Finding the Jobs

When we’re looking for work, no one wants to start from scratch, especially if we’ve been out of work for awhile and we’re anxious to find a satisfying job.

But what if the job search isn’t really yielding interviews, much less job offers?   Starting the job search over from scratch may be just the ticket.

And what’s starting from scratch really mean?

It means REALLY getting to know ourselves.

It means, asking ourselves hard questions like, What am I good at?  What work do I like to do? Where do I want to work, and  in what kind of environment?

– It means committing ourselves to a full-time job search every day.

– It means finding the strength in ourselves to keep going–even when no job offers come your way.

And maybe most of all, it means mustering up the emotional strength to remember that finding a job is well within our reach–when we use the proper tools.

Having trouble getting started?  Don’t know what job to seek or what companies would be the perfect match for our skills?  Check out these Department of Labor sites for help:

www.myskillsmyfuture.org

www.mynextmove.org

Next time:  Essential tools for your job search toolbox.

The downsides of unemployment are easy to list:  no income, no professional status, no workplace.  The list can go on.

And while it’s easy to see the downside, and nothing but the downside, consider the bigger picture.  In the bigger picture, unemployment means something else, too: opportunity.

Opportunity to explore all kinds of possibilities. As a job seeker, looking for work can provide the opportunity of a lifetime, to pursue a path unexplored.

Who’s got time to navigate a path unexplored, when earning an income is so important? You do.  And here’s why:

–Job hunting full time, five days a week is an exhausting, draining exercise.  From resume revamping and networking, to researching companies and keeping up on the latest information about particular industries takes time.  Alot of time.

–So when you’ve completed a full day’s work of job hunting, sketch out a plan for the the next day’s full time job search. (In fact, it’s a good idea to prepare a schedule for the next few days, to help clarify the direction of your efforts.)

–Then take a break.  If done properly, all the effort it takes to find a job can leave most of us pretty depleted, intellectually, physically and emotionally.  An important way to replenish our energy is by doing something we really enjoy.

It doesn’t need to be costly or complicated.  For one job seeker I met, relaxation meant finding out more about cherry blossoms that  bloom in Washington, DC this time of year.  For another, it’s renting foreign language films or taking a walk or biking on a scenic path.

–So work really hard at finding a job every day of the work week.  But then schedule yourself a break.

If you ever said when you were working full-time, “Boy, if only I had time to do X,” right now, between jobs just might be the time to do it.

My client recently described the tasks she’d performed at her old job and together we made a surprising discovery:  she had many more qualifications than she realized.

It turns out that instead of straight administrative work, she had single-handedly overhauled a department, writing proposals for her executive director.  But not only that, she developed a new recordkeeping system that moved the organization from an index cards(!) reporting system to a computerized one.

Clearly, she hadn’t given herself credit for a great many talents.  But to make her resume stand out in a way that fully reflects her accomplishments, she and I had some work to do.

My client is like so many of us in the midst of a job search.  We all so desperately want to find satisfying, good paying work, that often we forget that one of the best ways to achieve that is by first assessing our skills and interests.  Doing that shortens, not lengthens the job hunt because the assessment enables job seekers to identify exactly the kind of work we want.

Need help in figuring out your skills and the right kinds of jobs for you?  Check out the Department of Labor’s MySkillsMyFuture and MyNextMove and aarpworksearch.org websites for assistance.

My client today expressed fear that his gray hair would scream “Old!” whenever he applied for a job.  He may be right, since age discrimination exists and yes, it can hurt an applicant.

But think about it.  If hair is all that you think you have to offer, chances are that job hunting was already going to be a problem.  (Unless, of course the job was as a model for a hair product.)

Is hair really all you’ve got?

No, of course not.   You’ve also got talent, experience and charm.

Show that to prospective employers and you increase your chances of finding the job you want.

Spend time zeroing in on the things that you can control, like what strengths you would bring to the job, how familiar you are with the company and how it operates, and how well you present yourself in interviews.

Great news for job seekers: there is a clear way to shorten the job search.

And it’s deceptively simple.

It’s from Richard N. Bolles, author of the mega job hunting hit, What Color Is Your Parachute? and The Job-Hunter’s Survival Guide. Bolles has been sending the same message for decades now.  And it’s a message that has an 86% success rate. He suggests that the first and perhaps most important step for job hunters seeking satisfying work is to look in the mirror and ask these questions:

What skills do I have?

What do I do well?

What do I like to do?

Where do I like to do?

By providing a very detailed answer to those questions, job seekers become clearer about what it is they’re looking for and then better target their job search.  That shortens the time it takes to find a satisfying job.

How about your job search?  Have you conducted a self-inventory?

Happy new year to readers of the Money Matters and More blog!

To help job seekers navigating a particularly tough market, the Money Matters and More blog launches a new project that focuses solely on jobs and careers.

As part of  AARP’s WorkSearch project, I’ll be serving as a job coach for people 40 and older who are looking for full and part-time work.   Over the next three months, I’ll report what I learn about what it takes to find job hunting success and include information and tips about what I learn.  (Check out aarp.org.)

For fresh insights from the field, check the Money Matters and More blog.  Reports from the project begin this Wednesday, with first interviews starting the week of February 7th.

In the meantime, please feel free to contact me with questions and comments at the following addresses:

Facebook & LinkedIn:  heathertaylormedia

Twitter:  moneyandmore

Email:  heathertaylormedia@gmail.com

Thanks for reading the Money Matters and More blog!

When it comes to branding, how you stand out as a personal brand is just as essential as a company brand–maybe even more so.

That’s because so much of entrepreneurial success has to do with building good, solid relationships with clients.  How you’re viewed by them as a personal brand, apart from your company can determine whether or how effectively your company continues to grow, stagnate, or falter.

So how do you create a memorable personal brand?

Personal branding expert Dan Schawbel offers a primer for newbies, entitled How to Brand Yourself:  An Introduction in the magazine Entrepreneur. Here are some of his helpful tips on becoming a successful brand:

– Become an expert on something related to your product or service

– Establish a website or blog under your full name.

– Become the go-to source of information for media outlets.

– Network to connect with other entrepreneurs in your industry.

(To read Schawbel’s complete article, click on http://tinyurl.com/273vbql.)

Do you have a personal brand?  If so, how does it differ from your company brand?

(Photo: http://tinyurl.com/2458s5h)

It’s just what you figured would be required, if what you want is that first sale.  The Wall Street Journal’s Sarah Needleman described yesterday in great detail how the most successful entrepreneurs make their time and resources count most.

It comes down to trying everything you can think of to grow your client base, namely volunteering, networking and cold-calling.  Nothing is always effective, she reminded listeners, but keeping yourself in the game of building  your company means a willingness to endure trial and error.

If you’ve got a great product or service to sell, but no track record, for example Needleman suggests that you consider volunteering to work for a nonprofit and then show them that you can shine.  One interviewee she included in her Accidental Entrepreneur column did that and ended up providing networking opportunities that led to paying clients.

Is there a one-size-fits-all way to make that first sale?

Does it just take networking, or just building a Twitter following, or just cold-calling, for example? Those are the kinds of questions addressed in Landing Clients is Hit or Miss, a piece by Wall Street Journal staff reporter Sarah Needleman.

Needleman interviews entrepreneurs and business experts from academe, and a nonprofit group that assists small companies.  One of the things that becomes clear from her research is good news for entrepreneurs:   there are any number of ways to get that first customer.  To find out what entrepreneurs need to do to may involve taking the advice of one of Needleman’s interviewees: be prepared to “try lots of different things.”

What are the “different things” and how and when should entrepreneurs use them?

Needleman joins me to answer these and other questions this Thursday, October 28th at 4:00 p.m. (ET) on Money Matters & More radio.  She’ll spell out in greater detail what entrepreneurs can do to increase the chances of making that first sale. To hear the interview live, be sure to click onto www.Blogtalkradio.com/money-matters–more at 4:00 p.m.

And if you have questions you’d like to ask Sarah Needleman, email them to me at heathertaylormedia@gmail.com no later than tomorrow at 5p.m. (ET).

(To read Needleman’s article in its entirety, check it out at http://tinyurl.com/2g8dmzm)

How, in the midst of so much website content, do niche sites find success?  What does it take to really stand out and draw traffic to your website, and ultimately find a revenue stream?

Before any business launch, these are the questions nearly every serious web-creating, revenue-seeking entrepreneur needs to ask and answer.

Need help?  The New York Times columnist David Carr suggests that we might want to forllow the lead of The Awl. Just a year and a half old, The Awl is a successful website devoted to what Carr calls “strong voices and a literate sensibility.”   After just one year, The Awl drew nearly 500,000 visitors and in the next eighteen months, the company expects to make revenue “in the low millions.”

Not bad for three formerly laid-off bloggers.

How did the creators of the site decide what to write, what kinds of pieces to include?

“Neither of us have particularly good histories of working for other people, our prospects were grim, and so we decided that we would make the kind of site people we know would like to read,” Choire Sicha, co-founder of The Awl told Carr.

While the co-founders of The Awl may be “one or two big accounts” from success or failure, at this point, they reflect the importance of three  key principles to business success, whether you’re trying to draw traffic (and revenue) on the web, or get involved in any other entrepreneurial endeavor.  To succeed:

Be talented. The Awl co-founders were already successful veteran writers and bloggers and recognized their strengths as they moved forward.

Be focused. The company was clear about its goal: to create content that people they knew would want to read.

Be flexible. Instead of being dependent on selling company ads for revenue, the co-founders entered sponsorship arrangements with a variety of well-known companies.

Be financially savvy. While the co-founders concentrate on the quality of their content, they have no illusions about how important it is to understand the finances.  “[w]e can build all the nice little audiences we want, [but] somebody has to figure out  how to explain to advertisers where the value is.”

[To read David Carr's column, Against Odds, Site Finds Niche  (http://tinyurl.com/283vbao)]  [Photo:http://tinyurl.com/29nuuha]

Can The Awl’s business model work for you?  Is it missing any element crucial to business success?  Please leave a comment below.