Remember The Sixth Sense?

The kid says, “I see dead people. Walking around like regular people ….”

Now. What if, instead of dead people, you could see job leads walking around?

Well, you CAN train yourself to see job leads — every day — that were invisible before.

All you have to do is know these two things:

1) EXACTLY what job you’re looking for, down to the title and the 3 skills you would use in that job; and

2) EXACTLY what 10-25 employers you want to work for, down to the company name and cities.

Do you?

If so, you will start to see job leads where before you saw none. This is due to your brain’s Reticular Activating System, which basically tells you what to pay attention to.

If something is “top of mind” for you, like a specific job or target employer, you’re more likely to make more connections to it in the world around you, and “see” that job title or employer. Which leads to more conversations with others, more interviews, and a shorter job search.

Neat, huh?

On the other hand, if you don’t know what job you want or where you want to work, your job search will zig and zag all over like a rogue cruise missle, vainly searching for a target.

Which would you prefer?

A recession — or the threat of one — can be great news for smart, persistent job seekers.

Right now, more job openings are going underground because hiring managers, fearing a tsunami of resumes, are reluctant to place ads online or in the newspaper.

That means there are more unadvertised jobs. And less competition for them, because the vast majority of job seekers still confine their search to the advertised job market: Monster, HotJobs, the newspaper classifieds, etc.

All of which is good news for you … IF you’re willing to do take the time and effort required to tap the “hidden” market of unadvertised jobs.

One way to do it is to on the radar of a hiring manager in the first 3 of the 4 stages a job goes through before being filled.

Here they are …

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Sorry about the mangled golfing analogy, but you get the idea, right?

It’s nice to get a job offer. But it’s really nice to get a job paying the salary you deserve.

Mike Thomas over at The Daily Machete has some negotiating tactics you need to know about if you’re in the job market right now:

Your chances of a fatter payday during a recession will improve if you either personally know the person with whom you’re negotiating OR you were referred to the company by someone who knows the hiring manager. As such, your recession salary negotiation starts with your network. Before you head into your work search full speed, build and nurture your network

Read the whole posting here.

My speech at yesterday’s Star Tribune Career Expo was a lot of fun. It was my 20th keynote address for them since 2000. We had a standing-room-only crowd of 100+ people spilling out the front door — I love when that happens.

By the way, I’m available to speak almost anywhere in North America — if you have a speaker’s budget, call me at 952-946-7952

Here’s a small taste of my 60-minute talk, on the topic of …

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I haven’t had time to post the last few days, as I write an article for a major business magazine (to be named later), pull together a presentation for tomorrow’s Star Tribune Career Expo in St. Paul, and put the final touches on a new job-search coaching program to launch in early June (watch these pages for updates!)

So, I hope the following quick job search tip will tide you over for the next day or two …

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