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Throughout this series, I've walked you through the preliminary steps of an effective job search strategy, beginning with researching companies that you're interested in and then connecting with people who work there. Interestingly, most job seekers skip steps one and two entirely and only do the last step-applying. This is a large part of why the average job search takes several months.

When you engage all three aspects of this strategy, you will be reducing your job search time and increasing your future job satisfaction by focusing on companies where you'd be a good fit. You may have guessed that this approach actually takes a fair amount more effort up front, which is one reason why a lot of job seekers don't do it and just go right to applying. The good news, however, is that because you are putting in more ...

Step one of re-vamping your job search strategy was to research potential employers that you are interested in. The goal is for you to go beyond the job boards and think about where you actually want to work. Yes, you can approach your job search that way. As you may know, the job boards only show about 20% of the available jobs out there. Those are terrible odds!

After you've compiled a list of at least 25 potential employers, I want you to set a goal of finding at least one person to connect with at each company. Who are you trying to connect with? Recruiters, Hiring Managers and especially anyone in your network who works at that company. Always start with your warm leads, which are people that you already know. Your current network is always your best bet because they already know ...

Having a strong resume is only one component of a successful job search. Possibly even more important than that is your strategy. I've heard from a number of clients that they've never needed a resume in the past because they've always gotten their positions from networking. Wow, that says it all. Having said that, resumes are still expected these days and you will have to present one at some point.

If you are not getting the results you need in your search, then stick with me for the next few weeks. I'll be unveiling a three step process for you to REVAMP your job search strategy and improve your results. The three steps are: Research, Connect and Apply (in that order!).

Step One: Research

The first step to an effective job search is to ...

Let’s face it—much of the job search is set up in the employer’s favor. Employers have access to reliable salary data through compensation surveys, and they often have hundreds of applicants to choose from for just one posting. Unless you possess some very rare and specialized skills, it’s typically up to the job seeker to get the employer’s attention, and not the other way around. Improving your resume and your strategy with a coach is an excellent way to expedite your results.

Some people claim that it's cheating to have someone else write your resume. The notion that hiring a resume writer or career coach is cheating is completely absurd. Is it cheating for an athlete to use an athletic coach? Or for a vocalist to use a vocal coach? Job searching and resume writing are skills ...

This week's article is a guest blog from Careerminds. Careerminds is a next gen career transitions company focusing on outplacement, retirement lifestyle planning, and leadership development coaching. They specialize in high-touch, high-tech solutions that give their clients personalized experiences while still using the most sophisticated technology on the market. For more information about Careerminds, please visit their website.  

Job searches are always hard, but going through them after being let go can make them even harder. Not only is your morale low, but there is a sense of pressure to quickly find a job as to not feel the impact of lost wages. It takes an organization an average of about fifty-two days to hire on a candidate for an open position. While a month and a half might not seem like a long time, it is long enough to cause serious harm to the morale ...

Employee referrals are the #1 preferred method of recruiting new employees across all industries. If the company trusts you enough to hire you, it's only natural that they would trust you to bring them more people like you! After all, current employees understand the company culture and internal landscape and are well-positioned to bring the company more qualified candidates.

Rarely though, do job seekers make it part of their strategy to secure a referral. Instead of searching the internet for open positions and then only applying to what you see available online, I want you to consider a backward approach. Start your search by targeting companies where you know that you have an inside connection and then go from there.

Follow these three steps to get referred for your next position:

Search your LinkedIn network ...

Perhaps one of the most challenging—and mystifying—aspects of the modern job search is how to bypass the applicant tracking system and get your résumé in front of a real person. Many applicants rely on online job boards because they are so convenient to use. Despite their convenience, online applications do nothing to actually lead the employer to the right candidate. There are other lesser known strategies available that are far more effective for both the job seeker and the employer. These strategies may require a little bit more time and legwork, but they will dramatically improve the chances of your résumé being read by a recruiter, or even better—the hiring manager. (Note: I want you to use these strategies in the order they are listed!)

Get referred by someone at the company. Referrals are ...

Quite a few people make it through their careers without ever being on the employer side of the interview table. This can put you at a disadvantage in your job search and make it hard for you to know what employers are looking for. When conducting a job search, it’s natural that most people would make themselves and their needs the focus of the search. However, the most effective strategy that you can adopt in your job search is to not think like a job seeker, but think like an employer. If you’ve never been a recruiter or hiring manager though, it would be hard to know exactly what that means and how to do it.

You can apply this “employer-focused” mindset to nearly every aspect of your search from writing your résumé to networking and interviewing. Let’s ...

Why do some people struggle so much in their job search and others don’t? Some people find a great new job in one month, some people it takes a year. Are some people just luckier? More experienced? Have inside connections that the rest of us don’t?

All of these are factors, but it’s not that cut and dry. Being a career coach and working with job seekers every day, I’m able to witness what makes some people more successful than others. I’m going to share with you the three factors that I believe differentiate the successful job seekers, from the unsuccessful ones.

If you want to cut down your job search time and get on with your life...read on.

Their search is focused. I’ve seen many clients ...

Facebook recently made the declaration that they are officially joining the job search arena. Facebook now allows employers to post jobs on their platform. Should LinkedIn be worried? Not immediately. Despite the overlap, Facebook and LinkedIn are such inherently different platforms, it’s unlikely that Facebook will thread too far into LinkedIn’s territory.

Here’s the bad news for LinkedIn: The postings are absolutely free.  Ever researched the cost of a LinkedIn Recruiter account? It’s anywhere from $2,400 to over $10,000 a year, depending on the plan you choose and if you pay annually or monthly. That presents a huge cost savings to employers.

Here’s the good news for LinkedIn: Though some people already use Facebook in their job search, my guess is that the good majority of people are not going to be willing to clean ...