CVs and Interviews

Please see my new JOB SEARCH cartoon video. It was created by David McConnon from www.videon.ie. This video presents a very serious message through a funny cartoon. Enjoy!!

COMPETITION

To promote the video I am offering 4 hours FREE 1-1 coaching. This can be used for Career Direction, CV writing, Linkedin Training, Job Search Coaching, Interview Preparation, etc. NB: If you don’t need these services you can pass the prize as a gift to a friend!!

To WIN this prize – complete 2 simple steps

1. Share this video. Post it on your Facebook or Linkedin status. The link is www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMJx1GLRPzU

2. Post a short comment. All names below will be entered into the draw on Friday 13th

P.S – Feel free to share this competition with friends who may need job/career support.
P.P.S – If you need a video for you business contact www.videon.ie

Below is the video for the Monster Careers Fair at the RDS on 12th November. This was a very successful day with great feedback from jobseekers. I presented at the event and you can hear some of my views on CV Writing during the video.

Just a quick reminder that I will be presenting at the Keep Ireland Working Careers Fair on the 12th November. My topic will be CV Writing – How to deliver more interviews. I will be about the RDS most of that day and will be helping man a career stand. This stand will offer advice and tips to jobseekers all day. Why not pop along and introduce yourself.

My recent activity …..

My work – Just delivered three excellent career workshops last week working with a great bunch of people who had recently been let go. Serious days but we had some fun throughout. Off to Cork today for a few days work with my VEC project. Then next week I have more outplacement work.

In the papers – I commented on a recent ST article about motivating staff in tough times. My angle really was good communications and strong leadership. I will be in the weekends ST talking about the upcoming Career Event in the RDS. Keep an eye out for it as there will be some useful tips on maximising returns at a career fair.

Online – I have started writing some articles for a new business blogging site called bloggertone. There seems to be good interest and traffic which is probably down to my pearls of wisdom . I have posted two articles to day Linkedin – Do You Dance & Jobhunting – Time to turn the lights on. My RecruitIreland article will be out this week and the topic is Personal Branding. Ensure that you are registered for RI monthly e-zine – some great advice and I write most weeks.

Linkedin – My Linkedin Group – Measurability Careers & Jobs Club is growing from strength to strength. We now have 83 members with an 80/20 split. 80% jobseekers and 20% career/HR/Recruitment experts. Why not join up as there are some excellent discussions, job news and advice.

Twitter – Feel free to follow me at Paul Mullan Twitter

Good Luck

Paul

I have been asked to talk at the upcoming “Keep Ireland Working” Career Fair organised by Monster. It will be held in the RDS on 12th November and I will be talking at 12.30 and the topic is CV Writing. (may have another slot to do so will keep you posted).

Career Fairs can be a positive or negative experience but the outcome is down to you. Below I have outlined some tips to help you increase your value. There is much more that you can get out of this day aside from meeting me and hearing me talk

Before the event – preparation is essential and you need to plan your attack and identify what you want to achieve. Otherwise you could spend your time aimlessly wandering around or stuck in the coffee tent. Areas to consider include

- Find out which companies are attending – is there any way you connect before the event – Are the employers attending the event users of Linkedin.
- Have a 30 second sales pitch. You have to stand out from the crowd.
- Have some questions prepared to ask potential employers – just in case you speak to DM
- Have a wow CV & business card

On the day – it goes without say that you push yourself out of your comfort zone and dress for success. As someone mentioned earlier a smiling face is always welcome. Other things to consider include

- Get there early – From experience the first hour or so can be slow and you might get more airtime with the employer. With this in mind try to target ideal companies first.
- Make yourself visible – Handing CVs and slipping back into the masses is of no real benefit. Engage the employer within a short window. Remember these are busy places so you will only have a short window so deliver your sales pitch you have prepared.
- Collect Business Cards – if available as this will support follow up.
- Talk to everyone – this includes other people attending the event – you never know!!

After the event – follow-up.

Follow me on Twitter – Paul Mullan Twitter
Join Measurability Careers & Jobs Club on Linkedin

Enhance your Linkedin presence

I am always bleating on about being proactive in your job search. Yes you have to cover the easy bases like job boards, agencies and papers – as I see them here everyday. However if you really want to step it up you can do much more.

Let me tell you about an experience yesterday. I received the below email with a CV attached.

Good afternoon,

I have recently been made redundant and am looking to be placed in a company free of charge to gain experience.

I have 8 years HR experience and would like to become a consultant at some stage. I do need to gain experience however.

I hope you could consider this proposal, as I want to put my time off to good use while offering my skills and experience to the company

I admired the “get up and go” attitude so I returned an email to request that the individual call me in the afternoon. We talked and I decided to inform a few of my corporate clients about the offer. One hour later there was one request. Now this is where I stepped out of the equation and put the two in direct contact. To be honest I don’t know if anything came of it…..

What do we learn from this ….

1. This individual is seeking permanent work BUT by offering services for free they are gaining experience and plugging a hole in the CV. She was also making loads of new contact in the meantime.

2. This individual is keeping busy – one of the worst things about not working when job hunting is the time element. Most people think about their situation and get themselves down.

3 This individual is putting themselves in the shop window if they get in to an organisation – could lead to something else.

4. This individual asked for help. You will be surprised what help people will give you if you just ask. There are some great people out there (that includes me)

Careers & Outplacement Ireland – MEASURABILITY

FREE Career Workshop – Dublin – 30th September ’09

Now I am not involved and have no association with this project and I am just passing on the details. There is a FREE career workshop in Dublin which is being run by the NRF. The motivation may be to create positive PR judging by the increased negative comment by jobseekers about recruiters over the last 12 months (recruiters not to blame). No matter what the motivation is the event is still worth a visit if only to network and perhaps get to talk to some recruiters.

I would also point out that this will obviously not be as good as working directly with myself BUT I am sure that you are all aware of that anyway .

Details for the event are outlined below …..

The workshop will run for 90 minutes and will cover:

• Writing a world class CV
• Where to find the next job
• Advice on dealing with recruitment agencies
• Improving interview skills and techniques
• Networking skills
• Negotiating salaries

The goal is to provide insight and support to candidates who are currently in a difficult job market. Free Jobseekers Workshop is targeted at all levels of candidate, from junior through to senior management.

Where & When?
September 30th from 6PM to 7.30PM at the Grand Canal Hotel, Dublin 4 and will be presented by NRF Committee member Peter Cosgrove.

Register
To register a candidate for the NRF Jobseekers Workshop or offer your services for the CV Clinic please contact the NRF office on 01-8161754 or email name and contact details to director@nrf.ie

I have started to answer career, interview and CV questions on Linkedin offering free advice jobseekers and employers. Below is on recent Linkedin question and answer relating to cold calling. Cold calling can be a useful tool to land your next job. If you want other free career advice you can follow me on twitter

How do you get used to the idea of “Cold Calling” to help build a network?

I agree with Richard that Cold Calling is probably the least effective tool but sometimes desperate measures require desperate means. I am a rejection junkie BUT still hate cold calling even though I have developed some very good contacts and business from this strategy.

I guess the biggest hurdle is fear of rejection. What does rejection mean in your situation? You don’t have a job. You phone up a cold lead and he/she slams the phone. Guess what you still don’t have a job. You are no worse off. Rejection will not make you any worse off. Expect some rejection so it won’t be a shock – it is likely that you will be told to “go forth and multiply”

Remember that even though the ultimate goal is to get a job any valuable information you acquire to keep up momentum is a success. This means you can still achieve a positive outcome from your call without actually landing a job. For example another networking lead, important industry information and possible networking opportunities. This will mean that rejection isn’t fully rejection.

What to say – there are loads of creative angles and I love humour ….. My first job was in recruitment in London for a US firm. The MD was a very inspirational guy. I was struggling once and he pulled me aside and told me a story. When he was doing my job in US he was trying to break a large account. Rejection followed rejection followed rejection. No matter what intro or angle he used nothing worked. One day he landed a big deal and was high as a kite and decided to target our old friend – the nightmare decision-maker at the large account. It went something like this ….. Hey John its Greg from Made-Up Resourcing. Listen before you hang up I just want to say that I have had a great day, landed a huge deal and I am feeling on top of the world. I decided to call you so that you could bring me back down to earth. What followed – Short silence, laughter – New Business …..

You could also try asking for advice rather than a job. From experience people love to talk about what they do and are flattered when perceived an expert. You can be informing the contact that you are job hunting without physically saying the words “do you have any jobs?”

Paul Mullan Linkedin Profile

I love motivational quotes – Just read one today and though I would share it. It is very relevant for job hunting in a tough job market. It is important to know proactive job hunting strategies but it is equally important to keep going – “persistence”

“In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins – not through strength, but through persistence.” – Buddha

Need Job Hunting help and support?

There are no jobs in Ireland …….

Yes it is a tough job market but there are jobseekers finding jobs and there are jobseekers interviewing for jobs as you read this post. If you talk to agencies, read the papers or view online job boards you will see a drop off in the numbers of jobs advertised. The nature of my work provides me with an insight into job market activity and believe me there is activity in the job market!! Just because jobs are not advertised does not mean that there are no jobs!! I have 4 interview coaching sessions this week – these are preparing for one internal interview and three external interviews.

I had an interesting experience last week when I spoke with a jobseeker and an employer one call after another ……

The first call was with the jobseeker. I was finishing off their CV and was providing some advice on job search strategies. This individual was employed in sales and I was commenting on the usefulness of the tools they used in his day to day sales job for job search. When talking about networking they commented that they did not have the time to network so would be solely relying on agencies.

When I hung up my next conversation was with a company owner seeking advice and costs for services to help a family member. We were having a general discussion when he indicated that he was bucking the trend and hired a sales executive recently. I said “I bet you didn’t have to advertise” to which he responded “no need”. He filled the job through industry contacts.

My jobseeker from the first call would never have landed the company owner’s sales job as their sales experience did not match requirements. BUT what if the individual could have done the job and was suitable for the job. As they are relying on agencies they would never have accessed the opportunity. Yes networking and proactive job strategies do take time and energy but this is the only way to access the hidden job market. I am not saying that you should not use agencies, newspaper adverts or job boards. You should use these tools to access the low hanging fruit (advertised jobs) BUT if you want to access the hidden jobs market (unadvertised jobs) you must get proactive and use strategies like networking.

Perhaps the above satement should read — “there are no jobs advertised in Ireland”

Career Expert – CV Writing, Effective Job Searching Advice & Interview Preparation.

Career Advice – Job Hunting Strategies – Networking

The buzz word with most career experts at present is “networking”. Most will tell you that this is the key to landing a job in a tough market place but very few will tell you how. There is a skill with effective networking. If this is the solution to successful job hunting in Ireland in 2009 why do so many jobseekers no embrace this?

Many job seekers are lazy. They target the low hanging fruit or easy accessed jobs. The ones you will find in the newspapers, the online job boards and with the recruitment agencies. You see networking takes a bit of effort. It involves trying to make thinks happen as opposed to sitting waiting for things to happen.

Many jobseekers are afraid. Networking is moving from our comfort zone. There are many who find engaging with strangers (and even family and friends) quite difficult. I guess it is the fear of the unknown or the fear of rejection that holds them back.

Many jobseekers don’t know where to start or how to do it. Networking is a skill that can be learned and like most new skills I will start with the easier options to try and hone my skills before moving into more difficult scenarios. Alternatively you can jump of the cliff and build your wings on the way down.

Why I like Networking as a Job Search strategy?

Apart from being effective and accessing the hidden job pool it keeps jobseekers active. The biggest problem with job hunting in a tough market is the “silence”. By this I mean when nothing is happening. There are no jobs in the papers, there are the same jobs online and recruiters won’t return emails or phone calls. You see networking and other proactive approaches keep you moving, gaining contacts, valuable advice, valuable information and with the key role of eventually landing a job.

What strategy works best?

The telecoms providers used to say it’s good to talk however today many of us do not. We communicate through other mediums like email, text and other online tools. Again the buzz is around online social media networking. There are many possible channels but my preference is LinkedIn. There are also tools like twitter and facebook. Online networking is easier than face to face. Many jobseekers I work with find it less daunting.

One last option ……

I was asked to join a network the other day on LinkedIn and thought it was a novel idea and quite fun. The network is called “10 minutes street network”. Read a description of the networking event and it certainly does not sound as daunting as going into a room full of strangers.

You have heard of “speed networking” well here comes “street networking” at a street (Grafton St) near you!

Take to Grafton St and make great new contacts in a really fun and relaxed way in just 10 minutes.

Lots of fun, these innovative and dynamic “street networking” events will be staged each month in different venues: Art Galleries; Museums; Theatres and Parks (weather permitting) that will provide a sophisticated but welcoming environment to make new contacts.

To discover where these events are to be staged, you have to ditch the suit, hit the street and get yourself to the top of Grafton Street at the entrance to St. Stephen’s Green.

Need help with your CV or Need help with InterviewTechniques Preparation?

This article is about – Career, Advice, Coaching, Ireland, Support, Irish, Coach, Job Hunting in Ireland, Finding a Job In Ireland, Linkedin, Social Media Networking, Networking