How to Ask for a Raise When You’re Scared

Hannah Writes: Lesa, I have been with my company for almost 7 years. I know that I am a very good worker based on my performance reviews. I stay late, skip lunch and just do what I need to do to get my work done. My boss and I have a great working relationship but I am scared to approach him about a raise. I am not sure even how to start the conversation. I do not want to be threatening but I know there is another company that will offer me more than what I am currently being paid. How do I use this as leverage without seeming threatening? I know just to have a job right now is a blessing so I do not want to seem greedy, I just feel like I have worked hard and deserve a raise. Thanks.

Hannah, it’s difficult to speak to your question in detail since I don’t know what type of work you do or even the industry. That being said, there are a few general guidelines when considering how to go about asking for a raise. And in your case, it sounds like you’re looking for more of a market correction than an outright raise.

First, go to www.salary.com or some other site that offers free data on the average salaries for various positions around the country. Find out where you are according to the averages and ask yourself if you’re truly underpaid or not. If you are in fact being underpaid for your role in your geographic area then you should definitely bring this up to your boss. Simply tell him that you have stumbled across some information that lead you to inquire about your salary as compared to others in your field. You discovered that you’re underpaid by $______ per year based on the average salary data and that you feel your proven performance and dedication is worthy of an increase of ___% (however much it takes to get you where you want to be) more than the average.

Some things to keep in mind are the financial health of the company you work for, the possibility that your boss may not make much more than you do now and of course how many people like you there are in your area. Said another way, are there more jobs available than there are qualified people with your skill set or vice versa? If your company is struggling financially, your boss doesn’t make that much more than you and your skills are fairly common then odds are you will not get an increase and you are likely to create some tension in your relationship. If the opposite is true in that your company is doing well, your boss clearly makes more than you do and your job is fairly unique then I say full steam ahead!

The final consideration is the date and size of your last increase. If you’ve had a pay increase in the last 12 months then you should wait until the next review period to ask. If your review happened just recently but you feel that your increase was insufficient then it’s understandable for you to revisit the issue now.

Best of luck to you! Let me know what you decide to do and how it goes.

*This post is from Lesa Caskey’s Career and Job Hunting advice column on Searchwarp.com.

Single Serving Jobs Coming Up

California Staffing Professionals CSP Group News | LinkedIn.

In the movie Fight Club, Edward Norton’s character comes to view people he meets on airplanes “single serving friends” because he’ll never see them again. USA Today’s Article “Quarter of workforce could become temps as contract work grows” predicts a full 25% of the workforce in the country will be temporary workers of some sort within the next few years.

As someone who has been a contractor/temporary worker, I have adopted the view of Ed Norton’s character. Yes, contractors work as hard as employees, but they are outsiders no matter what. This is the good news and the bad news.

On the upside, everyone gets to try before they buy into committing to full time employment. This is a godsend in those special circumstances when you find out your employer belongs on Voldemort’s team in the fight of good vs. evil, or your boss only hires yes-men and women to the team full time. Shew! No loss there. And in the professional realms of contracting, the pay is usually 10-25% better to compensate for the downsides.

On the downside, the temporary part of the deal is a glaring reminder of how temporary employment can be. With all of the layoffs that have happened in the last 30 years, you’d think that people would generally be more prepared anyway, but for contractors the stress of knowing it’s going to end soon can be altogether too much. Not to mention there’s no company benefits on the temporary ride. Sometimes the agency offers benefits, but mostly not and they tend to be spendy with less-than fantastic coverage.

But there’s hope at the end of this post, as I am ever an optimist, especially when it comes to employment issues. To be a successful contractor, one only needs to keep a steady head and find a perspective that works to keep the stress monsters away. For starters, start thinking of jobs as rental properties as opposed to families. As a renter, you don’t generally get too attached to a house, though you’re usually quite content as you know that should it ever go “bad”, you can just move.

Another way is to adopt the perspective of Ed Norton’s character and consider each job a single serving of employment. There’s nothing wrong with individually wrapped cookies, sodas or single slices of pizza. They are all delicious in their single-serving way. And we have no trouble at all appreciating the single serving (travel) sized items that get us through our trips with a disproportionate amount of assistance for their size.

It’s our expectations that make or break the experience. Contracting is not less-than, nor is it a sentence to be endured. The jobs can be all of the things they are as full time positions: fun, horrid, educational, challenging, miserable and wonderful. The one thing they do for sure is help to pay the bills. So if you find yourself in a temporary assignment unexpectedly, don’t despair! There’s a whole world of contractors out there and if the predictions are correct, we’ll see better benefits and a whole host of new services and providers to make the experiences better and easier.

Do you think the USA Today article is correct in its prediction or do you think the market will straighten out and go back to business as usual before reaching 25%?

Thanks to Michelle Baker of Pro Tem Solutions for sharing the article on LinkedIn today.

Google: We pass on hiring smart people to help the ecosystem

Google: We pass on hiring smart people to help the ecosystem.

An engineer from Google told the VP of Google that “…these people are actually important to have outside of Google. They’re very Google people that have the right philosophies around these things, and it’s important that we not hire these guys. It’s better for the ecosystem to have an honest industry, as opposed to aggregating all this talent at Google.”

I’m not sure how I feel about this one. I’ve read it and re-read it and simply cannot land on an opinion. At first blush, it seems like the nicest “Dear John” broadcast let down ever recorded but then there’s this pesky, nagging thought that maybe they actually believe it.

The first gross assumption is of course that it would be possible for Google to hire all of any kind of talent. The second gross assumption being that brilliant engineering ideas only come from employees of technology companies. These assumptions smack of  arrogance, limited and short-sighted vision as well as a disregard for the spontaneity and potential of innovation.

As I type this, I suppose my opinion is being ferreted out as being offended. I’m offended on behalf of all of the talented engineers who have attempted to work for Google and I am offended on behalf of Google’s internal recruiting team who have a serious challenge recruiting under such ridiculous notions. If, in fact they believe their own words, then the recruiters are in a sticky wicket attempting to recruit “not too smart” candidates.

There must be some angle they’re working and all i can think is that they missed the target. I hope to hear better from them soon as this is catastrophic to their employer brand in my mind.

What do you think?

Veterans Day Blues

Today is Veterans Day and I am certainly thankful to all of the vets who throughout our history have fought hard and suffered so that we as Americans are able to continue our free and prosperous way of life. I am of course particularly thankful for the vets in my life, and the list is fairly long so I won’t go thanking them all here by name. You know who you are – thank you.

What bums me out is thinking of all of the veterans who have honorably left the military after serving proudly, only to find themselves seemingly unemployable. I don’t think that anyone necessarily deserves opportunity based only on their class, creed or color, but it does seem like there should be more awareness among the employment community when it comes to veterans.

I’m not suggesting an ill proportionate amount of respect or worship, but a simple acknowledgment of what veterans have accomplished by serving honorably, regardless of their position in their particular branch (Army, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard or Reserve forces). They have all been through rigorous training of some sort, and most have completed a fair amount of technical training in many different areas of radio, computer, satellite, network or mechanical subjects. The skills they learn simply in the process of learning all of that are valuable to many organizations as you can be assured that if veterans have one universal skill, it is adaptability (IMHO).

To all of the unemployed veterans out there looking for work, know that there is a small army of employment professionals who sing your praises and work towards identifying opportunities for you to transfer your skills into. I wish you the very best, always.

How about you? What are your thoughts on employment issues specific to veterans? Are you a vet currently looking, or do you know of one? And what about resources for these folks to help them get where they’re going professionally? I’d love your input.

Where Does Success Come From?

Do you ever find yourself wondering how in the world successful people do it? I once heard a story about a gentleman taking his final statistics exam to complete his Masters degree in statistics. The test question required that he show his work meaning that he would have to write down each step involved in solving the problem. He couldn’t get the right answer, so as the last step in his documented work he wrote “insert magic here”. I love this story because it illustrates what we all feel at some point in our efforts to succeed.

There is a formula for success however, but it’s not very sexy and feels a lot like work at first. The formula is so simple that literally anyone can apply it and reap their rewards in any field at any age. It looks like this:

A + H + W = S

Attentive + Helpful + Willing = SUCCESS

A: Pay attention to your surroundings all the time. You never know where valuable information may come from. Always be on the lookout for information that will either help you directly, or help someone in your network. If you’re an employee, the information may help you be better at what you do or may help you gain recognition and respect for sharing it with your superiors. If you’re self employed, the information again may help you be better at what you do or may help you gain that same recognition and respect from your clients, employees and people in your network. Look for ways to contribute to your professional world.

H: Provide assistance wherever you see a need. At a meeting of any kind, be prepared to help someone who has dropped their papers, whose hands are full and needs a door opened for them or a chair pulled out. It seems so small and insignificant, but every opportunity to be helpful raises others’ awareness of you in a positive way. This portion of the formula applies to every person you meet including the janitor, the parking lot attendant, the CEO and the receptionist. Helpful behavior builds a reputation of respect that makes people seek you out for answers and by doing this they are providing you with more opportunities to learn. What do people think of you now and why? Train yourself to be a resource by helping where you can and soon your name will be associated with words such as nice, dependable, trustworthy and smart just because you’re helpful.

W: Your willingness to actively participate in your world will pay you back in immeasurable amounts. If there is a menial task that is asked of you simply do it and do it well. Learn a new skill to help the team or yourself? Absolutely. Remember that the first part of the word “willing” is “will”. We all know people who are strong-willed and we associate that phrase with being dedicated and committed to achieving a goal. Be a willing participant and you will soon find that you are actually using your will to bring success into your life.

It is never too early or late to start.

Using the formula, your attentiveness enables you to understand the reasons why things are the way they are, your helpful habits create positive energy all around you and your willingness to continue learning and pitch in where you can provide a constant flow of opportunities for you to succeed. Success breeds success so each time your efforts are met with success, more is on the way!

Challenge yourself to apply and use the formula for two weeks. The worst that can happen is you prove the formula wrong and your search for success continues as it was yesterday. The more likely result is that you will feel better about yourself, your job and your future. You will be amazed by the number of success stories you will have to share. And definitely keep us posted on your progress!

What other ingredients can you think of that may enhance the formula? Or do you have your own recipe for success that you’d like to share? As always, the collective benefits when our readers share their experiences, insights and questions.

What Price for Recruiting Superstars?

Recruiting superstars are fairly common, though to be on a team with one can feel like a unique experience. These internal recruiters are great at filling open requisitions, but have a bad habit of neglecting every other area of the recruiting process. Management, fellow recruiters and hiring managers tend to have a love-hate relationship with these folks; they love the numbers, love the time-to-fill and celebrate the placements but loathe the unavoidable clean up of everything left in each placement’s wake. Unfortunately, when we look at how much time is spent cleaning up after recruiting superstars and managing the fallout from their loose tactics, we find that they often cost more than the value of their placements.

I refer to such recruiters as being “rogue” because they foremost lack a commitment to processes that serve the department and ultimately, the business. The areas that are neglected by rogue recruiters include entering data into the system (ATS/CTS), following up with candidates who were not placed, sharing and otherwise communicating important information with their team and/or hiring managers and respecting their support staff’s time and workload.

Neglecting to enter data into the system is the most heinous of recruiting offenses, as the information belongs to the company who employs the recruiter, period. There should be no phone call, phone screen or interview that does not get noted somehow, as failing to do so is the equivalent of stealing from a company. How many times have we heard recruiters on our teams ask one another “Hey, do you remember that guy? The one who interviewed with so-and-so? What happened with that?” because there are no notes in the database. The scenarios go on and on with recruiters reaching out to people only to find themselves in conversations with candidates that are difficult to navigate, waste an extraordinary amount of time and ultimately make the company look unorganized and inefficient. And what happens if the superstar quits or becomes incapacitated in some way? The information should not be lost with the recruiter; information is the commodity of the department. We would never expect or allow a bank teller to neglect to enter a transaction and accept excuses to the likes of “I’ll enter it all in the computer tomorrow”.

Following up with candidates who do not get placed is another area where our department dollars go running out through the cracks. Candidates who are engaged to any degree need to be followed up with so that the company can maintain a good reputation in the candidate marketplace and keep themselves open for referrals which are rocket fuel for recruiting ROI (return on investment). Candidates who are left to wonder what happened will likely develop a negative impression of the company and will share their story with their family, friends, co-workers, other recruiters and the online community through social media and blogs. The fallout from this negligence is a guarantee that there are great professionals out there who will never apply for a position with your company because of what they heard about the process.

Rogue recruiters tend to have great focus and large egos. This unique combination in a recruiting team creates a vacuum of information with the rogue recruiter who does not feel it necessary to share information with the team, management or hiring managers. For instance, if there are two recruiters reaching out to one candidate, the rogue recruiter will not only neglect to enter it in the system, but even knowing about the other recruiter’s efforts, will not let that recruiter know about an upcoming interview. Another example is when the recruiter does not inform a hiring manager that their new hire will not be starting, has delayed their start or has come upon an obstacle to starting. This is not out of malice or ill intent; it’s just a by-product of someone who is very focused on their own efforts and objectives. Such behavior causes discord between the recruiting department and the business units they support, creates problematic scenarios for the recruiting team itself and ultimately costs the department money in both time and effort spent attending to the toes that have been stepped on.

The support staff in a recruiting department may include sourcers and administrative assistants who are often caught in the whirlwind of activity initiated by the rogue recruiter without regard to process and procedures. The rogue recruiter will often times neglect to enter key information into the system which then causes the support staff scrambling to get everything done in time to coordinate an interview or prepare to onboard a new hire. These instances are very disruptive to the support staff who are generally carrying a heavy workload to begin with. The fallout from such chaos is that every other process in the works for other recruiters gets delayed, task items get overlooked and the support staff becomes agitated and possibly disgruntled – and who can blame them? The costs associated with constant chaos are innumerable and fall under the categories of wasted time, turnover and reputation.

It’s so important that recruiting departments hold their recruiters accountable for following processes and procedures. No one recruiter should make or break a department and a recruiting department should never be at the mercy of any one recruiter. With the right processes in place, the department should be able to operate successfully through any number of circumstantial changes. Time is money and at the end of the day, businesses exist to do one thing: make money. Attending to the bottom line from every perspective is the key to improving and increasing the ROI for any department, including recruitment. It will never be a profit center, but it can be an efficiently run operation the not only supports the business, but propels it forward through consistent best practices. Rogue recruiters appear to do a great job for the business, but when we add up all of the time spent dealing with the chaos they cause, we often find that they do not serve the business in a cost effective manner and that having a different recruiter who is capable and efficient will take the organization a lot further as they naturally attend to increasing and improving the department’s ROI.

Have you employed or otherwise worked with a rogue recruiter and if so, what was your experience? Or are you possibly one yourself?

Welcome to the World, BEO!

It all started with a conversation, as most journeys do. I was speaking with a candidate of mine who I thought was an absolute rock star in the project management arena. We connected and found ourselves chatting about various topics. Come to find out we share a home town and an affection for it. Fast forward about two years and we are still in contact; reconnected to discuss the upcoming end of her contract. We catch up and I share that I am launching a whole array of training programs for job seekers and companies to address the needs of the current market. Somehow I mention that I would like to reach teenagers because I am passionate about young people and would love to give them a leg up when it comes to looking for a job.

My friend hears of my interest and reminds me that she is affiliated with an organization based in Pasadena, CA called Outward Bound Los Angeles (OBLA) and would like to explore the possibility of having me talk with the young people enrolled in their program. I was thrilled by the idea and within weeks we had scheduled the first class. Since April of 2009 I have been going to the OBLA offices delivering workshops to kids ranging in age from 14 to 23. There was talk of getting a line item added in the budget for the program, but that just doesn’t work for me. Why on earth should any organization that relies on the generosity of others to operate have to pay me for something I love to do? I have happily offered the program pro bono and will not change it.

What can I say about these kids? They are fantastic and surprise me with their clarity and insightfulness. I thought they would be a tough crowd, but I find they are eager to learn and always at the ready to challenge the ideas I bring in a fun and interesting way. For my part, I welcome their challenges because they mean two things: One, they are paying attention and two, they are really trying on my ideas for their own lives. I could not be more pleased!

My experience with the young people at OBLA has inspired me to grow the program to empower more young people with the knowledge and skills to look for a job, apply for a job, interview for that job and work successfully on that job. My 15 years of experience as a recruiter has shown me one thing over and over: recruiter’s and human resources professionals’ knowledge is a well kept secret in the grand scheme of things. I want to blow the doors off of the barrier between feeling ignorant and inferior and feeling informed and worthy of success at every level.

I attended a conference in May of this year presented by the California Utilities Diversity Counsel. While there, I met some wonderful people who inspired me even further. Listening to Assemblyman Tom Torlakson speak was phenomenal and I not only want to support his political career, but I offered to be an experienced mother’s voice should he ever need one. His dedication to California’s youth is fierce and empowered. I want to help him reach his goal of getting the California schools back into the nation’s top ten. Hearing the Honorable V. Manuel Perez, Assembly Member was also an awe-inspiring experience. I wish I could convey this man’s powerful presence and intense drive to raise awareness and opportunities in his district and in the state. I only worked up the nerve to ask one of them to by on an advisory board for my venture and with a tentative “yes” in hand, I will approach the other soon.

The conference showed me that there are many, many opportunities arising in all of the efforts being made toward creating a greener energy network and I want to get as many young people involved as possible. It will be no small task, but I just can’t stop thinking about the possibilities. My corporate training programs are entitled Reaching Hire™ and I think it’s appropriate for youth as well. Adding the word “Outreach” to my company name has a nice ring to is as well and the acronym of BEO has great positive energy.

Here’s my plan:

1. Grow the Reaching Hire™ Youth Outreach Program to enable more organizations the opportunity to offer the program to their young people at no cost
2. Create lines of communication with the utilities in California that will work toward formalizing a program to train young people across the state to service the demands coming forth with the green energy movement
3. Create training centers in strategic areas of the state where both young people and others can receive training specific to the utilities’ needs. These training centers will be similar to trade schools, but at a minimal cost to students and a first draft resource for the utilities

For my plan to succeed, I will need a few things in place. First and foremost is an advisory board. If you, or someone you know is interested in participating, I promise the responsibilities require a minimal investment of time, and no other investment of any kind beyond an endorsement. Secondly, I’ll need sponsors and I am specifically interested in reaching companies who have an interest in young people such as Apple, Nike, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Trade Schools, Universities, the Coast Guard, Air Force and Navy, Target, Tommy Hilfiger, Reebok, Adidas, Mead, Monster/Rockstar, Dell, Sony, the Lakers, Dodgers, etc. You get the idea! I’m putting together a sponsorship packet and will be reaching out soon.

I am ridiculously pleased to see Brick Elm Outreach™ officially start the journey, am tremendously proud of our team and I hope to see you along the way.

Interviewing Do’s and Don’ts

DO research the organization: history, size, products/services, market/customers, financial outlook

• DON’T ask the interviewer to tell you about the company

DO find out about the culture including appropriate attire, community involvement, mission statement, etc.

• DON’T show up to a bank dressed for a BBQ and likewise don’t show up to a dental office dressed for a funeral

DO bring along a copy of your resume, list of references, paper and pen

• DON’T have your cell phone on, your Bluetooth on or bring anyone else with you

DO practice answering interview questions. Visit About.com and search on “interviewing” for a great number of articles and sample questions

• DON’T answer questions with questions except to clarify. For instance, if the interviewer asks what your 5 year goal is, DON’T answer with “why do you want to know?”, but feel free to ask if they are interested in knowing your personal 5 year goal as well as your professional one

DO know yourself. Know your skills, abilities, strengths, weaknesses, work ethic, professional goals and what you have to offer an employer. Take the time to write them down and review them daily.

• DON’T expect potential employers to glean all of your skills and traits from your resume

DO know your limits relating to commute, salary and office hours

• DON’T mislead an interviewer for a job you are not willing to perform

DO expect the unexpected and be ready to roll with the punches

• DON’T act offended or insulted if the interview schedule is not maintained or if there are multiple changes during the course of your interview (unless you have decided you do not want the position in any case)

DO eat a good meal prior to interviews so that your body can focus on the most important thing: staying sharp

• DON’T go to an interview hungry or tired if you can help it DO remember to smile, make eye contact and try very hard to remember the names of your interviewers (write them down; ask for their names again if you didn’t catch it the first time)

• DON’T expect the interviewer(s) to have read your resume recently or remember what it says

DO keep in mind that interviewing is a lot like dating; patience, compassion, understanding and boundaries are all required in this setting.

DO have a great interview!!!!

Interviewing Technical Candidates for Keeps

As an IT recruiter, I am incapable of qualifying candidates’ technical abilities. It is an odd reality, but true nonetheless. The good news is there is no other service available to qualify candidates for your specific role. It’s crucial for your team to conduct their own technical assessment in order to understand if candidates are capable of working in your particular environment.

BrainBench and other firms who specialize in testing technical proficiency only deliver snapshots of the candidate’s true abilities because they test on the whole spectrum of a given technology, where your group likely focuses on particular functions. For instance, Java is a great big world unto itself and programmers have strengths in different areas of it. Some excel in integration work and others in developing code from scratch. Experience in various industries and the size of the companies worked for also dictate what type of experience developers have because in a small shop they are likely to have done a little bit of everything whereas in a large environment, they will likely be focused on one particular role.

For your interviewing process, identify the areas of technology that are most important to your projects as a general rule, and come up with questions specific to your applications in order to get relevant answers from each candidate. Create a form and rank the candidates’ answers on a scale of 1 to 5 so that in review, you’ll have a snapshot of their technical strengths and weaknesses. One question I do ask candidates is to rank their level of expertise in a given technology. Over the years I have found that few candidates will misrepresent themselves when asked to do this. In fact, many will rank themselves lower than their true level to be on the safe side. A good follow up question for a technical interviewer is to ask what areas of the technology is the candidate most proficient in. You will no doubt be surprised by the answers you receive.

Where most candidates fail in jobs is on the business/professional side as opposed to their technical aptitude. It’s usually more about their attitude, communication style, documentation practices and general interpersonal skills. In all cases, I highly recommend preparing an assessment/test for the candidates to complete. In this assessment, present a business scenario that is based on your company/department. The one assessment that comes to my mind was for a UNIX Systems Administrator and looked like this:
-Here’s a snapshot of our systems (very basic)
-Here’s a list of people who interface with the Sys Admin, their titles and names
-Something goes wrong and a server is down
-Describe the process by which you will determine the cause of the problem
-Compose an email to each of the people listed above to inform them of the issue

An assessment such as the one above will tell you more about a candidate than you’ve ever discovered before in an interview. Left on their own to complete the assessment, you will learn how well they communicate in writing, how well they understand interdepartmental communications, how long it takes them to complete a task, how quickly they can grasp your environment and more.

You will determine what is most important to you and your team. Requiring candidates to own their side of an interview will guarantee you better interviewing results, will save a lot of time normally spent evaluating interview performance and will help your team stay focused on which skills are of most value.

The benefits are really too numerous to mention, but ultimately these techniques work toward conducting meaningful, informative interviews that will help you hire employees you will want to keep for the long haul.

I will leave it at that and wish you all the best in your interviews, as always.

Job Hunting In An Economic Crisis

The financial sky is falling and you need to get a job. What do you do? You’ve done all of the obvious exercises of posting your resume on job boards and have submitted your resume to dozens of jobs posted online. You’ve alerted your network to the fact you’re on the market and are actively looking for a new job. Now what?

Don’t be so sure you’ve posted your resume everywhere it should be. There are recruiters and hiring managers who search every job board that exists. Some definitely get more traffic than others, but all of them get some traffic so it’s worth your time to register and post your resume with as many as are applicable to your search to gain the most exposure. To briefly review, the big three job boards are Monster, HotJobs and CareerBuilder. But there are literally thousands of others across the country that cater to almost every niche possible be it by industry such as healthcare, construction or finance or by geographic location; by state, county, region and city. There are job boards specific to people who have a security clearance, people who are of specific ethnic origin, education levels, veteran status and certifications. Do a few searches based on these criteria to find the ones that suit your background and objectives.

Nearly every company you can think of has an employment/careers section on their web site. You can go to those pages yourself to apply directly to these companies. You can also submit your resume directly to recruiting firms by going to their web sites. Sometimes you’ll be able to submit your resume to a general inbox as opposed to submitting it for a specific job. You want your resume to be in their internal databases for when they conduct searches there. Find out about local job fairs by doing internet searches and reading the business section of your local newspaper. In fact, you can search for certain news information online using a variety of search engines and tools.

Have you joined some groups online to get and stay connected to what’s happening in your world? There are many social networking sites that offer various ways to connect with people. Get online, search for social networking sites, register and explore their unique universes. They mostly all have groups and what happens in these groups is people hear of news and then announce that news to the group. For instance, I belong to many groups relating to Human Resources and Recruiting where I learn something new every single day without exception relating to the industry in some way. I hear about seminars I can participate in, tools (software and otherwise) that I may want to use, best practices for every facet of my business, candidate and company information and even tidbits about how to stay motivated. We all have something to learn and we each also have something to share. It is guaranteed that you will learn, and what you learn may be the key to opening the door to your next job.

You’ve let your immediate circle know you’re looking. Have you specifically asked them to help you in your search? They don’t have to do much beyond remember you as they go about their day. With you and your search on their mind, they will absolutely find information to share with you that may help. But you have to ask them to do so and keep in touch with them to remind them you’re still looking. An email or quick phone call to say “Don’t forget to keep me in your thoughts because I need all the help I can get” are both great reminders. Have you found that your awareness grows once you have something to relate to? For instance, not realizing how many Volkswagens are on the road until you own one. Keep yourself in their minds and it will help your search.

What are you doing when you’re not making your eyes dry out from staring at the computer or the TV? Look into volunteering your time somewhere at least twice a week for a couple of hours. Do this in person in an environment conducive to meeting new people. A soup kitchen, homeless shelter, animal shelter, your local community center, senior center, political organization, church, the library, etc. are all equally good venues. Give of yourself while you have the time. This activity will help you in multiple ways because it will take your mind off of yourself and your situation for at least a little while (we all need a break from our own reality sometimes), and it will give you an opportunity to meet people and make them aware of your search.

When asked how they got their jobs, most people will respond with some form of networking story. It was their friend, their wife’s cousin or their best friend’s son who knew someone who was able to get them an interview or an application. There are quite a few who get their jobs through recruiters as well, but at the end of the day recruiters are simply people who get paid to know lots of people – it’s all networking. Get out there and get yourself as much exposure as possible. You literally never know where the successful lead will come from. Oh yes, and be sure to be friendly to your neighbors. You never know.

Have you used any of the tips above to your frustration or success? Tell us your story and add any other techniques you’ve found useful. The collective appreciates your input!