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!
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 28th, 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.
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
*For more information Trish G. can be reached at trishgriffith01@gmail.com and you can follow her on twitter at @trishgriffith01
Very good read. Will share with my job seekers.
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