Find Your Dream Job: Insider Tips for Finding Work, Advancing your Career, and Loving Your Job

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Ep. 006: Making the Most of Your University and Alumni Networks (Linda Williams Favero) Oct 28, 2015

Show notes

Most colleges and universities provide career advising services to their current and former students. Yet only 10-20% of all college students or alumni ever use of their university career center.

Are you making the most of your alma mater?

This week on Find Your Dream Job Mac chats with Linda Williams Favero, director of alumni career services at the University of Oregon. Linda discusses how career centers function, the services they provide for students, and the opportunities available to alumni. She shares tips on how to make the most of your university career, even if it's been many years since you graduated. Linda also talks about the importance of maintaining a connection with your alumni networks. As she notes: “Ducks like to help Ducks... and you’ll find that at any university.”

In this 29-minute episode you will learn:

How career centers can benefit current students and alumni
How to build a strong professional relationship with a career counselor
The value of networking with alumni associations and local alumni chapters
Special career center services often available to older alumni
The single-best thing you can do to make the most of your university career center

This week’s guest:

Linda Williams Favero (@LindaFavero)Program Director, Alumni Career Services, Career Center and Student Life, University of OregonPrincipal, Linda W Favero | Organization + Individual Development Portland, Ore.

Listener question of the week:

Should I list every job I’ve ever had on my resume?

Do you have a question you’d like us to answer on a future episode? Please send your questions to Cecilia Bianco, Mac’s List Community Manager at cecilia@macslist.org.

Resources referenced on this week’s show:

If you have a job-hunting or career development resource resource you’d like to share, please contact Ben Forstag, Mac’s List Managing Director at ben@macslist.org.

Thank you for listening to Find Your Dream Job. If you like this show, please help us by rating and reviewing our podcast on iTunes. We appreciate your support!Opening and closing music for Find Your Dream Job provided by Freddy Trujillo, www.freddytrujillo.com.

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BONUS: How Can Professionals Use Snapchat? Oct 21, 2015

Show notes

In Find Your Dream Job, Episode 005, the Mac's List team shared the the importance of keeping up-to-date on new social media tools. In this special bonus clip, we discuss one of the newer platforms in social media: Snapchat. Once a domain solely for intrepid youth, Snapchat is now increasingly being adopted by companies and professionals.

Cecilia Bianco shares one example of how a nonprofit, DoSomething.org, uses Snapchat, to connect with a younger audience and build a support base.

Do you have a question you'd like us to answer on a future episode? Please send your questions to Cecilia Bianco, Mac's List Community Manager at cecilia@macslist.org.

If you have a job-hunting or career development resource resource you'd like to share, please contact Ben Forstag, Mac's List Managing Director at ben@macslist.org.

Thank you for listening to Find Your Dream Job. If you like this show, please help us by rating and reviewing our podcast on iTunes. We appreciate your support!

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Ben Forstag:

Hi, Cecilia. Today, we were talking about different social media platforms and the topic of Snapchat came up, and maybe I am outing myself as an old guy who doesn't get it, but I really don’t understand the value of Snapchat. I understand how it works, that the pictures self delete, but how could a professional or an organization use this to an effective end?

Cecilia Bianco:

Yeah, definitely. A lot of organizations are actually using it effectively, and one non-profit in particular has done some really cool things with it. It's called DoSomething.org, and it was Valentine's Day, and they were Snapchatting throughout the day and all of their Snapchats culminated in this live event, and they used Snapchat to get people to come to the event. It's just another way to engage with your fans and if you grow a large audience base on Snapchat, if your audience is in that age group where everyone's on Snapchat, it’s a great way to engage with them and you can do really cool things, like have an all-day online event, and then bring it in person. It's just a new creative way to do something for your fans.

Mac Prichard:

The reason organizations are going to that platform is because that's where their audience is, essentially.

Cecilia Bianco:

Yeah, I think that's definitely true. Probably from 13 to 23, everyone’s on it. I'm on it, and I don't even know why, but I know I follow a lot of organizations and I can see what they're doing, what campaigns they're working on, and it’s a very personal approach, I think, to social media.

Ben Forstag:

Hey, Mac? Thirteen to 23, I'm not in that demographic group.

Mac Prichard:

Neither am I, but I think a lot of our listeners want to work with young people and they want to work with organizations that are involved, or help and serve young people, and I think it may be a different platform, but the principle's the same, whether it's Facebook or Snapchat. If the employers you want to hire you are in that world, it’s to your advantage to be there.

Cecilia Bianco:

Yeah.

Ben Forstag:

You go where the market is.

Mac Prichard:

Exactly, and you don’t have to be 13 to 23 to want to work with young people. There are lots of people my age or younger or older who want to do that kind of work, and being on Snapchat could help them build relationships.

Cecilia Bianco:

Yeah, it's probably more like 13 to 30, actually, just to correct myself, because I’m thinking of my sisters and my cousins, and they're in their 30s. They'd be offended if they heard me say 23, so 13 to 30.

Ben Forstag:

Unfortunately, I still don’t fall in that demographic group! But thanks for clearing that up for me.

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Ep. 005: Finding Work Through Recruiters and Recruiting Agencies (Steve Potestio) Oct 21, 2015

Show notes

Finding a job can take a lot of work. But what if you could get in front of a recruiter--someone who is paid to find great employees? Like a fairy godmother, couldn't a recruiter make your wish for a dream job come true? And by doing so, save you a lot of time and effort? The truth is, recruiters can make a big difference in your job search, but they can't do it all. In this 32-minute episode you will learn: What recruiters do, who they work for, and how they get paid How to find the right recruiter for you and your industry How to start a relationship with a recruiter or recruiting firm What you should (and shouldn’t) expect from a recruiter This week’s guest: Steve Potestio (@Potestio)Partner and CEO, Mathys+PotestioPortland, OR Listener question of the week: How can I keep up with new media jobs? Do you have a question you’d like us to answer on a future episode? Please send your questions to Cecilia Bianco, Mac’s List Community Manager, at cecilia@macslist.org. Resources referenced on this week’s show: Mashable.com - 20 Tools to Show Off Your Portfolio The Deeply Graphic Design Podcast Social Media Examiner Mashable.com Inc. Magazine Forbes Technology SnapChat Canva Free Online Photo Editor Hootsuite Social Media Management Edgar Social Media Management The Business of Strangers (2001) Mathys+Potestio Find Your Dream Job in Portland (and Beyond): The Complete Mac’s List Guide If you have a job-hunting or career development resource resource you’d like to share, please contact Ben Forstag, Mac’s List Managing Director, at ben@macslist.org. -- Thank you for listening to Find Your Dream Job. If you like this show, please help us by rating and reviewing our podcast on iTunes. We appreciate your support! Opening and closing music for “Find Your Dream Job” provided by Freddy Trujillo, www.freddytrujillo.com. FULL TRANSCRIPT BELOW: Mac Prichard: Welcome to Find Your Dream Job. We're the podcast that helps you get hired and have the career you want, and make a difference in life. I'm Mac Prichard, your host. I'm the publisher of Mac's List. On today's show, we're discussing how to work with an executive recruiter. Looking for a job is hard work. You know that. We've all been there. Before you set on to your first application or you go to an interview, you need to confirm your career goals, and you have to update your online profiles. You need to network. You need to do lots and lots of networking. Again, that's a lot of hard work. Not surprisingly, many of us, including me, have wondered, "Isn't there another way--an easier way--that lets you cut to the front of the application line?" What if you could get in front of a recruiter, somebody who is paid to find great employees? Like a fairy godmother, couldn't a recruiter make your wish for a dream job come true, and by doing so save you a lot of time and effort? Recruiters can make a big difference in your job search, but they can't do it all. This week, we're talking to a recruiter, Steve Potestio. He's one of the best in the business. He works with digital firms and writers, graphic designers, and other creative workers all across the country. Steve is going to share with us what recruiters can do and what they can't do, and how you can make the most of that experience. First, let's check in with the Mac's List team. Joining me as always in our downtown studio here in Portland, Oregon are Ben Forstag, our management director, and Cecilia Bianco, our community manager. Hello Ben and Cecilia. Cecilia Bianco: Hi Mac, how are you? Ben Forstag: Hi Mac. Mac Prichard: Good, I'm doing well. Confess, have you had that fantasy that the phone is going to ring one day, and it will be a recruiter offering you your dream job? Ben Forstag: During my last unemployment stint, which was about four months long, I had that fantasy every day, or that hope at least. Mac Prichard: How about you Cecilia? Cecilia Bianco: I actually really haven't, but I've talked to a lot of recruiters through my job at Mac's List, and I think it's a dream a lot of people have. Mac Prichard: There is real value when working with a recruiter. They can make a huge difference, but like anything, you don't want to rely in just one strategy alone. I've never actually been approached by a recruiter about a job, though I have been contacted by different recruiters looking for candidates. Cecilia, you're out there in the community a lot. What's been your experience working with recruiters? Cecilia Bianco: They're always just looking for it seems very specific people to their agency. Anytime I get an email from one of them, they have almost an exact person in mind with certain experience. Mac Prichard: I find that too. I also find that they contact people like us, because they're looking for recommendations about trusted candidates, people who fit that criteria. Even if the phone rings, and they're not offering a job, but if it's a recruiter at the other end of the line, I think there's a real value in building that relationship. We'll talk more to Steve about that later in the show. Before we do that, let's check in with Ben, because when it comes to online career resources, Wikipedia has nothing on Ben Forstag. Every week, he explores the internet looking for blogs, podcasts, and other tools you could use in your job search. Ben, what have you uncovered for us this week? Ben Forstag: Mac, given the theme of today's show, I wanted to share two different resources that I thought might be particularly useful to anyone exploring a career in creative services, so graphic designers, writers, anyone who does creative things for a living. The first one is a blog post I found on the mashable.com website. Cecilia, I know you go to Mashable every day. Cecilia Bianco: Often. Ben Forstag: This is a site that's about all things digital and media. It's a great tool. This blog post comes from 2013. It's 20 Tools to Show Off Your Portfolio. If you're going to be working in the creative industry, that really means you need to present your work on the web so that everyone could see what you do. The online platform you use to show off your work might be just as important as the material you're showcasing. As you can imagine, it doesn't matter how good the work you put on it is if your website looks dated, or if it doesn't work. That's going to not reflect well on you as a professional. This blog, the 20 Tools to Showcase Your Portfolio, it outlines 20 different platforms you could use to showcase your art, your writing, whatever creative output you have. I'll admit, I don't have a portfolio myself. Cecilia, I know that you do. What platform do you use? Cecilia Bianco: I actually have a customized WordPress platform, but I think about every single journalism school student at University of Oregon all used this Cargo Collective. It's definitely one of the easiest tools to make one. Ben Forstag: Mac, when you're looking at candidates for contract work or vendors, is there a given platform that you prefer, or is it just whatever you find? Mac Prichard: One feature I like about LinkedIn is there is portfolio section. I don't think it's on your list. LinkedIn is always a stop for an employer who is checking on the candidate. In addition to the good ideas on your list, I would encourage candidates to think about using the portfolio section of LinkedIn. Ben Forstag: On LinkedIn, you can add projects now. I know I uploaded some magazines that I edited in my previous job there. That's a great tool as well. There are 20 different platforms here that they suggest. Some that are more known, some that might be new on the scene, tools like Carbonmade, Behance, Dribbble, that's with three Bs, Dunked to Viewbook, and Cargo Collective. Again, this is post is on Mashable. It's 20 tools to showcase your portfolio. It's another blog with a really long URL. We'll include this in the show notes, or you can Google it on Mashable. The other resource I want to share with you is a podcast I discovered recently. Mac Prichard: Another podcast, you're listening to other podcasts. Ben Forstag: I'm cheating on the podcast. When you're done with this podcast, when you've downloaded them all, and listened to them all and rated us positively, you can go check out this other podcast. It's called the Deeply Graphic DesignCast. This is a podcast for graphic designers, web designers, and visual designers. It's produced by a graphic design studio in LA called The Deep End. The episodes explore different design-related topics from finding better clients to online portfolios, hot trends in design, and making sure you get paid for your work, things like that. I've always had a fantasy of monetizing my hobby of painting, and so I like hearing these things on how other people are doing stuff in the creative arts. Don't worry Mac, I'm not going anywhere. I'd get to sell a single painting in five years. Like our podcast, they answer listener questions. The nice thing about this podcast is it's been around since 2011, and they regularly produce episodes. They've got 95 episodes. It's about one every week. It's a great resource, a fun little podcast, entertaining. I suggest you check it out. Again, the Deeply Graphic DesignCast, and we'll have the link to that in the show notes. Mac Prichard: Those are great suggestions. I didn't know that you painted. I look forward to seeing some of your paintings one day. Ben Forstag: I'll bring you over to the studio someday. Mac Prichard: Do you have an idea for Ben? Just write him. You can reach him at ben@macslist.org. We may share your idea on the show. Now, we want to hear from you our listeners. Let's turn it over to Cecilia, our community manager. Cecilia, what's the question of the week? Cecilia Bianco: Our question this week is, "How can I keep up with new media jobs?" To get a new media job, the most important skill you can have is knowing how to tell a visual story. New media has largely turned into visual communication. As we all know, in this office, we've done presentations about this. Being able to use the tools and platforms available to tell a visual story is the key thing. You want to be comfortable with video editing tools, even if it's just a simple as iMovie on your Mac computer. I know Ben is a pro at iMovie. Also photo editing tools such as the Adobe suite with InDesign and Photoshop. There's also a lot of online tools that are free and easier to manage than Adobe. Overall, the more skills and tools you master, the better off you're going to be. Mac and Ben, I'm sure you both have some go-to resources to keep up with new media. Do you have any favorites? Ben Forstag: To be honest, my resource for all thing social media are probably my teenage nieces and nephews. They know about these things well before I do certainly. I remember a few years ago when my nieces were trying to show me about Snapchat. At that time, I thought, "Well, this is the silliest thing I've ever seen. Why would you ever need to know this?" From what I've been told, this is now a platform that lots of professionals are using. I know my favorite baseball team has a Snapchat account. I know several serious journalists do Snapchat accounts. It's a serious thing. I guess what I'm saying is I should be listening more to my nieces and nephews, take what they say seriously. Cecilia Bianco: Definitely, Snapchat has become important along with a lot of other platforms. With new media, there is always a new platform that people are jumping on and using. To stay up to date with those, you need to have some go-to resources beyond your nieces and nephews probably. I would suggest a few E newsletters such as the Social Media Examiner. Ben mentioned I'm a big fan of Mashable, Ink Magazine. The Forbes technology section is also great. Mac, do you have any to add? Mac Prichard: I just want to support your point that it's so important to keep improving our skills. One trend I see in social media platforms is tools that used to be standalone applications increasingly are being incorporated into Facebook, Instagram, and the other big popular apps. As we reach out to people online, taking advantage of those tools gets a lot easier, because they're much more intuitive, and simpler, and easier to use than say Photoshop even three to five years ago. Cecilia Bianco: I agree. With some of the platforms like Canva is basically Photoshop, but it's free. It's very easy to use. You can teach yourself in an hour. It can be really intimidating to try and learn those tools, but I think if you set small goals like signing up for new newsletters, or mastering a new skill every month, it becomes a lot more manageable. Mac Prichard: That's excellent advice, breaking tasks down into smaller achievable pieces, whether it's mastering a new skill or taking the next step in your job search. Ben Forstag: I know we've talked about social media tools in previous episodes, but let me just ask you Cecilia. If you had to pick the top three that someone should be comfortable using, what would those top three social media tools be? Cecilia Bianco: I would definitely pick at least one photo editing, one video editing, and then probably one management tool. Canva for photos, iMovie for videos, and maybe HootSuite or the new Edgar social media management tool would be key. Ben Forstag: Thanks. Mac Prichard: Great advice. It's very telling and right on target that two of the three you mentioned were visual tools, because so much online communication and so much media work now is all about visuals except of course this podcast. There is that. These segments by Ben and Cecilia are sponsored by the Mac's List guides. We're the publisher of a new book, here at Mac's List. It's called land Your Dream Job in Portland and Beyond. You'll find in our guides, the tools you need to get the job you want. We tackle the questions that are on your mind. How do I find about hidden jobs? What can I do to standout when I'm competing against dozens of other people for the same position? What do I need to do next to manage my career? In our book, there are eight chapters. You'll find experts who share insight or knowledge about how they learn about jobs that are never posted, and what you can do to interview and negotiate like a pro. Check it out for yourself. You can download the first chapter of the book for free. Just go to our website. The address is macslist.org/macslistguides. Steve Potestio co-owns Mathys and Potestio. It's a recruitment firm for the creative and digital industries. His company has offices in Portland, Austin, and Los Angeles. Steve knows how recruiters work. He's worked with more than 100 agencies, and he's helped place thousands of professionals into jobs. He's also been a copywriter, a graphic designer, a project manager, an account manager, and he was the director of operations for a large digital agency during the dot-com era. Steve, that's quite a background. Steve Potestio: Thank you. Mac Prichard: Thank you for joining us. Let me start with one example I think people have in their heads when they think about recruiters. I'm going to into the way back machine. There is a wonderful movie starring Stockard Channing. It's called the Business of Strangers. It came out in the early 1990's. It's about corporate intrigue, and it reflects popular ideas about corporate culture in those years. In the plot, Channing is a high-powe…

Full show notes at the publisher

Ep. 004: Creating Your Professional Brand (Andrew Hudson) Oct 14, 2015

Show notes

Your brand is how you showcase yourself to others in a way that distinguishes you as a credible, trustworthy, and skilled professional. In other words, it is how you personify and embody the strengths, skills, and accomplishments you list in your resume. Professional branding is particularly important for job seekers, who must quickly build trust with prospective employers and differentiate themselves from hundreds (or even thousands) of other applicants. In this episode, Mac speaks with an expert on personal branding: Andrew Hudson, founder of Andrew Hudson’s Jobs List. Andrew has an extensive background in product marketing, advertising, and public relations, and is passionate about applying branding best practices to the job search process. He argues that a strong professional brand conveys a level of confidence and trust that helps candidates stand out from the crowd. In this 38-minute episode you will learn: Elements of a good professional brand How to connect your brand to the job you are applying for Leveraging your brand in all touch-points of the job search process Using bridging statements to answer difficult interview questions This week’s guest: Andrew Hudson (@AHJobsList)Principal, Andrew Hudson’s Jobs ListDenver, Colo. Listener question of the week: Do I really need to use social media in my job search? Do you have a question you’d like us to answer on a future episode? Please send your questions to Cecilia Bianco, Mac’s List Community Manager at cecilia@macslist.org. Resources referenced on this week’s show: Indeed Job Trends Andrew Hudson’s Jobs List Bridging Statements Find Your Dream Job in Portland (and Beyond): The Complete Mac’s List Guide If you have a job-hunting or career development resource resource you’d like to share, please contact Ben Forstag, Mac’s List Managing Director at ben@macslist.org. -- Thank you for listening to Find Your Dream Job. If you like this show, please help us by rating and reviewing our podcast on iTunes. We appreciate your support! Learn more about Mac's List at www.macslist.org. Opening and closing music for Find Your Dream Job provided by Freddy Trujillo, www.freddytrujillo.com. Full Transcript: Mac Prichard: This is Find Your Dream Job, the podcast that hopes you get hired in the career you want, and make a difference in life. I'm Mac Prichard your host and publisher of Mac's List. Our show is brought to you by Mac's List, your best online source for rewarding, creative, and meaningful work. Visit macslist.org to learn more. You'll find hundreds of great jobs, a blog with practical career advice and our new book, "Land Your Dream Job in Portland and Beyond." Welcome to Find Your Dream Job. Every week we bring you the career tools and tips you need to get the job you want. Joining me as always are Ben Forstag, Managing Director of Mac's List and Cecilia Bianco, Community Manager of Mac's List. How are you two doing this week? Ben Forstag: I'm doing great. Cecilia Bianco: Doing good Mac, how are you? Mac Prichard: Good. Ben every week, I know you're pouring through the internet and you're looking for blogs, podcast, and other tools people could use in their job search. What have you found for us this week? Ben Forstag: Mac, this week I have a free online tool to help you pick the right keywords when you're defining your personal brand, and for your resume, your cover letter, and your LinkedIn profile. I want to start with a question first though. This is for both of you and Cecilia. What is the functional difference between these three terms? One is “nonprofit,” just one solid word. The other term is “non-profit” with a hyphen between the non and the profit. The third one “not-for-profit.” Do you know what the difference between those words is? Mac Prichard: I feel like I'm back in English class in high school in taking a grammar quiz. I am drawing a blank here. I'm going to defer to Cecilia. Cecilia Bianco: I was going to defer to Mac because I'm not sure either. Ben Forstag: You can both defer to me, because I have the answer. Cecilia Bianco: Great. Mac Prichard: All right. Ben is in-charge, so take it away Ben. Ben Forstag: As the dictionary would tell you there is no difference between those three terms. The difference though, functionally, is that one of those terms is twice as likely to show up in a job posting, which means that if you use that term in your resume or cover letter, your application is twice as likely to pass a keyword based on automated screening system. We've talked in the past about how a lot of employers when you send off your resume, it's not a human looking at it, it's going through a computer system, and you either have the right keywords or you don't. t's important to know what the right keywords are. In this case, would either of you like to guess which one is used and what's often? Mac Prichard: My guess would be nonprofit as one word. I think people just like simplicity and they like shorter words. Ben Forstag: Cecilia? Cecilia Bianco: I would agree. I think that's the right one, but mostly just from seeing people submit applications is why I think that. Ben Forstag: I take great glee in telling you that you're both wrong. The term that's used most often twice as much as the other two combined is “not-for-profit.” Twice as much as the other two terms combined. This is an important lesson here because we don't know what the keywords that are out there and even when keywords are very close, f you're not exactly right, if you don't have the verbatim keyword or phrase, you're not going to pass that screening. The two I want to share with you today is a great way to find out what the right keywords are. The tool is indeed.com's job trends tool. You've all heard of indeed.com, Mac, Cecilia? Cecilia Bianco: Mm-hmm (affirmative) Mac Prichard: Yeah. It's a hugely popular site. Ben Forstag: Yes. They claim and I believe this is true, to be the world's largest compilation of jobs out there with millions of jobs posted. If you go to indeed.com/jobtrends, you can search through all the jobs that are posted or ever have been posted on Indeed and see what terms showed up in those job postings. I went through and checked nonprofit, non-profit, and not for profit to get this information. This is particularly important when we're talking about branding on social media, for your LinkedIn profile for example. Your LinkedIn profile is like the big highway sign for you as an employee that you put out there hoping that people are going to come through and see it and say, "That's the right guy for a job I have." When you're looking for keywords for a specific position you're applying for, you're really going to use the job posting and that company's own copy as the baseline for your keyword search. If you're looking for a general job out there around social media for example, or engineering, or communications, you're not looking for a specific company perhaps, but you want to have enough keywords in your LinkedIn profile that people will come and see you and say, "Yeah, I want Mac for this job." If you use the Indeed job trend tool, you can go through and type in a bunch of different related keywords and see which one is used most often. It's really amazing how even minor variations and keywords generate huge differences and results. I pulled up a couple examples that I thought were interesting here. Do you know about certified meeting professionals the credential? Mac Prichard: That's a new credential for me. Tell me more about that Ben? Ben Forstag: Okay. If you're in the meeting planning game and you want to get letters at the end of your name, you go and become a CMP. I typed in, "Certified Meeting Professional," and their acronym, "CMP" into the system. Any guesses on which one gets pinged most often in job posts, Cecilia? Cecilia Bianco: CMP? Ben Forstag: Mac? Mac Prichard: I would guess CMP too, I think people like to have those abbreviations after the name. Ben Forstag: You guys are 0 for 2. In this case ... Mac Prichard: It's Ben's week. Ben Forstag: In this case “certified meeting professional” as a term, appeared in eight times more job postings than CMP, which means if in your resume you wrote CMP--I've got a CMP, or I'm training to be a CMP--you're not going to pass that keyword test. Here's another example, "Certified fundraising executive," this is another credential. This one's for people who go out and raise money. I put in, "Certified Fund Raising Executive," that's four words, and the acronym CFRE, any guesses on this one? Mac Prichard: I, again would tend to guess CRFE the acronym, but I'm wondering if maybe it's such your question. Ben Forstag: Cecilia? Cecilia Bianco: Yeah. I think you might be tricking us, so I'm going to go with the spelling out of the name. Ben Forstag: Cecilia, you're wrong. Mac, you're right. In this case, the acronym is 20 times more likely to be used in a job post than the long form version. Interestingly, a misspelling of the long form version is eight times more likely to show up than the actual spelled out certification. Mac Prichard: There's a Machiavellian angle you can take here? Ben Forstag: Yes. This is like Google keywords for your own job resume, your own LinkedIn profile. Really interesting stuff, you could probably waste several hours going through and doing this, but I definitely suggest it because this can give you an angle and some insight onto the kind of jobs you want, to the kind of organizations you want to work with. It can position you to beat those automated testing systems. Check it out, it's Indeed's job trend tool at indeed.com/jobtrends. Mac Prichard: That's great advice. As you talk Ben, two tactical ideas occurred to me, one is just the value of knowing the keywords in the field that you want to be in. As you're updating your LinkedIn profile, there's a section where you can list skills and knowing what the most popular skills, recruiters, and others might look for in your area could be very valuable. This sounds like this tool could help. As you do status updates and write on a blog or do any online writing in your field knowing again those keywords that are likely to turn up in organic searches could be very helpful. Ben Forstag: Yeah and in general, I think you can never underestimate how specific language is and the words that companies use and the job seekers use to define themselves, those words exist for a specific reason, and that you don't want to interchange them. You don't want to get creative with them, you literally want to repeat them verbatim. Mac Prichard: Terrific. As Ben mentioned, we're talking this week about branding, especially personal branding. Cecilia has a question for us related to that topic. We always enjoy hearing from you our listeners, so Cecilia is going to answer one of your questions. What do you have for us this week Cecilia? Cecilia Bianco: Thanks, Mac. Our question this week is, "Do I have to use social media in my job search?" Ben Forstag: Cecilia, did my mother send this question in? Cecilia Bianco: No, she didn't. Ben Forstag: Okay. Just checking. Cecilia Bianco: Okay. She's going to get her answer here so my answer is yes and no. Using social media is definitely necessary in a few important ways but some others are a bit optional. As Ben just mentioned a few seconds ago, LinkedIn is like the highway sign for employers. LinkedIn is definitely one of the necessary ways to use social media. Overall, using social media is a great way to control your online reputation and your digital footprint. Employers are going to Google you most likely and you want to have as much control on what they're going to see as possible, and social media is a great way to control this. Mac, I know you've hired a lot of people. I'm curious if you've Google'd candidates before? Mac Prichard: I always Google'd candidates and I go down usually five or six pages in the organic searches. That is exceptional, according to research out there, most people don't go beyond the first page. What I'm looking for and what other employers tell me they're looking for is just the people's history, and examples of their professional work. You're also looking for red flags, because hiring process is time consuming and you want to use your time as wisely as you can and focus on candidates who are going to be most appealing and have the best backgrounds and skills. Cecilia Bianco: Yeah, that make sense. With LinkedIn, it's really grown to become the best tool to control your online reputation and it allows employers to see more than just your resume which just Mac said is what they're looking for. It's a huge opportunity for the employer to get to know you before actually meeting you. LinkedIn allows you to share your interest, the causes you care about, and you can even upload the projects you've worked on in the past. They're getting to know you and the important things they want to know about you before they potentially contact you for an interview. Among all the platforms, I think the most important are LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. With Facebook, you don't have to use it as a social networking platform, but you want to at least have a basic profile up there so you're searchable on Google and it pops up. Employers are going to check that so you want to be prepared and you want to make sure you're settings allow employers and strangers in general really only to see what you want them to see. I know Ben recently told us abut a tool called, "Persona," that looks through your Facebook history and he learned a lot from this. I want to get your official opinion on Facebook do you think it's necessary for job seekers? Ben Forstag: I do think it's necessary, but I think it's pretty much necessary for everyone nowadays. My friends and I have a joke that if we can't find someone on Facebook we assume they're dead or in jail. It just seems like everyone's on Facebook including my mother and my grandfather was on Facebook. It's always suspicious when you can't find someone on Facebook, there's some reason behind it I think. I would encourage everyone to have at least some presence there. You don't need to use it a whole lot, but you should be able to be found there. Cecilia Bianco: I agree. I think most employers agree with that. They want to be able to see that you're a normal person and you're out there on social media. I mentioned Twitter also, it's definitely necessary but not as necessary as LinkedIn and Facebook. It definitely depends on the industry you're in, but it can also be really helpful to your job search because you can use it to show your interest and your knowledge in industry you're in. If employers are Googling you, and finding you on Twitter, they'll learn a lot about you and maybe even be impressed by you so Twitter is a great tool to use to boost that online reputation. As far as the other social media platforms Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and the rest, I think all of those are really optional and you should only use what you enjoy using, because those don't really further your professional reputation, they're more of a fun side thing. Would you guys agree with that or do you think they're important? Ben Forstag: I think the caveat here would be if you're a creative professional and you're using these tools to build a portfolio. Whether…

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Ep. 003: Remote Work, Telecommuting, and Digital Nomads (Tamara Murray) Oct 08, 2015

Show notes

Being a professional no longer necessitates going to an office every day. People are increasingly able to work remotely, using telecommunications technologies to stay connected with their companies and colleagues. This trend is happening in nearly every industry sector--even fields like healthcare and education. According to one estimate, the number of jobs that allow for telecommuting, remote working or flex scheduling has grown by 26% in just the last year. Some people have taken remote work to the next level, by becoming digital nomads. These adventurers maintain a professional career while traveling the world, full time. Their office is the closest coffee shop, beach, train car, or even a run-down van. This week on Find Your Dream Job Mac interviews a professional who has embraced the digital nomad lifestyle: travel-sabbatical expert Tamara Murray. Since 2013, Tamara has maintained a successful communications consulting business, while touring North and South America with her husband and her 15-year-old dog. She will share her story and highlight opportunities for how you too can become a digital nomad. In this 34-minute episode you will learn: Popular misconceptions about the digital nomad lifestyle How to find location-independent jobs How to frame your skills and experience in a way that facilitates remote work Tips for overcoming barriers to remote work and a digital nomadic lifestyle This week’s guest: Tamara Murray (@TamaraMurray)Social-Change Communications ConsultantAuthor of Awesome Supervisory Skills: Seven Lessons for Young, First-Time ManagersSan Francisco, Calif. Listener question of the week: How should I address a travel sabbatical or year abroad to a potential employer? Do you have a question you’d like us to answer on a future episode? Please send your questions to Cecilia Bianco, Mac’s List Community Manager at cecilia@macslist.org. Resources referenced on this week’s show: 100 Top Companies with Flex Jobs in 2015 LifeListed Blog: The Best Tools for Working Remotes (2015 Edition) Macs’s List Blog: How Travel Sabbaticals Can Benefit Your Job Search HelloImTamara.com: Tamara Murray’s Consulting Website NomadsWithAVan.com: Tamara Murray’s Traveling Blog WestphaliaDigitalNomads.com Awesome Supervisory Skills: Seven Lessons from Young, First-Time Managers TheProfessionalHobo.com NomadicMatt.com Find Your Dream Job in Portland (and Beyond): The Complete Mac’s List Guide If you have a job-hunting or career development resource resource you’d like to share, please contact Ben Forstag, Mac’s List Managing Director at ben@macslist.org. -- Thank you for listening to Find Your Dream Job. If you like this show, please help us by rating and reviewing our podcast on iTunes. We appreciate your support! Learn more about Mac's List at www.macslist.org. Opening and closing music for Find Your Dream Job provided by Freddy Trujillo, www.freddytrujillo.com. Full Transcript Mac Prichard: This is Find Your Dream Job, the podcast that helps you get hired, have the career you want, and make a difference in life. I'm Mac Prichard, your host and publisher of Mac's List. On today's show we're discussing location independent jobs and how you can become a digital nomad. Our show is brought to you by Mac's List, your best online source for rewarding, creative, and meaningful work. Visit macslist.org to learn more. You'll find hundreds of great jobs, a blog with practical career advice, and our new book, Land Your Dream Job in Portland and Beyond. Let's turn to our topic this week. Walk into any coffee shop today and you'll likely see a customer typing out a report or an email on a laptop computer or perhaps talking on a cellphone about a project or a business deal. These are probably telecommuters, people who have full-time professional jobs typically with large organizations, but they work outside the office for one or more days a week. In fact according to The New York Times, as many as thirty percent of all Americans may telecommute one or more days a week today. What would your life be like if that coffee shop was your workplace and what if your dream was to never go to an office instead do the work you enjoy when you want and from anywhere in the world and not just one day a week but five days a week? Increasing numbers of people are doing exactly this, and they call themselves digital nomads. They live what they call location independent lives. They travel frequently, and they work remotely often as freelancers or contractors. According to Wikipedia digital nomads are people who use telecommunications technologies to perform job duties and conduct their life in a nomadic manner. Even professions you think would be completely location dependent such as healthcare can now be performed remotely. We're going to talk a digital nomad and an expert on the field, Tamara Murray. She for the last two years has worked full-time while traveling the globe, but first let's check in with the Mac's List team. Joining me as always are Ben Forstag, managing director of Mac's List, and Cecilia Bianco, community manager of Mac's List. Ben, Cecilia, how are you two doing this week? Ben Forstag: I'm doing great. Cecilia Bianco: Doing good, Mac. Mac Prichard: Great. Remote working… You both make the trek to downtown Portland where we have an office in a building that went up before World War I. In fact our offices have doors. They're about as far from remote working as you can get though now we are moving to working at home on Fridays. Tell me what do you two think about remote working? Ben Forstag: I'm someone who really likes coming into work and having an office and separating the home life from work life, but I do like having the option to work from home when I've got a contractor coming to the house or I need to watch my son during the day. Having that flexibility is really nice. Cecilia Bianco: Yeah, I agree. I definitely enjoy having a flexible schedule, and if Comcast is coming one day, I can sit and work at home and wait for them without having a problem. It's definitely a bonus. Mac Prichard: Good. As an employer I have to say I see that people who work at home are often more productive and having that flexibility is something I think that makes not only for an attractive workplace but makes it easier for employers to hold onto great people. Let's move on to our regular features. Every week Ben searches the nooks and crannies in the Internet looking for blogs, podcasts, and other tools you can use in your job search. Ben, what have you discovered for us this week? Ben Forstag: Mac, since we'll be talking about remote working and telecommuting this week, I thought I'd find some resources for people who want to explore these options for work. Today I've got two blogs I want to share with our listeners. The first, number one, is the FlexJobs blog. That's F, L, E, X jobs.com/blog. FlexJobs is a job website that specializes in telecommuting, freelance, part-time, and flexible job opportunities. Have you ever heard of the site, Mac? Mac Prichard: It's a new one to me. Ben Forstag: Okay. It's, I think, a very kind of niche site for a certain type of jobs. The one specific post I'd like to steer our audience towards is the 100 Top Companies With Remote Jobs in 2015. FlexJobs keeps track of all this stuff based on the number of job posts from these companies that talk about remote working, and every year they come out with a list of the employers who offer the most flexible remote work opportunities in their organizations. The URL for this blogpost is really long. I'm not going to repeat here. If you go to the flexjobs.com website and type in 100 top companies, it will pop up there. I also include a link to this in the show notes. Mac Prichard: For those who are listening are there any surprises on that list? Ben Forstag: There are. Most of these companies are large national and multinational corporations, the companies you'd expect to see the Intel, the Apples, the Amazons, organizations like that. There are some companies you might not expect. For example there's some government agencies there that are listed as being particularly open to flex working, the Department of Transportation, Department of Agriculture, Department of Interior. There are some nonprofits as well, Teach For America and the American Heart Association. The interesting thing here is according to their research they've seen a twenty-six percent increase in the number of remote jobs over last year. This is becoming an increasingly common thing for employers to offer, and the areas where they see the biggest growth is not in the technology side where you might expect but in the fields of medical and healthcare, sales, administrative services, education, and marketing. This is a growing option for many different industries. Mac Prichard: Coincidentally I had lunch with someone last week who is an Oregonian and just moved back to Portland. He works for the US Department of Health and Human Services, which is a huge organization. He was able to bring his job with him because he's now working remotely from Portland doing national work for the federal government. I was surprised that an organization that large would be open to that idea. In fact it's a pilot project, but I think it's a sign of a trend that is not only popular but is growing. Ben Forstag: Especially an organization as large and as racked with inertia as the federal government. Mac Prichard: Yeah, things do move slowly in the federal government. Ben Forstag: Yeah. The second blog I wanted to talk about today is called the Life Listed blog. It's lifelisted.com, and this one is really cool. It's written by a guy named Danny Dover. He was an entrepreneur who did the start-up get rich thing but then decided that instead of optimizing profits he really wanted to optimize his own personal happiness. He started traveling the world and working remotely to check items off of his bucket list. The Life Listed blog shares strategies and actionable items on how to complete your own purposeful life list, again, what we might call a bucket list. Since working is typically a part of life or at least a necessary activity to fund other adventures, much of the site is dedicated to how to work remotely. I particularly suggest the blogpost they have on the best tools for working remotely. This lists a bunch of different hardware, software, and services that are really useful for digital nomads. The interesting thing about this post is I think even if you work in an office there's some tools there that you might find really valuable to work more efficiently, more happy, and just do a better job with your work whether you work in an office or in the coffee shop. Again, that's the Life Listed blog. It's lifelisted.com/blog, and as always we'll have links to these resources in the show notes. Mac Prichard: Great. Thanks, Ben. I know that when we speak with Tamara, she's going to tell us about what life is like working full time while traveling overseas or through the United States. I'm getting from your conversation that many of tools that you've just described could work for people who simply want to work from their home in the same town as their employer. Ben Forstag: Absolutely. Mac Prichard: Terrific. Thank you. If you have a suggestion for Ben, please write him, and we may share your idea on the show. Ben's email address is ben@macslist.org. Now it's time to turn to Cecilia Bianco, our community manager. She always has her ear to the ground wanting to know what you, our listeners, think. Every week she brings us one of your questions. Cecilia, what do you have for us this week? Cecilia Bianco: Thanks, Mac. Our question this week is how should I address a travel sabbatical or a year abroad to a potential employer? I think the best way to address time abroad is to demonstrate the skills you gained while traveling and how they might add to your professional value. We actually had a guest contributor write a blogpost about travel sabbaticals, and she gave some really clear examples on how to do this. Her and her husband traveled for over a year to several different countries. Her husband was an accountant and managed the bookkeeping throughout their trip. This is obviously not a small task when the currency is changing every couple of weeks, and he was able to show how his sabbatical improved the skills that he needed in his field because he did this. Similarly, she was an urban planner. She still is an urban planner. She did research in advance and made plans to visit planning and development organizations while they were traveling. Then when she came back and talked to potential employers in interviews, she had a lot to say about what she learned about her field while abroad. Overall I think the most important thing to do is think about what you did on your trip that will improve your hire ability to an employer based on the field you're in. Mac, I know you and Chris, your wife, go on trips abroad almost every year. Do you have any suggestions for ways to show the benefit of time abroad? Mac Prichard: A number come to mind. I think many employers are impressed by people who regularly travel overseas because I think it indicates that they're open to new experiences, new ideas. I think even if you're taking a short trip ... it could be a vacation of two or three weeks, there's benefit to you as a job candidate or to your employer by taking advantage of that opportunity to show that you are looking for new experiences. Simply listing on your LinkedIn profile or your resume some of the foreign trips you might have taken a small step can be an important one. For people like the couple you were talking about who are spending several months or a year or more overseas they have an opportunity to document what they've done whether it's a volunteer or paid work that's a valuable experience and being specific about how it relates to the work that you do or want to do will always pay dividends for you as a job applicant. Cecilia Bianco: Yeah, I definitely agree. Ben, do you have any suggestions? Ben Forstag: I've taken a lot of international trips, and I've never had a trip that goes off without a hitch. There's always a reservation that falls through, or you miss the train, or something else awful happens. I think international travel can often be framed as an exercise in flexibility and responsiveness and emergency management. Those are skills that I think any employer would be interested in. Cecilia Bianco: Yeah, definitely. Those are great suggestions. If you're planning a trip or considering taking a year to travel, there's things you can do to make sure that this is supporting your resume. You could start a blog about your trip or network while you're abroad like our blogpost contributor did. Look for opportunities to meet colleagues in your field and maybe even set up some informational interviews if you can. Mac Prichard: Terrific. Thank you, Cecilia. If you have a question for Cecilia, her email address is cecilia@macslist.org, and she would love to hear from you. These segments by Ben and Cecilia are sponsored by the Mac's List Guides publisher of our new book Land Your Dream Job in Portland and Beyond. The Mac's List Guides give you the tools you need to get the job you want. We reveal all of our secrets there showing you how to crack the hidden job market, stand out in a competitive field, and how to manage your career. The book has eight chapters, and in each of them experts share secrets like how to hear about jobs that are never posted and what you can do to interview and negotiate like a pro. To download the fir…

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Ep. 002: Managing Your Career by Improving Your Marketability (Dawn Rasmussen) Oct 08, 2015

Show notes

Fifty years ago, it was common for workers to have the same job (or stay with the same company) from graduation until retirement. Today, the average American will have seven to ten different jobs in their lifetime. This volatility in employment has created more uncertainty--but also more opportunity--for career-minded professionals. The secret to thriving in this job market is successful career management: being focused, knowing your goals, and marketing your skill set. In this episode of Find Your Dream Job Mac speaks with career advisor and author Dawn Rasmussen. Dawn contends that “job security is dead” and that the key to professional success lies in improving your job marketability. She shares her tips on having a clear vision for your career, keeping your skills up-to-date, and adroitly marketing your transferable skills. In this 30-minute episode you will learn: How to discover your professional purpose and what you do best How to change careers by breaking down your transferable skill sets The habits of successful career managers How to overcome the fear of a career change or job search This week’s guest: Dawn Rasmussen (@DawnRasmussen)Principal, Pathfinder, Writing and Career ServicesAuthor of Forget Job SecurityPortland, Ore. Listener question of the week: How can I transition from the for-profit sector into the nonprofit sector? Do you have a question you’d like us to answer on a future episode? Please send your questions to Cecilia Bianco, Mac’s List Community Manager at cecilia@macslist.org. Resources referenced on this week’s show: Who Moved My Cheese? Forget Job Security: Build Your Marketability Pathfinder Writing and Career Services Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Find Your Dream Job in Portland (and Beyond): The Complete Mac’s List Guide If you have a job-hunting or career development resource resource you’d like to share, please contact Ben Forstag, Mac’s List Managing Director at ben@macslist.org. Thank you for listening to Find Your Dream Job. If you like this show, please help us by rating and reviewing our podcast on iTunes. We appreciate your support! Learn more about Mac's List at www.macslist.org. Full Transcript: Mac Prichard: This is Find Your Dream Job, the podcast that helps you get hired, have the career you want, and make a difference in life. I'm Mac Prichard, your host. Our show is brought to you by Mac's List, your best online source for rewarding creative and meaningful work. Visit macslist.org to learn more. You'll find hundreds of great jobs there, a blog with practical career advice, and our new book, "Land Your Dream Job in Portland and Beyond." Welcome to episode two of Find Your Dream Job. Every week we bring you the career tools and tips you need to get the job you want. Now according to the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics the typical American changes jobs every 4.1 years. With most of us working well into our 60s that means you may have 10 or more employers in your lifetime, and you'll not only change jobs but careers too perhaps up to seven times some experts say. None of this comes as surprise to our guest today, Dawn Rasmussen. She says job security is dead and what matters now is employability and knowing how to manage your career. Dawn is president of Pathfinder Writing and Career Services, a company that provides resume, cover letter, and job search coaching services. She's the author of, "Forget Job Security: Build Your Marketability," a step-by-step guide to how to manage your career, attract promotions and salary increases, and find new opportunities. Dawn is also a career columnist for OnePlus magazine and talentzoo.com and she's been featured on CBS Morning Watch, CareerBuilder, and in business journal newspapers across the US. Dawn, thanks for joining us today. Dawn Rasmussen: Thanks for having me Mac. Nice to be here. Mac Prichard: It's a pleasure to have you here. I find that when I talk to job seekers when they get their job they think that's it, I'm all set, my job search is over, and now I'm employed and I don't need to think about that anymore. Now tell me why you advise the people you work with to think differently. Dawn Rasmussen: Mac, I always try to encourage people to see their career as something that's happening concurrently to their actual jobs, so while you're in your job your career's happening at the same time, but the career is actually like a river that's running underground and that's carrying you onto the next destination. It's all the things that you can do that can help prepare you for that next opportunity or position. You need to be in the right place when that opportunity does happen. It's not just being a static thing. It's a constant process. You really have to think about where do I want to go and what are the things that’ll get me in that river so I can navigate it, even though you're in your current job but there's some things you can take with you that will get you to the next destination. Mac Prichard: So you're in the canoe, you're going down the river. Dawn Rasmussen: Good metaphor, I love it. Mac Prichard: Now what do you do next? How do you know where you're going? The way I've seen people do this successfully is they're clear about their purpose. What do you see with the people you work with? Dawn Rasmussen: I think for the most part the people I work with are pretty clear on what they want to do, although I will get the occasional client. For example, I've had recently someone who was trying to do too many things. She was applying for a medical ... Well she was a medical billings person and she was trying to get into marketing and patient representation and a whole bunch of other things. She was trying to cover all these different bases, but she wasn't being very clear on what she does best and how she might help the employer. She was just being a job search chameleon, that's a term I like to use, that she was changing the color of her spots for each job opening. If you're not pretty clear on what you do best then that's going to be a problem because nobody else can see that either. The clarity helps you answer specifically what the employers needs are. It's really important to have a vision of what you want to do. That can change as you alluded to earlier having some kind of ... Change in your life is inevitable, that's fine, but the main thing is to really be clear that okay I'm going to target this next thing and then that may roll into something else later on down the line whether you get bored or another opportunity comes along. It's not a be-all end-all, but it's something that's a jumping off point to the next thing. It's a constant process. It really is. Mac Prichard: Let's drill down to that process Dawn because I can imagine some listeners might be saying, “Well, I get that, vision matters, clarity matters, but I don't want to close out my options. I want to be open to a lot of different things, because by doing so I'll make myself a more attractive candidate.” What steps do you see people take who are successful into finding their purpose and getting clarity? Dawn Rasmussen: I use the example no employer is going to hire a generalist. If they have a need for X, whatever that job is, then they're hiring for X and they're going to be putting that perspective, that microscope on X, looking at all the different candidates. If you're not sure … You can have more than one version of your resume. You can have a couple different iterations. Myself personally I have a lot of different curves under my belt that are extremely different from each other. I've been obviously a writer, I've been an educator, I've been in sales, I've been in tourism, I've been a meeting planner. I can't cram all those things in one resume. I have to be clear on who my target audience is. How would someone perceive what I'm saying in this document? Is it meeting their needs specifically? It doesn't mean you have to cram all the non-relevant stuff in there, you can summarize it. But having a real understanding of how are you answering their call, their need, and drilling down to that. Reading job descriptions, if you're not sure, that's okay. A lot of people, they don't know what they want to do. That's maybe where a career coach can help you work through that process because you really have to have that clarity. If you don't know what you want to do then how do you expect an employer to know that either. Having some help or using some online tools such as MBTI, Myers-Briggs, and some of the other tests can help you, or working with a career coach like I mentioned are all things that you can use to help pinpoint or narrow down what your focus is. Then have a separate resume for each one of those areas that addresses that. Mac Prichard: I hear that from a lot of employers. They tell me that when they're interviewing candidates the question that's often going through their mind first and foremost is, “What can this person do for me? I've got problems. I've got work piling up on a desk. How is this person going to make my life easier?” They say that the candidates who address that are the ones who stand out. Dawn Rasmussen: Exactly, you need to figure out what the pain points are of the employer and how you're going to solve them for them, and then write your resume in a way that shows specific examples of how you have addressed those pain points in a relevant way that matches the job requirements. Mac Prichard: Let's get back to purpose and vision. Many people may switch careers several times during the course of their working life. How have you seen people when they're thinking about changing careers do that successfully? Dawn Rasmussen: It's really, Mac it boils down to looking at what are my transferable skill set. For some people it's a pretty easy leap. I'll give you an example. There was one client of mine. She was in Chicago and she was a writer. She wrote books. She did the whole publicity, marketing, and all that kind of stuff, familiar with that aspect. Then she really had a passion for wine to the degree that she was going down to California and spending time with the wine maker. She actually did a bootcamp where you make your own wine. She toured with the wine maker. She worked part time in a very high end wine store in Chicago and her passion was to really get into promoting wine. By looking at breaking down her transferable skillsets it was an opportunity for her to basically say wine marketing specialist. We married her marketing skills plus her wine knowledge into a resume that really covered all those bases. It was a easy step for her. For some people, they don't have that immediate step in front of them. My suggestion is that if you're considering a career change, don't despair, you have to take an inventory of what skillsets that are relevant to where you want to go that you actually possess, and if there are gaps there are opportunities to add in experience. For example, you can take a class that would fill in a knowledge gap area so then you remove that liability from your job search. A second thing might be volunteering for a professional organization or a civic organization, performing the types of tasks that would matter towards where you want to go. Finally, for the people that are in school that may have gone back to school, they're more the nontraditional learners that they're going back and maybe getting a new degree or re-purposing their background, I suggest that you really go through your classroom experience and think about what projects, what kinds of papers, what kinds of experiments or anything else that would be real life applications of the concepts you're learning and cite those as examples in your resume. Your header should be relevant experience which can encompass both paid, volunteer, and educational experience, so that way it’s sort of a loophole. Mac Prichard: What I'm hearing is be clear about your purpose, be prepared to switch jobs throughout the course of your career or even switch careers, and when you're ready to switch careers Dawn think about those transferable skills or you acquire them and document them. Now how do people know it's time to switch? A lot of people I think don't think about these things until someone says, “Oh there's a great job over at this company or this nonprofit organization.” Or they get a new boss and things aren't working out well and then they try to catch up. So instead of thinking about their career over the long term and the investments they need to make, they try to catch up and do all these things when perhaps it's too late or things they might have done. What are some of the habits that you see people who are successful career managers adopt and practice during the 30 or 40 years they'll be in the workplace? Dawn Rasmussen: Oh gosh, there's so many. Networking is probably job number one. We do tend to get quite a bit complacent once we take on a new job. The heavy lifting’s been done. You beat all the connections. You've landed that job. People are usually so consumed with learning the ropes of the new job that they really don't invest as much time or energy into the networking piece that they were spending during the job search phase. My biggest concerns I see a lot of people just tune in and tune out basically on the networking. “I'm too busy. I don't have time to go to this networking function. I don't have time to do that.” Your networking piece is really the critical life line. Most people find jobs through someone they know. I know and I think its Gerry Crispin from CareerCrossroads had a statistic that said if you apply only online you have a 2% chance of getting interviewed. If you apply and you apply working through someone that you know you have about a 50% chance of getting interviewed. That really in stark contrast really shows how directly the networking impacts your job search success. Building that relationship and nurturing it and continuing the conversation from the initial meeting point is going to be critical for laying the groundwork in the future, not only just when you need to talk to them, but they may consider you and may come to you organically unsolicited even. That could be one way. Another thing that I see a lot people doing that are really good career managers is that they always see professional development as a center to their own development so that they can continue to learn and grow their skill sets. Employers are hiring subject matter experts. The more that you can gain job specific knowledge, it can be anything related to your particular job function, your industry, or management, anything in those realms, those are some things you should be adding one or two activities a couple of times a year so you show progressive job knowledge. If your employer doesn't pay for it this is absolutely an investment you need to make in yourself. It's not something you can say, “Well, throw up my hands. The boss won't pay for it. Oh well, I won't do it.” Really? You can't do that. Mac Prichard: Yeah, I think that's- Dawn Rasmussen: You need to be able to invest in yourselves. Mac Prichard: That's an excellent point about investing into yourself. Just to back up and think about that, people who apply only on online job boards, and that's 2% success rate that you cited, to put that in perspective I think 8% of people apply to Ivy League Colleges get in, so you may have a better chance of getting into Harvard than to getting a job on a…

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Networking to Get A Job, with Nathan Perez Oct 07, 2015

Show notes

Check out the podcast on Macslist here: (https://www.macslist.org/podcasts/networking/find-job-networking-nathan-perez)

Employers hire candidates that they know and those who are recommended to them by people that they trust. That's why networking is so important: it gets you face-time with fellow professionals and kickstarts relationships that get you known in the community.

When you're looking for a job, one of the best things you can do is conduct informational interviews with professionals in your desired field. But how do you find the right people with whom to meet? And what are the takeaways you can expect from these meetings

In this episode of Find Your Dream Job Mac talks with Nathan Perez, an executive recruiter and writer who has mastered the art of networking. According to Huffington Post, Nathan is one of the most connected people on LinkedIn, with 30,000 professional contacts. He is also the author of The 20-Minute Networking Meeting, a primer on how to conduct successful informational interviews.

In this 36-minute episode you will learn:

How to structure a short but effective networking meeting
How to make a good impression in an informational interview
How to build and leverage your network
The one thing you should never do in a networking meeting

This week's guest:

Nathan Perez (@NathanAPerez) Principal, 20 Minute Communications Author of The 20 Minute Networking Meeting Minneapolis, Minn.

Listener question of the week:

What do I do when a professional connection "ghosts" (disappears) on me?

Do you have a question you'd like us to answer on a future episode? Please send your questions to Cecilia Bianco, Mac's List Community Manager at cecilia@macslist.org.

Resources referenced on this week's show:

If you have a job-hunting or career development resource resource you'd like to share, please contact Ben Forstag, Mac's List Managing Director, at ben@macslist.org.

Thank you for listening to Find Your Dream Job. If you like this show, please help us by rating and reviewing our podcast on iTunes. We appreciate your support!

Learn more about Mac's List at www.macslist.org.

Opening and closing music for Find Your Dream Job provided by Freddy Trujillo, www.freddytrujillo.com.

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