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.