I hope your 2019 is off to a great start! This year, one of my goals is to actively engage with my LinkedIn network more than in the past while offering my spin on the careers industry.
Each day I have been posting on LinkedIn a Letter of the Day along with the word and how it relates to the careers industry. Each week I am going to provide a synopsis on my blog for anyone that missed each post on LinkedIn. You can connect with me on LinkedIn here
January 2nd– Today is Day 1 of my newLetter of the Daypost. Today’s letter is A for Adaptability, the quality of being able to adjust to new conditions. As a jobseekerare you adjusting your job search strategies to what works in 2019 or are you exclusively applying to positions on job boards where your chance of obtaining an interview average about 2%? Networkingis the key, nearly 75% of jobs are filled through networking.
January 3rd– Today’s Letter of the Day is B for believe, confidence in oneself and one’s abilities. When clients come to me because they have been recently laid off or are in a bad situation with their current employer, there is often anger, hurt feelings, and a feeling of hopelessness. The fact is you matter!! You add value to those in your circle and you make a difference. Sometimes it’s difficult to see the forest through the trees but believe in yourself and your abilities and you will overcome.
January 4th– TheLetter of the Dayis C for capture, to captivate and hold the interest of. In November 2018, The Ladders released an update for their popular recruiter eye-tracking study and found that the average time a recruiter spends on your résumé is 7.4 seconds, which is an increase from the 6 second time in 2012. Is your résumé capturing the reader’s attention in 7.4 seconds? Is your branded summary section showcasing your unique value proposition and enticing the reader to want to read more? If your summary is a paragraph and says nothing specific about what you can do for the employer, how long do you think it takes for the reader to turn the page?
January 7th– The Letterof the Day is D as is data. One of the keys to a successful résumé is having data to back up your claims of your ability to perform a certain competency. However, often clients struggle with producing data during an intake session. One suggestion I offer to clients is to keep a brag book – if you receive a letter of recommendation, a positive email from your supervisor, document any successes with data. During an interview, the hiring manager will want to know what you’ve done. Telling her or him that you grew sales is fine but producing data that shows you grew sales 5.6% over 12 months is better.
January 8th– The Letterof the day is E for e-mail. What does your email address say about you? As a job seeker as you using a professional email address on your résumé or are you using rockindude420@aol.com? First impressions matter! Worried about aging yourself? Make sure you are using a Gmail address and ditch the AOL or Yahoo extensions. When creating a new email address, often people will use numbers after your name. Often people will use their birth year, this act as a basis of discrimination. If you need to use numbers because you have a common name, try your area code or zip code instead. I suggest to my clients to create an email address exclusively for job seeking purposes. This allows all correspondences to be kept in one place without our personal emails creating distractions.
In case you missed it, All★Star Career Services is now on Instagram at allstarcareerservices
