Out of the Mouths of Grads: Words of job search wisdom

College graduates have their work cut out for them, when it comes to employment opportunities in 2015. Susan Tompor, (Twitter: @tompor)  personal finance writer for the Detroit Free Press, recently ran a column aimed at college grads and their initial job search. Millennials certainly have struggled as of late in landing a job, but some stats shared in the column showed some promise, as more baby boomers head towards the retirement finish line.

Susan shared three tips for college grads, that, once I read them, can be applied to anyone looking for a new job. Let’s review:

1. Get a job coach. We all recall how tough it was out there in looking to get that first job.

To this day, I still have my initial rejection letters from at least 10 Detroit-area advertising firms, to remind me that, while I was certainly rejected, part of getting that job was making the effort to apply in the first place.

Search out a peer or former colleague to bounce ideas, review your resume and build contacts. A mentor is great (and usually free, beyond maybe buying lunch), but there certainly are job coaches you can hire.

Some of the job coach tips shared include grads not sending out a generic resume. The same can be said for any0ne looking for work. You must make an effort to tailor your resume to the job posting. Watch for keywords, specific duties. Sell yourself for the job. As FOX 2 Business Editor Murray Feldman (Twitter: @MFeldmanFOX2) recently said, the idea is to get noticed with your resume, land that first interview and get your foot in the HR office door. Use that interview to land the job!

2. Get out of the house. As I can attest to when I was unemployed for a year, it is essential that you make networking a priority! Volunteer, ask peers to meet for lunch, tell your friends you are looking for work.  One of the college grads in the article said “I wouldn’t waste your time going through all those websites.”

I pretty much agree with that statement, but certainly would encourage anyone to build and maintain a LinkedIn page. This will allow you to see what is going on in your own industry and build some business contacts.

3. Get motivated. Again, this ties back to networking and getting moving. Rarely, does a job prospect or job come to you. It’s up to you to go out there and get noticed. Set stretch goals, make a call, set a lunch.

So, whether you are working on getting that first job, or looking to bounce back after a layoff, finding a mentor and getting out there are some good steps to help you land that job!

Now, let’s go out there and do something good together!

Social media checklist – Take some time to keep it current!

A social media checklist…

1. Make sure your Facebook account is up-to-date with contact information.

2. Make sure that same Facebook account presents you in the best possible light. Be careful with postings and pictures that you wouldn’t want your boss or prospective employer to see!

3. Over at LinkedIn (you have a LinkedIn account, right?) review your work history. Check your dates of employment and that your current position is indeed where you are working at currently! I had a contractor call asking where my counterpart had gone, when it showed up on his LinkedIn account that his current position lasted less than a year (and I just saw him Friday!)

4. Are you represented well across the major social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn). In other words, is your contact information consistent, do you have a consistent headshot or at least similar headshot on all your outlets?

5. Do you contribute to your accounts on a regular basis. I am very good about Facebook, I should do more on Twitter and my blog, well, it always needs attention!

6. Do you look for new social media opportunities? Tumblr and Pinterest are two that I am going to look into shortly.

7. Know when too much social media is too much social media!

8. Take a break every once in a while from that news feed or tweet list.

9. Realize that employers and potential employers can be looking over your shoulder at your social media (postings, pix, tweets and more) at any minute (maybe, this minute?)

10. Know which medium to harness when it comes to communicating effectively. Post, tweet, email, phone call or a hand written note? All have different strengths when it comes to reaching out to someone for information or to simply thank them for a networking opportunity.

Keep your social media current and strong and you’ve tackled a big part of your communications plan. Now, let’s go out there and do something good together!

Throw away the catalog during your job search and interview…

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal discusses how General Motors is trying to get back on track after its government bailout. It tells of struggles internally about ways to reorganize the group and resistance from some of their managers.

A passage in the full-page article stood out to me. Joel Ewanick, GM marketing chief, recalled how when he assumed his new position at GM, he was handed a furniture catalog and a budget of $55,000 to furnish his new office.

Ewanick, unhappy with the selection and prices in the catalog, instead opted to buy his furniture locally from Target, Costco and IKEA. Total cost? Less than $5,000.

Wow! He spent less than 10 percent of his budget! What a concept! Breaking the corporate mold and figuring ways to save money! But GM bureaucrats said that the furniture wouldn’t last and gave the thumbs-down on the purchase, even after saving 90 percent of his approved budget.

Ewanick bought the furniture anyways.

So, is he a rebel? A troublemaker? Simply because he questions authority, that even though they did it one way for years and years, he comes in with another idea? I say he is a visionary, a forward thinker!

So, how do you tie this example into your job search and interview? Well, as I’ve discussed on this blog time and time again, you have to stand out from the competition. You have to go beyond a stellar cover letter and resume. I really dislike this phrase but you have to “think outside the box.”

In order to do that, here’s a few bullets of advice:

Point out an opportunity for improvement – In your cover letter, discuss an aspect of their website. Example: “I’ve been on your website and I notice that there isn’t a prominent way to search for stores in my community.”

Offer a suggestion – “A simple Mapquest link could help customers find you even better and drive traffic and sales to your walk-in locations.”

Make the close –  “This free application, which is easy to load online, is something I would be happy to discuss with you.”

Shine at the interview – Prepare a simple handout, expanding on the example from your cover letter.

Just like GM’s Joel Ewanick, there is no harm in offering a suggestion to do something better.

Now, I’m certainly not telling you to nitpick and tear apart the company’s website or corporate image (see past blog, here.) And, yes, you may give away something to them that they might just do themselves.

But by showing that you took the time to do a little bit of homework, can help your image and set you apart from the competition.

Now, let’s go out there and do something good!

How social media is looking at you to hire you!

Recently, the Detroit Free Press had a story on how more companies are turning to social media in looking to fill positions.

Here’s a stat to savor: According to Freep writer Greta Guest, of 600 HR professionals surveyed “73% of companies use social media to support their recruitment efforts.” That is enormous and can be a huge recruiting tool for your job search toolbox.

While traditional job searching is likely still king, where you search out the job, write the dazzling cover letter and polished resume, and send it to the recruiter, such social media job recruiting is a close second!

And that brings me to my usual mantra. What you put online out there in the social media world is accessible by everyone. Add that actual directors of recruiting are searching out potential employees by trolling social media, means you have to have your game face on when it comes to your job search.

So, Google your name and see what pops up: questionable pictures, expletive rants on Twitter, embarrassing videos on YouTube?

Networking takes many forms. On Facebook, do you follow potential employers? On LinkedIn, is your profile 100 percent complete? Do you have recommendations?

Time to get out there and start searching and scrubbing. You never know who could be recruiting you!

Now let’s go out there and do something good!

Employers aggressively tap online social media (WSJ – 6/1/10)

Read an interesting article in today’s Wall Street Journal (Managing your Career – Greasing the Inside Track to a Job – page D4, 6/1/10) where some very cool social media info was listed. Great examples as to how it is of the utmost importance to make social media work for you, whether you are unemployed, looking for a new job, or a promotion from within…

The article reads in part:

“Other employers aggressively tap online media. Internal recruiters connect with workers’ LinkedIn accounts so they can pinpoint promisign contacts and arrange introductions…A special new tool lets workers at Concur Technologies Inc. in Redmond, Wash., list openings immediately on their LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter accounts.”

Further, “Employee referrals through social networking have changed the hiring game,” says Shelly Holt…

The article further discusses how LinkedIn offer several ways to forge inside ties and has roughly 500,000 specialized groups that can be mined for connections.

Great examples of how you can harness social media in your continued job search!

Here’s the entire article – required reading!

Embrace social media and hang on!

Welcome to the second week of the coping list in review and what helped me get back to work.
Social media, like it or hate it, must be embraced in today’s business world. I’m trying to impress on my new co-workers that the true meaning of public relations is “not about your boss seeing your company on TV. It’s about your buyers seeing your company on the Web.” (New Rules of Marketing and PR, David Meerman Scott, 2009)
And the same can be said about a job search. Apologies to Scott as I turn that quote into “the true meaning of getting a job is ‘not about the hiring manager reading your two page resume w/ history, bullets and objectives. It’s about your prospective hiring manager seeing you online active in the social media world.’”
Okay, confusing sentence true. But you must get online and tout your skills beyond that flat two-page resume with bullets and bold type that lays in an inbox on an HR reps desk (if it gets that far at all!). And before we dive into this, make sure you have a small jpeg headshot of yourself to use in your social media
Here’s what I did on my unplanned sabbatical.
BLOGGING: I started this blog on WordPress (well, duh, you are here!) At first it was general information related to stories in the news, the passing of Paul Harvey and the like. I started small but then felt that I needed to stretch it a bit and start talking about social media and its impact. But, before you start blogging, do some research. See what other people are writing about. Look at their copy, layout and content. But everyone likes something. I don’t care if it’s tea cozies or collecting ceramic cats, everyone has a blog in them, brewing to get out!
TWITTER: I am a late arriver to Twitter. I didn’t start tweeting until early summer 2009. It was after an interview with a defense contractor (never heard back from them..hmmm). Looking on their website, I saw that they had a Twitter account. To get into their good graces (and to learn more about the company), I signed-up for Twitter and I went a tweeting. Picked up a bunch of fellow Twits (tweets?) in no time. Good to use related to volunteering efforts or if you are just hanging out on the porch (like the commercial goes.)
LINKEDIN: A great service for getting online and associating with your former co-workers while learning about your potential new employers. LinkedIn is geared more towards professionals (as opposed to the social world of myspace and Facebook). The site allows you to build/post your resume, get references and more. This is a website that you must be involved in. It really helped me build a community of former co-workers and peers.
Bottom line, by putting yourself online in a dynamic fashion, you are showing potential employers that you are social media savvy. And by savvy, I mean you can set up an account and add content on a regular basis (I’m a great example of not having online prowess, but with a lot of mistakes and re-booting, I was able to get these social tools up and running in a short amount of time). And it is a great portfolio enhancer showing potential employers that you are out there, meeting people, accomplishing things and in-the-know.
These are just three things you can do to increase your online presence. Now, get out there and do something good.
NEXT WEEK: How to cut corners and save money.