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Job Search Tips

Tip #1 - You must lead contacts and decision makers to the conclusion, assumption or impression you want them to have about you. Don’t leave that up to chance or their ability to synthesize information and draw appropriate conclusions.

Tip #2 - You should have a prepared and rehearsed statement that you can easily and clearly deliver that summarizes your background and addresses the dreaded opener, “Tell me about yourself…”.

Tip #3 - One of the first and best things you can do for yourself is develop a list of your accomplishments. This is foundational; from it you can create other useful tools for enhancing your career.

Tip #4 - Before beginning to network or interview, make sure you have identified the 4 or 5 accomplishments that really “light you up”. These are ones that, as you describe them, you automatically look engaged, passionate and enthusiastic. They act like a trigger so you don’t have to fake energy and enthusiasm in an interview.

Tip #5 - Accomplishments that appear on your resume, or that you describe in interviews, should be in result-action format. So, not “Developed program to increase retention…” but rather “Increased retention x% by developing…”

Tip #6 - When created and stated the right way, accomplishments are the common language of employers, even across industries. Employers share problems. If you have accomplishments that relate to these shared problems, issues or challenges, you are speaking their language.

Tip #7 - The job search is like a marketing and sales campaign. The marketing part includes planning your approach to the market and segmenting that market, which allows you to focus your resources on the most likely buyers. The sales part includes understanding the features you offer and the corresponding benefits to the buyer.

Tip #8 - Responding to classified ads has a low rate of success for most job seekers.

Tip #9 - Remember that search firms, whether retained or contingency, work on behalf of the employer not the applicant. Their goal is to find the right match for the company, not necessarily you.

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