Your job search business card

Looking for work, conducting a job search, is in fact a business in its own right. You are selling your services and looking for interviews.

Every business person and sales person has a business card. And when you are engaged in a job search you need to have a Job Search Business Card to hand out to everyone you meet so they know what you are selling. It is a micro resume.

Your Job Search Business Card should have the following information:

• Your name
• Your degrees and any certifications
• Keywords about your IT experience
• Your email address
• Your telephone number - it needs to have voice mail
• A link to your web based resume and profile

This is an especially useful tool to hand-out to all of your family and friends. Afterall you cannot really expect them to remember what your information technology skillset is. And give 5 or 10 copies. Ask them to hand them out to their friends. Build your network of people who know about you. If you are not sure about how to network for success then this ebook - The Last Guide To Networking You’ll Ever Need - may be for you.

Richard (Ric) Ward
IT Job Coach

3 steps to having a recruiter talk to you when you call

For any Job Seeker the key to success in working with a recruiter is understanding the recruiter gets paid by their client to find skilled, experienced candidates – they are not in the business of helping job seekers find jobs. So never ask a recruiter to help you find a job. Recruiters don’t help people find jobs. A recruiter helps their clients to find skilled and experienced personnel.

Any recruiter will talk to you if you have:

• the skills that they are looking for a current job order or
   
• if you have a skill-set and experience that they can market.
   

There are three simple steps you can take when calling a recruiter and they basically involve good telephone manners, common sense and a little preparation:

1. You should write a script to use when you make a call to a recruiter.
    
2. Introduce yourself when the recruiter answers the phone
    
3. Give the recruiter a quick synopsis of your skills and experience
    

Step 1: You should write a script to follow when calling a recruiter. All professional sales people and telemarketers use scripts when making cold calls – and that is what you are doing…making a cold call. The script will contain Steps 2 and 3.

Step 2: When the recruiter answers the phone introduce yourself by name. Speak slowly and clearly…this is not a race. “Good morning, my name is Ric, Ric Ward.” Never start your phone conversation by asking “How are you?”

Step 3: And then give a quick synopsis of your skills and experience. For instance if you are a web designer you might say “I am an experienced web designer with 3 years experience using php and Dreamweaver and I am looking for work.”

Practice making these calls with a friend or family member.

I’ll be writing more about calling recuruiters in the coming days.

Richard (Ric) Ward
IT Job Coach