Experience Unlimited

Contra Costa County

Job

Search

Workshop

Participant

Guide

The Job Search Workshop was rewritten by

Brad Veitch, Experience Unlimited CCC Member

With input from Training Committee

Members and Past Participants

Winter 2011
Workshop Agenda

  1. Welcome, Housekeeping, Introductions
  2. Leader Introductions & Announcements
  3. Workshop Objectives
  4. Your 30 Second Introduction
  5. What EU has to Offer You
  6. Workshops, Action Accountability Teams, Speakers
  7. East Bay Works and the Assessment Center
  8. Facing Job Loss and Life’s Challenges
  9. The Job Search Plan
  10. Complete the Past
  11. Find Your Favorites
  12. Prepare Your Tools
  13. Practice Your Processes
  14. Schedule Your Work
  15. Work Your Plan
  16. Job Search Processes
  17. Networking
  18. Uncovering the Hidden Job Market
  19. Trolling the Internet
  20. Researching Employers
  21. Informational Interviewing
  22. Job Search Success
  23. Planning, Executing, Evaluating, Adjusting, and Repeating
  24. S.M.A.R.T. Goals
  25. Accountability – Success Teams
  26. Wrap Up, Recap, Evaluation

Learning Objectives

By the end of this workshop, you will be able to

  • Use your 30-second message with confidence
  • Describe the six major steps of a job search
  • Evaluate your past employment learnings to construct your ideal job
  • Assess your job search tools and processes to identify your next steps for preparation, review, practice, and/or implementation
  • Articulate the next steps in your job search plan
  • Design job search tools that reflect the best you and attract the ideal job

After this workshop, you should be comfortable with the following terms and what they mean to your job search.

Networking / Elevator Speech / Job Search Plan / Thank You Note
Informational Interviews / Internet Resources / Hidden Job Market / Referrals
Recruiter / WIIFM? / Resume / Contacts
Life Cycles / Records / Scheduling / Job Search Processes
Business Card / Phone Fear / Professional Organizations / Goal Setting
Cover Letter / Follow Up / Job Clubs / JS Action & Accountability Teams (JSAAT)
Accountability / Health / Research

Your 30-Second Message

When people meet you, they often have limited time to get to know you and to learn about you. Introducing yourself in a manner that gives them a picture of you and tells them the key facts can make the experience more profitable for both of you.

A 30-second message is an introduction that states your name, what you can do and/or are looking for, and a reason the other person wants to know more about you. It tells them why you are a worthy investment of their time.

For Your Consideration

  • WIIFM – What’s In It For Me? Ideally, your introduction is a positioning statement that lets others know how you can help them or someone they know.
  • Keep it future focused (“seeking”) not in the dull past (“99 years in ___”)
  • If possible, include the position or title, the role, and the industry in which you are looking to apply your skills. Example: “Human Resources Generalist with an emphasis in Insurance Compensation”
  • Whenever appropriate, state your name at the beginning and end of your introduction.
  • Your message needs to be flexible so it fits the circumstances where you are using it.
  • KISS – Keep It Short and Sweet: it is also called an elevator speech because it could be given during an elevator ride (between a few floors!)

Challenge yourself to provide a succinct and compelling introduction that tells people what you are looking for, what you have to offer, and why they want you (or to refer you to their friend).

Practice, Practice, Practice It is important that you practice your 30-second message so that when you present it, it comes across naturally, contains the information you want to impart, and reflects the best you. Practice it under different types of circumstances so it is always natural and the strongest statement of you.

State your name

Give your value to the workplace you are seeking

Show your uniqueness

Restate your name

Be enthusiastic, energetic, positive, & winsome!

Experience Unlimited Workshops

Listed in Suggested Order

Title / Description
Job Search / In a word, this workshop sets the whole context for the EU experience. It gives your job search a focus, brings structure to your plan, and adds value to your tools and the processes of the search.
Resume Writing / The most up-to-date, what to do, and not do information is shared on approaching your resume. Written, online, and video resumes are discussed. Truly, a “must take” workshop to do as soon as possible.
LinkedIn / The online social networking environment you cannot ignore. You are either LinkedIn or you are Linked Out. Beginner or more advanced user, this workshop will give you new tips for success.
Networking / Networking is the life-blood of the job search. Your leads will die or grow into dynamic forces in direct proportion to your networking skills. Learn how to do it effectively across all your social domains. Empower your strengths to make this your best job search tool.
Resume Review / This is a critique course so bring copies of your resume and your openness to new ideas. It is often hard to appreciate honest, informed feedback, but if you skip this opportunity, you may be missing great jobs and have no idea why.
Interview Techniques / The interview is where our job search success is made. Understand the dos and don’ts, ins and outs for various styles of interviews and set yourself apart from the competition.
Video Interview / Put yourself to the test in the safest of places: among friends and colleagues. Things you may never see about yourself and no one will tell you about in the real world will help you interview with more confidence and success. You supply a real job description, resume, and storage device and receive the best feedback you could ever want!
Total Compensation / Much more than your salary must be considered! Dozens of elements might be included in your compensation package. Learn about negotiating the full package to maximize your total compensation.
Facilitator Training / This is a basic training course in how to facilitate learning. Whether leading workshops, conducting meetings, convening a JSAAT team, or facing a panel interview, the skills presented are invaluable! Optional for all members, required for EU workshop and JSAAT leaders.

EASTBAY Works

Experience Unlimited CCC members are encouraged to explore the resources of the EASTBAY Works within whose facilities EU is located. They offer additional Internet access, fax machine, copy machine, phones, job board, workshops, and training. The Assessment Center offers the Jackson Vocational Interest Survey, Keirsey Temperament Survey, Choices, and Assess Your Strengths among others. Each of these will assist you in understanding yourself better and your workplace preferences.

Monthly Workshop Calendars for Both Organizations are Available

Job Search Action & Accountability Team

The Job Search Action & Accountability Team, JSAAT, is a small, disciplined group designed to hold its members accountable to their job search on a weekly basis. This focused job search offering is open to members of the EUCCC Chapter only and participation is voluntary but strongly encouraged.

The primary concentration of each JSAAT team is for people to work together for the mutual purpose of enhancing and expediting each individual’s job search outcomes. The power of the group strategy is illustrated by the adage, “no one of us is as strong as all of us.” The key role of the team is helping each other move back into the workplace faster.

The operative words in JSAAT are “ACTION” and “ACCOUNTABILITY.” Each member develops a weekly action plan and then is accountable to the team for action toward completion of his or her plan. Specifics within each team member’s action plan may change over the week as his or her job search evolves, yet everyone remains accountable for their job search action during the past week.

Moreover, members commit themselves to supporting every other member’s effort, as needed and possible. In a manner of speaking, our individual job searches become a team project, which we direct, in a positive, encouraging, and constructive way.

JSAAT may not be the right fit for every EUCCC member. However, if you decide that you are a fit for team membership, JSAAT should become an integral part of your job search activity. It will require concentration, application, and follow-through for you to be of strong value to yourself and to your teammates. We hope that this disciplined job search effort will result in your quickly graduating from EUCCC and reentering the business community.


Coping with Job Loss

Life Cycles

Losing a job is one of life’s most stressful events. Research has shown that when we face any loss, we go through predictable cycles of emotions. As cycles, we can expect to move back and forth through the various feelings. However, as time passes we should be healing more, which will enable us to experience more frequently the positive feelings.


Facing Challenging Times

Use the EU Support System

  • Attend EU meetings regularly and make friends
  • Actively participate in your committee and give leadership
  • Use and support your JSAAT members

Emotional Support Resources

  • Call 211 for all types of resources: emotional, crisis, subsistence, etc.
  • Maintaining your emotional well being is critical during a job search
  • Look for counseling support services through church or community
  • Your EU system will help, too, unless you have serious concerns, then seek professional help immediately, it is that important

Stay Active & Healthy

  • Keep fit and healthy with exercise, club membership, or walking
  • Get out of the house often and break up the routine
  • Eat healthy foods using your best nutritional habits
  • Activity energizes positive thoughts and feelings
  • Steer clear of drugs and alcohol and their depressing effects
  • Get adequate rest and relaxation; most of us need more rest than we think

Personal Financial Management

  • Develop a budget with your family for the duration of the search
  • Work out a schedule of payments with your creditors in advance
  • Avoid new debt by creatively addressing your needs
  • Seek early help from local credit counseling or financial resources

Make Time To Have A Good Time!

  • Good times give us energy, hope, refreshment, and many good things, use them!
  • Seek out and stick with positive people
  • Daily laughter brings health, happiness, and relaxation according to the experts so laugh often

Attitude

By Charles Swindoll

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude in my life.

  • Attitude, to me, is more important than facts.
  • It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstance, than failures, than successes, than what other people think, say, or do.
  • It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skills.
  • It will make or break a company, a church, a home.
  • The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for the day.
  • We cannot change our past . . . we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way.
  • We cannot change the inevitable.
  • The only thing we can do is play on the one string that we have, and that is our attitude.
  • I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me, and 90% how I react to it.

So, it is with you . . . you are in charge of your ATTITUDE!

The Job Search Plan

Major Steps

  1. Complete the Past

Take care of anything related to your past job: get it off your “to do list” and out of your life! Update your employment records, reference information, accomplishments so they are up-to-date to this moment.

  1. Find Your Workplace Favorites

Invest some time and energy into discovering or reconnecting with your workplace favorites. (Richard N. Bolles, What Color Is Your Parachute?2010, page 155, “The Flower Exercise” is our model for doing this systematically)

  1. Prepare Your Tools

Get your written materials prepared and ready to go. Do any necessary research on your past work or on new avenues, which you want to explore.

  1. Practice Your Processes

These processes are actions you will have to repeat throughout your job search. Prepare them so they fit you “just right” or “close enough” (perfection is not required)

  1. Schedule Your Job Search Work

This is your current job so treat it as such. Give it professional time and energy so that you maximize your success at this role just as you have at other roles in the past.

  1. Work Your Plan

Take care of the details: keep records, evaluate your activities, make reasonable adjustments, and hold yourself accountable for your results. Remember: life cycles and so do job searches.

The Job Search Plan

The Job Search Plan is an ongoing process. Steps 1, 2, and 3 can be mostly done then set aside for a few months. However, steps 4, 5, and 6 require continuous effort until you are happily working away in your new place. As always, there are a few exceptions such as every cover letter will be a new product designed specifically for that one position. Nevertheless, some common elements and processes are repeated throughout any job search.

This Job Search Plan is not a magical or mysterious methodology. It is more of a guide to assist you in being certain that you have all the proper job search elements in place and working for you. The order you follow in completing the search is uniquely yours. Add elements that help you do, feel, or be better. Remove things that hinder you; just be certain you do not remove a critical element from the process a.k.a. “throwing the baby out with the bath water.” To determine if an element is critical, put something you do not like aside for a short time. Then check it out again to see if you truly need to have it as a part of your job search plan.

Make your job search YOURS. Personalize it. Use methods that reflect the best of you, your positive, professional self. By working your job search in the same manner as you conduct your work life, you are showing your next workplace team the real you from the very first contact. That way of operating is also known as being congruent or in alignment within yourself.

Step 1 ~ Complete the Past

As we have already explored, job loss is all consuming. It is an emotional, intellectual, and spiritual journey. Before you can effectively commence the job search, you must process all of the negative baggage from your previous job. Get rid of it whether it is emotional, intellectual, or spiritual. Any of this negative “stuff” will interfere with your search and your ability to move ahead with confidence.

A haunting question for every job seeker is, “why did you leave your last job?” If leaving was not your choice, then you have the challenge of answering this question in a positive, encouraging, and truthful way, which demonstrates your professional strength to the person asking the question. You must learn to feel good about your answer so that you sound confident and assured when you give it. If you are comfortable with why you left your last position, the other person will be also. They will get it from you.

Handling the Negatives

  1. Process the negative feelings in a productive manner. For some people this is by talking them out with a trusted friend. Other people can “walk them out” by thinking them through as they exercise.
  2. Work toward the goal of managing the negative feelings so you control them and not visa versa. Eventually you will be able to clean out the negative completely but you do not want to hold off the job search until that happens. Manage the negative and move ahead.
  3. Prepare your responses to questions that bring out the negative feelings. When you have a sour feeling about something related to the job search, analyze what it is and how it influences your performance. Identify the questions or issues that are behind the negative feelings and prepare for those.
  4. Practice your responses until you have them down cold. Get friends to quiz you on these hard questions so the answers roll off your tongue with ease and sincerity. Carry 3x5 cards with the questions for friends or EU members to quiz you.
  5. Prepare yourself a Myth vs. Truth sheet. This is a tool to help you refocus on the positive, truthful statements about yourself. Divide a sheet of paper into two halves. On the left, list your negative self-talk, e.g., “I got fired.” On the right side, list the truthful opposite of that statement, e.g., “my supervisor decided to move in a different leadership direction.” Review the statements as needed until the truth statements are your natural first responses.
  6. Always, every time, without fail, use your prepared responses when responding to these questions. Each time you repeat the message you reinforce its message to yourself.
  7. Be brief, concise, and objective. Your answer should be no more than one or two sentences. Detailed negative responses are deadly traps.

Handle any paperwork, insurance, or other administrative items that need to be done for the past employer immediately. Process any COBRA or other final documents. Finish everything related to that place and those people as quickly as possible. Clear your desk, your home, your life of them!