There will be NO SCHEDULED SESSIONS for the rest of 2015.  While the ol’ Careerpilot re-energizes and updates this website, now is the time for jobseekers to enjoy the Holidaze and make sure they are prepared to fully Embrace The OTHER Job Market in the New Year ahead.

Thursday, January 7th… FIRST Session of 2016… Embracing The OTHER Job Market… A terrific way to ramp up your efforts in the New Year as this is the session where we cover basic philosophies and run through the entire 12-Step Process.

The notion of an “unpublished or hidden” job market is far from new.  However, knowledge of “The OTHER” job market, and your ability to execute your Personal Market Plan in it, will create both focus and productivity in your career transition.  The definition, strategies and tactics of this other market go well beyond those of the “unpublished or hidden” job market that gave birth to a whole industry, “Career Consulting,” both retail –and- Corporate sponsored outplacement services–career decision making and job search assistance.

My ‘APPROACH’ hasn’t changed in 30 + years of both many years in Corporate recruiting -and, more recently- many years of providing career consulting and job search assistance in the digital age of social media and ATS…

Simply stated, the traditional ‘job market’ is dysfunctional in many ways, loaded with traps for the normal job seeker:

• Applying on-line along with your competition, increasing the odds of rejection and causing a premature, YES-NO-MAYBE judgment…
• The digital HR screen that judges you by keywords instead of value proposition… and, by the way, what ARE the ‘right’ keywords?

Rather, learn to “Embrace The OTHER Job Market,” the one driven by hiring authorities who seek the most qualified and affordable candidates (would you expect less?)… The ONE job market driven by the choice of pre-qualified candidates who have already established a relationship with appropriate professionals–with and surrounding the hiring authority!  A job seeker can ‘stand out’ because there is much less rejection (less competition) and controllable yes-no-maybe judgments.

You see, in every marketplace, there are buyers and sellers.  In the traditional job market, the one that our Department of Labor “analyzes,” job seekers are the sellers and their potential employers are the buyers.  The commodity is JOBS and the competition is fierce.

In the OTHER Job Market, buyers and sellers hold equal responsibility for the recruitment process.  When employers have a need for someone to fulfill a specific role, often the most desired candidates are employed individuals with the credentials they seek.  Thus the employer must sell their Company to potential employees in the marketplace in order to attract the best of the lot.  Once identified, they simply select their choice and buy their services.

In other words, the commodity is productive WORK being assigned to the most qualified individual who ‘fits’ the employers needs.  Often, this WORK has not been clearly defined yet and the employer has not approved an open job requisition.  The following might explain this conceptual, but very powerful nature of the OTHER Job Market… 

You see it all the time—they dash in from the parking lot with no particular plan on how to engage their potential employer. Or they relentlessly work the phones only to discover that they’ve offered nothing more than hollow chitchat.Be prepared!  Sounds simple, doesn’t it?  After all, the Boy Scouts have been teaching this idea to kids for almost 100 years.  So why in the world would most job seekers show up for an interview unprepared?

NEXT Week’s session:  Thursday, December 17th… LAST Session of 2015…Closing The Deal II: Interview tactics, including POST-Offer negotiation.

Here are ten keys that you can use to create your own successful pre-interview habits:

1. Learn about their business—their products/services, customers, industry trends, key initiatives, financial status, and competition.
2. Discover something about the person you are meeting with. Google them, talk to their colleagues, or call others in the industry who have insights. Use a targeted organization networking approach.
3. Identify the benefits of your value to this potential employer. The benefits need to be clear, concise, credible and compelling!
4. Prepare ideas that hold value for your ‘next employer.’ Your language needs to reflect a focus on solutions…meeting their needs!
5. Plan questions that establish your expertise and get them to think in new ways. The more thought provoking your questions are, the more your prospective employers will respect and remember you!
6. Communicate an outline of your meeting prior to the actual interview. Ask them to review and provide you with feedback.
7. Getting their buy-in before you walk in the door is critical, and it demonstrates your commitment to delivering value.
8. Identify the resistance that you are most likely to encounter and prepare ideas, case studies, testimonials or expert opinions to help reduce their reluctance to move forward.
9. Plan how you will close the interview appointment and decide what agreements you need to ask for.
10. Remind yourself to be warm, friendly and courteous to everyone that you encounter. Your potential employer is constantly deciding how much they like you, how much they believe you, how much they trust you and how much confidence they have in you. It takes time—often a long time—to build your personal brand. And it takes only a few seconds for it to be destroyed.

Social media is a great place to learn about and create a digital conversation with your market. Potential employers do not want to be talked-to, or worse yet sold-to on these platforms. Your “followers” want to know they have a place to come learn, to ask questions about things THEY care about, and to know they are being heard.

Here are some things I’ve learned from listening to those I’ve served since the advent of LinkedIn, the preferred place for professional level job seekers to leave their “digital footprint.”

Listen MORE than you TALK

In the Groups that you choose to join and participate in, start with treating them as a place to listen.  Getting followers to your Profile and white papers is the start – not the end. You can learn so much more about your market if you are careful to read what Group participants are posting and commenting on. See what things they “like” and look for trends that can direct your future efforts. This is also a great place for ideas you can use to refine your positioning and targeting approaches in other personal marketing formats like your resume, value proposition, and various verbal pitches.

Engage your colleagues in digital conversation

The goal is to get other professionals with similar interests to engage in the conversation by posting intriguing content that connects to your audience and engages them to “talk.” Once you get people talking with you, you can learn about what matters to them, and then provide more of this type of content to build into your “story.”  This inter-action is the front end of high-quality relationship building… pathways to your next work.

Know your Market

You should know your market BEFORE you start applying for jobs and posting things in Social Media of any kind…and listening first to your market will accomplish this.

Once you DO post something, look to see how it’s received and use this to direct future personal marketing efforts.  The response you get from people in your various Groups of choice can tell you things about your potential employers that you can use to direct your future communication efforts.

“PUSH” without being Pushy

In “PUSH Marketing,” you need to take a low-key approach and offer 90% of insights and education to your market, with only 10% of things that would be seen as a sales pitch. Of course, ALL your social media content is “selling” in one way or another, but your market will be turned off if it comes across as a hard sell.

On the other side, don’t just post silly photos or motivation quotes. Position yourself as a subject matter expert and a source of real help to your followers, by sharing valuable information your market cares about (using UPDATES to post white papers).

Listen to what your colleagues and potential employers are talking about and then provide information, links, stories, and examples that connect them to what they care about. This makes you a trusted advocate and when you DO begin to request info and referral activity, they will be more willing to accept it because they like and trust you.

Move Toward the Next Step

Make sure to ask questions or lead them to further activity with your postings.  Direct people on opportunities to engage with you… your call to action.   Recall WAYPOINT #2: Always communicate yourself in a positive, future oriented manner!

Answer EVERYTHING

You need to monitor your presence on all your social media sites, and, during active job search, specifically LinkedIn.  Potential new contacts, potential employers, and others may be evaluating you based on how responsive you are to comments, so you need a plan to find and respond to these postings in a timely and professional manner.

Often recruitment and selection decisions are influenced by what others have said about you, so you need to work hard to direct the conversation, or the market will.

Your digital footprints are all over LinkedIn and other social media platforms, whether you put them there or not, and you need to commit to keeping up with them or suffer the consequences in the court of customer opinions.  LinkedIn is a powerful tool to assit you in both PUSH and PULL Marketing of your branded “value proposition… YOUR Digital Footprint.

Before you connect to others, you must first set up a profile page on Linkedin. While your page will detail your work history, don’t assume you can copy and paste your resume and be done with it… although that IS a good place to START, assuring that you are in sync with your resume.

Your profile page should reflect your professional interests, passions, and ambitions at this point in your career.  It becomes the core of this high tech, written collateral.

This week’s session: Your LinkedIn PRIMER… a look at three key TASKS involving your use of social media!

As you proceed, keep your goal in mind…

·         Do you want to have that fully optimized, SEO-centric magnet that attracts interested parties TO you? (PULL Marketing)  -OR-

·         Do you want that terrific, user-friendly home page and profile that is easy for a reader to navigate? (PUSH Marketing)  -OR-

·         Do you want your profile and homepage to be appealing to both? (<== MY preference)

A checklist of things to include:

1. A picture. It’s been said that, “People do business with people.”

2. A specific and high impact “headline” with keywords relevant to your industry… your headline follows you around through several of the interactive applications.

3. Preferred contact method and data… At the bottom of your profile, you can let people know how you want to be contacted — through LinkedIn, by e-mail, or over the phone.

4. Desired information, networking “targets”… What you want to be contacted about… At the bottom of your profile, you can select interests like reference requests, consulting offers, or career opportunities. Be sure to update your profile to stay in synch with your career.

…and don’t overlook the “power” of recommendations… start thinking of who you might want to encourage to endorse you and your services.  Job seekers: your references are a great start!

The LinkedIn site will walk you through filling in the blanks, but you’ll want to think ahead about two areas:

Positioning Yourself

Just like on a GREAT RESUME, directly underneath your name will be a short headline of four or five words. More than anything else in your profile, these words are how people find and define you.

Are you seeking to connect mainly with others in your field and industry? Then a simple, title-oriented headline like “Senior Product Development Director at The XYX Corporation” is best. Are you seeking to branch out into other areas? “Leader of High-Performing Engineering Projects” alerts others quickly to the value you would bring to an organization. Regardless of how you phrase your headline, make sure to use keywords that will help others find you.

Be Clear on What You’ve Done, and What You Want to Do…

Whether you are an active job seeker, or simply using LinkedIn to extend the reach of your personal marketing plan, POSITIONING yourself clearly is the epicenter of efficient networking… just as if you were beginning to launch an active JOB search to implement your Personal Marketing Plan!

When listing your past job experiences, use verbs as much as possible. Show what you’re passionate about, and what you’ve learned from each job. Consider listing “non-jobs” you’ve done, like chairing a conference or leading a panel.

Last week we got into conducting your job search efficiently and productively… next week, we’ll give IT a boost with a little help from our digital friends…

Thursday, November 12th... LinkedIn PRIMER, your three basic tasks.

Some encouraging words from a “landed” friend of ours…

<< I wanted to update you on my career transition. Four months ago I joined a privately held company, Restaurant Technologies Inc as an Account Manager. After 30 years working for The Coca-Cola Company, I have enjoyed the change. My months were filled with “getting back inside kitchens”, working with chefs at many of the metroplex’s casual dining, quick serve and hospitality venues. 

Last Friday I was promoted to a a Regional Sales Manager position. I am excited to utilize my skills I have gained to lead the southwest account managers during our company’s growth.

I remember my 18 months of unemployment being challenging. Your smile, encouragement, and wisdom helped me get up every day and try again. I am grateful to God that He has used this experience for me to learn to trust Him for my daily provision. I am thankful how He orchestrated our meeting each other, because nothing is a coincidence

Thank you again for being there for me. Let me know how you are doing and if there is anyway I can help you.

With a grateful heart,

Janine (French) >>

In the OTHER Job Market, buyers and sellers hold equal responsibility for the recruitment process.

When employers have a need for someone to fulfill a specific role, often the most desired candidates are employed individuals with the credentials they seek.  Thus the employer must sell their Company to potential employees in the marketplace in order to attract the best of the lot.  Once identified, they simply select their choice and buy their services. 

On the other hand, if an individual is under-employed, seeking a change, or actually unemployed, they must be visible to potential employers who are seeking their services.  Creating this visibility is strategic, personal market planning and execution—in can be marketability without rejection!  Personal Marketing is a contact sport.

Basic philosophy…

USE technology like a friendly tool…NOT as a replacement for face2face networking