Beating the Job Search Blues

by Richard , updated on November 3, 2020

photo (80)There’s no two ways about it.

Finding a new job is stressful.

It’s an emotional roller coaster ride at the best of times. We have to put ourselves “out there” in a way that makes many of us uncomfortable and can seriously undermine our confidence.

We often have a lot of professional and online assistance at hand to help us through the job search.

Career coaching, recruitment consultants and online job search sites are all readily available. But what can we do to provide the personal support we need? [click to continue…]

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I Got My Dream Job and So Can You – a book review

by Richard , updated on November 3, 2020

Pete Leibman has written a book that I just had to review for you because he doesn’t just aim to help you into your next job; Pete commits to get you your dream job.

Now be honest….who wouldn’t want that!

And if you’re like me at all and have found yourself settling for second best in the past then maybe it’s time you gave Pete’s book a serious look.

I should say up front that it may be tempting when you start to read this book to think that Pete may not be “talking” to you, as he has clearly set his target audience as university graduates and other generation ‘Y’ers. The book is also fairly USA-centric which is brilliant if you live in North America, but less so for the rest of us. But I would suggest that you’d be wise to see past this minor criticism, as much of what Pete refers to is still highly relevant and relatable to non American “oldies” like me.

And I must say there’s a lot to like about “I Got My Dream Job and So Can You.”

Like many American’s, Pete is infectiously positive and enthusiastic and he has very successfully infused these traits into his writing, making this book an enjoyable read. More importantly though this is a very well structured, thoughtful and informative book which I suspect could inspire many readers.

Firstly Pete has taken on an ambitious task to not only help you into your dream job but also to give you the best chance of having a dream career. Lofty ambitions indeed in which I believe he largely succeeds. This in itself is a powerful example of what can be achieved when we singularly focus our efforts on our primary goal.

I like the way Pete has structured this book. He has divided it into two parts, firstly to get your dream job and then secondly, to manage that into a dream career. There’s a compelling logic to the book’s structure; which starts by asking us to question the career advice we get and to trust our own judgment. Pete gets us to do this so we can gird ourselves against the doubters who will appear when we go public with our lofty ambitions.

Pete then uses a step-by-step, chapter-by-chapter approach to make your dream job a reality. These include giving yourself a serious image makeover, critically analysing what your dream job really means to you, the power of networking and “advice appointments” and how to ace interviews. There’s also invaluable and in-depth advice for technology dinosaurs such as myself on how to really ramp up your online presence to snag that dream job.

Any job search can be a daunting task; and a serious rethink of our career direction confronts us as we question our career choices to date. Pete has managed to structure the book in a way that helps to reassure the reader and progressively build their confidence.

This extends into the chapters covering career management; starting with an examination of the importance of self belief, what “excellence” really means, work performance, the importance of your life outside work and some advice on how (if you wish) you can take an entrepreneurial next step into your own business.

What I also like is how cleverly this book uses a variety of adult learning techniques to engage the reader. These include Q&A sessions with the author, case studies, personal experience and advice and reader focussed questioning and checklists. Pete has packed this book with highly practical information to help the reader to take action now.

This all adds up to a book whose contents can be practically applied here and now to help with what for most of us can be a stressful and challenging time.

Pete challenges us not to settle for second best and for that reason amongst many, it’s well worth a look.

For more information click this link to Pete Leibman’s website.

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Volunteer your way into a New Job!

by Richard , updated on November 3, 2020

It’s well known that Australia has one of the highest volunteer participation rates in the world.

We as a nation are very generous with our time to help the environment and those in need in our communities.

I must admit though that I wasn’t one of those generous souls!

But life has a way of opening our eyes to our shortcomings if we let it. In 2011 my “stable and comfortable” life was turned upside down. I had to leave Sydney and haven’t been able to work full-time since.

What exactly happened that turned my world upside down………?  Nothing that hasn’t happened or will at some point happen to most of us. [click to continue…]

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Debbie’s gap life – or how she found satisfying and well paid jobs online

by K B , updated on November 3, 2020

I started from the United States on what was to be a gap year of travel and fun that ended up lasting over 6 years. I suppose it is classified as a “gap life” now. My point is that gap lives can be expensive. I needed extra money to be more comfortable and keep traveling.

I took an inventory of all my skills and researched what was marketable via the internet. If you are looking for freelance work online, please know I have been there and I feel for you. I’ll begin by telling you my experiences on various online freelance venues.

Just like Charlie Brown when Lucy pulled the football away, I felt disappointed when I could not get reasonable jobs on Odesk and other similar sites espousing great jobs.

My skill set is social media management, writing content/SEO and transcription among other tasks. These are good skills to work online so I gave it a shot. As the sites generally request, I made stellar and complete profiles, took the various tests to prove my skills and offered a very competitive price for my work.

But that’s where it stopped for me.

I found that the majority of the jobs offered on these sites are of the poverty wage variety with employers who are either broke or happen to enjoy the use of slave labor. Upon further research I found the typical job was given to people in Pakistan for $2.22 per hour. There is no doubt that this is a great deal of money to people in these countries but to the majority of us “It ain’t gonna cut it”.

Over and over in my mind, I kept returning to that Linkedin account that I signed up for but just never got around to using. I followed the same strategy of a good profile highlighting my major skill set. Afterward, I used the search function to browse profiles of others with my skills and snoop on what they were doing. Lo and behold, there was my name at number one for every keyword I used.

Auspicious start so I continue. I learned how to search, expand my network and then offer my services to members and the various groups. Within 1 hour I obtained 5 prospective assignments of which 3 worked out. Those 3 kept me busy for a few weeks.

The next go around, I obtained 3 prospects and one of them worked out and kept me busy daily ever since. In addition, that employer referred me to another client. We are talking about two messages sent out to only a portion of the people in my network and they each took only 20 minutes to compose and send. I kept the messages brief and included what I was offering in the message header. That way there was no mistaking what the email was about.

The power of Linkedin as a networking resource is astounding!

By the way, I no longer send out messages for my services as I am too busy to take new clients. I recommend to anyone able to do their work online to use social media as a resource to find work. Join Linkedin and do the initial work to set your page up properly.

Learn it, live it and LOVE it people. I know I do.

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Facebook Twitter Candidate Checks …….should we……just because we can?

by Richard , updated on November 3, 2020

There’s been a constant stream of discussion in the online and print media recently about the use of social media to assess candidate suitability.

The vast majority of this discussion seems to be saying either if you’re going to be doing it be careful or well it’s so widespread and common within the recruitment space – it must be OK

For anyone involved in recruitment who has used or is contemplating using social media to uncover “unsuitable” candidates, I have a few questions for you……..

Scenario One: You routinely check shortlisted candidate Facebook pages for what you or your company consider “unsuitable” or “inappropriate” behaviour. In one instance you have 5 candidates and discount a candidate because of the pictures you discover material involving their drinking habits, inappropriate language or behaviour. Three of your candidates however don’t have Facebook pages.

To ensure you are treating all candidates fairly, “will you now ring those 3 candidates and ask them about their drinking habits, use of ‘inappropriate’ language and other ‘anti-social’ habits?”

Scenario Two: A common reason I hear in defence of the use of social media in candidate selection is ‘well it’s in the public domain’. You have just finished interviewing a candidate. You look out your window and notice them walking into the pub on the corner. Two hours later you happen to notice them leaving the pub. It could be argued that this is also ‘in the public domain’.

Do you include the candidate’s behaviour in your selection process? Do you know if he drank any alcohol? Do you know how many drinks he drank? Are you using Facebook simply because you can without the candidate’s knowledge?

My final question for you is.

Just because we can do something………. does that mean that we should?

I do think there are some situations where it’s appropriate to access a person’s social media pages (and take appropriate disciplinary action). For example if an employee is found to have breached their privacy and confidentially contract with their employer.

I also do not include LinkedIn in the above comments. LinkedIn’s primary role is to facilitate networking opportunities for business, career and employment. Any user of LinkedIn should be mindful of this fact and that potential employers will be accessing their LinkedIn profile.

And to all candidates I would go a step further and suggest that there’s only one way to protect yourself if you don’t want potential employers using your social media profiles (eg Facebook and Twitter) to select or deselect you as a job candidate…….

Candidate Tip: Change your privacy settings to exclude all public access!

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New in Australia from overseas? How to apply some IQ to your job hunt!

by K B , updated on November 3, 2020

This post is brought to you by one InterviewIQ’s regular readers. Here he shares his approach to finding a job in Australia. If you are a skilled migrant you’ll need to be more persistent and creative in your job hunt than the average Joe. Read on for some great tips on what to do from IQ.

Someone told me once that finding a job in Australia takes some time – “up to six months is not unusual” they said. Straight away I wondered why it should take that long. “By analysing it I can take a shortcut” I thought. Sorry, I can’t help but think that way since I am an Engineer. I’ve spent the past 15 years of my life troubleshooting machines. Then I moved on to troubleshoot processes to try and fix them.

So what is it in the job hunt that takes that long?

Surely it is a simple process of finding a vacancy, applying for it, and either getting a yay or a nay? If you do the right numbers you should get a result. In six months, you can definitely receive a minimum of one job alert a day in your inbox and respond to it by an email the same day. That makes it 130 times not counting weekends. So why would it take that long? Is it the recruiters taking a nap for five months and working in the sixth? Or is it that you have to kiss 5 month’s worth of frog-job-vacancies until you land on your prince charming of a job?

Well, my story could give you an insight into the gremlin that holds back your job search, and in the process, drains your bank account and your will to live at the same time.

So I started right, or so I thought.

Having had to wait for six months before finding my last job, I made sure I did all the right things. Before moving to Australia, I read at least five websites on how to write up a CV and cover letter. Then I topped that up by a running the CV past three different people, all native English speakers, at least one who works in my profession. The result was three versions of my CV: one functional to apply for a consultant position that I always wanted; another chronological version to apply for jobs in my same line of work; and a third that is “watered down” to apply for temporary or casual jobs and not be rejected for being overqualified.

I wanted to maximise my opportunities, and have contingency plans should the main one fail. Unfortunately, I had no contingencies for the contingencies failing. Read on.

I phoned my friend in Sydney who’d been in the same position as me a couple of years ago. He confirmed that the so called “hunting journey” would take a few months, even if you’re prepared. “Bizarre! Why can’t he tell me what went wrong and what went right, and this way I’ll shave off a couple of months?!” I wondered. All he did was give me a link to the three major websites.

So to cut a long story short, all attempts to land a job applying from abroad yielded nought. In the words of one good recruitment coordinator: there are similarly or better qualified candidates doing the same thing you’re doing from at least another couple of dozen countries. So unless your skill is so unique and particular for a job, then you have to put extra effort to stand out; firstly by being in Australia and available for a face to face interview when called.

I took the hint, and put the job hunt till later

Four days after I arrived. I was on the net firing up applications, customising covering letters, and giving CVs away like marketing flyers. The scatter gun approach missed quite a few times, then it seemed to have hit. I got the very first phone call from a recruiter. But it couldn’t have come at a worse time. I was loading furniture in the car, and expecting another phone call from the electricity company. I was very honest and professional in my answer saying “this was not a good time and since I cannot recall which job he was speaking about as I applied for quite a few, it’s better if he calls me back later.”

Guess what? He never did.

This taught me another two lessons: a) recruiters do not need you, you need them, and b) keep a record of what you’ve done handy will you. Harsh it might sound, this is the name of the game and I dislike it as much as the next person.

That was the first week. Then there was another two weeks of much the same approach, yet with different outcomes. Somehow there was no soul-destroying anonymous and generic rejection emails. It drove me to desperation for a bit until my partner’s family told me January was a bad time to find a job since everyone is away. If that was not enough to drive me suicidal, they followed that by February being the month where everyone deals with January backlog. So I have to man up and tighten the belt until March, and consider all these adverts online to be generated by very intelligent computer programs covering for folk on extended holidays.

I took that time to review what I had done so far. It’s very easy to walk in circles if you don’t stop and gauge your track; it is actually scientifically proven. Following the review, I decided that I should consider new means to my desired ends, and that I should become really ruthless in terms of effort and application.

I filtered out the best five websites on job hunting (judged by Google’s ranking and by my own sceptical nature), and of them I jotted down a list of action points all five unanimously recommended. I rewrote my CVs, again, and took a different slant to writing covering letters. It wasn’t until another week of full-on nine-to-five job hunt ending in same old had passed that I got called for an interview with a recruitment consultant. Hurrah, in moderation though, since the lead came through my partner, and using the old version of my CV. Never mind, it is an interview and we went out for drinks to celebrate it.

The interview went well, and I was promised to be connected with my dream company to work for. I was almost drooling with excitement. I decided this consultant is it, and that I should sacrifice all other opportunities for the sake of getting any job with them. A week later, being the professional planner I am, I gave the consultant a courtesy follow up call. For some reason I have not understood yet, she went on the defensive and said she’ll get in touch when there is an update. My Babel fish translated that into: “you kind of upset me, and I shall put the minimum effort in your job search”. The translation was validated since a week later she told me “my CV was sent awaiting an answer,” and 3 days after I was told there were no openings. Just like that.

So now a month or more had passed, and I am exactly where I started….but not quite.

I actually got a random phone call from a recruiter inquiring about a minor detail in my CV he found uploaded on one of the major websites. This call made me feel good about myself, although his line of recruitment was out with my planned career path. He asked if I could tweak my CV (for the third time now) to highlight certain areas, and so I did… hopeful maybe something will come out of it.

I also looked up the vacancies he had on the internet, and found a website dedicated for that line of business, so I posted my mark III CV there, and got another phone call from another recruiter almost instantly. Things were going fine, and I was on the up again.

But I won’t throw all my eggs in the one basket again.

Driven by sheer frustration from the generic rejections from faceless recruiters, I gathered all the courage and confidence I had and started phoning them. Yes, I was afraid of rejection. I couldn’t handle well-rehearsed, cocky and crafty answers designed to send me away. I did know what the jobs were about, and I already had my cover letter and my CV tailored waiting to be sent. I just wanted to be noticed, to have a voice behind the name, to have a personal service and believe me that was a very hard part that went wrong quite a few times.

Never mind, there’s plenty of fish in the sea. And so there was.

I was called for an interview with an agency again, and we went out to drink and celebrate. Unfortunately, nothing came out of it, apart from having to rearrange my CV again; not a thing of the next few either. My record of agencies, names, phones and dates is now a dozen pages long, and my Linked In profile was thriving with invites and hits, but still the personal element is missing. That said, I went to one interview where the guy was so good and personal about his service that I slowed down my search to give him a chance.

He kept in touch, said all the right things, and it felt great and I felt sure again. But the karma of my earlier scatter gun approach started to pay back. I got called for my first interview with an actual employer, who were really interested in my skills that they were on the phone daily scheduling one interview and one test after another. Although I did appreciate their interest and effort, I knew if the personal recruiter had a breakthrough soon, I would be breaking these guys’ professional hearts soon. The world of business is not very different from the world of relationships in that regard.

But the personal recruiter started getting quieter and quieter, my bank balance smaller and my credit card statement longer. I had to do something and not surrender to the way things are, not after all that effort. And that was a light bulb moment that turned things around.

I reviewed all the recruiters I dealt with, and picked the one who was practically honest and on the ball. I had a frank conversation with him that ended up with him pushing an employer to take me on and it went like a breeze from there, and everyone was happy. It took 11 weeks in total.

In hindsight, if I was to go back 11 weeks, I would’ve done things differently. Would that have shaved off a few weeks? Maybe, but there were other elements like the timing of moving to Australia that should have changed months not weeks ago.

The moral of the story is that every job search is a very personal learning experience that you cannot transfer. What takes most of the time is you learning about yourself and about the world around you: how to approach, who to approach, and how to follow up. The quicker you master the game, the quicker you start earning points.

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