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
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
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.
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.
Monday, January 31, 2011
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
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
Friday, December 17, 2010
Why is no one responding to my resume?
Is there something wrong with your resume that you are not getting any responses?
I was asked this question today by a frustrated job seeker who wanted help in fixing her resume.
My response follows:
I would be more than willing to look at your resume and offer suggestions, BUT it is essential that you share with me the job titles and company names of the openings to which you have applied.
Without knowing to what and where you have submitted your resume, I have little clue as to what should be in your resume.
Your resume is only as good as the specific keywords it contains as they match with the keywords of the job posting or description.
Also, most importantly, your qualifications have very little to do with whether or not you get any response to your resume.
The resume gatherers, the people to whom you send your resume, are screeners. Their job is to scan quickly resumes for keywords and send on those that have all, or at least a majority, of their target keywords.
They only have seconds to review a resume or applications and don't have time to read much of anything let alone think about what they see. In fact, in many cases, they have computer software scanning and finding the keywords for them.
The overwhelming, 90% of the time, reason why you don’t get responses is simply that resumes get lost in the heavy volume of them, in many cases 1000s, that are sent by desperate job seekers.
Your odds of ever getting any response to your resume or application, regardless of your qualifications, without following up repeatedly, is less than one in one thousand or .1%.
So playing the odds by just sending in your resume and/or submitting your application and waiting for a response means you would have to send in a resume or apply to at least 1000 openings to get one response!
You’ve got 900 more to go.
And, better still, you have one hundred with which you need to follow up.
Discover and determine the contact information for the company holding the job opening. Knowing specific contact people within the company, especially the hiring decision maker(s), makes all the difference in getting noticed. And without getting noticed, you probably won’t get a response.
If the company is not clearly identified, then do some detective work based on clues in the job posting like an email address or the type of business and location.
Then follow up with additional information like faxing another version of your resume or emailing your Facebook or LinkedIn link or dropping off your resume in person.
Repeated follow up has now become a requirement in making contact after you have sent your resume or applied for the job.
Let’s stay in touch,
Walt
And stay in touch with me and JVS at www.jvsdet.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
I was asked this question today by a frustrated job seeker who wanted help in fixing her resume.
My response follows:
I would be more than willing to look at your resume and offer suggestions, BUT it is essential that you share with me the job titles and company names of the openings to which you have applied.
Without knowing to what and where you have submitted your resume, I have little clue as to what should be in your resume.
Your resume is only as good as the specific keywords it contains as they match with the keywords of the job posting or description.
Also, most importantly, your qualifications have very little to do with whether or not you get any response to your resume.
The resume gatherers, the people to whom you send your resume, are screeners. Their job is to scan quickly resumes for keywords and send on those that have all, or at least a majority, of their target keywords.
They only have seconds to review a resume or applications and don't have time to read much of anything let alone think about what they see. In fact, in many cases, they have computer software scanning and finding the keywords for them.
The overwhelming, 90% of the time, reason why you don’t get responses is simply that resumes get lost in the heavy volume of them, in many cases 1000s, that are sent by desperate job seekers.
Your odds of ever getting any response to your resume or application, regardless of your qualifications, without following up repeatedly, is less than one in one thousand or .1%.
So playing the odds by just sending in your resume and/or submitting your application and waiting for a response means you would have to send in a resume or apply to at least 1000 openings to get one response!
You’ve got 900 more to go.
And, better still, you have one hundred with which you need to follow up.
Discover and determine the contact information for the company holding the job opening. Knowing specific contact people within the company, especially the hiring decision maker(s), makes all the difference in getting noticed. And without getting noticed, you probably won’t get a response.
If the company is not clearly identified, then do some detective work based on clues in the job posting like an email address or the type of business and location.
Then follow up with additional information like faxing another version of your resume or emailing your Facebook or LinkedIn link or dropping off your resume in person.
Repeated follow up has now become a requirement in making contact after you have sent your resume or applied for the job.
Let’s stay in touch,
Walt
And stay in touch with me and JVS at www.jvsdet.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Monday, November 29, 2010
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
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
Thursday, October 21, 2010
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
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
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Are you wasting their time?
When you are looking for a job you want to contact and connect with as many people as possible. The more connections you have, the more likely you will make the right connections.
BUT are you an asset or liability to those connections?
Do your emails, your phone calls, your visits add value to their days, their lives? OR, worse yet, are you wasting their time?
When you apply for a job online, by email, fax or mail, do you follow up with a phone call to verify they received your application, your resume, your cover letter?
You may be fortunate and connect to someone who takes some time from their busy schedule to talk with you. But have you added value to their day?
And after your application is in process, are you easily reachable?
Do you make it easy for employers to know what they need to know about you? Are your application and your resume complete and error free? Do you have additional information, such as references, a complete LinkedIn profile, diplomas, degrees and transcripts, and work samples, readily available?
Can employers get in touch with you quickly and easily? Is your voice mail set up properly and professionally? To be certain, maybe you should call yourself and listen to what they will hear.
Do you have an email address that is easy to understand and remember for employers? Does your email even work? To be certain, maybe you should email yourself and see what they will see.
And do you check your voice mail, your email throughout each day? Or, better yet, do you stay in close touch with them?
And are you an asset or a liability?
When you make your contact, what is your purpose? Is it all about what you want, what you need? Are you entitled to their time, their return call, their help? And that is according to whom, to what rule?
If you keep taking from them, wasting their time, giving nothing in return, you are a liability. And you are even more of a liability if you make being in touch with you difficult for them.
Approach all of your contacts keeping in mind how you can be of value to them and how you can minimize their effort in getting back, and staying in touch, with you. If you keep withdrawing from any shared account you might have without contributing, very soon you will be overdrawn and have no credit with them at all. They will have no reason to stay in touch with you. They may even close the account, stop all contact with you, and feel you owe them big.
Stop wasting their time.
Respect all your contacts. Be considerate of their time, their effort and their value to you.
Be clear, complete, quick and concise in your emails and phone calls. Short and sweet is the way.
Hopefully, you will find ways to add value for them. But, at the very least, don't be wasting their time.
Make effective use of your time by using the job search resources at JVS. Visit www.jvsdet.org for calendars of upcoming events, weekly meetings and seminars, for links to JVS on Facebook and Twitter, for our online job bank, and more.
As always, you can reach me at wtarrow@jvsdet.org and on LinkedIn.
Now go out there and make some contact happy,
Walt
BUT are you an asset or liability to those connections?
Do your emails, your phone calls, your visits add value to their days, their lives? OR, worse yet, are you wasting their time?
When you apply for a job online, by email, fax or mail, do you follow up with a phone call to verify they received your application, your resume, your cover letter?
You may be fortunate and connect to someone who takes some time from their busy schedule to talk with you. But have you added value to their day?
And after your application is in process, are you easily reachable?
Do you make it easy for employers to know what they need to know about you? Are your application and your resume complete and error free? Do you have additional information, such as references, a complete LinkedIn profile, diplomas, degrees and transcripts, and work samples, readily available?
Can employers get in touch with you quickly and easily? Is your voice mail set up properly and professionally? To be certain, maybe you should call yourself and listen to what they will hear.
Do you have an email address that is easy to understand and remember for employers? Does your email even work? To be certain, maybe you should email yourself and see what they will see.
And do you check your voice mail, your email throughout each day? Or, better yet, do you stay in close touch with them?
And are you an asset or a liability?
When you make your contact, what is your purpose? Is it all about what you want, what you need? Are you entitled to their time, their return call, their help? And that is according to whom, to what rule?
If you keep taking from them, wasting their time, giving nothing in return, you are a liability. And you are even more of a liability if you make being in touch with you difficult for them.
Approach all of your contacts keeping in mind how you can be of value to them and how you can minimize their effort in getting back, and staying in touch, with you. If you keep withdrawing from any shared account you might have without contributing, very soon you will be overdrawn and have no credit with them at all. They will have no reason to stay in touch with you. They may even close the account, stop all contact with you, and feel you owe them big.
Stop wasting their time.
Respect all your contacts. Be considerate of their time, their effort and their value to you.
Be clear, complete, quick and concise in your emails and phone calls. Short and sweet is the way.
Hopefully, you will find ways to add value for them. But, at the very least, don't be wasting their time.
Make effective use of your time by using the job search resources at JVS. Visit www.jvsdet.org for calendars of upcoming events, weekly meetings and seminars, for links to JVS on Facebook and Twitter, for our online job bank, and more.
As always, you can reach me at wtarrow@jvsdet.org and on LinkedIn.
Now go out there and make some contact happy,
Walt
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)