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Job Search

A lot of people email me about networking for career search, job changes, profession changes and so this last segment what we're going to be talking about is job search and how it's changing we're also going to be talking about they ask and how to make the ass now if you've been following some of the networking advice, you obviously are going to be more authentic in your approach more focused, more passionate meggie for instance, I know that you're really interested in the tech space you probably will have made a list and identify the companies that you're interested in doing the preplanning doing the research is going to help you be more effective and more productive, so we're going to spend about ten minutes going just through kind of some top line tips and ideas then I have a great associate to live met through the technology and the start of space in san francisco will be joining us and giving us some insight and expertise, so here we go, so would the job search, you know, there's ...

a lot of things that I think are really important. Lisa in the last two interview she was talking about quality materials and I have had the great fortune of interviewing many, many people over the years and I can't tell you how many typos I see, so you know, I really want people to think about when they're presenting themselves think like a marketer think about is your subject line in your email, something that people are going to open is your communication, typo free is the subject line, you know, wittier interesting, consider the target companies are different and there's going to be different approaches that are going to work at different companies. For example, one story that's in the book is about a woman who secured a job at zoe's e it's, an adventure experience online site where they send out e mails and, you know, to go kayaking and have fun. So the tone ality and kind of the feeling of that company is more playful and more youthful than perhaps a company that is more traditional or, you know, finance oriented. So if you're writing something, you know, think about who my writing it to who is going to be reading this, you know, the story in the book is about a woman who wrote an email to the ceo of zoe's e and she was a pr person, and she had so much passion for the company that she ended up getting hired without an interview like crazy things are happening, you know, in e mails, when you're trying to do job search, even if you're just doing informational interviews, have a specific ask, ask for the coffee date asked for are there two people that you can introduce me to in this space? Aa lot of people are not bringing the specifics to the conversation so we've talked a lot about that make sure you're doing that um I have talked a lot about linked in and we're gonna talk about lincoln with bill also but it's a great tool now that um both internal companies are using a lot to figure out who they can be searching and researching for and also externally recruiters are using it so don't forget about the power of linked in even one of you in the in this group I won't point you out, but somebody had called it oh yeah google found me on linked in and sent me an email. So right now there is a shift where more and more jobs are being filled based on social media profiles on internal connections on internal referrals and so your power of your network is becoming greater and greater it's no longer a classified ad search and I don't know if you guys recall that, but I do remember in my youth sitting there circling ads in the classifieds, right? And then I'd go to the library and research to the company and then I type up a letter and I news to the white out to fix the letter and then I kept a file so things have completely transformed and change once you've identified those contacts you know make sure that your resume and lincoln is strong and solid one that I can recommend that I think is a good profile is kelly who he is a contact of mine h o e y it's just a good example where it's not too long but it's it's a combination of very specific accomplishments but then she also uses the functionality on lincoln where you can ad presentations you can add videos so lincoln isn't just text based anymore so she has a great profile and one that I would recommend if you want to sample toe look at another thing that's happening is that depending on the feel that you're in, there are a lot of other ways to get resumes across so there are some people that are opening up doors with, you know, slide shares or maybe it's a video one woman that I hired at virgin america actually sent me a boarding pass that had her name on it and had, you know specific interests on it and that broke through the clutter so you know, sometimes you need to do things a little bit differently be unique but make sure that you're really thinking about again the fit in the totality of the company consider if you know anyone at the company making especially with you I was thinking about you last night with your interest in moving into the technology space you know, the first step is identifying which cos you're interested in, then you start digging further. Do I know anyone that's connected that company? Do I know anyone that I went to high school with that? Sarah, do I know you in college? Sort through as many of your contacts and really dig that layer and figure out, is there a way that I can get more information? Can I get an inside track? Because the inside track is going to be much faster than the anonymous one, so I can't wait t here if you do have some gold companies so we can help support you with that do your homework again so many times I would get people that were emailing me or writing they were, you know, I'm interested in and finding out if there are any jobs at virgin atlantic. Well, I work for virgin america and virgin atlantic is in the u k, you know, so make sure that you are asking the right person the right thing, spelling their name wrong. That would happen all time. Mr porter. Gail, I'm so excited to send you this communication. So think about that. Another thing kind of a seam that we've been having over the past two days is not tow, let the nose stop you and especially for the people that are watching online I do get some e mails last night, you know, really asking you know, if you're in a career change and, you know, trying to really change positions or industries if you're not a twenty year old that's coming out of college, what advice do you have? And I think that you have to kind of follow the path of inspiration and learn from the nose keep moving forward and we've heard it from people like sherra she had stumbling blocks, she kept moving forward, so if you really are passionate about the technology blogging that you're doing, you're really passionate about building your events and bringing to the next letter level don't let those little setbacks stop you, it's it's, critical hand written notes we've talked about that people sending follow ups that are unexpected, it can have a huge impact and I have pitted people send me, you know, a fruit basket where I'm just like blown away, I can't believe it. So you try to do things where the phrase I would use with my team at virgin america is fighting mediocrity, raised the bar in your interaction with people, follow up, thank them for the connections, make sure they recognize that you're you're grateful for their time and really take the high road it's also you know, if you want to consider having your own web site domain address so that if you're positioning yourself as a consultant, you know you might want a website address that is, you know, therese, embargo, dot com also making sure that you have business cards. These are all things that they may seem standard, but a lot of times people forget the details where they're not able to give their information quickly or be memorable, so make sure that you're doing that another thing that I recommend to people it is really kind of going through some prospecting exercises so again, long list in these air all exercises that are in the book, but looking online, there are some sites, yes and it's going to have to be industry specific and so, depending on what industry erie and there's one called the ladders that sends out a lot of marketing at content, but look to see if there are any online sites that are posting jobs in your industry and field. Update your linked in profile update your resume your bio try to get some references that you know that you can always turn to if you need them. So make sure that you have somebody that is both a higher level somebody that's managed to you. And maybe somebody that you've managed if you've been in a supervisory role because often people are asking now for three hundred sixty degree reviews, tell me somebody that you've worked with and somebody that has worked for you, I want to interview them. So so think about that and think about that now at your current position, because six months from now, a year from now, those relationships that you have here and you'll probably if you're working at creative life, you're going to be here for a long time. No one's leaving because it's a great place to be, but these relationships are the formation of your future network, so really recognize the power of that d'oh google search on yourself and see what you find if you don't find a lot of content, a really easy way to get more content about yourself is to start posting on google plus google plus goes very quickly into the search algorithm, and images will start popping up. So, for example, health and wellness tree. So I know that you're interested in that space if you started posting some blog's on google plus or some images. Uh, you know, that convey the sense of health and wellness and community and gathers those images. They're going to come up really quickly in a google search and going to show more credibility as you're trying to build your business base. So do your google search, send an email to your trusted friends if you are looking for opportunities, time and time again, if people don't know that you're looking or that you're in need, how do they know how to support you? So I did tell you the example of the virgin america job when I had lost my job at the ad agency, and oh, I was, you know, one of those those pivotal moments, or that I need to find something and the way that I ended up getting the lead was through somebody in my network I had e mailed, you know, ten or fifteen people that I really had strong relationships with and said, here's, the situation, you know, the place that I'm working is closing. I would really appreciate it if you keep me in mind if you hear of anything, let me know. So think about who are the people in your network that you can turn teo and asked them about that, um, your final test, you guys did your final test yesterday. But think about that are you going towards positions and jobs that actually are in line with your passions, your purpose and what you want to do because that's going to come through if you've had a bunch of characteristics that are one in one area and then you're going for a job that totally doesn't fit, you might have a disconnect and and people are going to be able to tell so really think about that conferences even events like this can be really powerful alaia I am going to put you on the spot because you just said to me that meeting lisa was one of your dream contacts absolute so you had no idea that you were going to come here to create of live and meet her so yeah, tell me about that and why that's a good contact for you I mean at like I mentioned I've been a blogger for a really long time and so I'm familiar with blogger I went to the conference a couple of years ago and it's a big you know, production put together well, people love it and they come year after year and then she's also, you know, a businesswoman and a professional and and as someone who's building my own conference and a community around that, you know blogger is an example of that too, you know, like the degree so sitting here and hearing her speak and then getting a chance to connect with her one on one was just amazing and just like the perfect connect that's great and you know what I love about that is yesterday in your goals I heard you say that you wanted to elevate in reach up and the interaction that I saw you two having was very equivalent and respectful and it was too piers saying hey let's, connect and get together and so you know, enjoy that and give yourself the benefit of what you've already created and applied yourself that you know, how the new contact right was great and I believe I heard her say can I get your connection wasn't at least asking us information in it it was just like wait, what is happening right now? It was a really great moment and fantastic experience good, good so I love that so don't undersell yourself don't minimize yourself raised the bar, go for things that are beyond your reach like push it and what's the worst thing that could happen, right? No and then you keep moving forward I love my associations are are really important if you have had the good fortune of being attached to a college don't forget the benefit of that carry I think you were saying you're going to re union yes, just like it's the second of august will you send us an email and let us know how that goes? Six pictures just to prove it for those of you that are online that are watching if there is somebody that's still in college or they're in positions where they have brakes, you know one thing that you can do while you're in college instead of taking that spring break get experienced by asking to job shadow someone can you go to work with someone? Look at all those moments like spring break as a productivity opportunity you khun go beyond internships now and make connections in that downtime volunteering your industry read all the industry trades again at our fingertips we have so much information, so if you do, you have the good fortune where you get the coffee or you get the interview, make sure that you're prepared. Um, we've talked a lot about tomorrow's today's intern being tomorrow ceo and I bet bill will tell us about that with a lot of the start of community, we've got a very young ceos in town and so make sure that you're really re sexual toe all the context, make sure that you are dressing appropriately for the environments that you're going to there's a different wardrobe in a lot of different environments here in san francisco might be one set of dress codes new york maybe another little things like being on time I have had so many people show up for interviews, words there fifteen minutes late to know it was traffic and like, don't let that happen. Do not be late to your interview. I don't care if you have to leave an hour early and then sit at the coffee shop across the street being respectful of people's time shows your interest in your professionalism, so just make sure that you're really following up in having a good manners and skills with all the energy being in prospecting talkto listen ratio, we talked a little bit about that earlier. I want to give you one example of a story that's in the book, how a gentleman ended up securing a position via creative use of email robin sloan, who is now an author and a media strategist. This was back in two thousand four, he started hearing about current tv, and he thought, wow, that sounds fascinating. I really want to work at current tv, and I I talked to robin about this later on, and he said he was, you know, just coming out of college, he was in florida and he was so passionate and he really knew that he wanted to work there like that was that he wanted to work at current tv, and his whole thought was that if he sent a resume that it would just blindly go into the clutter box and he would never get through. So what robin did was he? I actually found out who the cofounder was? It was al gore and joel hyatt co founded this television network. He found an email for joel that was publicly listed as a stanford email, and he decided that he was going to send him one business idea a day. So he said, you know, hello, my name is robin sloan, and, you know, I'm interest in your company because of this, and I'm going to send you an idea, dave, so he started doing this, but the ideas were ideas that demonstrated he could add value, that he was very smart in the space. He was doing his homework, and it was also done in a way where you know the tone ality of it, it didn't feel like he was a stalker, so I interviewed both joel and robin on both sides of the story to see it. Well, joel, what were you thinking? He said, well, I could tell they had good ideas, and so the content was there, the thinking was there and robin, because he was so passionate about it, he's thought I'm going on a road trip, I'm going to go visit my parents in michigan, I'm turning left and I'm going to california and basically in the last note it was like day twenty nine he said mr hyatte I am going to be in san francisco and I'd like to take you for coffee and he said well sure that'd be great why are you here in san francisco he said well I'm here because I'm coming to work for you you know and so by this point he had sent thirty great ideas and he ended up securing the meeting you know, demonstrating his passion and he got his foot in the door on had you know a successful career and then went off to twitter and has done a lot of interesting things in the media space but that is success that's not happening overnight right he's putting in the energy he's putting in the creativity he's putting in the time on dh he's really going for it so with that I really want you to think about if you are looking for a new position or a new company a new job just like you have the list where we've talked about what we're passionate about what's your dream job what what kind of environment do you think he would excel at what are the wish lists of haves and have nots is it commuting? Is it family friendly? Is it someplace where there's a lot of collaboration you know think about what you're looking for and how you can add value to those scenarios.