Informational meetings with network contacts can either be time wasters or unlock doors to great job opportunities; it all depends on your approach. First, be sure to meet with the right people: those who can refer you, hire you, or provide valuable advice. Then, carefully manage and script the meetings to serve your goal, which is to get another career-advancing meeting or interview. Use the steps below to tightly manage your meeting agenda.More
Many jobseekers are too quick to write-off opportunities if they experience radio silence after an interview. A typical example: “My last interview was three weeks ago and I haven’t heard anything, I guess they’re not interested” (this jobseeker actually ended up receiving an offer). You can both avoid having to guess their intentions and improve your odds of landing an offer by taking the following steps.More
Great LinkedIn profiles and resumes have a lot in common, including highly targeted, keyword-rich and concise content, accomplishment-oriented bullets and a powerful summary section. Because of these similarities, copying your resume content right into your LinkedIn profile is often a good idea. Yet in some situations you’ll want to take a different approach to your profile.More
Perhaps you’ve experienced the disappointment of carefully crafting an email or cover letter asking for a meeting only to get no response or turned down. In fact, all too often these messages are not even read, because the email subject line or the content doesn’t resonate or the message is too densely worded. Clients who have applied the following nine rules, however, have seen big improvements in their email response rates.More
For the first time in nearly 50 years in the U.S., the unemployment rate for 55-and-older workers exceeded the rate for mid-career workers during the pandemic. The relative jump in this rate underscores the age-related challenges that older workers face in getting hired. If you fall into this group, there’s good news: you can usually overcome age-related barriers to being hired relatively easily.
To do so, understand this key insight: you’re usually not facing age-bias per se. Rather, you’re facing underlying issues that employers think about when they compare you to the younger competition. These issues include:More
Job searches go faster when job-seekers first take a step back to plan strategically. And careful planning has become even more important during these challenging economic times. Think of it this way; your “job” in a job search is to be a world-class consultative salesperson, for yourself. So do what the best salespeople do: plan carefully first, to get the highest return on your time investment. Here’s a seven step job search plan that has gotten results for my clients, and that any great salesperson would appreciate.More
Job-opportunity scams have risen with the growing level of unemployment. Below I explain how to spot them by analyzing an actual scam message that hoodwinked some recipients. It turns out that the scam message was sent from a real recruiter’s hacked LinkedIn account, which made this deception more believableMore
LinkedIn has released an “Open to Work” feature to help you let employers, recruiters and your network know you’re looking for a job. You can share your open-to-work status by checking either “share with recruiters only” or “share with all LinkedIn members.” To access, click the “Add New Profile Section” button to the right of your profile picture and then click “Looking for a new job” in the Intro section at the top.
So should you use this new feature, and if so, which option should you pick? My thoughts:More
A powerful pitch, one that resonates with your target audience, can give your job search a big boost in this challenging economy. Employers and networking contacts will be impressed when you concisely and engagingly describe what differentiates you from your competitors. Plus the process of creating your pitch is, on its own, well worth your time; the deeply self-reflective thinking that’s required will help you to sell yourself. You’ll need two versions of your pitch:More
How to Write a Compelling Executive Bio
by Robert Hellmann •Getting Interviews, Resume, LinkedIn, self-promo
If you’re a candidate for C-suite, Partner, or Board roles, you’ll be asked for a bio as part of the process. For some roles reporting to the C-suite, you may need a bio as well. Employers evaluating your candidacy want to see how your career story will look to prospective investors, clients, and employees when shared publicly. For more junior roles, a bio is usually not worth prioritizing, except when your story is especially unusual or compelling.
To create a resonant bio, More