September 25, 2017 Leave a Comment

Increase your job referrals by conducting effective information interviews

No matter how many technological tools are available to job seekers, the most effective way to be noticed by employers is — and always has been — to meet in person. LinkedIn can help to introduce you to people, but ultimately, if you want to leave the kind of impression on an employer that will make them think of you when job opportunities arise, you have to meet face to face. This was confirmed by a study from the Federal Reserve Bank, cited in Forbes Magazine that found “referred candidates were twice as likely to get interviews and 40 percent more likely to be hired than other candidates.” How do you get that referral? Ask for an information interview.

What is an Information Interview?

The meeting does not need to be long; 20 minutes is all that you need to ask for. Think of it as first step in a long-term process of forging a meaningful connection. It’s simply intended to meet, gather information and develop rapport, with no pressure for employment.

How do you go about meeting with a potential employer face-to-face?

Step 1: Identify your networking target.

Job seekers often make the mistake of targeting their networking efforts at Human Resources managers, who are not always the final decision-makers. The best and most credible referrals often come from the person who does the job you would like to do (a potential colleague, perhaps) or a department manager. LinkedIn’s company pages or your contacts’ contact lists may be useful for identifying your target person. If you don’t have any connections and cannot get an introduction, try joining those LinkedIn groups whose members may be worth meeting.

Step 2: Connect on LinkedIn, if possible.

Try to connect with your target person on LinkedIn. Make sure to send a personalized note with your invitation to connect and thank them once they agree. Work on establishing rapport by commenting on their updates occasionally (not too often).

Step 3: Plan your meeting.

Think through what you want to discuss. Review their profile and consider questions about their job, company, education, or career. Think through how you will introduce yourself and your career path. Prepare a script of your self-introduction. Call your contact from a quiet room; have paper, pen and your calendar ready.

Step 4: Pick up the phone and set up the information interview.

Introduce yourself briefly
State the purpose of the phone call (or email): you are researching careers and would like to set a date for a short meeting
Explain your reasons for wanting to meet: to gain information about the person’s occupation and benefit from their insights and advice
State clearly that you do not expect them to have a job for you or to know of any job openings, you want to be in a more informed position before you pursue a career direction
Ask for 15-20 minutes of their time, preferably within the next week, for the interview.
Set a date, time and location of the meeting. (Should the person decline to meet with you, check if he/she has time for some questions on the phone, either now or at a later date and ask for additional names you could contact.

How to Conduct an Information Interview:

Arrive ahead of time, dressed neatly (although it does not need to be quite as formal as an actual job interview)
Bring a folder containing a list of questions and information you have already gathered
Have your business card available (if you have one), as well as a copy of your resume – don’t offer your resume; you may want to ask for feedback about it, if appropriate, as well as provide it if they request a copy
Express appreciation for their time and remind them that 15-20 minutes is all you expect
Re-state the purpose of the meeting – information, advice, no expectation of a job
Introduce yourself: describe your background, experience, skills, interests, and objective
Bring the person up to date on your research so far, concisely, so that new information will be added
Ask three or four essential questions that you have prepared, and take notes
Ask for suggestions and other areas to be explored
Ask for referrals to other persons in specific occupations in the other areas suggested; ask about their background, and request permission to use the referring person’s name when calling
Thank them and express your appreciation for their time

Make sure to follow up:

Send a thank you letter as soon as possible. In the letter, thank them for their time, and mention a point of interest from your discussion. Inform them of your next steps.

In the long term, keep in touch with those you connected with. Send a holiday greeting card, comment on LinkedIn and update them about your progress.

Developing a lifelong practice of networking is useful for everyone involved. Successful networkers know that in addition to the rewarding feeling of making a positive impact on others’ careers, the time and effort spent on helping another person will surely benefit them in the future, in return.

July 24, 2017 Leave a Comment

Turn Google into your Personal Job Search Tool

Google has become the go-to resource for any and all information, so it shouldn’t be surprising that it is also an excellent place to start a job search. The strength of a search engine such as Google is the ability to search for people, companies, recruiters, information and resources, and to do it locally. It also allows you to search in complicated ways, using combinations of keywords.

Try job searching on Google, using these tips:

1. To specify the search location, include a province, city or even postal code.

2. To combine terms, use quotation marks or add a plus sign (+) between words which you want to search together:

If you write Accounting Clerk Jobs into your search, you will get results for each of those words, separately and together. That means that you will get results for Accounting, and results for Clerk, as well as results for Accounting Clerk.
If you write “Accounting Clerk” jobs (or Accounting+Clerk) you will get jobs only where Accounting Clerk is mentioned.

3. To exclude certain terms, include a minus (–) directly in front of the word to keep certain terms out of the search:

Accounting -Manager jobs to exclude the term Manager

4. To separate or combine searches, use EITHER and OR (in all caps) to get results to:

combine terms (Toronto AND Markham), or
separate them (Toronto OR Vancouver)

5. Be specific — choose your job titles with care, using all the keywords that might be relevant to your search:

Various job titles, such as: Accounting Clerk, Bookkeeping Clerk, Bookkeeper, Accounts Payable Clerk
Specific skills that are unique to your field, such as: Excel jobs, Simply Accounting jobs
Special knowledge that you might have, such as Accounting Spanish jobs

6. To broaden the search to include similar terms, use a wild card search: substitute an asterisk (*) for unknown terms or parts of a term:

Account* (with the asterisk directly after the word) could result in searches for Accounting, Accountant and Accounts
Account * (with a space between the asterisk and the word) could result in searches for Account Clerk, Account Manager and Account Executive

7. To include synonyms, add a tilde (~) directly before the word, which will find similar terms:

~Accounting Jobs could result in searches for Bookkeeping jobs or Finance jobs

8. To search within particular websites, add site: and the name of the site, to find a term within a particular website (such as a company site):

Accounting site:jvstoronto.org will result in any parts of the jvstoronto.org website where the term Accounting is mentioned.

Another useful service provided by Google are the Google Alerts, which notify you by email every time your search terms appear. Set up alerts for people, companies and/or job titles in certain locations. You will be able to customize how often you get the alerts and the types of websites you want to search. This might result in you finding out about positions before they appear on the aggregating sites (such as Indeed).

June 23, 2017 Leave a Comment

CanPrep Success Story: Dale found a job a month after moving to New Brunswick

What exercise is to the body, employment is to the mind and morals. – Henry David Thoreau

For anyone immigrating to a new country, finding employment as soon as you arrive is a top priority. It was no different for Dale who was preparing to leave his home in the Philippines and his well-established career in Accounting. When he started researching the job market in Canada, he came across JVS Toronto’s CanPrep pre-arrival employment program and signed up. With determination and focus, Dale worked his way through the following steps of the CanPrep program:
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June 19, 2017 3 Comments

Four simple principles to guide a winning job search

While I am not usually a big fan of self-help books, a little book written by don Miguel Ruiz titled The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (1997, Amber-Allen Publishing), caught my attention when a thoughtful client shared with me that she is finding these four simple but clear ideas useful for focusing on what matters in her life and in her job search.

The book, despite sounding a bit ‘new agey’ and referencing ancient wisdoms, does carry a thoughtful message about four principles that all people would do well to live by. In fact, the principles are so fundamental that modern psychologists, especially cognitive-behavioral therapists, have developed entire theories of practice based on similar concepts.

To sum it up, don Miguel encourages us to reflect on ourselves and identify those irrational thoughts which interfere with our ability to move forward with confidence. He asks us to become more mindful about our assumptions and our thinking, and make a deliberate commitment to specific ways of understanding and engaging with the world.

As well as being an excellent life guide, it seems to me that these four approaches have the potential to be especially useful for job seekers. The book encourages people to reconsider their old ways of behaving and thinking about their world, and to commit to a more deliberate approach. The author identifies four agreements that people can make with themselves that can meaningfully enhance the integrity with which they conduct themselves:

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May 29, 2017 2 Comments

After the interview, write a good thank you letter

If cover letters are about first impressions, then thank you letters can be described as last impressions. A well worded note to an employer to thank them for the opportunity to interview and reaffirm your interest in the job can be an effective way of reminding the employer of your candidacy just at that moment when they are preparing to make a decision.

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