Job Search Tools

You say potato…Prospecting & Networking are Important to Entrepreneurs & Job Seekers Alike

July 21, 2015 By Marta Goertzen

I hate prospecting. I hate picking up the phone and making calls. I hate walking into a room full of people I don’t know and talking about myself.

But I have to. I have to prospect for new clients all the time. It is a fact of life for an entrepreneur like me. It is also a fact of life for job seekers.

Face it. Finding a job is a numbers game. You have to find more people to build relationships with people who can help you find that elusive job that is right for you. You are prospecting exactly like I am! Our goals are a little different but the process is exactly the same.

Let’s take a deeper look at prospecting for opportunities to see if there is a way to make prospecting a little easier. Instead of cold calling and lots of big, faceless networking meetings, let’s change our definition. I like this definition much better:

“Prospecting is a perpetual search for new customers by initiating contact with likely buyers through a series of relationship building activities, including:” phone calls, visits, mail, voice mail, and social events.”

Notice the key words:

Perpetual – Prospecting is forever. You can’t just network for this job. Job search networking will be a part of your life forever. We are all just one meeting away from finding our next job. You will need your network forever so start accepting that idea.
Likely buyers – Just like a small business person, when you network you are looking for likely buyers, people who will be helpful, people who know someone or something you need to know. These are your targets.
Series – Prospecting / networking is an ongoing project so consider your activities to be a series, not just one touch. It takes several touches to make this work. You should set goals and measure your progress in outreach and networking activities.
Relationship building activities – Your goal is to build relationships not just reach out and touch someone. Just collecting LinkedIn contacts is not sufficient. You must do something with your contacts – you must build relationships so people know who you are. You must be prepared to give people what they need in order to get what you need. Those relationship building activities take many forms. Don’t confine yourself to LinkedIn contacts or networking meetings. You should be having lots of coffee to get to know people!

What are you doing to turn your contacts into relationships?

How are you helping your contacts so you can build relationships to find new opportunities?

I would love to build a relationship with you to help you get the job you love! Just drop me a note to let me know how I can help.

Eight simple steps to approach your target company in a job search?

June 26, 2015 By Marta Goertzen

Every job search starts somewhere. Some people start with the tools – a resume, a LinkedIn profile. Other people start with the target. Where you start depends on you. But everyone starts with a single step.

A client sent a note. He identified a target company but was unsure how to approach. The target is a venture capital holding company focused on electronics and food stuff. My client is interested in electronics manufacturing.

So how should he approach the target company? I like to start with research.

Here are some simple steps to research and approach a target company:

Find and read the website. Make a list of all people you find. Check out the management team if they provide that information. Make a note of contact information in case you want it. How long have the people been in place? Who owns the company? Any board members noted? Any notable press releases or articles posted?
Find the LinkedIn Company page and read it. Any notable press releases or articles posted? Make a note of some to comment on.
See how you are connected. On the company page in the upper right hand corner find the “How You’re Connected” box. See how many employees are connected to you. Then click on the “See all” link, often highlighted in blue. This will open a list of all employees on LinkedIn who currently or previously worked at your target company. Make a list of the names and titles of people who work in the job you want or are in senior management. How long have the people been there? What conclusions can you come to if many folks have recently been hired or have been there for a long time?
“People also Viewed” on the company page. On the middle right hand side check out the “People Also Viewed” section. These are companies that are similar to your target company. Make a note of these companies.
Check out individual LinkedIn profiles of the people in leadership roles that you found in your research. What do you have in common with any of them? Which of these folks are serious LinkedIn users with more than 500+ connections? These are the folks to focus on because they are likely to respond to your inquiries. What groups do these folks belong to? Can you join these groups or are you already a member of some of these groups?
“People also viewed” from individual profiles. Check out the section on the individual profiles on the right side called “People Also Viewed”. These are people who hold similar kinds of jobs are the person you are looking at. These might be more leads into similar companies.
Cross reference your list of names on Facebook, Google+ and Google to see if you can find any other information that might be helpful to your relationship building.
Now start connecting. Identify the people from your research who are likely to be helpful. These are people in key leadership roles in your target company or people who are currently doing the job you want who can be potential allies. Find something that you have in common with these people. Send personalized invitations to connect noting what you have in common.

Don’t talk about your job search; just point to something in common (an article the person wrote, a school attended, a job concept the person notes on his / her profile).

Be on the lookout for the note indicating the person accepted your invitation. When that happens you want to send a message about the thing you have in common. Your goal is an extended email conversation to build a relationship. Then you can ask for coffee and have a fuller conversation. At the end of this relationship building process you can talk about yourself but not until later.

The research on your target company should yield plenty of people at that company and at other similar companies that you can connect with and start relationship building conversations. Keep track of your progress. Set goals for people to talk to and coffee to schedule. Ask each person you meet for names of other people.

This is networking. It takes a while. It takes persistence and a plan. This is a process that might take a while but it works. It starts with a single step. I am curious how you are using this process or if you can add anything based on your experience!!

Announcing the Interview Doctor Talent Exchange!

June 11, 2015 By Marta Goertzen

What if there was a better way to make a match between candidates and companies?

What if . . .

Some of the greatest ideas start with the question “what if . . .”

We are all familiar with the current state of the job search process.

Candidates toss their resumes into a big black hole as they wander around in the dark. Companies post job descriptions and think they are recruiting online. Only by sheer luck does a company find a candidate that comes close to their needs, all the while confidently assuming they are “talent acquisition” experts.

What if we could show you a way for companies and candidates to find each other based on characteristics that are important to both parties? What if we applied some science to what is currently random chance? Would you be interested?

Such a tool exists today!

We are excited to announce The Interview Doctor Talent Exchange, a portal to a candidate / opportunity matching service. We have partnered with WorkFountain, a company that offers ground–breaking matching technology that will connect your company with the talent you need to grow your business and connect talented candidates to opportunities they never dreamed existed!

Why are we doing this?

We are not recruiters. We are job search coaches. We just want to help. We coach companies to organize their job searches better by understanding the competencies required to be successful in the job. We coach candidates to answer interview questions by building their stories around those same competencies.

When we saw how the WorkFountain matching technology offers a competency based match in exactly the way we have been advocating, we could not resist partnering with WorkFountain. The cost is so affordable that everyone should register today to see what opportunities are out there for you.

What are the fees for using the Talent Exchange?

Posting your job opening costs just $39!
Internship postings are always free to candidates and companies!
Candidates can always use the Interview Doctor Talent Exchange for free!

Get started today at www.InterviewDoc.workfountain.com

Learn more about how this works on our website.

The Interview Doctor Anniversary Celebrations Continue!

May 1, 2015 By Marta Goertzen

We continue to celebrate our successes of the past 10 years with the Interview Doctor. Part of this is sharing with you – our online community – and in some cases people we see face to face too!

Last month we had an awesome response to the Sale-abration with our ebook 7 Steps to a New Career Path.

This month in May we continue to highlight one of our eBooks: Pearls of Wisdom about Changing Jobs.

Changing jobs happens to many of us – whether by our own design or by the actions of our current employer.

When you are thrown into a job search many people are sure where to start. This ebook will guide you through the process of a job search that seems so complicated…but it doesn’t have to be.

A good job search takes organization, networking, and most of all, a plan.

This workbook will help you take control of your job search and your future, using expertise we at The Interview Doctor have accumulated over many years in human resources and in our own personal job searches. You will learn many tips about changing your job and finding the right job for you.

Purchase your copy in May and save – pay only 99 ¢.

Don’t Panic when the time comes to make a Career Change or when you need to Change your Job!

Our Pearls of Wisdom eBook will walk you through how to plan out a job search – a job search where you are organized, use networking, and most of all, is a plan to succeed and find that job you are seeking.

This workbook will help you take control of your job search and your future. Purchase your copy today for only 99 Cents.

Fighting an Epic Battle

April 14, 2015 By Marta Goertzen

Ever had a project or life experience so large, so daunting that it felt like you were fighting an epic battle, and would never succeed?

How is one supposed to keep an optimistic attitude when you feel like Sisyphus, the king from Greek mythology condemned to an eternity of rolling a boulder uphill then watching it roll back down again?

Two steps forward, one step back. It is hard to focus on the two steps forward when that rock keeps falling back downhill. Sorry to mix my metaphors…

Folks in long term job search or stuck in a dead end job feel that way every day. They have to keep performing tasks every day that require energy and enthusiasm when they feel like the weight of the world is upon them. It is even worse on the older end of the spectrum when every day as you walk into that awful job or sit at the kitchen table to network your way to a new job you are reminded that this is not how you planned to live your life.

The other day after spending time with a desperate job seeker I heard a fascinating TED Talk by Jane McGonigal, “The Game that can give you 10 extra years of life” about playing games as a prescription for improving our real lives.

Jane McGonigal is a game designer who does research into the impact of gaming on our lives. A few years ago Jane took to her bed with debilitating aftereffects of a serious concussion. She felt she had nothing to live for. She had thoughts of suicide. She was desperate.

Since she is a gamer she decided to invent a game to keep focused and give herself a reason to live. It was called “Jane the Concussion Slayer”. She adopted a secret identity, recruited allies and activated power-ups to battle the bad guys. Every day she tackled small goals and fought small battles that moved her closer to her goal of defeating the concussion.

Within a few days of playing she says the “fog of depression and anxiety went away” – just vanished. The symptoms took longer to go away but she says she stopped suffering and could feel positive again.

She wrote a few blog posts and put up a few videos and the idea started to catch on. She renamed the game “SuperBetter”, a game to help you achieve your health goals by increasing your personal resilience. This game is available today. The concept is just as applicable to job seekers and those bored with their careers as they are to people dealing with serious illness.

By making your challenge into a game you break the challenge down into manageable chunks you increase the likelihood you can achieve the little chunks that build into bigger achievements.

These small wins increase your resilience. Everyone could use a bit more resilience to take on the day, work with those allies to slay those dragons.

Resilience requires mental focus, discipline, determination and willpower. Willpower works like a muscle. You have to exercise it.

As job seekers or folks dealing with a difficult work situation, we need a deep capacity for resilience in order to keep coming back to our challenge with a smile.

Here are a few suggestions from Jane McGonigal’s TED Talk that might help build your resilience:

Take a walk and get some physical exercise. Activity builds physical resilience so get out of your chair right now and get active.
Count backwards from 100 by 7s. This is harder than it looks. Scientific research shows that this kind of brain work builds mental resilience.
Look up a kitten or puppy video on YouTube or picture on Google images. The ability to provoke powerful, positive emotions like that “aw…” you feel when you look at baby animals builds emotional resilience. It seems that experiencing positive emotions dramatically improves your ability to tackle problems.
Shake someone’s hand or send someone a quick thank you by social media. This builds social resilience. Shaking someone’s hand for six seconds actually increases the level of oxytocin in your bloodstream – the trust hormone.

How do you feel? Feel like you can take on the world after completing these exercises? You should. Now you have to practice these daily to build your resilience in the face of the big challenges we face in the world today.

According to Jane McGonigal, people who practice the four kinds of resilience daily live 10 years longer than everyone else! For an investment of a few minutes a day you can feel stronger, take on your challenges, achieve your goals AND live longer. What a deal!!