I received this question from one of our readers in regards to the relocated spouse. What if your husband or wife got relocated to a new City and State? What happens to you? We all keep hearing over and over to network but if you move to a new area what then? How do you go about finding a new job for yourself, especially if there are other key factors in play like your age? That’s right I said it. If you don’t think that age discrimination isn’t happening then you must live on Mars. In this situation you can’t just rely on posting your resume and sending it out. You need to show off your personality to people, so meeting face to face is going to be key in landing a new job.
The first thing I would try is to meet with some recruiters. In these times they may not take the time but they will discuss options with you. The pool of job candidates currently is a small one. Companies are hiring only job candidates that have A-Z in qualifications.
The first question I would ask someone in this situation is “Is there anything that they can do on your own?” Working for yourself is a wonderful thing. It offers flexibility, more money in certain situations, and the best thing is no more office politics. Working for yourself eliminates the age factor.
I know there are a lot of people out there who are convinced that they can never work for themselves but that is usually due to lack of confidence. Just because you haven’t done something before doesn’t mean that you can’t do it. People that fall into this category always tell me that they can’t sell anything to anyone. We’ve all come across the guy or gal that says I just could never sell. Right! You sold me that you can’t sell! So I guess you can.
Another option is tutoring. Go to local schools and see if they need tutors. Put signs in supermarkets and start networking. You may have the ability to recall that algebra and help out with today’s young students. Here where I live tutors are charging around $45 per hour per student, that’s not a bad little gig.
Now back to networking. What can you do when you move to a new location? I myself have recently moved to a different part of the country and in the beginning found it difficult meeting people. We do have kids in school so that was the first place we started. We do live in Raleigh, NC so that is a plus since most of the people here are extremely friendly. It’s not like we moved to New York:) The next thing we did to escape the boredom was to join a Country Club which had golf, tennis and swimming all in one. Now I know not everyone can join due to the expense but there are plenty of very affordable tennis clubs or perhaps workout clubs. Tennis was absolutely the best way we have found to meet new people. We never played prior to joining but with some focus we are now pretty good for the most part and there are so many levels of players you will have no problem finding people to play with. Instead of meeting just 3 people at a time like in golf, you tend to meet everyone who was out that night. There are other places to meet people like the local business chamber or from the church you attend.
When relocating as a spouse the key point that I would suggest is to think outside of the box. In this economy my personal choice would be to find something that you can do on your own if you can. Since I am assuming the main source of income is coming from the spouse who was relocated. Just don’t put limits on what you think and can and cannot do.
While in transition, you’re after a paid job, not working for free. It’s natural to feel that way, but in fact volunteering could be the thing that gets you your next position. It’s happened often to job seekers. Volunteering has many rewarding facets, and most of them remain hidden till you uncover them by performing volunteer activities. Abby Kohut, president of Staffing Symphony LLC, recommends that 20 percent of a job seeker’s time be spent on volunteering.
Volunteering is a benevolent activity that could be extremely rewarding, especially for those in transition who need to hear a thank-you once in a while. Helping others is inherently enriching and satisfying. Providing assistance for others and lending a hand to people in need certainly qualify as good deeds. And when you give, you also get.
In general, people are open to the idea of volunteering but usually don’t take steps to initiate it because of the unknown and because they don’t know how to go about finding a suitable spot. Two decisions have to be made toward that end: First is to decide what type of volunteering interests you. Second is to decide where to find it. My advice is to search the Internet for the words finding volunteering opportunities. From there you’ll be guided to settling on your decisions.
Since volunteering is unpaid, your commitment can be short- or long-term. Make sure that during involvement in volunteer activities you take advantage of the opportunity to get acquainted with other people. Volunteering makes for an excellent occasion to network with people who appreciate your commitment to volunteer. Such people will listen to you and likely want to reciprocate. Make the most of it.
The formula expressed in the title sounds so simple yet for some is difficult to achieve. So let’s together demystify the two elements for getting a job offer.
The Résumé
Because of the enormously large pool of job applicants nowadays, even a very good résumé may not get singled out when compared with the many outstanding résumés. It’s a competition for sure, and only, say, five résumés might be considered for invitations to face-to-face interviews. So, how does one put together an excellent résumé? That depends: if you have good writing skills, you can draft a résumé and then have some people whose proficiency and judgment you trust review and edit it for you until it becomes excellent. Consult career coaches, human resources professionals, or recruiters. Hopefully, you’ve developed good relationships with such people, who will agree to help by expressing their opinions.
If you are not skilled with language, I suggest you seek a professional résumé writer who has performed work for others and brought them success. This is a good investment, since otherwise, you’re merely spreading around a noncompetitive résumé that brings no action–and you will never find out why. Many people fall into that trap, and they therefore lose time and of course the opportunity to make money. So, how does one know whether one’s résumé is excellent? The answer is very simple: Excellent résumés get action. The rest don’t–or do only very rarely.
The Interview
Congratulations! Your résumé was attractive and intriguing enough to persuade a hiring manager to want a conversation with you in order to explore your candidacy for an opening, competitively with a few others. Now the real competition starts. All of those who have been invited to interview stood out too and could potentially take the job, meaning that they have the skills for it. But the hiring manager has another need to satisfy–and that is whether you fit and will be committed to the company. Ascertaining whether you fit is very much psychological on the part of the hiring manager, who is asking himself whether your future peers would accept you, whether you and he are aligned ideologically, whether his own boss would consider you a good hire, and whether you represent a promising investment. And there are other, similar questions, whose answers can be rather subjective.
The hiring manager’s final area of vital interest has to do with whether you seem committed to the job. He wants to ensure (1) that you have potential for growth within the company, (2) that you won’t move to a competitor if the company goes through some difficult times and someone else is offering you a fraction more compensation, and (3) that you deliberately targeted this company as an employer.
If you can convince the hiring manager that you’re the right choice, if you answer questions properly, and if you project positivity and energy, your chances for getting an offer are good. Good luck on your next job. Feel good about yourself. You deserve it.
Alex Freund is the founder of Landing Expert–Career Coaching. His Web site includes a current and comprehensive list of job search networking groups in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and the city of New York, and the site is visited by thousands of people every month. Landing Expert is a premier career-coaching service with the objective of preparing job seekers for interviews. Alex’s clients are gaining knowledge, receiving marketing material, and acquiring the know-how to beat the competition.
Alex can be reached at:
609-333-8866
The title of this blog is of course oversimplified but I wanted to emphasize the vast difference between the two sides. As a career coach, I spend a lot of time with people who are not employed, whether they’re my private clients or attendees at the various job-search networking groups I support and frequent.
On one hand, I certainly understand the self-imposed pressure or the family pressure or friends’ pressure on these people. It can be debilitating, devastating, and, as time goes by, more and more depressing. On the other hand, many of those who are currently employed simply don’t understand those on the other side. While the unemployed have to succumb to the reality that the money that used to come in has stopped and while they have to make very painful and unprecedented lifestyle changes, those who are employed and therefore unaffected by the 10 percent rate of unemployment live their lives as well as ever they did. The restaurants in my area are always very busy, and my neighborhood’s Lotus dealer is selling those $75,000 cars; I can tell by the dealer’s parking lot.
So, what’s the solution for those in transition?! NETWORKING is the solution. Having an excellent résumé is a must, of course, but a good résumé is not good enough in today’s competitive marketplace. Most important of all, finding someone to hand carry your résumé to a hiring manager is certainly a huge plus. How do you make that happen? By sliding into the company through networking via, say, LinkedIn, other social media, and networking meetings–and finding the right person to help you.
A recent executive client of mine had been a stellar performer throughout his career but was out of work for five weeks through no fault of his own. Similar to the pattern of all of those in transition, he was down and upset and frustrated about his new situation. I implored him to increase his networking activities, and he did. Last week, I bumped into him at a networking meeting. Later, he told me that while there he was asked by one of the other networkers for a copy of his résumé. The next day, the wife of that other networker called him to invite him to interview. The way it looks now and with a little bit of luck, this job seeker will be extended a job offer. What a wonderful story, hopefully having a happy ending that will prove my point. Networking is the answer.
Alex Freund is the founder of Landing Expert–Career Coaching. His Web site includes a current and comprehensive list of job search networking groups in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and the city of New York, and the site is visited by thousands of people every month. Landing Expert is a premier career-coaching service with the objective of preparing job seekers for interviews. Alex’s clients are gaining knowledge, receiving marketing material, and acquiring the know-how to beat the competition.
Alex can be reached at:
609-333-8866
alex@landingexpert.com
www.landingexpert.com
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