Rock Your Network

Sizzling Summer Job Search Tips

Wendy Terwelp Leave a comment

Sizzling Summer Job Search Tips Here are some terrific tips to jump start your job search in the summer months – courtesy of my pal Kim Issacs of Monster.com and PowerResume.com:

Are you taking a break from the job search and surrendering to the lazy days of summer? The conventional wisdom is that almost everyone is in vacation mode from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Consequently, many postpone job searching until September.

Is this a mistake? Could you be missing opportunities if you take the summer off? We asked the career experts to find out.

Summer Job Searching — Worthwhile or Waste of Time?

“I often hear job seekers say that they want to take the summer off,” says Wendy Terwelp, career coach and president of Mequon, Wisconsin-based career management firm Opportunity Knocks. Terwelp says that by the time the summer ends, job seekers who took the summer off will be competing against even more job seekers who have followed the same strategy.

Read on!

The Fourth – a great time to network

Wendy Terwelp Leave a comment

Tomorrow is the Fourth of July, Independence Day, and a great time for networking. Throughout the U.S. are cookouts, parties, barbeques, festivals, and other social gatherings making it a terrific time to build and maintain your network. In our teleclass Rebuilding Your Network 5 Minutes a Day, one of the tips was to incorporate your networking into things you’re already doing… if you’re already attending a fun social gathering, make networking a part of it.

A quick tip for networking tomorrow: Listen. That means really listen to your guests for opportunities, problems, or situations during a conversation listen to how you could help them. It could be a nice opportunity for you or someone who is in your network already to help one of your guests. One of my clients, an electrical engineer, was visiting a friend during a holiday. My client’s friend was just hired at a software company and invited my client for a tour. Next thing my client knew, he met the owners happened to be walking around during the tour and my client landed an interview. The interview was much more relaxing rather than a standard grilling because the interviewers had more time to spend with my client because of the standard holiday shut down. It was a more casual and pleasant interview, rather than a standard grilling. This person was more introverted and had been thinking about passing on the party but went and now he’s hired at a new wonderful job.

Something to think about when networking to your next big gig. Enjoy!

Network like a girl – it’s a good thing

Wendy Terwelp Leave a comment

Check out this cool survey by ExecuNet:

Do you network like a girl? If so, you have the advantage. In our gender analysis of data from our 15th annual Executive Job Market Intelligence Report, women assessed their networks more positively than their male counterparts, giving themselves much higher “excellent” ratings.

Source: ExecuNet, 2007

Dave Opton, CEO and founder of ExecuNet, offered a couple of non-scientific reasons for the divide. “Two-thirds more women than men said they worked on building their professional networking relationships ‘very often;’ and self-assessment is subjective and without universal measurement.”

Despite their super networking skills, women are still less visible in the corporate executive suite than are men, and a 2004 study in the American Journal of Business outlined some of the influential factors.

“Female executives do not achieve top ranked executive positions at the same frequency as do male executives. However, top female executives are significantly younger, and have fewer years of service with the company and in their job positions, than their male counterparts. This may be indicative of the movement to encourage and support women to achieve higher corporate positions, but it could also provide a reasonable explanation for the observed compensation gender gap,” write Joanne Healy Burress and Linda J. Zucca in the report.

ExecuNet’s proprietary research produced encouraging news: while the title and compensation gap exists, the differential was roughly just $20,000, and both genders expected about the same increase in wages from 2006 to 2007 — 7 percent.

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Now all we need is more cash, right girls?

Summer Job Hunting: Is anyone there?

Wendy Terwelp 3 Comments

My pal Kim Issacs at Monster.com & ResumePower.com asked me a great question this week for an article she’s writing – What shoud job seekers do in the summer months when key contacts may be on vacation? (And of course people’s minds are not all business in states like mine – Wisconsin – during the summer. Can you say festivals? Yep, already planning my attendance and checking out the bands coming to Summerfest.)

Well, it was a terrific question and really got me thinking. Here are some quick tips for summer job hunting – no they do not include laying out – but some tips may surprise you:

  1. Summer is an awesome time to network – in person and online. Yes, I have actually landed new business at Summerfest. Really. Carry your cards with you at all times (job seekers, create networking cards) – and be on good behavior. Online – social networking is huge. LinkedIn is one of the top sites for professional networking – check out your profile. Is it the “you” you want to convey to employers? If not, update it.
  2. Pump up your personal brand! Yes, everyone has a brand whether they know it or not. How do people perceive you on the job — and off? Are you known for your sense of humor or savvy networking? How can you incorporate that into your next gig (or your current one)? Check out where your brand stands right here.
  3. Update your resume. How long has it been? Do you still have your age, “good health,” and marital status listed on your resume? If so, get over it and update it! Add new work history, including promotions, new achievements, continuing education or more. Or hire a professional resume writer to do it for you.

  4. Brush up on your skills. For example, if you’re a bit behind the times in computer skills, take a class or two. Not only would you improve your skills, but you’d have something new to add to your resumes, AND more importantly, have the opportunity to network and connect with others in the class.

  5. Giver’s gain. Help out someone with their job search. The more you help others get what they want, the more you’ll get what you want.

Enjoy the summer!

Note: As soon as Kim’s in-depth article comes out, you’ll see a link here. Be on the lookout!

Down But Not Out – forays in networking

Wendy Terwelp Leave a comment

In Forbes May 2007 issue, author Barbara Ehrenreich writes about networking:

Why do people resist the idea of networking?

Most people encounter the notion of networking through the crisis of unemployment. Suddenly a layoff, downsizing or re-org leaves you without income, health insurance or a postbreakfast destination. What to do? “There are four ways to find a job,” an ExecuNet functionary told a group of white-collar job seekers I had joined in 2004 as an undercover journalist–“networking, networking, networking and networking.” My own career coach, whom I was paying $200 an hour to propel me into employment, advised networking with every single human I could buttonhole, even for a second: the person seated next to me on a plane, my doctor, my doctor’s receptionist.

It should be fun, right?  Read on!

While I enjoyed her excellent and well-researched article, I have to disagree that networking always stinks and is never fun. I do agree, however, her committment to “networking from the heart.” YES. Givers gain. Check out how marketing coach Ronnie Noize and I turn things around and keep ’em positive in our teleclass, Seven Secrets of Networking, Thursday, May 31.

And for more fun, yes I said fun, about networking, check out the MP3 of Rock Your Network (R).