Day 14 Use informational interviews to build your network

I enjoy meeting people, getting to know them, finding common interests and developing a relationship with them. I have also made many friends over the years through my work and involvement in professional events. I enjoy cultivating friendships with professional colleagues. Over the years I had developed a network of friends through both social and professional contacts.

When I first began doing informational interviews as part of my job search it didn't occur to me to use the opportunity to build and strengthen my professional network. Vocational counselors and articles stressed the value of obtaining information through informational interviews. I tended to approach informational interviews as one time opportunities to meet people and gather information. I did not view them at first as a great way to develop my professional network.

If I had it to do over again, I would approach job interviews as an opportunity to network and build ongoing relationships rather than as isolated fact gathering appointments.

There are several benefits to approaching informational interviews as an opportunity to connect and maintain ongoing relationships.

1. You build friendships and acquaintances in the industry you want to work in. Think about it. When the day comes that you get hired there is a likelihood you will cross paths with the people you are interviewing with today.
2. You may make new friends who share common interests and passions. If you don't like the majority of people you meet while doing informational interviews, maybe this is not the industry you should be going into.
3. It is easier to call or go back to a person you have interviewed with earlier if you have begun to build a relationship with him or her. I had several occasions to write or call back to people I interviewed with earlier. Our initial meeting opened the door for future contacts.
4. Friends introduce new friends to old friends. It was through friendships that grew out of interviews that led to me being introduced to others in the same field.
5. Networking while you are doing informational interviews enlists others in helping you look for work. Friends like to help friends find work. If you develop genuine friendships with fellow professionals, you name and face is likely to come to mind when someone asks them "Know anybody you can recommend for this opening we've got coming up?"

Don't do informational interviews in isolation. View them as an opportunity to make new acquaintances and develop your social network.

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Day 13 Get out and do Informational Interviews

I like to stay in my comfort zone. It was real tempting for me to write cover letters and email them with my resume to job postings. It worked for me in the past, why not now?

The problem with sending out resumes to companies and organizations was that it was not producing hits. Hardly anyone was calling or writing back to me. My old tried and true method of job hunting wasn't working. Increasing the number of resumes I sent out each week didn't make much difference either. Job search articles and career counselors were saying that today job seekers need to get out and do informational interviews. It is not just a matter of what you know but who you know.

My old strategy wasn't working I had to switch to a new strategy and rely on informational interviews. Informational interviews get you in front of people, people who are in industries you are interested in, people who are networked with others in companies you hope to get hired by.

Hiring managers like to hire people they know or hire people that have been referred to them by people they know and trust. Informational interviews is a way for people to get to know you. Think about it. When you need a car mechanic or a hair stylist, what do you do? You ask a few friends who they recommend. Or you ask them if they know anything about the person or company you are considering. How much better to be a known quantity then to be a stranger when your name comes up for consideration for a position.

Informational interviews work but they take time. They help you build a network of relationships that can help you get a job in an industry or company you want to get into.

I will have more to say about informational interviews in the days ahead.

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Day 12 Better fishing holes for job postings

Early in my search I was tempted to look at every job posting that showed up on a job board. Not a smart idea. Do you know how many hundreds, no, thousands of postings there are for just one website like Monster? You have to narrow your search.

One thing I discovered that job boards seem to do a very poor job of selecting jobs that fit me.Even narrowing my search down to an industry and a geographic area proved unproductive. I would register for free service and select the job categories I wanted. The job board would then send me daily notices based on my criteria. What I found was that I got a lot of junk job postings that I had to wade through to find the ones that might fit me.

What I finally discovered was that the best job boards were highly specialized. I joined a professional association for Trainers and Developers. They had their own regional website and a section devoted to training and development jobs in the Portland area. I also connected with the local HR network and likewise found great leads in the Human Resource field through them.

I read a recent article that detailed where were the best places to look for job postings. Would you believe it? In one study last year 20% of the people hired for jobs found the job on the company website.

When fishing on the Internet look for professional association websites and company websites for employment. They are more productive then the big job boards. It takes time and effort to find these smaller websites but its worth the time and effort.

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Day 11 Be productive, not just active

When I first started out applying for jobs I went to the job boards on the Internet. They posted hundreds of openings every day. Surely there are dozens of jobs I am ideally suited to fill. It surprised me and then dismayed me to realize that big name job boards generated very few leads. The job postings look promising, positions were within a reasonable distance from where I lived but I rarely resulted in a call or interview.

Do not mistake activity for being productive in your job search. Be careful what you measure. Eight hours in front of the computer looking at job postings is admirable but is it effective use of your time?

Responding to a hundred job postings may make you feel good but how many hits did they produce? How many interviews did they generate?

After weeks and months of fruitless hours searching the big boards I came to realize there had to be better places and ways to search for work.

If your Internet search isn't producing calls and interviews, then change strategy or tactics. Don't waste time, don't waste weeks and months hoping for results. I discovered that the jobs are out there but searching the job boards is not the best way to find out about them.

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Day 10 Learn from the local experts

If you are going to be successful at fishing at an unfamiliar lake its helpful to get advice from the local fishing shop. The locals know the area lakes. They know what's biting. But most importantly they know where to fish and what kind of bait or technique to use.

I considered myself pretty knowledgeable and skilled at hooking and landing a new job even if it was in an unfamiliar industry. How hard can it be to prepare a good resume and present myself well in an interview?
A lot harder than I thought as it turns out. I made the mistake of relying too much and too long on my own skills in job searching before I sought out the help of local experts.

Spending several fruitless weeks (months?) sending out resumes in response to Internet job board postings made me realize maybe I am going about my job search wrong. I was getting virtually no worthwhile strikes for all the time and effort I was putting into scanning job postings.

After a month and a half of fairly unproductive effort I finally went to the local Oregon Worksource job office and began taking advantage of their free services. It was humbling to go in for help but well worth the effort. I couldn't believe the range of free workshops they offered and the free resources they had available for me to use. They offered 15 or 20 workshops every month on all aspects of job searching. They had postings of jobs. They offered weekly support groups for high tech professionals. I found the career counselor to be very busy but very caring and skilled at what they do. I also discovered that there were plenty of other mid-aged professionals like myself seeking out their help.

If you have some time to look and holding down career search expenses is very important to you, check out this service. Visit a local Worksource Oregon center to gain valuable knowledge and skills to improve your chances of finding and landing the kind of job you are looking for. Check them out at http://www.worksourceoregon.org/ If you live in another state, no problem. Just type in Worksource and your state name in Google and find a listing of a center near you.

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Day 9 Create business cards for yourself

I needed a way to give people my personal contact information. I did not want to pass out old business cards from my old job. There were at least two reasons for that. Half of the contact information was incorrect. People could no longer reach me at my office number or company email address. And secondly, I did not want to be associated with my old occupation because I wanted to transition to a new career field.

A personal business card gave me a way to quickly and professionally pass on my contact information to others. Crossing out outdated information and scribbling new information on an old card does not look very professional. Writing my phone number on any scrap of paper and giving it out wasn't classy either.

A second thing I printed on my card was a job title or a job description of what I was planning to do. I used the label "Career Transition Consultant". I realized that people reading those words could pigeonhole me but I also wanted to help people remember the kind of career position I was looking for.

I discovered that adding the job description turned out to be very helpful. Most people reading the description said something positive and followed up with a question. "Interesting. There are a lot of people who could use help finding a new job." "What exactly do you do?" From these responses I gained confidence that people wanted this kind of service. Secondly, the questions they asked gave me the opportunity to clarify what kind of work I was looking for. And lastly, people started remembering me as that guy who wants to help people make career changes. People were associating me with the work I wanted to do and not the career I had done previously.

It is worth the time and expense to make business cards for yourself.

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