Getting Interviews

Turn Informational Meetings into Interviews

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.

Odds Are You’ll Be Fired Before Retirement, So Build “Career Security”

by Robert Hellmann • Getting Interviews, Job-Search Strategy, Life, On-the-job Success, Resume, LinkedIn, self-promo, Work

For those over 50 and gainfully employed, this study says you have a 56% chance that you’ll be let go before you’re ready to retire, risking substantial income loss. The study supports my own observations via client work that there is no real job security, only “career security.” In a sense employees are really all consultants.

But not to worry! Here’s a list of things you can do to both minimize the risk of an unwanted departure and set yourself up for a quick, positive transition if necessary.

Hearing Crickets After a Job Interview? Here’s What to Do

by Robert Hellmann • Getting Interviews, Interviewing

Turn post-interview silence into an offer

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.

Get better LinkedIn people-search results with “Boolean Logic”

by Robert Hellmann • Building a Business, Career Centers, Career Change, Getting Interviews, Social Media

LinkedIn’s “Advanced People Search” feature is a fantastic tool for finding people in your extended network or shared groups who can help you to reach your career goals. Including boolean logic in your search terms such as AND, OR, NOT, parenthesis and quotes around phrases can greatly expand its power. To demonstrate, here’s an example of a client who was interested in obtaining a VP of Marketing position at Pfizer.

Get Interviews with 9 Rules for Powerful Emails and Cover Letters

by Robert Hellmann • Getting Interviews, Resume, LinkedIn, self-promo

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.

How To Beat Age Bias In Your Job Search: 4 Techniques

by Robert Hellmann • Getting Interviews, Interviewing, Job-Search Strategy

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:

A 7-Step Job Search Plan to Beat the Odds

by Robert Hellmann • Getting Interviews, Job-Search Strategy, Resume, LinkedIn, self-promo

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.

How to Spot Job Search Scams and Protect Yourself

by Robert Hellmann • General, Getting Interviews, Interviewing, Job-Search Strategy

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 believable

Job Seekers: Be Careful Using LinkedIn’s “Open to Work” Feature

by Robert Hellmann • Getting Interviews, Job-Search Strategy, Resume, LinkedIn, self-promo, Social Media

LinkedIn’s “Open to Work” feature can potentially let employers, recruiters, and your network know you’re looking for a job. But, should you use this feature? Before I share my thoughts, a word on how to access this feature: click the Open to Work button under your profile picture. You can then share your open-to-work status by checking either “share with recruiters only” or “share with all LinkedIn members.”

Power Up Your Pitch to Land Job Interviews and Offers

by Robert Hellmann • Getting Interviews, Interviewing, Job-Search Strategy, Resume, LinkedIn, self-promo

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:

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