Our Job Support mission focuses on these items.
Mentor job seekers.
A venue for networking.
Career workshops to build job-search skills.
Resume and handbill development.
Interview guidance and practice.
Elevator speech development and practice.
“Do one thing every day that scares you.” –Eleanor Roosevelt
Our Job Support meetings focus on these items.
- Mentor job seekers
- A venue for networking
- Career workshops to help guide your job search.
- Resume and handbill development.
- Interview guidance and practice.
- Elevator speech development and practice.
- Speakers to education and inform.
Remember – Everyone within 3 feet should know you’re in job search. In these days of COVID-19, that could translate into everyone with whom you communicate by phone or online.
"Tell Me About Yourself" - Time To Roll Out Your Elevator Speech
An elevator speech should be short and to the point — about as long as it takes for the average elevator to get to the top floor of the average building. It should consist of your name, your target profession/job title, your targeted industry, and some target companies. That comes from 24/7 mentor Mark Lyons.
Gene Flynn, who leads Holy Family’s workshops, offers this from his Job Search 101 session.
People are often willing to help you, but they need to understand what you are looking for and that you are competent.
- No more than 30-seconds
- Your name
- A clear statement of the position sought
- A brief statement of your added-value or brand
- A short ask for advice
A job seeker needs at least two different versions, one to give to a general audience and a second to give to an industry-knowledgeable person (where you might use industry specific terms and abbreviations.)
Tom Kabarec's Five-Step Networking
Send out 5 solid postings per day – applications, resumes and submissions to companies. Do this outside of the networking hours of 9 to 5 pm.
Have 4 face-to-face interactions with people for networking opportunities. Have coffee or lunch, a one-on-one meeting with someone to get advice, direction and new networking contacts
Attend at least 3 good networking events – similar to Holy Family Job Support – to create new contacts. The goal is to make new contacts with people with whom you may have coffee and share contacts.
Try to get at least 2 interviews per week. That may be a face-to-face, phone or online interview.
Spend some time on yourself! Walk, work out, clean the garage, etc.
DON’T CONFUSE #1 AND #5!
Building Your LinkedIn Profile
LinkedIn is a critical piece of your job search toolkit. Building a professional profile takes time and effort. It’s especially overwhelming for people who haven’t been in the job market for the past 10 – 15 years!
Fortunately, Holy Family Job Support has a LinkedIn expert among us. Here are Denis Curtin’s top 10 LinkedIn tips.
- Your profile strength should be All-Star level.
- Have at least 501 connections.
- Include a head and shoulders picture of yourself in your interview outfit.
- Create a custom URL for your profile, using your first and last name.
- Join up to 100 LinkedIn groups.
- Join the largest groups that have more than 500,000 members.
- Add your Word (.doc) document resume using Slideshare to your Featured section.
- Add 50 Skills and Expertise. Get endorsements.
- Obtain at least three written recommendations.
- List your email address at the Start of the About section.
- Complete the information in the #Open to work section.
- Be sure to add a banner photo at the top of your profile
One of our Holy Family Job Support Group members is Bruce Bixler – one of the foremost Social Media & LinkedIn Coaches.
Read Bruce’s Top 10 Weekly Activities on LinkedIn to keep you Top Of Mind.
Bruce Bixler Tips Here is a list of ideas to make you stand out from the crowd on LinkedIn and cut through the noise. a. Tag your connections with the @ sign to draw their attention to the article and make them stand out to others in your network. b. Find articles that your audience will enjoy because with LinkedIn you can target who you want to share it with when you use #hashtags! 2. Use the Notifications feature at the top toolbar for your network communications. Congratulate someone for: a. landing a new job b. wish them a Happy Birthday c. send them a note about an article they were mentioned in d. Anniversary of their time at work 3. Endorse a connection for a skill or expertise; one that you have first-hand knowledge of the work that they performed. a. You don’t have to endorse them for all fifty skills but a couple endorsements may make their day. b. Nurture your network and build relationships over time. 4. Review Group updates from the groups you are in. You have three options for group updates. a. Check your daily updates for those groups you have elected for daily emails. b. Check those groups that you receive only weekly updates to stay on top of your industry. c. The third choice is for those that you have selected to receive no emails at all. Go in occasionally to view what’s happening. 5. Add a comment to one of your connections’ updates on your home page. a. On your home page is a list of updates from your first-degree connections. b. Spend 5 or 10 minutes every morning to see what they are up to, then comment, share, or like an article or update they have shared. 6. Invite new connections to your LinkedIn profile that you have met at networking events. a. Check all of your past invitations to see if they have been accepted, if not then you can withdraw any outstanding connection requests and move on. 7. Add a company to those that you are following on LinkedIn, this will give you the ability to receive news from an additional source. a. Most companies have a career or jobs page if you are searching. b. Some companies also have showcase pages for various divisions of large companies. c. Follow target companies that you would like to sell to or to work at. d. Engage those updates that your target companies post e. Connect with at least 3 people at your target companies. 8. Send a note to 3 connections on LinkedIn that you haven’t had contact with in the past 6 months. a. Check in with them to see how they are doing. b. Stay top of mind with all of your connections. 9. Connection request, review, either accept or ignore LinkedIn requests to connect from the past week. a. LinkedIn also allows you to message the requestor to see how they know you before you make a decision as to add or ignore their connection request b. If they respond, then connect. If they don’t respond, then withdraw the request. 10. Advance Search for people that you would like to connect with on LinkedIn. Even with the new LinkedIn user interface you can still do a search to find people you would like to make connections. a. Make sure to personalize any connection request. Generic requests only have a 30% acceptance rate. Personalized connection requests have a 70% acceptance rate.
1. Share an article in your updates with others on LinkedIn, or in your groups, and even with a connection that you think may benefit from reading it.
“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” Booker T. Washington