Career “Zoom In” is a Canadian hub for free weekly job search advice,support and empowerment for individuals looking to find new work during this pandemic.

It is hosted by the Guelph and Tri-cities Career Collective and led by a team of 5 career professionals (see links below), who are volunteering their time to lead the initiative.

On Thursday June 24, 2021 at noon and 7pm our Career Zoom In feature presentation was “Boosting Productivity in Your Job Search”

Productivity is the balance between resources invested and the volume of output. Loosely speaking, in job search, the goal is to minimize resources used while maximizing output - keeping in mind that time is a resource one can never get back.

Productivity is important because job search is front-end loaded. This is mainly because networking takes such a long time to execute. For each day you delay in your job search (prior to the interview stage) Wayne Greenway, CEO of Career Aviators estimates that it adds roughly 3 days to the length of your job search. If you delay 1 month on the front end it might delay your job search by as much as 3 months.

Over the two sessions Career Zoom In participants came up with over 4o great suggestions for how to be more productive for each stage of job search.

Overall Productivity Boosters

Maintain positivity: Having the right mindset and focus is very important in the success of your job search because if you are “present''. you are far more likely to be more productive. Employers also want to hire applicants who are present, positive and focused, Here are some ways to shift into this way of being
- Learn to meditate -- even 3 minutes twice a day will help a lot
- Plan your activities that bring joy into your life in your calendar first and then build in your job search
- Have 5 or 10 min every day just for yourself to do whatever you want to be doing.
Treat your job search like a job. Set up a daily routine and dress for work.
If you want to take time off your scheduled hours, then think about how your boss would react (when you were last working) to a request for time off for that kind of purpose, then ask yourself if you really should take the time off or stick to the job search?
Have a daily schedule and work it!
Learn about yourself, learn about others, learn about work trends, and help someone else -- all on an ongoing basis
Set realistic goals for each day and your week
Track your progress in a spreadsheet & sync it with your calendar (colour coding is helpful too)
Leverage free tools
Make time for something physical every day, and do some stretching if you're at your desk a lot
Find an accountability partner
Follow up with your network in a scheduled way;
Use LinkedIn Learning (or something similar) to work on a skill you're interested in
Keep checking in on tracking sheets often. Find dedicated time and place to focus on tasks. Identify time wasting through the day. Make sure to take breaks to rest so you are more productive.
Manage your time effectively and be persistent
Be intentional every day: The measure of your day isn't whether you “got a job” but whether you spent the day intentionally the way you wanted to do.-- If you're always focusing on how well you are doing at “finding a job”, as your measure of success, it can be really discouraging.

Self Exploration Productivity Boosters:

Go after 2 roles maximum.Focus on a role that combines your top strengths @ youf deepest values @ what you are most curious about. By defining what you want your informational or field research interviews will be more productive -- your contacts will know how they can best help you,
Create a mission/ career statement and review and refocus it as you move forward with the search
Look at ideal places “you’d do your job in” and similar opportunities
Make list of people to reach out to as you go

Resume Reboot:

Do a master resume: It can take you 3 or 4 hours to do a customized resume without having a master resume but if you have one you can do it in 90 min
Demonstrate in each role how you: planned, organized, implemented and executed + include your metrics.
Have one master resume for full-time jobs and another for part time jobs.
Then it’s just a matter of changing a few pieces of info to customize a resume based on a role.

Strategy & Networking:

Use search features in Indeed, LinkedIn etc effectively to filter most relevant jobs
Network, network, network, network, network!
Talk to someone everyday -- aim to talk to 5 highly targeted people a week as part of your networking
Set daily networking goals -- take every opportunity to sell yourself; speak with people even if you don’t immediately see value in it
Create a tracking sheet (set up a system that works for you) Be as organized as possible to save time
If your networking conversation has gone well ask “ Do you know of someone who you think would be good for me to speak with?“ The suggested people that your first contacts suggest are actually your best contacts for job search
Have an Excel Spreadsheet with the following columns:
1. Company Name
2. Name of person you want to contact
3. Their LinkedIn or email
4. Summary of conversation
Next steps after the last conversation with the person - Could be sending them your website and resume or a follow up email next Monday, etc. A thank you note, etc. Very important column because it contains your list of tasks right there.
Have your tracking sheet include
1. Times you can regularly book meetings
2. Notes from each interview in tracking
3. Things you can send that highlight something about you
If you are searching for career change, try to increase your visibility to people outside your targeted industry / roles - connect with people outside your target on LinkedIn, go to networking or industry events outside your industry (once things are back to normal, and within reason)

Application Customization:

Rewrite successes under each job to match as many of the qualifications and principle duties as possible
Have addons of successes to your master resume with more examples
Split time - chunking time - to focus on each vertical - job you are applying for - to benefit from division of labour on the job apps by type.
When applying, customize each application to the job post using their language
Do a reverse audit of self: If someone looks me up, what do they see?
Auditing yourself online: How you appear to other people online. From this: what can I do to look better online.

Interview Management:

If you have targeted the job carefully then formulate a list of questions and a STAR success story for each question
Prepare questions against qualifications and predicted common scenarios and challenging behaviours you think you might encounter in the job
Prepare a 10 minute project to talk through [Communications]

Negotiation:

Decide on your target salary, benefits, vacation etc. when you are applying to a targeted job. If the salary range is well below your budget save the time in customizing and interviewing for the job
Do Your Research Learn “Going” salary range & your personal budget
As part of your networking, ask others in similar roles: “if I was to land a similar position , what do you think I could expect in terms of salary range”?
Create Financial Decision Criteria
Don’t make any negotiations until they make an offer ( unless it is required) otherwise if the job is way bigger in scope than you gathered from the job description you may have to take a lot of time getting your salary increased

The groups came up with great advice. Join us for these great learning experiences. If you want to learn more about learn more on our LinkedIn page Career Zoom In

Career Zoom Ins are hosted By The Guelph & Tri-Cities Career Collective

Jan Atkinson, Jan Atkinson Coaching & Consulting, janatkinsoncoaching.com

Rachel Despres, Career Coach For Rebels, racheldespres.com

Nicola Edwards, Career Mojo, careermojo.ca

Wayne Greenway, Career Aviators, careeraviators.com

Laura Hartnell, Laura Hartnell Career Transition Services, laurahartnell.ca

Nel Slater, Alder Tree Coaching, aldertreecoaching.com

“It’s impossible to get better at hiring if you can’t tell whether the candidates you select become good employees. If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there. You must have a way to measure which employees are the best ones.

Why is that not getting through to companies? Surveyed employers say the main reason they don’t examine whether their practices lead to better hires is that measuring employee performance is difficult. Surely this is a prime example of making the perfect the enemy of the good, ” Peter Cappelli states in his article, “Your Approach to Hiring Is All Wrong” In the May June 2019 issue of the Harvard Business Review

His article covers a lot of ground on both the recruitment and retention fronts, that I see from the “other side of the table”, as we help job seekers strive for positions in these roles in their job search.

Its not uncommon to see the poorly prepared job descriptions that Cappelli describes, are designed to get more people in the funnel. Yet, its clear that the tools to screen massive numbers of resume are not yet sophisticated enough to tease out the most talented candidates for interviews. “We don’t know whether any of these [new systems] actually lead to better hires, because few of them are validated against actual job performance.” Cappelli continues.

Cappelli states that there is more hiring at all levels than ever before and that “the root cause of most hiring, therefore, is drastically poor retention” He references LinkedIn data to support the notion “that the most common reason employees consider a position elsewhere is career advancement—which is surely related to employers’ not promoting to fill vacancies”.

From my side of the table, limited interest in existing employee career development, grand but empty values statements holding up an unhealthy work culture, poor management skills, and workplace bullying are also profound and common complementary drivers of poor retention. A culture of “great bosses” would go a long way to fostering retention.

John Rampton describe it well in an INC Newsletter, “As much work as you try make your company attractive to talented people, the truth is employees might be leaving because of their bosses. In fact, research has shown people tend to quit their bosses, not companies. If you can cultivate an environment where employees feel rewarded and gratified, you'll already be ahead of a great deal of other bosses out there.”

Just imagine the impact on retention, if every employee’s work meant: a sense of engagement in what they are doing; mutually determined ongoing professional development; supervision designed to the help the employee be successful in achieving goals aligned with both the company’s aspirations and the employees long tern career plans; genuine interest in the employees life and well being, a culture of connectedness, playfulness and humour without losing focus on the seriousness of the work that needs to be done… and along with a competitive salary and benefits.

Cappeli is right. We need to find better ways to mend our sometimes broken systems in recruiting and retaining top talent.

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