November 30th – The #NumberOfTheDay is 30,000.
Last week, the stock market hit 30,000 for the first time in history. As most investors will tell you, the stock market is a long-term investment tool that will have plenty of ups and downs in between.
The job search is difficult under the best of circumstances. Emotions range from anger to nervousness to sadness to joy to excitement and all points in between. When the job search gets you down, determination pulls us through.
One strategy I advise my clients to use is to make use of inspirational quotes. Quotes can often make us momentarily refocus our thoughts and encourage us with a ray of positivity.
Here are a few suggestions on how you can use inspirational quotes during your day.
- Have your spouse text you a different quote each morning.
- Post a different quote each day on your social media platforms to help encourage others.
- At a group meeting, start with one as an icebreaker and discuss what it means to each person.
- If you see a quote you like, take a few minutes to learn more about the author.
December 1st – The #NumberOfTheDay is 11,500,000
According to the Pew Research Center in June, more women than men lost their jobs from February to May 2020—11.5 million vs. 9.0 million. The article went on to say, “… the COVID-19 downturn is the first of eight downturns in the past five decades in which women have lost more jobs than men.” The article also reports that Hispanic women, immigrants, young adults, and those with less education have been hardest hit by COVID-19 job losses.
What is needed to drive bias out of the employee performance equation is the ability for companies to access data-driven insights that are entirely removed from race, gender, age, etc. What can you do to eliminate bias? It begins with knowledge and recognizing your own bias.
Project Implicit is a non-profit organization and international collaboration of researchers who are interested in implicit social cognition. They are committed to challenging organizational and institutional disparities through data-driven research and education.
In collaboration with Harvard University, Project Implicit has created a series of tests you can take to identify your own biases.
Check it out at:
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html
December 2nd – The #NumberOfTheDay is 36,000,000
According to a Brookings Institution report, nearly 36 million Americans hold jobs with “high exposure” to automation – meaning at least 70% of their tasks could be performed by machines using current technology. This change in the job market is not rapid, and it is not unpredictable – we already see self-serve kiosks at fast-food restaurants, hand-held scanners at grocery stores, and self-driving cars – but it is slowly becoming a disruption, nonetheless.
If your job is subject to evolving technologies, what can you do to make sure you are not on the outside looking in?
- Get accustomed to new technologies in your industry; know what is causing the disruption around you.
- Learn new skills…now. Don’t wait until your position has been eliminated.
- Focus on mastering “soft skills.” Soft skills never become obsolete.
December 3rd – The #NumberOfTheDay is 196.
According to TalentWorks and their ground-breaking Science of the Job Search series in 2019, on average, job seekers spend 3 hours and 16 minutes searching for jobs each day.
The best use of your 196 minutes is to focus on building your network. Depending on the source, experts estimate that between 70% and 85% of jobs are filled through networking.
Here are three key points to remember about networking:
- Networking is not just for when you need to find a job. Networking is about building relationships, and like any relationship, they take time to cultivate. If you wait to network until you need a job, you are already well behind.
- Every season is the right time for networking. Jobseekers often get in the way of their own success. “I’ll wait until after the holidays.” or “I’m waiting to see what happens with…” The time is now, don’t wait.
- It’s not whom or what you know, but knows likes, and remembers you. Networking is not about what someone can do for you, but what value can you bring to the relationship.
December 4th – The #NumberOfTheDay is 25
According to the Collegiate Employment Research Institute’s annual Recruiting Trends survey, 25% of employers suspended spring 2020 recruiting and hiring or rescinded offers already extended during spring recruitment. Internships were hit even harder, as 40% of responding employers suspended recruiting and hiring or rescinded offers.
Here are a few tips for new grads to find their first position out of school:
- Start early. Don’t wait until after graduation to begin looking for employment
- Network, network, network. 75% of all jobs are filled through who you know; it is no different for new grads
- Invest in professional written career marketing documents. Often people will have no problem spending $100,000 on a degree but then balk at paying a fraction of the cost for arguably the second most important piece of paper in your job search
- Be open-minded. Your dream job may not be waiting for you right after graduation, and you may need to find a position to use as a stepping stone to gain the experience necessary to advance your career
