Transcription
If you're just getting started in a new job search, it's inevitable that you're going to approach it bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, feeling like you can conquer the world. But this job market has a way of beating people down, and beating them down pretty quickly.
So, in this video, I'm going to share with you 10 tips to hopefully keep your job search on the straight and narrow, make it a little bit smoother, and hopefully get you back to work as quickly as possible. Hey everybody, and welcome back to my channel. If you're new here, my name is Brian, founder of A Life After Layoff. I'm a job search strategist and a corporate recruiter with over 20 years of experience interviewing and hiring thousands of people into some of the world's most well-known and well-regarded companies. And after experiencing my own untimely layoff, I made it my mission to demystify how hiring and job search works at major corporations. So, if this kind of content interests you, make sure you hit that subscribe button.
First things [clears throat] first, you need to get your ducks in a row, get your house in order. So that means that you're going to be dusting off all the old tools that you used to use, or potentially creating new ones. So obviously, starting with the resume. If you haven't rewritten your resume in at least the last two years, you probably want to start from scratch because oftentimes, those old résumés that are tucked away in some folder somewhere on your computer are likely completely out of date. And this is especially true if you haven't been in a job search for a few years. So you want to keep this nice and simple. Don't use one of those elaborate template sites that has all these bells and whistles and funky graphics everywhere. In fact, you can probably just get away with using a simple Microsoft Word template. But the name of the game here is to be concise. Show your fit as quickly as you can so that you're putting your best foot forward because that resume is often going to be the first, and for some people, the only impression that they make on the employer.
And while you're at it, you may as well update your LinkedIn profile. And if you don't have a LinkedIn, you should probably create one because you're going to need that for some networking activities later on in your job search. And then I would take some time to write down all of my major accomplishments that are related to the jobs that I'm interviewing for. And the important thing here is to try to remember all the details surrounding those big accomplishments because oftentimes, we tend to forget about the major things that we've done, or some of those micro-steps, and those are some of the things that those employers are going to be asking you in those interviews.
Then I would get my networks in order. I'd probably reach out to anybody in my former company who I felt would might be a good person to know or be connected to. Look at the rest of the industry. Any of those connections that you used to work with, maybe people who worked at vendors that were related to you, maybe some of the competitors that you were friendly with, maybe at those trade shows. Those are the types of people that I would want to get into my initial active network. This would also probably be a good time to get your references in order so that you're not scrambling when an employer asks you for them. You want a minimum of three references, and hopefully at least one of those is a former boss who can speak directly about your work performance. Now, not all companies ask for references, but it's good to have it and not be scrambling at the last minute. And you certainly don't want to give a reference to somebody who's not expecting it because we've actually checked references before for people, and the reference didn't come back so great because they didn't check with the person. They didn't have a good idea of what they would actually say about them. So, just ask your references first.
The next piece of advice I'm going to give you is to stop taking advice from everybody, especially random people on the internet. Because listen, everybody has their opinions on how job search should work. Your dad's going to have an opinion. Your grandfather's going to have an opinion. The person down the street from you is going to have an opinion. The person that you went to school with is going to have an opinion. All the random user XYZ on the internet is going to have an opinion on all these things related to how to write resumes, how to market yourself, how to apply for jobs, how to interact with employers. And pretty much all of it is garbage.
If you're going to take advice from anybody related to the job search process, I would solicit people who've actually done hiring. So, if anybody in your family or anybody in your network who has actually hired people before and hired a lot of people, that would probably be a good person to have assessed your resume, assess your interviewing skill, maybe ask some questions, and or even better, ask some recruiters who do this for a living. The problem is is when you solicit all these different people and ask for their opinion, you're going to get a lot of conflicting advice. And when you get conflicting advice, you tend to get confused, and you start to water down your results. You'll see résumés that look completely Frankenstein because this person said to do it this way, and this person said to do it that way. Same thing goes with interviewing or job search. When you start getting into the interview process, they say, "I was supposed to answer it this way," but then this person said to answer it that way, and you get all flabbergasted. Again, the best people to solicit are people who've actually done it before rather than just the random person who has never hired somebody in their life.
And taking that a step further, stop letting the internet sway or influence you. There are so many Reddit forums out there where people will ask for legitimate help if they should get XYZ service or get this book to read, and everybody has these opinions and they'll trash it. Now, the thing is, what might work for one person may not work for another person, and vice versa. But the chances are, the anonymous people that you're interacting with on the internet do not have your best interest at heart, and they're often coming from a very jaded place themselves. And frankly, that's not going to help you. Your best bet is to just trust your gut. Get the help that you need and stay off the internet forums.
This next piece of advice is particularly relevant for people who may have been out of the job search process for quite a while. Like say, you haven't looked for a job in the last five years. Don't assume that things are the way they were the last time you were looking for jobs because the job market has changed, and has changed very drastically. What used to work back then no longer works now, and we have to adjust our strategy. The places you used to go shopping for jobs, or the amount of effort that you have to put in in order to land an interview, or when you actually get into those interviews, the way that you have to address the questions and the things that employers are now assessing. These are the things you can't assume are going to be the same as before. Also, the skills that they're assessing. Employers are looking for a very different type of skill set in today's market than they were five years ago. So, my best advice here is to look at what's going on in the job market. Look at some of those job postings and see what employers are demanding, and then look at yourself objectively and say, "Do I have this stuff?" and prepare interview answers accordingly. Honestly, there's differences around salary negotiation as well. We are in a different market than we were five years ago, and you have to adapt.
And this means that you also probably need to manage your expectations. This is probably one of the biggest disconnects that I'm hearing from job seekers who come to me for help. They enter into the market all bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, ready to go, thinking that they're going to put 20 or 30 applications in, they're going to have a job within the first month, and everything's going to be great. And they start into their job search and they quickly find that the market is pretty hostile. They're getting rejected for jobs that they feel they are a perfect fit for, and they start to get very frustrated. And these are probably the same jobs that would have called you back five years ago. But in today's market, you're just getting crickets. You're getting rejected.
Listen, it is not uncommon for job searches to take a minimum of six months. In some cases, it can be considerably longer than that, especially if the job type that you're in is not very popular or has been hit hard. So, you really need to make sure that you're going in with realistic expectations and doing everything in your power to stand out as a candidate. Because listen, if you take the easy way out, you spray and prey with that generic resume, and you don't do any of the best practices that I've talked to them blue in the face on this channel, you're just going to be putting yourself into a bucket of everybody else, and you're going to make yourself easier to reject. You have to rely on one simple fact here. The rest of your competition is doing the easy stuff. They're doing the lazy stuff, and they're likely getting rejected left and right. So, if you're truly a good fit for the roles that you're applying to, and in particular, you see a role that you're really interested in, take the extra effort. You may not get a call back, but you're certainly going to give yourself a better chance than the person who used the auto-applier and gets rejected immediately.
And to that end, you're going to get rejected a lot. That is just part of the game. It does not mean that you're not worthy. It does not mean that you're not capable. It does not mean that you're not hirable. It just means that there's a lot of competition right now. Job postings are down, competition is up, and that means more rejections for everybody. Doesn't mean that there's not the right position out there for you, and people are still getting hired. And keep in mind that one hiring manager may have a quirky bug up their butt about a certain thing on your resume that no other hiring manager will care about. So, don't make wholesale changes just because one hiring manager rejected you. It's easy to get in your head there.
If you find yourself being worn out and beaten down and stressed out by a job search that's not producing any fruit, take some breaks. Honestly, I found that if I treated my day like a normal workday where I had certain meetings at certain times or certain activities that I was doing, then I would be able to compartmentalize the job search process much easier. So maybe you spend the first two or three hours doing active job search, maybe a little bit of time doing networking, and then the rest of the day doing stuff to improve yourself. Then you're likely going to have a better experience and hopefully be able to separate yourself a little bit from the grind of job search. And honestly, if you set up those alerts, you don't have to sit by the computer every single minute hitting the refresh button over and over and over again waiting for that next job posting to pop up. Yes, you do want to be an early applicant, but there's no reason to be hyper-obsessed with your job search. Especially those weekends, you need to take them off. This is the time for you to recharge, to step away from it, do something else that's completely unrelated to job search. Yeah, there might be that one-off job that gets posted over the weekend. But most cases, recruiters are not working over the weekends, and they're certainly not screening candidates over the weekend. So, you can wait till Monday morning, and you'll be just fine. But often times, the little mini breaks are just enough to get a little bit recharged. And if you're just finding yourself on a real bad run, take a few days off. It's not going to be the end of the world.
And another thing that people tend to do, and this is a pet peeve of mine, is they tend to act like they know it all. They're stubborn and they refuse to change. They refuse to adapt. They refuse to think that somebody else may know a little bit more about the process than they do. I've had more than one person reach out to me very frustrated and say, "I've done all the things that you're asking, and nothing's working. This job market's broken." And then I'll go and look, and their LinkedIn profile isn't optimized, and their resume has a bunch of issues on it, and they don't have the skill that the employer is looking for. They're really not doing the things that they should be doing, but they're too stubborn to see past it. As a result, they tend to get rejected more often than not. It's okay to admit that maybe you don't know everything, and sometimes that third party can look at you with a neutral lens and see something that might not be so obvious to you.
And last, but not least, work on yourself. Spend some of this time while you're unemployed improving yourself, working on a project, working on something that's benefiting you directly. Maybe it's a side hustle, maybe it's building out that new income stream, maybe it's working on a hobby that you've been neglecting or been meaning to take up. Should not just solely be you applying to jobs and waiting for an answer. Employers love it when you're well-rounded and you're doing things to improve yourself. You're doing things to improve your skills, and you're not just sitting around idly. Not to mention, it'll help keep you fresh and motivated to move forward. And if you learn a new skill, maybe you can market that. Maybe you can end up with a little side hustle that turns into something full-time. You never know.
So, these are some of the tips that I used myself when I was starting a new job search. And they really helped me. So, I hope that this video was at least beneficial to somebody out there who may be struggling or is a little apprehensive about entering into the job search process, especially in today's market. Listen, the job market is not great right now, but that doesn't mean that people aren't getting hired because they are. And it doesn't mean that you're not hirable because you are. What it means is that you may have to put a little bit more effort, and you might get a little bit less result than you're expecting, but eventually, you're going to find a job, and you're going to find a decent one. You just have to keep at it and stay consistent.
Anyway, if you need more help in your job search process, that's exactly what I specialize in. I do have a website called alifeafterlayoff.com, which is loaded with tips and tricks all from a recruiting insider's perspective. I also share my deepest and most intimate knowledge in the form of some training courses. The first one being Resume Rocket Fuel, and Resume Rocket Fuel teaches you exactly how to write those résumés that are going to give you the best chance at marketing yourself or presenting yourself to those employers so that you can get that first round interview. I list out all the best practices. I actually write my resume in front of you, and I share a template that you can follow right along, and I teach you ways to customize it quickly. And the purpose of this calibrated resume is to hopefully have an effective job search. And that's exactly where the Ultimate Job Seeker Boot Camp comes in. We go from A to Z, the start of your job search all the way through offer, and it is an entire look at looking for a job. We also go through each round of the interview process. I break down tips, techniques, strategies so that you can easily recall the best possible answers and hopefully give yourself a good leg up to land that job offer. Of course, once you get the job offer, we're going to make sure that you don't leave a single dime on the table through careful negotiation strategy, which we'll break down in great detail.
And listen, it's a whole lot easier to get hired when you have the recruiter coming and finding you. And the best way to do that is by leveraging the power of LinkedIn. Now, if you're not sure how networking works, or maybe your LinkedIn game's a little rusty, I created a course called Unlocking LinkedIn. This course teaches you how to build a profile that's going to give you maximum discoverability on the platform. And then also potentially how to skip recruiters altogether. And finally, if you're really struggling in your job search and you want some more targeted, personalized help, I do offer some limited one-on-one coaching, and you can reach me through my website for that. All these links will be down in the video description below. As always, appreciate you watching. Happy job hunting. We'll see you on the next one.