Job Search

5 Tips to Stay Fresh During Your Job Search

August 4, 2015 By Marta Goertzen

Finding a job can be exhausting. It can suck out a piece of your soul if you let it. The key is to stay fresh.

I remember standing on the Michigan Avenue Bridge in Chicago a few years ago watching probably a million people go to lunch. I was thinking that all those 1 million people have a job and I don’t. What is wrong with me? It felt like a heavy burden. After a while, that burden starts to leak through. People begin to smell your desperation.

How can you avoid undermining yourself during a job search?

Here are five tips to staying fresh during your job search. I bet none of these tips is ground breaking. We just forget sometimes.

Strengthen your body with plenty of exercise. Daily if you can. Get some positive endorphins running through your veins. It makes your skill and hair glow and gives you more energy. It reduces stress.
Get some sleep. Seven or eight hours a day, if possible. Sleep refreshes your mind and body and reduces stress.
Strengthen your mind. Read something other than the want ads or LinkedIn for a few minutes every day. Join a book club. Read a good murder mystery. This exercises another part of your mind and lets you relax the portion of your mind working on the job search.
Strengthen your soul. Exercise your spirituality. Meditate or pray or just get out in nature for a while to clear your head.
Get out of the house and get a different perspective. Take a bike ride or a walk. Join a club. Work on a hobby. Maybe clean a closet. Volunteer. Join a job seekers club or two, maybe learn a few new pointers on finding a job more effectively. The point is to get a different perspective.

Give yourself a break. Set limits. Work on your job search only eight hours a day (if you are not working), then go do something else for a while. Refreshing yourself means taking direct steps to reduce stress and find energy. You will feel better, stronger, and have more energy. It is worth it.

Networking to find your ideal target connection

July 31, 2015 By Marta Goertzen

I am on a tear about prospecting recently as I make connections to grow The Interview Doctor.

Recently I attended a presentation, “Pain-Free Prospecting”, by Dr. Lisa Van Allen that sheds a new light on prospecting or networking for job seekers.

Dr. Lisa offers a quiz to evaluate your prospecting skills. I have adjusted this quiz a little to apply to networking for job seekers. How well prepared on you to network today? Rate yourself on a 1 to 5 scale where 1 is not at all prepared and 5 is very well prepared.

Add up the numbers you circled. If your total is between 28 and 35, you are a networking pro. Please call The Interview Doctor and give us some tips! If your total is between 15 and 27, you have a good start. The items in which you scored 3 or less are the items you should work on. If your score is less than 15 you probably know you are not very comfortable networking. Since networking is the best way to find a job, you could be job search challenged.

Here are some ways Dr. Lisa suggests we use to become better at prospecting networking.

Understand what you have to offer. Dr. Lisa suggests that if you can complete these statements you will understand how to explain what you can offer.

“You know how some people __(explain the problem)_________________________________

And that causes them to __(explain the bad thing that happens due to the problem)________

Well, what I do is __(explain how you can solve the problem)___________________________

And that helps them to__(explain the good thing that happens because you came on the scene)”

This kind of statement might be a little simplistic but you have to be able to explain how you add value in a succinct fashion. Your goal is to build relationships by highlighting how you can help solve an important problem. Try this and see if this makes a difference.

Identify your ideal prospect. I am a strong believer that everyone you meet is a potential lead for prospecting and for networking. In job search some connections are closer to your goal than others. Dr. Lisa suggests we understand our ideal target connections in this way:

What are my perfect target connection’s attributes?
What makes my perfect target connection tick?
Where does my target connection hang out?
What is it about me that would make me attractive to my target connection?
What would make me more attractive? What should I highlight when I talk to my target connection?

Once you understand the characteristics of your ideal target connection you can use search techniques to find those people starting with LinkedIn. You can open the conversation with these ideal connections using the statement you created in the previous section.

By understanding how you add value and more about your target connection you can network like a pro. I am curious how you network. Please share your networking success stories and the techniques that work with the rest of us. We all want to get better at prospecting and networking!

How prepared are you to network to find a job

July 28, 2015 By Marta Goertzen

The longer I work as an entrepreneur the more convinced I am that networking in job search is very similar to prospecting for new clients.

I am constantly trying new techniques to meet people who might need help from The Interview Doctor. Today was a perfect example.

I was at a Panera catching up with an old friend, Chad (building and maintaining relationships). We were sitting outside enjoying a beautiful sunny morning chatting about the ways we are growing The Interview Doctor. We swapped some stories about ways to train human resource people to organize job search better.

After we said our goodbyes, a woman I didn’t know stopped me. She apologized for eavesdropping but overheard us talking about job search. Sarah is a stay at home mom ready to return to work. She just doesn’t know what to do to make it happen. This is a pretty common problem. Job search has changed so much that even taking a few years off to raise children makes a job seeker feel pretty inadequate.

Sarah and I exchanged cards. I will reach out to talk with her with the idea of building a relationship. Whether she becomes a client or not, I know I can help Sarah somehow. Reaching out to Sarah could lead to more connections, more relationships, and more business.

The exact same activity works for job seekers.

Find people who can potentially help or that you can help.

Reach out. Start conversations. Build relationships. Ask for referrals.

Job search and being an entrepreneur are not for the faint of heart. Working together we can make a difference for each other. Working together we can achieve our goals!

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.

Do you have Executive Presence?

July 7, 2015 By Marta Goertzen

Recently the word went out on my network seeking an HR leader with “executive presence”. What does that even mean?

I know lots of HR people at all levels. As I ran through my list only a few jumped out as having “executive presence”, even among people with VP in their title. It got me thinking. What behavior distinguishes someone as having executive presence? I decided to do a little research.

Executive presence is “part charisma, part gravitas with a dash of ineffable” according to a Fortune book review of Executive Presence: The Missing Link between Merit and Success by Sylvia Ann Hewlett in “Can Executive Presence be learned”. Executive presence can be that elusive element that determines whether your career takes off or whether you experience one stalled promotion after another. Think Steve Jobs, Larry Ellison, Don Draper, Angelina Jolie.

According to the author, someone with executive presence commands attention. This is the person you notice first when you walk into a room. Not necessarily the most attractive or smartest person, the person with executive presence has a unique combination of attributes that is compelling.

Take this little quiz summarizing “7 Traits of executive presence, the key to winning people over” by Jun Medalla in Business insider. Be honest now. Would people describe you as:

Excellent composure
Make a great connection with people
Charismatic
Confident
Credible
Clear communicator
Concise

If you can honestly check off at all seven of these characteristics then you probably have an executive presence to be reckoned with.

But what if you don’t recognize these characteristics in yourself? Are you destined for the corner? Never fear, these characteristics can be learned! Here are some tips to cultivate executive presence from Bruna Martinuzzi:

Hone your conversation skills. You want to put people at ease by including everyone in the conversation. This makes you interesting.
Cultivate character and authenticity with “a strong inner core of values and beliefs and a strong sense of clarity about who you are and what you stand for.” This makes you compelling.
Show warmth so you are approachable and engaging to everyone you meet. Smile and really mean it. This makes you pleasant to be around.
Be present so you can focus on other people. This makes you generous.
Develop executive maturity so you handle every situation with grace. This demonstrates poise under fire.
Deliver messages with clarity, confidence and pose. This makes you a good presenter and a great communicator.
Seek feedback. Get a coach or a trusted advisor to give you feedback as you manage the perceptions others have of you. This makes you smart.

You are not born with executive presence. You cultivate it over a lifetime with feedback and attention, just as you cultivate an honest, stimulating, refreshing character.

Job Search

Finding a job can be exhausting. It can suck out a piece of your soul if you let it. The key is to stay fresh.

Here are five tips to staying fresh during your job search. I bet none of these tips is ground breaking. We just forget sometimes.

Give yourself a break. Set limits. Work on your job search only eight hours a day (if you are not working), then go do something else for a while. Refreshing yourself means taking direct steps to reduce stress and find energy. You will feel better, stronger, and have more energy. It is worth it.

I am on a tear about prospecting recently as I make connections to grow The Interview Doctor.

Here are some ways Dr. Lisa suggests we use to become better at prospecting networking.

By understanding how you add value and more about your target connection you can network like a pro. I am curious how you network. Please share your networking success stories and the techniques that work with the rest of us. We all want to get better at prospecting and networking!

The longer I work as an entrepreneur the more convinced I am that networking in job search is very similar to prospecting for new clients.

Job search and being an entrepreneur are not for the faint of heart. Working together we can make a difference for each other. Working together we can achieve our goals!

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.

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.

Recently the word went out on my network seeking an HR leader with “executive presence”. What does that even mean?

Start today so I can recommend YOU the next time a recruiter calls for a referral!