8 Simple Time Saving Strategies Every Job Hunter Should Know

Time often CAN be more valuable than money... (iStockphoto.com/kmlmtz66)

Looking for a new job, but pressed for time? Here are eight great time saving strategies that every job seeker can use to streamline the job search and build some forward momentum.

1. Tell people you're looking for a job. It may not occur to people in your network to tell you about a new job opening at their office if they believe you're happily employed. Informing your friends and family that you're ready for a career change may turn them into your job scouts.
    
2. Ask for referrals. Many companies reward their employees for introducing talent to the organization, in the form of a substantial referral bonus. If you have a friend who works at a company you've been eyeing, don't be afraid to ask them to submit your resume. Of course, use tact and don't be pushy about it – they'd be doing you a favor, and would be staking their reputation on you.
    
3. Call a headhunter who has placed you with an employer in the past. Again, you may not be on their radar. But if they were successful in placing you before, they may be willing and able to consider you for a new job.
    
4. Set up job alerts. All the major job boards, including LinkedIn and Indeed, and several others, allow you to set up notifications so that they email you as positions matching your search criteria are posted. There are a lot of job boards; by setting up alerts, you only have to visit each board when there's a reason to do so.
    
5. Become an "Open Candidate" on LinkedIn. Recruiters are constantly combing LinkedIn for candidates for their open job. LinkedIn in late 2016 added a feature, called Open Candidate, where you can signal recruiters in target companies that you're actively looking for a job, without notifying your current employer.
    
6. Get a LinkedIn Premium subscription. LinkedIn advertises that as a benefit of being a paid subscriber, you will be a "Featured Applicant," where "Your job application will appear above job applications from non-Premium members, increasing your chances of having it viewed." I'm not sure exactly how high you'll appear on any given search, but if this benefit pushes you toward page 1 or 2 of search results, there's a much better chance a recruiter will take a look at your profile.
    
7. Add keywords to your LinkedIn profile. There's a "Skills & Endorsements" section on your LinkedIn profile, but what recruiters really search is the profile text. A brief section in your "Summary" section that includes a list of your skills, separated by bullets or commas, will make your profile a better match for recruiter searches.
    
8. Attend a job fair. Yes, you'll probably spend most of the day there, but think of the time you'll save. When you apply to jobs online, there's a 5% to 10% chance (a rough estimate) that a recruiter or a hiring manager looks at your resume. However, when you hand your resume to a company representative at a job fair, there's a 100% chance it will get reviewed – in fact, they're usually going to spend a couple minutes interviewing you as well. Multiply this by the 100 or so employers you get to meet that day, and you're looking at time very efficiently spent.

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

5 Practical & Affordable Strategies For Career Changers

iStockphoto.com (phototechno)

Bored in your current career? Not sure how to make the jump into a new line of work?

Making the move to a new type of career path isn't easy. Many people go back to college and get an advanced degree such as an MBA, or some other diploma in some other discipline. However, pursuing a college degree is a huge investment oftime and money, and many people don't have enough of either to make this a reality.

Let me be clear - if you're thinking about becoming an attorney or a medical doctor, for example, there's no way around the need for a highly specialized advanced degree required as the baseline for the job.

But for the rest of us? Here are five practical – and affordable – strategies to position yourself for a new line of work.

1. College Certificate Programs. This is a brief academic program which provides you a credential in a specific discipline, and which shows employers you've invested in your new line of work. Many colleges offer certificate programs in targeted disciplines such as Paralegal Studies, Human Resources, Computer Information Systems, and other tracks. There are few, if any, electives offered in a certificate program. The goal of a college certificate program is to provide you the skills you need for your new line of work – quickly.
    

2. Professional Certification. Many professional organizations offer certifications demonstrating a level of achievement in their field. There are several highly regarded certifications that can help move your career upward - for example the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is one of the highest standards in accounting, and having a CPA can open quite a few doors; likewise, the Project Management Institute offers a Project Management Professional certification, which is considered the gold standard in the field. But professional certifications can also serve as a gateway to a new career path. There are professional certifications in human resources, compensation, resume writing, career coaching, information technology, and many, many other fields. Certification (and the letters after your name) can improve your chances with employers.
    

3. Online Classes. There are several providers of low-cost or free online training. Coursera and edX, for example, consolidate and offer classes from prestigious colleges around the world. Likewise, many universities provide their classes online, such as Harvard University's Open Learning Initiative. Likewise, there are scads of courses available online at no charge to LinkedIn Premium Subscription members. There is absolutely no reason you can't take a course and add it to your resume. Doing so could boost both your skills and your credentials, and would also provide you with valuable keywords that mayelevate your resume.
    

4. Volunteer Projects. Let's say you're trying to branch out into search engine optimization, and you find out your son's school is upgrading its website. Why not reach out to the school's administrators and offer to help out on the SEO aspects of the project? You will get hands-on experience in a real-world setting, that you can add to your portfolio of work. And yes, you can add volunteer work to your resume.
    

5. Special Work Projects. Companies are always planning new corporate initiatives. If you hear about a committee being put together to handle a special project, why not ask your manager if you can participate? Yes, it's additional work, but you will gain valuable exposure to new skills and experiences. I've seen individuals who have done great work on special projects appointed to newly created roles outside their discipline because they demonstrated an aptitude for the new line of work.

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

The Ziggy-Zaggy Path To The C-Suite

Even a road with lots of twists and turns can get you where you want to go (iStockphoto.com / wakr10)

Careers just don't play out the same way they used to. These days, it's kind of a ziggy-zaggy path to the top.

In the not-too-distant past, when you started a new job at a company, you had one eventual goal – you wanted to be running the place. After a few jumps up the ladder, you'd be in the executive suite, next in line for the throne of CEO.

Make no mistake - upward mobility is still the dream. And it's perpetuated extensively by business schools everywhere. Then again, when you're dropping more than $200,000 for an MBA, you're hoping for the big payoff that a top job in a company can provide.

(By the way, I'm not kidding about the cost of an MBA; check out the estimated costs for one year of tuition, housing, and living expenses for business school Harvard University. These are the university's own projections – I recommend checking this out on an empty stomach.)

It's true that if you get an MBA, or another high-value advanced degree from a reputable school you'll probably see a substantial bump in pay from what you were earning before going back to school. But the ladder upward from your first job out of the program is likely going to be a more challenging climb.

There are several reasons for this, but chief among these is that companies are getting flatter In other words, many organizations are removing layers of management to (primarily) reduce cost and (secondary) increase collaboration by eliminating layers of unnecessary middle management.

Some companies take egalitarianism to an extreme. I once worked at a company that eliminated vast swathes of the organization. They tried to increase collaboration, eliminate layers, and reduce cost by removing cubicles and offices altogether, and placed the greatly reduced (and less stratified) workforce at the equivalent of park benches and picnic tables. I sat across from a Vice President, an HR Manager, and a Compliance Specialist. I can't speak to the effectiveness of this approach in terms of the impact on productivity, but it certainly sent the message that everybody was being watched and treated equally, and that rank was of less concern than getting the job done. There were a lot of unhappy people, but this company wasn't exactly trying to be recognized as "Employer of the Year," either.

The aforementioned company isn't alone. As companies try to squeeze more and more out each dollar, they continue to reduce layers and positions in the name of efficiency. The net result is fewer rungs in the ladder, with a heck of a lot more people competing to climb each step.

How do you stay engaged and challenged, and continue to grow and develop? The answer, increasingly, is diagonal or horizontal movement. In other words, if the path above you is blocked, move over and take another route.

In other words, cross-train.

For example, let's say you've been an accountant for the past several years, and the next natural step up for you would be to become a controller, but the person in that job is not going anywhere.

Why not slide over into financial analysis? Or go into corporate analytics? Or try some other role which would allow you to flex your mental muscles and apply your skill set. There are five major benefits to making such a cross-functional, lateral move.

1) Expanding Your Toolbox. By trying something different but related, you're giving yourself more skills. And perhaps, by obtaining a broader perspective, you're making yourself a little bit more prepared for that next level up. For example, in human resources the folks who tend to move up are not the specialists, but the individuals who have touched recruitment, employee relations, training, and more.

2) Taking On New Challenges. Doing the same job for too long can get dull. By putting yourself into a new role, you're forcing your brain to solve different problems. It can increase your engagement and sense of fulfillment.

3) Increasing Your Marketability. By proving yourself in a new field or area, you can be opening up a whole new set of career possibilities - both inside and outside your current employer. Your boss isn't planning on retiring for a while? Maybe the fellow in the other group is planning on a career change in the near future. Or perhaps listing that new set of skills on your resume invites calls from recruiters about new opportunities.

4) Demonstrating Your Strategic Agility. By showing your employer that you are able to succeed in not just one, but two different lines of work, you're able to demonstrate that you can handle bigger, better, and newer challenges. Perhaps your company is looking for somebody to lead a new venture, and they need an individual who has demonstrated an ability to take on new tasks and make them successful. A cross-functional assignment may put you in prime position for such a promotion.

5) Even Lateral Moves Can Be A Step Up. I've seen it happen many times - somebody is given a new role, and it's not necessarily a full promotion, but to make the move more enticing, the company offers more money and/or an increase in title. Even half-steps forward can be rewarded.

Just remember: The straight road isn't the only one that can take you to your destination.

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, and career coaching services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.