5 Strategies for More Job Offers
It’s scary out there. In a world of constant career turmoil there seems to be a tsunami of lay-offs, re-orgs and career setbacks happening across the globe. So how can you turn the tides so that you’re in a position of more control, confidence, and just plain happiness?
The answer is by investing in yourself so that you have more career offers and opportunities!
A new client I’ll call “Jim” recently called me and said that he had gone through a change in management which resulted in losing his 7-year position as the General Manager of a prestigious golf course.
He told me that after one year of searching, he had taken the “only job he could get” which was working part-time in the golf pro shop at a different golf course. After talking for a few minutes, it became painfully clear why Jim wasn’t able to get back on his career path.
- Invest in Yourself.
Jim shared that the golf industry was changing and that companies were requiring a specific kind of training and certification to be a General Manager. But Jim wasn’t stepping up and getting the training. He’d rather fight the system (which he was losing) and not invest $2,000 for the training in the hopes of one day getting hired again as a General Manager. What Jim was actually doing was down sizing his career, his morale, and his paycheck by electing not to invest in himself.Never let your career sit on a shelf longer than 6-months. Never! Keep the same drive and discipline that you had when you were employed. Get focused. Get a plan. Make it happen. Wallowing isn’t allowed. Create opportunities by using your “in-between” time to get any training or education you may need. If you’re not working, then start freelancing or consulting. Join an association’s Board of Directors, or at minimum, a committee. These strategies will help keep you visible, boost your resume and expand your network.
- Fish where the fish are.
Another mistake Jim was making was not having a solid job search plan. Where are your potential employers? Find out by reading trade magazines, industry publications, company websites and classified ads in your local newspapers to learn which industries are hiring, which companies are hiring, and what the hot jobs are.Then, start attending industry conferences, trade shows, business networking events and association meetings. Also, join professional networking sites such as LinkedIn.com to get connected to industry leaders and company decision makers. Make it a priority to get connected, and stay connected, to people who can inspire you, hire you, or introduce you to potential employers.
- Be a resource to others.
Never give the impression that you’re hungry for a job. Instead, you want to be seen as someone who drives initiatives, solves problems and leads teams. This is one reason why you want to consult, freelance, or volunteer while you’re in between jobs.Get personal with your professional network. Send out links to reports, case studies, press releases and websites that you think might interest them. Invite them to business networking events, and introduce them to other movers and shakers. Influencers are drawn to those who are resourceful.
- Give your resume the “it” factor.
When it comes to resumes – looks are everything! If you’ve been applying for jobs that you’re qualified for, but you’re not getting the interviews, then you need a stronger resume.Hiring managers can have stacks and stacks of resumes piled high on their desk which means that if your resume doesn’t have the “it” factor – you’re toast. Don’t lose out on a great job because your resume doesn’t stand up against your competition. Instead, invest in a professional resume critique. You’ll get specific strategies based on your goals, strengths and accomplishments to get the attention of hiring managers and put yourself in high demand!
- Interview smart.
If you’re getting interviews, but not job offers – then you need stronger interviewing skills.Interviewing brings up a lot of anxiety mostly because it seems that the interviewer has so much power and you, the one being interviewed, has so little. But there are things you can do to balance the scales of power. Invest in a session with an interview coach before your next interview. You’ll get crisp, solid strategies to learn how showcase your strengths, answer the tough questions and what to say to close the interview.
The point is that if you’ve been unemployed or at a lower level position for longer than six months, then you need to shake things up! Try different career strategies and start thinking outside the box. And never, ever give up your drive, ambition and courage that it takes to move your career forward.
Your job is out there waiting for you. You just need to go get it!
Your Assignment… 
Invest in yourself so that you have more career offers and opportunities!
Make a plan right now to get any training or education you need to get your next job. Think ahead to the career that you really want. Read job postings to understand the qualifications and skills that are required. If you need training or education, then schedule time on your calendar to research options, costs and time commitments.
If you need experience to make your next career move, then invest your time in freelancing or consulting. Join an association’s Board of Directors, or at minimum, a committee. These strategies will help keep you visible, boost your resume and expand your network.
Make it a priority to get connected, and stay connected, to people who can inspire you, hire you, or introduce you to potential employers. Schedule time in your calendar to attend industry conferences, trade shows, business networking events and association meetings. Also, join professional networking sites such as LinkedIn.com to get connected to industry leaders and company decision makers.
If you’re feeling stuck and need some help reinventing your career, then consider hiring a career coach. A career coach can give you the tools, support and the roadmap to help you advance your career. Be prepared to come into a session with your toughest questions, biggest challenges, and an open mind to get new ideas, strategies and best practices to get your career on track!
How are you going to invest in yourself? Share your strategies with me in the “comments” section below… 
Creating More Career Opportunities
I consider myself wealthy, not based on money, but because I have so many opportunities available to me in my career. Successful professionals aren’t lucky. They’re what I call “career smart.” They make choices, decisions, and take risks every day with one purpose: to advance their career.
Being career smart is NOT about accepting whatever job is handed to you, but instead it’s about creating opportunities that allow you to have a career that inspires you.
Want to learn how to do it? Below are three of my biggest strategies to help you become career smart, create more opportunities and achieve a career that fills you with purpose, meaning, and passion!
- Get into a career where you can thrive (not just survive!)
It’s impossible to thrive in a career if you’re just going through the motions at work. If you’re walking around tired and bored, then others are sure to see you that way. You need to be in a career that challenges you, flexes your professional muscles, and excites you! How can you start that transition?
Think about what kind of work you WANT to be doing. Identify three key ingredients you need in your career to be happy and fulfilled such as leading teams, working on creative projects, developing new technologies, etc. Once you’ve defined the three key ingredients, then do whatever it takes to drive your career towards that vision.
- Share your value!
Everything you do and say sends messages to your senior managers, clients, networking contacts and potential employers. Your words, actions, presentations, status reports, resume, and interview responses all shape the perceptions others have about you. You should be sending a crystal clear message that focuses on the value that you consistently deliver to a company or client.Your “value” is a unique blend of your strengths, professional accomplishments, and personal characteristics such as being a good leader, risk taker, problem solver, strategic thinker, etc. All of these things combined make up your “value package” which makes you truly unique from a crowd of colleagues, business associates, and even job applicants. The key is to role model the “value” that you provide by consistently demonstrating it, living it and breathing it.
- Open your mind to new possibilities.
I love the funny saying, “If you want to make God laugh – tell him your plans.” One of the biggest mistakes I ALMOST made was declining the privilege of serving on the American Marketing Association’s National Council. What a HUGE mistake that would have been! I narrowly was only looking at it as just another volunteer opportunity that would burden me with a list of task and deliverables. Fortunately, a mentor helped me see the bigger picture which was a tremendous gift that could strengthen my leadership skills, deepen my marketing expertise, broaden my professional network, and advance my career ten fold. (After accepting the position and serving just one year, I was named President of the AMA’s National Council which advanced my career up to a completely new level.)Be open to experiencing new career opportunities. You should be giving serious consideration to each and every possibility that comes your way. Never decline an opportunity without first getting a fresh perspective from people in your circle whom you respect.
And finally…
Step up, branch out, and start being receptive to new possibilities. There are always opportunities around you. You just have to go after them! :)
Sherri Thomas is President of Career Coaching 360, an international speaker, and author of “Career Smart – 5 Steps to a Powerful Personal Brand” – on AMAZON’s TOP 10 LIST for personal branding books! Career Coaching 360 (www.CareerCoaching360.com) provides career planning, management coaching, and leadership development support to help professionals change careers quickly and easily. To learn how you can reinvent your career quickly and easily, visit Career Coaching 360′s website for resume help, interviewing support, and personal career coaching packages.
The Art of Promoting Yourself without Bragging
As a leading career coach, I’m seeing that a lot of clients have one common challenge: talking about themselves!
- Talk about your projects, teams, and the value they delivered to the organization.
It may feel uncomfortable talking about your achievements, but the fact is you won’t get noticed (yet alone hired!) if you don’t talk about them!Here’s a tip – focus on the projects and teams you contributed to, and the value they delivered to the organization.Talk about goals, or stretch goals, that were met and how they benefited the organization to help increase revenue, save costs, or gain more market share.
- Focus on results.
Many career changers make the mistake of focusing on their previous responsibilities they’ve had in past jobs. What I want you to do is talk about the results you’ve helped achieve on your projects, programs and teams. All programs are measured in terms of success metrics (or else they wouldn’t get funded) so if you don’t know the results – go back and ask the project managers or department managers.Here’s a bonus tip! To add even more credibility and rise about your competition, I want you to quantify your achievements with a number, dollar, or percentage.For example, instead of saying that you managed a sales team for a specific product, instead, say that you led a team of 5 sales professionals who increased sales by 25% and generated $250,000 a year for the past 3 years! Quantifying your successes says that you are a driver, high achiever, and that you get results.
- Attitude is the key ingredient!
I’ve found that getting a new job really boils down to two things: confidence and passion. To get the job at the NBC-TV station in Monterey and beat out the other 100 job candidates, I was passionate about the company AND the position. Even though I didn’t have the kind of experience that was required, I told the hiring manager that I absolutely knew that I could do the job.There’s a kind of quiet confidence that we all have down deep inside. A confidence that comes from knowing what we’re capable of doing. When you transition into a new job role or a new company, you need to show the hiring manager that you have confidence in yourself and know that you’ll be successful in the job.
And finally…
Great companies are ALWAYS looking to hire great talent – and that means you! So, if you’re serious about getting into a new career, then follow these three tips, power up your confidence, and believe in yourself! You’ll significantly increase your chances of getting hired, decrease the time it takes, and be much more likely to transition into a new career that inspires you.
Sherri Thomas is President of Career Coaching 360, an international speaker, and author of “Career Smart – 5 Steps to a Powerful Personal Brand” – on AMAZON’s TOP 10 LIST for personal branding books! Career Coaching 360 (www.CareerCoaching360.com) provides career planning, management coaching, and leadership development support to help professionals change careers quickly and easily. To learn how you can reinvent your career quickly and easily, visit Career Coaching 360′s website for resume help, interviewing support, and personal career coaching packages.
How to Create, Market and Role Model a Powerful Personal Brand
Personal Branding is a hot topic these days, but do you really know what it means?
And do you know how to leverage your personal brand to get the career you really want?
Getting bigger promotions, better clients and a more meaningful career depends largely on how you’re perceived by senior managers, colleagues, peers, and potential clients or employers. To maximize your career opportunities and get into a career that actually inspires you to get out of bed in the morning, let’s start by strengthening your personal brand.
Step #1. Identify your value.
Having a powerful personal brand means that you consistently deliver what you say you’re going to deliver. In other words, it’s the skills, experience and value that you provide to your employer or clients. Whether it’s bringing in new streams of revenue, managing highly valued projects or developing creative marketing campaigns, your career is fueled by the value that you consistently deliver to employers.
Your value is a unique blend of your strengths, professional accomplishments and personal characteristics (such as being a good leader, risk taker, problem solver, strategic thinker, etc.). All of these combined make up your “value package,” which makes you truly unique from a crowd of colleagues, business associates and even job applicants.
Read the full article on the Fresh Start blog.
Bouncing Back After a Lay-Off
Three of my clients were hired last week(!) including Cindy, a financial analyst in the mortgage industry who had been laid off 3 months earlier. In fact, Cindy received two (2) job offers in the same week!
After being in the banking industry for 20 years, and with the same company for 10, she found herself abruptly out of a job just before the Christmas holidays. She first contacted me six weeks ago, saying that she needed help finding a new job fast!
Specifically, her challenge was “How do you get a new job, when you were laid off in your last position?”
As Cindy’s Career Coach, our first step was to go through the grieving process. Cindy had been so focused on finding her next job, that she hadn’t been able to let go of all the pain, dissappointment and embarrassment that comes with being laid off. It’s natural to have those feelings, and it’s important to work through those emotions so that you can let them go and move on to your interviews feeling confident and assured.
Many, many professionals have been laid off in this economy, so there is no shame in being laid off. Where it gets tricky though, is knowing how to answer questions to showcase yourself in the best light.
By learning more about Cindy’s talents, strengths and accomplishments I helped her map out her network, and prepare a 3-step strategy to help her promote herself in a tactful way! ;)
So, how do you speak about your strengths and successes in a tactful way without making it sound like you’re bragging? Below are 3 key strategies to help you tactfully toot your own horn without sounding cheeeeeesy…
1. Talk about your projects, teams, and the value they delivered to the organization. It may feel uncomfortable talking about your achievements, but the fact is you won’t get noticed (yet alone hired!) if you don’t talk about them.
Here’s a tip – focus on the projects and teams you contributed to, and the value they delivered to the organization. Talk about goals, or stretch goals, that were met and how they benefited the organization to help increase revenue, save costs, or gain more market share.
2. Focus on results. On your resume, in your interviews, and in your networking opportunities – instead of talking about your previous responsibilities, talk about tangible results you helped to achieve. When you quantify your achievements with a number, dollar, or percentage, you add credibility to your successes and rise above the competition.
For example, instead of saying that you managed a sales team for a specific product, instead, say that you led a sales team that generated $250,000 a year for the past 3 years! Quantifying your successes says that you are a driver, high achiever, and that you get results.
3. Attitude is the key ingredient! I’ve found that getting a new job really boils down to two things: confidence and passion. To get the job offer at the NBC-TV station in Monterey and beat out the other 100 job candidates, I was passionate about the company AND the position. Even though I didn’t have the kind of experience that was required, I told the hiring manager that I absolutely knew that I could do the job.
There’s a kind of quiet confidence that we all have down deep inside. A confidence that comes from knowing what we’re capable of doing. When you transition into a new job role or a new company, you need to show the hiring manager that you have confidence in yourself and know that you’ll be successful in the job.
And finally…
Great companies are ALWAYS looking to hire great talent – and that means you! So, if you’re serious about getting into a new career, then follow these three tips, power up your confidence, and believe in yourself! You’ll significantly increase your chances of getting hired, decrease the time it takes, and be much more likely to transition into a new career that inspires you.
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Sherri Thomas, author “Career Smart – 5 Steps to a Powerful Personal Brand” AMAZON’s TOP 10 LIST for personal branding books! Learn how to put yourself in high demand with leaders, clients and hiring managers! Buy it now!