It’s the weekend – so now what? It used to be that weekends were for flipping through the classified on a Sunday morning with your cup of coffee and a permanent marker. So relaxing right? Ah, the days of minimal media 🙂
Don’t let your job search get stale because you’re busy bbq’ing this weekend. Set reasonable goals and force yourself to focus at least a small portion of your attention to your job search. Not only will it keep moving forward, which is just good for overall karma and positive self-reinforcement, but it will also help you combat the Sunday evening blues.
1) Update your LinkedIn headline. This is easily done, but shouldn’t be taken lightly. First, you must have defined your value proposition – in other words your elevator pitch. If someone asked you “Why should I hire you?” and then pressed the button for the fifteenth floor, what would you say? I would tell them that I’m insightful, committed, and an exceptional writer, plus I take a big picture approach to each project and always know where and how to access information and resources to complete a task or a project. Plus, I have the eye of a marketer, the negotiation skills of a media buyer, and the executive communication and stakeholder management skills of a senior-level manager. Figure out what you’d say and distill it into 120 characters or less. Then update your headline accordingly. For example:
Certified Professional Resume Writer | 10+ Years Expertise in Marketing, Communications, and Personal Branding
2) Cull job board for potential postings and compile a “Top 10” list. My faves are LinkedIn and Indeed. Indeed scrapes all the other major boards and doesn’t ask a lot of unnecessary questions or push continuing education offers while you search. Not sure what you want to? No problem! Start with a geographic area. How far are you willing to drive? Use that as the search parameters and see if anything interesting pops up. Other ways to attack it are using key words. I like communication, so I might start there. Read a few job postings from the results, and find more keywords to use. Make sure you keep track of the links. Once you have your top results, use that for #3.
3) Make a list of your skills and expertise. This is not only helpful for your resume, but also gets you “talking the talk” so to speak. Buzzwords are buzzwords for a reason. The people that are in the know are using them. If you don’t know what an acronym means, google it or hit wikipedia. Educate yourself! It’s YOUR job search 🙂
4) Diagram your personal and professional network. Think about the people you talk to every day. Where do they work or how might they be able to counsel you? Know any interview coaches? Stylists? Peeps that do what you want to do? Once you’ve jotted down your immediate circle, start thinking about the close but not so close – college friends that you love but both have busy lives, former bosses or coworkers you had a great relationship with, etc. I find that people essentially want to help, it’s just a matter of the approach. Don’t be aggressive, needy, or overly confident. It’s a turnoff. Be respectful of their time, concise in what you are looking for, and don’t give them deadlines or pester them. If someone says they will do something, back off. If they don’t, you won’t ask them again – if they do, bonus!