1. Get out and get noticed, a great local resource in Phoenix for networking events is networkingphoenix.com search the internet for local network groups for your own area
2. Set daily, weekly and monthly goals in your job search, make them realistic, not unattainable, you don’t want to set yourself up for defeat
3. Take constructive criticism gracefully.  I’ve learned from some very helpful people that if someone tells you something about how you handle an issue, that more than one person likely has seen the same thing, so don’t over-react.
   • These are more than likely people in your ‘inner-circle’ and noticed something, whatever it is.  Pause a moment and listen, they care and want to help you succeed in your life.
   • Use it to your advantage
   • Take time to reflect on it
   • Grow and learn from it
   • Thank the person for bringing it to your attention later
4. Find someone else who shares your story, and bounce ideas off each other.  Remember the saying, ‘there is no I in team’, and teamwork is something that will help out in the long run, so don’t try to go it alone, here are  some resources you can utilize:
   • Alumni association and/or career services office of colleges you attended
   • Your LinkedIn Network
   • People you previously worked with in your field

I came across the following message on twitter this morning from a buddy of mine who runs jobshouts.com, Mike Quale that was Retweeted from another couple of people.

So I had to go look at it, and just a quick overview of that article, I am doing 5 of these things, I will go over them here. The full article is located here if you don’t click on the short link above: http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-experts-8_little_known_tricks_for_the_job_hunt-79

1. Add a signature to your outgoing email messages
   • While I have almost always included my name and email address, since I’ve been searching for a job and since starting this blog, I have added a bit of additional information to my email signature, to include name, email address, blog site and LinkedIn profile URL and I do recommend everyone not currently doing something like this to add one, most webmail providers also include an option to add a signature.
2. Include your LinkedIn profile URL in that signature
   • This is something I started doing once I had my LinkedIn profile up and running, my LinkedIn profile mirrors my resume for the most part, but still does need some tweaking
3. Use Twitter to keep your fans in the loop
   • I’m making a point to connect with people, and I send relevant messages, also letting people know when I’ve made a new post here so they can read it and follow what I’m doing, not only do I do that but I have my twitter feed pulled in to facebook, and I utilize the LinkedIn “What are you working on?” status update as well
4. Make your Facebook page work for you – not against you
   • This one is the one that I’m not doing, I just need to figure out how to work this, if there is anyone out there that can help me with this, I’d appreciate it
5. Add a qoute to your resume
   • This is another that I’m not doing, I can think of several things, but if anyone has a format or idea on where and how to place it on the resume, I’d like some suggestions
6. Get a Moo card
   • I have a ‘network’ card, listing my contact information, this Moo card idea is a bit different and something I will be looking into
7. Put a voice on your job search profile
   • This is one that I plan on implementing in a different way, currently my ‘voice’ was the short news interview I had on ABC15 which there are links to from my sidebar here on my site, but I need to expand on that a bit more in my own video or audio
8. Rewrite your resume so it sounds human
   • Currently working on my resume with Christian Kaijser of Career Evolutions to retool my resume and take it to the next level.

Happy Reading!

Martin

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:

1. 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)
2. 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
         1. print your own on your home computer
         2. purchase business card stock from a printing place like Kinko’s and print them on-site
         3. vistaprint.com is another resource for printing busines cards
   • A cheerful attitude
   • A firm handshake
3. 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
4. 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