Last year, on Decem­ber 23rd,  I called an appli­cant to invite her for an inter­view. She cried. She told me I didn’t know what it meant to her to receive my call, the best Christ­mas present she ever could have got­ten. Then I got all choked up.….. She thought it was impos­si­ble to get an inter­view dur­ing the holidays.

She lost her job 2 months ear­lier and since then had spent count­less hours scour­ing job boards, employ­ment web­sites and sub­mit­ting resumes. Mine was the first call she had received. She was amazed the call had come within min­utes of click­ing the sub­mit button.

I’m blog­ging this to let you know to not relin­quish your job search because it is a cer­tain season. Employers have year round needs and oppor­tu­nity. We may take a lit­tle time to dec­o­rate, eat cook­ies and take a few days off but we still need to con­duct busi­ness and meet our goals to accom­plish our mission.

If you are unem­ployed you can’t afford to “take a vaca­tion” from your job search. You must be relent­less. Rise each morn­ing as if you are going to work and then go to work on find­ing oppor­tu­nity that matches your skills and employ­ment goals.

Treat your job search as a full-time job!

When you find your­self becom­ing dis­cour­aged, remem­ber that when you are depressed and down on your­self it shows and it could impact your inter­view. Think of your job search for what it is… you are mar­ket­ing your skills and your­self as a prod­uct for prospec­tive employ­ers to lease. That’s right, an employer leases your time and tal­ent! Make your­self as mar­ketable as pos­si­ble, show­cas­ing your tal­ents. An employer must feel that if they do not hire you they will be los­ing out.

If you fear rejec­tion think about it this way.. In sales it can take 10 “no’s” to get a “yes”. You might get the yes the first or tenth time you ask for the sale, you can’t pre­dict. Each “no” you get brings you closer to the “yes”! To be effec­tive, you need to be stead­fast and approach each poten­tial cus­tomer with the same con­fi­dence and pre­sen­ta­tion — because that could be your sale. If you waiver, become doubt­ful, skip a step or lack thor­ough­ness you could jeop­ar­dize the sale.

A job search is no different!

The key to a suc­cess­ful job search is to remain stead­fast and remain con­sis­tent in your approach.

♦Treat each oppor­tu­nity as if it will be a a “yes” and know that each “no” will only bring you closer to your new employment.

♦Present your­self to each employ­ment oppor­tu­nity as if it were the only oppor­tu­nity. It will keep you sharp and make you work hard to win it.

♦Pre­pare for each oppor­tu­nity by research­ing each com­pany you apply to then tar­get your resume for that par­tic­u­lar job. It’s time con­sum­ing but it will stand out from the mass tem­plate sub­mis­sions employ­ers receive. Invest the same time and energy in your resume as you would if you were on the job and being paid to cre­ate an impor­tant pre­sen­ta­tion or report.

♦If you have any­thing less than a pro­fes­sional sound­ing email address cre­ate a new account such as [email protected]. Whim­si­cal, cutesy, goth, TMI, sex­ual in nature, etc., type email addresses are sim­ply inap­pro­pri­ate. After all, at least in my inbox the first thing I see, my first impres­sion of a can­di­date, is their email address.

The key is to main­tain a con­sis­tent pro­fes­sional image from A to Z

♦Keep a spread­sheet for (or jot in a note­book) the posi­tions you have applied to. Include the com­pany, con­tact, phone num­ber, email address and date submitted.

♦Fol­low up with a call or email a few days later to ask if you are being con­sid­ered a can­di­date. If the answer is no, ask for feed­back on why. Don’t be afraid to ask — It will help you under­stand employer and indus­try needs and help you refine and tar­get your search to match your skills. Thank the Recruiter for tak­ing the time to pro­vide you with valu­able feed­back and ask to be con­sid­ered in the future for posi­tions that match your qual­i­fi­ca­tions. If a Recruiter has been par­tic­u­larly help­ful it can’t hurt to fol­low up with a brief thank you email or note.

♦Start answer­ing your phone in a pro­fes­sional way. “Hello, this is Sam” is a good greet­ing. Answer­ing with “Yeah, who is this?” is less than impres­sive to a poten­tial employer.

♦When a poten­tial employer calls under­stand that is the first step in the inter­view process. That call is a phone screen. Put a men­tal “suit” on and con­duct your­self pro­fes­sion­ally as if you were in a face-to-face interview.

♦If you are invited to inter­view in per­son ensure you arrive 10 min­utes early. If you are not famil­iar with the loca­tion do a dry run. The day of the inter­view is not the day to get lost. Use that 10 min­utes to psych your­self up for the inter­view and envi­sion the job offer.

♦Dress, speak and act like the posi­tion you aspire to. One step up from the posi­tion you are inter­view­ing for is a good guide­line. Put on your best cloth­ing and gram­mar (with­out gum in your mouth, of course), hold your head high and pre­tend you are the lead­ing role in a movie. Be self-conscious of your pos­ture and body lan­guage. Try really hard to have good eye contact.

♦Lis­ten care­fully to the interviewer’s instruc­tions and ques­tions. Focus and answer appro­pri­ately. Don’t devi­ate from the ques­tions and do not offer up per­sonal infor­ma­tion. Remem­ber it is a job inter­view and keep your com­ments to your skills, abil­i­ties and tal­ents in regard to the posi­tion you are inter­view­ing for. Arrive pre­pared to dis­cuss exam­ples of your per­for­mance, team­work and peo­ple skills at prior places of employment.

♦Let the inter­viewer know you have done your research. Ask ques­tions to show you are inter­ested and engaged. If you don’t know what to ask some pos­si­bil­i­ties are about the num­ber of employ­ees and/or loca­tions, what is a typ­i­cal day like for a per­son in the posi­tion, exam­ples of employee recog­ni­tion, etc.

♦Thank the inter­viewer and offer a hand­shake. If you are still inter­ested in the com­pany at the end of the inter­view tell the inter­viewer. Some­thing like, “I am very inter­ested in this posi­tion, more so now after the inter­view and meet­ing you”. Ask for a busi­ness card and send a follow-up thank you email as soon as possible.

I look for­ward to your feed­back on this blog post. Let me know if it is help­ful to you. I would love to know what top­ics relat­ing to employ­ment you would like me to blog about and be sure to send me your suc­cess stories.

I want to hear your story!