Essential viewing for professional job seekers

1. Welcome to The Five Habits of Successful Job-seekers : Observations on what’s working for successful job-seeking professionals in the current labour market. Zena Everett, November 2011 www.second-careers.co.uk

2. Habit # 1: They understand what they bring to the interview table and their own unique selling points. They are crystal clear on their skills and experience. They know what they have achieved in the past and the problems they have solved. They have done an audit on their functional skills, the sectors they know and the networks they bring access to. They focus on what they can do, not what they can’t .

3. Habit # 2: Having identified them, they can clearly articulate their skills & experience and do so at every opportunity. The personal statement on their CVs, the summary on their Linked In profiles and their own “elevator pitch” are consistent and compelling. They have to have a clear USP: they are relying on the message filtering through to their connections’ connections (their most likely source of new employment) so it has to be a message that can be told second-hand.

4. Habit # 3: They create opportunities, rather than wait for jobs . Instead of just applying for advertised jobs, they take control by articulating specifically what they can do for potential employers based on what they have done in the past. (Employers are most interested in what you did in your last job so you can hit the ground running using the lessons learnt on someone else’s payroll). Roles – contract, permanent, or consultancy, are created for them. Yes, even in this market.

5. Habit # 4: They have looked after their network in the past. They have nurtured a network of genuine relationships (internally and externally) with people they have supported and done favours for previously. These people value the relationship and are keen to recommend them to others in their own networks now. Most jobs seem to be coming from these sources.

6. Habit # 5: They are flexible about what they do next rather than sticking to a rigid, outdated career plan. Their new role must fit their core values (in terms of level of autonomy or the culture of the organisation for example). It must contribute to the skills/experience that they want to develop and that they articulate through the process. Apart from that, they keep an open mind and are prepared to make some incremental moves.

7. To summarise, they have evidence-based answers to these types of interview questions: “So what do you do?” “What are you most proud of in your career to date?” “What are the problems you have solved in your last organisation?” “What do you want to do next?” “ “Why should we hire you against the other 300 candidates who have applied for this role?” “What do you bring that’s better and different than the other applicants?”

8. I hope this helps you in your own job search. Please feel free to share these slides, although they are not to be reproduced for commercial purposes. Zena Everett, executive coach specialising in career and stress management. [email_address] www.second-careers.co.uk