After the radio show, Beau and I really wanted more content from Jim, so here’s even more!
Yes, so what would you say are your top 10 tips for job seekers and entrepreneurs?
- Create a strategy. Job Seekers tend to be be reactive. They begin looking as soon as they are fired or laid off or at the rumor of a layoff. So I say, start job hunting early and never stop. Always be open to hearing opportunities, whether you accept them or not. I was laid off in the last recession of 2002, but I have not had to look for a job since then (thank God) because I keep myself in the public eye of potential employers.
How did you do that? - Decided on a path. When Recruiters look at a resume they do not want to think. If they are looking to hire an Accountant, they want to skim over your resume and see Accounting experience relevant to what they are hiring for. I knew earlier on that I was going to stay with Sourcing as a career, so I knew I had to make a name for myself in the field.
- Established an identity. As someone who researches the internet everyday, I knew how Recruiters use the internet to find resumes, so I made my resume available for ALL recruiters to find for free. Job Seekers do not consider this when they apply for jobs on Monster or CareerBuilder or… wherever, but Job Boards cost money and the more job boards a Recruiter uses, the more expensive it gets. (Sure there are some free job boards out there, but the ones that Recruiters tend towards cost.) So to save money, big companies go to Google and search for free resumes and save a dollar. Smaller search firms that may have access to one or ever no job boards go to Google, do a search and find free resumes. (See the pattern here?) I wanted to place myself in a position where ALL Recruiters could find me for free. So, I created a homepage called Jim Stroud.com and posted my resume there so recruiters can find it with Google or any other search engine. Once I had that set up, I also created a profile on Linkedin which (at the time) was gaining in popularity with Recruiters.
- Recruit non-competitive allies to assist you. I found people who worked in HR, who understood what I did, but did not compete with me and exchanged leads with them. For example, if I were a Surgeon, I would work alongside nurses and anesthesiologists and medical assistants and.. whatever. If I asked a nurse if she knew of any leads for a Surgeon, chances are her leads would be of more use to me than say… an Architect I just met in a career networking group. I could go into deeper detail with this strategy, but the short version is that I built a team of people with the same goal – to find work. We paid each other with business leads and continued until we were all working.
- Create a Blog – JobSeekers Revenge and used it as a way to share career information with other job seekers and to promote my skills as well.
- Recruit the right recruiters to work for You.
- Every company has an employee referral program. – Locate people in the company and get them to make the referral. Find people who work in a company (use Linkedin) and convince them to pass your resume along. If you get hired, they get a bonus. If not, no consequence to them.
- RESEARCH! I would research startup companies that have just received funding.
- Target recruiters who focus on my niche.
- I would look up Associations and ask if they accept free articles for their newsletters. In this way, I could promote my skills to the right people.
If this didn’t work what else might you do?
- Target recruiters who focus on my niche.
- Target recruiters who work or have worked in companies I want to get in
- Convince the recruiter that I have a lot of contacts in the industry and they he should consider networking with me. If he/she cannot place me, then maybe they will place one of my friends and as a result, they may refer more jobs to me out of kindness of quid pro quo.
- I would look up podcasts on Blog Talk Radio and iTunes that speak to my industry. Ask to be a guest on their show. Treat the interview like a job interview because I am auditioning my knowledge to everyone listening.
- I would lay groundwork to impress future Hiring Managers. I would look up Associations and ask if they accept free articles for their newsletters. In this way, I could promote my skills to the right people.
- I would look up newspapers, trade publications, magazines, blogs that deal with my industry and look up the names of the reporters and editors and introduce myself as someone with years of experience in that field and suggest that if they ever need a quote from an industry expert in their next article, feel free to call on me.
- When I am mentioned in an article, newsletter, featured on a podcast or a radio, I add all of that to my resume. Now in addition to all of my work history, I have a list of credentials that will (hopefully) impress a recruiter as an above average candidate.
- I would use Google Ads / Facebook Ads to target potential employers. I would run the ad for my resume, or better yet my blog.
Finally, once I was employed, I would be very strategic.
* The first few months to a year I would be focused on doing what I was hired to do and do it very well. I need to do that in order to build confidence.
* The second thing I would do is look at areas where the company is hurting and try to improve it. I would look for or proactively create and manage projects that would have a high impact on the company.
* I would keep every “good job” email I get from my manager and peers.
* The underlying question I would be looking to answer is “What project can I complete that would look good on my resume?”
* Tweak my resume (at least) once a year. Keep it posted online. If anyone asks, I am perfectly happy where I am, but I may know someone that might be a fit for your job. In this way, I am in a position to refuse work and pass it on, which is MUCH better than having to look for it in the first place.
Where is Job Seekers Revenge now?
I sold it to CollegeRecruiter.com. (Yay!)With all that you mentioned about creating a blog and teaming up with people and so on, how long did it take you to get back to work?
How can people contact you?
www.JimStroud.com – All my contact info is there.