Are you a talented professional with amazing accomplishments, but who is getting nowhere applying for jobs through job boards?  If so, you are not alone, and you are fighting an uphill battle.  The fact is, job seekers get only a 1-3% response rate from the major job boards.  That means you might have to send out 100 resumes to get just one response!

There is a trick to getting a higher response from the job boards, which I talk about in detail in How to Write a Resume that Beats the Computers.You also need some other strategies. There are plenty of jobs out there that are not posted on job boards, and that even your networking contacts don’t know about. The company itself might not even know they want someone like you until you show up!   Mary Elizabeth Bradford, who won a Career Innovator Award at the 2011 Career Directors International conference, has packaged a Job Search Success System that will help you present yourself powerfully to find those hidden jobs.

The basic premise of Mary Elizabeth’s system if that you need strategies to connect directly with companies.  You cut out the “middle man” (recruiters, HR, job boards, etc.).

Most companies go through at least five steps to fill a position before they will post the position to a major job board. They get on the phone to a few trusted colleagues. They look to see if anyone internal is qualified to be promoted. They alert their staff to refer someone they might know. They launch an intimate campaign to try to fill the position waaaay before the general public is notified. And if after a few weeks, the position is still not filled, perhaps they contact a related association to post the job on their “Members Only job” — or they contract a recruiter.  Job boards are a last resort.

Can you break through to the Hidden Market?

Mary Elizabeth emphasizes, “ANYONE (and I mean even if you are right out of college) can enjoy the benefits of the hidden job market. These jobs are available on all levels and in virtually all industries.  The trick is to hone your focus so you actually achieve the results you want.”

What are the advantages to you of connecting to the hidden job market?  You get more job opportunities, more market leverage, less competition, a shorter interview process and bigger offers.  You still might want to send resumes out via the internet as part of your strategy; but why would you focus there exclusively when you can have so much more control over your next career move?!

You might be wondering precisely how to tap into the unadvertised job market. There are three strategies recommended by the Job Search Success System that help you focus on and find great jobs that will never see a major job board.

Tip #1: Have a plan

Launch a proactive job search. Know precisely what you are looking for, then reach out to get it. Know your primary target market(s), primary positions sought, geographic parameters, and timeline.

Tip #2: Pick three main job search strategies for tapping into your market

Here are two examples of techniques you can utilize:

Offer your skills to growing or changing companies: Companies that are expanding, merging, acquiring other companies, rolling out new products or services, or moving are likely to be seeking new employees to help them with their transition.

Make direct company contact: Contacting a company directly is a great way to take leadership and control over your job search. Are you interested in looking at the higher education market in your state or the top organic food manufacturers in the US? Or maybe the fastest growing healthcare oriented businesses in your city? All of these “lists” are accessible to you and allow you to tap right into your market of focus.

Tip #3: Manage your job search like a marketing campaign

Make a simple plan to move forward. Pick the hours and days each week that you plan to invest in your next career move. Block out those times and stick to them! Honor your commitment to your job search just like you would honor your commitment to your present employer to show up on time each day.

During your job search, keep things simple and focus on your actions, not their immediate results! This way you can celebrate your initial “successes”  – the completions of your daily and weekly goals. The results will unfold elegantly and abundantly and you will enjoy the satisfaction of success whether you are investing in marketing yourself or basking in the warm glow of landing your third or fourth interview!

How are job boards sounding now?  If you are ready to try a new strategy, I highly encourage you to look into Mary Elizabeth’s award-winning Job Search Success System.

And please report your success to both Mary Elizabeth and me.  I love success stories and look forward to hearing yours!

Everyone is saying to post your resume to Google…  so how do you do it?

I received this question from one of my subscribers, and will answer it soon.  But first, are you an online job seeker?  If so, I have some important recommendations for you.  Seriously…  keep reading!

Here are my top 4 recommendations:

1. Have a 100% complete profile on LinkedIn.  If you need help, contact The Essay Expert.
2. Fill out all the information on your Facebook profile completely, and post only professionally appropriate photos.
3. Maintain a Twitter account with your first and last name as your Twitter handle (eg. @BrendaBernstein).
4. Post your resume on line and link to it from all the above accounts.

Who recommends this four-pronged strategy? At least one highly successful recruiter, Shally Steckerl of Arbita, Inc. EVP, who presented to a group of career professionals at the Career Directors International annual conference in Savannah, Georgia on October 21, 2011. I was there and I was convinced.

Issues to Consider When Posting an Online Resume

Before posting your resume on line, consider privacy issues. You probably do not want to post your home address details to the entire world. City and state will suffice. You may or may want to make your phone number available to the public. (In my opinion, a public phone number is a relatively low risk and will allow recruiters to contact you.)

For an email address, consider creating a designated email for your job search and use that one on your resume. You will then cut down on any spam and you’ll be able to keep all your job-search related emails in one place, with a low risk of having them get lost amongst other messages.

How do you post your resume on line?  The answer is coming very soon…

There are many ways, and I will suggest just a few here:

1. Post it on Google docs. Here’s an article from SimplyBlog that does a great job of explaining how to do that! How to Post Your Resume with Google Docs You might need to change your Google Docs view to the old version of Google Docs if you can’t figure out some of these instructions, or you might be able to translate the instructions to the new version. I went ahead and published my resume to Google Docs. See Brenda Bernstein’s Resume!
2. Post it on indeed.com. Indeed is a highly recommended job posting site, free to both you and employers who post jobs there. If you post your resume, you will be given a URL for your resume page. The cool thing about indeed.com is that you will get a resume Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS’s) can read! You can then save it as a pdf and use it to apply to other jobs that use ATS software.
3. Create a website. The Essay Expert can help you with this. You can have a page with your resume and link to it from your other social media profiles.  BTW, everyone reading this article, if you haven’t done so already, should go ahead and purchase the domain name for your first and last name or some version of it!  Be ready with the domain so when you want to create your website you can do it.
4. Attach it to your LinkedIn profile.  First download the application Box.net and then you will be able to upload your resume.  The resume will then be available to people who visit your LinkedIn profile.

Following the above recommendations will set you up to be successful with your online job search.  Stay tuned for more tips and tricks for online job searches coming up in the next few weeks!

Were these tips helpful?  What other questions do you have?  Please comment below!

I need your help.

LinkedIn announced on August 9, 2011 that they have rolled out yet another new feature on their site:  the “Improve Your Profile Tool.”  According to the LinkedIn blog, this tool “analyzes your profile and offers you personalized profile recommendations to help you put your best foot forward.”

Clichés aside, this tool could be extremely useful to you if your profile is not 100% complete, or if you have failed to include key information.

Here’s my problem: 

I ran the Profile Makeover on my own profile, and all it told me was that I didn’t advertise my date of graduation from high school (I left it out by choice, as some of you might as well); I didn’t list the degree I got from high school (pretty obvious isn’t it?); and I didn’t specify the concentration of my J.D. (there wasn’t one – a J.D. is a J.D.).

Where I’m left, as a LinkedIn profile writer and editor, is that I have no idea what other types of suggestions LinkedIn might make to its users who have not optimized their profiles.

That’s where you come in.

I would love for you to put your profile through the Improve Your Profile process and report back on this blog what the tool tells you is missing or incorrect in your profile.

I will then know what advice I should be giving to people about LinkedIn, and what information LinkedIn will take care of.  I don’t want to be duplicating things unnecessarily!  The data you provide will greatly inform the content I choose to convey in my e-book and LinkedIn webinars.

To use the tool, start at LinkedIn’s article, LinkedIn Profile Makeovers just got easier, and then click in “Improve your LinkedIn Profile today!”

Are you game?  I look forward to learning from the community what improvements LinkedIn thinks you should make to your profile.

I promise to make good use of your comments.  And I don’t really think I am out of a job…  I just won’t be doing the things a computer can do quite well on its own.  Just in case, though, maybe I should make sure my LinkedIn profile is updated.

Any ideas on how I can do that?

On July 24, 2011, LinkedIn announced their “Apply with LinkedIn” system.  According to LinkedIn’s Blog, Apply with LinkedIn will allow you to “submit your profile for any job application on the web with one simple click.” Most notable about this program is that companies will be able to install a button on their websites, allowing applicants to apply using a LinkedIn profile!

You now have another incentive to write a KILLER LinkedIn profile.

LinkedIn claims that over one thousand companies are jumping on the bandwagon, including big names like Netflix, TripIt and Photobucket.

The following are LinkedIn’s 3 advertised selling points for job seekers:

1.  You can modify your profile for each position.

If you want to cater your profile to each job position, this is your chance.  Of course, you could get in trouble if the company were to go back and check your profile to find that it looks completely different from the profile you submitted…  so don’t modify too much!

2. LinkedIn will show you the names of people who can introduce you to someone in the company.

We all know that the way to get a job is through networking, and LinkedIn apparently will help you get started.  I wonder how effective these leads really are, however, since if everyone who applies for the position is given contact information of people at the company, these contacts might be inundated with communications from hundreds of job seekers. This feature could lose its power pretty quickly.

3. LinkedIn will track all your applications for you!

Tracking services and historical information on your job search?  Now that is a huge advantage, especially for the organizationally challenged!  All you have to do is go to the “Saved Jobs” tab under the Jobs category, and you’ll be able to view a record of all the jobs you’ve applied to.  Imagine twenty or thirty years from now looking back nostalgically on those first Apply with LinkedIn attempts.

Your STELLAR LinkedIn Profile!

The most important takeaway of this roll-out as I see it is that if you are planning to apply to one of the thousands of companies who soon will be using the Apply with LinkedIn button, you will really need to make sure your LinkedIn profile is 100% complete – and that it sparkles!

The Essay Expert is here to help you, through webinars and direct services, to create a profile you are proud of.  View The Essay Expert’s LinkedIn Profile Services and contact us through our web form or at 608-467-0067.

The end of June 2011 brought a lot of hype in the blogging world about TheLadders’ new “Signature” Program. Have you heard of it? Signature promises that “selected participants who actively engage in all components of the Signature program are guaranteed a job offer or their money back.” The price tag?  $2,495. The claim of success? 90%.

[I’m taking the existence of this program, and the price tag, on faith since TheLadders’ website is seemingly impenetrable without a username and password – see www.theladders.com]

Criticism of the Signature program abounds. Forbes’ Susan Adams points out what might be the obvious in her article, The Ladders Guarantees a Job Offer or Your Money Back: TheLadders self-selects the people who may enroll in the program. They don’t guarantee a job to just anyone! And, as it turns out, 75% of the people accepted into the program are already employed and looking to move up the ladder or make a lateral move into a larger company. These folks are much better positioned to succeed in their job search than the unemployed. The 90% success rate doesn’t sound quite so impressive anymore, does it?

Furthermore, explains Ms. Adams, if you read the fine print you find out that participants are required to “apply to 6 well-fitted positions per month.” Hmmm…  who determines what constitutes a “well-fitted” position?  What if there are not 6 positions the candidate wants to apply to? It seems the $2,495 fee will then be forfeited. For additional criticism of this aspect of the program, see  A Six Figure Job Guaranteed or your Money Back in the bnet.com blog (authored by Kimberly Weisul).

And what if a participant applies to 6 jobs in order to comply with the program, even though they are not jobs she wants to accept because of location, company culture or some other factor? What if she gets an offer from one of them? She has then paid $2,495 to get a worthless job offer.

The Signature program reminds me of a “deal” offered by Match.com in my internet dating days. Match, as I remember, offered 6 additional free months if I did not meet someone I liked within 6 months. The catch? I had to contact 6 people each month for 6 months to remain eligible for the offer. Eek. There just weren’t that many guys who appealed to me enough to make the effort. I contacted an average of 2 guys a month for 6 months, didn’t make a love connection, and cancelled my service.

And cancelling services is what a lot of people might start doing around The Ladders. Snarky career blogger Nick Corcodilos refers to The Ladders as a “beleaguered organization” in his article, TheLadders: A lipstick pig’s death rattle? He suggests that if TheLadders CEO’s Marc Cenedella’s claims are correct, and he has 4.5 million subscribers at $35/month, then those 4.5 million are not getting the results promised by their subscription. Why else would TheLadders need to dangle a pricey “guaranteed” job offer carrot in front of these subscribers?

Another suspicious promise of Signature is their claim that the program will reduce the amount of time necessary to spend on a job search from 30 to 4 hours per week. Silly me! Here I was thinking that job searching was a full-time job. It takes time to make connections and work networks, and a Manpower study recently found that 41% of successful jobhunters got their jobs through networking. Does TheLadders claim that significant networking is now unnecessary in the job search process?! I am wary of any program that encourages job searchers to stop engaging in this essential and necessarily time-consuming aspect of their search.

What do you think of this grand offer by TheLadders? Would you front the dough if you were chosen as a qualified candidate? Or would you prefer to get a great resume and cover letters and find your job the old fashioned way?

Many people approach me to ask whether it’s worth the price to subscribe to LinkedIn Job Seeker Premium.  One of my subscribers, Susan Poseika, signed up for the one-month free trial and was kind enough to share her evaluation of the service.  Her experience is anecdotal — only one person’s experience — and does not necessarily predict what anyone else will experience. Still, I thought it would be valuable to share.

As background, I invite you to read an article I wrote about LinkedIn’s Job Seeker Premium.  You might also want to view LinkedIn’s VIDEO about the service, available HERE.

LinkedIn claims the following advantages of Linkedin Job Seeker Premium on the subscription page:

• Get noticed by recruiters and hiring managers with a JobSeekers Badge
• Zero in on $100K+ jobs with detailed salary information
• Move to the top of the list as a featured applicant
• Contact anyone directly through InMail – response guaranteed
• See who has viewed your profile with details
• Get introduced to the companies you are targeting
• Let recruiters message you for free through OpenLink
• Get Priority Customer Service

Below is what Susan reported as her experience with Job Seeker Premium:

Get noticed by hiring managers and recruiters with LinkedIn badge:
I did not notice a difference with this feature. Recruiters had contacted me when I did not have the badge; however, during the month I had the badge, there was nothing.

After I took the badge off (after the free month) I still did not see any change.

Move to top of the list as Featured Applicant:
I did not notice a difference from this feature.

InMail:
With InMail, Linkedin members can contact anyone without knowing their contact information or going through introductions from other LinkedIn members. However, if you get a deep enough network, there would be a way to connect with the same people, if not through direct invitations, then through introductions.

Note from Brenda:  Two other ways to connect with people you don’t know are 1) by joining a group where you are both members 2) by looking for the person’s email address, either in the person’s profile (many members include their email address) or by searching the web.  If you know a person’s company then often you can figure out their email address.  For instance, if you are looking for Peter Cantor who works at samplecompany, go to samplecompany.com and find an email address.  If you find sarahj@samplecompany.com, then you have a good chance that Peter’s email address is peterc@samplecompany.com.

Who has viewed your profile:
With the Free version, you can see who has viewed your profile over the last week only. With Premium, however, you can see who has viewed your profile over the last week, last month, or more.

In both cases, you can view a trend chart of profile viewing. The trend chart is an excellent feature that allows you to see whether profile viewing is going up or down. For those job seekers who check once a week, the Premium account won’t really give you anything you don’t already have.

Note from Brenda:  With the paid service, you can see the full list of the people who viewed you. With a free account you can only see the most recent five viewers.  Whether you have a paid or free account, you can see the names of your viewers IF they set their privacy settings to allow you to see them. Otherwise you will get only a description of their industry.

Get introduced to target companies:
With the Free version, you can get introduced, through one of your contacts, to up to a maximum of five targeted companies. With the Premium version, you have the potential of twenty-five.

OpenLink Networker:
I did not notice a difference with this option.

Back to Brenda:

Where I’m left with all this is that if you can afford it and you are targeted in your job search, you may as well use the enhanced service.  One thing Susan didn’t mention is that the service provides tools to help keep your job search organized.  She tells me she did not have a chance to test-drive that aspect of the service, and believes it would be quite useful over time.

“If you can,” recommends Susan, “take advantage of any free one-month offer, have a targeted strategy, and use the service to its maximum potential. By doing so, you should see this feature leading to off-line/personal contact, which is the goal of using of Job Seeker Premium.”

I couldn’t agree more.  And if you have a story to share about LinkedIn Job Seeker Premium, you might be featured in a future blog!

Need Linkedin profile writing or strategy assistance?  Contact The Essay Expert for a 15-minute consultation.

As you conduct your job search, are you clear about what type of work will be most meaningful for you while also meeting your financial requirements?  How about how the other aspects of your life impact your job search?  If you are looking for truly fulfilling work, you might benefit from the following exercise, offered by women’s life coach Britt Bolnick (www.InArmsCoaching.com ).  Answering some of her suggested questions will help you gain clarity about where you are and what you need.

Note:  Some of you may remember my article, Top 10 Questions NOT to ask Yourself in Your Job Search. That advice still holds. If you are doing it alone, get some support!

Britt reminds us, “You can create work and life situations that work FOR you, instead of trying to fit yourself into work that you feel you HAVE to be doing.” This message is a great one to remember.

Here’s Britt’s exercise to get you thinking about what YOU want:

Write down the following 11 (or more) items regarding what you’re looking for in your work situation.

1. what you want the hours to be
2. what kind of responsibilities you enjoy
3. what you want your advancement opportunities to be
4. what kind of money you want to be making (think BIG!)
5. what types of benefits you’re looking for
6. what kind of work environment you work best in (on your own, as part of a team, outdoors, in a structured office environment, etc.)
7. how you want to feel in the work environment (challenged, appreciated, mentally or physically stimulated, etc.)
8. how you want to feel in the morning when you wake up for work
9. how you want to feel at the end of the day
10. what kind of commute you want
11. what type of people you want to work with

Keep in mind: Knowing what you want makes it a lot more likely that you’ll find it!

Britt is offering a two-month online group coaching opportunity, Your Manifesting Abundance Program (Your MAP), for women who want to cause a change in their work or life situations.  This program will help you as you step towards creating what you truly want in your life and identify the things that have been standing in your way.  And you will learn how to manage your time and energy in the process!

This group starts Wednesday May 18^th. If you’re interested in learning more, go to: Your Manifesting Abundance Program

Many people on LinkedIn make the mistake of copying their resume summary statements into their LinkedIn Summary section.  There are three major problems with this strategy:

Problem #1: Trite Phrases

Often your resume summary is laden with overused phrases like “Results-oriented team player with a proven track record…” or “Dynamic, motivated self-starter with extensive experience…”

If your resume summary looks anything like the above examples, please rewrite it and hire a professional resume writer if necessary!  This type of language belongs neither on your resume nor in your LinkedIn profile.

Problem #2: LinkedIn Summary Real Estate

You have 2000 characters at your disposal for a LinkedIn Summary, vs. three to four lines maximum for your resume summary.  Why would you choose not to use all that real estate to say something – really say something – about yourself?

Problem #3: Keywords

Your LinkedIn Summary is an essential place for you to insert keywords if you want to be found on LinkedIn.  By inserting a 3-line summary, you lose out on your chance to build keywords into your profile.

Resume Summary Example – For Resumes Only

Here’s an example of a very strong resume summary statement that does NOT belong in a LinkedIn Summary (note I DO like this statement as a resume summary statement – in fact I wrote it!):

LeeAnn Dance — Producer  – Writer — Editor

Award-winning television producer and groundbreaking investigative reporter —  experience covering issues ranging from pre-election to international news, with special emphasis on East Africa.  Creator and writer of highly acclaimed documentaries and promotional videos for non-profit organizations. Eight years as producer for CNN.

LinkedIn Summary Example – Great Model!

What would a LinkedIn Summary look like for LeaAnn?  Here is the statement we wrote for her:

• Award-winning investigative and documentary television producer

Video production and broadcast journalism have been my passions for over 20 years, ever since receiving my MS in Journalism from Columbia University. I have produced everything from groundbreaking news stories for CNN to promotional videos for non-profit organizations, and I am currently hosting a blog radio show for parents relaunching their careers.

My journalism background gave me the ability to distill a large amount of material and hone in on what’s true and important. I can pinpoint the real message that needs to be conveyed, creating a human story that moves and inspires an audience.

• Promotional Videos for Non-Profit Organizations

As a freelance video producer, I specialize in creating high caliber, professional and creative promotional videos for non-profit and educational organizations. I understand the budgetary constraints of non-profit organizations and will work within a range of budgets and scope of work.

Funders respond to high quality video presentations that effectively convey your organization’s message. I will take your message, target it, and transform it into a concise and meaningful array of pictures, words, and sounds. You will then have the power of an impactful video to present your organization’s activities at fundraising events and through the web.

• Back in Force

In addition to being a video producer, I was a stay-at-home mom for 13 years, and I am committed to providing resources to women who are returning to the workforce. The Back in Force blog chronicles my journey and shares information about the return-to-work process.

Blog topics include emotional roadblocks to relaunching, preparing your resume, updating your wardrobe, and preparing your family for re-entry.

Check out my weekly blog talk radio show on relaunching your career, with guests including authors, career counselors, therapists, and employers. (www.blogtalkradio.com/backinforce)

What works about this LinkedIn Summary Example?

1. Conveys LeeAnn’s story and her passion (the resume summary does not).
2. Contains multiple keywords that will get LeeAnn found on LinkedIn.
3. Covers the different facets of what LeeAnn has to offer.
4. Draws the eye to sub-headings so that readers can easily see what LeeAnn is about.  The text is broken into bite-sized pieces, not so blocky that no one will read it.
5. Has a call to action.

Note that the resume summary does NONE of these five things, even though it is perfectly great as a resume summary.

Can you write a LinkedIn Summary Statement for yourself that accomplishes at least four out of the five functions listed above?  If yes, great — go for it!  If you need help, consider contacting The Essay Expert for a free 15- minute consultation.  We will be happy to write you a LinkedIn Summary that will help you get found on LinkedIn and have the impact you want on the people who read your profile.

Some of you have been on my LinkedIn webinars before. At least one of you got a call from a recruiter one week after making the changes I suggested — just from listening to the webinar!  Want to hear the recording of my last webinar?  Click on  How to Write a Killer LinkedIn Profile.

Your next opportunity to hear me present LIVE is this Wednesday, April 6, 2011 at 12:00pm Central time.  

Why would you want to attend this webinar?

If you are a professional in any industry, you simply can’t afford to have a mediocre LinkedIn profile. Your potential employers will all be scrutinizing your profile, and you want to make a great impression. In this webinar, I will take you through the most important sections of your profile and the most important strategies for getting found.

Topics covered:
• Why care about LinkedIn?
• What’s the point of 500+ connections?
• What should I write in my headline to get found?
• What should I write in my Summary?
• What are LinkedIn applications and how do I use them?
• How do I add LinkedIn’s new sections to my profile?
• How can I make the most of LinkedIn groups?

Join me and Robert Shindell of ilostmyjob.com to learn the answers to these questions – and make a “Killer” impression on the people who find you on LinkedIn.

Wednesday April 6th -
12:00pm CST

I just got word that LinkedIn is offering a free trial of its Job Seeker Premium service.  Here’s a short article I wrote about that service.  Job Seekers:  Have you heard about LinkedIn’s Job Seeker Premium?

I encourage you to take advantage of this offer and explore the benefits of the service.  Offer expires March 29, so act fast!

I do not get any payment for referring people to this service.  I just think it’s a great opportunity to get organized and increase contact with recruiters.

Remember to mark your calendar so that if you do not want to continue the service you cancel before your month is up!

And please report in the comments any experiences, positive or negative, you’ve had with Job Seeker Premium.

FREE TRIAL OFFER