New ways to find work

It’s not certain how the global market will recover in theaftermath of current conditions but the good news is that there’s a multitudeof ways to be more creative in your job search. In this article, I’m going tomake some suggestions that involve ideas the reader may have thought of andothers which are relatively new. Admittedly, much of the information here willbe focused on the United Kingdom but these ideas can be used anywherein the world. A small selection of the 26 ideas listed here will involve asmall amount of investment on your part and I’m fully aware of how much tightermoney is when one’s income is low or non-existent. But the way to look at it isthat there’s no more worthwhile investment than the one you make in yourself.Indeed, this rings truer when the stakes are high. The key to success in the job market now is to see yourselfas a brand and advertise yourself as acompany does. This endeavour is all about self promotion. You’re basicallymarketing yourself as Yourself PLC. So let’s get started. Upload your CV to CVlibraries This is an obvious one. You’re probably already doing this (oryou should be). The advantage of using online CV libraries is that they’reviewed by potential employers and agencies who are actively seeking recruits.This cuts out much of the effort involved in having to email your CV to everyrecruitment site individually. A Google search should bring up a whole list ofthem. This is one of the biggest: www.cv-library.co.uk Create a video CV In the age of YouTube, I’d be surprised if this wasn’t alreadya popular (and effective) method of letting people know you’re available. The video promo for employers could be as simple as justsetting up a camcorder on a tripod and addressing the camera directly with ascript or an off the cuff description, detailing your skills and experience. Asyou would when interviewing, you’d try to put across something of yourpersonality and look the camera straight in the lens (as you would with an interviewerstraight in the eye). The other end of the spectrum would be to use some fancypost production software to produce a slick multimedia presentation. The choiceis yours. The spoken content would simply be a list of the prestigiouscompanies you’ve worked for and one defining achievement you made for each oneor the great things you did for one company over many years. You’d obviously submit the video toYouTube but you couldalso give out copies burnt to CD or DVD at job fairs (which you’d be attendinganyway regardless – do an online search for upcoming events) and graduaterecruitment shows. Build a personal CVwebsite You could either do this or get one of the specialist webdesign companies which are now springing up everywhere online to do it for you.Personally, I’d opt for the cheaper option and save money. Learning HTML, thelanguage of the web isn’t difficult and there are many cheap and free softwaretools available. Of course, there are also countless online tutorials(including this one at my site: http://www.ebizdynamix.com/wdservices.html ) In my tutorial, I also mention ways of how to promote yoursite and get published online very cheaply or for free. Please look at this ideaas people are doing it and getting results. Build and write ablog Following on from the idea above, this technique is evenmore common to get employer interest. Again, I’ve written something which mayhelp ( http://www.ebizdynamix.com/MaintainYourBlog.html )and there are plenty of other resources online including sites where you canset up and maintain your blog for free. Using online promotion techniques toattract visitors, you could then put your blogs web address on anything you canwrite on including your CV, business cards, ads in shop windows, on specletters to employers and anywhere else you can think of. The blog couldbasically be about your ‘adventures’ trying to find a job and an expert eyeview of your particular industry. People are always hungry for valuableinformation and this could be an opportunity to express yourself as well asexpose your talent to the world. Join professionalsocial networking sites Again, this is something you’ve already done or must do.There are now a myriad of social networking sites geared towards professionalslike yourself and even the big ones such as MySpace and Facebook have sectionsfor professionals. These tools are great for spreading the word about yourskills, experience and availability. This is the most famous one which I’m sureyou’re aware of: http://www.linkedin.com/ Invite potentialemployers to a webinar This is a relatively new (as far as I know) idea but itfollows the same principle as what some independent musicians have done recentlywhere they’ve set up their equipment in their own living room and performed rightthere ‘in front of millions’. As long as you have a basic webcam set up on your PC, youcould do this. Send out an invite (either offline or online) to as manypotential employers as you can, detailing a time, date and virtual place(wherever they can access your live webcam broadcast) and do a presentation.Say how great you’d be as an asset to their company if they hired you and providesdetails of your experience. Again, it could be a simple presentation or a sophisticated multimediaexperience. It would be a great way to directly engage potential recruiters asa precursor to future working relationships. Create a cheap anddurable form of self presentation As mentioned before, it’s understandable when one’s out ofwork for a limit to be imposed on disposable income. However, as I said, you’rethe best thing you can invest in and one thing you can do as ‘your own company’would be to create cheap and durable promotional items like key fobs, coffeemugs, mouse mats or even T shirts. The cheapest (and possibly most effective)item could be a calendar. Sent to potential employers as a gift they’d obviously use itall year round (and remember you for this period) and you could make the thing nicelyand affordably. With a good word processor program or graphics software packageit wouldn’t take long to produce. A single sheet would suffice with all thedays and months of the year – or a 12 page document. When it was done you’dsend the finished product to as many companies as you could afford. Write an interestingtrade article Related to writing your own blog or having your own websiteis this journalistic suggestion. If you’ve worked in a particular trade for acertain amount of time, it’s fair to say you’ll be an expert on it and couldwrite a freelance article about it for a trade or industry magazine. Just like web surfers, magazine editors are always lookingfor good material. You could send them an article on spec, writing about yourown view of the job seeking experience and the way your industry is beingaffected by the current conditions. Potential recruiters would read this and beimpressed. Post free online ads to various sites including the free online adservice from Google Again, thinking like a brand thisis an option to consider. Free online ads are available from various sitesincluding community sites, social networking sites and Google in particular.This is something you’d be doing anyway if you ran a small business but there’sno reason why you can’t advertise as an individual with a given set of skillsand experience, looking for a particular type of job. Just enter the phrase Google local business center into theGoogle search bar and select the first link which appears. Auction yourself This is an online bidding systemthat certain websites have been running in recent years. If you’re a web orsoftware developer, you’re probably aware of such sites as www.rentacoder.com There’s now also asite aimed at employees in general – www.jobaphiles.com You’ll probably be competing with students who’d be trying to outbid each otherin terms of pricing themselves down but its an option. It all depends on yoursituation but check it out and see what you think. Do a Twitter job search It was only a matter of timebefore companies started using Twitter for serious stuff like recruitment. Suchis the influence of this online phenomenon. www.twitterjobsearch.com works in thesame way as the main site does. Companies basically post up to the minuteupdates about their activities in hiring people the same way individuals leaveSMS type messages about their latest activities. Organise a ‘job party’ Here’s another simple idea whichis relatively new. Get in touch with friends who are also looking for work (orcomplete strangers if you’re using a social networking website) and all of youcould contribute to hiring a hall or space at a business centre (you may allget a discount from group booking or from simply being jobseekers (as an addedincentive for company directors to come, see if you could hire catering anddrinks for the day)) where you’d all invite as many potential employers aspossible to come and have a chat, some food and some drink –and show yourselvesas potential recruits. The order of the day would be to ‘work the room like apro’ and network with multiple copies of your CV. Give your CV to friends and relatives to pass to their employers Obviously people are self interestedwhen things are tough but people are also people and not everyone’s all bad.Many (especially family members) like helping others and on this basis, this wouldbe another way of getting in front of employers. Target the companies that do well out of a recession in your job search As in fiction, its also the casethat in real life someone wins and someone loses. There are actually businessesout there which are thriving as a result of the global downturn. Thesecompanies also require all sorts of different staff (not just core staff) – sochances are they’ll need someone with your skills and experience. Indeed,they’re probably desperate to get someone like you because they’re picking upbusiness from previously successful enterprises as well their own. Suchcompanies could include debt collection agencies, loan companies, discountretailers and equipment rental or leasing firms and even temporary recruitmentagencies. Offer to work for free – at a price Do a deal with an employer whereif you work for free for a period of time with them, they’ll give you somethingin return other than simply lunch and travel expenses. They could perhaps offeryou first refusal of any paid jobs they might have in future or hire you in apaid job for a certain period of time after your ‘free’ period runs out. Yourfree period could be the length of time you’d be able to get unemploymentbenefits. You could explain to the jobcentre you’d still be actively seeking workand would be actually maintaining your skills –and thereby increasing yourchances of finding work by following this arrangement. Write a list of key words describing your skills and experience then enterit into Google You could do this then simply seewhat came up. Chances are, you’d get a list of companies currently seeking oremploying people of your background. Applying to them directly would probably cutout the time and procedure of having to go through agencies. Find out about new companies just starting up Get in there before anyone elsedoes. Many start ups obviously can’t afford to hire anyone in the early stagesbut if you presented yourself as reliable, professional and reasonable, youcould negotiate something. Perhaps you could work for free in the anticipationthat when the company became more solvent your position would be paid for. For UK readers, informationcan be found on start ups here: www.businesslink.gov.uk American readers can go here: http://www.smallbusinessnotes.com/fedgovernment.html Hire your own personal recruitment agent for a one off fee Of course if you ended up hiringyour own recruitment consultant as an ‘ongoing’ arrangement, you’d have toquestion their credibility as a recruitment consultant! Jokes aside, this couldbe a viable option for those who’ve been made redundant but were lucky enoughto get a good redundancy package (and a bit of spare cash to do this with).Place an ad somewhere to attract a good person and check them out thoroughly.The irony here is that you’re the jobseeker and also the recruiter. Someonealready working for an agency who fancies a bit of ‘private work’ may be a goodperson to hire. Buy into a job Put up some money to buy a sharein a business start up. Offer to actually provide a contribution through workif you can’t afford to invest much. Similarly to finding a start up to workfor, when the company starts to makes a profit, you’d eventually be paid. Contact a blogger who’s also an employer Responding to blog posts withcomments over a period of time helps to build working relationships andfriendships in the professional world. Many companies now have active bloggerswho write about their companies and industries in general. Keep correspondingwith a writer who’s blog you’re interested in. Show them through your commentsthat you’re knowledgeable, interesting and constructive. Chances are you’ll oneday be invited for an informal chat / interview. And there we are. I hopesomething in this list has got your interest, given you further ideas or atleast provided you with an interesting article. Remember, perseverance is thekey to finding a job –especially in today’s market and the more things you try,the more chance you’ll have of finding something. Good luck in your job searchand all the best to you.

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