006. How To Land a Job, Even During the Holidays: 5 Job Search Tips

Ready to get promoted into Leadership and increase your salary by 10k-30k?
Book a sales call with Alejandra: https://calendly.com/empowherchange/sales-call 

Wants to connect with Alejandra?
Join Alejandra’s LinkedIn Community: www.linkedin.com/in/alethompson

----------------------------------------------------------
Intro Song: Cumbia No Frills Faster by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100275

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

Transcript

Shure MV7 & Lumina Camera - Raw: 0:54

Hey friends. Welcome back to the podcast. Today, we're talking about how to land a job. Even during the holidays, I'm going to go over five job search tips, along with some misconceptions and some benefits on. Job searching during this time. Before we jump into that. I know the holidays can be maybe challenging for some of you who are in the job search. Especially if you are currently unemployed and looking for a job. Being unemployed in general. Sucks. And then you add on the holidays and you're seeing a bunch of people you're with your Thea's and your Primos and people are maybe asking about work and you feel that dread and the shame may be about why can't you land a job. And then the questions that come with that. And maybe you have a goal of landing a job in 2024 at the top of the year, or at least at the beginning of the year Now you might be here and you're like, yeah, I have, I have a goal. I want to land a job, but it hasn't happened. And you are frustrated. I just had a conversation today with a Latina who got her MBA and has been looking for a job for the past five months and can't land anything. And it's this frustration, this like, what am I doing wrong? And so if you have been in that, there is a collection that we've been going through at my church. In terms of vision, and it's really been around the topic of waiting on God and who we become as we wait and the frustration that we can experience when we wait, especially in a day and age, like we are in today. Where we have social media, we have the internet, we have so many things at the fingertips. So many things that we have instantaneously that waiting can feel so incredibly painful. Where we want something. We want it now. And again, adding in the holidays where if, especially if you're unemployed, it just feels such a difficult time to get through when you aren't employed and you don't have an easy thing to say when people are asking you about how's work going. And in church, we went over verse. That I hope can be helpful for you. And it's Isaiah 40, 31 where it goes, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall Mount up with wings like Eagles. They shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint. And I've been holding onto this because we're all waiting on something. And again, for you, that might be that job, And maybe you're weary right now. Maybe you're tired. Like the person I spoke to earlier today where she was like, I'm tired, I'm frustrated this isn't working. And if you are, I really do encourage you. To consider what are the things that you're learning during this? Wait. How are you being developed? How is God teaching you something? How can you make the best of this period of time that you are in not to just throw under the rug, your emotions or the circumstances you're in, but to be in a position where you can live each and every day and embrace each and every day, because that's. All we have, and we can either be miserable or we can be incredibly worried. And I am very, very, very accustomed to being worried and stressed. So this has been such a powerful thing for me, as well as I speak to you on it. But I encourage you. If you are in a season right now where you've been waiting and you are running out of patience and you're like, I've been trying and trying and trying, and it isn't working. Continue to wait, continue to wait. The opportunity that God has for you is right around the corner. It is right there. And if you wait on God, he will renew your strength. You will Mount up with wings like Eagles, you will run and not be weary and you will walk and not faint. So I've been holding onto that and I hope it's a word of encouragement for you as I go into this conversation about how do you land a job even during the holidays. Like I said, I'm going to go over. So misconceptions, I'm going to talk about benefits of job search during the holidays. And I'm going to go over five tips to make your job search during the holidays effective. A couple of things in terms of misconceptions. Number one. A misconception that no one's hiring during the holidays. This is a lie. Today's December 4th that I'm recording this on December 2nd, 2023. The bureau of labor statistics reported that the American economy added 263,000 jobs in the month of November. And the unemployment rate remained close to a historic low at 3.7%. We added 263,000 jobs last month. Also when I looked today on LinkedIn, I did a search on jobs that were posted in the last 24 hours. I saw senior marketing strategists in your recruiter. I saw HR manager, customer success manager. There are jobs that are being posted on there in the past 24 hours. People are hiring during the holidays. Is it going to be the same as Q3 and a different time? Okay. Maybe it's not the same, but people are hiring during this season. Number two, there's a misconception that people don't have time to review your application. Also not true. I'm literally working with a client right now that is hiring for a role that's going to report to her. So we've been doing a lot of coaching. Around her fears about doing it wrong or imposter syndrome or making a mistake, fear of failure, because this is the first time she is hiring for a direct report. And so there's been a lot of fear on that, but. She is hiring someone right now. She's in the process of interviewing people right now. And she wants this all to get done before Christmas week. So this is also not true. People do have time to review your applications and people want to, they want to get people in the door and get positions filled, and they're going to want to do it before that last week, going into Christmas and new year's. So these are two misconceptions. No one's hiring during the holidays and people don't have time to review your applications. Now some benefits, some benefits on continuing your job search during the holidays. One, this is a common time that people do slow down. So you can imagine that the competition may be lower if you continue to apply during this time, because other people may give up. Other people may decide that this is not a good time. And so they're not going to be applying. That's one benefit. Number two, you can get a headstart. So by the time the new year rolls around, you're following up with people instead of getting started. I think this is such a good one that way again, when the new year rolls around, you're like, Hey, you know, happy new year, you have this cheery thing to open up with and you're following up already on applications that you did last year in December. I graduated from college in December of 2014. My first introduction to the job search process for a full-time job post-college was doing a job search during the holidays. And I did not let up. I was determined. I was like, I need to find something and I need to find something ASAP. So when the new year did come around, I was already doing followups. And then I had an interview in January and I had an offer literally the first week of February. I graduated in December. I had a job February. So all in all, we're looking at six weeks and two of those weeks were holiday, really like actual holiday season. So I'm telling you, this is not a time for you to let up. If you have the priority of wanting to land a job. Now, if your priority is spending time with your family and wanting to decompress and breast and all those things, then this is not the podcast for you. It's about who has the priority of wanting to land a job. And neither of those is right or wrong or bad or good. But the podcast, this specific episode is for the person who's like, I need a job and I need it now. And I do not want to slow down, but everyone's telling me I need to slow down or no one's hiring. That's not true. And there are benefits to it. Lower competition. You get a headstart. Number three, it's also a time where people tend to be more jolly. The holiday spirit is an actual thing. Science has actually done studies and results and showing results of this where people tend to be more cheerful or more generous during the holiday season. So this is also a great time to be able to take advantage of the time where people are more jolly and they are more happy and maybe they are more, open to responding to you. That's number three and number four, it makes such an easy opener when you're doing follow-ups or when you are reaching out. Because it's like, okay, happy holidays. Hey, I hope you're enjoying the winter season, the holiday season, you know, not everyone. We'll celebrate Christmas. We have new year's. And so you can say, I hope that you're getting excited as we get enter into the new year. It just makes such an easy opener. And I love it. Again, I encourage you. If your goal is to land a job, keep going, keep pushing through, keep applying. There are people out there who are interviewing right as I am doing this podcast right now. Now let's go over some five tips for your job search. Number one, stay active on job platform. keep checking daily for new jobs. I like to refine the search to recently posted jobs that can be over the past 24 hours or the past week. I like to prioritize that for the things that are most fresh, stay active on these jobs. Stay active on the job platform. So maybe you're on indeed or maybe you're on LinkedIn, or if there's something else that you're checking through, keep checking on a regular basis. You want to stay active on them. And if you're not already make sure that you're tracking the jobs that you're applying to, please, please, please do that. You can do it really simply on a Google spreadsheet where you're putting in the job title you're putting in the link to the job posting and you are putting the date that you applied. Those are the super basics. I provide a spreadsheet to each and every one of my clients who work with me to organize this information. So that you are keeping track of it and you are making sure that you're not getting lost in the sauce because you are going to be applying to several jobs. And it can be really easy to forget these things also that your follow-up game is going to be a hot mess. If you don't even know where you've, uh, who you've applied with, where you've applied and when you applied. So stay active on job platforms. Make sure you're tracking all of your job applications. Number two take advantage of holiday networking events. There's a lot of networking events that are going to be charities or end of year Gallas or alumni gatherings may do an end of year. My husband is, uh, went to Georgetown and the Miami chapter of the alumni group did a holiday party. So that's a great example where I saw that and I was like, oh, that's brilliant. That's such a great networking thing. And so there's end of year holiday gatherings going on, whether it's the alumni or charity or networking groups that are doing end of year, also the chamber of commerce check, different events that you're seeing going on, different mixers that are going on because of the holiday and take advantage of that. Again, remembering that people tend to be more cheery during this time. So you can also take advantage of this time for you to network and discuss the ways what it is that you're looking for. And people may be more open to. Helping you. Number three, optimize your online presence. If you have not already done this, please make sure that your LinkedIn profile is poppin. Please make sure that you got a profile picture up there. You have a nice banner. You have a good headline. This is something that I'm not going to break down here on this episode, because I will do a series on how you can completely create your brand on LinkedIn. I have done lives on it before you can always reach out to me on LinkedIn. And I can send you the link to that in the meantime, because I won't be posting that podcast out for at least a little while, but I do have that down the line, how to completely set yourself apart and have a LinkedIn that is reflective of your experience so that recruiters can reach out to. You and you can land jobs more effectively. You want to optimize your online presence, primarily LinkedIn, but also Instagram. You want to make sure that that's either a private or if for some reason you really want to make sure it is public, that you would look at it from the lens of a hiring manager and consider would you want to keep those posts or not? So not only when you, especially with LinkedIn, if you do have a strong LinkedIn profile, recruiters will reach out to you. But also I had this cool story from a client a couple of weeks ago that just warmed my heart, where I completely revamped my client's LinkedIn profile. It was looking super stellar and she told me that someone reached out to her, it was a fellow Latina and it was a Latina who messaged her and said, Hey, I've been looking for Latinas in this industry. It's a very male dominated industry that she's in. Architecture. She said, I've been looking for a Latina in this industry and you're like one of the only people I've been able to find, you know, is it okay if we have a talk? I'm really interested in this industry. I'd love to discuss with you your experience. And my client was telling me this and she was telling me this really surprised, this is someone that a lot of my clients don't like social media. They don't like LinkedIn in particular. They're very intimidated by it. Or maybe think it's fake or there is a lot of spam on there. So get really frustrated by the spam. But this was a moment for her that she realized like, maybe this isn't something that I have to hate, but what if there's actually something I can do for my community if I have a solid LinkedIn profile. And this was such a great example of it is not only can recruiters find her now, but also other Latinas who are wanting to break into this industry, the way that she has. And look around and don't see anyone that's representative of them. It can be such a great way to build your brand and for other people within your community to find you. So optimize your online presence. Number four. Reach up. Oh, before I go into this. I was just going to blurt it out before you go into this year, you may not like this point number four and that's okay. If you don't like it, you do not have to do it. Take whatever you want and leave the rest. Just know that whatever I do suggest or things that I have done with my clients, or I have done myself and have seen these things work. But if you don't like it, or if you're going to spend so much of your energy fighting this, then like just skip it. And you can and work with me in coaching and I will help you and we can get through this. But number four is reach out to your network with a personalized holiday greeting and a job search update. So this goes back to the point where I was saying that people are in this cheery mood as a benefit. And that's a great thing for your job. Search will seem for number four, in terms of a tip is if you reach out to your network, this is a very common time that people are reaching out to other people, whether it's with their Christmas cards or it's to. Say happy. Holiday season or Merry Christmas or happy Hanukkah or whatever, or happy, happy Thanksgiving, so many different things. And so it's a great time. For you to reach out to your network with a personalized holiday greeting. So it's not going to be like out of the blue, it's like a holiday season. It's super common for people to reach out to each other and you can also do a job search update. And you the way that I would recommend this as craft a personalized greeting and express your gratitude for this person for the connection. Share a brief update on your job search journey and mentioned very specifically what it is that you're looking for. So it should be like job title, job title in industry. So it's not like, oh, I'm looking for a job. Like if anything comes along the lines, like, please let me know. No, I do not recommend that you do this. And I see this so common and it almost feels like nails on a chalkboard for me at this point. My goal is always to help my clients and X strategies that are going to work. And when you do not have clarity on what you are requesting, people can not help you in the same capacity. And most likely won't because they don't know how, and you're not the center of their universe. So they're not just sitting here thinking about what could possibly be the right fit for you or not. Your job is to be very clear. About what it is that you're looking for. And so in this. Note that you're sending out. It's like, Hey, I'm looking for this job title, this job title in this industry. And anything may be exciting that you have encountered that could give them a very tangible way of seeing, oh, this is what she's looking for. And then. With this, you can close out. And so the reason why I prefaced it was like, you may not like this as a lot of my clients really don't like the idea of putting themselves out there of letting other people know that they're looking for a job or that they need help. I've had some clients who have a lot of. Resistance. Around asking for help because they think it makes them look weak or that they are using other people. And that's a whole other thing, as well as feeling like you're using other people or you're being fake or you're not being genuine. All of these things come together for many different reasons. And so a lot of my clients don't necessarily like this approach. I have had some who are like, oh yeah, no problem. I'll reach out to my network. And again, I see this ver I had to see this work very, very well. They'll start to get job interviews very quickly. And they'll get referrals, which help them get the job interviews. And so it establishes rapport when you have a referral. And so reach out to your network. I encourage you to reach out to your network and put together something in regards to, you being fake or a user. Don't don't be fake, be real, like, think about, okay, who is in my network? Who haven't I talked to in a while, look over your LinkedIn connections. Look over your contact list. Look over your emails. There are people that are in your circle that you have forgotten about that you haven't spoken to in so long. Look over them and reach out and be genuine. Say, okay, I'm want to see how this person's doing, or I want to connect with this person and be genuine about it. You don't have to be fake about it. This can be real, and it can be helpful for. For you. Number four, reach out to your network with a personalized holiday greeting and job search update. And the number five. Follow up consistently and bleed N be flexible. I always recommend that you're following up when with your job applications. And this is also why I always preach quality over quantity when it comes to your job search process. I would rather my clients spend more time on one application and the whole process with following up and identifying who's the hiring manager and researching the company then to apply to a hundred different jobs. The reason why is because it's about depth, a lot of other people are doing the very same thing. Meaning you send out your application, you apply through the portal and then you move on and you do the same thing over again. That's going to be the bare. Minimum for everyone, who's applying to jobs. And so I want always to set my clients apart. That's what helps them be able to be successful in their job, search and land a job. So I'd rather you follow up and spend more time with. One job, two jobs, three jobs, like the ones that you really want than to be applying all over the place. And you're not following up and you're not doing anything different than anyone else. So I definitely recommend that you follow up. And for example, if you're applying now, you can be following up a couple of times before the end of the year. And then again, when it gets to the new year, you can follow up from the previous month, which is the last year. And so it's such a great way because the new year really does feel like this fresh thing. So even though you just followed up twice over the past three weeks, it doesn't really feel that way when it comes to January, because it's just feels like a fresh new start. So I recommend that you continue to do your job search. You continue to follow up and then you can do that again in the new year. Also, you may need to follow up more than usual during the holiday season. This may be, for example, for interviews. Because people are going to be taking time off and maybe they're trying to figure out how to coordinate different schedules. And there's a lot of other things going on. So just be flexible. You may want to, for example, an interview may be actually happening in January. Be flexible, put something on the calendar. If it's in January. Great. At least, you know that you have an interview coming up. So be flexible during this time and make sure that you follow up. Those are my five job search tips. So we talked about misconceptions. The biggest thing I want you to take away from it is, do not give up. Now, if your number one goal is to land a job, keep going. There are people hiring. There are jobs being posted. Okay. There are definitely benefits to it. And then five tips that I gave you is stay active on job platforms. Take advantage of holiday networking events, optimize your online presence. Reach out to your network with a personalized holiday greeting and a job search update that will expand the amount of people that have you on their mind and can refer you to a role and follow up consistently. It's all about quality over quantity and be flexible. I know, waiting on your opportunity is hard, especially if finances are getting tight. I know that feeling of doom. Like you're not going to make it, hear me when I say I know that feeling from such a deep place. I know that feeling. So I encourage you hold fast and keep faith that your opportunity is coming. I do everything that you can enact. These five tips that I gave you to everything you can and let God do the rest. You got this? I hope this was encouraging to you and I will talk to you next week. Bye.