The ” Circleback Around” exercise

If you are like most of us, it is probably time to “Circle back” around to all of the applications, contacts, personal friends,and everyone in your rolodex and your e mail address book. The object of this exercise is simple, you want them to keep you in mind and realize you are still out there in need of help. One idea that looks pretty professional and still gets the personal aspect of the task done is a personal note. This can go snail mail on a five by eight inch one page note.  Non folded is best. The content is simple but you should customize this for the audience you are sending it to. Probably you have 3 groups of contacts by now: Business professionals that you have spoken with, Recruiters, and people who are more friends than business contacts. Each of those should be worded slightly differently, but the distinction is fairly obvious. Leave room on the page for your business card to be attached. There are mixed emotions about presenting your photograph on the note. There is a simple answer to that but it is different for everyone. The answer is, ” Does my photo help make a point?” I am a friendly person, I am a professional looking person, I dress well, I have a nice smile, I do not come off looking too old, my photo makes me look energetic………. These are all good reasons to include it. If your photo does not help you pitch your personal brand, or if you worry about privacy, leave it off.
If you are mailing it out, use resume grade notepaper. If you put it in an e mail, PASTE it in the body, do not use it as an attachment.
Speaking of attachments, you probably do not have to send your resume again. That is not the purpose here. You should be able to read the entire thing in one minute, including detaching and saving your business card. If they need your resume, they will ask. Or you might ask them about it a week later when you make a follow up call.
With luck we are going to try to attach a sample we are using right now:
E.Stacy Jackson
19732 Shorecliff Lane, Huntington Beach, California, 92648

November 11, 2009

Lisa Rane
Portland , Oregon

Dear Lisa,
This past year has been very tough on many of us. Many people are out of work or underemployed right now through no fault of their own. You probably knew I was working for a reputable homebuilder when that market crashed. As you know my background is in retail, but that market too has not been doing well. Fortunately, the Kiplinger report has recently been projecting some very hopeful signs for my industries. The third Quarter is showing a 3.5% annual growth rate, causing some employers to take a new look at the extensive pool of affordable industry talent out there.
I would like to ask you for your help. If you know of any positions that have opened up recently, or of any employers who are hiring, please let me know. There are many of us who need and appreciate your help right now. The friends network is truly important in times like these.
Please take a look at: http://www.visualcv.com/estacyjackson
I really appreciate any information you might have.
Thank you for your time and help,

E.Stacy Jackson

http://www.linkedin.com/in/estacyjackson http://www.retailoperationsmgmt.com
( your phone number here is probably a good thing)

Two final hints, direct them to your visual CV. People love photos and visual items.  Yes you need a tracking sheet for this project as well. You do not want to send two to the same person, or skip someone really important. More later

Accountability Workgroups Will Help You

What part of over 11% unemployment do you not understand?

OK, that is what you are up against right now. If you think you can do this alone, or that the tricks you used ten years ago when you were out of work the last time are going to work now, you are spending too much time at Disneyland. Chances are you outgrew Fantasyland a couple years ago. There are a couple brutal realities that we need to get out on the table right now:

However you wound up looking for work right now it probably was not fair and it probably has left you bitter. It also probably was not your fault. You need to put it behind you and move on. NOBODY wants to hire somebody who is negative or bitter. Especially right now. This is a workforce that needs “glass half full” people in a “glass half empty” environment.

The sad odds are that the same job you just lost may not be around anymore.  Anywhere. Most people spend their initial time trying to find the same job they just had with a different company. Probably not going to happen right now. Ask the Mortgage people or anyone connected to Homebuilding, Commercial Construction, Car sales, or Retail. You are going to have to adapt and accept. That hurts emotionally and very possibly financially. It is a tough thing to hear, but you are probably going to have to learn how to get over it. The sooner you do the sooner you will start to move ahead again.

The most important surprise here is the most obvious. Nobody is going to do this for you. You will get as far as you take it. The responsibility and the workload is yours. Nobody to delegate to, nobody else to blame when it goes wrong, and nobody who will cut you any slack when “they” write your review on this. Kevin Tougas from Compass Search Group, pointed out that if you are not putting as much time and effort and creativity and inspiration into your jobsearch as you did your last job, you probably will not succeed.  Think about it, why would you think anything less would work?? If you do not push your campaign, nobody else is going to do it. And yes there are alot of people out there just like you trying to do the same thing as you are , and no it isn’t fair and …………………….ok, we get it. Take a deep breath and move on. This is going to be hard, but most of us will put all of this behind us and move on and find jobs. A few never will and that is a shame. By the way, there is no magic wisdom here. We learned all of this the hardway in our group. Since then we have seen it over and over in other people looking for work. This entire Blog is just an attempt to pass along what we have learned.

The good news is you do not have to do this alone. An Accountability workgroup of 10 or 12 people that meets once per week and has weekly self assigned goals is going to have alot more, and better ideas than any one of us alone. Read on McDuff and we will tell you a few of the things that we found will work. Just remember though, until you get past the “BIG THREE” stumbling blocks in your head, nothing  else really matters.

Visual CV

     There is a great tool to make your resume more interesting and available on line. Some are familiar with Visualcv.com, but if you are not, it is worth checking out as a group. The format allows you to build a fairly simple but visually graphic website that displays your resume on line, or gives you or the user a printer friendly PDF. The form is great because it has an adaptable layout depending on your needs and desired visual presentation.

     It starts with a Summary that can be used  to highlight your strongest talent, in just a short paragraph. That can be followed by a brief  work history. The next section allows you to highlight your skills in some detail including PAR stories if you want.  The order is not fixed and you can shuffle sections at will. You can add references or additional contact information.

     The most interesting feature, however, is the Portfolio. You can import photographs of things you have done, people you have worked with, testimonials you have received from former CEO’s etc., newspaper articles about yourself or particular key projects you have worked on.  Remember you need permission from the author to publish their comment. Also please remember that the details of a project are probably protected and could have confidentiality requirements. So stick to general comments and photos to be safe. If it can be scanned into a JPEG, you can load it. The portfolio can then be used to populate sections that you create. A popular format we seem to like has the photos running in a column on the right with some caption information. If you do this well it looks very much like a magazine article that has been written about you!

     That is fine, but say you are an Architect, like one of our team members. He wants to use the Portfolio to show off his work. So he is setting his VisualCV page to feature the Portfolio. The photos can be expanded to full screen so you can feature items in many ways.

     So when do you use this tool rather than one of your 3 or 4 different printed resume formats, including a 1 page two sided networking resume? Some of us also have a website and everyone has a LinkedIn. Most have a Facebook, and everyone has business cards with mini-resumes on the back. Every one of these is linked to every other tool and each of them have best uses. To get someone interested in you there seems to be no better tool than the Visual CV. For complicated or detailed conversations you may need the multiple pages and 60 something photos you have on your website.  Remember there is a downside to multiple formats. You have to keep them all updated so that they never conflict. Both of these can be used for interviews, if the interviewer has a computer on their desk. A visual presentation of your skills along with pictures is  much more dramatic and interesting than the wonderful cream colored heavy bond paper with bold black print that looks exactly like the other 400 cream colored papers sitting on the interviewers desk. You get the point.

There is a very subtle extra value to doing the Visual CV. You demonstrate that you are knowledgeable of current technologies. You also demonstrate that you understand the value of differentiation and marketing. My CV is www.visualcv.com/estacyjackson. Take a look and it will give you many different ideas for how you want yours to work. Have your workgroup build them together and share tools. Have fun, and good luck.

 

 

Tracking Sheets

Accountability groups require two things. Everyone in the group needs to agree to be accountable to the group and to themselves. Secondly, the team members need to be truthful and honest with their own situation. The Tracking Sheet is the tool that makes your efforts transparent to everyone. It does not really matter which format you use, as long as there is a follow up date column on the page.

Each week team members need to bring the updated version of their tracking sheet along to the meeting so they can honestly report on what they have done and what they intend to do next week. The group cannot help you if you do not tell the team what you need help doing. The tracking sheet keeps you honest to yourself. If you are not happy to show your team your tracking sheet, you probably need to get away from the TV and do more work.  Put it on your refrigerator so that you have to stare at it everyday.

Again, if you cannot find a good tracking sheet form, e mail us at e.stacyjackson@yahoo.com and we will send you one. They are pretty available on the net from many sources.
One other thing the sheet makes you do. Keep trying. Babe Ruth said it, “Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.”

Research and Navigation Skills

A lot of jobsearching these days is about websites. Sometimes the job lead websites are not the most important ones. Navigating the OC One Stop is not as transparent as it looks. There is a lot of good self examination information there about your adaptability and skill set relevance as well as key words, phrases and PAR story aids. But the navigation is harder than it would appear. Some very key data is buried under “EDD Staff” for instance. We have developed a short guide sheet page that I, on behalf of the EU Gold Team, would be happy to send you if you contact me under the Experience Unlimited Gold Linked In group. However, an even better suggestion is to sign up for the EDD class at the front desk called “Link your way to Employment”. However you get yourself there, get there. Particularly O*Net and Gadball may lead you to many good informational places that you can use to find companies and people, as well as possible transferable skills for yourself.

Networking Sources

We all know that networking contacts are the most effective way to get in the door to a new job. Many executive jobs never get posted on the web. This is not new news to most of us. EU has some excellent electronic networking sources available and there is really no reason to reinvent the wheel. There is a much harder job finding non electronic networking sources and then making them work for you. In our group Sven Johnston was clearly the man who understands this the best and has the most sources. He is in the process of starting an Orange County LinkedIn group, and already has amazing success at getting people to join. He is looking for Orange County members and is a great resource. Contact him under linked in groups @ “We are Orange County!”. That is the place to talk networking right now!

The other source you might look at is Jeffery Gitomer’s Little Black Book of Connections, it will help get you out of your shell. If you are like most of us, there are a lot of ten year old ,and out of date ideas about job searching in your head.  Get out there and make some contacts.

Start with YOUR workgroup.

The Nature of the Workgroup

One of the most useful tools we have found that we have at EU is our workgroup. Many people ask us what makes a workgroup successful. I can only tell you what has worked for us.

First, remember that the object of the game is to get everyone in the group jobs. You can’t do that well alone. It takes everyone. Create an EU workgroup on Linked In. Ours is Experience Unlimited Gold team. Make sure all the emails are linked on the linked in group or just on your own Blackberry or email application. Send most comunication to everyone in the group, all the time. Go to Dave and Busters as a group every now and then.They have inexpensive specials on Wednesday afternoons, become a real team.

There need to be weekly goals for the group, not just each member. Be a support group inside and outside jobhunting. Bring ideas to the meeting but e mail them all week long. You are all in this together, it is amazing what good friends you can make. The teamleader has to insist on weekly accountability for at least one goal a week. You can have more but you have to promise the group there is one thing you WILL DO, and then DO IT. The teamleader has to bring in reviews of some of the classroom concepts that apply best to your group.

Maintain a positive attitude, this is hard. Slime runs deep, help each other. Know each members real and urgent needs, and focus on them. Do not get trapped into thinking that the count of resumes mailed out or phone calls made is what the group is all about. That will not get you very far. We discovered that one hot lead is worth 300 resumes mailed out. And 12 people helping you with one hot lead is how we have gotten people placed. It pays to suspend YOUR needs sometimes and concentrate on helping someone else. Your turn will come. There are numerous tools and format tips that we have created but do not forget that the largest tool is a measuring tool. Number of teamates placed. That is what really counts right now.

Like some of the other points we have a printed list of the things we have done and the things we think make an Accountability workgroup work which we can send you if you’d like. Email me @ e.stacyjackson@yahoo.com and I will send it to you on behalf of our team. But remember, most of this is common sense. The more you commit and help your group, the more your group will help you. Thanks.

Transferable Skills

One of the things we found very useful in this environment is the concept of transferable skills. Again this is touched on during the classes, and EDD has a section on it. We found that a little more detailed approach was really useful to the more professional jobseeker. First, there are two documents posted on EU from Lee Dorman called “Management Information Composite Research” and Functional Organizational Hierarchy Corporate Titles”. Use these documents to choose six to ten job titles that you think might be good fits. Now go into O*net(http://online.onetcenter.org) and take the Skillset Analysis test. Then enter a specific job title in the “search” box, and you will get three things: you get your O*net skillset evaluation of how you fit that job, you can click on the job and get much detail on the job (much the same as the two previous handouts created), and third go near the bottom and look up the salary. Enter the box by state for California. Record your skillset % and salary range for each of the six to ten jobs you looked up. Take one page per job lookup and write those per page.

Take your most detailed resume and one by one write all of YOUR skills that you believe you have and write them on each page where they apply. What per cent is on each page. ( I have 36 total so a page where 29 appear is an 81% page. You get the idea.)Now enter all of them on an Excel spreadsheet. List the title, the four ratings and then sort the page, best to worst using all four categories as sort criteria. If you hand wrote this on the back of a shopping bag just look over the list and use common sense.

We actually have forms for this exercise that will give you a nice spreadsheet and a smokin hot graph. Email me @ e.stacyjackson@yahoo.com and I will send them to you on behalf of the group. Just remember that common sense also works. By now three or four categories probably look worth exploring and two or three do not look as good as you thought they would. By using transferrable skills you will be able expand the bandwidth of your job search. Good luck.

Summary

In the past several months the EU Gold Team Group at Orange County EU has had considerable success in placing our members in new jobs. We have been asked if there are any items about our group that we could share to help others. Actually, because this is a very dynamic group, there are a number of things we can share. We discovered that there are five concepts we talked about that are really helpful. All are discussed in class, but it is  really helpful to slow down, re-review, and expand on these concepts.

First would be the structure of the workgroup itself. What is it, what should it do, and how does it create support and accountability. Second is the concept of networking. EU covers electronic networking well but non-electronic networking is a harder issue for most people. The third concept really has to do with navigating websites. Particularly OC One Stop website. Using the O*net and Gadball can help alot. But the fourth, in this economy is determining transferable skills.

The fifth is not really a concept, it is a tool. The tracking sheet allows you to be honest with yourself and to keep track of what you are doing.

The “how to’s” of these are too long for one post. But we are glad to share what we have discovered. We hope what is posted above has helped. Feel free to contact us through the Experience Unlimited Gold LinkedIn group. Thanks.