Career Counselor
Career counseling is a subset of counseling and is based on career development theories.  Career counselors are often trained as counselors and  incorporate this psychological knowledge as needed to help clients overcome barriers or resistance.  Many career counselors use standardized or non-standardized assessments to help with career exploration and job search and offer emotional support, insights as well as strategies and resources.  Counselors are often willing to discuss aspects of the clients’ life not directly related to his/her career issues, but which indirectly affect career.

Career Coach
Career Coaching is a newer field, developed in the late eighties and early nineties.  Coaches are not required to have any particular qualifications, although many have completed a certification program.  Coaches tend to focus on a specific area and assist the client by asking  probing questions which motivate the client to discover his/her own answers.  They focus on action and usually expect the client to take specific steps between sessions.  Unlike counselors who often see people face to face, coaches tend to work by phone and ask the client for a commitment of a number of months.

As the two fields develop, the lines often blur and a single professional may blend some techniques from each approach.  If you would like to work with a career counselor or a career coach, try to get a referral from someone you know.   After a session or two,  see whether you feel comfortable with the person and his or her style.  If not, you might discuss your discomfort with them and/or you might decide to find someone else.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is likely to be the most fruitful of the social media for professional job seekers. Recruiters and hiring managers admit openly that they use LinkedIn to look for possible candidates. In order to “be found,” you need to have a profile which attracts their attention.  Unlike a resume, you open an account (it’s free) in which you describe your background, skills, experience, education and activities. Be sure to use position-related keywords in your profile so that your profile will be easier to find when someone uses the LinkedIn search. Consult some of the other profiles already listed to see what you think works well and how you’d like to do yours. Do a search for your job to see how high your profile ranks vs. others in the same field and edit accordingly.  You may want to consult a professional such as a career coach, resume writer or someone else who has experience in writing profiles.

Once your profile is posted, it will be easier for recruiters to find you. And, on the other hand, you can look for people in your field or in a field you are exploring, whom you can contact. You can also ask to “connect” with them. The more contacts you have, the greater your chances of making a contact that will be of use to you.

LinkedIn also features a “Jobs” section where you can view positions that are available.  Just go to the Search box in the upper right-hand corner of your LinkedIn page, click on the down arrow and choose “Jobs.”

Twitter and Facebook

Although Twitter and Facebook are used less for professional contacts, there is an important caveat about the use of those tools. Because employers are more and more frequently checking candidates’ Facebook and Twitter pages to see what they can learn about their lifestyle and leisure-time behaviors, you need to be very careful about allusions (or photos) of drinking, drugs or explicit sexual behavior that show up on those pages.

Resumes, cover letters, and networking are all important job seeking skills, but the skills most closely connected to getting a job offer are interviewing skills.  That’s the opportunity for you and the employer to meet eyeball to eyeball to determine whether you are able to do what they need done and perhaps, more importantly, whether you and they are a good “fit”; i.e., whether your personality and work style are a good match for the people and the department where you would be working.  It is also an opportunity for you to determine whether the position, compensation etc. meet your needs.

Preparation for the interview will greatly contribute to your success.  Research the company, the goals of  the department and the person(s) with whom you’ll be meeting.  The company website and LinkedIn can be very useful for this. Prepare also to articulate the skills and qualities you offer which will be most relevant to them.  Realize that you must show what you can contribute and ask intelligent questions to succeed in the interview.

Expect that they will ask about your background, your interest in the position, your skills.   In addition, it is likely that you will be asked “behavioral questions”; i.e., how you’ve handled past professional challenges and how you would handle hypothetical situations that might arise in the future.  Depending on the position and level, you may need to meet  with several people in the company.

When you sense that the interview is winding down, ask if they have further questions and what the next step is. Be sure to get their business card so you can send them a follow-up communication in which you thank them for their time and reiterate the most relevant skills and qualities you bring that will help them reach their goals.  If there’s anything you forgot to mention in the meeting, include that in the follow up.  If you don’t hear from them on the time table they laid out, be sure to call or email to reiterate your interest and ask where they are in their decision-making process.

Whatever their modus operandi, you need to be prepared to have a list of job references before you go on a job interview.  Make a list of three or four professionals who can speak knowledgeably — and positively — about your skills, accomplishments and work ethic.

Ideally, they would be former supervisors, along with perhaps one peer.  Ideally, if you leave a job on good terms, your former supervisor or boss will be willing to give you a glowing letter of reference for you to use. If you’re very early in your career so that you don’t have that many professional references, you could ask a professor or two and perhaps another professional you know, such as your clergyperson or a family friend, for example.  Contact each of those people to ask permission to use them as a reference and get all of their contact information.  Tell them about the type of position you are or will be interviewing for so they will be able to give a good reference.

Print out these people’s names and contact information on the same kind of paper as your resume.  You will bring this reference sheet along with extra copies of your resume when you go to an interview.  Now you’re ready!

For more information about references, be sure to contact a career consultant such as Judi Lansky.

HR staff won’t always tell you their preferences and what works best with them.  I recently read an article called 13 Things HR Won’t Tell you from Readers’ Digest Magazine, where they did share some tips. Below are some of them:

• There is a developing bias against people who have been out of work a long time.  Although that may seem unfair, knowing that would underscore the importance of finding a part time or consulting job while you’re looking for full time work.  If it takes a little while to find a part time position, fill your time (and your resume) with some volunteer work which is related to your career field.
• Resumes don’t need color these days nor a fancy format because they are read electronically.  Using “pretty” graphic presentations can imply that you’re not up-to-date with that fact.
• Use a second page if you need it.  Don’t use a tiny font to squeeze it all on one page.
• Resumes can be two pages.  The guideline these days is a page for every ten years of experience.  Somehow, whatever the math, three pages is considered too long.
• When it comes to getting a job, who you know does matter.  So even HR sees the importance of networking!  Start with LinkedIn and your college alumni registry if you’re short of contacts.
• You may be judged by your email address, especially if it’s something like kinkyboots@hotmail.com.  Keep it simple and business-like.  You can keep “kinky boots” for your personal email, if you like.
• Most HR departments use applicant tracking systems that scan resumes for key words. The best way to get your resume through the system is to pull key words directly from the job description and use them in your document.  The more matches you have, the more likely your resume will get picked up and read by a real person.
• If you’re in your 50′s or 60′s, don’t put the date you graduated on your resume.  And you may not choose to list your very first jobs either.  They were probably a long time ago and fairly low level.
• Not everyone reads your cover letter.  You nonetheless need a thoughtful one that highlights the aspects of your background that are most relevant to the job you’re applying for.  Some people will read it.

These are the tips I thought might be most useful to you.  Click here to read the entire article.

Losing your job can be a traumatic experience. You’ve lost your income (unless you negotiated a severance package, which is a very smart thing to do), you’ve lost what was probably a significant piece of your identity, you have 40-50-60 hours per week to fill and you don’t see your work buddies any more.

So what should you do?

You don’t need to jump into your job search the next day. Perhaps you could take a few days to relax with family or friends. Seek out someone with whom you can talk openly about what happened and how you’re feeling about it. You might also find it useful to write in a journal about your feelings. It’s common to feel angry or hurt, but sometimes people are relieved to be leaving an abusive work environment or work they didn’t enjoy. Whatever you’re feeling is fine. Finding a person or writing your thoughts down in a notebook in which to confide your feelings will help you get ready to start your job search with a clear head.

Set up a quiet place in your home where you will work on your job search. You’ll need to have a functioning computer, good light, paper, a printer, a reliable phone, a calendar, speakers (to listen to webinars), a list of contacts and some envelopes and stamps in case you need to mail something by snail mail.

Make a list of people you can contact, people in your family, your friends, people you’ve worked with in your most recent job as well as previous jobs. You’ll be adding to it on an on-going basis as you develop your search. Develop a script that you can use as you start to contact them. Don’t ask if they know of any jobs, tell them about your situation and ask them what suggestions they have about places and people you might contact.

A career consultant like Judi Lansky can also help you jumpstart your job search.

You’ve gotten started. Work on it diligently. Who knows, perhaps losing your job will turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to you.

How to Network by Phone
One way is to call them on the phone, although they might be difficult to reach.  If you choose to call them, prepare a little script in advance, introducing yourself, mentioning the person who referred you if it is a referral and requesting a brief meeting to gather some career information. (You’re more likely to be successful if you talk about information rather than wanting a job.)

How to Write a Network Approach Letter
An alternative to a phone call would be an approach letter, which can be sent by email.

In the first paragraph, introduce yourself and explain why contacting the person motivates you to make this request.  Perhaps you read an article they wrote or a mutual contact told you that they are very knowledgeable about the field you are interested in.

In the second paragraph, you might tell them about your credentials in two or three sentences.

In the last paragraph, you make your request.  State that you have some questions about how to enter your field of interest or how to move up in your field or whatever your career goal is at the time.  And you would really appreciate it if they had twenty minutes or so to share their perspective with you.  Tell them that you’ll contact them in a week to arrange a mutually convenient time to meet.

When you perform the follow-up contact, remind them of  who you are, how you are connected to them and ask if they would have twenty minutes or so to talk with you.  Ask when and where would be convenient for them and set it up.  Ideally you want to meet face-to-face, but if they are only willing to do it by phone, then graciously accept that.

Networking — Just Do It!
Networking is a critical part of any job search or career change.  Whether you network by phone, in writing or in-person, make it a point to speak with as many people as possible.  You never know…the next person you speak with may have the connection to the perfect job opportunity!

In addition, your network of contacts can benefit you throughout your career.

Job Networking Tips

To get started, make a list of people you know now that you could contact.  Call or write each one to request a brief meeting to ask some questions about your job search and/or the new field you are exploring. Before the meeting, prepare a list of open-ended questions to ask.  At the end of the meeting, ask who else the person knows that you could talk to. And request permission to use their name in contacting these people.  This is how you build a network of contacts.

Write a thank you note (can be by email) to the person you met and add his or her name to your contact list.  You’ll need this information to contact them again in 6-8 weeks to stay in touch and update them on your progress.  In the meantime, contact the people they suggested.

In addition to this one-to-one networking, be sure that you put a great profile on LinkedIn and begin mining your contacts there to see who else you could contact.

Alumni registries and professional associations are also good sources of contacts.

Be creative and upbeat and pretty soon, you’ll have a vibrant network that supports you in your job search and perhaps even beyond!

There are two set of indicators that might help you decide whether or not to explore a career change:

1. The first set is external and involves the feedback you receive from your current work environment and from friends and colleagues outside your organization.
2. The second set is more internal and has to do with the level of satisfaction or excitement you feel about your current job.

The most objective external factor is the length of time you’ve been in your present position. Although job hopping will not enhance your resume, staying at a company much longer than five or six years – without a solid record of promotions or increased responsibility – can be perceived as lack of drive or foreshadow possible difficulty in adapting to a new company.

Keep a “job journal” in which you spend a few minutes a week recording what you’ve accomplished that week. If you don’t have much to record or you’re recording the same activities every week, you might think about a change. Similarly, if your salary growth has slowed down or stopped, that might be an indication that it may be time for a change. A frank talk with your boss, in which you share your longer term objectives, will allow you to assess how realistic the match is between your career aspirations and the possibilities within your company.

At least as important, pay close attention to the subjective feelings you have about your current job and how it does or does not support you in reaching your career and personal goals. Even if the type of work is satisfying to you, if the organization is not a good fit, you may experience some of the following symptoms:

•    Unwillingness to get out of bed in the morning
•    Fatigue or boredom
•    Anxiety, tension, depression
•    Changes in eating, drinking, smoking habits
•    Resentment or lack of acknowledgement
•    Feeling underpaid

To begin exploring a change, think about the skills you really enjoy using. Think also about the aspects of your ideal work environment: the colleagues you enjoy, the values that are important to you, the management style you prefer, your ideal salary. Doing the exercises in a book like What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard Bolles might help you identify the change you want to make. You might also research careers that interest you on-line or in professional materials. And talking to people who currently work in areas that interest you is an excellent way to explore new possibilities. If you could “shadow” someone in that field, i.e., go to work with them for a day, you could “test” what it would be like for you to work in that area.

A career counselor or coach responds to whatever career-related issues are troubling the client. One of the most commonly asked questions is how to determine a new career direction. “I’ve been doing such and such for a number of years and I’m sick of it or I really don’t like it,” they say. “But I don’t know what other career I want to pursue or even how to figure it out.”

Because this question is very perplexing to the person and because it can be a difficult question to resolve on one’s own, the career consultant can be very helpful. We don’t know what the client wants to do, but part of our expertise is to help the client define what he wants to do. The client may be too close to the issue and may lack the needed objectivity to define an answer. The career consultant is not personally involved with the issue and therefore can guide the client through the steps which will allow her/him to identify one or more possibilities s/he wants to pursue. Because the consultant has worked with a variety of clients on similar issues over a period of years, s/he can be an effective guide.

If the client wants — or sometimes needs — to choose a new direction, the first step is for him/her to define his/her favorite skills, interests, values. This can be done with exercises, various assessment instruments (sometimes called “tests”) and discussion with the career counselor. I like to give exercises as homework so the client has time to think about them before we discuss them in our next meeting. Combining the client’s favorite skills and interests, we can usually come up with one or two areas of interest–sometimes three–that the client would like to explore. This is the first and very important part of the career counseling process.

The second part is equally important but more marketing-oriented. How is the client going to sell her/his transferable skills and background to get the kind of job they have just defined? In order to begin the job search, we need first to produce a resume and some cover letters targeted towards the desired type of position. If the client is targeting more than one area, s/he may need to write more than one set of resumes and cover letters. Some coaches may write the documents for the client. Others will certainly give suggestions, samples and perhaps do some editing.

Once the marketing materials are prepared, the coach will assist the client in creating and implementing an effective job search strategy. This will involve building a network of contacts, both face to face and on-line. The coach can instruct the client in informational interviewing, as well as building a LinkedIn profile and other on-line contacts.

These connecting activities, which account for 65-75% of hirings, may be unfamiliar to a number of clients but they are very useful skills that can be mastered with a coach. Although looking for jobs on line is usually not the most effective way to search for a job, some attention can be paid to responding to some of the more useful web sites for the particular search.

As the client begins to make connections in the job market, s/he will begin to generate interviews. The career coach can talk with the client about interviews, give sample interview questions and practice interviewing with the client. As the process evolves, the coach can continue to answer questions, provide accountability and teach the client to negotiate a compensation package.