it, and it won't happen." Joe Dimaggio
Then expand your contacts to any and all companies that are similar to the companies to which you have applied. Even if they are not hiring currently. Especially if they are not hiring currently.
Most jobs are filled before they are ever advertised. Get in before the flood of resumes.
The objective, your goal, in Step 1 of your job search is to make contact with, become known by, and, hopefully, impress, every employer who might sometime have a job for you.
How's that going for you? Are you working toward that goal? If not, then it's time to get to work.

If you need help in making those contacts, make contact with us at JVS.
Visit us at www.jvsdet.org
Let us help.

Walt

Walt Tarrow, wtarrow@jvsdet.org, www.LinkedIn.com/in/walttarrow

Some recommendations about recommendations

Regarding recommendations on LinkedIn or anywhere else for that matter.

Who is/are the target audience that you want to see, and be impressed by, your recommendations?
What do you want people to say about you that sends the right messages to, creates the right images for, your target audience?
Who can best represent, and speak to, your various work, education, and other experiences?
Who, and from where, are the people who are most relevant to your target audience?

Once you have answered the questions above, contact the people you want to recommend you on LinkedIn (they have to be members of LinkedIn to give you a recommendation). Provide them with a recommendation you scripted for them and ask them to review, edit if they want to, and send to you to be posted on your LinkedIn profile.

Offer to do the same for them.

LinkedIn prompts and directs you about recommendations under your experience and education on your profile.

Any performance review or evaluation you received at your workplaces from your immediate supervisors can provide an excellent source of recommendations. If you do not have copies of performance reviews, contact the company and ask for a copy of your personnel records.

Remember that the most preferred recommendations come from previous supervisors and other work associates including customers who can testify to your work performance.

You can also provide evidence of your "soft skills" such as interpersonal, communication, organization, leadership and the like with recommendations from non-work contacts who have been witness to related behaviours. Also, fellow workers and other contacts of yours can speak to personal characteristics of yours such as trustworthiness, reliability, honesty and professionalism.

Recommendations are simply testimony provided by others to verify and support your claims about your different sets of skills, work performance and achievements.

Your skills, work, and achievements easily could fill a book, but without the right "recommendations" on the jacket, that book may never be bought.

For help with crafting your recommendations, feel free to contact me.

And follow me and JVS at www.jvsdet.org and check us out on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube. Job postings are at www.ParnossahWorksDetroit.org as well as the calendar of upcoming seminars and events.

Walt
wtarrow@jvsdet.org

Is Your Job Search Out of Control? - Part 3 of 5

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." Plato

Whose job is it?

Whose responsibilty is it?

If it is not your job, why is it theirs?

Why should you/it matter to them?

And if it does not matter to them, is it not time for you to take matters into your own hands?

Is it not time for you to take responsibility for your own actions? Your own behavior?

What is the good, what is the benefit, what is your gain, if you criticize their behaviors?

What do you hope to accomplish? Are you on a mission to make everyone behave your way? Is that time well spent on your job search? What do you have to gain?

Or are you better served by doing what you need to do to make it worth their while...instead of expecting them to behave your way and getting upset when they do not?

Being critical and getting upset over others not doing what you expect them to do for you, in many cases a complete stranger, is childish, self-centered, non-productive and a waste of time.

And if you express your impatience, frustration, even anger at their "rude" and "unprofessional" behavior, are you presenting as an employee with whom they would want to work?

Did you ever think about taking the time to consider why that person is being rude and not professional? Maybe they have way, way too much work to do.

The most recent measure shows a drop in productivity in the US. That is an indication that workers are having to do more with less and not being able to do it. That may be called overwork in some circles. So you label the overworked employee who did not respond to you in a prompt and obedient way as rude and not professional. Thanks a lot, buddy!

Why not take this great opportunity to show them that you are the right person for the job, the person who handles unpleasant people, difficult situations, disappointment with a positive attitude and a smile!

Expressing your indignation with their actions only brings you down to their level and excuses your own lack of responsibility. Be responsible for your own behavior and only your behavior. Conduct your job search in a considerate, professional, and responsible fashion.

It may not be natural. It requires you to be thoughful, mindful and patiently persistent.

So take the high road. It will put you in control. And it will get you there much easier, faster and take away a whole lot of stress.

Stay in touch with me and JVS.

We are here to help.

Walt Tarrow
wtarrow@jvsdet.org

Visit us at www.jvsdet.org, be a fan of JVS Detroit on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and look for jobs and events at www.ParnossahWorksDetroit.org.

And find me and our group NextJobs~JVS Detroit on LinkedIn.