My latest job search column, on how to restart a prolonged, unsuccessful job search, is archived on The Employment Guide web site.

Quote:

Here’s an excerpt from (a job seeker’s) email: “My county is experiencing a 12.5% reported unemployment rate, which means the real unemployment rate is between 18% and 20%.”

Kevin’s comments: Computing the “real” unemployment rate is like computing the wind chill — why look for more ways to make yourself miserable?

Here’s another way to look at those numbers: 20% unemployment means 80% employment. Eight of 10 people who want a job, have a job.

What other money-paying endeavor offers an 80% success rate? Think of those 8-in-10 odds to boost your confidence level. 
 

Resource: Free Guerrilla Job Search Secrets Audio CD.

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Just read an interesting job search article with a social networking twist in Slate magazine.

Money quote: “The key to finding work in this economy is to look beyond job-listings sites like Monster.com; if your search consists mainly of scouring available jobs and sending in your résumé and cover letter, you’re on the wrong path.”

I can’t tell you HOW many job seekers I talk to every week who think a job has to be advertised on Monster or elsewhere for it to be real.

No. No, no. NO!!!

And these same misguided job seekers wonder why it takes many weeks and months to catch on with an employer.

Why avoid spending too much time on advertised job postings?

… because companies will often look to fill positions before paying for a listing. If they do post something online, it’s often a perfunctory listing designed to comply with HR policy, even though they actually plan to fill the job in some other way. What other way? Every year, the employment consulting firm CareerXRoads conducts a survey of HR managers at large companies. The 2009 survey shows that just 12 percent of recent new hires were found through job boards, while 27 percent were found through referrals—that is, people who work at the company or who have connections to the company recommend the largest share of new people. There’s a word for this sort of job-seeking: networking.

The most forward-looking job seekers I spoke to said they’d all but abandoned job-listing sites in favor of social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. For a few people, job-hunting on these sites paid off; for others, the social networks showed some promise—at least more promise than sending in résumés. For a couple of others, social networking proved useless.

-=-=-=-

Facebook: In early February, Evan Sornstein, a designer who lives in San Francisco, got laid off from his job at the advertising firm Razorfish. He began looking for work by searching job sites that list creative design positions. He also asked a couple of creative agencies to look for work on his behalf. Two weeks passed with no prospects. Then, on a lark, he posted a Facebook status update, worded carefully to avoid any hint of desperation: “Does anybody know of anybody who’s looking for a Website?”

Within 10 minutes, he says, he got four replies. Two of his friends promised to ask around for him. One reply was from Sornstein’s mortgage broker, who needed a new site designed; Sornstein will likely begin working on that soon. He also got a message from his friend Jenn Shreve, a writer (and sometime Slate contributor) who lives in New York. Shreve knew of an agency that was looking to redesign a Web site, and she introduced Sornstein to someone at the firm over Facebook. The introduction worked; Sornstein landed the gig, getting back to work within three weeks of his layoff.

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Twitter: A couple of weeks ago, I explained why Twitter isn’t a great Web search engine, so I was naturally wary when people began calling it a great job-search engine. Boosters say that people looking for work can use it just like they’d use Facebook or LinkedIn—to connect with people and companies they find interesting and to engage them in conversation in the hopes that they’ll get noticed. Last year, for instance, a software developer named Kevin Smith began following several Ruby programmers over Twitter. He became friends with a guy who worked at a small company called Gnoso. He sent them a résumé and told the friend about it over Twitter. The friend pushed for Smith to get the job—and he was hired.

Read the entire article here.

And grab your copy of our Free Job Search Audio CD here.

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Here’s video of our interview we did in New York last week with Sarah Needleman, from The Wall Street Journal.

We talk about:

• Getting on Zoominfo.com (do it now!)
• Playing by your own rules when applying online to employers
• How to stand out in a crowded job market (hint: there’s only room in your town for one person to rent a billboard for publicity)
• Include testimonials in your resume
• And more

None of these tactics will come as a surprise to anyone who’s heard our Free Job Search Audio CD.

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I’m on deadline to finish my newspaper column, so here’s the unedited, unadulterated audio of my 14-minute interview with Peter Clayton, producer and host of career-management resource Total Picture Radio.

Listen to discover:

• Why the wrong word in an interview can spell disaster. What is that word?
• Why there are only 3 kinds of interview questions that you’re going to get. Knowing this can make your interview preparation efforts a breeze.
• Why authenticity matters in your job search. It helped one former employee of Bernie Madoff make an unforgettable first impression — for all the right reasons.
• And more.

Listen now …

Click here to download the MP3.

If you liked this, you’ll love our Free Guerrilla Job Search Secrets Audio CD that tells you how to find a job in a recession.

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Clay Shirky, professor at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University, gave an intriguing talk about the Internet at the South By Southwest Conference in Austin, Tex.

His PowerPoint presentation had … one slide. And only one slide.

Here it is:

It says: “the internet is the largest group of people who care about reading and writing ever assembled in history [now what?]”

Now. I’m all about Funnel Vision, which is adapting and adopting new ideas to your job search.

So, how can you use this “one-slided” approach in your job search?

Here’s how …

Bring your laptop to your next job interview and tell the hiring manager, “I put together a PowerPoint with some ideas on how I can help your company. And I know you’re going to enjoy it, because it’s the shortest presentation in world history.”

Do you think you might have the hiring manager’s attention at that point?

In fact, they may beg you to explain or start the interview with your “world’s shortest PowerPoint presentation,” but you should make them chomp at the bit until they’ve asked all the standard, bone-headed questions, like, “Why do you want to work here?” or “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?”

Then, at the opportune time, launch into your PowerPoint.

Just like Clay Shirky’s above, your presentation will have exactly one slide.

Here’s what to your slide should say:

Today’s economy offers the most danger and the most opportunity for business since The Great Depression.

[Now what?]

You then spend the next 5-10 minutes talking about the 3 things you would do to make your target employer’s business more profitable.

Such as:

1) How I can save you $35,000+ a year in supplies by negotiating new deals with vendors (as I’ve done three times since 2007).

2) How I can cause your customer to buy repeatedly and refer others by delighting them with superior service (as I’ve done since 2006, winning two “superior service” awards along the way).

3) How I can double your revenue by putting 250% more prospects into your sales funnel (as I’ve done four times since 2005).

Get the idea?

When you use this “world’s shortest PowerPoint” tactic to get the attention of hiring managers, you force them to give you the floor in a job interview, where you can sell yourself by telling them specifically how you would make more money or save more money than you are asking for in salary.

Don’t think you can do this?

Think harder.

You must clearly spell out what you can do for employers if you want to stand out in this (or any) economy and create real, long-term job security.

If you liked this idea, you’ll love our free job-search CD (a $50.00 value).

Grab your Guerrilla Job Hunting audio here.

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