TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Your Mindset Matters

2. Clarify Your Direction

3. Rock Your Resume

4. Concise Cover Letters

5. Prep Your Online Presence

6. Network Like a Boss

7. Job Application Do’s & Don’ts

8. Slay the Interview

 CLARIFY YOUR DIRECTION

“Help! What do I want to be when I grow up?!”

This is a question I find so many job-seekers struggling with. Before you’re off to the races and charging full-speed ahead, you need to have a sense of direction. 

Feel totally lost? Get curious.

Follow your curiosity. What sparks your interest? Whose careers do you admire? What skills would you love to develop, if given the chance? What problems would you like to play a role in solving? 

Sometimes when you’re feeling especially insecure about your job search prospects, we try to play it safe by not going for what we really want. 

Actor Jim Carey tells a powerful story about his dad, a talented comedian, who never really attempted to build his career in show business, because he felt he needed to be a responsible provider instead. As such, he pursued a career in accounting, only to find himself laid off many years later, feeling like a failure as his family weathered some tough financial times. Young Jim learned a powerful lesson from this experience:

“You can fail at what you don't want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.”

There’s certainly an audacity to pursuing what you really want, even if you’re not 100% sure you can make it happen. But often, that clarity of purpose comes across as bold, inspiring, and authentic to the folks you’re interviewing with. Start your search by aiming for what you truly want, and keep in mind: you can always choose to compromise later. 

Consider Your Career an Experiment

Do you feel like the next job you take has to be the one? Like you’re looking for a job that will meet your every need, light up your soul, and stack your bank account? 

You might find it, sure. But you might not. Take a little pressure off yourself by not fixating too much on finding the perfect job and instead, thinking about your career as one big experiment. 

If you were to create a hypothesis for your next career experiment, what would it be? 

• With more flexibility, I will be happier.

• With more pay, I’ll feel less anxious.

• With a better workplace culture, I’ll find more fulfillment.

What this exercise forces you to consider is: what variables do I want to change, and what do I want to hold constant? 

Another way to think about this is, “What about my current job do I like enough that I’d like to preserve, if I could? And what about my current job definitely needs to change in my next position?” 

Get clear on what you’d like to change and what you’d like to preserve - even if you have to force yourself to list out three things you actually like about the job you’re looking to leave. 

By categorizing things this way - among variables you want to change and those you’d like to hold constant - you can get clear on what really matters most to you in your next job well in advance of weighing any actual offers.

Beware of the Pendulum Effect

I’ve known quite a few job-seekers who accidentally over-correct when making a career transition. The Wall Street banker who fled the finance industry to open a cupcake shop, for instance, only to realize she still loved helping people with money, but wanted to do so on her own terms, as an independent financial advisor. Career coach Kathy Caprino calls this common mistake The Pendulum Effect. Oftentimes, folks who flee a bad job for something totally different end up settling, eventually, somewhere in the middle.

Mind the Skills Gap

Sometimes when we’re feeling really lost, we want someone else to tell us what we’d be good at. One way to (kind of) experience this, is to take a skills assessment quiz. 

Some of the most popular self-assessments include 16 Personalities (also known as Myers-Briggs) and Gallup’s CliftonStrengths (formally known as Strengthsfinder).

While these can be helpful for restoring your self-confidence, beware of the risk of gripping too tightly to what you’re already good at at the cost of exploring what you’d love to learn to be good at.  

In fact, it can be very helpful to identify your skills gap - the difference between what you’re already good at, and what the jobs you want require you to be good at - since this can help you determine where you need to devote yourself to learning and development. 

While it’s not easy to do both concurrently, sometimes skill-building while job-searching is helpful to ensure you’re prepared for the opportunities that come your way. 

Bottom line: know what you’re good at, but don’t let that limit your sense of what’s possible. You can learn and grow on the job, too. 

Have confidence in your ability to figure it out. 

Know Your Goals & Audience

All persuasive communication should be goal-oriented and audience-centric. And keep in mind, that’s really what a job search is: a persuasion campaign. You’re selling you.

To do that effectively, you need to communicate what kinds of opportunities you’re searching for while also keeping your audience in mind. What would your next employer be looking for? 

Take a moment to consider it: who is going to be in need of someone with your particular skill set? What are their concerns and pain points? What are their hopes and dreams? 

It might even be helpful to sketch out a few archetypes - imaginary characters who represent the different kinds of people who might be looking for talent like yours. Give them a name. Think about what kind of help they’d be looking for - and where. 

For example, if I were a graphic designer on the job hunt, here are a few employer archetypes who might be in need of my skills: 

James, the traditional ad agency project manager. 

James is essentially a middle manager, who has to meet tons of intense deadlines for lots of different clients, while managing a team of creatives. Their clients are often big brands selling everything from insurance to burgers, but they’re always looking to be wow’d with ground-breaking branding. He’s probably extremely stressed out and holds himself and his team to very high standards. He’s probably looking for graphic designers by reaching out to his network, at college campuses, poaching them from other firms, and via traditional job boards.

Darla, the website-building creative consulting firm founder. 

Darla spent the last 20 years building and growing her medium-size creative company, starting in the dot-com boom, and now helps small to medium-size companies who can’t afford the giant agencies build beautiful websites and market themselves with both digital and print advertising, and collateral marketing materials. She has a modest but mighty team of loyalists, who probably have worked for her for a long time. So when it comes to bringing on new talent, she’s probably wary of the big job boards and campus recruiting circuit, and instead relies heavily on her network and meeting creatives at conferences, meetups, and networking events. 

Max, a small business owner with occasional graphic design needs. 

Max is probably in need of graphic design help, but because the business they founded is so new, Max can’t afford to have a designer full-time on the payroll. Max’s design needs may also be quite sporadic, as they figure out where their business will actually focus. There are lots of folks like Max out there, and perhaps collectively they could pay a full-time salary, but alone they probably are only going to be able to hire by the hour. They are probably first looking for part-time support like that on Fiverr and other gig economy websites, but I bet they’re also out and about at local networking events for entrepreneurs, always growing their network to raise visibility on their new business.

By engaging in this thought exercise and exploring what kinds of employers might be in need of your talent, you can begin to really empathize with your audience. This will help you see your skills, talents, and experience from their point of view, and flip that feeling of “selling yourself” on its head. Now you can focus on what kinds of problems you can help your next boss solve. 

State Your Objective

Now that you’ve clarified your goals and started to empathize with your audience, it’s time to zoom in on one key part of the strategic communications puzzle: your objective statement.

What is an objective statement?

Your objective statement is a concise one or two sentence explanation that sums up who you are and what you’re looking for in your next career move. That’s it! 

Even if you don’t have space to include this in your resume, you’ll find this little one-two-punch phrasing comes in handy when writing cover letters, reaching out for prospective networking meetings, and describing yourself online or at happy hour when making new connections.

Think of it like a company tagline - but for your own personal brand. In this exercise especially: brevity matters.

In the thick of today’s information overload environment, the more concise you can be, the better. 

How to Write Your Objective Statement

Let’s break your objective statement down into two parts.

The first part should briefly explain who you are, and highlight your most valuable traits as they relate to your career goals: 

“Mid-level project manager with extensive interpersonal communications skills…”

“Entry-level marketing professional with passion for social media strategy…”

“Experienced real estate sales director with regional expertise in northeast metropolitan regions...”

The second part describes what kind of role you’re looking for now:

“...seeks a fast-paced environment with the opportunity to make creative contributions and lead national communications projects.” 

“...seeks a mission-driven organization where my fast learning and drive can contribute to a seasoned team of advocates.”

“...pursuing a partnership with a national real estate brokerage company looking to break into northeast city markets.”

In just a sentence or two, a complete stranger should be able to understand the fundamentals of your skillset and what your must-haves are for the next opportunity you’ll take.

This exercise forces you to make some tough choices. You have to be clear on what you’re really looking for. It’s not about finding just any job (even when you’re feeling like that’s what you’ll take!). It’s about zero-ing in on the unique values you bring to the table and the conditions that your dream position entails. 

Remember to think about this from the employer’s perspective. What problems are they trying to solve by hiring you? Read your objective statement out loud from their point of view to be sure your dream employer can see their organization fitting nicely into your objective statement.

CONCISE COVER LETTERS

The most common question I get about cover letters boils down to this: “Do I have to?”

First, let me say this: I get it! In the age of email and ATS applications, the cover letter can feel like a job search dinosaur.

But here’s why writing a compelling, concise cover letterabsolutely does matter. 

• It can tell your story in a powerful way

• It can add important context to your resume

• It shows you’re not cutting corners

• It shows off your writing

• And it allows you to show a little personality.

So don’t skip out on this important step - even if it seems optional.

Use the cover letter as an opportunity to share more about yourself than what your resume can convey on its own. 

Refer back to section 2 of this guide, where you already focused on clarifying your goals and audience, and writing a clear objective statement. You can absolutely incorporate all that progress in your cover letter writing process, too. 

How to Format Your Cover Letter

A cover letter is a formal written letter, so as silly as this may be, try to stick to this straight-ahead business letter format: 

Top tips for clear, well-formatted cover letters:

• Address an actual person - not some generic “Sir or Madam” - whenever possible.

• Include whatever personal contact information you’re comfortable with - not everyone needs your mailing address, i.e.

• Mirror the same look and feel of your resume with a custom header.

• Hook the reader’s attention with a creative opening: share a surprising fact or launch into an intriguing story.

• Keep paragraphs short, digestible, and to the point.

• Stick to one page and include a healthy amount of white space.

• Incorporate bullet points when possible.

At the end of the day, the goal is to format your cover letter in a way that’s easy to read to the human eye, just like your resume.

What to Say in Your Cover Letter

Your cover letter should focus on answering one key question: why are you the perfect fit for this job? 

I know what you’re thinking: nobody’s perfect. But don’t let self-doubt get in the way, here. This is your opportunity to explain why everything you’ve done up until this point in your career has prepared you for this job.

Share the most relevant aspects of your background that make you a good fit - and don’t just limit yourself to your professional background, it’s ok to get personal here. You might share a story about: 

• A challenge you faced in your upbringing that explains why you care

• The moment you first became interested in this cause / industry

• Why you’re excited about the future of this industry and want to be a part of shaping it

Speak from the heart and share why you really care. Then, be sure to have a friend or loved one give a solid once-over to make sure whatever story you’re choosing to share adds to what your resume says about you - and doesn’t detract. Ask for help with copy-editing for typos and confusing areas that might need clearing up, too. 

Then, stop over-thinking it. This isn’t poetry. You’re not writing a novel. Make sure it’s good enough to add to your overall application’s impression, and then put your pencil down and send the damn thing.

NETWORK LIKE A BOSS

Networking via informational interviews, one-on-one meetings, and referrals are essential to navigating the modern job market. In today’s hyper-networked world, it’s become increasingly clear that having a supportive squad of boss friends in high places can help you achieve all kinds of career goals - especially landing a job. 

In fact, a 2015 survey from Recruiter Nation found that referred applicants are 15 TIMES more likely to be hired than applicants who apply via a job board.

It’s clear that connecting and swapping stories with key stakeholders is critical to getting your foot in the door. But how on earth do you even get on their radar in the first place? 

How to Land Informational Interviews

Follow these tips to craft a winning outreach email to land informational interviews with professionals who can help open doors for your career: 

Lead with a super snappy subject line, ideally with the name of whoever first brought them to your attention, like, “Eve Smith recommended we talk.”

Share a 1-2 line introduction of who you are, how you heard of them, and your current status as someone exploring career opportunities.

Add in a time-sensitive meeting ask, such as, “I’m in town next week and would love to connect over coffee, if your schedule allows,” or “I’ll also be at the conference you’re speaking at next week, and would love to connect,” or even, “I’d love to set up a phone next week, if possible.”

Providing a limited number of options for meeting times is key – even if you have all the time in the world. It makes it easier for them to scan their calendar and give you a thumbs up or down based on their availability.

When they inevitably don’t reply to your first email, “bump it up” in their inbox by simply replying to that initial message and adding a quick line like, “Hey there, I wanted to make sure you saw my note from last week – would love to catch you while I’m in town!” 

Be sure to do this mid-morning on a weekday when they were most likely to be at their desk, with their email inbox open. 

Don’t be afraid to bump up an email like this every week or so until you get a response. You’ll be blown away by the very high rate of response as a result.

Make the Most of 1-on-1 Meetings

Once you land a meeting with a VIP, make the most of it by going in with a game plan.

Keep in mind: nobody wants you to “pick their brain” for an hour and feel like they just gave away their precious expertise for nothing and didn’t build a fruitful, meaningful relationship in the process. There’s a much better way to leave one-on-one meetings in which both parties feel like they built a solid new relationship and got something out of it.

Here’s a quick rundown of how you can make the most of your time once you land that one-on-one meeting.

Lead with story

Explain who you are and why what you’re doing matters to you.

This is a conversation, obviously, not a performance, so you’re going to want to keep it brief, but keep in mind that people aren’t moved by what you’re doing, they get on board when they understand why you’re doing it.

This is best conveyed by sharing a personal story. 

Why do you care? Why should I care? What is the underlying motivation that drives you each day? What’s your history and why did it lead you here?

Through sharing your personal story, you demonstrate your values by explaining the choices you’ve made along the way. Why did you quit that job? Move to that city? Focus on that subject matter? What drew you to this meeting today?

This is what’s known as your “story of self,” as organizers call it. It’s a motivating way to share who you are and what you care about.

Find out what makes them tick

Once you’ve established yourself, get a sense of what motivates the person you’re speaking with in return. 

Ask opened-ended ‘why’ questions to get a sense of where they’re coming from and what choices they made along the way to land where they are now. The goal here is to find what common values you share – it’s that foundation of shared values that serves as the jumping-off point for collaboration.

Aim for the Magic X

The Magic X is the intersection between your shared values and diverse resources. 

Once you’ve both shared the why behind the “what you do,” the next step is to identify what unique resources you both bring to the table that can help further your shared values.

What resources does the person you’re meeting with have that you lack? Access? Connections? Wisdom? Influence? 

Now consider what resources you have they might be lacking in. Time? Social media prowess? Connections to a college or university? Knowledge of the job market in your industry? 

Make a clear ask

Once you’ve identified what resources you both bring to the table, ask for the specific help you need and want.

By this point in the conversation, you’ve already explained your motivations and hopefully bonded with the person about your shared values. So now is the time to offer up an opportunity to take action on those shared values.

Ask for the help you need, and explain the impact it would have on your situation. 

“Would you give me feedback on my resume? I’d love feedback from someone so familiar with the industry.” 

“Would you be willing to connect me to your contact in HR? An internal referral from you could greatly increase my chances of being interviewed for this position.” 

“Would you kindly introduce me to your friend who runs that listserv? I’d love to see if I’m the right fit for any opportunities that might be shared there.” 

Then – and this is key – offer up your own resources or assistance in helping them in return in furthering whatever goals or objectives you uncovered through your conversation. Can’t think of a single way to help them on the spot? Provide a standing offer by saying something like, “If I can ever be of service to you in return, please don’t hesitate to ask.” 

Follow up

No matter how flawless your one-on-one meeting game is, the real magic is in the follow-up.

Send a timely (read: within 24 hours) email thanking them again for their time and delivering on any of what you promised you’d send along. Set clear expectations of how you’d like to move forward and send them any materials needed to do so.

Remember, this is just the start of an ongoing relationship. Keep in touch with these contacts even after they’re done helping you along your way. 

It’s all about forging meaningful connections through identifying shared values and then finding a way to take collective action.

Reach for Internal Referrals

Have you networked your way to a coffee meeting with someone who works at the organization of your dreams? 

Connecting with people within organizations you’re applying to can be an incredibly effective strategy for job-seekers. Securing an internal referral is one the best ways to get hiring managers to give you an even closer look.

And yet, employee referrals are still surprisingly rare. According to a recent Jobvite survey, employee referrals only make up about 7% of potential candidates, but these referrals result in the most beneficial hires for employers, so companies actively prefer job candidates with internal referrals. If you’re looking for a way to stand out - this is it. 

Don’t be afraid to reach out to a lot of people to try and foster authentic relationships like this. At the end of the day, it’s a numbers game. Not everyone is going to get back to you, but you don’t need them to! You just need one great conversation to help give you a major leg up on the competition.

So, go ahead - don’t be shy! Reach out to connect with that person on LinkedIn to learn more about the position you’re vying for now.

SLAY THE INTERVIEW

Congratulations, boss! You’ve made it to the job interview! 

Now, when it comes to preparing for your job interview, there are a ton of ways to waste your time spinning your wheels gathering information that won’t actually help you knock your job interview out of the park.

Don’t waste your time in an endless research hole online. Sure, learning everything you can about the company and whoever’s interviewing you is important to an extent, but online research alone can give a false sense of preparedness.

Practice Sharing Your Story

Think back to the section above on crafting your personal story. Remember how you crafted a narrative arc that explains the story of who you are and who you want to be? Make sure you’re ready to share your story verbally, not just in the written format. 

Practice answering the first opening question that almost every interview begins with: “Tell me about yourself!” with a story that explains your motivation. 

Your personal story can be a brief, but compelling narrative that culminates with a perfectly compelling reason that you belong in their organization. 

Remember: every good story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Our human brains are wired to pay attention to stories that are structured in this way – more so than a chronological rundown of your resume.

People especially empathize when your story involves facing a challenge, making a choice, and learning a lesson that led to where you are today. Are you a corporate lawyer applying for an internal counsel position at a global charity? There’s a story there! Tell me why you’re compelled to make that choice.

Different Types of Interviews

Interviews are nerve-wracking enough, and when you add in the complicating factor of being interviewed over the phone or video, or whether you’re subject to interview in a group setting or even by an entire panel of your potential colleagues, you could be in for all kinds of awkward.

Let’s take a moment to review the different types of job interview formats you may encounter, so you can prepare like a pro: 

Phone Interview

Typically a phone interview is the first interview option employers rely on to screen applicants. Being a faceless voice on the other line is just one of the limiting factors of a phone interview. 

It’s much more difficult to create a connection when you can’t make eye contact with your interviewer. Being interviewed over the phone also presents you with a lack of ability to read other people’s body language to get a feel on how engaged they are in the conversation at hand. Without body language cues to help get your message across, take these simple steps to sound your most polished, prepared, and confident over the phone.

Video Interview

In the age of Zoom meetings and FaceTime calls, these are becoming more and more frequent as a regular part of the job hunt.

Given this virtual face-to-face conversation, you’re able to get a better read on people versus a phone interview. We’ve put together a list of tips for you to look your best on your next video interview.

Group Interview

Group interviews are often confused with panel interviews, but they’re two completely separate styles of interviewing. 

A group interview is when you are brought in for a very long interview - sometimes lasting the entire workday - with multiple other candidates who are all vying for the same job and you’re interviewed all at the same time. 

Panel Interview

A panel interview is when you’re brought in as the only jobseeker, but you are sitting before a collective group of people. This is often done when employers and organizations want to make decisions through consensus building or committee-based decision making because there’s multiple stakeholders involved who might be working with this candidate. 

There's a good reason behind why these are often done, but that doesn’t make it any easier if you are the one being interviewed. Here are some tips to help you prepare for panel style interviews.

Practice Out Loud

Remember to practice how you want your interview to play out. Just like for a written exam, you’d study in a written format. So for a spoken interview, you should practice out loud.

Record yourself and review the footage for areas for improvement. Practice in the mirror. Practice out loud in front of a loved one. When you practice this way, you’ll have a bit more muscle memory to help the words flow more smoothly. 

Ask for feedback on everything from vocal tone, to body language, to the stories and examples you’re sharing. Are you coming across as earnest and invested? Or nervous? What exactly are you doing that reads as nervous or unprepared? Get specific about seeking out the direct feedback you need to improve. 

Ask Compelling Questions

Job search strategist Jenny Foss recently shared a great tip for starting the interview process strong. She suggests that job seekers start the interview by asking what about their background or application caused the hiring committee or manager to bring them in for an interview. 

You might ask something like, “Before we dive in, I’d love to ask: what about my application spoke to you?” 

The answer you get can immediately tip you off to what you might want to emphasize throughout the rest of your conversation.

An interview, after all, is just that: a conversation! Don’t spend too much time monologuing on your personal story or rambling on giving your answers to their questions. Get into the habit of asking smart questions throughout the interview process. Hiring managers are people, too, and after all, everyone loves to talk about themselves. So make sure you go in ready to ask about them as well. You want the interview to feel like a reciprocal conversation, not a one way soliloquy.

Don’t be afraid of getting into the weeds a bit. Ask technical questions about the work at hand. Ask if they’ve considered different strategies that you might suggest. If things start to get a little too detailed, you can always say something like, “Well, I don’t want to get too ahead of myself here, but as you can tell, I really love this stuff.”

Asking smart questions shows you’re a smart candidate. 

If all else fails and you truly have nothing else to ask about, you can always ask about their timeline for making a decision as a way to wrap things up with an eye towards the future. 

Interview Follow-up Etiquette

After any interview, make sure to express your thanks in whatever way feels most appropriate to you. Thank them via email. Send a handwritten note. Or if you really want to show your gratitude, send a small gift!

If you didn’t get a chance to ask them for next steps in the hiring process during your interview, feel free to do so in your note.

Also remember that the person receiving your thank you email is just that – a person. Sure they may hold the keys to your future at the organization, but at the end of the day, they eat, sleep, and breathe just like you. A good rule of thumb is to keep your email conversational, but respectful, just as you did during your conversation. Refresh their memory with one personal detail - maybe referencing something they shared with you about their career experience - to show you were really listening to them when they spoke.

Once you’ve done all you can, take yourself on a walk. Call a friend to catch up. Bake a cake. Do something to take your mind off things that you cannot go back in time to change, and know that this feeling of vulnerability and uncertainty will pass. If you did all you could to put your best self forward, show yourself some love.

If you know you could have done things better, give yourself five minutes on the timer to reflect in writing what you’d do differently next time, and then give yourself permission to move on.