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by Mark Anthony Dyson Leave a Comment

10 Job Search Strategies Beyond The Resume

10 Job Search Strategies Beyond The Resume

 

Many people want the resume dead – or they at least want to hold a funeral for it. It’s very sexy to proclaim the resume’s demise, and it brings major street cred.

But the truth is the resume is still an essential part of your job search. Job descriptions still tell you where to send or upload it. It’s a stimulant for conversations at every level.

But the rest is up to you. Resumes still matter, but they are not your primary tool for the job search anymore. They only jump-start the process. In fact, a resume alone does not give cause for an employer to call you. Recruiters and hiring managers will Google you first for more information – which is all the more reason for you to make sure Google points to your best profiles and work.

And get this: You can start your job search without a perfect resume. Your resume is not a magic potion.

Click To Tweet

Those who obsess over tweaking it are overthinking it and its value.

Listen to Graduates, the Skills Gap is Real

What job search tactics provide more value than a resume alone? Here are 10:

1. Build a Personal Brand That Has Global Appeal

Your skills can be taught – in the classroom, online, or through coaching. However, no one can learn your personality. Your life experiences, trials, victories, and outlook are unique to you. Once you understand how your skills and personality mesh to make a viable marketing unit, then you can confidently conquer what’s yours.

via GIPHY

2. Know Your Market Value

Negotiation is a constant fact of the job hunt, and everything is about your total compensation package. Think about your investment of time, travel to learn your skills, the value of the opportunity, and the process of perfecting your craft, and then research. There are many tools, articles, and books to help you determine your salary and market value.

3. Keep Lifestyle and Values in Mind

Consider options like remote work. Stop treating life as it were the obstacle to your ideal career. The happiest people are those who manage to wrap their careers around what matters to them most.

Recognize the nuances of your lifestyle; they will show you how to shape your career around life’s challenges.

Click To Tweet

via GIPHY

4. Deliver Content Where It Is Needed and Wanted

Too many job seekers move from job to job. If your goal is to take control of your career, then you have to create quality opportunities by providing content. The more recruiters and employers know about you, the more likely they will be to contact you about open roles. Providing content allows you to control the conversation by focusing it on your strengths and expertise.

Read Think Like a Consultant: Win at Today’s Job Search

5. Make Sure You Deliver Content Through the Right Channels

How you deliver content matters. You want to be top of mind. Consider posting on a personal website or via LinkedIn Pulse. You could even offer instructional videos on YouTube, Instagram, or Snapchat. Podcasts are also a way to provide raw, informative, and personable content to create engagement and visibility.

How you deliver content depends on where decision-makers in your industry are active. Use the channels they use.

6. Service Is the New Networking

You will be memorable when you offer genuine help to your network and meet people’s needs as best you can. The hardest part is doing that without expecting anything in return.

Remember that the people you are helping aren’t the only ones who benefit. Consider depositing goodness in the bank of karma as a viable and long-term career strategy.

7. Be Smart About Personal SEO

The importance of being found on Google is critical. Your social presence should trigger interest and intrigue in employers. Using tools such as Google Alerts, Talkwalker, and Google Analytics (if you have a website) can tell who is sharing or linking to your content. You can monitor your reputation and credibility to ensure your mentions are positive.

Listen to Why Your Interview Skills Suck

8. Be the Prescription to the Company’s Job Description

Job seekers who have a “remedy” mindset know the industry challenges at large and know the particular difficulties of potential employers. Engaging your network, industry news, and professional organizations create growth.

9. Set Up an Online Location to Serve as an ‘Epilogue’ to Your Resume

I am all for using LinkedIn as a place for content creation, but the optimal place I recommend is a blog. LinkedIn could go away, taking your content with it. A blog is where you have complete control over what people see and how much they see.

10. Persuade Through Social Proof

Networking and researching are essential when preparing your career documents and for interviews. Before almost any interaction today, both parties will use Google and forms of social proof to check the authenticity of the other party. You’re going to be Googled by someone you’re meeting for coffee or an interview. Do you think they’re just taking your word when you say you’re a “guru”?

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More and more, the Web is your resume. Your internet presence should expand on the skills and capabilities listed on your resume. The fewer employers see your work and know about you, the more you’re a liability. It’s better to craft your social profiles to tell a career story so employers and recruiters will want to know more.

This article originally appeared at Recruiter.com.

 

About Mark Anthony Dyson

My name is Mark Anthony Dyson, and I am the Founder of The Voice of Job Seekers. I am a career advice writer, but more importantly, I hack and re-imagine the job search process.. I've worked with hundreds of job seekers one-on-one helping them to construct a narrative and strategy that appeals to hiring managers and recruiters. I present at colleges and organizations, and facilitated many workshops including my volunteer effort through a Job Lab. I write and create useful job search content on this blog and write career and workplace advice for blogs such as Glassdoor, Payscale, Job-Hunt.org, Prezi and more. Media Feature highlights: Forbes, Business Insider, NBC News, Glassdoor, LinkedIn's #GetHired, and NPR Freelance writer and content contributor: Glassdoor, Payscale, job-hunt.org, The Financial Diet, RippleMatch.com and more. Contact me to contribute career, job search, or workplace advice for your site at markanthonydyson@gmail.com.

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Filed Under: Job Search, Resume Tagged With: Job Search, Resume

by Mark Anthony Dyson Leave a Comment

Resume Trends in 2018 w/ Jessica Dillard

Resume Trends in 2018 w/ Jessica Dillard
http://traffic.libsyn.com/thevoiceofjobseekers/thevoiceofjobseekers180.mp3

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I decided to create an extensive resume advice show that offered many practical and actionable tactics and strategies. I invited Jessica Dillard back to the show to discuss personal branding aspects of resume writing and resume writing trends for 2018.

I will love it if you offer your struggles or tips for resume writing.

Here are three ways you can let us know:

  • Call and leave a voicemail at 708-365-9822, or text your comments to the same number
  • Go to TheVoiceofJobSeekers.com, press the “Send Voicemail” button on the right side of your screen and leave a message
  • Send email feedback to mark@thevoiceofjobseekers.com

Here’s more information about Jessica: 

Dillard & Associates is a National Career Staffing and Resume Writing Firm and has worked with thousands of job seekers. I first met Jessica in 2014 when she joined my newsletter list a few years back. Jessica created her firm in 1997 and possessed awards throughout her 20+ years in business.

Highlights from our discussion: 

  • Resumes are supposed to invite the employer’s engagement
  • Ask yourself when writing your resume, “What is it your trying to convey?”
  • Relevance is the key to holding an employer’s interest and capture their attention. Relevance dictates the resume’s length
  • The most relevant information will be your last 10 years of employment. Go back further only if it’s relevant and needed
  • Consider your reader is using a mobile phone — length is even more essential
  • Method and timing of delivery matters. Keep a mobile version, upload it to a cloud service (Gmail is the most popular)
  • Your resume is optimally effective is when your career choice is clear, specific, and targeted. Write towards one position

Reminder:

I am here for you! Use my contact information above to inquire about individual or group coaching. You can also sign up for my weekly newsletter at the top right of my page. I try to pack as much value in my newsletter to more than 2,000 subscribers as possible.

Grab my updated “118 Job Search Tips for the Modern Job Search in 2018”  here.

About Mark Anthony Dyson

My name is Mark Anthony Dyson, and I am the Founder of The Voice of Job Seekers. I am a career advice writer, but more importantly, I hack and re-imagine the job search process.. I've worked with hundreds of job seekers one-on-one helping them to construct a narrative and strategy that appeals to hiring managers and recruiters. I present at colleges and organizations, and facilitated many workshops including my volunteer effort through a Job Lab. I write and create useful job search content on this blog and write career and workplace advice for blogs such as Glassdoor, Payscale, Job-Hunt.org, Prezi and more. Media Feature highlights: Forbes, Business Insider, NBC News, Glassdoor, LinkedIn's #GetHired, and NPR Freelance writer and content contributor: Glassdoor, Payscale, job-hunt.org, The Financial Diet, RippleMatch.com and more. Contact me to contribute career, job search, or workplace advice for your site at markanthonydyson@gmail.com.

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Filed Under: Resume Tagged With: Resume

by Mark Anthony Dyson Leave a Comment

14 Job Search Tips to Master in 2018

14 Job Search Tips to Master in 2018

If it has been a few years since the last time you went on a job search, you need to know that things have changed. Sure, there’s advice from 2011 that still applies today – for example, networking is still a great idea. That being said, you’ll need to brush up on the latest job search strategies if you want to land a role.

One particularly important new development you should know about: Using social media to stay connected, visible, and engaged in your network is critical to job search success today.

Of course, that’s not where it ends. Here are 14 tips to help you find a new job like a modern job seeker:

1. Don’t Overestimate Tech

Artificial intelligence is a big deal in recruitment circles today, with many people claiming that chatbots like Mya will help you get your next interview.

The way I see it, unless Mya is advanced enough to laugh and cry, it isn’t likely to increase your chances of landing the job. It is still true today that nothing beats getting a referral from someone you know.

via GIPHY

2. Think Outside the Box to Gain New Skills

Volunteering, entrepreneurial ventures, and side gigs are great ways to gain new job experiences and skills.

Don’t accept “You don’t have the experience” as the final word. Go get that experience.

Click To Tweet

3. Stay Engaged

The modern job seeker remains perpetually engaged in the job search in a number ways: networking, consulting, training (as both trainee and facilitator), professional development, and social media promotion. Take every opportunity you can to build your personal brand.

4. Breathe Life Into Your Resume

According to Jessica Dillard of Dillard & Associates, it’s time to stop treating your resume like a transactional document. Instead, use your various experiences to craft stories that demonstrate your results.

Furthermore, stop treating the job search as a transactional process. At every step, try to approach your job search as a “collaborative, engaging partnership,” Dillard says.

Listen to How Will You Stand Out at Your Next Job Fair? Use a Handbill

5. Whip Out Your Phone

Your smartphone is an invaluable aid in your job search. Scanning documents, sending emails, submitting applications, completing assessments – you can do it all through your phone. You can also use your smartphone for career development purposes by accessing online courses and programs.

6. Higher Ed. Degrees: Not Totally Necessary

A higher education degree is no longer the sure bet to advance your career.

Before investing in another degree, take a look at successful people in your industry or career track. Do they have degrees?

Click To Tweet

7. Build a Team

Some career coaches are open to working with groups rather than single clients. See if you can find some like-minded professionals to start a “career partnership” group and split the cost of a career coach. You and your group members can also add value to one another’s job searches.

8. Get Past the ATS

Some reports suggest that more than 70 percent of resumes are rejected by applicant tracking systems (ATSs) before they’re ever seen by a human being. To ensure your resume gets through the gate, check out tools like Jobscan, which compares your resume against the job ad and suggests ways to improve your resume accordingly.

9. Offer Social Proof

Social media profiles alone are not enough. You’ll need social proof, too – that is, proof of the value you create as an employee shared by others on social media.

Are you engaged in the conversation at large in your industry? Have you published articles or peer-reviewed research? Does the industry recognize your contributions? More than 90 percent of recruiters check out potential candidates on social media. They’ll pay attention if they see you actively engaged in your industry – e.g., sharing industry news, interacting with thought leaders, and being praised by clients and coworkers.

10. Ready Your References

Many employers will require at least three people to vouch for you. I recommend having up to seven people who are ready to speak up on your behalf. You should know what these references will say if contacted and to which of your strengths they can speak most effectively.

11. Small Is Beautiful

via GIPHY

Big companies are not the only option. Small businesses and startups are increasingly viable options.

Click To Tweet

If you’ve never worked for a smaller operation before, you might also consider freelancing with a potential employer to test drive their culture before committing.

12. Stay on Your Toes

In-demand skills change constantly today, so you’ll have to be flexible. By 2021, more than a third of the skills considered “important” for today’s workers will have changed, according to the World Economic Forum.

13. Defensive Googling Is Essential

Recruiters will be looking you up on Google – you should do the same. Google yourself once a week. Take note of any results that tarnish your image – including those that may be about other people who happen to share your name.

For some help on managing your Google results, read this article.

Listen to LinkedIn SEO with Susan P Joyce

14. Archive Your Performance

Keep an exhaustive list of your professional accomplishments, the career development programs you’ve completed, the results you’ve achieved, and the positive impacts of your actions at work. Keep your old performance reviews and kudos emails. These things will help shape your outlook on the future, restore confidence during trying times, and build your resume.

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If you ever say, “I’ve tried everything, but nothing has worked,” then you have given up too early. No job search strategy on this list – or any other list – is one and done. You may have to try targeting different people, companies, and locations until you yield results.

There are hundreds of job search tips available on the internet. Don’t attempt them all at once. Instead, try three or four at a time to see how well each works for you.

Thanks to venngage.com for the infographic and partnership. This article was originally published at recruiter.com!

About Mark Anthony Dyson

My name is Mark Anthony Dyson, and I am the Founder of The Voice of Job Seekers. I am a career advice writer, but more importantly, I hack and re-imagine the job search process.. I've worked with hundreds of job seekers one-on-one helping them to construct a narrative and strategy that appeals to hiring managers and recruiters. I present at colleges and organizations, and facilitated many workshops including my volunteer effort through a Job Lab. I write and create useful job search content on this blog and write career and workplace advice for blogs such as Glassdoor, Payscale, Job-Hunt.org, Prezi and more. Media Feature highlights: Forbes, Business Insider, NBC News, Glassdoor, LinkedIn's #GetHired, and NPR Freelance writer and content contributor: Glassdoor, Payscale, job-hunt.org, The Financial Diet, RippleMatch.com and more. Contact me to contribute career, job search, or workplace advice for your site at markanthonydyson@gmail.com.

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Filed Under: careers, Job Search Tagged With: Job Search, Resume, Social Media

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Listen to my NPR podcast interview on “Jazzed About Work” with Beverly Jones from 8/13/2020!

WOUB Digital · Episode 087 : Black job searchers face special challenges, says Mark Anthony Dyson

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Watch this interview about today’s job search!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJNTym48NVo&t=68s
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