Big Book of Job-Hunting Hacks

BEST IN SHOW—GENERAL WEBSITES

The Riley Guide, www.rileyguide.com.

Toronto Public Library, “Career and Job Search Help Blog,” http://torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/jobhelp.

The Wall Street Journal, “Careers,” www.careerjournal.com.

Weddle’s, www.weddles.com. Sign up for the free e-newsletter WEDDLE’s Newsletter for Job Seekers & Career Activists at www.weddles.com/seekernews/index.cfm.

WetFeet, www.wetfeet.com.

Quintessential Careers, www.quintcareers.com.

LIBRARY RESOURCES
Check Out Your Library

We may be biased, but your public library has valuable resources you can use to start your search that will help out for its duration. You’re likely to find the job-search information you’re looking for already neatly compiled, along with knowledgeable help and guidance, free computer and Internet use, and perhaps even valuable workshops and meetings.

“I think people want individual attention,” says librarian Bonnie Easton of the people who come to her Career Center at the Cuyahoga County (Ohio) Public Library. “They want some sense that they’re going in the right direction. This is hard to figure out when you’re on your own.”

Jerome L. Myers, MLS, the main library manager at the Tacoma (Washington) Public Library’s Education and Job Center, adds, “The first thing job seekers have to do is look into what they want to do and figure out the career they want. This is a great place to start.”

As soon as you get the word out that you’re looking for work, you should be ready for potential employers and your extended network to contact you. So before you contact anyone, take an inventory of the ways they can contact you:

You’ll need an address to sign in to many websites, to include in online job applications, and so that employers can communicate with you. Make sure you use the same e-mail address for all your job-search activities. Consider setting up a separate account just for job-search-related communications; this will make it easier to track your search. Just remember to check that in-box frequently!

TIP: NEVER USE YOUR WORK E-MAIL ADDRESS TO LOOK FOR A NEW JOB. NOT ONLY IS IT AN ABUSE OF YOUR EMPLOYER’S RESOURCES THAT CAN GET YOU IN TROUBLE, IT SENDS A TERRIBLE MESSAGE TO ANY POTENTIAL HIRERS.

Whichever e-mail address you decide to create or use, make sure it sounds professional. If you’re currently found at tequilalover@freeemail.com or adasmommy@hotmail.com, take a few minutes to create a second address for job-search communications.

FOUR FREE E-MAIL OPTIONS

You can set up and use an e-mail account without spending a dime. Consider any of the following easy-to-use options for your job-search e-mail:

Gmail—http://mail.google.com

Offered through Google, with the side benefit of automatic access to Google Docs.

Mail.com—www.mail.com

Choose from 250 different addresses, including@techie.com or @accountant.com.

Yahoo! Mail—http://mail.yahoo.com

While Yahoo! doesn’t seem as professional as Gmail or mail.com, it’s easy to use and perfectly acceptable.

Windows Live Mail—http://mail.live.com

Formerly Hotmail, and still found at hotmail.com with @hotmail addresses.

Because they are web-based, these accounts can be accessed from any computer, anywhere, including the stations in your library.

Before you draft a résumé or input contact information into a search site, decide which telephone number you’re going to use throughout your search. (Again, don’t even consider using your current work number.) Your cell phone is the most logical choice, because it is your personal number and completely in your control.

Listen to the voice-mail recording on the phone you’ve chosen to make sure it sounds appropriate to potential employers who may hear it. Ditch any jokes or silliness, background music, and rambling. Rerecord it if necessary, to include your name (“You’ve reached the voice mail of . . .”) and the promise to call back as soon as possible.

During your search, focus on professionalism every time your phone rings. Be careful to check the caller ID readout and, unless you are absolutely sure that you know the friend or family member who’s calling, answer the call in a professional way, the way you might if you were already working at your great job: “Good morning, this is Jim.”

It’s always been standard practice to include street address on every résumé and cover letter—but consider whether you want to do this. If you think that sharing this information may be unnecessary or even harmful to your search—revealing an extralong commute may bring up doubts that you will stick with the job long term, for example—you may want to avoid including a “snail mail” address.

Of course, another option if you don’t want to publicize your address, either to specific hirers or the entire Internet world, is investing in a PO box and using that as your job-search address.

Prepare to be Googled. One last “before you . . .” step in your prejob search process: browse the Internet to see what kind of presence you have. Search on your full name with and without your town (and town of employment) to see what comes up.

GOOD things include projects you’ve been involved with in your current and past jobs, your LinkedIn profile, and community activities.

BAD things include inappropriate remarks and photos posted by yourself or “friends” on Facebook. If your search turns up drunken poses, sexually suggestive comments, etc., try your best to have them removed. If a friend refuses to delete something from Facebook, ask that they change privacy settings so that only friends can see it.

FACTOID

Microsoft commissioned an online reputation survey in 2009, in which 79 percent of U.S. hiring managers and job recruiters said they conducted online searches on job applicants. And 70 percent of those potential hirers stated that they had rejected a candidate based on what they found online!

The absolute basic skills needed for any job search now include the ability to use a computer well enough to find and fill out an online job application—which in turn will require an e-mail address. This is true even for positions that will never require you to use these skills on the job—including retail store workers and fast-food restaurant employees.

If you’re not comfortable using the Internet, your public library may be able to help. “You can learn basic computer skills here, and then learn every stage of the job search,” says Jerome Myers, the main library manager at the Tacoma (Washington) Public Library’s Education and Job Center.

If you’re not familiar with using the Internet, you will be—your job search will teach you browsing skills fast! But here are some basics to keep in mind as you get started:

Logging In: Many job-search sites will require you to set up an account and then log in every time you want to check listings. Put some consideration into creating a user name and password for these sites.

Secure passwords use a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols. You can use the same user name and password for every job-search site to ensure you’ll remember them.

TIP: Your user name may be seen by the public, so choose something professional, just like your e-mail address.

CAPTCHA: Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart is the program that asks you to type in one or more words displayed as distorted images. This is becoming standard for many sites that require users to input personal information; it proves that the person entering the site is a real human being and not a web-crawling robot used to hack sites.

Protect Your Privacy: Check each job-search site (and résumé-writing service or other site that requires you to enter personal information) for a privacy policy. This is a legal document that outlines how your personal information may be used. Consider that you’re typing in all sorts of information that can be used for unwanted solicitations and even identity theft.

Keep in mind that any information you post on sites, including your résumé, can be found and read by anyone—so be stingy with how much you share! This includes posting any contact information for your references.

In addition to an Internet connection, you’ll need software to create and revise your résumé and cover letters. Microsoft Word is the most common, but there are specific programs for this. If you don’t own Word and want a standard-format résumé, you can use Google Docs, a free online service that includes a résumé template. You simply type over the sample résumé to create your own, without purchasing or using any word-processing software (https://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dghd5rk7_0hzd4bzfx).

You will also need to create PDFs. If you don’t have Adobe Acrobat and you are using a Windows operating system, you can download free software called PDFCreator from http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator.

Again, if you don’t have any of these programs, your public library can probably help.

TIP: If you are creating or revising documents at a computer outside your home, buy a usb flash drive (also called a thumb drive or memory stick) and save all your documents on it so you’ll always have them handy. Never save your personal documents to the hard drive of a computer you don’t own!

And if you’re creating your résumé while away from your home, make sure you bring (or have memorized) all the necessary information to be included, including dates of past employment.

Any additional software you might need would be for keeping your search organized, which is covered in the next section.

Aside from some basic computer knowledge, an Internet connection, and a couple of software programs, you need one more thing to begin your job search: a plan. Your plan should include:

1. A clear strategy on what you want in your next job and what you don’t

2. A schedule to hold yourself accountable

3. Goals to keep your job search moving ahead

4. A system for tracking what you’ve done

5. A plan for improving your salability on the job market

TIP: YOUR JOB SEARCH IS LIKE A JOB IN ITSELF, SO MAKE IT SEEM LIKE ONE. CHOOSE AN AREA IN YOUR HOME AS YOUR “JOB-SEARCH OFFICE” AND KEEP ALL INFORMATION, FILES, AND SUPPLIES THERE, INCLUDING YOUR CALENDAR AND TO-DO LIST.

Take some time to think through what you are looking for. You should have a clear idea of what type(s) of positions you want and which you can realistically apply for. You should also calculate how much money you need to pay your bills and meet financial obligations (including savings) and how much you want to make. Other general “wants” might include:

• Location: How far are you willing to commute? Are you willing to relocate?

• Does your family or personal life put any constraints on your work, such as inability to travel or need for flexible hours?

• Are there any “must-haves” to include in your search? These may include certain benefits, an option for working from home, or a certain level of management responsibilities.

Most full-time employees today have a forty-hour workweek. If you’re out of work, that’s how much time you should dedicate to your job search. If you’re employed while you’re job hunting, you’ll have to find as much personal time as you can for your job search.

No matter what your employment situation, your first step is to figure out a realistic schedule for each day and each week that devotes plenty of time to researching, networking, and reading and answering ads for open positions. Then stick to that schedule. This can be the toughest part of any job search, but you can do it! Write your daily schedule in your calendar if necessary, or create a daily to-do list that includes your job-search steps. Or do both!

For example, in addition to a preset number of hours spent browsing job boards online, you might block out every Wednesday morning from 9 to 11 a.m. for research at your public library, and then dedicate Wednesday afternoon from 2 to 4 p.m. to commenting on online industry and job-search forums and blogs.

TIP: IF YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE STICKING TO YOUR JOB SEARCH, ENLIST A COLLEAGUE OR FRIEND WHO WILL HOLD YOU ACCOUNTABLE. PERHAPS YOU CAN TEAM UP WITH SOMEONE IN YOUR JOB SUPPORT NETWORK, OR JUST A SUPPORTIVE FRIEND. SIMPLY TELLING SOMEONE WHAT YOU PLAN TO ACCOMPLISH TODAY (OR THIS WEEK) WILL GIVE YOU A NUDGE TO DO IT. IF NOT, HAVING THAT PERSON ASK YOU IF YOU COMPLETED WHAT YOU PLANNED SHOULD HELP YOU STAY ON SCHEDULE.

DAILY JOB-SEARCH TO-DO LIST

• Check your e-mail (at least twice a day)

• Respond to any employer, recruiter, or networking contact who e-mails that same day

• Check voice mail throughout the day if you’re away from your phone

• Log all jobs applied to, contacts talked to (or e-mailed), and events attended

Putting in the time is not the goal; getting results is. With this in mind, set specific goals for each day, week, and month. Rather than aiming for a certain number of jobs applied for—this will lead you to send applications or résumés for unsuitable fits—set goals for new research sources found, the number of in-person networking events you’ll attend, the number of telephone cold calls you’ll make, etc.

At the end of each day and each week, note your progress. Did you meet your goals? What were the results you gleaned? If you find that your goals were set too high (or too low), adjust them accordingly for the days and weeks ahead.

Your job-search plan must include an organizational system. This includes the schedule (with daily and weekly to-do lists) and goals you’ve set up, along with ways to keep track of what you’ve done. This is much easier if you “log in” each activity as soon as you’ve completed it.

Later in this book you’ll get specific information on what types of records to keep, but you should be prepared from the start to record every position you apply for, every promising contact you make through networking, and every step that follows either of these.

You can keep your records electronically or on paper, but you’ll need a system that alerts you about when (and how) to follow up and helps you remember which résumé went to which company.

If you’ve already started your job search, go through every application or résumé you’ve turned in and try to reconstruct what you’ve done.

As you’ll find out in Chapters 4 and 5, you’re going to end up with multiple versions of your résumé and cover letter. You’ll want to save these so that you can retrieve them in the event that you get a call-back about an opening you applied for, or simply because you want to re–revise a certain version of your résumé.

All these documents should be saved electronically; there is no reason to print out every version. Devise a naming system for your files that is easily scannable and understandable and keep everything in a folder such as “Résumés.” This should be placed in another folder with any other job-search documentation you may acquire.

If you prefer, you can store your résumés and letters online, using Google Documents (http://docs.google.com). This free system lets you upload documents and then access them from any computer with an Internet connection anywhere.

If you find it difficult to work with a completely computer-based system, you can keep notes of which résumé went to which job ad by either printing out a spreadsheet (covered in Chapter 3) or writing it out in longhand.

TRACK YOUR EXPENSES

As part of your general organizational system, keep track of any expenses related to your job search. The costs of getting business cards printed, mileage and parking fees for interviews, phone calls, and much more may all be tax deductible. The IRS states, “You can deduct certain expenses you have in looking for a new job in your present occupation, even if you do not get a new job.” Note that expenses related to looking for a job in a new field are not deductible.

Are there skills you need to acquire in order to apply for your dream job? What about skills that may boost your income level? If you know of something that will give you an edge in your job hunt—like learning a new software program or understanding the key concepts in an emerging trend—devote some of your time to learning it. You may be able to do this by reading, by taking a class or practice exam at your local library, or through volunteer work.

Looking for a job can be lonely work—especially if you’re unemployed and cut off from the busy work environment you’re used to. To stay connected to the professional world, get the support and advice you need, get out of the house and find a job-search club or a networking support group. (See Chapter 6.) A group like this will provide emotional support, and you’ll be able to share advice and even your contacts with other members.

If you can’t find a group you like, consider starting your own—or you can go the online route with a group on Meetup.com, Yahoo! Groups, or Google Groups. But don’t let your online relationships be your only support—you should also regularly ask friends, former coworkers, and new networking contacts to meet you for a cup of coffee or a walk around the park. Discuss your job search, ask for ideas, or simply catch up on news from the “outside world.”

You will almost certainly revise your job-search plan as you go. Once you have spent some time in the trenches looking for a job, you’ll have a better understanding of the commitments, activities, and results involved. This should lead you to add and revise goals, shift your schedule around, and tweak your organizational system. This is fine—just be sure that you are working as hard as you need to in order to find a great job!