When you’re in the middle of a job hunt, it can be hard to know which resources to focus on most and which are worth your while. While the Internet—and especially social media—has been brushed off in the past as a means of finding work, it now can serve as an extremely valuable tool during your job search efforts. Here’s how you can make the most of it!
1. Communicate
Social media is just that: social! Now is a prime opportunity to try and reach out to other people in your industry. Many of today’s social media platforms feature chat rooms about a myriad of subjects. You can easily find one related to your chosen industry and get to know other professionals in your area of expertise. They can help point you in the right direction as far as who’s hiring and what’s going on in your field.
2. Take Advantage of Popular Social Media Platforms
Thanks to their widespread usage, you may have come to associate the most popular social media sites, like LinkedIn and Facebook, as either purely for socialization and fun, or are simply skeptical as to whether they can really help you during your job search. As it turns out, this is one situation where you should truly believe the hype!
While sites Twitter, Facebook and others like it are most commonly used for social networking, you don’t want to discount the networking aspect. If you play your cards right and focus your efforts on business, you can use your social media accounts to forge worthwhile connections that can lead you to better job opportunities. Now would be a great time to create your LinkedIn profile if you haven’t already.
3. Google Yourself
While this may sound a bit vain, you’ll want to Google yourself before you set up any social media accounts just for the sake of seeing what comes up. Letting this go unchecked means you risk the chance of potential employers running into something unsavory when (and not if!) they look you up. You’re better off playing it safe and checking up on what’s associated with you on the Internet. Otherwise, it could end up costing you valuable job opportunities.
4. Be Direct
You don’t need to be discreet about your job search! Let those close to you know you’re in the midst of a hunt. You’ll need all the help you can get, and you never know where great connections will come from! Even if they don’t know any people who can directly provide you with work, they’ll be able to keep a look out for opportunities for you.
5. Focus on Networking
One of the best and most important aspects of any social media platform is its ability to quickly and easily put you in contact with millions of people, regardless of location. Be sure to use this to advantage! This will a key element to your Facebook and LinkedIn profile development. By researching the higher ups of the companies you’re interested in working for, you’ll know how to frame your social media accounts to better appeal to them. It will also be easier for you to get in touch with them and make a good impression.
We hope these tips will help you utilize social media far more easily as you look for your next career position. Of course, if you find yourself overwhelmed or confused, you can always turn to LinkedIn profile writing services to help you make the most of professional social media usage. Don’t hesitate to turn to your nearest resume writing service for your other job search needs!
Close but No Cigar: How to Handle It When Hiring's Not Happening
Job searches are hard. We understand. Figuratively, you’re casting your line out in the world’s largest pond, already flanked with fishermen with just as much skill as you, and the fish headed your way are extremely choosy as to whose lure they’ll take. So what happens when you work your hardest, buy the best possible line and lures and camp out for hours chasing fish after fish, but fail to get a single bite?
Discouragement is the most frequent and understandable emotion. If you’ve been putting in applications to job after job but have yet to be hired by anyone, we realize and acknowledge your frustrations. However, you have to keep trying! Here’s what you can do to try and keep yourself afloat while your job search continues.
Check Over Your Resume
While this may sound like an irrelevant suggestion, it could very well ring true that you don’t have enough information included within your resume to push employers to hire you. Sometimes we shortchange ourselves by underestimating our skills. Sometimes we fail to see how certain skills and experiences relate to the industries we’re trying to work in, so we leave them out of our executive resume bio and flesh out the rest of what we have to offer. Go back over your resume and think about all of your qualifications, experiences and skills and whether you could have skipped over anything that could prove useful. Chances are you’ll come across something you shouldn’t have left out, but other times you may just need to tweak the wording to better align with keywords that potential employers search for.
Re-evaluate Your Prospective Jobs
If your resume checks out, you may be using it to approach the wrong positions. Again, this happens more often than you’d think! Look back on all of the applications you’ve submitted recently and make a note of what you find. While you’re doing this, be sure to consider your own skills and where you fit in terms of what the employer is asking for. Sometimes we apply to positions even when we don’t have exactly the right credentials. Other times, we simply may not yet have enough experience in the field to qualify for certain positions in it.
Invest in Some Self-Improvement
If you find a dissonance between the types of jobs you want and the types of jobs you qualify for, now is the best time to start brushing up on your professional skills so your executive LinkedIn profile (and other branding tools) will more adequately reflect your potential. You can potentially improve your professional skills by taking adult courses to learn any necessary software, researching what skills are becoming more relevant in your industry and much more.
It also helps to review the best ways to market yourself to any and all prospective employers. A professional resume company can assist you by critiquing your executive resume cover letter and much more! Be sure to reach out to your nearest and most qualified executive resume company to get back on the right track with your job search today!
Five Tips for Personal Brand Creation and Maintenance
So you’ve learned the importance of a personal brand and have made the decision to start working on your own…but what’s next? This is a very common question that has been asked by several senior level professionals just like you. As it turns out, building a personal brand is hard, but it can very much be done! Here’s how.
1. Think About Yourself
Every employee, and especially every senior level professional, has something significant to offer a company. You will have to tap into just what your skills and positive personal traits are before you begin crafting your personal brand. In fact, this is the first step of c-level personal branding. It may help to approach this issue from the perspective of an employer and figure out what traits are most desirable in any employee, then work backwards to hash out what makes you unique from every other applicant out there. Craft a story about yourself for your hiring audience to read.
2. Start Pruning Your Presence Online
While no one will admit to Googling themselves, it will actually help you figure out one of the most important parts of branding yourself—your name. Keep track of how you’re mentioned online and whether it’s in a negative or positive context.
3. Be Mindful of Your Internet Activities
Now that you have an idea of how you’re perceived online, you’ll have to make sure to keep these perceptions under control. Don’t post anything you wouldn’t want potential employers to find later on. If you’ve already engaged in online activities that you wouldn’t necessarily want employers to discover, you will generally have the option to delete them—but be careful!
You can never completely erase something from the Internet once it’s there. In the meantime, you can do any necessary damage control by carefully considering what you post and only letting pictures and other forms of media slip through if they contribute to your efforts toward personal branding for senior level managers.
4. Build a Website
Thanks to the advancement of the Internet, building a website is easier than ever! “Why do I need one?” you may ask. For starters, so many business interactions now take place online…from consumers to businesses to potential employees and those in charge of hiring them. A website is a wonderful way of presenting yourself to the world in a quick and aesthetically pleasing manner. Don’t think you have to go big and flashy! Just a paragraph about yourself, contact links and a well written resume will do.
5. Look to Older, More Successful Brands
You can find other people who’ve built personal brands by connecting with those who are in either the same industry or are alumni from your alma mater. Connect with these people as soon as possible for tips on how to better construct your personal brand. If you play your cards right, these new associates should prove valuable!
On our site, you’ll find information about building a personal brand, writing an effective resume and much more! Once you learn a little more about yourself, you may choose to get some additional help to push your executive job search to the next level!
Be Sure to Avoid These Five Typical Mistakes While Networking
Companies are leaning on referrals more and more these days. A referral allows the company to find an excellent candidate without paying a pricey recruiter or hiring multiple HR people to sort through resumes. It’s a win-win for businesses, employees (who often get referral bonuses) and job seekers.
… Except when you’re a job seeker who doesn’t know how to network. With networking becoming more and more important in the competitive job market, those who cannot connect end up without a job (or at least one they like).
So make sure you get that dream job by upping your networking game and avoiding these five mistakes:
Displace Face-to-Face
Repeat after me, “You cannot do every aspect of your job search online.” Individuals starting to look for employment often immediately turn to the Internet to find their next gig. We forget that people were finding jobs before the advent of the world wide web. You can, too! Get out there and meet people in person. It’s much easier to reject an email than the face in front of you.
Give Before You Get
It’s vital to give before you get – when talking about networking. You cannot expect someone you just began developing a relationship with to give you exactly what you want immediately. You need to let the relationship grow. The quickest way to develop a relationship is to provide the other person value.
Lame LinkedIn Profile
While face-to-face contact cannot be replaced, utilizing LinkedIn comes in a close second. If you have a lame LinkedIn presence, you’ll be missing out on a number of opportunities. Every HR director and recruiter is constantly on LinkedIn building their networks. You should be, too! This means updating your profile constantly and finding ways to add value to the platform.
P.S.: If you’re struggling to gain ground on the best business social media site, it may be your profile. Luckily, LinkedIn profile development services and LinkedIn profile writing services are our specialties. Click here to learn more.
Become a Professional
If you’re using social media sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to network, then you must keep your image as professional as possible online. That HR professional with a perfect gig for you doesn’t want to know how “turnt” you got last weekend with the “squad” in Vegas. Trust me. Instead, try sharing that industry-specific insight you found in Forbes with a little commentary. Keeping your social media clean is just as important as using professional resume writing services.
Go to Contacts
Many would-be-great networkers fail to do one thing properly: follow through. These people are great at making introductions, contacts and more, yet they find their networks stagnating because they fail to stay in touch, give and follow up. If there’s one thing you should take from this piece, it’s to always follow up with contacts that could benefit you down the road. Keep developing those relationships!
For most of us, networking isn’t our favorite thing. It’s more of a “must do” than a “want to.” Networking is boring and can be absolutely terrifying. Meeting strangers at stuffy events where you wish a cocktail or three could be downed isn’t exactly fun.
The problem is networking is an absolute “must” in today’s business world. You have to network to get ahead in today’s business climate. If you cannot build a network, you cannot achieve your highest possible level of success.
Luckily, networking isn’t just business cards and small talk these days. Things like LinkedIn profile development and more social media sites play a huge role. So here’s how to make the most of your networking efforts:
It Goes Both Ways
When you’re flexing your networking muscles, make sure to remember that it goes both ways. You need to introduce yourself, talk about your company and more. So does the individual you’re speaking with. Make sure you give the other person time to explain their business and what they do. Nobody likes a selfish networker.
Get Your Mingle On
Instead of networking at stuffy events filled with equally stuffy people, try combining this mandatory activity with things you actually like doing. Join a yoga or cooking class. Find a professionals golf group. Get on Groupon and see if anything strikes your fancy. Everyone is a potential client, and everyone is easier to talk to in a social situation. Networking isn’t all about your LinkedIn profiles and email signature.
Find Your Focus
You can’t network and build a relationship with every single person you “know” right now. It’s mentally, physically, and emotionally impossible. So when deciding who to reach out to, think about who you could help and who could help you. Think back to your past about people who have built an extensive network and could possibly offer an important introduction.
Smooth Talking to Second
Not base! Get your mind off all that. We’re talking about securing a second meeting with a potentially valuable asset to your network. As you work the room at a networking event and meet someone who could be valuable to you, work to build a connection with the individual and then suggest a second meeting before getting contact information.
Stay Socializing
Networking in person is great. Keeping your executive bio on hand is important. However, times have changed. These days focusing on LinkedIn profile development may be more important than any of the other factors on this list. There are more movers and shakers on LinkedIn than you’ll ever find at a networking event.
Just remember: when making connections on LinkedIn, you need to build relationships online and then take them offline, if possible. One face-to-face meeting with an influencer from the best business social media site could mean more to your career than you could ever imagine.
Navigating today’s demanding and ever-changing job market is tough—no matter what age you are. If you’re 50 or over, however, learning the ropes can be even more of a challenge. It’s highly likely that it’s been years upon years since you last searched for a job, and the market has changed tenfold since you were in this position.How do you navigate this strange new territory?How do you reach out to the people you want to hire you?Just what is the key to writing resumes that get you hired in today’s world?We have a few tips on things to avoid to help make your search easier.
Personal Stagnation
Regardless of age, it never hurts to learn new things—information, viewpoints and especially skills. Think about the skill set you have now. How well does it sync up with the job listings you’ve seen this decade? Are there any skills you’ve seen that have stumped you, or that you know you have no idea how to perform? Don’t let this become a detriment to you and hurt your chances of getting hired!While you’re searching for a new career, it would serve you well to start looking into expanding your skill set by taking some adult educational classes. If you aren’t good with computers and other electronic devices, now is the time to learn. If you need to be familiar with a certain kind of software to qualify for the positions you’re seeking out, consider seeing if your nearest learning center has classes for it. A Lacking LinkedIn
You’ve very likely heard of LinkedIn at some point during your professional career. It’s a business-oriented social networking site and has become increasingly important in recent years. Most professionals today use it to network with other people in their industry, meaning if you don’t have a LinkedIn account of your own, you’ll want to invest some good old time and effort into putting one together and keeping it active and updated.You never know who might notice you on LinkedIn, especially since so many of today’s hiring managers use the site to find potential candidates. If you can’t make heads or tails of LinkedIn, you can even hire a professional LinkedIn profile writer to lend you a hand. Ego Trouble
Because you’ve been in the workforce for so long, especially as a senior-level professional, you’ve racked up a lot of accomplishments. While this is certainly commendable and even worth acknowledgment, you should keep in mind that by looking for new work, you’re much closer to square one than it may seem. Be humble about your skills, and don’t limit yourself as far as the positions you can acquire. Similarly, you don’t want to be too meek and cheat yourself out of a great position. Simply communicate, connect with every fellow professional you meet and don’t let your personal opinions get in the way of your search.
And don’t forget you can always rely on a professional resume writing service for help with your job search and to help you maneuver through today’s job market!
As a senior level professional, you’ve almost certainly heard of personal branding. Implementing it into your professional life, however, is a very different story. The idea of establishing and maintaining a personal brand is very new after all, having arrived on the coat tails of the Internet and the rest of today’s technology. If you’ve spent a considerable amount of time assuming c-level personal branding isn’t worth your time, you may want to reconsider! This is a very important aspect of your professional career, for a few significant reasons.
Personal Branding Sets You Apart
While this line sounds cliché, it is very much the truth. Consider these questions:
How do you stack up against your competitors?
Would your degree(s) be enough to convince companies to hire you instead of someone else?
Thousands of other people hold the exact same academic achievements as you. Plus, the longer you’ve been out of school, the less your academic career matters. It’s the sad reality that many people face.
Rather than focusing on this, look back on the other accomplishments you’ve earned within your field. Think about who you are as a executive and a person. Personal branding for senior level managers involves getting to the meat of these two concepts. It involves presenting your positive qualities and expertise in a way that appeals much more readily to those in charge of hiring you.
You’ll Experience a Quality Jump with Your Job Search
Naturally, focusing on your skills and personal talents boosts your own self image. This means you will become far less likely to settle for just any position that matches your skill set. You will gradually start to approach your job search in a different way as your personal brand gains more and more attention. Once this happens, it will enable you to think about what you really want from a company and what conditions you are not willing to deal with.
As a result, you will start to push forward with your professional life and only accept those who meet your newfound standards. If the idea of constant professional growth appeals to you, then you’ll want to put together your personal brand as soon as possible.
Your Personal Brand Gains You More Benefits and Professional Success
Simply put, a personal brand boosts your chances of being hired. It creates a clear picture of your strengths and what you can offer a company, which will appeal quickly to employers. If you’re currently struggling with your job search, a personal brand may help you finally find the position you’ve been so diligently seeking in ways you could never have anticipated!
You never thought this would happen to you, but it has. You’re 50+ in age and find yourself suddenly out of work, struggling to keep your head above water in a job market you no longer recognize, which bears no resemblance to the Greensheets and wanted ads you pored over during your youth. What should be a time for planning for your retirement is now filled with uncertainty, stress and scrambling to recover from your loss.
We understand what a shock this can be. The job market has indeed changed tremendously and will take some adaptation if you want to find success. If you are 50 or over and trying to find work, we dedicate this article for you. Follow these tips to help the process of getting back on your feet go a little more smoothly.
Research Your Prospects
Unfortunately, not all companies are receptive to older workers and seek out only those of younger generations. You don’t want to accidentally wind up in an office culture that’s unwelcoming to you. Look for companies currently experiencing turnover, as they and you will have similar goals—maintaining a long-term position in your field.
Work on Your Resume
This is especially true if it’s been a very long time since you’ve pounded the pavement, so to speak. If you haven’t already been keeping your resume up-to-date, you’ll want to modernize it as soon as possible to help boost your appeal to employers. You’ve racked up all sorts of great experience over the years, after all. Now it’s time to put it to use and show it off! Of course, you’ll have to adapt your resume to suit what today’s employers are looking for.
Focus on your strengths and tailor your resume to the types of positions you’re seeking out. Nailing your resume can be a tough job, even for those who have been immersed in today’s job market more recently. If you find you need a little extra help, you can always turn to a team of the best professional resume writers!
Improve Yourself
If your industry or former company is particularly stagnant, you may not have had to learn or deal with many of the technological requirements you’ll need to know for today’s jobs. Try enrolling in an adult learning course to brush up on your skills if you find yourself being hit with the same skill you lack over and over. This will look great to your prospective employers, as they will know you’re willing to embrace change and can bring this can-do attitude with you into their office.
Simultaneously, you may want to learn more about LinkedIn profile development and how you can utilize LinkedIn to network efficiently with other people in your field (and your shoes)!
Navigating today’s demanding and ever-changing job market is tough—no matter what age you are. If you’re 50 or over, however, learning the ropes can be even more of a challenge. It’s highly likely that it’s been years upon years since you last searched for a job, and the market has changed tenfold since you were in this position.How do you navigate this strange new territory?How do you reach out to the people you want to hire you?Just what is the key to writing 
You never thought this would happen to you, but it has. You’re 50+ in age and find yourself suddenly out of work, struggling to keep your head above water in a job market you no longer recognize, which bears no resemblance to the Greensheets and wanted ads you pored over during your youth. What should be a time for planning for your retirement is now filled with uncertainty, stress and scrambling to recover from your loss.