Project: Job Search

Project: Job Search 10 classes on everything you need to know to find your next awesome job. Here. For free. You are welcome.

05/26/2023

Project: Job Search QuickStart Guide
Class 10 » Negotiating and Probation Period

To do:
- Do your research.
- Know what you are worth and what the market pays for
similar positions at similar companies.
- Have list in front of you of what you will bring to the
company.
- Prepare mentally and practice with a friend or loved one.
- Be friendly throughout the process.
- Try to get a win-win but don’t pull them over the table.
- Ask for flexibility on other compensation.
- Ensure the written offer includes everything that was
agreed.
- Be on your best behavior during the probation period.
- Make all efforts to be liked, fit in and help out.

Your Negotiating and Probation Period activity should:
• Help you learn negotiate like a pro.
• Be knowledgeable about what comp is fair.
• Help you make it through the probation period.

How to:
1. During the interviewing stage, research a typical salary range for the role on sites like Salary.com, salaryexpert.com, payscale.com and check the latest Robert Half Salary Survey. Factor in your experience level and which part of the country you live in. Plan to ask towards the top of the range, but make it a specific number, think $89,250, not $89,000. This gives the impression that you've really done your homework and makes them less likely to propose a number drastically lower.
2. Be prepared for questions that can throw you off balance or cause you to inadvertently give away some of your negotiating power, like “Are we your top choice?” or “Are you considering any other offers?” Always answer honestly — don't invent other offers in an effort to create a sense of urgency, but prepare in advance so your answer supports you in your demands and doesn't do anything to harm your negotiating power.
3. When the offer comes in, ask for a day to think about it. This is a big decision, and though they're probably anxious to get you started, it is perfectly understandable and acceptable to ask for time to carefully consider their offer.
4. Beyond your base salary, remember there are lots of other things you can negotiate for such as flex time, signing bonus and office location.
5. Choose one or two aspects of compensation that are most important to you can focus on negotiating those. Don't haggle over less important things.
6. Before you respond, it pays to practice the conversation with a friend or loved one. Try to anticipate questions and comments your potential employer or boss will likely have and be prepared to respond to them.
7. Before you head into negotiations, know your adversary. Understand the function of the person you're negotiating with. Someone from HR will be very different than your prospective boss, who in turn will be very different from the owner of the company.
8. Figure out where they do and don't have leeway. HR will have the most constraints and less discretion with your requests. A future boss who really wants you on her team will have somewhat more. The owner of the company will have the most power to give you what you're asking for.
9. Make sure you can justify any demand you make. But when justifying your number, don't use personal reasons like “my child needs braces” or “my mortgage just jumped x%”. Instead, keep selling yourself and focus on the value you're bringing to the role, your experience, expertise and skills.
10. After you've taken your day or two to consider the offer it will be time for final negotiations. These might take place in person, over the phone or via email. However this is done, be sure to take notes.
11. To gather courage and perspective prior to negotiating, it might help to pretend you are an outsider advising yourself as to what you're worth and why.
12. As long as you are respectful throughout the process, they should have no reason to resent your efforts at negotiating a better comp package for yourself.
13. Ask the right questions in the right order. Start with a couple of easy questions to put them at ease. These should be clarification questions, not things you are necessarily going to negotiate on. Like “Who would I report to?”, “When does the company begin matching my 401k contributions?”, or “Does the company have a dental plan?”
14. Follow up that tough question with another easy one. Then finish up with another tough one.
15. This pattern of easy, easy, tough, easy, tough is designed to cushion the blows of the tougher aspects of negotiations.
16. Once you've put them at ease with your first and second questions it's time to hit them with the biggie. Your third question should be about the thing that is most important to you; your top priority. Is it your base salary? Bonus plan? Flex time? Work from home? Ask for what you most want, what you feel is fair to you and to them, aiming a little high so they can come back slightly lower and still meet your requirements.
17. When you respond to their number, ask a little higher than where you'd like to settle to give room for negotiating down on their side. Then, use the power of silence.
18. Once you've stated your number, sit quietly and wait for their response. Job seekers tend to get nervous and try to soften the statement by offering up what they're willing to forego in order to make the number more palatable. Instead, sit tight and don't negotiate against yourself.
19. Similarly, when they've put a number out there, you can again use silence to your advantage. Once they've said it use non-verbal communication to convey that you are thinking about what they've offered: say “hmmm”, furrow your brow, jot down a couple of notes. In this case, they may get nervous and start bolstering their offer by trying to make it seem more attractive to you.
20. There are two main ways to fumble negotiations: Under-negotiating or over-negotiating.
21. If you tend to over negotiate: Stay likeable through this process. You don't want to negotiate so aggressively that once the number is agreed on you've created ill will and/or impossible expectations.
22. You want to ask for what you're worth but avoid creating the impression that you are petty, greedy or arrogant.
23. Manage your tone and attitude throughout the process, making sure you negotiate with respect.
24. While negotiating for the highest salary possible might seem like the best goal, it should actually be to end up at a comp package that is fair on both sides.
25. The salary spreadsheet that HR and financial management refer to probably shows base comp, so negotiating other things, especially intangibles like office location and an early review, can have lots of value that won't come back to haunt you when cuts must be made.
26. If you tend to under negotiate: Remember, negotiating is not only acceptable, it is expected.
27. At the end of your negotiating meeting, ask for the final, negotiated package in writing.
28. Check their written recap against the notes you've taken to make sure nothing has been left out or changed from what was agreed upon.
29. Congrats, you’ve been hired!
30. For the first month, 3 months, six months – however long you're in the probation period, you've got to prove that you are not only capable of performing the tasks required, you must also demonstrate that you're a good fit personality-wise with your coworkers.
31. Stay on your best behavior during this time.
32. Don't get lazy in terms of appearance or punctuality. You are in the spotlight during the probation period, so any slip ups will be noticed.
33. This is not the time to ask for or expect any special treatment like leaving early for a doctor's appointment or taking a personal day off. If at all possible, don't even call in sick during this time.
34. Know the rules. If they've provided an employee handbook or welcome pack, read through it to make sure you know what is expected of all employees.
35. Be generous with your time. The opinion they form of you during this initial time will be very hard to change for better or worse, so make sure it's a good one. After your probation period is over it will be much easier to take a morning off or get away with dressing down a bit.
36. If it is part of your responsibilities, make sure you know the lay of the land before you start making big changes.
37. Make sure you have the support of key players and listen carefully to the requests of those who are in a position to fire you. Know their biggest motivators and aim to help them accomplish their departmental goals.
38. One of the most important things to get right during this time is personality fit. Many mistakes can be forgiven if the team likes working with you, so make the effort to get to know them.
39. Take an interest in your co-workers, what they contribute and help them out when possible. Don't be standoffish, condescending or aloof.
40. Join in out of office activities like after work drinks but make sure you don't go overboard with the drinking or do anything that could come back and bite you in the butt the next morning.
41. Ingratiate yourself with your new boss. Check in after the first two weeks – find out what you're doing well, what needs work, anything coming up that you should be aware of.
42. Make sure you're getting the training you need and that was promised to you. If you're not, meet with your boss and politely offer to work with them to get the training underway.
43. Be polite when asking for clarification or guidance. Make sure it doesn't come across as accusatory or whining.
44. Try to get into the office before your boss and then stay a little later than most of your co-workers.
45. Be upfront with your boss and acknowledge mistakes. Then do what you can to help fix them.
46. Remember that the probation period goes both ways. If the job turns out not to be what you expected, the end of your probation period is the perfect time to either work to rectify that or to walk away with no hard feelings.

Notes:
• When you're in the interviewing stage, you need to put off discussing salary as long as you can. If possible, give them a chance to fall in love with you before mentioning any numbers.
• The best time to negotiate your salary and other comp is once you've been verbally offered the job, definitely before you sign anything. You'll have the most leverage with your new employer between the time they make the offer and when you sign on the dotted line. They have mentally committed to you and they're probably sick of the searching/vetting/interviewing stage and want to move on.
• It's easy to get caught up in the relief and euphoria of the moment and not take the time you need to reflect on the comp package you've been offered. But remember this when it happens: when you feel that euphoria is precisely the time to pause and call for a time out. You need time to come down off the high of receiving that offer so you can think clearly and negotiate with a level head.

05/26/2023

Project: Job Search QuickStart Guide
Class 9 » Interviewing and Following Up

To do:
- Research the company and the interviewer(s).
- Prepare your questions.
- Show up appropriately dressed and groomed.
- Get prepared mentally.
- Smile.
- Watch your body language.
- Send a thank you note within 24 hours.

Your Interviewing and Following Up activity should:
• Leave the interviewer with a good feeling about you.
• Help you and them determine if you are a culture fit.
• Get all your questions answered.
• Hopefully propel you to the next step.

How to:
1. In the time you have leading up to the day of your interview, get prepared, both mentally and physically.
2. Study the company the position is with as well as the industry it is in.
3. Start with the company's website. If they are a public company, read their annual report.
4. Search for the company at Yahoo Finance and read related news stories going back about a year.
5. Check who their competitors are and how they differentiate themselves. You should be very familiar with what the company does and be prepared to discuss it.
6. Visit glassdoor.com to read employee and ex-employee reviews.
7. Contact people you know who have worked at or are familiar with the company and ask them about the company’s culture and activities.
8. Research the person you will be interviewing with, whether it is your potential boss, the owner of the company, someone from HR or a recruiter.
9. Take a look at their LinkedIn profile and see if you have any common connections.
10. If you have a common connection who is a friend of yours, call and ask for some input, try to get a feel for what your interviewer is like. On their LinkedIn profile, also look at what Groups and Influencers they follow.
11. Do a Google search and see what’s out there about them: speeches, articles, interviews, Facebook posts, tweets, Instagram, Pinterest.
12. If you've gotten this interview through a recruiter, they should be an excellent resource for prepping you for the interview. They'll have lots of information about the role, the company and the people you will be meeting with. They might also share with you some information about the history of this search, like who’s been interviewed so far, how the search is going, etc. Recruiters can also give you guidance on things to emphasize or downplay when discussing your qualifications and experience.
13. If you’re not going through a recruiter, it will be up to you to research the person or people you will be meeting with. See if you can figure out how they got to their current position by reviewing their work history on LinkedIn.
14. Finally, make sure you understand as much as possible about the position you are interviewing for and how it fits into the overall scheme of things within the company.
15. First impressions count, especially in an interview.
16. If you are meeting in person make sure your hair is neat and your nails are trimmed and clean. Dress professionally, but instead of wearing a typical workday outfit, skew it towards the formal side of whatever is appropriate for your field. Clothing should be clean, pressed and tailored, sticking solid colors. Make sure your shoes are polished, and jewelry is kept to a minimum, a wedding ring and watch only for the guys. If seeing the company through a recruiter, ask for advice regarding the dress code.
17. For the more creative fields, you can take more leeway and break out of the mold a bit more but it’s always safe to stick to the less eccentric end of the range.
18. Bring a briefcase, tote or messenger bag, along with a note pad and nice pen. You’ll need to take notes during the interview.
19. Arrive 10 minutes before your interview is scheduled to start.
20. Make sure your phone is set to silent.
21. Let the receptionist or admin know you’re there, then take a few minutes to go to the bathroom and check yourself in mirror. Once you walk in the door, pretend everyone you see is evaluating you and be friendly and nice to them all.
22. You’ll probably be offered something to drink at this point. Steer away from coffee or tea. Stick to water, preferably from whoever greets you. If you if your interviewer is the one who has to get it, it will just be a delay and a distraction from your interview.
23. If you’re shown to the room where your interview will be conducted, try to remain standing until the interviewer enters the room and asks you to sit. If that becomes awkward, sit somewhere other than at the head of the table and stand to greet your interviewer when they arrive.
24. When greeting them, maintain eye contact and smile while shaking their hand firmly (but not too hard).
25. If you’re being interviewed by more than one person, be sure you treat them all with utmost respect and greet everyone with a smile regardless of where you think they are on the totem pole.
26. Make an effort to be friendly and likeable. Your resume has shown them you have the basic skills needed for the job, now they need to determine if you are a good fit for their company culture and if they can see themselves working with you.
27. In general, aim to let them do most of the talking (40% you, 60% them). If they do the lion’s share of the talking, they’re likely to come away with a positive feeling about the interview.
28. Never assume that people will understand how your background has prepared you for the role you are interviewing for. You'll need to explain to them how your skillset and experience is relevant and how it will help them with the challenges they are facing.
29. Most interviews conclude with the interviewer asking if you have any questions for them. It is VERY important that you ask two or three questions at the end of the interview. If you fail to ask any questions, you’ll not only miss an opportunity to get a read on how the interview went, but you also give the impression that you’re not very interested in the job, whether that is true or not.
30. One question you should always ask is “Do you have any hesitations or concerns about my qualifications for this position?” If they do, you now know what these concerns are and have the chance to address them on the spot.
31. Some other questions you could ask are:
a) How would you describe the company's culture? This is a great question to ask, especially if you’re speaking with someone in HR.
b) What qualities in a person do you think are most important to help them excel in this role?
c) In your opinion, where do my skills best address the challenges of this position? (You’ll probably have your own opinion about this at this point, but it’s a great way to find out how they view you.)
d) What are your expectations for this position at 30 days, 60 days, one year?
e) What constitutes success in this role?
32. Don’t ask about salary or benefits. (This question comes in negotiations.)
33. Don’t ask yes or no questions.
34. Don’t ask about anything already covered during the interview, unless you need further clarification.
35. Finally, always finish up by asking what the next steps are.
36. Follow up the interview with a thank you note, but make sure it's not generic.
37. Take a day to reflect on the interview and then think about your answer to these questions:
a) What did the interviewer respond to most positively?
b) What parts of your experience got them most interested in what you were saying?
c) What concerns, if any, did the interviewer express at the end of the interview?
d) Is there anything you wish you’d mentioned?
e) Now that you have additional information gleaned from the interview, is there something you’d like to give more emphasis to?
38. With the answers to these questions in mind, write the thank you note and either email it or drop it in the mail no more than 24 hours after your interview took place.

Notes:
• In the time you have leading up to the day of your interview, get prepared, both mentally and physically. You might have weeks or maybe just a day or two. Whatever it is, use the time wisely so you walk into the interview feeling as confident and calm as possible.
• Sending a generic thank you note is missing out on a great opportunity to reinforce the impression you’ve made, address any concerns they might have expressed and to provide additional information showing how you’re a great fit for the job.

05/26/2023

Project: Job Search QuickStart Guide
Class 8 » Unposted Jobs

To do:
- Make sure you use all techniques for maximum impact.
- Do not shy away from putting yourself out there, you may
be surprised at the positive response.
- Spend time researching companies and what they are
currently doing in your field – it’ll make you
knowledgeable which will come across in your phone
calls and meetings.
- Stick with it.

Your Unposted Jobs activity should:
• Be done in addition to your other activities.
• Be given priority over job boards search activity.

How to:
Technique 1: The Inside Contact Conversion
1. Start by connecting with a contact at one of your target companies. Ideally, this is a person who would be in a position to either hire you or who’s in a position to have some pull, like a department manager or other higher-up.
2. Once you’ve connected with them, take a look at their last job and get an idea of what they did there plus a little about the company, even though it is not the company you are actually interested in working for.
3. Get in touch with your inside contact and ask them a fact-finding question about their experience working at their previous employer. You can ask about the culture there, or if they think that the company is headed in the right direction, etc. Do not ask them about where they work now, even though it is your target company.
4. This technique gets them talking because people feel freer to talk about former employers than current ones. If your inside contact asks why you aren’t interested in working at their current company, you can honestly say that you aren’t aware of any job openings. And there might not be any. But if there are changes on the horizon or if they’ve been talking about possibly bringing on someone new in the department, here you are, delivered on a silver platter, ready to go.
5. They’ll like it because it saves them time and hassle and you’ll like it because you’ve discovered a job opening before it has become public knowledge, and you haven’t had to be pushy or ask for a job.

Technique 2: The Speculative Presentation
1. Prepare a presentation that demonstrates your understanding of issues your target company is facing, how these challenges relate to the climate of the industry in general and how you fit into addressing them. This could be PowerPoint, a word document or spreadsheet.
2. Send it along with a targeted cover letter that gives an overview of the presentation to the person who deals most directly with the issues being addressed. Close the letter with an offer to send your resume and your desire to discuss possible synergies to get these problems solved.

Technique 3: Be On High Alert
1. Google offers automated delivery of new content via Google Alerts. You can set this up to keep an eye out for you and deliver new job listings as they’re posted.
2. Go to google.com/alerts.
3. In the search box enter the job titles you’d like to keep tabs on. A dropdown menu will appear to Show Options.
4. Here you can set frequency (best to set it to “As it happens” since time is of the essence when applying online), preferred sources, language and region.
5. To narrow by geographic area, you can either enter city name or zip codes in the search bar.

Technique 4: The Foot in the Door
1. Get your foot in the door and simultaneously get the inside scoop by going temp.
2. Join a temporary employment agency appropriate to your field.
3. If there is a certain company you are targeting, see if you can figure out where they do most of their temp hiring and apply there.
4. While the jobs you get through these agencies are indeed temporary, us it as the perfect opportunity to get to know people on the inside and let them see your great qualities. It’s a “try before you buy” on both sides. You’ll also be able to scope out any potential opportunities while you’re there.
5. Be at your most professional, efficient and punctual – this could be a first impression that leads to your next job.
6. When your assignment is done, let them know you’d like to join the team and why and leave your resume with the person who supervised you or who you had the best rapport with.

Technique 5: Be Your Own Aggregator
1. Go to your Google.
2. In the search bar, enter this text. This will search all three of the listed ATS sites:
(On screen - Site: site:icims.com OR site:taleo.net OR site:jobvite.com intitle:careers)
3. Tell the search engine which type of jobs you’re looking for, so enter your preferred job titles separated by “OR”.
(On screen - Designer OR Graphic Designer OR Graphics Specialist OR Web Designer OR Print Designer)
4. Narrow your search so it is better targeted to what you’re looking for by entering keywords, again separated by “OR”.
(On screen - InDesign OR PhotoShop OR Adobe Creative Suite OR Illustrator)

5. To narrow by geographic area, you can also add a location:
(On screen - New York OR NYC OR Manhattan)
6. Hit return to see what you get. If you’re still getting too many results, narrow it a bit more by adding keywords. If you’re getting too few, open up the search by adding more job title variations, fewer keywords and a broader geographical area.
7. Save this search string and run it regularly to get the latest and greatest.

Notes:
• Job boards postings are where EVERYBODY goes to find a job, so you’re putting yourself into direct competition with the unemployed, and unhappily employed, masses.
• Job boards represent only about 20% of available jobs. The other 80% that are not being advertised are filled internally, via referrals or recruiters.
• Be aware that job postings sometimes stay up or auto renew even though the position has been filled.
• Phantom jobs. Recruiters often create and post fake job postings to gather candidates and resumes for their database for future searches. This is another reason you frequently hear nothing back on your application: there never was a real job.
• Even it you're not expecting to get hired through the job boards, they could still be a help to your search. For one thing, by applying to a job that has been posted via a recruiter, you can be placed in their database for other opportunities. Also, by scanning the boards you'll get a feel for who is in growth mode and is hiring.

05/26/2023

Project: Job Search QuickStart Guide
Class 7 » Target Companies, Inside Contacts and Posted Jobs

To do:
- Define your ideal company.
- Do research and create a list of target companies.
- Identify existing connections within those companies.
- Find listed/posted opportunities inside those companies.
- Apply to those roles and leverage your inside contacts.

Your Target Companies, Inside Contacts and Posted Jobs activity should:
• Be as specific as possible.
• Be one of your priorities.
• Get your foot in the door for future jobs.

How to:
1. Start by defining your ideal company – what qualities does this ideal company have that would keep you happy, challenged and loyal? Is it global or local? Large or small? Liberal or conservative? Dressy or casual?
2. Write a description of this ideal company that is as detailed as possible.:
a. Location
b. annual billings
c. number of employees
d. industry, sector
e. scope
f. culture fit, etc.
3. Use the Target Company Evaluation Worksheet to keep track of this information.
4. Use these parameters to evaluate possible target companies to make sure you’re staying true to your path
5. Search various resources for eligible companies.
a. For smaller, local companies, your local Chamber of Commerce
b. For a large, global company, go to fortune.com to find the Fortune 500 list for your area.
c. LinkedIn is another good place to find companies in your area by selecting Companies in the dropdown to the left of the search bar and searching a key word for your desired job.
d. For companies of all sizes in all locations, we recommend Hoovers, where you can create customized lists from the 85 million companies in their database by location, industry, size, etc.
e. To find companies that are likely to be a good fit for your background, go to glassdoor.com and do a search for any company.
6. Search in various ways and gather company names until you have a good selection.
7. Note what is appealing about each of them and add this information to your worksheet.
8. Make sure you can explain why you’re interested in each of these companies. When you find yourself in an interview with one of them down the line, you can safely assume this is a question you’ll be asked.
9. Gather this information for all of your target companies and keep it updated on your Target Company Worksheet.
10. Once you've got your list, set up news alerts online (Google Alerts) for your top target companies
11. Identify existing connections within, or linked to, your Target Companies.
12. Once you've got your list of target companies and have found some potential job leads within them, it’s time to see if you’ve got any contacts within these companies.
13. Start by asking those who know you best -- close friends and business associates -- if they know anybody currently or previously employed at these companies.
14. If they do have an “in”, ask for an introduction online or in person, or if you may use their name when contacting those people.
15. If none of your friends have contacts at a target company, your next step is to cross-reference companies on your list with your LinkedIn contacts.
16. Review your network for first and second level connections that currently or formerly worked at or with your target company. If you have any 1st degree LinkedIn contacts that work there, send them an email (see template).
17. There are lots of ways to track down inside contacts through LinkedIn. One way is through LinkedIn's company listings. To see a list of people who work at your target companies, search for that company's listing page.
18. If you have seen a specific job listed on the company careers web page or on a job board, use this information along with the company's LinkedIn page to identify potential inside contacts.
19. Another way to find potential inside contacts on LinkedIn is through the groups you've joined. Once you've joined a group, part of your networking efforts should include staying active in the group.
20. If you like to tweet, Twitter's another way to make yourself known to potential inside contacts. If you follow people in your target companies, there's a good chance they'll follow you back.
21. Once you've got your target companies identified and are working on lining up inside contacts, find opportunities within these target companies.
22. You can find posted jobs through the companies’ web sites, online job boards, recruiters or word of mouth.
23. Check on target companies’ websites for current openings.
24. Sign up for updates so you'll be automatically notified when new jobs are added. When those notifications come through, drop what you're doing and apply as soon as possible. If you've got your resume and cover letter ready to go, simply add a few key tweaks to target the job in question and fire them off.
25. Target company postings on job boards: the big names in job boards are the ones you're probably already familiar with: Indeed, Careerbuilder, SimplyHired, Glassdoor and LinkedIn.
26. Send your resume as soon as possible. If you send your resume in a few days after the job was posted, there’s a good chance that it will be in line behind hundreds of other applications and consequently may never be seen.
27. For just about every industry out there, there is at least one specialized job board which may bring you better results than the big aggregators. To find the boards best suited to you search, Google your industry plus the words “job listings” and see what pops up.

Notes:
• Job boards postings are where EVERYBODY goes to find a job, so you’re putting yourself into direct competition with the unemployed, and unhappily employed, masses.
• Job boards represent only about 20% of available jobs. The other 80% that are not being advertised are filled internally, via referrals or recruiters.
• Be aware that job postings sometimes stay up or auto renew even though the position has been filled.
• Phantom jobs. Recruiters often create and post fake job postings to gather candidates and resumes for their database for future searches. This is another reason you frequently hear nothing back on your application: there never was a real job.
• Even it you're not expecting to get hired through the job boards, they could still be a help to your search. For one thing, by applying to a job that has been posted via a recruiter, you can be placed in their database for other opportunities. Also, by scanning the boards you'll get a feel for who is in growth mode and is hiring.

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