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We all know people who are looking for a job and it can be really tough over the holidays.  Trying to be excited about seeing family and friends when you are not sure about your future is difficult.

There are lots of things we can do to show we care and offer support.  Remember that gifts don’t necessarily have to be wrapped.  Time and expertise don’t fit in boxes but they sure are welcome.

Here are some suggestions for the job seeker on your list:

• New tie or scarf to wear to interviews.  Wearing something new can put a real lift in someone’s step.
• Invitation – if you are going to an industry function or holiday cookie swap, invite the person.  Before you go, talk about how you are going to introduce them to your colleagues/friends.   The opportunity to meet new people is so, so valuable.
• Recommendations on LinkedIn – don’t wait to be asked for this one.  Find a few people in your connections and write them a nice, short recommendation.  It will arrive in their inbox and be a complete and wonderful surprise.
• Coffee gift card – this is a great one. It does not have to be for a lot of money but providing the opportunity for someone to treat themselves without having to worry about the expense is a real gift.
• Three months subscription to Texture, the magazine app.  Discretionary things like magazines are usually the first things to go when someone is unsure about the future.  Access to a gazillion magazines does two things.  It is a nice little distraction when they need a break from LinkedIn.  Also, it allows them to keep current so that when they are at networking events with you, they have lots of current material to talk about.

So put a little thought into it. You have lots of options to provide useful and supportive gifts.  And isn’t that what it’s all about?

It’s winter here in Canada and if you are doing the interview circuit, you need to be prepared.

There is nothing worse than sniffling during a conversation.  You try to be subtle by wiggling your nose or casually wiping your sleeve near your nose but face it: there is no substitute for a tissue.  So start each day by putting one in your pocket, sleeve or bra strap.

If you have a bit of a cough or a tickle (and who doesn’t these days?), then put some lozenges or tic tacs in your pocket, purse or briefcase. You can pop one while you are waiting for your meeting to start.  It will give you something to do with your hands.

Make sure you give yourself extra time before the interview but don’t hang around the reception area – that’s not cool.  Plan to take a few minutes in the lobby for your body temperature to sort itself out.  Your face and hands will be cold but your armpits will be working overtime so rather than greet the person you are meeting with cold hands and the tell-tale half moons of nervousness, spend a few minutes in the lobby.  Take off your coat, blow your nose and wait until everything comes to room temperature.  Then head upstairs to announce your presence.

Finally, no matter how much of a Tim Horton’s or Starbucks fan you are, don’t take your coffee into the meeting unless you are prepared to offer some to the other person.

So to sum up:  arrive early, finish your latte in the lobby, pop a tic tac and set yourself up for a great conversation.

I was at a session yesterday with a bunch of job seekers and a bunch of recruiters.  The questions and suggestions were pretty interesting but one, in particular, stuck with me.

One of the facilitators suggested that part of managing your presence on social media should be to work on becoming a thought leader.

Woah….instant glaze over in the front row. A thought leader?  What the heck is that and how could I become one when I don’t have a job?

We all have expertise in something.  It could be a work skill, an industry, a community interest or a hobby.

Usually that interest drives us to look out for interesting articles in the press or on blogs.  Instead of just keeping it to yourself, push it out.  Almost everything we read on line has an upload button. It is pretty easy to post an item onto your LinkedIn or Facebook profile.

We put pictures of our dogs and our food on Facebook all the time.  Why not do the same for articles?

This has several positive effects.  When someone views your profile, it’s not just a list of your jobs.  It shows what you are really interested in and gives you much more credibility as a subject matter expert.

It also says to the world that you respect your community by sharing information without being asked and more importantly, that you set aside time in your busy day to think about what others might be interested in.

You can’t buy that kind of positivity.

Don’t just read it, share it.  That’s how you start on the path to becoming a thought leader.

People seem to have pretty visceral feelings about behavioural interviews.  I am not sure why.  When you think about it, it is a pretty efficient way for a hiring manager to learn about how your approach your work and your relationships

This kind of interview is based on the theory that what you did in the past is an indicator of what you will do in the future.  Most people will identify 4-6 things that they feel are needed to be successful in a role and then build questions around those activities or qualities.

Just about every job has relationships, obstacles and deadlines so you can pretty much bet there will questions about these.

Sometimes the interviewer will just throw it out there.  “Tell me about a difficult relationship and how you dealt with it.”

But other times there will be a bit of a lead in.  “In our group, we can only meet our deadlines if we get information from other departments and some of them run late.  Can you tell me how you have been able to influence people who don’t report to you?”

The key to preparing for these conversations is to think of situations from your work life and then “package” them.

You need to set the stage, describe your actions and decisions and then wrap up with how the thing resolved.

It should be neat and compact.  You want to avoid having your sentence trail off because you can’t remember your original point.

This takes practice.  It’s a bit like telling your favourite joke.  It makes people laugh because you can tell it well.  You always remember the punch line and your timing is great.  Your work stories need to be the same.

Write some questions on cards and then either shuffle them or add them to your Cards Against Humanity deck.  Get some friends and get to work!

One of the cool things I get to do in my job is to meet with groups of people are “in transition” which is to say, looking for their next role.

We talk about how to work with recruiters and job search strategies in general.   I usually talk a little bit about my background and approach and invite the participants to talk about what they are looking for.  Then I open the floor for questions.

Last week, I worked with a great group of human resource experts.  It was so interesting to hear about their journeys and challenges.  Of course, they had lots of questions about key words, resume formats and job requirements but best one came near the end of the session.

“I am just going to put this out there” she said. “How do you all stay positive in your job search? I am finding it pretty hard”.

Lots of bobbing heads and knowing looks in the room meant that her question really struck a chord.

So we went around the room.  Everyone was asked to suggest a technique that they either had used or were planning to put into practice.

Here is the list:

• Have faith
• Try new things
• Focus on family and friends
• Offer to help/Volunteer
• Go to the gym
• Take breaks
• Chocolate
• Keep focused on the long goal
• Let people help
• Ignore self-doubt
• Go with the flow and keep an open mind

There are some real gems here. I have a lot of respect for anyone who is willing to share their ideas and this group did not hesitate.  They were an inspiring bunch – I wish them all well.

There were snacks in the kitchen at work yesterday.  Aside from a nice, little afternoon pick-me-up, they provided great conversation too.  I found myself talking with two colleagues from other parts of the company.  As we nibbled bits of cheese and cut up fruit, we discovered that we were all dog owners.

One said she was working with a trainer to get her dog to be more social.  She talked about how she is enjoying walking her dog way more than before.

I causally asked if she was seeing the positive benefits spinning off into her work. She paused and thought about it.  Then she got a bit excited.  It seems that the dog trainer had commented on how much more confident she seemed and that she was definitely carrying herself differently.

Her manager and colleagues had noticed the changes as well.  We are going through a lot of change in our organization and it’s been a tough go for a lot of people. She has become the go-to person for helping to sort out problems and find solutions.

All from learning to be a better dog owner…..

There are two lessons to be learned here.

Keep developing yourself.  It could be an academic course, a sport, a craft. It does not really matter what it is as long as you are learning and pushing out from your “usual”.

Let the things you learn come out in all parts of your life.  Don’t hold back.  If you have mastered the art of squaring your shoulders when you snap the leash on your dog, you can do it when you get on the elevator at work too.

Cover letters are an important part of a job application.  Although, to be fair, they won’t actually get you the job.  At their best, they will get you that first phone call.

Tip Number 1

Read the posting carefully.  If it gives you specific instructions, like asking you to explain why you want the job or where you volunteer, then make sure this is included.  If they want specific salary information, I would be a little vague.  It’s pretty tough to provide a salary without considering the back story but you could satisfy it by giving a salary range.

Tip Number 2

Keep it short. This is not the place to tell your life story.  You want just enough information to entice the reader to take a look at your resume.  Reference the job title and where you saw it or, even better, who referred you.

Tip Number 3

Make it relevant.  Make some neat points about how your experience matches what they are looking for.  (hint: if you can’t draw a nice parallel, perhaps this is not the role for you)  Again, keep it concise. The reader should be able to read it on their mobile device in two thumb scrolls or less.  You will lose them after that.

Tip Number 4

Make sure to include your contact information and a link to your profile on LinkedIn so that the reader can get a bigger view of your place in the sphere.

Tip Number 5

Send your letter to three people for editing and proof reading.  You don’t have to use their editing suggestions but you definitely have to make sure that the spelling and grammar are perfect.  A spelling mistake is the fastest way to send your resume to the trash can.  And you can’t depend on Microsoft to save your ass on this one.  You need human eyes to do this.

The cover letter is how you make your first impression – make it count!

It can be pretty overwhelming to wade through the maze of different jobs posted on LinkedIn.  It is easy to start clicking away only to realize that an hour has passed and you have nothing to show for it but an opportunity for your brother-in-law.

There are two main issues:  multiple postings for the same job and a huge variety of job titles

Multiple postings are a fact of life.  Companies feel that they get wider coverage if they give a search assignment to several agencies.   This a highly debatable but nevertheless.  Here is a hint:  if you see a role and it seems like you have seen it before, pick out a unique key phrase and put it into the search bar.  The results will show you which firms are working on the search.

You can apply to all of them if you wish, but I would pick the one you feel will best represent you.  Check out the other postings they have.  Are they related?  Do they do a lot of work in your industry?  If you do decide to apply to multiple firms for what appears to be the same role and they call you, come clean.  Share that information in the early stage of your conversation.  Keeping it to yourself to increase your odds of getting an interview is bad poker and a recipe for embarrassment down the road.

Job titles are tricky.  While they make perfect sense in the context of an organization, they may sound like gibberish out of context.  The key is to search for what you want to do, not what that role might be called.  You will get a wider variety of jobs and levels, and maybe roles in companies or sectors that you had not considered.

Human Resources is a great example of this.  Postings might have titles such Generalist, Specialist, Business Partner, Lead Business Partner (what?), or Manager.  It is not until you get to the body of the posting that you can identify the nature and scope of the role.  Title is no indication of whether there are direct reports, seniority level or really anything meaningful.  So read the posting and requirements carefully and then decide if it is worth your time to apply.

The bottom line is that you need to actually read job postings.  Mindless applications will get you nowhere.  Don’t waste your time and reputation.  Save your efforts for the good stuff.

There is a lot of buzz circulating about 3D printing these days.  We can print sandwiches, guns, jeans.  So it was not surprised to hear one of my colleagues mutter about when she was going to be able to print some perfect candidates.

It’s never going to happen.  We are all unique.  Even if we are in the same role in the same company, we stamp our own imprint on everything we do.  Some of us are more analytical or adapt faster or are more serious….you get the picture.

Our job as recruiters is to sort out what characteristics our client or hiring manager is looking for and your job is to make it easy for us to see them.

First, you need to be able to name your unique blend of attitude, skills and experience. Ask your colleagues, managers and former managers.  You are not looking for a performance review or  report card.  Just some words about how you approach your work.  Use the phrases as the foundation and combine them with your actual hard skills and responsibilities.

• Solves my group’s invoicing problems with a real sense of optimism.
• Perseveres to get my message to the right person, even in a complex organization.
• Consistently rated highly on our customer experience scorecards.

These statements should be sprinkled throughout your cover letter and resume.  It’s also good to develop some good stories demonstrating your unique blend.  These will be great for networking and the all-important interview.

So figure it out and write it down.  This is your value proposition and what ultimately sets you apart from the others.  If you don’t know what makes your different, how will we?

I learned a big lesson on the candidate experience this week.  I was surfing around LinkedIn when I saw an interesting job posted.  It looked like something I might want to do.  I hemmed and hawed for a while on the decision-making teeter totter.  Should I?  Shouldn’t I?  I like what I do but what if there is something better?

I took a deep breath and then sent an email.  Whew.

Then I went about my day and forgot all about it.  Until two days later when it dawned on me that no one had called me.  All of the sudden, I was back in sixth grade.  Do they like me? Was I too forward?  Am I barking up the wrong tree?  When should I call to follow up?  Now?  Maybe I should wait.  For about ten minutes, I was like a dog chasing my tail.

Then the phone rang.  It was not the employer.  It was a client.  I got my head back in the game and forgot about the whole thing.

Later, I actually did get a call from the headhunter.  We had a nice chat.  Ultimately, we decided that my experience did not quite fit the employer’s wish list.   This was not heartbreaking news.  I love what I do and I am doing it in one of the best places to do it.  It was an interesting exercise that confirmed exactly what I thought: I am in the right place for right now.

It was also an interesting exercise because it reminded me what it’s like to be a candidate: putting it out there, waiting for some feedback, trying to continue focusing on other things while you wait to see if you are wanted.  An excellent lesson indeed.