IN HER HEAD...by Trish G. - Job Hunting Tips

Hello All!! We have another featured post by Trish G. Learn & Enjoy!

Trish G. is a woman who has had many different life experiences and certainly a lot to share. She is a dynamic personality with thought provoking opinions, a willing heart to help others and an open mind. Trish's segments on this blog will be titled "In Her Head"...look out for other posts by
Trish G in the future!

Any comments and/or questions are always welcome within the comment section below.

Trish G.

My 36 Day Adventure

On February 28^th, 2012 I walked into a boardroom to meet my boss and HR Manager.  My boss said the words no one wants hear in this economy... “We called you in here today to inform you that we are terminating your employment immediately due to corporate cutbacks, I’m sorry!”  I was shocked and I didn’t know what to say.  So I said the only words that would come to my head... “ok”.  And with that I was now unemployed.

 As I was in my cab on my way home I started thinking... “rent, car payments, gas, insurance, vacations...” how would I manage?    I decided to leave it all to God and became excited at what would be on the horizon.  I instantly went home and updated my resume and the next day posted it on major employment websites and signed up for career alerts.  On day 2 of my unemployed adventure I applied for every single job that came my way from Janitor to President and CEO... I was desperate to be back in the job force even though it had only been 24 hours since I was unemployed.  I spent the first few nights applying online at 2am once the postings were sent out and within one week I was having 5 interviews a week and 2 job offers.  I became a pro at telephone interviews, face to face interviews and applying to job postings.  I must say that it is truly a change from when I interviewed 6 years ago when I started at my last job.  After 36 actual days or 26 business days I was in a downtown office signing an offer letter for a large financial institution with better benefits, better pay and a better job than I had before.   But it wasn’t without perseverance and persistence.  Job hunting is a job in itself.  It takes hours of searching daily and weeding through falsely titled job descriptions.  I have been an Executive Assistant for over 13 years.  It is a job that I love to do so when I was searching online I would read the descriptions and look for key words.  If I saw something that said Personal Executive Assistant I passed it by because being a personal assistant requires you to do tasks that you may not be comfortable with like booking personal travel for your boss and his family or sending Valentine’s Day flowers to your boss’s girlfriend and his wife.  So I stuck to jobs that were for major corporations and that had good benefits and room for growth.  Depending on where you are in your life would determine what you put as a priority for job hunting.  For myself as a single female with no mortgage I looked for high pay, good benefits and room for growth.  For someone else I know who is married with 3 kids she is more looking for something that is a close distance from home, flexible work hours and at least 3 weeks’ vacation so she can be home with her boys in case they are sick.  Moving up in the company, high pay and good benefits are not a priority for her right now because her husband has all of that with his job.

Below I am listing the TOP 10 job hunting tips (according to me) that you can use if you find yourself in a position where you are suddenly without a job.

1)      Always keep an up to date resume constantly adding new KPI’s that you achieve throughout the year.

2)      Ensure your resume is filled with Action and Resolution statements or accomplishment statements... eg. (The action is)  Negotiated with venues and vendors on pricing, food options and timing (The resolution is) to provide the best event to our customers within their budget. Or an example of an accomplishment statement is... Lowered corporate expenses by 50k in 2011. 

3)      Post your resume on major employment websites like workopolis.com or monster.com.

4)      Sign up for Career Alerts or Saved Searches that can be emailed to you daily, weekly, or monthly.  The more often you get them the further ahead you are.

5)      Network with friends and family advertising your new situation... A lot of jobs are not posted but are filled by word of mouth.

6)      Don’t become irrelevant... start looking for jobs right away.  The longer you are unemployed the more job recruiters start to wonder why you are still unemployed.   If you are as good as your resume says you are you should be working.

7)      Make every resume specific to each job posting by mirroring the posting with your accomplishments. 

8)      Don’t lie on your resume.  Companies hire Recruitment Verifiers to ensure that what you state on your resume is valid and true and I have heard about people that lose out on jobs because they lie about something insignificant.   Be honest and truthful, that is the only way to start off with a new job.   As tempting as it is to say you do something that  you don’t know how to do, it  will become very apparent that you don’t know what you are doing once you start and if that comes up during your probationary period you could be back on the wagon searching for jobs again. 

9)      Money isn’t everything.  Make sure that you feel that connection to your new boss and your new job before accepting.  Money is nothing if you will be miserable every day.  Some of my favourite and most fulfilling jobs were the ones that paid the least. 

10)   Be patient!  It doesn’t take everyone 36 days.  I know people that it took over a year to find the right job for them.  But now that they have it they are happier than ever. 

This was my adventure.  It doesn’t go the exact same way for everyone, but the most important thing to do is stay positive. 

*For more information Trish G. can be reached at trishgriffith01@gmail.com and you can follow her on twitter at @trishgriffith01