A Brave New World Job Boards ... Newer 'niche' job board

1

• Job Hunting Strategies in a Down Economy
• Networking Interviewing Resume Writing
• And MorePresented to
• Charlotte Metro ISSA Security Summit

2
Job Hunting A History

• In the early 1900s and before you got a job
  based on who you knew and what you could do.
  Often this lead to working with family and
  friends and in the same town or city. You
  werent hired based on an interview or your
  resume, you simply said you were interested in
  the job and
• As we became a more industrial world and cities
  were being formed around companies and career
  opportunities, large corporations began
  selecting who they hired. Initially it was
  done in a line-up sort of way picking employees
  out of a line of interested candidates.
• Soon after WWII employment candidates were asked
  to present CVs (Curriculum Vitae) Latin for
  Course Life or the course of ones life.

3
Job Hunting A History

• From 1950-2000 most companies advertised job
  openings in the Sunday classifieds or at large
  Job Fairscandidates were asked to present or
  submit a copy of their CV or Resume for
  consideration. Often candidates that were
  selected were further interviewed to judge their
  qualifications.
• Until the fax machine came around this process
  took several weeks from Sunday classifieds, to
  mailed resume, to interview, to official hire.
  Most of the time there was little to no
  interaction with candidates and employers.
• This time frame also saw the rise of employment
  services temporary and permanent staffing
  companies to help candidates find jobs and
  companies build staff/talent.
• Starting in 2000 (maybe a little earlier), Job
  Hunting changed - the way information is sent
  changed the way information is gained changed
  the sheer size of the working population had
  changed the need for specific niche skills had
  increased global outsourcing and much more
  YET the importance of getting a job and getting
  talented employees remain the same!

4
Job Hunting - NOW

• Networking
• Resume Writing
• Interviewing
• Job boards
• Blogs
• Twitters
• Staffing companies
• Consulting companies
• Product makers and users
• Competitors

• In todays marketplace good or bad economy
  getting a job requires a lot more know-how than
  the good old days. If you are on the market
  today, you not only need to know how to write an
  eye-catching resume, but you also have to
  understand networking, interviewing, how to use
  the internet, leverage staffing companies, join
  blogs and twitters/tweets. Most importantly, you
  have to understand YOU. How to sell yourself in
  all of these forms/medias.

5
Job Hunting - Networking

• Networking is one of, if not the, most important
  aspect to Job Hunting. The expression its not
  what you know, its who you know that matters has
  proven to be true. Id be willing to bet that
  everyone in this room or even at this entire
  summit has gotten a job (maybe not their current
  job or maybe their first job in high school)
  because they knew someone, who knew someone, who
  helped get them in the door.
• I want to talk about 2 different types of
  networking passive networking and active
  networking. But before I do that, I want to
  quickly go over a hard concept to grasp for most
  job seekers. Networking is NOT asking for
  favors. It is about looking for opportunities to
  add value its about building relationships with
  good will. Get the what is this going to do for
  me out of your mind. Help in the networking
  world often means connecting you with someone
  else in their network. Your network should grow
  over time and you in turn will be able to help
  others with your network the more you help
  others, the more they will help you.

6
Passive Networking

• An ongoing process while you are an employee of
  good standing
• Define what/who you want in your network
• What company
• What product
• What level or type of person
• Introduction
• Hi Steve, my name is Jon Olin, and I am a Citrix
  certified engineer with ettain group here in
  Charlotte. I got your name from the Citrix user
  group board and I was interested in learning more
  about you and sharing a little about me. Do you
  have time to meet for coffee, on me, over the
  next couple of weeks.
• Be Honest
• Steve, thanks for meeting with me today. Based
  on what I have seen from the user group I truly
  respect your opinions. I am happily employed
  with ettain group right now, but I was interested
  in learning more about you and your career as
  well as get some career advice from you.
• Cater your discussion around their background
• Did he/she discuss any industry or company that
  is growing/changing
• Can you use his/her name as an introduction

7
Passive Networking continued

• While passively networking, finding people with
  similar skill sets is easy, but it is important
  to include individuals outside of your specialty
  as well.
• Get to know sales people that support your
  specialty
• Hiring managers from other IT groups (outside of
  IS)
• Listen closely
• Do your homework before you sit down with them
  try to know something about them (personal,
  family, professional, etc)
• Remember your ultimate goal is NOT to get a job,
  but to grow your network and to find ways that
  you might be able to add value. Shaking hands
  with a person doesnt help them remember you or
  make them want to help you. It is up to you at
  this point to develop ongoing report and
  relationship building. If this person is someone
  you think will someday be able to help youhelp
  them first.

8
Active Networking

• Either the writing is on the wall that you will
  be let go in the next round of lay-offs OR your
  time has already come and you are actively on the
  market and NEED a job
• Time frame do you need a job, any job, ASAP?
• Every Day is Game Day
• Your goal everyday should be designed around
  networking for a job
• Look professional when you go out, go to the
  library for resources and get out of the house,
  always carry a card, resume, or way to leave
  something behind.
• Skill set and like jobs
• Take time to create a spreadsheet that lists out
  the following companies that have hired similar
  skill sets in the past, companies that sell
  products to your skill set, companies that
  consult with your skill set, companies that focus
  on projects or staffing your skill set, technical
  or community colleges that offer continue
  education with your skill set.
• Expanded skill set and like jobs
• What other skills have you developed as a result
  of your work history audit or regulatory
  policies, project management, engineering or
  architecture, Networking, ERPs, Database
  Management or analytics.
• Combine these lists for a master list

9
Active Networking continued

• Using your Master listdo you know anyone at
  those companies
• ANYONE it doesnt matter what role or group or
  location they are in.
• Find a way to get a name if you dont have one
• Use that person or name to get more information
  about the specific group or role you would be
  interested
• Ideally you would get a managers name in that
  group
• Once you have identified the group or role you
  are after (even if they arent hiring), go for
  it!
• It is easy for people to say they arent even
  hiring now, why should I call him?
• Introduce yourself to the person you need to meet
  dont immediately ask for a job or opening,
  simply ask for some time. Mr. Manager, I am a
  security engineer with 5 years of experience and
  was hoping to get a minute or two of your time.
  Suzie Jones in HR is a neighbor of mine and she
  thought I might be able to learn some more from
  you. I could meet you before work for coffee if
  that is easier for you.
• While the ultimate goal of active networking is
  to get a job, your daily goal (especially in a
  down economy) is to advance the ball.
• Do they know anyone else that you should meet?
  What would they do?
• Cast a large web the bigger your master list
  is the better off your job hunting will be. Stay
  busy!

10
Job Hunting Networking

• Ultimately, networking passive or active, will
  pay off with a great career opportunity. The
  moment someone in your network says to someone
  else I know a guy that would be a perfect fit
  for that job.
• Passively make time to network
• Actively make every effort possible to network

11
Job Hunting - Interviewing

• There are a lot of useful resources out there on
  how to improve your interviewing skills. I
  personally cant recommend one over the otherbut
  I will say this do what is right for YOU. Not
  everyone asks the same questions, nor do they
  look for the same things during interviews. The
  role the interview has in the hiring process is
  all about you and your ability to sell yourself.
• Some people are naturally good at interviews,
  others struggle. Here are some standard
  interview tips/skills that you can practice on
  your own (yes, I said practice!)

12
Interviewing

• Unless you have been told specifically otherwise,
  wear business attire for the interview.
• Research the company, industry, and competitors
  prior to interview.
• Know who you will be sitting down with dont
  forget names.
• Know and understand the job/role they are looking
  to fill

• Prepare 3-5 questions to ask draw from your
  company/industry research and do NOT ask about
  salary in first interview.
• IF offered, accept a coffee or water.
• NEVER go unprepared
• Take your time with your answers and relaxbe
  confident (they brought you in for an interview).
• Honesty

13
Interviewing S.T.A.R.

• STAR interview preparation will help you practice
  and get ready for interviews.
• Situation or Task (S T)
• Action (A)
• Result (R)
• When asked a question during an interview, first
  and foremost identify the SITUATION or TASK that
  best addresses the question. Relate that
  situation to the question.
• Then describe what ACTION you took to solve the
  task
• Lastly describe the RESULT.
• Prior to any interview, practice STAR responses
  to some generic interview questions
• Tell us about a time when you had to deal with a
  very difficult internal/external customer service
  issue. What did you do, and how did it affect
  you?
• The role we are looking to fill will require
  problem solving skills, please describe your
  problem solving skills or style?

14
Interviewing S.T.A.R.

• S.T.A.R. responses should
• Be specific
• Be about you and you alone do not use we,
  us, or they
• Be persuasive but dont over sell the situation
  or task
• Demonstrate good judgment and morals
• Show ability to change/adapt and manage time
• Encapsulate communication skills and ability to
  work with others
• Highlight innovation and/or cost savings
• Technical interviews are no different. If you
  are asked about a specific skill or technology,
  dont simply say yeah, I have worked with it for
  5 years. Give them a specific situation or
  task, action, and resultthen give them a
  history.
• You want to prove in the interview that 1) you
  can handle the job/role 2) not only do you fit in
  well with the team/company, but you will add to
  it and 3) combining 1 and 2 makes you the ONLY
  candidate for the job!

15
Job Hunting Resume Writing
Like interviewing, there are a ton of good
resources to go to on the web with resume writing
advice. All of which describe a style, a layout
design, an order (chronological) to put your
experience, and more. Also, like interviewing, a
resume is used as a sales tool for YOU. Think of
your resume, not as a history of your work
experience, but as a brochure promotional
material about you! Two people could have the
exact same work experience, but completely
different resumes if one of them chooses to
describe his duties and the other describes his
skills and accomplishments. The content on
resumes is the most important partsome ideas
16
Resume Writing Tips

• Use the same font style
• Bold title or role from previous positions (DO
  NOT OVER STATE TITLE)
• Listing your duties from a previous job is OK,
  but focus more on skills, accomplishments, and
  lessons learned. You want them to gain a little
  insight into how your past positions translate
  into you being a great employee of the future.
• Have an objective this should be the ONLY thing
  that changes on your resume based on the role
  you at pursuing at that particular company. If
  you are eager (desperate) for a job, your
  objective could be as easy as To get a position
  with the Information Security team at ABC company
  and add value by leveraging my 10 years of
  information security experience.
• You can bullet point your skills,
  accomplishments, and lessons learned or you can
  tell a story make sure you are consistent
  throughout your entire resume.

17
Resume Writing Tips

• Include a cover letter and references. These
  should be emailed as a second document (not
  included with resume). Cover letters are very
  important and references (professional)
  demonstrate confidence.
• Make sure you demonstrate a sense of business
  acumen. Do not make your skills and
  accomplishments all about technical jargon what
  business problem did you solve? What did your
  clients get from your work? What did you save
  (money, time, stress, etc) your company?
• Put yourself in the shoes of people who receive
  your resume (along with 100s if not 1,000s of
  others). What would you want to seewhat would
  make one stand out more than others. Be
  professional, but be creative.
• When writing your resume, keep in mind that it is
  a tool to get you in the door a sales
  tool/brochure. Its not going to get you a job
  alone, but it should open the door to get one.
  Be honest and truthful, because it could NOT get
  you a job.

18
Networking, Interviewing and Resume

• All of the areas we have discussed today
  networking, interviewing, and resume writing
  are very closely linked. Ultimately, your resume
  will be reviewed and questions for your interview
  will be derived based on your experiencewhat you
  say in your resume can/will steer or direct the
  interview. If you dont feel comfortable talking
  about it (100) in an interview, dont include it
  on your resume.
• When you are preparing to send out your resume,
  use your network. When you get a sales brochure
  in the mail, you probably throw it out. But if a
  salesman were to approach you with the same
  brochure and tell you a little about himself, you
  would be more incline to hold on to the brochure
  or buy. Same thing goes for your resumeyou can
  blindly submit through a company website and hope
  it makes it in the hiring managers hands, or you
  can use your network and leave your resume behind
  as a reminder of your encounter or maybe get in
  touch with the hiring manager directly.
• Each one on their own is very important in the
  Job Hunting process
• When used together and leveraging each other,
  they become more powerful
• When practiced and repeated with several
  prospects, your chances for finding employment
  are dramatically improved.

19
Job Hunting -A Brave New World

• The past 10-20 years has brought a lot of change
  to Job Huntingand more to come.
• Staffing companies
• Internet / email
• Social Networking
• Job Boards
• Blogs

20
A Brave New World Staffing

• There is a staffing market built to support
  almost every single industry in todays
  marketplace light industrial,
  finance/accounting, nursing, engineering,
  administrative, legal, IT, healthcare, sales,
  executives, and even recruiting! The role of a
  recruiting and staffing company is simply to help
  client companies find talent (human resources).
  These companies DO NOT charge a fee to candidates
  looking for a job and instead are paid by the
  client companies. They are an EXCELLENT source
  during the Job Hunting process. Pros and cons

• Pros
• Established network
• Good understanding of Market
• Skill set knowledge
• No Cost
• Speed

• Cons
• Lots of competition
• Very client focused (maybe narrow)
• Co-employment concerns
• 3rd Party contracts

21
A Brave New World Internet / email

• Internet we all know the power of the internet
  as a research tool. From a Job Hunting
  perspective individuals can gain a lot of
  information, not only about job openings, but
  companies themselves how have the performed,
  who they do business with, where/how they are
  growing, technology they use, and more. Search
  engines can be used to not only find company
  information, but to find employees at specific
  companies again get creative on how to use the
  Internet. New search engines for jobs are
  available jobs2web.com, indeed.com,
  simplyhired.com and more.
• Email While email is a very powerful tool, it
  can also be a deterrent. Submitting an email
  blindly to a job opening hurts more than it
  helps. Using email to schedule meetings or
  introduce yourself is greatbut until there is
  personal contact (phone or face-to-face), you are
  simply a name. Email does improve the speed at
  which jobs are filled and even a means for
  employers to stay in touch with candidates.
• Again, the Internet and email are powerful
  tools, but unless you supplement them with
  personal creativity and touch, they are useless.
  Dont hide behind the Internet!

22
A Brave New World Social Network

• While all of networking is social, this should
  be called online social networking. Unlike
  regular networking, online networking allows
  individuals to network outside of their immediate
  area. It allows one to maintain contact with
  high school contacts, college friends, business
  associates, neighbors, AND like-minded
  individuals from around the world. The most
  powerful thing about online social networking is
  its ability to connect you with your networks
  network. For example I have over 200 direct
  connections in my LinkedIn network, however
  because each one of those is connected to others
  and those others are connected to even more, I
  have more than 2.5 million connections (according
  to my LinkedIn profile page). Some online
  networking sites are
• MySpace, Facebook, FriendWise, Yahoo! 360, and
  LinkedIn
• Some, if not all of these, allow users to create
  groups helping you to separate friends from
  business or organize your contacts. Your network
  doesnt have to be big to be powerful, but you
  want to add people who will add people and be a
  resource same as you would in person. Keep
  your public social networking sites clean and
  professional even if you think only friends
  will see.
• There are a lot of sites available and they
  continue to grow, so find a couple that work for
  you and get started.

23
A Brave New World Job Boards

• Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com, Dice.comwe have
  all heard of them and most if not all of us have
  visited one of them before. During a Job Hunt,
  these can be VERY powerful tools. They are not
  only good resources to turn to for job openings,
  but they also offer good information around
  interviewing and resume writing and JOB HUNTING
  in general.
• However, the MONSTER job boards (pun intended) or
  the general job boards are dying. A little
  inside skinny here recruiters and staffing
  companies rarely use them anymore to find talent.
  The general job boards are over run with entry
  level or non-professional job seekers and fewer
  niche job openings.
• Newer niche job boards are becoming more and
  more popular as they have improved on the service
  and quality for job seekers. Sites like
  RealMatch.com, jobfox.com, and QuietAgent.com,
  Jobster.com, bountyjobs.com, and zubka.com offer
  similar experiences to the larger job boards, but
  with improved services. There are niche job
  boards now for most skill sets and industries,
  but again YOU MUST BE CREATIVE in searching for
  them.

24
A Brave New World Blogs

• It goes without saying that technology is
  changing the way we do business. In the Job
  Hunting world the latest craze is around blogging
  and twitter or similar mobile marketing.
• Mobile marketing is an advanced form of online
  social networking where individuals can keep in
  touch with their community via text messaging.
  Examples are Joopz.com, jotyou.com,
  mocospace.com, and hellotxt.com.
• Blogs are popping up all over and becoming a
  blogger is easier than ever. Find blogs about
  skills or technologies that interest you,
  contribute to the blog, network with other
  bloggers, become an expert!
• Twitter is the newest trendvery powerful indeed.
  An example is recently a recruiter in our DC
  office posted a tweet looking for a .net engineer
  with a certain specific niche skill. Someone in
  her tweet out of our Charlotte office, posted it
  to his tweet and in turn the perfect candidate
  was found in Dallas, TX.

25
A Brave New World More

• Other new technology is available today to
  assist with Job Huntingand/or marketing
  yourself. Ideas such as
• Creating online whitepapers or shared documents
  and posting them to places like digg.com or
  scribd.com
• Creating or hosting an online video youtube.com
  or ustream.tv
• Listening or participating in live discussions
  talkshoe.com or jobsinpods
• Creating an email marketing campaign to send out
  your resume accelstream.com, emma.com, or
  eyejot.com
• Gaining a better understanding of companies and
  the hiring process by visiting jigsaw.com,
  talenthook.com, or infoGist.com
• Virtual Job Fairs unisfair.com, ejobfairs.net,
  or even secondlife.com
• Keep in mind that technology is helpingbut this
  is a people business Job Hunting. Ultimately,
  it comes down to people making a decision about a
  person. Dont forget that human interaction is
  critical to landing a good job.

26
Job Hunting - Conclusion

• In summary let me first say that I didnt just
  give you all of the answers to the test. You,
  yourself, will have to go out and put these
  ideas into action. Remember that there are 2 ways
  of networking and one of those should be ongoing
  with or without a job. Job security is hard to
  find these daysso be thinking of yourself and
  your career.
• If you are currently unemployed, set goals for
  yourself for networking (real time and online).
  Work hard everyday as if you had a job trying to
  find a job. Call and work with staffing
  companies (more than two or three if needed).
  Search and participate in relevant blogs or
  discussions. Create your master list of
  companies to call and begin marketing yourself.
  Most importantly, sell yourself get out there!
• Remain professional, but get tougha rough
  economic climate calls for hungry, tough Job
  Hunting!