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

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.