Get a Job, Here's How - How to Find Job Opportunities with guest Amanda Augustine

How to Find Job Opportunities with guest Amanda Augustine

09/22/20 • 44 min

Amanda shares some creative ideas developed through her experience as a Certified Professional Career Coach and a Certified Professional Resume Writer. Amanda is also the resident career expert for TopResume and previously served as the media spokesperson at Ladders where she provided guidance for professionals looking to improve their careers.

Amanda believes that job seeking is a sales and marketing exercise. You are the product, so being able to articulate what your brand stands for is critical. We also talk about some of the crowdsourced spreadsheets that have been created and circulated as people generously help each other out in this difficult job market.

In this episode, we dig into the importance of building online rapport as you expand your network of personal and professional connections. Also, use your social media to spread the word about what you’re great at and focus on the value you have to offer.

Don’t miss Amanda’s advice on the “Power of 3” - using job boards, recruiters and your personal network to uncover job leads - because relying on just one of these is not enough to bring you success in your job search.

Here are links to the resources mentioned in this episode (with thanks to Amanda Augustine for cultivating this list!):

This article provides a list of crowdsourced resources, as well as job boards and apps that focus on remote jobs: https://www.topresume.com/career-advice/find-work-during-coronavirus

Some of my favorites are:

Torch Capital spreadsheet (they actually recently moved it to a website)
Upstream app-based community platform designed to help professionals give and receive help. You can download the app from the App Store.
Ryan Robinson's Remote Job Websites Collection - 60 job boards in total
Levels.fyi, which verifies the open positions with the company hiring

Receive a free resume review from TopResume here.

To find professional associations:

Director of Associations: https://www.directoryofassociations.com/

To find a recruiter (without a Google search or without going through a job board/social media):

i-Recruit: https://www.i-recruit.com/recruiters-directory.php

To find networking events and job fairs:

10times: https://10times.com/ (also available as an app)
Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/d/online/events/
Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/
Also, don’t forget to check with your alma mater’s alumni or career services teams. Many are hosting virtual events for alumni, including job-search specific events.

Here are links to the resources mentioned in this episode (with thanks to Amanda Augustine for cultivating this list!):

This article provides a list of crowdsourced resources, as well as job boards and apps that focus on remote jobs: https://www.topresume.com/career-advice/find-work-during-coronavirus

Some of my favorites are:

Torch Capital spreadsheet (they actually recently moved it to a website)
Upstream app-based community platform designed to help professionals give and receive help. You can download the app from the App Store.
Ryan Robinson's Remote Job Websites Collection - 60 job boards in total
Levels.fyi, which verifies the open positions with the company hiring

Receive a free resume review from TopResume here.

To find professional associations:

Director of Associations: https://www.directoryofassociations.com/

To find a recruiter (without a Google search or without going through a job board/social media):

i-Recruit: https://www.i-recruit.com/recruiters-directory.php

To find networking events and job fairs:

10times: https://10times.com/ (also available as an app)
Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.com/d/online/events/
Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/
Also, don’t forget to check with your alma mater’s alumni or career services teams. Many are hosting virtual events for alumni, including job-search specific events.

Previous Episode

How to Negotiate an Offer with Vicki Bevenour

My guest is Vicki Bevenour, an executive career coach with expertise in personal branding, communicating with strength, leadership presence and negotiation. Coach Vicki is the President of the RDW Group and the author of “Unleashing Your Inner Leader: An Executive Coach Tells All”. RDW stands for Results Derived From Within and represents Vicki’s belief that everyone has a powerful leader inside of them, which is also the premise of her book.

Vicki talks about who should negotiate (hint: everybody!) and suggests that instead of interviewing, you are engaging in Business Evaluation Meetings when you meet with a potential employer. That evaluation works both ways - you are evaluating the company and they are evaluating you. Keep in mind that as you go through these meetings, you want to set yourself up for a successful negotiation. You can do this by having 20 success stories ready to share.

Prepare your stories by thinking through (1) the challenge you faced, (2) the action you took, and (3) the result you achieved. These are your C-A-R stories! Use these on your resume and in your interviews / Business Evaluation Meetings.

Negotiate when you have an offer - this is the moment when you have the power. In addition to negotiating salary, you can negotiate vacation time, your job title and level, benefits, bonus, tuition reimbursement, work from home days, cell phone reimbursement, training, and parking expenses. That’s a lot of things up for negotiation! So how do you go about it?

Know your numbers: Check salary.com, The Muse, and Glassdoor.com for salary data. Also, poll your network so you know the compensation structure in the industry.

When you receive a job offer, don’t accept it on the spot! Ask for 48 hours to consider the offer, then get back to them within 24 hours to initiate a negotiation. Don’t negotiate over email! Use words such as “This is a great offer and I have 3 questions.” Then remind them of your accomplishments (your CAR stories) and ask for what you want. After that, stop talking.

Vicki shares tons of great phrases you can use in a negotiation as well as some good book recommendations and statistics about women and negotiation.

You can find Vicki on LinkedIn and online at http://coachvickie.com/. Vicki’s book Unleashing Your Inner Leader: An Executive Coach Tells All is available on Amazon.

Vicki’s book recommendations:

Women Don’t Ask - The High Cost of Avoiding Negotiation and Positive Strategies for Change by Linda Babcock and Sarah Laschever

Ask For It: How Women Can Use the Power of Negotiation to Get What They Really Want

by Linda Babcock and Sarah Laschever

Next Episode

How To Use Unconventional (But Effective) Strategies To Land a Job With Guest Austin Belcak

After first approaching his job search using more traditional methods like applying online to job postings, Austin Belcak discovered this simply isn’t effective. Now he coaches job seekers through his company Cultivated Culture on leveraging unconventional strategies to get a job even if you don’t have connections or traditional experience. Hint: It does not involve applying online!

Find out what a “Value Validation Project” is and why it will truly distinguish you as a candidate who can add value to an organization. Also, learn why Austin’s strategy works beautifully during COVID times when we’re not meeting people face-to-face.

Be sure to check out Austin’s website and the amazing free tools he provides for job-seekers at https://cultivatedculture.com/

And Follow Austin Belcak on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abelcak/

Tip: Austin posts daily on LinkedIn and his posts are always incredibly insightful and helpful.