Career design is possible.

I had the awesome opportunity last night to attend a workshop led by Lindsay Mustain. Lindsay is on fire with all of the awesome tips and strategies she has to find that dream job and describes herself as a recruiter gone rogue. I highly recommend checking out her workshops and posts. I met Lindsay through another awesome connection Tim Salau. Tim is also worth checking out his posts and the gems he drops on the daily. The Future of Work is bright indeed. Relationships equals networking and networking equals branding. Building quality connections is fun and extremely important in the world of today and so is building your brand to let others know who you are and what you stand for.

I was lucky to attend one of her workshops for free and it helped me reevaluate some of my strategies that I was doing to be better at doing the things I am currently doing and stopping doing some of the things I was doing that Lindsay helped me realize were not working. A light bulb went off in my head and I would like to share some gems Lindsay dropped at this workshop. Ready to read? Good! This is going to be a lengthy article, but I promise if you read the whole thing there are many tips in here that can help out and get you started.

From our darkest times come our greatest accomplishments, so let us jump right in. We all feel overwhelmed at times and could use some guidance. I know I am bad at asking for advice because I always get caught up in the thrill of helping others that I do not take that much time to reflect on the things I am doing and seek out the input of others. I sometimes feel like no matter what I am doing that I am staying in place. I recently heard that an arrow needs to be pulled back so much before it can take a shot. So if you are struggling, just remember to keep going, do not get discouraged, and your shot is coming. Now that we are motivated, I would like to recap this workshop. Dream job hacking is real and it is within reach of all of us to do.

There are three legs of a dream job. The right job, the right company, and the right salary. The intersection of these is the dream job zone. This is a good spot to introduce what a job search strategy is and this is a good template to follow.

Research: Targeted, short list of places you would actually like to work for. Research the company culture, try to gain insights from current employees by building relationships with them, and research anything and everything you can. Glassdoor and other sites might help with this.

Business intelligence: Understanding what is happening in that company. What pain points they are going through, and what struggles they are going through. This is good to know because said company is going to hire to solve that pain. Finding the pain point and showing how you can solve the pain point is going to get you places.

Value proposition: There are two parts to this. First is the "I am" statement. This is who you are, why you are qualified, and what you can offer to a company. Second is the targeted company value proposition. This is how you play a part in that company, and why you want to work there. (This could be a good place to practice/develop your elevator pitch too).

Outreach: This is the planning stage of this. Planning for the outreach. Pick people who are the right connections for you. I struggle with this and it is hard to do. I used to shoot out connection requests to everyone and anyone. You must be targeted with this. Quality over quantity is very important. Planning to reach out to people in roles you would like to do, learn more about, and could see yourself doing. Plan to reach out to people it makes since for you to connect with. It does not hurt to ask for help. Do it in the right ways.

Contact: This is the contact stage. Reach out to those people you planned too by providing value and building a relationship. Get to know them first and without asking for things. You cannot begin with an ask. You can do this by providing value in many ways. I will leave this up to you to decide. Just do not begin by asking for things. No one likes a taker and this could brand you as one if you are always asking for things. Be a giver and good things will happen when you help others.

Get referred: This usually happens after a while of building a relationship with someone. I have had this happen two ways. You can ask for one after building a relationship for awhile or you can let it happen naturally where the person offers to refer you. It works differently for everyone and takes different amounts of time to get to this stage when someone feels comfortable and knows you enough to be willing to do this for you. I have asked for a referral after awhile of talking to someone because asking for help is OK. Just do it in the right ways and after building a connection the right way. Do the work for them. Provide the job title, requisition number, tool your resume to the role, etc. Make it easy for them to refer you. The other way is to let it naturally happen. This is when after a while of getting to know someone they offer to help you and refer you and most of the time they ask which roles you are interested in and will then refer you. Both ways have worked for me and they can work for anyone.

ATS (applicant tracking system): This applicant tracking system is still a thing and there is no system that does not do it this way. An applicant tracking system in its basic form is structured in the following way. Name, date you applied, position, and status. This is where the bias kicks in and the traditional way of applying to jobs is going to fail you. Notice that there is no column stating whether you passed tests, interviewed well, were a strong candidate, etc. This is where most recruiters have spreadsheets etc. with this other contextual information. This is totally up to them to do and some do not. So let us say you applied the normal way and the statuses show that you were rejected, applied to different types of roles, and over many years. This is where the bias kicks in that you are not qualified to work for that company. That is a fallacy and it is the way things are if you apply to jobs the normal way. An application is a waste of time for job seekers and you need to tap into the unposted job pool by networking and building genuine connections and building your personal brand.

Beating ATS (applicant tracking system): Next up is beating the broken system. Let us discuss first the easy apply button. You can apply using this and it just gives a recruiter more work to sort through. Most of the times when someone uses the easy apply button, they are not qualified for that role. You also are more likely to apply and get accepted to Harvard then get a job interview using traditional methods. There are ways to beat ATS. You can beat the bots using Jobscan which is website that helps with keyword optimization for your LinkedIn and resume. You can also beat ATS by getting referrals and tapping into the unposted job network through networking.

General tips/assumptions/insights on jobs: There are many assumptions/tips/insights concerning jobs and the way things are today.

• If you are unemployed a long time, there is an assumption something is wrong.
• Younger or older than 35 age bias kicks in. 35 is the sweet spot. Older or younger than 35 and age bias kicks in.
• Only 20% of available jobs are posted.
• You are fishing in a puddle if you apply to jobs the traditional way.
• 4 out of 5 jobs are not posted.
• Hiring managers frequently already have selected a candidate.
• Many jobs are not required to be posted if they are denoted as business critical jobs.
• Recruiters are motivated to fill jobs quickly by keeping pools of interested candidates.
• Easy apply button equals a hot mess.
• Job boards are lying to you, fair consideration does not work.
• You cannot fix the system, but you can fix you. You are your own circle of control.

Networking and personal branding: Here is an uplifting section after all of those dreary insights into the way things are going right now with the traditional job search method.

Networking and personal branding is fun and can help you out in many ways to tap into the unposted job network and meet interesting connections. Do not be a taker though. Give back and help others and connect those people you connect with to others. Build a circle of helping. We are stronger together and networking will help you meet like-minded individuals. Building a personal brand by posting content you are passionate about and showing people who you are and what you stand for is extremely important today. Connect the dots about who you are and what you stand for by showing this on LinkedIn and your interactions with others. When connecting be personal, use the person's name, send an actual note after doing some research into the person you wish to connect with, have a step by step game plan, and you need to get referred. Getting referred helps get you into the unposted job network. There are many resources on networking effectively and building your personal brand. Just remember it is an iterative process and one that you get better at doing over time. If you are worried about starting branding and networking, do not be and just do it. People realize how hard it is and will help guide you along the way. Reach out to people and get to know them. If you are genuine and sincere, they will help. People like helping out and everyone has been at that point where they can use someone's help.

Job search cycle: In closing, I would just like to touch on this quick.

• Targeted job search strategies are king.
• Not qualifications that get you a job, it is your network.

Job search cycle: This is the cycle of a typical job search.

1. Career design (finding your super power trifecta, those three things you are really good at to find your zone of genius, and designing your career around those three things).
2. Resume (show what your brand is and confirm it, targeted resumes).
3. LinkedIn (building your personal brand here is a good place to start, posting content, interacting with others, networking effectively).
4. Personal branding (this can be done on LinkedIn and it is showing people who you are and what you stand for, post content).
5. Job search strategy (see above section on job search strategy, and remember being targeted is key, do not be so broad that you get blacklisted for not looking like you know what you are doing).
6. Interview (this is the last part of the cycle and it is very important, practice, practice, practice, seek out others to help you practice, be so good and genuine and fluid that you could interview in your sleep).

What are some of your thoughts on dream job hacking and any resources you all have come across that could be of use to others on their journeys? Please share below. Thanks for reading.