Feb 09
23
Weekly Schedule and Job Search Tips For The Week
During my job search I have come into a little bit of a routine, but I do remain flexible if something does come up that is more pressing.
Monday mornings I generally follow up with contacts and recruiters, to set up coffee or lunch meetings during the week, I also let these contacts know of my networking schedule, so they can meet me face to face at the networking events as well.
This coming week I plan on attending a job fair hosted by National Career Fairs today from 11am-2pm, then a SJN meeting Tuesday morning, after that I’ll be meeting with a recruiter Tuesday afternoon to discuss an overnight position he’s got down in Tempe, it will be my first meeting with him.
Tuesday evening I’ll be attending a meeting of Austin J Feldman’s - Austin’s “Who’s who” in Arizona, at Barcelona in Scottsdale. Tuesdays lately have been one of the busiest days of the week for face to face networking depending on the week.
On Wednesday evening from 7 to 9 PM, there is the St Patricks Employment Support Ministry network meeting I will be attending at St Patricks Church in Scottsdale.
I encourage anyone local reading this to come to these events, if you’re looking for work and we meet up there (or after the event) we can talk about how we can help one another, and if you want to contact me to find out more, my contact information is here.
I will be making time early in the week to speak with Jim McVeigh, who I’ve met at a couple of networking meetings in the last month or so, he’s in the marketing and PR field. I want to discuss some opportunities that have come across my plate in the last few weeks as possible business opportunities.
I will also be making some phone time early in the week to speak with Charee Klimek who is Volunteer CMO and COO for JobAngels. I met her on Twitter last week and connected with her on LinkedIn, told her about my job search, and how I stress networking as a very important part of the job search. She wanted to make some phone time to talk with me, I’ll be emailing her to find out when she can get some time to talk.
I may have what I will call ‘piece’ work during the next week as well. After I’d made some connections last week, a couple of them saw that I was blogging and were interested in starting it themselves, and wanted to talk with me about what’s necessary to get it set up on their own domain host. I also had a couple of hardware problem requests emailed to me over the weekend from people I’d met in the last couple of weeks.
A few tips for the job search for this week:
- Find and attend at least one or if possible two network meetings a week some resources for are listed below:
- networkingphoenix.com (login is required to view details on the calendar which is extensive)
- meetup.com (search for ‘networking’ and this is a national site, so you can look in your local area)
- networkingeventfinders.com (is national so it can be searched by each state as well)
- Bring the following with you to any network event or job fair:
- Pens/Pencils, a small notepad, or portfolio
- Business cards (I call it a ‘networking’ card) – things I recommend including on the card for job seekers:
- Name
- Phone Number
- Email address and web site address if you have one
- LinkedIn profile address
- 2 or 3 items in your area of expertise or what you’re looking for
- Don’t use old business cards from previous employers if you’re unemployed and looking for work
- print your own on your home computer
- purchase business card stock from a printing place like Kinko’s and print them on-site
- vistaprint.com is another resource for printing busines cards
- Don’t use old business cards from previous employers if you’re unemployed and looking for work
- A cheerful attitude
- A firm handshake
- Set up alerts on key words from various job boards
- monitor and change keywords if you’re not getting the results you expect or no results at all
- utilize your RSS reader and subscribe to feeds of your search terms if the job site has that capability
- make sure your resume is updated on the job board, and attach a cover letter with specific information related to the job you’re applying for
- Work your personal network
- Talk with family/friends and let them know what’s going on
- Make contact or reconnect with old coworkers, even if they themselves moved companies
- Make several coffee or lunch dates
- Have specific questions or an agenda in mind
- make it brief, unless more time is needed, 30 minutes is fine, you can always extend as needed
- Don’t be afraid to ask for help from those in your network, you won’t know until you ask
More tips coming up soon!
Happy reading!
-Martin