Facebook fiasco

Online mishap

One California woman, while trying to shield portions of her Facebook page from employers, accidentally blocked her sister. Who promptly unfriended her.

On the phone

If the ad says call to apply, don't phone without a script. This should include introducing yourself and telling how your abilities and experience deliver what the employer needs.

Networking

On Facebook, join professional groups in your area of expertise. "Like" potential employers' pages.

Don't ask for a job when networking, this author writes. Good advice. But she appears to say network only with people you know well enough to take to lunch. I would suggest you need to interact with a lot more people than that if you're going to find a job.

Noted

Don't judge the job market by listings on Monster of Careerbuilder. Since those general boards are abysmally poor at finding people work, more postings there don't mean a great deal.

One exective in India says applicants with a Yahoo or Hotmail email address are immediately eliminated.

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Timing

When -- and When Not -- to Job Hunt

The first 2 hours of the day are the door to achievement. You're fresh. Do the tough stuff then. Let the rote activities fall to the afternoon when you're more on automatic.

One articles suggests checking Facebook or LinkedIn for job hunting while at work. Very bad idea. If your employer catches you doing that, you may well be able to job hunt 40 hours a week.

Online Networking

Follow on Twitter the key decision makers of the company you're targeting.

The new networking opportunity--Google+. Posts can be restricted to certain "circles" so professional networkers don't see news about your son's basketball triumph.

Length of Unemployment

The government, hard at work, has calculated the percentage chance you'll find a job if you're been out of work so many weeks. Maybe we should add a couple of government statisticians to the unemployment roll.

One web site writes the jobs "crisis is virtually over." Apparently they didn't see the June numbers. Oddly the comments for the page are closed. "There are no icebergs ... "

The Wall Street Journal (who didn't get the memo about the crisis being over) writes you have to go back to the 1940s to find such long periods of unemployment.

Stanislaus County, California has a 17.2% unemployment rate--same as it was a year ago.

Noted

1,862 applications, 3 years and no job offers. It's time to change the approach. Maybe filing only 1.7 applications a day allows her to deep-research each company and network with people inside.

But I wonder how you effectively network with 1,862 insiders. Remember--if you haven't had give and take with a decision maker on the inside, filing an application is nearly worthless.

A job search is all about sales. If you don't know about sales, you need to read some of the myriad how to books. (If you turn out to be good here, that's a whole new job field to explore!)


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Light Bulb Time

Innovative "Get Seens"

One person put a QR on the back of his CV. When scanned with an I Phone, the code triggered a video of him pitching his availability.

Another guy took out Google AdWords with the key words being the executives he was trying to reach. When they googled themselves, they found these ads toting the applicant.

One author notes you have to think of new ones--being the fifth or tenth guy walking with a sandwich board gets yawns, not applause.

Résumé

Times New Roman is dated, this author thinks. Better: Helvetica, Arial or Verdana.

Personally, if you don't know anybody inside the company and what the CEO had for breakfast, print your résumé on toilet paper. Because that's about what it will be worth. A résumé is the end product of the job search process, never the beginning.


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Switch from Monster to Ebay

Job Boards

"... major job boards are the least effective job search method of all, plain and simple. Reportedly, employers are discovering that too and cutting back.

Yeah, think about moving over to Ebay. This guy tried to sell himself there, looking for a job.

Interviewing

Informational interviews are great. While the linked author uses them to talk about the jobseeker, I prefer to emphasize learning about the company and career path. I wouldn't even mention a job. I would do a lot of research, dress well and ask good questions. The two of us agree on a final point--sent a thank you card.

When I started out in business, I worked for the phone company as a customer service rep. If we asked a question the customer had already answered, we got penalized. It was good training. In a job search, don't ask a prospective employer a question you should know the answer to--such as how long they've been in business when that information is on their web site.

Noted

Stop every once in a while and evaluate the tasks you're using for your job search. Are they producing? Are any of them a waste of time? Sometimes we get into a rut of doing something we can churn out but that isn't moving us forward. We keep on with this comfort, avoiding unfamiliar, possibly productive things to do.

Job books invariably say hold out for a job that you find deeply satisfying. One job coach disagrees, "I don't care if you find the ideal job. Bliss isn't the goal; re-employment is the goal."



Image courtesy of Keattikorn

The exception to the rule ...

Carpetbombing works--once

One man posted hundreds of flyers on lampposts about his job search.

The good news: this got him a job.

The bad news: he also got a $120 fine. (He plans to fight the citation.)

A humorous look at the receiving end of carpetbombing the résumé ends with some pretty good suggestions on how to job search better.

Noted:

If your industry has a local, state or national organization, part of networking is showing up. You might even consider volunteering for a committee.

The Fair Employment Opportunity Act of 2011 would make discrimination against unemployed persons illegal. This legislation, just introduced into Congress, would prevent employment ads which limit applications to those currently employed.

Want to deduct job searching expenses on your federal income tax form? It's not the easiest thing in the world but it's possible.


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Someone else may be out of a job

June Numbers

Bummed by the June job numbers? So is the president. A political scientist of our acquaintance said he thought Obama was a shoo-in for 2012 until the last job figures came out. Now our source thinks the prez has a problem.

For one thing, unemployment is 1.6 points higher than when he took office 2 1/2 years ago. (Mr. President, if you end up looking for a job, there's a free copy of How to Find a Job with your name on it.)

On the other hand, you can look at the numbers like Forbes does: " ... we’re continuing to see minimal improvement in job market." No, I have no idea what they're talking about.

Even more embarrassing, Alberta--a single province in Canada--added more jobs in June (22,000) than the whole United States did (18,000).

It's worse if you're a teen. California and Georgia are tied for "worst teen unemployment" in the US--34.6%!

Networking

Going for huge numbers of LinkedIn contacts is meaningless--people are only useful if you're working with them. Give and take. Lila in this cartoon strip makes the same point a tad more poetically.

Might want to consider a quick email monthly to your networking group. Presumbably you're interacting with them more frequently than that--but perhaps over specific issues. It may be a good idea to give them a short "big picture" every 4 weeks.

Cris Recruits a Company is an interesting look at what a blog can do to help the search. It's another chance for a company to see how you self-start, create and deliver.

Research

I advocate intensely studying a company to come up with 10 ways they can improve their bottom line. Another person says you should create a full "White Paper" and mail it to everybody. I don't go along with "carpet bombing" but we agree on research. You can't go in cold.


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Image courtesy of Marcus74id

June brings more bad news

Optimists take another beating

Those who say jobs are picking have to explain more bad news. The nation added only 18,000 new nonfarm jobs in June, down from 54,000 in May, according to a news alert from the New York Times.

Since May's number was a crash from April's 232,000 new jobs, this new report was particularly unwelcome. June's unemployment rate rose to 9.2%.

Carpet bombing doesn't work any more

One job applicant has "blanketed the country in résumés". Unsurprisingly, this hasn't worked. That was an effective strategy 65 years ago--carpet bombing helped win the war in Japan.

But it didn't work in Vietnam and it's ineffective today.

She needs to remember employers really have only a single question and they're very stupid.

She's apparently not answering that question: "What can you do for me?"

Probably her résumé is great and has all the skills on the employers' ads. But employers can't connect the dots.

"I have experience in X" is one thing.

"I suspect doing Y on B would boost your profits in Pennsylvania by 2%. That's how using my skills in X could help your company today" is a far different story.

Delivering that kind of suggestion requires focus and research. You don't have time to drop résumés nationwide. But look at the difference in impact.

A job with NO competition

I reported last month that India cannot find a hangman. Zimbabwe has the same problem--the last one retired in 2005. Six years later, they've been unable to find a replacement.

Unfortunately the pay isn't much--the monthly $300 Zimbabwean dollars are worth about 79 US cents.

Talking to prospective employers

Some companies are interviewing eight to twelve people as a group.

Employers say this is a good way to judge cultural fit and watch leadership skills when the group is assigned a task.

Some applicants call the process demeaning. Hands leaping up to answer questions remind one of Jeopardy. Other observers say leadership takes time to develop.

The experience certainly tells the applicant a lot about the company.

Edit, edit, edit. One job advice columnist wrote "Use the information generated in exercise #1 to create a 30-minute marketing statement or "elevator speech"" (emphasis added). That's one hellatious elevator talk. Doublecheck your deodorant before beginning.

Tidbits

A British TV show where winners get jobs is being criticized as "crass and humiliating." Apparently you can't watch Donald Trump in the UK.

Hour long networking on Twitter becomes a virtual job club.

Having just one job may become old fashioned as underemployment flows throughout the economy.


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Image courtesy of nuttakit