Great Occupations

1. List your plan areas. Typical job search plan areas for most folks include: Postings; Targeting Companies; Networking with Friends; and Networking with Business Contacts. The following is a breakdown of each plan area into the basic, advanced and super-advanced strategies you can use with each.... Read the rest of this entry »

CNN Money just came out with an article spotlighting the results of a recent survey. Personally, I’m not surprised by the results of this survey at all. After the last recession, something similar happened... workers who’d been hunkered down during the economic downswing started to put their feelers out there as soon as the skies began to brighten. I was a recruiter back then and received resumes from fully-employed candidates who were ready for the next job. Apparently, it’s happening again as we are seeing improvements in the market after this recent recession: “According to a recent survey by job-placement firm Manpower, 84% of employees plan to look for a new position in 2011. That's up from just 60% last year.” The CNN article features the stories of two employees who plan to... Read the rest of this entry »

It's one thing for Jay and me to preach about the power of networking in your job search (even though we both have personal, hand-on experience knowledge of how effective it is!). Today I thought we’d take a look at those who’ve been through a career transition during the recession. Let’s see what they have to say... Job seeker, Aaron Koelzer, was highlighted this week in the "How I Got the Job" column at the KansasCity.com/The Star website. Koelzer was recently hired as manager of local events and development at The Kansas City Sports Commission and Foundation. He got the job by ... Read the rest of this entry »

We just issued a press release this past week announcing a limited-time program we’re offering during Graduation Season, The Job Search Boot Camp for College Grads. Recently, I came across a helpful article in The Houston Chronicle with ideas about gifts for college grads, and, of course, we’d like to add our special program to the suggestion list!

Read this excerpt from our press release, and you’ll see why:

In the coming weeks over 2 million college students will graduate with bachelors and associates degrees across the U.S. It’s a time of celebration, new beginnings and excitement. It’s also a time of worry because the odds are high that they will be graduating without jobs.

Numbers released last week show the U.S. unemployment rate at 9.9%, and, though some signs point to a waning recession, many experts say it is a “jobless recovery.” Additionally, college graduates entering the workforce will be competing with their classmates, as well as still-unemployed 2009 and 2008 graduates, displaced experienced workers, and those who lost retirement options when the bottom fell out of their 401k plans.

Even with this bleak news there is room for optimism. Hiring is still happening, and since 87% of jobs are not even advertised, college grads need to be more creative than ever to find those opportunities in the “hidden job market.”

Whether you’re a college grad or not, make note of that last statement referring to the “hidden job market” and how 87% of jobs aren’t advertised.

When I was a recruiter, many of the positions I filled were part of the hidden job market. People in your network hear about jobs before they get posted - those jobs are part of the hidden job market.

Then there are the line managers who keep putting off adding headcount to their department because they’re simply too busy to stop what they’re doing to start the hassle and distraction of the hiring process – those unfilled needs make up a HUGE part of the hidden job market.

What’s your strategy? If it’s solely answering postings on job boards, be forewarned that only a small percentage of jobs are actually landed by answering job board postings. Jay & I teach and preach The Targeted Job Search Method – it’s the best strategy to find the hidden job market and get hired.

Angela Loëb is an author, speaker and career coach. She and her partner, Jay Markunas, help people make successful career transitions through workshops, webclasses and 2×1 individualized coaching services. Listen to them on The Job Search Boot Camp Show. Find out more about their programs & services at www.greatoccupations.com. NOTE: For a limited time during Graduation Season, Angela & Jay are offering the perfect new grad gift: The Job Search Boot Camp for College Grads, a live, interactive & intensive program. For more details, click here.

To write a career changing resume, you need to look at how dramatic your career change is going to be. This is important because the style, the content, and how you emphasize your experience and accomplishments are ruled by what you’re trying to aim your resume toward.

Major Shift When aiming your resume toward a major shift, you’ll need to use a functional style. If, for example, you’re a high school teacher who’s decided to become a corporate trainer, you won’t want to emphasize your employment history. Instead, you’ll want to bring attention to your transferable teaching skills.

Warning! You should send your functional style resume directly to the line manager and NOT to the recruiter’s desk. Recruiters don’t like functional style resumes for 2 reasons:

1. They’re hard to analyze against job descriptions because the data is not in the usual places.

2. They raise red flags like, “Hey, this must be a career changer.” The resume screener’s job is to screen out resumes and pull in only those candidates who won’t “waste” the line manager’s time. Sounds harsh, I know, but that’s how they see career changers.

Besides, you shouldn’t be relying solely on recruiters to screen you in or out no matter what you’re aiming toward – a career change or not. You should be focusing your strategy on getting to the person who has the power to hire you – not trying to reach HR through the major job boards.

Few Degrees of Change On the other hand, let’s say you’re a person who sells computer chips for a computer chip manufacturer, but you’re interested in working in sales for a company that makes refrigeration equipment for the restaurant industry. That’s only a few degrees of change.

You’ll be fine with a combination style resume. You might even be able to use a kicked up version of the traditional chronological style of resume… as long as you build in a good summary of your qualifications at the top. The combined resume blends the familiar features of the chronological style with the nifty marketing-like elements of the functional style.

The secret to aiming your resume toward the few degrees of change described above is to simply eliminate the chip industry jargon and show your knowledge of the manufacturing industry in general. But, keep in mind, the more degrees of change, the more creative you need to be.

Your Masterpiece Is Only One Piece You know, of course, that your successful career change isn’t all about how wonderful your resume is. You gotta have one, and it’s gotta be good. But even if it’s a masterpiece, it’s only one piece of the picture. Finding a great job in a new career will only happen if you have a good, solid strategy. Career change especially demands that you do a proactive – not a reactive job search. This is mainly why career changing is such a challenge, yet when you finally make it… it’s oh so sweet!

Happy Hunting!

Angela Loëb is an author, speaker and career coach. She and her partner, Jay Markunas, help people make successful career transitions through workshops, webclasses and 2×1 individualized coaching services. Listen to them on The Job Search Boot Camp Show. Find out more about their programs & services at www.greatoccupations.com.