Listen to our Monthly Friday VIP Job Seeker Office Hours Event - Friday, December 6, 2024 - Ep 007

This podcast episode features the audio of our monthly First Friday VIP Job Seeker Office Hours event from Friday, December 6, 2024. We offer this free session every First Friday from 10 - 11 am ET. Registration is required to get the zoom link to join. 

This was held on Zoom and broadcast live on YouTube. 

• Info & register (free): https://www.mellermarketing.com/fridayvip
  
  
• Watch it on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/RzWdMwx1j1M?si=JpgPe7Ij01w4pEAF?sub_confirmation=1

Summary – VIP Job Seeker Office Hour – Friday, December 6, 2024

 - **Event Introduction**: Brenda Meller introduces the monthly VIP Job Seeker Office Hours, featuring job search experts like Kenneth Lang, Mindy Stern, Linda Brubaker, Diana Stephens, Joey Himmelfarb, and others. They offer career strategy, resume writing, coaching, and more (00:00-04:00).

- **All Stars Introductions**:

  - **Sue Mentors**: Global mentoring consultancy, support for job seekers’ progress (04:00-05:30).

  - **Mindy Stern**: Hosts an accelerator job search group, advises building networks (05:30-07:00).

  - **Diana Stephens**: Mindfulness-based career coach, focuses on managing anxiety during job searches (07:00-08:30).

  - **Jay Colan**: Career coach, emphasizes the importance of social networking in December (08:30-10:00).

  - **Linda Brubaker**: Hosts weekly job search support group, January session with Brenda (10:00-11:30).

  - **Paul Sacala**: Career coach, author of a recognized book for job seekers (11:30-13:00).

  - **Kenneth Lang**: Job search support groups, mentions Ed Han’s legacy (13:00-14:30).

  - **Joey Himmelfarb**: Focuses on helping job seekers sell themselves (14:30-15:30).

  - **Christopher Johnson**: Zoom expert, offers support for virtual event technology (15:30-17:00).

- **New Participants Introductions**:

  - **Daniel**: Seeking a client service associate position in Westchester County, NY (17:00-18:00).

  - **Greg Larson**: Seeking roles in quality assurance or validation in pharmaceutical industry in DC/Baltimore area (18:00-19:00).

  - **Olivia Veselli**: Director of Talent Acquisition, known Brenda from Walsh College events (19:00-20:00).

- **Q&A**:

  - **Jordan**: How to stand out in job search amidst changes. Advice includes networking, showing deliverables, and positive energy (20:00-27:00).

  - **Anonymous**: Verifying confidential job postings are not scams. Advice includes skepticism, confirming recruiter legitimacy (27:00-30:00).

  - **Tricia**: Tips for a second-round interview in BNY Mellon. Advice includes showcasing results, making it conversational, positive LinkedIn engagement (30:00-35:00).

  - **Angela**: Encountering issues with U.S. citizenship requirement despite correct application. Advice includes reconfirming citizenship status with hiring manager, considering pipeline management (35:00-40:00).

- **Zoom and Lighting Tips**: Brenda provides tips on framing, camera positioning, and lighting during virtual interviews (40:00-45:00).

- **Meller Marketing Job Seeker Mantra**: Affirmations to boost confidence and maintain a positive mindset during th

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Brenda Meller: Hi, my friend in today's episode of the podcast, I'm bringing you one of my monthly VIP job-seeker office hours events. And this is something I do on the first Friday of every month from 10 to 11:00 AM Eastern time. Sometimes some months we go a little bit over, which is what we did in this current episode. And what I do is I bring in a variety of different. 

[00:00:23] I call them all stars, they're job search strategy experts, people. Like Kenneth Lang Mindy stern, Linda Brubaker, Diana Stephens, Joey Himmelfarb, and many more. And they are all specializing in their respective areas with career strategy, resume writing, coaching, sometimes LinkedIn coaching as well. 

[00:00:43] They support the job seeker community and they volunteer their time to come on with me once a month and to help to answer questions from job seekers. And we bring this as a free event. We've been doing this for years. I actually started during the pandemic as a weekly event. And we now do this once a month. And it creates a community of job seekers. [00:01:00] It's a great support system. Also provides to those of you who are in career transition, a place to come to every month. 

[00:01:06] This event is held on zoom. When we also broadcast it live to YouTube, where you can watch the playback later. And I will include the YouTube link in the show notes. If you want to watch the visual version. Because we do do some onscreen demonstrations. 

[00:01:21] And my goal is that you will leave feeling inspired. You have a place to come and get some of those questions answered and also a place to share some success stories with our group as well. So I hope you do enjoy the episode. I will include the link in show notes. If you'd like to join us next month. And other than that, I hope you have a wonderful day. 

[00:01:39] All right. So I'm going to go ahead and officially kick us off. Welcome. My name is Brenda Meller. I am your host. This is a monthly call that I put together, and I call this Friday VAP Job Seeker Office Hours. We actually used to meet weekly during the pandemic. We were doing this every week, and then we decided to go to a monthly frequency.

[00:01:56] So we now meet on the first Friday of every month. [00:02:00] And I've got a great group of what I call all stars who are helping me out with running the call here today. I'll ask all the all stars if you haven't already done so, raise your hand so I can make you a co host. And we are going to be starting with introductions of the all stars.

[00:02:16] And then we will I'm going to ask a few of you who are attending the call. If you're new today, I want you to go into chat and say new. And I'll pick maybe two or three job seekers who are new to the call to introduce yourself to get you some additional visibility. What other things that I want to tell you before I start to do this?

[00:02:33] This is a free call. It is being broadcast right now on YouTube. So if you do want to watch the playback of this again later, I'm going to drop this inside the chat. So you can grab the link. We also have a private unlisted group on LinkedIn, where I'll be dropping the playback link inside that group as well.

[00:02:52] If you can't find the YouTube link, don't worry, just join our LinkedIn group. This is private and unlisted, which means it doesn't show on [00:03:00] your profile. And you can't find the link to get into this group unless you know me. And when you come in, you're going to have to knock on the door, so to speak.

[00:03:07] You'll have to request to join the group. I'll look through the peephole, make sure that you're a job seeker, and then I will admit you inside the group. So feel free to visit the link that I put inside chat right now and request to join the group. And if you ever see job postings, resources that can be helpful to job seekers, those types of things, I want to encourage you to share them inside the group.

[00:03:29] This group is like our flagpole outside the house. And if you've been on the call, you've heard the story before, but just follow along with me. So when we were back in like elementary school, remember what, how they used to do like fire drills and they would say okay, now we did the fire drill at school, now you need to do a fire drill at home with your family.

[00:03:45] And part of what you need to do as a family is decide where everybody's going to meet outside of the house, outside of your property, if there's a fire in the middle of the night. Because you're not going to meet on the front porch because the house is on fire. So you're probably going to meet at the flagpole at the neighbor's house a few yards down.

[00:03:59] [00:04:00] So the LinkedIn group is our flagpole. It's where we can all meet. As a VAP job seeking community to share resources with each other to ask questions. Pretty much after I start these calls, I don't check my email on LinkedIn. So if you're having difficulty finding the link to join. go into there, someone will answer it.

[00:04:17] We've got a very active group, and I think we're just under a thousand members inside that group right now. So feel free to, to go in there and use that group to share information, to gather information, even look for job postings. A lot of job postings are being shared inside the group. All right, and we will be planning to go for the full hour today.

[00:04:34] I'm going to do a quick check on my calendar to see, because some months we can go a little bit over. Actually, we can go a little bit over today. So we might go to 11, 15, 11, 20, just to let you know if you need to leave at 11. No worries, but we'll keep that in mind here. All right, so the next thing I'm going to do is I'm going to pull up our all stars and I'm going to put you on screen in groups of four and I will ask you to please introduce yourself and please talk to us about [00:05:00] any offers you have for job seekers, any freebies, any upcoming events, anything you'd like to tell us about.

[00:05:06] Sue, you will go first and then Sue, once you're done with the introduction, you'll go to Mindy and I'll just keep rotating in the all stars until we get through all of you. Go ahead. 

[00:05:13] Sue Griffey: Thanks, Brenda. We all here love being the all stars to help you all out. Mindy said, you don't love being here the reason for it, but we're going to get you through December.

[00:05:23] Frigid December. Everybody's suffering. That's why I've got heavy sweaters on. I am Sue Mentors. I have a global mentoring consultancy. I practice with people all over the world. I am happy to have a chat if that would help you. There are a couple people here who have talked through various situations, in addition to all the advice you get.

[00:05:44] But the most important thing, watch for these today. Mindy already got them. I bring my pom poms to celebrate things that we don't even think should be celebrated. And we've learned across the various groups, Mindy, Linda, Diana, Brenda, Ken. We should be [00:06:00] celebrating any progress. If you got up today and you said, I'm going to do one application before the weekend, that's a success for you.

[00:06:07] So let us help remind you that it's okay to celebrate it and take the pace that you need. All right. I'm passing it on, I think, to Mindy. I forgot to listen, Brenda. I'm sorry. Anyway, thank you. 

[00:06:20] Mindy Stern: You're listening, Sue. And just last month, Sue and I were together in real life. I can't believe it was already a month ago.

[00:06:27] So I'm so happy to be here today to talk to you guys. We have all been there, done that. I was laid off. I got back up. I know how to do all these things and you don't need to recreate the wheel. And so if you have questions please share them with us. I am so thrilled that I am part of this community.

[00:06:48] It's been a blessing for me and for so many people. I want to share with you that I host an accelerator group. That's the accelerated job search group. And every single month we [00:07:00] host a wonderful speaker. And this month we have the brilliant Brenda Meller coming. That's on Tuesday. I'm putting it in the chat right now.

[00:07:10] Please register. I must tell you, though, that we have right now, as of today, 115 people who are registered for that on Tuesday. I suggest number 1, register today with the link I just put into the chat. Number 2, arrive a little bit early on Tuesday, because I only have 100 seats. I assume we're going to go way over 115 today with you guys registering.

[00:07:34] And we can only have 100. So that would be great, Brenda. If we had 100 on Tuesday, I'd love that. And Brenda's going to be answering all your questions. So come prepared with questions if they don't get answered today. Maybe we'll get to them on Tuesday, hopefully. And so I'm going to pass this over to Diana.

[00:07:49] Welcome Diana to the group and I'm happy to see you and happy to see everyone have it. 

[00:07:54] Diana Stephens: Thank you. Happy Friday. Everybody. I'm Diana Stevens. I am a mindfulness based career [00:08:00] coach and I too am starting a job seeker group. It'll be next Friday. At 12 noon, and I did put the link in the chat. I will put all my information in the chat again.

[00:08:10] And what I do is I work with job seekers who with confronted with the panic and anxiety to help form a mindfulness based career action plan so that you can shorten your time to landing. And I'm also pleased to announce that I'm going to be joining Kenneth as a colleague at Leigh Hecht Harrison. I am starting on Monday in a part time position as a brand specialist helping to work with clients of Leigh Hecht Harrison on their resumes and on their LinkedIn profiles.

[00:08:41] Very excited about that. A whole new chapter in pivoting my career from customer success into coaching and outplacement. I look forward to meeting all of you and please check out my link for my job seeker group next Friday and some of your all stars from this group will also be on my call next Friday.

[00:08:58] So we'll have a [00:09:00] continuation of the networking and we're going to take a look at how to best maximize December. For your networking and your career action plan. So I look forward to meeting all of you. Please do connect to me on LinkedIn and I'm, and do click on the link for the job seeker group and you can register.

[00:09:16] It'll, my group will be via zoom and you need to register through zoom. So I look forward to seeing all of you next Friday. And I'll pass it to Jay. 

[00:09:26] Jay Colan: Okay. Welcome everyone. And I've been, haven't been here for a while. And one thing I tell people about this group is that I, I think so much of the search, we work with people on tactics and strategy, but what I think the wonderful thing about group is it gives you a positive energy and a spirit.

[00:09:43] And we, I always leave it energized and I find it such a great way to Even though it's like Friday to begin the your work again to get read rejuvenated and I'm a career coach. My main work is doing through a partner Partners [00:10:00] International, which is a Basically a career management slash outplacement firm.

[00:10:04] I have worked at Lehigh and had a wonderful time there. So congratulations on both of you for for being there and getting there and the main thing I will tell people is and I know John, who's on this call has heard this from me already. Sorry about that. Is that, uh, I never want to say it's a good time to look for a job, but December is a social month.

[00:10:26] There are parties, get to every family event, every community event, get to every networking event you can, because all year long, these professional associations are talking about, they have panels and discussions. The December meetings are social. And so get to any of those. In fact, that was if you've worked with vendors, your vendors will have parties.

[00:10:52] In fact, I was running a call yesterday and someone said, Oh, I know of a party with the law firm that works with your area. [00:11:00] So approach your vendors. They will have access to the trade association parties because they sponsor them. So get out there, talk to people. The other thing I'll say, just Briefly, and I'm sorry to go on about this, is that this is when all the budget games happen.

[00:11:16] People are finalizing their budget, so get in front of people now, because there may be, they may need to have somebody to, I know people started jobs in January, to because they and it's, they were told, hey, I hired you because I had a rationalized, started jobs in December, I have to rationalize a job in January be in front of people, because they gotta, and when a new, Budget year starts in three weeks.

[00:11:41] They're going to need to bring people in. So use this time, get out there and best of luck to everyone. And Brenda, thanks for having me on this call. And I pass it on to Linda. 

[00:11:53] Linda Brubaker: Hello everybody. I'm Linda Brubaker. And like all of the other all stars here, I'm a career coach. And what we're doing is [00:12:00] we're all here because this is our way of giving back to you.

[00:12:03] As Mindy and Brenda both said at the very beginning, we know you don't want to be here. And our goal is to give you the tips, the tricks, the support, so that you don't have to be here again. We want to help you all find your next forever jobs. And so our goal is to make sure that we can support you in whatever way that we can.

[00:12:24] Like me. Mindy and Brenda and Diana, I too host a free job search support group. In fact, I'm going to put the link in the chat in a moment, and I'm actually working with several of you. And I see several people who are on those Wednesday calls already on this group. And I think it's fantastic. What we're going to be talking about actually next Wednesday, and it's a free group as I mentioned, but you do have to register.

[00:12:47] Next Wednesday, we're actually talking about your job search to do list for the end of the year, things that you can talk about, things that you can do so that you position yourself well, not only for the end of the year, but for the [00:13:00] job search that starts in the beginning of the year to help you get this thing moving.

[00:13:06] Brenda is actually going to be joining us in January. So if you don't get your questions answered today or at Mindy's call next week, or this week, you can join us on January 15th, and Brenda's going to be there to answer some calls as well. Please reach out, I'm happy to connect with anyone, and I'm also happy to have a quick conversation if anybody wants one.

[00:13:28] I'm going to pass it over to Paul. See you soon. 

[00:13:33] Paul Cecala: Thanks, Linda. And welcome as well to everyone. What I love about being a part of this group is with all of these different career coaches, We all get to hear different perspectives and points of view and I never leave this meeting without learning something.

[00:13:50] And so I'm so grateful for all the other coaches and all that you bring to the meeting for us. My name is Paul Sacala. I'm known as the [00:14:00] Project Planning Career Coach, and Brenda, I'm going to give a celebration. My book that I've published in March has just been named by bookauthority. org as the number two best read for new job seekers.

[00:14:18] in 2024. Take control of your job search. It's available on Amazon if anyone is interested. Like everybody else, there's a bunch of groups that I co facilitate or facilitate, and I'm also an active guest speaker at groups. So if you know of any group that would like to have a guest speaker, I'd be happy to come in and talk to them as well.

[00:14:38] It's wonderful always to give back to the job seeker community. And, That's why I'm here. And that's why I love what I learned from this group. So thank you all. Look forward to helping you. Ken, Tag, you're it. 

[00:14:52] Kenneth Lang: Thanks a lot, Paul. Hi, everyone. Kenneth Lang. I I also run job support groups. I'm actually Leah Harrison is a part time consultant too, and I put a [00:15:00] link to the, in the chat if anyone else wants to apply, because I'll be on the lookout for that.

[00:15:03] And Diana. So excited for you to start with us and join our branding sessions and join our calls. It's an amazing group of people. In addition to my events, I'm also involved with My Networking Central, which is a website that we're going to be linking out events to and pull just so you know, we actually have just changed a bunch of the functionality to make it easier to put events on there, but I have to be honest.

[00:15:25] I'm a little bit sad today as a lot of my New Jersey folks know, with the passing of Ed Han. Ed Han was a wonderful guy, great career coach. We've all been in honoring him putting his Ed Talks up as posts on LinkedIn today. And I just saw him, just talked to him a few days ago, when we got the news Wednesday morning, as Paul alluded to, we were all in shock.

[00:15:46] We knew it was going to happen, we didn't know the timing of it. But, so I'm here to support Ed, and one of the things that Ed always put down is, he always wanted to pay it forward. He was someone more than anyone else who I absolutely respected, [00:16:00] and you could agree to disagree with him, he would always be there to support you and everyone else, so I'm going to be continuing his legacy, I hope everyone else here does too, and Joey, take it away.

[00:16:11] Joey Himelfarb: Thanks Ken. Good morning all, I'm Joey Himelfarb, I am a retired salesperson, even though I have a background in physics and engineering. I've learned, I've taken what I've learned about selling, which is a science, but also an art. And turned it into a book and a follow up as well. I'm helping job seekers sell themselves in the marketplace.

[00:16:27] I've been doing that for two plus decades. That's how I spend my day. I'm on these calls all the time, looking for people to help and guide and support and influence, and just help them remain positive and upbeat in what is probably a, definitely a challenging time. So happy to help in any way I can.

[00:16:42] Chris, up to you. 

[00:16:44] Christopher Johnson: Thanks, Joey. So I'm Christopher Johnson. Name of my company is CalmClearMedia. And what I do is help speakers, trainers, and authors. And organizations put on virtual events without the stress of technology. I do that [00:17:00] by making people comfortable. One of the things, or a few things that you can do on this call to be comfortable, we'll be using the raise hand feature and the reactions.

[00:17:08] So you can find those in your toolbar. And if you hear something that is really celebratory. You can cheer using the reactions in the toolbar when Brenda calls on you and to make it easier for her to call on you use the raise hand function that is also in the toolbar. So while I am not a career person or career coach, I help people with technology.

[00:17:31] So what my offer is every month I put on a office hours for zoom. So when there are questions, concerns, quandaries. Whatever befuddles you in Zoom, bring it to the office hours and we can get it resolved. Brenda,

[00:17:46] Brenda Meller: I need to unmute myself. There we go. Wonderful. Thank you so much to the all stars for being here, for those wonderful introductions. Hopefully you've all dropped your links into chat. So if any of the job seekers who are joining us here today, let us know. Would like to follow up on those [00:18:00] events, on those resources, or listen to you or learn from you directly, maybe work with you.

[00:18:05] We give you the opportunity to do I want to let you all know the All Stars are volunteering their time to come here month after month. So if anyone ever comes to me and says, I need help with interviewing prep, or I need help with a resume, or I need a job seeker coach, I always refer people to the All Stars first because they're so generous and coming in here and volunteering their time every month.

[00:18:23] So do keep them in mind. And I highly recommend that you connect with them. Okay how we're going to do the call here today, and we are going to go a little bit over I don't have a hard stop at 11 today, so we're going to go a little bit over, maybe 11. here, we're going to start with any, anyone who is on the call here today who is new I'm going to call three volunteers who put the word new into chat.

[00:18:45] So I'm scrolling up right now to see if anyone has already done so. I see Daniel, if you could please raise your hand so I can call on you here. Daniel, you'll go first and I'll give you instructions in just a second. Greg Larson, you are new. So Greg, if you could [00:19:00] please raise your hand and Olivia. Olivia Viseli.

[00:19:04] So Olivia is new. So Christopher, if you see any of those three individuals, if you could add a spotlight to them and bring them up on screen. While we are doing that, what we're going to ask you folks to do, starting with Daniel, is we're going to have you tell us your name, what is the job title that you are seeking, and what is your targeted geographic area.

[00:19:26] And finally, how did you hear about the call? Okay. And I want to remind you, we've got a lot to cover in the call. Sometimes people start to get into the backstory, what I did before, what I'm looking for next. I want you to get succinct. And this is really important, not just for the timing of this call, but because over the next month or two or three, people will be saying, what are you looking for?

[00:19:45] And you need to get succinct at saying, I'm seeking a marketing director position in Metro Detroit, right? So I want you to get succinct at doing this. So Daniel, I think you are video off, but if you could unmute yourself, I would love you to tell us your name. your [00:20:00] targeted job title and targeted geographic area.

[00:20:02] Daniel: Hello everyone. My current or last position was as a client service associate. And in that role, I worked for a a law firm and my current job search is focused on in that area as a client service associate in that field. And my geographical. area is in the Westchester County, New York City metropolitan area.

[00:20:26] And if anybody knows of anybody that could possibly help me in this targeted area I would appreciate it. 

[00:20:34] Brenda Meller: Wonderful. And Daniel, how did you hear about this call? I know the answer, but tell the audience how you heard about this call. 

[00:20:40] Daniel: I found out about it through an email, or, I think it was through an email through LinkedIn.

[00:20:45] LinkedIn. And then I was directed to your group that way. 

[00:20:49] Brenda Meller: Wonderful. 

[00:20:50] Daniel: Yeah. 

[00:20:50] Brenda Meller: All right. Thank you for joining us, Daniel. And I'll remind you, Daniel, if you could please drop your introduction inside the chat, and I'm going to remind everyone of what we're looking for in your [00:21:00] introduction. I'm going to drop it in here one more time, in case you missed it earlier.

[00:21:03] But, You don't need to say, My name is Brenda Meller, because it will say, Zoom will say, Brenda Meller to everyone. So it already has your name at the top, so you don't need to say that, but say, your targeted job title, your targeted geographic area, and include your LinkedIn URL, and make sure it has the HTTPS, because then it's blue and clickable, and people can invite you to connect while we're on the call here today.

[00:21:23] Alright, we're going to move off of Daniel, now on to Greg, and Greg, if you could unmute yourself, tell us your name, your targeted job title, Targeted geographic area, and how did you hear about us? 

[00:21:36] Greg Larson (job seeker): Okay my name is Greg Larson my targeted job is either in quality assurance or validation in the pharmaceutical industry.

[00:21:45] My targeted area is the Washington, D. C. Baltimore area. And how I heard about this is I got an email that was sent from my sister, Angela Larson. 

[00:21:55] Brenda Meller: Oh, wonderful. Yeah, Angela. I remember her from, I think she joined us during the [00:22:00] pandemic, if I'm not mistaken. So delighted to hear from you and thank you so much for joining us, Greg.

[00:22:06] All right. We'll move on next to Olivia and Olivia, if you could unmute yourself, tell us your name, targeted job title, targeted geographic area, and how did you hear about us? 

[00:22:17] Job Seeker: Good morning, everyone. Olivia Veselli. I have over 13 years of experience in HR and the targeted role that I'm looking for is Director of Talent Acquisition.

[00:22:27] The, how I heard about you, Brenda I've known you for years met in person at Walsh College. So I follow you on social media quite a bit. I believe it was one of your postings although I probably have multiple channels where I receive your messages. I think it was one of your. messages that led me to this group.

[00:22:45] Nice to meet everyone. 

[00:22:46] Brenda Meller: Nice to see you on the call. Thank you so much, Olivia. So wonderful. So there's just three individuals that are joining us on the call here today. And we've got a really full group. We've got almost 50 people that are on the call. And I remember when my son was in high school, I was talking to one [00:23:00] of the teachers one day and he was talking to the seniors and he said, I want to encourage you like today, walk around the halls and see who's not talking to anyone and say hi to them.

[00:23:10] Ask them how they're doing, because, they, they may be struggling, and I know that when you're in career transition, you may feel like you're very isolated, because you come from a situation where you were part of a team, right? You were doing what needed to be done to help the company.

[00:23:23] Maybe you were part of the leadership team, or maybe you were managing a team, or maybe you were an independent worker, but you were part of a team, right? And you talked to people on your lunch break, and you did the things to support them. Maybe you stayed late to help a friend, coworker, they stayed to help you.

[00:23:36] And all of a sudden, one day you were walked into a conference room with HR or sent an email or a phone call, always on a Friday, right? And told that your position is being eliminated because the company is going through some financial troubles and blah, blah, blah. And it's not personal is what they say, but it is personal because your life is being impacted and all of a sudden you go from being a part of a team To being thrown out there by yourself [00:24:00] and it can feel very isolating going through So I want to let you all know that I see you and I'm just gonna say hi and welcome all of you to our Call today.

[00:24:08] Good morning, and welcome to Mindy, Christopher, Diana, Jay, Joey, Kenneth, Paul, Sue, Amy, Angela Oh, we've got Angela with us too. Nice to see you. Anthony, Austin, Christine Daniel, David B, David M, David S, Club David in the house Diane, Elena, George, Greg, Heidi, Jill, John, nice to see you, Jordan Jose, Karen, Linda, Melissa G.,

[00:24:36] Melissa W., We've got Michael, Michelle, nice to see you, Mike, Nancy, how you doing? Nicholas, Olivia, Ray, Sandra, Scott, Sophie, And Sophie X. We have Stacey, Tamara, Tammy, Trisha, Wendy, and Katya, and my apologies if I've mispronounced any of your names. But I see that you are here today, and I [00:25:00] want you to know that we are glad to have you on the call with us.

[00:25:03] As we are getting started, I'll let you know, what we're going to do is we're going to start to move into some Q& A. as well as sharing of success stories next. So the way that this will work is if you have a question, I want you to type the word question into chat, and I'm just going to do a quick example.

[00:25:19] The word question should be in all caps, followed by the full question. And then do the raise your hand function inside Zoom, click under where it has raise hand, so the little, Orange hand thing goes up on you. That way I can call on you and then we can ask the all stars to help to answer your question and by typing in the word question in all caps, followed by the full question in chat.

[00:25:41] That way, even if we can't get to you, some other people will respond to you inside the chat and the chat is going to be pretty lit up today. We're going to have a lot of activity that's going inside there. And you can also download the chat. I'll remind you at the end of the call how to do this as well.

[00:25:54] But at the top of the chat navigation, you should see three dots. If you click on the three dots, you can click on Save [00:26:00] Chat, and it'll save a top copy of the chat transcript to your downloads area. Now, it only saves it at the time, that you do the saving. So you'll need to save it again at the end of the call if you just tested it out right now.

[00:26:11] Okay. All right. So I want to see if there are any questions. And if you do have a question, again, type it into chat. The question might be, what do I do in December for my job search? It might be, I've got an interview coming up. Any tips for me? It might be, I'm negotiating salary. Do you have any suggestions?

[00:26:29] It might be, I'm not getting any interviews right now, so tell us what your questions are. And. the All Stars and myself, we are here to help you. Don't be shy. This is your time. And sometimes we'll have people that will say, Can you look at my profile and give me some pointers? So that might be a question that you have.

[00:26:45] So don't be shy, but we do need you to go into the chat to type in the question. So I see a question in here from Jordan Apple. And Jordan, are you able to come up on screen with us. I'll see if Christopher can help me to [00:27:00] bring Jordan up on screen and we will ask your, answer your question. So Jordan asks, how can we navigate the job search while adapting to changes in the market and the search process?

[00:27:13] It can be overwhelming to keep up with these changes while on the search. All right, so let's see if I can find Jordan or Christopher. If you can find him, we'll bring him up on the screen here. He might be video off right now. 

[00:27:25] Job Seeker: Thanks, Brenda. Yeah, I'm dealing with a cold, so I'll just say, Oh, 

[00:27:28] Brenda Meller: no problem.

[00:27:29] Okay. 

[00:27:29] Job Seeker: All right. Did you want to 

[00:27:31] Brenda Meller: give us any clarification on the circumstances that led to that question? So tell us a little bit more. 

[00:27:37] Job Seeker: I think it's just generally, because there's so many different, Changes, for example, that ATS on what to put on your resume, keywords on LinkedIn, the things that worked six months ago now do not.

[00:27:49] It's just trying to navigate while applying for the same thing, the jobs, because sometimes you, you try some things and it doesn't work. Say, because I've had a few interviews this [00:28:00] year and that went well, but sometimes it led to you want someone with more experience. And so whether it's just really turn the bottom of the question behind the question away is.

[00:28:10] What else can I do so I can stand out in the job search while navigating changes to stand out from other candidates? 

[00:28:17] Brenda Meller: Okay, so how to stand out from other candidates and how to navigate the job search market. I'll ask all stars, if you'd like to respond to Jordan's question, please raise your hand.

[00:28:25] I'm going to start us off by just giving you you all some general guidelines. I hate the black hole of job search. If you hate the black hole of job search, go and chat and type in the word hate in all caps right now, because the black hole is something very real to many of us. It's, that feeling of helplessness, the feeling like you're putting so much effort into the job search and it's just energy sucking and soul sucking, right?

[00:28:46] And it sucks. I'm sorry, the process is just terrible. So I always tell people it's a necessary evil. 50 percent of the time you should be applying to jobs and doing the job board, but the other 50 percent of the time you should be making connections at the company. [00:29:00] You should be interacting in the LinkedIn homepage feed, interacting with the company page.

[00:29:04] There are things that you can do to get some control back in the process so that you're not relying upon the black hole of job search and you're not at the mercy of the ATS systems and things like that. So I'll start us off with that advice. Joey, what would you add to that? 

[00:29:19] Joey Himelfarb: Oh, my God. How much time do we have, Brenda?

[00:29:21] You gotta sell yourself, that's the thing, what can you control, you can't control what the marketplace is doing, you can't control what belongs on a resume, what doesn't belong on a resume. And to Brenda's point, you're not gonna get in using an ATS, I mean you might, chances are great that you won't.

[00:29:38] You gotta work with the people that you know, and I don't know how old you are, it's none of my business, but I gotta believe that you have a network of people, at least, from people you've worked with, and definitely from people you went to school with, even going back as far as grade school. Go back to the people you've lived with and grown up with and reach out to them.

[00:29:55] This is a great opportunity. Perfect month to do that. Reconnect and I promise you, you'll be starting off like it [00:30:00] was an hour ago and somehow some way the conversation will lead to, so what are you doing? And there you go. You gotta sell yourself. We all have skills, abilities and talents that make us unique.

[00:30:09] Sell those to the world 'cause we need them. That will differentiate you from all the other people that are on a TS and trying to keep up with all the market trends. I'll stand down. 

[00:30:20] Brenda Meller: Thank you, Joey. I always love his enthusiasm when he's sharing his advice. All right, Jay, what else would you like to add to that?

[00:30:26] Jay Colan: Just tying in with that is even we can, there's all different advice about ATS systems. You can drive yourself crazy with it, but I'm I follow people Some people, some recruiters, some retained recruiters on LinkedIn, what they emphasize, make sure your resume speaks to deliverables. We can talk about jiggering and making sure you got this keyword and that keyword, but you want to make sure that the first three to five to 10 lines on your resume and the first three to five sentences you say when you meet people is about what you get done.

[00:30:57] Sort of what Joe was saying about signing. So [00:31:00] are there metrics around that? And I would also speak to that your vendors are your best asset in this whole process. And even if you weren't doing vendor management, if you have any contact with vendors, they could be data vendors, they could be staffing vendors, they could, Anything, it could be the people who supplied your office with machinery, just any vendor they know people and they want to see you working again.

[00:31:26] They know who's up and down. So I would reach out to your vendors and see with, and not even say, I'm looking for, can you help me? Just, these are some companies I'm interested in. What do you know about them? Just some thoughts and absolutely what Brendan Joey said are at the top of the list.

[00:31:42] Thank you. 

[00:31:44] Brenda Meller: Thank you, Jay. Mindy. 

[00:31:46] Mindy Stern: Yeah. Hey, Jordan. I am looking at your profile, I believe. A couple of things that I just want to mention. Number one, most people get jobs through someone they know. Or someone who knows [00:32:00] someone they know, and so I want you to start looking at your 2nd and 3rd level connections.

[00:32:05] 1st levels will get you to your 2nd and 3rd level connections, but those are the folks who may have opportunities that you don't even know about. And so I want you to start thinking about that as well as. Making sure that your skills are aligned with the job opportunities that you're looking at. So when you go into a job search, you will see at the top different skills that either you have enough and you would, we would like you to have at least seven of the 10 skills that they list approximately but it's a great way to add skills to your profile.

[00:32:38] So make sure that your skills are up to date and so that people, that recruiters can find you. The income, that people are going to find you, and then for you to find people, you need to start looking at your second and third level connections. If you don't know how to do that, I'm happy to share that with you and you'll be great.

[00:32:54] But you have, your profile looks, pretty good. There's a lot of good things on here. So you're in the right [00:33:00] direction for sure. And Joey forgot to say, you got to stay positive. So Joey, I'm going to say it for you. Positivity beats negativity every day, right? Yeah. 

[00:33:09] Brenda Meller: Thank you, Mindy. All right, Paul, what'd you like to add to that?

[00:33:12] And you're muted, we'll give you a second. 

[00:33:13] Paul Cecala: Sorry. Brenda I've had a bit of an advantage here because Jordan and I have worked together and I'm reading some things into the question, especially as he's got it written. So I'm going to take a completely different tact in my answer for you, Jordan.

[00:33:29] I'm focusing on your concept of, I'm feeling overwhelmed by the speed at which the job search process is changing, and how do I keep up with all of that? And what I would suggest to you and all of us on the call, think about where you are in your job search process, And focus in on perfecting that piece.

[00:33:53] If you look, for example, in my book in Jordan, I know you're familiar with this. I've laid out an [00:34:00] entire step by step process to go through in order to conduct a job search. Go back to that chart that laid out the process. Process, and say, alright, this is where I'm at, let me learn what's current in that spot, perfect and do it, then I can move on to the next step, and then I can perfect and do it, and then I can do move on to the next step.

[00:34:24] And I think that will help to remove some of the overwhelm of, there's so much that I've got to do, and so much that I've got to learn, and so much I've got to stay on top of. Let's break it down into small pieces and take that one small piece and then move on to the next. So for example, I know, in fact Mindy, Jordan has done tremendous growth in his ability to network and he's really stepped out of himself to do more networking and he's doing a great job of that, right?

[00:34:56] But Jordan, if you're starting to feel like that's a [00:35:00] space where maybe I'm not current now. then let's figure out where that problem is and fix it and then move on to the next piece. I hope that's helpful for everybody. 

[00:35:13] Brenda Meller: Thank you, Paul. Alright, I think I got through all the all stars on that one, so thank you all so much, and hopefully, Jordan, that helps you out.

[00:35:19] Jordan, I'm going to give you a quick little plug, too. I'm doing a webinar that's called Three Ways to Supercharge LinkedIn to Find a Job for the Experience Rich, age 40 50 60 I did do the webinar this past Wednesday. If anyone attended it on Wednesday and you found it helpful go into chat and let people know, but this is something I'm offering again on Saturday, tomorrow.

[00:35:38] I'm At 11 a. m. Eastern, and then I'm offering it again on Wednesday, the 11th at noon Eastern time. It's free. And in the webinar, I talk about. How to elevate yourself as a candidate during your job search. There are a lot of things that are changing with ATS systems and LinkedIn algorithm and things like that.

[00:35:54] So how do you break out from the clutter and really supercharge your job search? You're welcome to attend to learn more [00:36:00] about that, but just a quick plug on that. All right, next up, we have an anonymous question, and I'm going to ask our all stars to please raise your hand if you'd like to respond and give some advice here.

[00:36:10] When a job posting is confidential, is there anything you can do to verify that the job posting is not a scam? So again, the job posting is confidential. Is there anything that you can do as a job seeker to verify that the job posting is not a scam? So again, All Stars, if you could please raise your hand, and we'll bring you up on screen here and offer any advice.

[00:36:34] And this is a challenge I've heard asked before. This is not the first time. It won't be the last time we get asked this question. So we'll start with Joey. Joey, what advice do you have? 

[00:36:43] Joey Himelfarb: So this is the skeptical New Yorker in me, and I apologize if I'm offending anybody who lives west of the Hudson River, and I apologize up front, but if, in today's day and age, I run away from confidential stuff like that.

[00:36:56] I don't trust those people. I don't know who they are. I don't know what I'm walking [00:37:00] into, 8 billion people on the planet, there's got to be another job for me, but that's me I'm just skeptical, when you say good morning to me, I gotta wonder if I need, if I owe you money or not just, I don't know, just I run, if it's confidential I'm not interested.

[00:37:13] But that's me. 

[00:37:14] Brenda Meller: All right. Thank you, Joey. Linda.

[00:37:16] Linda, you're muted. So we'll give her just a second. 

[00:37:19] Linda Brubaker: Putting on my former recruiter and headhunter hat. Okay. So there are reasons that confidential jobs are actually posted. It's a search where we want to make sure that it's relatively high level, that we have somebody who may already be in the position who doesn't know that they're going away.

[00:37:37] So you can't necessarily vet the position itself at that point, but you can vet the company who's posting the job, before you allow your information to be sent in. That's when you get the information that says, here's the name of the company. Here's the position. Here's why it is a confidential search. If whoever is contacting you, [00:38:00] whoever is posting that confidential position, isn't willing to share that information before they're presenting you to the company, then Joey, absolutely run away.

[00:38:10] But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't apply for the position. You shouldn't talk to the person who's posting that confidential position. Okay, before you know who the company is or what position it. In most cases, if it says it's a confidential position and you can figure out who the company is that is posting it, it's usually posted by a search firm.

[00:38:34] If the person who's posting it is legitimate, so is the job. 

[00:38:40] Brenda Meller: That's a really good point, Linda. Thank you for sharing that, and I love your point as well that you were saying there might be a reason they're making it confidential because the person who they're. they're filling a position for doesn't know they're losing their job.

[00:38:51] So there might be some reason. I've also heard, and Linda, tell me this is correct too, that the recruiter is trying to protect their revenue. Meaning if [00:39:00] you know it's for ABC company and you don't apply through my link, you go direct to the company, then I don't get the commission. Is that correct?

[00:39:08] Linda Brubaker: Unfortunately, yes. Especially because there are so many recruiters right now who are outside recruiters who are recruiting for these same positions. 

[00:39:17] Yes. That's absolutely true. 

[00:39:19] Brenda Meller: All right, great. Thank you for being here and for sharing that insight. All right. So hopefully that helps you out and I will just say related to the applying, you're hesitant on applying.

[00:39:29] I hear Joey saying when in doubt, don't. I hear Linda saying, maybe because there's a reason it's confidential. My, if it were me and if you're skeptical on it, sometimes you can grab some Text from the job posting and you can do a Google search and you can figure out what the job posting is for because no offense to anybody who works in HR recruiting or anything, but a lot of times they don't ever refresh the job postings.

[00:39:52] They use the same one every time they post it. So if it's ever been on the internet, It might come up in historical search results, so you can figure it out from [00:40:00] just the verbiage of the job posting. That's a little, I don't want to say hack, but a little tip that you can do. The other thing is, if you do apply, you're applying maybe skeptically, just make sure that your resume doesn't contain your home address.

[00:40:12] It just says Metro Detroit on it, so you're not giving out any personal information in there. And, When you do start to converse with them, does it then start to look legitimate? Meaning, does it look like a real email address with a real company, or are they using an email with a bunch of coded characters?

[00:40:29] At some point they have to disclose what organization they're working for, or if they're an independent recruiter, and you should be able to look them up on LinkedIn and verify that they're real. If, once you get into an interviewing situation, you're still not able to verify that they are a real person I might call them on it, but politely, professionally Hey Mindy I'm, trying to look you up on LinkedIn and I'm not finding you there.

[00:40:50] Did I spell your name correctly? Give them the benefit of the doubt and ask them, and Mindy might say I'm not on LinkedIn at all, and then I'm a little bit more skeptical, because why would you not be on LinkedIn, right? [00:41:00] But give them the benefit of the doubt, but let them know that as a job seeker, unfortunately, there's been a couple times where you've applied for positions and they're not legitimate, so you're just trying to do your due diligence to make sure this is a valid opportunity.

[00:41:10] So let them know, and they should reassure you if it's a valid position, with some information in there. All right. We're going to move on to our next question. And thank you for that person who asked that anonymously, by the way. Our next question Trisha, I don't know if you would like some advice here, but I see that you've got an interview today.

[00:41:28] Super excited for you. Second round interview. So are you looking for advice on the interview? You just want us to send good vibes your way? Tell us what you're looking for. And Tricia, if you're able to unmute yourself, we'll see if we can pull you up on screen here as well. 

[00:41:43] Job Seeker: There you are. Thank you. I'm trying to make sure that the window behind me is not giving you glare, but thank you so much for entertaining my question.

[00:41:51] I am looking for good vibes. I'm excited. It's a unique role for me because I'm for those of you who might remember me, [00:42:00] I'm transitioning from, or have transitioned, But most of my career, like Sue Griffey might understand, has been in higher education, so I tend to be anchored in that mentally.

[00:42:09] Moving to corporate, I worked at BNY Mellon for two years and then was laid off. But the position is actually also at BNY Mellon. I don't know if I should say that publicly, but it would be a great opportunity with the, with client implementations, which is like project related. And I think it's right up my alley and I think I would really enjoy the role.

[00:42:33] And So are you looking for advice 

[00:42:35] Brenda Meller: on the second round interview or what, how can we 

[00:42:37] Job Seeker: help you? Yeah, I would love advice if you have it. I've been doing the basic project management types of things like the golden triangle and the five steps of the project management. And I'm moving toward getting certification, but if anybody has any like specific concrete advice and Sue gave me feedback in the comment, but yeah, I would love, Anything, any golden nuggets you might have that would help me just [00:43:00] feel more rooted and more successful.

[00:43:02] Brenda Meller: Okay. Sue, are you able to come up on screen and share the advice that you put into chat? I'm going to see if we can pull you up. And then I see Jay has also raised his hand. Sue, are you able to unmute? I can't find her. 

[00:43:13] Sue Griffey: Okay, here you are. Yeah what I said to Tricia, and people tell me this all the time, to enjoy it.

[00:43:20] It's hard to enjoy, but this is already a second interview, which means they're not questioning whether you're the right person, they're questioning how now are you going to fit in the team. Sometimes it's culture and chemistry, depending on who you're meeting with. Sometimes it's just letting other people see you, who you're going to be working with or related to.

[00:43:40] But. Those who know me from this call and other calls will know you won't be surprised. I said to Tricia, don't forget to bring in your, I didn't say, evidence based results in every way you can, even stretching a little tangentially, because they want to know that this is a problem solver who actually has results.

[00:43:58] So lead with the result and then tell [00:44:00] them if there's time, how you got there. So even something as simple as we're moving on and we'll hear, be looking forward to hear from you in the next. And you say, great. That would be another opportunity for me to let you know how I pulled 8,000 people out of a job into a new job in one month.

[00:44:18] I don't know what it is, but something unique. They'll remember you by, alright, that's what I said. Brenda and I gave her pom poms, but now I'm gonna give you big pom bums 

[00:44:29] Brenda Meller: on screen. Poms. There we go, . Thank you, Sue. Okay, Jay, what would you like to add to that? 

[00:44:33] Jay Colan: Sure, just picking up on that make it conversational as much as possible and draw them out.

[00:44:40] What do they need done? This is implementation. What do they need implemented? What are some of the, excuse the term, roadblocks? And then tie in with what you, what Sue said, with what you've done in a comparable way. So as much as What had he done? What's the time frame? And even, I think you said in the chat long term, what are short and medium [00:45:00] term deliverables?

[00:45:00] So you show you're about getting things done. A client once told me, which now I recommend to everyone, he said, she said, actually, five minutes before the end of an interview not a minute. She says, great discussion. Is there anything else I can tell you about myself that'll move this forward?

[00:45:19] Because, and put it on you, it's not like you idiot, you didn't ask me this question, it's all about me. Because they might say, their reaction might be, Oh, it seems like you have it all, or it might be, you know what, you don't have this, then you just got to, on your feet and respond to them, because sometimes you leave an interview, you say, Oh, you second guess yourself, but at least you've had a chance to engage them in a real way.

[00:45:44] You might do that. Good luck to you. 

[00:45:47] Job Seeker: Thank you so much. I appreciate the feedback. And I'm 

[00:45:50] Brenda Meller: going to end with this advice, Tricia, and I'm, me, I'm LinkedIn, I'm all about LinkedIn. So if it were me, what I would do is I would look up everybody who's been a part of [00:46:00] the interviewing or recruiting process, send them an invitation to connect.

[00:46:04] If you have the credits remaining in the personal note hi, Tricia, you may recall that we met for the interview of X, Y, Z position on Tuesday. Wherever you decide to go with the position, I found our conversation helpful. Let's connect on LinkedIn. So that kind of takes the pressure off of you don't need to accept me.

[00:46:21] and make me feel like I'm going to be chosen. Like it lets them know, conversationally, you felt comfortable, which is a good culture fit, type of a thing. Let's connect on LinkedIn. Most, I will say most candidates won't do that. That might set you apart, give you a little bit of a distinction. And they might be sitting around the table.

[00:46:37] I want you to think about this. After the second round interview, they might be sitting around a table on a Zoom call, like comparing candidates and, Someone might say, what was different about Tricia is she actually reached out to me on LinkedIn and somebody else might go, She reached out to me too.

[00:46:50] Oh, me too. And they're all like, now they all feel like they have something in common with you because you've done that additional step in on the process. And I feel like [00:47:00] especially as we are, I like to say experience rich. The further we go in our career, the more experiences that we gain, the insights that we gain.

[00:47:08] I don't like to use the word mature candidate. I like to say an experienced rich candidate. You bring with you these life skills and the knowledge about working with teams and working with people and developing relationships that some of the younger candidates just don't have. So that can give you a little bit of an edge in on the process in addition to the expertise that you bring in there.

[00:47:28] Job Seeker: Thank you. I like that. Thank you very much. 

[00:47:31] Brenda Meller: Great. Thank you, Tricia, for being on the call and for asking the question. All right. I see another question that has come up in here. And we're going to do a couple things before we end the call here today, too. I'm going to let you know we're going to do the mantra, if it's been a little while for you, we're going to do the mantra again today.

[00:47:46] We're going to do the Zoom salute, and we're going to do the lighting thing, too, because Tricia was talking about adjusting her camera, which made me think about that. So we're going to do some mini training on Zoom. It'll be a quick thing. And I want to talk about the boat story, too, because it's, it [00:48:00] just reminded me something in the conversation reminded me about it this week.

[00:48:03] Okay, our last question, and then we have a success story, and then we'll do those final things. Our last question is from Angela, and Angela, if you're able to unmute yourself. Please do we'll pull you up on screen, give some clarification. But you mentioned that you sent a message to a hiring manager via LinkedIn in reference to a job.

[00:48:20] Message back from the manager is that I need to be a U. S. citizen. Anyone else experience this? So Angela, are you able to unmute yourself and give us a little bit more background on the situation or clarify what you're looking for here? 

[00:48:33] Angela Larson (job seeker): Yes. Can you hear me? We can. Yep. Okay. All right. I applied to a job that pretty much matched 90%.

[00:48:43] And I, you go through all the process went to the actual site itself, filled out, the application and, filled out that I am a US citizen. I do not need, sponsorship support. I, don't need visa support, that type of [00:49:00] thing.

[00:49:00] And the hiring manager was listed for that position via LinkedIn. So I sent a LinkedIn message, basically a cover letter showing all the different things that I did and how my skills apply to that particular job. The response, and it was a couple of weeks in coming, the response back from the this hiring manager was that, Only U.

[00:49:23] S. citizens are eligible, so I thought did I, select something wrong in the application process? Did you 

[00:49:31] Brenda Meller: immediately reply and say I understand and I am a U. S. citizen? 

[00:49:36] Angela Larson (job seeker): I did reply, but I checked first to make sure I hadn't made a mistake. On the application. And no I checked I was a U.

[00:49:44] S. citizen and did not need sponsorship. So I did send a reply back that I am a U. S. citizen and I reside within, the U. S. I'm not living abroad. So can I ask 

[00:49:54] Brenda Meller: a question, Angela, and I'll ask the all stars, please raise your hand if you want to add anything to this. Is there a [00:50:00] recruiter or an HR person contact that you have at the company?

[00:50:03] Angela Larson (job seeker): No. Okay, so is it the hiring, 

[00:50:06] Brenda Meller: is it the hiring manager who you applied through and that's the only person you're having communication with at this point? 

[00:50:12] Angela Larson (job seeker): Yes. Okay. It was the hiring manager. 

[00:50:15] Brenda Meller: I'm feeling like, I don't know how to say this. I feel like I need to be a little bit New York like Joey at this point and be blunt with what I'm saying here.

[00:50:22] Instead, I'm from the Midwest, so I always get a little uncomfortable being blunt and direct with my feedback. But I feel like the hiring manager is a little rough around the edges, and he's not asking the, I don't even know if it's legal the way that he's asking it. Maybe it is, maybe it's not. But I feel like he's asking a question that's, not relevant to you because you are a U.

[00:50:39] S. citizen. Like, why is he pushing that back on you so much to say you need to be a U. S. citizen, almost implying that you're not, and you've already checked a box saying you are, and you've replied to him. So let's go to our experts, our all stars. So Jay, and then we'll go to Mindy. 

[00:50:54] Jay Colan: Not sure I'm an expert on this, but I just will say that I don't want to get into politics.

[00:50:59] Just in [00:51:00] the last few weeks, I've had a few candidates with H 1B visas. We're told that companies that they actually interviewed with are telling them they, they won't work with them. So I think companies are being more cautious as there's a chance there'll be less opportunities for people who aren't citizens.

[00:51:20] They're just, it might be that, might be. 

[00:51:23] Brenda Meller: But she's already said I am a U. S. citizen. 

[00:51:25] Jay Colan: I know, but it just, that might be the dynamic. 

[00:51:27] Brenda Meller: Okay, but that might be the why, but she's just saying what do I do now that this has happened? Okay, so Mindy, do you have anything to add to that? 

[00:51:37] Mindy Stern: Yeah, Angela, sometimes there are just form letters that people click and you just need to register them.

[00:51:46] You already made it clear on your application that you are a U. S. citizen, you already written back to the whoever sent that out saying I am They may be very inexperienced and they're just clicking the wrong button. [00:52:00] And so I wouldn't worry about it too much. And you need to have many opportunities out there.

[00:52:05] Don't be holding your breath for this one because it feels to me like it could just be either a glitch in the system. Number 1, because they must have 30 different templates that they're going to use to respond to different candidates. Whoever's doing it may have just clicked that one. Just be open to that possibility.

[00:52:23] That is just. They're inexperienced in doing that, or it may just be an error. So I wouldn't put all my eggs in that basket, because it doesn't sound like that person is up to speed on what he needs to do, or he may come back to you. I don't know. How long ago was it that you responded that I am a US citizen?

[00:52:41] Yesterday. I would say till Monday, but we should always have multiple opportunities out there. Keep your pipeline big, right? Because you never know when one's going to fail and one's going to fall off. Budgets can be canceled. I have a client who's been interviewing at the same company for nine months. [00:53:00] 9 months and they keep getting him back and back.

[00:53:02] And last week he got the notice. Sorry, our budget's been canceled and you, we don't have the opportunity any longer. So there's a lot of things that go on in companies and words to watch for everyone. Have lots of possibilities for yourself. Don't be focused on one job only. 

[00:53:21] Angela Larson (job seeker): Yeah, it just said this was very strange.

[00:53:24] I don't know. It just seems like in my job search, I'm running into strange situations that the. Don't seem that others haven't, encountered. I don't know if this is my life or just what, but that was just very strange to get a reply back that you have to be a U. S. citizen and I didn't make a mistake on the application.

[00:53:48] Did you ask him, 

[00:53:48] Brenda Meller: Angela, did you say I am a U. S. citizen? Did I accidentally check a box that says otherwise? 

[00:53:55] Angela Larson (job seeker): I didn't ask if I had checked a box that said otherwise, but I [00:54:00] did go back and check the status of my application and review, what I'd sent in and it was correct. Can you, I, yeah, 

[00:54:06] Brenda Meller: I don't want to throw it back in his face, but I do.

[00:54:08] Can you grab like a screen capture of your application showing the box that says I am a U. S. citizen with you checking it off and message that back to him and say, Here's the form where I indicated I am a U. S. citizen. Was I supposed to check it someplace else too? Or, assume benefit of the doubt.

[00:54:25] Assume, like Mindy said, it could just be a form. Like he might be getting a lot of people applying for the job that aren't U. S. citizens and they are not able to bring in, or to Jay's point, they're a little nervous about this. So they're, doing this as a double, triple screen. But and another thing we haven't even talked about yet, this could be a red flag to the fact that you're getting caught up in the, are you a citizen?

[00:54:46] And you've already told them that you are a citizen. Maybe they're not really good on detail. Maybe they're not serious about you as a candidate and they're trying to push you off quietly. And, you as a job seeker, and this is advice for you, Angela, and for everyone on the call [00:55:00] as well.

[00:55:00] You are in control of your job search. If at any point during the interviewing process that you do not feel like this is a place where you'd like to spend your future career, you can withdraw yourself from consideration. So in this circumstance, you might, you've replied back to him, you give it another week and you don't hear from him, just to get a little bit of a control, because that sounds it makes you feel better sometime.

[00:55:20] Message him again and say, Hey, Dave, I haven't heard back from you. I'd like to let you know, I'm withdrawing myself from consideration for the position as I have some other opportunities that have really started to light up for me. Happy Holidays to you and your family. And then, exit the chat. Just want you to know, Angela, what you're going through, others may be going through as well, so I want to thank you for asking. Was this advice helpful for you today? 

[00:55:43] Angela Larson (job seeker): Yes. Thank you. 

[00:55:44] Brenda Meller: Wonderful. Okay. Thank you. And on that note, I see there was a hand raised by Olivia. Olivia, did you have a new question for us or something?

[00:55:51] No, I just 

[00:55:52] Job Seeker: wanted to add, I had applied for a position yesterday and at the end it asked me, will I need sponsorship? And it made me stop and [00:56:00] think and pause to say, did I check the wrong box? And when I went back to review the application, I made sure to go back. And indeed I had not checked it, and I like, I said, No, I am authorized to work in the United States.

[00:56:14] And that it really is the question they should be asking you. Are you authorized legally? Are you authorized to work in the United States? And will you now or in the future require sponsorships, a sponsorship? So that, those are the two questions legally that they are allowed to ask you. They just might be, double checking to make sure you don't need sponsorship.

[00:56:37] But the way they're asking it is not appropriate. 

[00:56:40] Brenda Meller: So Olivia, can I give you some advice? 

[00:56:42] Job Seeker: Yes. 

[00:56:43] Brenda Meller: That is a great LinkedIn post. Ah, okay. Wouldn't you all agree? Olivia, you are, I know you're like VP, Talent Acquisition, you've worked in recruiting, you've worked in your HR, your entire career. Featured question from a candidate.

[00:56:57] Is it okay if an employer asks if I'm a [00:57:00] U. S. citizen to apply for a job? Answer from Olivia. But I, this, honestly, I think a lot of people, when they're hiring somebody to work in their HR talent acquisition, they're very squeamish about what the rules and the legalities of things are. This is a great way for you to show your expertise on a topic that might be sensitive going back to Jay's point, especially given today's climate and it helps to illustrate your expertise.

[00:57:24] I think you can help people who are job seeking with that advice, and you can, more importantly, help to illustrate to your future employer. Hopefully, they'll see this post. What great expertise that you have. Now, if I were you, Olivia, you could probably do this once a week. Do a featured question. You could come from our Friday calls.

[00:57:41] You could pull questions. You have some job seekers here all the time, but you probably have your own frequently asked questions when you're in a leadership role in talent acquisition that you could feature. I hope you don't mind. A featured question. Yeah, I think that'd be brilliant on there. I hope you don't mind me suggesting it, but I'm like I'm a [00:58:00] former corporate marketer.

[00:58:01] So whenever I get, I'm like, Ooh, that's a good idea. I got to tell her. Thank you. Thank you, Brenda. All right. Awesome. Okay. So we are going to now move into some workshopping a portion of our meeting here. I'm going to pull back up into gallery view and. The first thing we're going to do is, I want to help you all as you're in career transition, there's a good chance you're going to be doing an interview on Zoom or some type of a virtual platform at some point, so I want to give you some help on being in the frame, the rectangle frame that you're in right now, we want to make sure that you're in the right position and there's two things, we're going to talk about positioning and we're going to talk about lighting right now.

[00:58:41] Okay, so positioning, you want to make sure that you are taking up most of the frame, so put your hand on the top of your head right now almost like you're saluting, put your hand at the top of your head. Okay. Your fingers should be touching or maybe even hidden by the top of the frame. So Greg, I'm just going to point out you as an [00:59:00] example.

[00:59:00] You need to get yourself a little bit closer to your camera or maybe angle your laptop a little bit more towards you because then you are more prominent. David Mills, you need to bring the laptop a little bit closer because your fingers aren't touching. in the top. Sophie, I see you at the bottom of the screen.

[00:59:14] You need to either need to pull your laptop closer to you or angle your laptop screen up a little bit more. Angela's doing right now. She's doing a great job with that. So this allows us, John you're too far back too. You see how your top fingers aren't touching at all? That's just going to get you aligned properly.

[00:59:30] into the frame of the camera. Jay, you're a little bit too far. You can make it a little bit closer. And sometimes if it's, you're using the laptop webcam, it's just angling your laptop towards you. Or if it's an external webcam, you either need to scoot your chair a little bit further or pull the camera for, and this makes you, look, John, right now, as you are now, you're taking up more of the screen.

[00:59:51] You look more important. You look more impressive. You look more approachable. You ever see somebody on a zoom call. Like this. You [01:00:00] guys know what I'm talking about? And you're like, why is she sitting on the ground? Now look at the difference when I'm framed up properly. Can you tell the psychological that message it's sending to people.

[01:00:14] It's confident, you're more engaging on camera. So that's a little tip for you. Okay, remember the Zoom salute. Just do a quick little check. If your fingers are not look at my fingers right now. My fingers are practically hidden by the top of the frame. Your fingers should be at least touching, if not hidden by the top of the frame.

[01:00:30] You're trying to get your head basically almost to the top of the frame, so we can see you. So that's the first tip. Okay. 

[01:00:35] David Mills (job seeker): Is this good? 

[01:00:37] Brenda Meller: Who said, is this good? 

[01:00:38] David Mills (job seeker): I did, David. 

[01:00:39] Brenda Meller: David, yes, yep, you're good, as long as your fingers are touching, you're good, 

[01:00:43] David Mills (job seeker): okay, 

[01:00:43] Brenda Meller: and it could be hidden completely, but at least touching, okay, the next thing we're going to do is we're going to adjust lighting, so Sophie, I'm going to pull on you as an example, because you're sitting with your window against your back, Sophie, are those blinds, and are you able to close the blinds that are behind you, are they already closed, or are they still open, can you unmute [01:01:00] yourself, or no, 

[01:01:01] Sue Griffey: I could 

[01:01:01] Brenda Meller: okay.

[01:01:01] Could you try closing the blinds? Would you be able to do that? Just, I wanna demonstrate this to you when you are on camera, and I see John has a window next to him. John, are those blinds closed or can you close those? 

[01:01:14] Sue Griffey: I close them. 

[01:01:15] Brenda Meller: Try closing them, and I want you guys to pay attention to what happens when they come back on camera.

[01:01:19] When the blinds with the light source behind them is closed or minimized a bit. And by the way, it's always better to be facing a window if you're going into a job interview, and maybe blurring out the background like Mike has done, like David has done, like Angela has done. So facing a window, blurring out the background.

[01:01:38] If you've got a lot of, clutter and things that are behind you, that's even brighter, Sophie. That's really weird. So Sophie, if I were you, if you were going to be in an interview, I would not be in that location. I would physically pick up my laptop and face your desk towards the window. And you might have to prop this up on a couch with some pillows and get ready for this before.

[01:01:56] But you don't want to have the light source behind you because it's [01:02:00] competing with you. Does that make sense? So we want to be, the light source is facing towards you. Ideally, it's the window. Look at John Schmeichel. Is it Schmeichel? Did I say your last name correctly? What is it? 

[01:02:12] Kenneth Lang: Schmeichel. Schmeichel.

[01:02:13] Brenda Meller: Look at John Schmeichel. Can you all tell the difference in the lighting? The quality difference right there with the lighting. Now he's not competing with that. My eyes aren't going over there and it's not pulling the light source away. We can see John's face more clearly. Now, if you have the means to do I would highly recommend that you have a lamp or a lighting source pointing at your face during the interview.

[01:02:37] And I want to show you, I've got a lighting source on me right now. Let me turn that off. So watch me right now. Look at the difference. Okay. I picked up this light. This is a little bit more expensive one. It might have been 100 off of Amazon, but I could have easily just used a lamp to point at me, right?

[01:02:53] And yeah, it feels a little bit hot, a little bit more heat on me during, but I'm only going to do this for an interview. 15 minutes, 20 minutes, [01:03:00] maybe an hour, and then I turn it off, right? And it just gives a quality impression of you as a candidate when we can see you more clearly. Joey, I'm going to pick on you and I'm not even going to apologize for it because you're a New Yorker and I think New Yorkers like it when you pick on them because they like to fight and argue and stuff.

[01:03:14] Joey, do you have a lighting source that you ever use when you're on calls? Can you unmute yourself? You're muted right now. 

[01:03:21] Joey Himelfarb: Yeah. I have two lamps to have two lamps on the side of me that are lighting up my face. Not as much as I'd like them to be, but they're regular, tabletop lamps and they're fine.

[01:03:31] I've had, I think Mindy, I don't know if Mindy's still on the call, maybe they may have. Mindy at one point said to me that the lens on my laptop. isn't very clear. 

[01:03:40] Mindy Stern: Yeah. 

[01:03:40] Joey Himelfarb: You're shaking your head, right? So yeah. So if I was looking for, if I was looking for work, yeah, I would invest the time, money and effort to do that.

[01:03:47] But I think, I hope that people are interested in what I have to say and how I look. 

[01:03:51] Brenda Meller: Yeah. And I'm, as I'm looking around the frame, I see a couple other things. Karen Lim, you've got a mirror that's behind you. In my mind, I'm like waiting for [01:04:00] somebody to walk in the mirror. And I'm like, Oh, I'm curious.

[01:04:02] What's going on behind there? Am I going to see a person walk by, a cat walking across the table? So if I were you, I would blur your background. What you your frame is good. Your lighting is good on your face. I'm not trying to pick on you, but I see the mirror and I'm like, Ooh, what's going on there?

[01:04:15] Does that make sense, Karen? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Good. And then John, I'm going to come back and pick on you again. I'm going to see if anyone else has this as well. Okay. I don't see anyone else because of the blurred background. So John is sitting in a physical location where there's a hallway behind him.

[01:04:32] So if you're in, the frame that you're in has a doorway behind you or a hallway behind you, we as human beings are hardwired to like, is somebody going to be walking through that door or is somebody going to be coming and walking down the hallway? Now John, do you know how to blur your Zoom background?

[01:04:47] Kenneth Lang: I do, but I also always close the door when I'm interviewing. 

[01:04:50] Brenda Meller: Okay, that's okay, but can you try to blur the background? Even if there's a door behind you and you tell everyone in the house, don't open the door, the dogs aren't going to open it, still blur the background if there's a [01:05:00] door behind you, because we as human beings, we're like, what's going to happen?

[01:05:02] Now look at Karen Lim while John is blurring his background. Look at Karen Lim. She blurred the mirror behind her. You know what just happened there? Now I'm focusing on her face. I'm not looking at the mirror behind her. So it's little, it's a little, Subtle things from a psychological level that are going to help you to stand out as a candidate on the zoom call.

[01:05:21] Somebody's not going to say I'm not going to hire Karen because she had a mirror behind her on the interview, but We don't want them to be distracted. We want them to be focused on us. Okay? 

[01:05:30] Paul Cecala: Brenda, I'm going to ask you. It's Paul. 

[01:05:32] Brenda Meller: Yeah, go ahead. 

[01:05:35] Paul Cecala: Use a Zoom background or a background that we've created or not.

[01:05:40] Brenda Meller: Are you asking the question or are you offering advice? Yeah. 

[01:05:42] Paul Cecala: No, asking the question. 

[01:05:43] Brenda Meller: So are you asking should we use a Zoom background or a background that we have created? 

[01:05:48] Paul Cecala: Or none at all. Or none at all? I'm looking, for example, at David Ball, right? He's got that picture of the Boston Marathon behind him.

[01:05:56] Brenda Meller: Yeah. And then we've got David Mills, who's got like the landscape [01:06:00] scenery in the background. I want all of you to think about as a candidate, your goal is that you are the focal point of the video. I feel both for David Mills and David Ball, like that might distract me. In the background.

[01:06:14] I'd rather see a blurred background. I'd rather see a natural background with some blurring like John Schmeckel than the Boston Marathon, which might make me think about, and I know why you do it, David, and we talked about this before, and then, David Mills, you've got the background with the lighting, and I'm like, half of my mind's oh, that's really pretty, and I'm like, is that real and it's not real? Now I'm not thinking about David as a candidate. I'm thinking about the background in there. 

[01:06:38] David Mills (job seeker): Oh, I'm sorry. Could, would it be better to blur this background, maybe put in like an office room setting? Yeah, I, 

[01:06:47] Brenda Meller: Linda Brubaker, are you in a virtual background or is that a real background behind you?

[01:06:51] Can you unmute? 

[01:06:52] Linda Brubaker: Actually, I just put that in the chat. This is a virtual background. 

[01:06:55] Brenda Meller: Yeah. I personally like the office settings if you're going to use a virtual [01:07:00] background. More of 

[01:07:00] David Mills (job seeker): an office setting. All right. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, 

[01:07:04] Brenda Meller: that's just me though, agreed. 

[01:07:06] Paul Cecala: And a part of my question, Brenda, was in terms of the, seeing the skewed face and the popping in and out, whether it's blurred or a fake background.

[01:07:16] Brenda Meller: Yeah, I, that's why I lean towards, I prefer the natural background that you're in or blur it if it's too distracting versus an artificial one, because I feel like personally, we're in this day and age of AI. Is that person real? Is that background real? You're building trust with people and I understand why people use virtual backgrounds.

[01:07:37] Just ask people their opinions, and go into chat right now and ask people their opinions. What do you think of my background? I'm looking at Amy Dinning as an example. I love that background. You can tell it's virtual because you can see as she's sifting her hairs, you can tell a little bit, but it's not distracting to me, and I'm still focusing on her face if I were to be interviewing her.

[01:07:55] So I don't mind that in the background, but get opinions from other people. David [01:08:00] Mills, I like that background better. It looks like you're actually, Yes ma'am. Yeah, I like what you're in right now, because it looks like you're in a virtual co working space for the day. It looks like the message I'm getting on a subliminal level is you care so much about this interview that you went and rented a virtual office for the day to do the interview.

[01:08:16] It may be not what you did, but that's the feeling I'm getting from 

[01:08:20] Joey Himelfarb: it. 

[01:08:21] Brenda Meller: Yeah, 

[01:08:22] Joey Himelfarb: olivia, this could be a second post asking about virtual backgrounds. 

[01:08:27] Brenda Meller: Olivia, is your background 

[01:08:29] Job Seeker: virtual? I just changed it. So this is, but I'll show you what I, I had my, hold on a second. I just, I had this before and I feel like it's too busy even though it's blurred.

[01:08:42] I don't know, would love 

[01:08:43] Brenda Meller: I like the virtual background compared to your blurred 

[01:08:46] Job Seeker: one. That's, then that's what I was just playing around with a couple of different options and I do I feel like the virtual one allows me to stand out more. Yeah. Because it's more neutral colors.

[01:08:57] Or it's monotone. [01:09:00] 

[01:09:00] Paul Cecala: Good. Brenda, Christopher is gone and I see Sue has raised her hand. I don't know if you've noticed that. 

[01:09:05] Sue Griffey: I have no Sue. Thank you. Go ahead, Sue. Yeah, there's I can't remember Carmen's last name, a cognitive neuroscientist who did some research on this and I will find it and put it in our private group in the next 24 hours.

[01:09:20] Actually, what worked out was not a natural background, but rather a blurred background, not a virtual background. Now the new virtual backgrounds that I'm seeing in the last few months from Zoom are a lot better than the half of the hair gone kinds of things, so don't, I think what fine tuning people have done today is great, but Karen, for example, softening the mirror, that's fine.

[01:09:43] I've actually blurred a little of my natural background enough that it takes the attention off of the face. fact that I know it's a little cluttered, but I'm not interviewing, but just so you know, there is a reason to think about these things. And what Brenda's telling you is don't [01:10:00] raise questions in people's minds and you want it as neutral as possible.

[01:10:05] Check your virtual background and I would say, have a zoom call with someone and do all the moving around so that you know where you're getting into danger. Cause it's hard to do it for yourself, even when you record yourself doing it. That's that's that, and I'll find that link for what Carmen's research was when I get off.

[01:10:24] Brenda Meller: That's awesome. Thank you, Sue. David Ball, I see your hand is raised. 

[01:10:29] David (job seeker): Yes, good morning. I I've done this background thing for a while because I actually took the course. The picture when I was in the race, I've been in many of them and it's part of my brand. And as a brand leader or development person, I want to stick out.

[01:10:44] And so the distraction part has actually helped me cut out of a crowd. And also since my LinkedIn profile is linked into running and perseverance. That sort of thing. And that shows a little bit more of a step above for my creative background. I have a, [01:11:00] I'm a creative director. Yeah, it's a risk.

[01:11:02] I agree with that. But I'm not a conventional person. I'm definitely going much more for an in your face, a little bit of a thing. It makes a little bit of a statement. I get a lot of com people who said they saw it and it actually attracted them to my LinkedIn profile. So it's, yeah, I realize it's a risk, but I think that when it has a solid ground in my identity as a creative director and being very battling ageism a little bit as well people don't really worry about my age if I just ran my.

[01:11:31] 15th Boston Marathon last year. 

[01:11:33] Brenda Meller: Yeah, I know you've talked about that, David. I'm going to give you the same advice I gave earlier to Olivia. That's a LinkedIn post. Grab a screen capture of you on Zoom, post it as a picture on LinkedIn, and say, this is my Zoom background, and this is why I have it as my Zoom background, and I'm a creative director, and I understand the power of personal branding, and this is brand continuity, and it shows I'm staying physically active as a runner, use that as a story, as a [01:12:00] LinkedIn post, because you know what it is?

[01:12:01] It's, you're showing your expertise as a creative director, and you're saying, by the way, I'm looking for a job, without saying, hire me. So that's a LinkedIn post. Even if you did it before, David, do it again. 

[01:12:12] David (job seeker): Thank you very much. I think that's a great suggestion. It was a long time ago, so I'm going to do that.

[01:12:16] Thank you. Yep. 

[01:12:17] Brenda Meller: There you go. All right. Okay. So let's see what else I had. So did you all enjoy that, by the way, the Zoom lesson, the Zoom, kind of Zoom salute and everything? Good. So we're going to do that periodically on these calls. We haven't done one for a while, so I wanted to do that. All right.

[01:12:30] The other thing we're going to do is this I call this the Meller Marketing Job Seeker Mantra. So this is completely optional. But if you would like to participate, I'm going to ask you to unmute yourself right now, and you're going to raise a hand. It can be your left hand or your right hand. It is not legally binding.

[01:12:47] So use whatever hand you want, but your hand is getting you into the game physically for this. And I'm going to say the line, and then I'm going to point, and you're going to repeat it back to me. Okay, so this is going to get our mind in the right [01:13:00] mindset as a job seeker. So if you want to do this, make sure that you unmute yourself.

[01:13:04] Cause I think it's really fun to hear all the voices that are on here with us. So unmute yourself and hold up either your left hand or your right hand. It's not legally binding. So pick a favorite hand. I don't really care. And I'm going to say the line. I'm going to point at the screen and you're going to say it back with me.

[01:13:17] So here we go. This is temporary.

[01:13:21] I am awesome.

[01:13:23] I'm going to be honest with you. I did not believe the awesomeness just now. So we're going to say it again. I'm going to say the line and you're going to believe it when you say it this time. I am awesome. 

[01:13:34] Mindy Stern: I am awesome. 

[01:13:37] Brenda Meller: Oh, felt it that time, you guys. Now I to somebody on screen and say, And you are awesome.

[01:13:44] Mindy Stern: And you are awesome. 

[01:13:47] Brenda Meller: There you go. I am valuable. 

[01:13:50] Mindy Stern: I am valuable. 

[01:13:53] Brenda Meller: I will find another job. 

[01:13:56] Paul Cecala: I will find another job. There you go. [01:14:00] 

[01:14:00] Brenda Meller: The black hole isn't the only way. 

[01:14:03] Job Seeker: The black hole isn't the only 

[01:14:06] Mindy Stern: way. 

[01:14:07] Brenda Meller: I am in control of my future. 

[01:14:11] Mindy Stern: I am in control of my future. 

[01:14:16] Brenda Meller: And using LinkedIn can help to give me power. 

[01:14:21] David Mills (job seeker): And using LinkedIn can help to give me power.

[01:14:26] Brenda Meller: Plus, by attending today, I am a step ahead. 

[01:14:30] Mindy Stern: Plus, by attending today, I am a step ahead. 

[01:14:35] Brenda Meller: Alright, give yourself a round of applause on that. That was fun to do. Okay, you can go ahead and mute yourself again if you'd like. And I just want to review. What this mantra is and what this mantra does. I'm a big believer in positive mindset and, call them affirmations or those types of things.

[01:14:50] I've got like post it notes around my office that, that inspire me all the time. Revenue goals, project goals, mindset goals. Sometimes I put things on my bathroom mirror as well to keep me up to date. [01:15:00] Focus on the right things and to keep me positive, you need to train your brain to think positively and when you're in career transition as a job seeker, it's a roller coaster of emotions and it can be sad, depressing, frustrating, it can make you angry at times, and we need to make sure that we're in the right mindset as a job seeker.

[01:15:16] And I know it's really hard because you're feeling very defeated. And then you need to show up for a job interview and come off as this happy, confident candidate, right? And it's, it messes with your mind. So saying this mantra helps you to get your mind in the right mindset. And I want you to know that this is temporary.

[01:15:33] This is just a blip in your history. And someday you're going to look back and go, wow, that happened. And it's just going to be a part of your history. So I want you to know, this is just for now. This is not forever. This is just for now, the situation that you're in right now. And you are awesome and you are valuable.

[01:15:49] And I want you to know that and to believe it. because when you go through a career transition, not by choice, when they've taken your job away from you, it feels like they've taken a part of your [01:16:00] identity from you and a part of who you are. And I want you to know that the passion that you have for the work that you do and the expertise that you have, as well as all that knowledge, those insights, the information about your industry, your company, how to work with clients, they cannot take that passion from you and they cannot take that knowledge from you.

[01:16:18] Okay, maybe they took the paycheck away from you, but you are awesome, and you are valuable, and on that note, you will find another job. And when you catch yourself saying, I'm never going to get back to work, I'm never going to get another job, I want you to stop yourself and say three times, I will find another job, I will find another job, I will find another job.

[01:16:38] because your brain is going to do what you tell it to do. If you tell yourself, I'm never going to find another job, you're going to start like almost putting blinders on the opportunities that are coming to you. One of my favorite stories is from the movie, The Pursuit of Happiness, Will Smith, and I can't remember the name of the kid in the movie, but he talks about the analogy with the boats.

[01:16:59] And I want to [01:17:00] just share the story with you. There's a big flood in town, and there's a person in the house, and the water levels are rising, and the town is evicting all the residents, and a boat comes by, and they say, you got to get out of here, and the guy says no, God will save me, God will save me, whether you're religious or not, just follow me through on the end of the story, God will save me, God will save me, and the next day, the rain continues, now he's up to the second floor of the house, and he's, Another boat comes by and says, we got to get you out of here.

[01:17:24] We're evacuating the town. You're going to die. And he's no, God will save me. God will save me. The rain continues. The third day he's now up on the roof. Another boat comes by and says, this is your last chance. And the guy says, no, God will save me. God will save me. The rain continues. The man drowns.

[01:17:37] He dies. He goes up to heaven. He's in front of the pearly gates and standing before God. And he says, God, why didn't you save me? And God says, what do you think the boats were for? And when you're in career transition, and especially if you worked in a job for many years, and in an industry that may be changing, and may be going away altogether, you get into this mindset of, this is what I do, this [01:18:00] is what I've done for the past X years, and this is the only possibility for work that will be coming.

[01:18:06] I want you to listen to the possibilities that are coming to you. And if you, if this brings forth ideas, I want you to put them in chat, but you might have to take a temporary job, or find some other sources of income until you get to back to work full time. I'm going to use an example. My 20 year old son is just turned 20 today.

[01:18:22] It's his birthday, by the way. He's in between jobs right now, and he's doing Uber Eats. He's doing food delivery. Do you know how much he makes a day? He makes 100 a day. Driving around town, delivering food for people, and he gets money through Uber Eats. Now, you might be in a situation Where you are still getting unemployment insurance benefits, and it doesn't make sense for you to do but if you've run out of benefits, you might have to do an Uber Eats. You might have to take a retail job over the holidays. In our local school district here, they are hiring for substitute teachers. Depending on the level of degree that you have, you could make 150 a day, 250 a day. being a substitute teacher.

[01:18:58] So you might have to take a [01:19:00] for now job or some part time work to have some money coming in. So I want you to pay attention to what are the boats that are coming to you. It might not be an ideal boat, but it might be something for now. Somebody might approach you and say, Olivia, I know you've worked in talent acquisition for many years, but gosh, you seem to really get the knack for working with people.

[01:19:20] Have you ever thought about an employee engagement role or being head of public relations or something different? And Olivia might be, if she's on the blinders, she might be like, No, I'm a VP of talent acquisition and swap those people. Or she might be open to that boat that is coming to her and say, I've never thought about that.

[01:19:38] Tell me more. So I want you to be open to the possibilities of finding another job. And we've talked about the black hole earlier, but I want you to keep in mind that 50 percent of your job search is that necessary part of applying to the job boards, and that's why I call it the black hole, because it's very energy sucking.

[01:19:56] But the other 50 percent should be doing things like you're doing [01:20:00] today. Attending job seeker groups, going to events, networking with people on LinkedIn, making connections at the company, commenting on their posts, Notifying recruiters you're open to positions at their company. So take some control back in on the process.

[01:20:13] 50 percent is applying to the job board. The other 50 percent of the time and effort should be making actions that are giving you some control in there because you are in control of your future. You may not be able to control what happened to you and what happened to the company that led you to today, but you can control what you do today.

[01:20:29] And you can control what you do tomorrow, and you can control those decisions for the future, okay? Using LinkedIn can help to give you power, and I want to encourage you, if you haven't already done so, to download the chat. I'll remind you of the instructions. If you go to the chat area, click on the three dots, and then click on Save Chat.

[01:20:49] It will save it to your Downloads folder, and then you can go back, Look up the LinkedIn URLs for everyone who is on the call, invite them to connect with you. If you're using the free basic [01:21:00] version of LinkedIn, they're probably going to recognize your name from the call, but you can tell that they're in career transition, accept it, network with fellow job seekers, Because you can help each other, and I want you to keep that in mind and this is related to that final point, by attending today you are a step ahead, Because at the height of our call here today, I think we had around 50 people on the call.

[01:21:21] Remember how I talked about when you used to work in corporate, you were part of a team and now you're like solo? Start creating your team of fellow job seekers. Help each other. When you see people on the call, John Smuckel came on the call here today, maybe I had a good rapport with him. If I don't hear from him for a while, you know what I'm going to check in with him.

[01:21:38] Hey John, how's the job search coming? And I might reach out to David Solomon and say, David, I know you're on the call, but can you remind me what's your targeted job title and geographic area? So just to keep it in my mind in case I come across something in the future, right? This call is as much about you finding a job as it is you helping other people on here.

[01:21:57] And that's part of the reason I do this call month after [01:22:00] month, because I want to help the job seeking community. But I want to provide a platform for all of you to connect with and support each other. All right. With that said, I am going to wrap up our call here for today. This session will be going on my podcast.

[01:22:15] By the way, I don't know if you saw that in the slider at the beginning, but I did launch a new podcast targeted towards experience rich job seekers. And wouldn't you know it, I ended up calling it Experience Rich. That's the name of the podcast. If you are a podcast listener, look up Experience Rich on your favorite podcast.

[01:22:33] I'm doing this as a. Limited edition series, so I'm probably going to do 10 episodes in total and then I'll make an assessment on whether I continue. But right now I've got six episodes loaded. This episode today will be loaded on later on today. But check that out. Some really great advice here for those of you who are experience rich and looking for a job.

[01:22:51] And the advice is all related to using LinkedIn. I want to thank all of our all stars for being a part of the Q& A and helping [01:23:00] with everything here today. I want to thank all of you. for being on, and for those of you who are still on to the very end, thank you to Joey, Amy, Angela, Christine, Daniel, David B, David M, David S, Elena, Greg, Heidi, Jackie, Jill, John, Jose, Karen, Linda, Melissa, Mike I lost track, Nancy, hey Nancy came on a little later Nicholas, Olivia, Ray, nice to see you, Sandra, nice to see you, hey Scott, and Sophie, remember, I believe in you, this is temporary, this will pass at some point in your future, you're going to look back and go, Remember that Friday call we did?

[01:23:34] Yeah, I'm back to work. I'm not doing that anymore. And with that said, this is our last call of the year, so I want to wish everyone a very happy holiday season, and I hope that you have a wonderful 2025. I'm going to go ahead and end our broadcast now. I'll keep the Zoom open for a few minutes in case you need to grab the transcript, and I look forward to seeing you again.

[01:23:55] on the first Friday in January of 2025. Have a wonderful day and happy holiday [01:24:00] season to all of you.