Katherine Burik

Job Search Tip: Set Job Search Goals

May 4, 2020 By Katherine Burik

Learn why it’s important to set goals in your job search marketing plan and get the job you want.

Katherine Burik is a Job Search / Career Coach and, in this video, she shares her tips on how and why you need to set goals in your job search marketing plan. Once you achieve your goals, you have reason to celebrate your accomplishments in your job search.

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Prepare a Checklist to Make a Great Resume for Your Job Search

April 27, 2020 By Katherine Burik

Recently I had a spirited conversation with a job seekers group about resume trends.

Everyone brought their resume and I brought samples for discussion purposes. I think everyone took home some ideas.

As usual, we started with two admonishments:

Everyone should know what they want. Always the best way to start because, otherwise, how will you know what aspects of your fantastic career to include in your resume? Without knowing what you want, you will just randomly add stuff. Your resume will just be a list of stuff.

Be strategic. Identify three of the most important things you want the company to know about you. Sprinkle accomplishments about those important items through your resume. Eliminate everything not related to your top priorities.

These are my resume non-negotiables:

Find keywords. Look through job descriptions to find words that appear in all the jobs you want. Sprinkle those words throughout your resume. Consider ways to replace your keywords for similar words. This will help you be found.

Place keywords strategically in the top half of page 1. This is the most valuable real estate on your resume. Set up your keywords and phrases in a table at the top and repeat those keywords frequently in the job experience text.

Have a headline. The headline is one of the first places readers look. Readers get an impression in their minds of what they should expect from the accomplishments tucked into the resume. Everything else they read either confirms or denies the headline. So make the best first impression with the right headline.

Use less words and offer plenty of white space. Like a reduced sauce in a restaurant, fewer words allows you to keep the flavor while making a more intense impression. Your resume should look pleasing to the eye so the reader notices what you want them to see, not a million words wall to wall on the page.

These are the other ideas that we came up with:

Use color to make a brand impression. Graphics, columns, color blocking, and colored lines are all acceptable these days, in most professions. Make your branding consistent across your resume, business cards and LinkedIn profile.

Use bullets and sub-bullets to make it easier for readers to see your accomplishments.

Take off dates on education unless you are a recent graduate. Also, education goes at the end unless you are a recent graduate.

Don’t break up a job between two pages. Find a way to have all the information about a specific job title on the same page. You can divide experiences in one company onto a second page but not the bullets for one job.

Be consistent with font, bolding, capitalization, and spacing. Avoid underlining.

Two pages vs one page? Your choice, but I draw the line at more than two pages for almost anyone.

Pictures? I don’t think so but I’ve seen pictures included on some really beautiful resumes lately, so it is your call. You already have a picture on your LinkedIn profile. You could put it on your business card and marketing brochure if you want, but I would keep it off the resume.

A resume is a tool that is just one piece in your job search plan. You MUST have a resume that helps you stand out from the crowd and catches the attention of hiring managers. If not, you may not even get to the interview stage of your job search.

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Job Search Tip: Create a List of Target Companies

April 13, 2020 By Katherine Burik

Learn how and why it’s important to create a list of target companies.

Katherine Burik is a Job Search / Career Coach and, in this video, she shares her tips on how and why you need to make a list of target companies. This list is the corner-stone to your job search marketing plan.

Get more Job Search Tips from the Interview Doctor and Interview with confidence. Get your free copy of the “Career Advancement Tips Sheet” for more tips on how to put together a great job search marketing plan and create the career you want!

Want to learn how to Find a Better Job? Register for this FREE LinkedIn Training from the Interview Doctor – Get instant access here.

Creative Job Search Marketing Plans Make You Stand Out

March 31, 2020 By Katherine Burik

Everyone looking for a job needs a plan – a job search marketing plan. Our plans might be different but that is fine if you have a plan.

Leigh March is doing something unusual in her job search marketing plan to differentiate herself from the job search competition!

Leigh’s name came up when I reached out to my first and second level LinkedIn connections who have the words “seek” or “in transition” in their LinkedIn profiles. I sent her an invitation to connect, with a note asking what she is doing to find her next job. We started a lovely conversation!

Leigh created a movie using iMovie with voiceover describing how her digital marketing experience can help companies solve problems. It is very clever! She sends that video to folks she reaches out to, then she sends her resume if there is further interest. The video sparks discussion, which is necessary to build relationships on LinkedIn. She also has a video and graphic resume!

It is hard to imagine that anyone would have a problem with Leigh’s approach but Leigh estimates that about 5% of people are not nice. That has been tough. But Leigh considers every bit of feedback.

Sometimes she discovers that the person making a negative comment has a less professional LinkedIn profile than hers, which makes her feel confident! She takes negative feedback with a grain of salt. She said, “When you put yourself out there on social media or network, you have to accept the bad with the good and not be discouraged.”

Some feedback offers ideas she incorporates into her job search marketing plan. Sort of a crowdsourcing approach to job search marketing plans!

Regardless of the feedback, Leigh finds this is a great way to start conversations with people she doesn’t know yet. Leigh says, “The video has opened the door to several networking opportunities, which in turn has created several liaisons in companies of interest.” She is tracking her progress, her outreach and her successes. Setting goals and tracking progress is a solid part of her plan.

I applaud this creative job search marketing plan! Leigh’s approach demonstrates she is strong, has interesting ideas, and is not afraid to step out into the limelight.

You don’t have to specialize in digital marketing to create an outreach plan that is a little different. I am not a digital media specialist, but I learned how to create videos and animate PowerPoint presentations just by looking at YouTube videos. You can too if you want to differentiate yourself from the other folks competing for the job you want.

What are you doing to differentiate yourself from others in your job search? Do you have a job search marketing plan or are you just floating along, sending your resume to the black hole of job postings?

In your job search marketing plan, don’t forget to prepare for video interviews.

Shine! At your next Job Search Video Interview! Click here to watch and listen to Katherine Burik in these video vignettes as she prepares for a video interview. See her mistakes and learn best practices. Listen, enjoy, prepare!

Shine! At your next Job Search Video Interview

March 30, 2020 By Katherine Burik

Learn how to prepare for a video interview using Job Search Tips with the Interview Doctor.

Katherine Burik is a Job Search / Career Coach and, in this video of video vignettes, she prepares for a video interview. See her mistakes and learn best practices. Listen, enjoy, prepare!

Get more Job Search Tips from the Interview Doctor and Interview with confidence. Get your free copy of “Top 30 Most FAQ at a Job Interview” and change how you interview by being prepared for those Job Interview Questions!