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.
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:
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.
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
LinkedIn’s “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 feature, and if so, which option should you pick? My thoughts:
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:
Below I share some of the career and job search advice I’m giving concerned clients as we navigate this challenging time. The key to making it through and achieving your career goals is to use this time wisely now to set yourself up for quick success later, once the economy starts to rebound. Here’s a list of 10 things you can do now to boost results:
A new client was describing her frustratingly long and unproductive job search to me. She said “I had a lot of great meetings a year ago with people who could potentially hire or refer me, although nothing panned out.” I asked what happened to those people and conversations. She said, “I don’t know, we just lost touch.” I told her that was a major part of the reason she had been searching for so long. If she had kept in touch with them, she would probably have gotten the interviews and offers she was looking for long ago.
Being good at networking isn’t just about meeting new people—that’s only half of it. The other half involves
If you’ve been out of work for a while, you may face a well-documented bias against the unemployed in your job search. But fear not; there are ways to easily fill the gap, preempting any potential uneasiness about your unemployment while reassuring employers that you’re current in your field. Here are three of those ways, followed by what to say when asked about an employment gap in an interview.
LinkedIn Profiles vs. Resumes: What You Need to Know
by Robert Hellmann • Getting Interviews, Resume, LinkedIn, self-promo, Social Media
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.