Imagine navigating through a complex labyrinth, filled with hidden opportunities, treacherous pitfalls, and countless paths to success. That's precisely what job hunting feels like, right? Welcome to our comprehensive guide to finding your dream job, from leveraging job boards, professional associations, local job fairs, and creative sources.
We break down the art of using online databases, LinkedIn’s open-to-work feature, the unexplored realm of job fairs, and the Employment Development Department. We even discuss niche opportunities within your local county or city, sharing insights into the application process, including the value of taking tests and attending workshops.
But we aren’t stopping there. We're flipping the script on social media and revealing how platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn can be your secret weapons in the job search battle. We'll share tips on how to go the extra mile in your job search, from leveraging your network to vetting job descriptions. Plus, we cover the benefits of attending workshops and joining professional associations. Stay tuned for an enlightening journey into the world of job hunting, backed by practical tips and valuable insights to help you secure that dream job!
Relevant Links:
CareeRise: www.careerrise.org
CareerConfidence: www.mjcareerconfidence.com
Follow Us on IG!
Follow Us on LinkedIn:
Imagine navigating through a complex labyrinth, filled with hidden opportunities, treacherous pitfalls, and countless paths to success. That's precisely what job hunting feels like, right? Welcome to our comprehensive guide to finding your dream job, from leveraging job boards, professional associations, local job fairs, and creative sources.
We break down the art of using online databases, LinkedIn’s open-to-work feature, the unexplored realm of job fairs, and the Employment Development Department. We even discuss niche opportunities within your local county or city, sharing insights into the application process, including the value of taking tests and attending workshops.
But we aren’t stopping there. We're flipping the script on social media and revealing how platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn can be your secret weapons in the job search battle. We'll share tips on how to go the extra mile in your job search, from leveraging your network to vetting job descriptions. Plus, we cover the benefits of attending workshops and joining professional associations. Stay tuned for an enlightening journey into the world of job hunting, backed by practical tips and valuable insights to help you secure that dream job!
Relevant Links:
CareeRise: www.careerrise.org
CareerConfidence: www.mjcareerconfidence.com
Follow Us on IG!
Follow Us on LinkedIn:
Hello everyone, welcome back to Coffee and Career Hour.
Speaker 2:We are your hosts, mj and Arminay, and we are so excited to be here with you. We have a little bit of a more fun. I don't know if that's not fun at all.
Speaker 1:I should not lie, it's actually stressful. Sorry, the topic we're going to talk about today is stressful.
Speaker 2:And it's the topic of how to find a job. Dun dun dun, mike drop moment. Yeah, that's scary, honestly scary, stressful, anxiety inducing. The only exciting part is when it's over.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you get a job offer that you love yeah.
Speaker 2:Job hunting, job searching, job soul searching, reference, whatever all of the parts that kind of go into it are honestly not fun. The getting to there and identifying what it is that you want to do is fun for us as counselors who kind of navigate the process, but now the person having to take the skills, the guidance right that we provide and applying it into now finding a job and landing an opportunity is difficult because there's a lot of uncertainty. You can't control a lot of the different pieces, but today we're going to talk about some of the couple of things that we guide our clients and our students with when finding a job, right. So some of the key topics for today, I would say, are looking at online databases we have a couple in mind, ones that we refer often Job fairs job fairs exist even outside of school, right?
Speaker 2:So that's something we're going to chat about Professional associations or other things such as conferences, the huge topic of networking that never is ending, really. And, lastly, we're going to touch on a few more platforms that really can support you in searching for your next dream job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we have a lot of good recommendations here for you all in terms of how to find a job, and we know that this is one of the biggest pain points for everybody everybody who may be listening to a career podcast or is just interested in career development in general. It's usually it starts with somebody wanting to find a job and then they go into the whole, like listening to podcast, researching, how can I develop in my career, how can I develop my professional skills? So if you're in that situation, we understand that the biggest pain point is finding that job. So that's why we wanted to do this episode. So, mj, let's tell our audience, in terms of online databases, what are some of the ones that we recommend.
Speaker 2:Oh man, if you're a student, I'm going to directly guide you to your career center, as I do our students when they come to us. I always say return. But if you're a student, I'm going to say utilize the resources and services you have within your institution. Right, if you're a college student, more likely than not than your campus. Right, school has a career center that has different resources available to you. The most popular known is Handshake. So if you are a college student, please log into Handshake. That's the platform your institution uses. If not, go and ask for more information. Right, that is a job and internship platform where you can apply to hundreds and thousands of different opportunities on there. Both if you're an undergrad or grad student is why I did want to know that. But if you're the average person looking for a job, as Arminay or myself, would look right, we would directly go to online resources, right.
Speaker 2:So typically, I think the one that we would go to, which is what we would consider like the most general one that we would offer, is LinkedIn. Why do we offer LinkedIn? I love LinkedIn job board actually.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love LinkedIn as a platform. It's actually a really great platform and it's developed a lot since it's early days Since it started.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we also want to mention too that we heavily went through how the job board looks and the different filters in our LinkedIn episodes. So if you want to go back and kind of refresh and up a little bit on the LinkedIn platform, you can definitely do that with those two episodes and we covered how to use the filters and the different advantages to using those two. But LinkedIn job board is currently the most global platform actually right now that everyone is using for jobs and internships and opportunities really in general right, Research opportunities, fellowships those are scholarships posted on there, but any type of work is on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so one special thing about LinkedIn and we have talked about this before but we definitely want to highlight is, yes, you can go on to the job or you can, you know, type in some job titles that you're interested in. You could also use the filters, which we highly encourage. But beyond that, there is a really cool feature that I don't think any other platform has, which is the open-to-work feature?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. If you go, and you go to your profile, right, if you click on the little me button and you click view profile, I'm gonna guide you to, really, the bottom section, the bottom of the first section. You see, right. So right under where your name is and your headline and All of the different followers, data and all that kind of stuff, there is a I want to button. There's next to it, to the right of it, is the add profile section and then there's a more button, so there's three. If you click on the I want to, you'll get three different options right, job search, higher or provide services, right, so, depending on who you are and what you're using the platform for, definitely click appropriately. However, right, those who are job searching, which is in what this episode is about, you definitely want to click open to work, right, or open to job search. Then you will be prompted with a couple titles that you can add.
Speaker 2:Right, that you're searching for location types, or more like mediums, right, so, remote work, hybrid, in person, all that good stuff. Locations, start date, employment times, right, employment types, I'm sorry. So like full-time, part-time contract, internship, whatever. And then visibility. This one's huge. Why? Because you can filter it either to go and be only seen to recruiters, meaning that recruiters actually get filtered by the number of individuals who have this feature open and and turned on pretty much, or you can have your visibility of you searching for a job with a visible, with a green banner around your profile that says open to work, meaning that in and recruiters, people at your current job or place of work or school or wherever you are and in your network on LinkedIn can also see that You're looking for a job right, which Tells them that you're actively seeking and spreads that message for you too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it kind of does the back-end work for you right? Yes, job search is a very active and engaged process that we'll kind of talk about it throughout this episode, but this at least helps with doing some of the back-end technical work for you to get your profile In the eyes of recruiters. So definitely you utilize this feature if you're on LinkedIn. If you're not on LinkedIn, we highly encourage you to have a LinkedIn account. It is becoming more and more popular and, as we've shared in previous episodes, recruiters will Google you and you want, you want a professional platform to come up when your name is googled. Absolutely, you know Facebook and other things might come up as well, which you definitely want to clean up, those social media profiles. But you you ideally would want your LinkedIn profile, which is a lot more of a professional representation of you, to be coming up when recruiters Google you.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I always say that with the digital footprint, it's better to have one that you can control versus when you can't control. Right, so you can control what your LinkedIn profile looks like. You can Control who sees it by putting it on your resume. Right? Also, go check out our resume episode. You can see you can control how your profile is built and how you want to showcase your personal brand to employer. So LinkedIn is a resource that we are always going to recommend and one we use frequently as well.
Speaker 1:So another website that we really like besides LinkedIn is the muse.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I personally love this website. I'm I'm, I'm weird and I like to find different like resources that we use in articles, and I find that this one is very like, simple to use. It has great articles that often support you right like. I'm looking at A couple of articles right now. They're like how to ace right a tech interview according to a CIL. Right, he's hiring. Right.
Speaker 2:There's a different types of Career guidance right in our field we don't really actually like to use the word advice, so we kind of stray away from that specific term. However, there's a lot of career guidance, quick tips that you can implement. Right like different information to really enhance and elevate your career, your career journey, all in all, right. But they in turn, have a jobs Platform, right job services, and they have all different types of Opportunities on there, from account managing to arts to business, to design. Right and UX type of stuff, to communications, to software. So the muse, the muse comm, right slash hiring is a really awesome Job board for everywhere in the United States that you all can use as well. It's one that I often refer to clients, not specifically students, because we have other resources for them, but more so clients who are also searching for opportunities. So I really like the muse for like professional development, quick tips, new ideas, new things that are happening, but also the job search too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when it comes to job boards like the muse, linkedin or even monstercom, which is another one that we've recently discovered that we, like With any of those job boards, we want to encourage you all, actually heavily recommend not encourage heavily heavily recommend the void applying through the database. Yeah, these are big, big databases. So what happens is there's gonna be hundreds and hundreds of applications that people submit through these databases and, like LinkedIn specifically, has an easy apply feature.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes, please.
Speaker 1:That's a no, no Do not use that feature.
Speaker 2:Do not use easy apply.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do not use that. And for any of the other online job boards it's really important to avoid the data applying through the database, because your resume is easily lost in the crowd. But instead what we recommend is, if you find a position on these platforms that you like, go to the company website and go to their Usually it's called like careers or work with us or something like that go to that page on their website and Find the position you're looking for and apply through their website, because then you know for sure it's going through there into their software, into their HR software, and your resume is likely to be Not lost in the crowd, because a lot of people aren't gonna be applying through the company website.
Speaker 2:Absolutely where you can find what Armin is talking about is literally any person's like any places website.
Speaker 2:If you scroll the way down, you know that bottom bar that nobody ever pays attention to, that has all the different tabs on the website if you go to like where the about the company's website stuff is, that's where you're always gonna find like the jobs, like the careers page or the jobs or work with us. Like Armin I was saying, you're always gonna find it there. So I always tend to kind of, when I'm getting a little lost, I scroll down, click on careers, click on work for us, and then I kind of navigate from there, from in there You're also be able to tell, like you know, a lot of companies kind of send out their jobs to different platforms, right, like, of course, linkedin we're talking about it, monster the muse, indeed glass door, all these huge right like job search board generators. So sometimes on there the job might still be open, but on the internal website the job might be closed.
Speaker 2:And that's something to also note too is you don't want to be wasting your time sending your resume right into these huge Platforms that where the job may be closed and the opportunity is no longer available, when you can just go directly to the source right and apply there. It also just shows genuine enthusiasm right from from the recruiter side or from our perspective of when employers or individuals and employers, when job seekers go to the website.
Speaker 2:You actually are genuinely invested to take the extra time to go to our website, apply through our career pages, whatever you know, yeah, no, that's definitely all those pieces matter.
Speaker 1:And another aspect that I always always recommend and my clients can always get surprised by this, I feel like People are always wondering like, oh, I didn't know I could do that is you can send a follow-up after you submit your application.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, I love that, employers love that. So I would say, about one to two weeks between one to two weeks after applying, it's totally fair game for you to email either their HR office or, depending on what kind of, what size of a company it is, they might not have an HR office but, like the, the CEO of the company or or whatever a contact information. You can find their website where you can send them a Beautiful email that outlines why you're interested in the company and in the position, specifically state which position you applied for and when you apply, like when the actual day you submitted your application and you ask a follow-up question, something along the lines of what is the status of my application? That shows initiative, that shows interest and it also kind of gets the Person reviewing the employer, the HR rep it like your name becomes familiar to them. When they do go and look at the applications, they will likely remember your name because you followed up in an email.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I can't agree more. The only question I think that I get when I, when I tell Clients and students at all the time, is like what if I don't find an email?
Speaker 1:What do I do?
Speaker 2:then this is where I say, like, now it's time to get creative right. So if you can't find an email and it's been like one to two weeks and things like that what I would say is for those of you who are active on LinkedIn and those of you who are not, please get active on LinkedIn, go to their company website and see if you can find an HR or a recruiter or somebody that works within that type of area and Message them on LinkedIn, right? So also be aware of like depending on how many connections you have and Sometimes you're not able to access certain people or message them, but that's like a side note but do your best to get real creative and find the individuals that are reviewing this right, because it shows that you went the extra mile.
Speaker 1:Just like. Armin a saying and it brings your name back to the top of the list definitely I've done this before and and and I said like to follow up emails in the past for one particular position. Yeah, because they were taking a while. And yeah, I didn't actually get an interview for that role, but they didn't the replying back to me. Even though they weren't gonna consider my candidacy, they did say like, thank you so much, like they took the time to at least reply and let me know, instead of keeping me guessing.
Speaker 1:Yeah for like longer periods.
Speaker 2:That's the worst, when employers keep you or recruiters kind of keep you guessing. Yeah, I know it's it's. It's a tough period to be in, especially if you're like it's really seeking a change, right. So also be patient. Be kind with yourself too, and give the process Grace Right. As much as you want to give yourself Grace, give the process Grace too. Remember well, I'll save that for the end, right?
Speaker 2:Like some of my overall tips but, I promise I will come back and I will remember what I'm talking about, what I was gonna say, but let's move on to kind of like the next way to find different opportunities.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so okay, let's say you know you're like great Armin A and MJ. I have applied to many jobs on these platforms. What else can I do? Right, something different. We actually recommend attending job fairs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so if you're a student, you probably may have already attended job fairs or you've at least heard about them through your campus career center. But if you're not a student, job fairs do exist for the general population as well. So one place you can find job fairs is on Eventbrite. So Eventbrite many of you may know it has all sorts of events on there. People like individuals, organizations use Eventbrite as well as individuals do. So people can post their different events on there and we've actually seen many different job fairs. I think I saw one for Pasadena and a few other ones for like County on Eventbrite just recently. So you can easily find some of them might be paid, some of them might be free. So you can kind of vet through that based on your particular situation. But you can easily find job fairs hosted on Eventbrite and some of them might be virtual and some might be in person.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I think job fairs are something that are kind of forgotten or aren't really known about. If you didn't go into higher ed Unfortunately, that's just the truth I didn't know. I mean, I don't know if it's because I'm first gen. I don't know if because there could be a lot of different reasons, but I didn't even know a job fair or career fair or whatever they call them. Well, I know what they call them, but you know what I mean. Like even existed if I didn't go to college.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I definitely don't think I remember one of my two first jobs and I say two first, because the first one was like six months and it was like something I just did in high school, right, like I walked in and I knew the person and was like hey, like are you guys hiring? And then that's how I got my job.
Speaker 2:The second time I walked into I'm not, I share this all the time as soon as I got, walked into an old Navy and they were as like seasonal recruiting, and then I got like the interview for like the next day or whatever, and then came back I didn't know that job fairs existed. So I'm so glad that we're even able to find some and I was like wow, like this is for the general public because we do them all the time at work.
Speaker 2:So for us it's common knowledge, but for those who maybe, when it's not common knowledge, this is really cool things where you get to network right, you get to really apply some of the skills and ideas that we're talking about on this podcast into real life and you see an impact right.
Speaker 1:In a different way.
Speaker 2:So, armin, I talked about event, right? She didn't say is that sometimes she has time and puts web hosts workshops on there. So she's amazing. So check out some of her workshops that sometimes she posts on their to. Some of them are free.
Speaker 1:This is unpaid advertising.
Speaker 2:It's very unpaid advertising, but I was, like you, completely forgot about your workshops. But another resource, and we've mentioned this before when we're talking about career exploration, but this is kind of like a all in one resource.
Speaker 2:I think I would consider this and it's called a career one, the number one. Oh, and he stop. And if you search or if you just Google like career one, stop job fairs, you're going to come up with the link We'll, of course, put it in the show notes where it's literally going to take you to different fairs. What is going to take you to? A site where on the bottom right, it has American Job Center. If you click on there, it'll allow you to put in your city, zip code, state, whatever. So, have you know, start filtering and really showing you the opportunities in the fairs within your area so you can have an opportunity to go within your community I'm assuming right and see different employers and opportunities that are available.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so another really valuable resource for generally, for career guidance as well Career one stop is a really great resource for that as well. But yes, they do have job fairs that you can find. Another one is the Edd Employment Development Department. This organization is is a is a large organization. They actually do a lot of like workforce development. They have trainings, they, they have unemployment information. They have like legal policies related to to work and jobs and workplace policies as well. But they do have fairs and workshops that you can attend. So if you and we will put the link in the show notes as well, but if you go- to the Edd Employment Development Department website.
Speaker 1:You can just Google that. It will show you all of the different components that they have and you can find some of the events that are hosted through this organization. It's a trusted organization so I would definitely encourage like Eventbrite is a little bit bigger, like a little bit, you know, broader, in the sense that different people can host different events on there, so probably want to be a little bit more careful with the Eventbrite to vet out, like, who the host is, absolutely, but like, for example, edd is definitely a government organization. So I would trust that and all the events that they host. Very true.
Speaker 2:Something else where, like I was talking about getting creative in the last, you know, looking for job fairs online. For this one, too, right, don't forget about some of the local organizations and you know national government resources within your area. So, for example, like public libraries, right, like, highly, highly, 10 out of 10,. Please go to a local library and ask if they have any resources available to you for career guidance, for job fairs, for where to search for jobs. More likely than not, they will be able to provide you with something.
Speaker 2:So that's something that I always encourage students to say, to also know to. But also maybe to like your local counties website, right. So, for example, we live in the Los Angeles County is what it's considered. So a lot of our clients and individuals and students specifically go to the LA County, right, if they want to work with the county or things like that, I always encourage them to check out their website. So don't forget about some of the local. I mean, I know it's easy to forget, but this is your reminder to like public libraries, community organizations, right.
Speaker 2:Like, even in your local community, you guys do like a town hall or whatever that looks like for you in your city or area and then right things like different counties, that house, career fairs or things like that as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, speaking of city jobs or working for the city, there's a website per dot LA city dot org. This is a great one for city jobs, and then another one, government jobs dot com. Slash career, slash LA city. So we'll put both of these links in the chat.
Speaker 1:But these are city jobs, so it's going to be a variety of different types of positions posted and, and, of course, you're working for the city, so it's more like a government job, but very different types of positions as well as different levels, from entry level to more advanced level jobs.
Speaker 1:So you can see, and actually one thing to note about these, since we are talking about these, is that anytime you're applying to the city, county, any kind of government related organization, it takes a lot longer, yeah, like compared to corporate.
Speaker 1:So it might take like a year to get a job with the government or the city, because they do exams as well, depending on the type of skill set that the job needs. They will have you do some kind of written reading exam or maybe even analytical skill sets too. So you have to take a test in the process of applying to these jobs and they have like different tiers, yeah, tier one, two and three, based on how the position is ranked. So there's a lot. That's a whole different world on its own. But as we're talking about looking in like your local city and county, these two websites will link in the show notes. But if anyone is interested in working for the government or having that kind of a position, just know that you'll probably have to exercise a little bit more patience for these roles than a corporate job. That might be a faster turnaround.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I think patience is key, like in this entire process, no matter where you are, patience and giving the process some grace, because it, I know our situations vary and some of us are really, you know, eking to get out, or some of us are really excited, right, and eager to get in different spaces, but let the process be the process and really just, you know, go with the flow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, before we talk about our next way to find a job, I wanted to bring up something MJU said about walking into. In your first two jobs, you walked into the set. I was like what did? I say, no, you walked into that office or setting and that's how you found out about the jobs and that's how you ended up getting it. Can you share a little bit more about your experience, because I feel like before all the online databases, it was a lot more common for people to walk into a center and ask if they were hiring, but that doesn't happen as much now. But I love that this happened for you twice, yeah.
Speaker 2:And in the recent years. Yeah, so the first time I will, I will preface that it was like a company that my family, actually a lot of us that was kind of like our first job in our family. So it was funny because it's like something that was regular to us. So when I wanted to start working, my mom was, you know, my mom was very diligent about allowing me to explore what that meant. So I was like, okay, I really didn't have all the skills and knowledge I have now. I didn't really know where to start and I started with this group of network that I knew right, Since they knew me since kindergarten. So just imagine kindergarten to 16.
Speaker 2:It was about 10 years or so or a little bit more, and I walked in it was a bagel shop. I won't, I won't not say it was a bagel shop. And I walked into the manager and said, hey, like you know, like I'm looking for a job, I'm wondering if you guys are taking on employees. And, funny enough, like she had a conversation with me about like you know, like why are you looking for a job? You're in school, like our. At that time I think it was a junior going to be a senior in high school. So she also, like had you know was was nice enough to be like are you going to college? Like, what are your thoughts?
Speaker 1:there, you know.
Speaker 2:I'm looking out for me right, essentially. So that's kind of what happened. I ended up getting the job started within the next couple of weeks, did all that stuff. Now I graduated high school, went to college and then I honestly don't even remember why we went into Old Navy Usually. I remember weird stuff like that, but I walked in and I remember too, at the time where the Old Navy was there was a Marshall's and a Nordstrom Rack there too, and that same shop, soft shopping center, and everybody because it was it was September everybody was hiring right. So if you, if you walk into like a Marshall's, a TJ Maxx, home goods Ross sometimes will do this I'm like naming all the stores no shame here.
Speaker 2:Target sometimes will also do this too. They'll have like a big sign or a table near the front saying like we're hiring or seasonal work. Target one of the ones that I went to recently used to have near Christmas time sorry, near the holiday time they'll have a gigantic sign on the side of the building that says like we're hiring, seasonal, and then I'll say like ours.
Speaker 2:So for my job at Old Navy, I walked in and was like, oh, like you guys are hiring and I was a freshman in college and you'll you'll know. This is the truth. I was taking six classes at the time, so I was taking a full 18 to 21 units and I was bored and I was like school cannot be the only thing that I'm doing.
Speaker 1:Only I know only me.
Speaker 2:So I was like I can do a part-time job. And I walked in and I was, like you know, the person was there and I was like, oh hi, like like can I, can I learn more? Essentially right, my mom kind of just stood in the background and watched me and I was like in jeans and a t-shirt, I remember, and they're like oh yeah, like you can come back later today, I think, or the next day, I don't really remember that clearly, but then I walked in, got the information. I honestly don't even know if I had a resume at the time.
Speaker 2:Um yeah, I don't remember Maybe, and it was probably horrible, but that's okay. Everybody has a first resume. And then I and the next day we came in I had the interview. I sat in like the office with the general manager, talked about like fashion, right, because old Navy's fashion had a like a group type interview thing and then was hired, wow, yeah, so, but they still do that. I've noticed that they still do that. I recently went to home goods and they do have the table or the sign or something around seasonal work.
Speaker 2:Sorry, I know that was probably a longer story than what we were expecting, but I was like trying to remember.
Speaker 1:No, that was great. I mean, it's just, that's like happenstance, right, we've talked about this Absolutely. So we've talked about happenstance many times.
Speaker 2:Sorry, I'm like remembering, I'm like making this huge gesture at you. So the other day you're, you're going to think I'm absolutely insane. Now, if you haven't already thought this, so the other day, I was um. I'm a phabletics person. Um. They don't sponsor us, but please do feel free. Phabletics.
Speaker 2:If you want to sponsor, armin and I Coffee and Career Hour anytime. Um, I really like phabletics and um, my partner and I like buy from them often, right, he likes the men's wear and I like, obviously, the women's wear and things like that. So I was returning something to one of their pop-up stores and I happen like I was being silly, right, and was like, oh my god, like I love this so much, I would love to work here, right, obviously, of course, the the manager happens to hear me and she's like we're hiring and I was like, yay, I was like embarrassed one because I was at the rival institution of UCLA.
Speaker 2:To I am like a, you know, like a career counselor and yeah, I'm actually looking for a job actually looking for a job and I'm just in the middle of the store looking at the new Chloe collection, right, if you know, if athletics, you know, chloe just really sit there and I'm like I would love to work here, like I was all being silly, and the lady that you know, the hiring manager, looks at me. Or the manager I should say she's like would you really like? She knows she introduced herself and and she's like, yeah, we're hiring for like four hour. You know, part-time students at college, students and I totally played it off that I was a psych major totally like like, tell me, where can I apply? Like I think I can fit in four hours into my schedule. You know I have like a couple internships, whatever. Totally.
Speaker 2:I'm so glad that I could still pass off as like a older college student. But this happened to me the other day and my, my fiance, looked at me and was like you were trying to work another job and I was like look at the way in which the universe is bringing me, yes, to phabletics um, maybe it's a sign, maybe it's fine.
Speaker 2:I need to go back into Rita. I mean I loved. I think that's how I knew I wanted to be. This is so. I need to stop talking because it's so off topic no you're good and for people appreciate hearing your journey and stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that's, that's how. So I got offered that job and basically she told me like we were talking about like the different leggings, and I guess I had approved my like wisdom and without even thinking about it, and she's like MJ because she asked me my name. She's like MJ, like I swear, like if you apply like we could literally have you start training next week and I was like I don't think about it, like I'm not sure yeah, but you see what happened?
Speaker 1:there is, yes, happenstance. You just happen to walk into the store and they were hiring and you were in the right place at the right time. Yeah, but also you're saying you were talking about the one of their items the merchandise, the leggings, yeah, the leggings and and you showed your passion and excitement and knowledge of their merchandise. Yeah, and that's what they basically would have already hired. You see, she told you like they would train you the following week.
Speaker 2:That means you probably already had the job.
Speaker 1:So this this is the reality is like employers want to see that you're actually excited, doesn't matter what industry it is, as a matter of what level of position this is an entry level position at a retail store and they still are looking for passion and excitement. Absolutely, I think it also helped that I own.
Speaker 2:I was wearing the same shorts as her and and it was like totally bonded, I mean, yes, but should be completely honest, like I didn't. Honestly, when you asked me to to think about the two jobs I had in the very, very beginning of my life, I didn't even think about this last time at Fabletics. But that was hilarious because I was not even like I was so joking, I mean, I don't know right, maybe 25% of you really thought I could take on another like eight hours in my day working somewhere else, but it just happened and it was so funny because you know, like I didn't even put that much effort into it, yeah, and the opportunity kind of spoke and I know that there's a lot of it and I was kind of reflecting on like how easy sometimes it may feel like when you already have something for other things to come, and when you're searching for something, it feels like you're pushing farther farther away.
Speaker 1:So that's like the job search reality and I was, like you know, being silly because you're going in with a different energy when you're desperately looking for a job because you need to make ends meet, but you have a job, which is why we always say, like, don't leave your job until you find the other job. Right, you get another job offer. It's because, like, you go in with lighter energy and that like resembles more confident in the interview process and everything.
Speaker 2:So that's all of that was playing for you yeah, and the whole like getting another job before leaving a job. I think we should talk about it in another episode because I literally somebody had said that to me and I'll go through my story.
Speaker 2:You guys have probably gone wild now like telling you my random stories, that fabletics on the weekend, but that is something that actually really came up in my life, like not having a job and me making the huge decision, and like I felt like I was choosing over my happiness and I was completely miserable. Yeah, and it like it so happened at the universe.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's a whole another story for home the day, but something to know, yeah, yeah, we will definitely share that story in another episode, but thank you for sharing for our listeners. So, as you all can see, right, like besides the online databases and the job fairs, which are, of course, great ways to find jobs I mean, these days there's so many online databases- and the job fairs are becoming virtual and a lot easier and a lot more accessible than they used to be.
Speaker 1:Right post COVID, like with zoom and all these other websites out there, it is so much easier to access online virtual job fairs. It's so much easier to access just job postings because we have all these online databases. But the old school ways sometimes still work, like legit walking into the place, showing your excitement, showing your knowledge of whatever that, that industry is. Those still work. There's gems. They're like the gems. I don't think they're ever gonna not work, you know. So keep that in mind as you're doing some of these other traditional methods of job search as well. But that actually takes me to our next point, which is conferences and professional associations. Yeah, so if you haven't heard of professional associations before, these are really really important ways to not only find jobs but advance in your profession, become more knowledgeable about your industry and just network with other people in the industry.
Speaker 1:But joining a professional association for whatever industry you're in pretty much every industry has at least one organization, more than one or two. You can join at least one, and I always recommend this to my students, especially upon graduation, so as they're like getting out of the school network. They can find community in the professional organization network. So for those of you who are not students and you're looking for, you're like, how can I find community and then, out in the industry that I'm looking for, join a professional association? Yes, they're usually paid like an annual fee most of the time, but there's a lot of benefit to that that you could really get a lot out of the amount that you're paying for these associations, one being conferences. Conferences are a great way to network with professionals and basically learn a lot more about the industry that you're in. So we both of us are definitely part of professional associations related to our field. I could name like four off the top of my head.
Speaker 1:I love that I could name like one and both of us have presented at conferences before. No, not yet. You're presenting. Soon you're presenting in. December, yes, but presenting at a conference is a really great experience as well, growing professionally and putting that on your resume looks really great too. But that comes with time, right like in the beginning when you're job searching. Attending conferences and being part of professional associations is also another way for you to find out about different jobs within your industry, very true.
Speaker 2:So, like honestly, the best way to think about this is if you were to take the same idea of job searching on a website and making it an in-person activity.
Speaker 2:That's literally what a conference would be yeah, I mean yes, I mean you can compare it to like a career fair, but it's very similar to that, because you're now one person in a room of thousands or hundreds, right, or like less than a hundred or whatever same capacity talking about, like you're actively looking, and the language I always really encourage individuals to use is not I'm connecting with you or I'm talking to you for like a job, right, I'm looking, actively looking, but it's more so that exploratory phase, that curiosity, that evolving learning, that I'm genuinely interested in looking for an opportunity that aligns more with my career values and my interests right, and then you don't have to go into ex detail about, like, if you hate your job or if you love your job or whatever right.
Speaker 2:It's a nice way to basically give an over round view of not saying like I'm panicking, looking for my next opportunity, but I'm also looking to grow and also expand my skill set and do something that's more aligned with who I am in my soul yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And if you're at a conference, that, for an industry that you love, oh my gosh, it doesn't even feel like work. It feels it's so much fun, so much fun going to those different sessions because, like you, genuinely are curious about the content that that you're going to be learning from those sessions yeah, I'm looking at you and like twitching as you're saying, it's fun because networking is a little scary.
Speaker 2:I'm still, I think and I know a lot of individuals resonate with that like networking is. Some feel that networking is asking for an opportunity. Some feel networking is is is shameful because of they see the networking only for one purpose right one benefit other individuals. It all depends on how you look at this, and Armin and I have talked about this before and it's a huge topic, but conferences are.
Speaker 2:I'm getting better at it, which is good, but yeah, they have a lot. And then you were talking about students, which, if you're a student right now undergrad, grad student or recent grad they also have lower fees for you to attend to be part of these organizations.
Speaker 2:So always look for, like the student discount, and if you can't find it, always email the organization. They always have like a info at organization acronym, org or edu or whatever. But within the organizations and beyond the conferences themselves, on their websites, a lot of them actually have job boards. So you have internal access now to a database that's strictly for the organic, for the industry and field you want to go into with other professionals involved in this organization too, right, so it's very much so a tailored job search website yes, definitely so.
Speaker 1:Lots of benefits to being a part of a professional association and attending conferences within those industries. We talked a lot about networking when attending conferences, so let's expand a little bit about the networking piece, because it's still. It still remains. We're in 2023, you guys, and it still remains to be the number one way people find jobs and internships. I always say this it's just like the students I work with. I'm like despite all, like the hundreds and thousands of online websites there are for finding jobs and despite, you know, doing things virtually, networking is still remains to be the number one way, because there's some data out there from a few years ago. So it might be slightly outdated, but a few years ago they said 85% of jobs and internships were found through networking.
Speaker 2:I will tell you and I've said this before I would not have the current positions because I have more than one that I have if it wasn't for my network. Yeah, that's 100% true, and I'm one person I don't know how true that is for anybody else but that, like I don't know that, I would be happy and content with my life if I didn't have the roles that I had through networking 100%.
Speaker 1:I know you've shared that before as well in other episodes and in my case, too, like, the opportunities that I've had that were like in addition to my full-time jobs have always been through networking. All the teaching gigs that I've had and different workshops, facilitations and things like that that I've done have always been through people that know me, like my previous faculty would reach out and say do you want to teach this class? Or something like that, which was extra income but also advanced, helped me advance in my career. So every opportunity that I've had, especially the ones that have been like aside from my full-time jobs, have been through my network, and I was thinking about this too. Like, even in my mom's case, my network helped her get a job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because my mom actually works with children with disabilities, so Auti is a especially children who are on the spectrum, and she had worked for an organization for some time. And then there was this point a few years back where she was transitioning out of the organization but still wanted to work with children, and someone that I knew from my network had mentioned one day that they need someone to take care of their kids, and this happened twice. So it started with one person I was like oh, my mom does this kind of work Referred her, they met, it all worked out. My mom actually took care of her kids for a little bit, and then it happened again with two other people where she actually had kind of like a long-term contract, at least more than a year for both of these people that I'm thinking about, where she worked with their kids. Yeah, go mom. Yeah, and so, even not just for my, my network didn't just benefit me, but it benefited me.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to think this is. I think I mean this is a whole different, but I'm like you're talking about that and I'm like my mom's network has actually benefited from me in the opposite way of not looking for a job, but in career development and professional development. I've actually been writing and reviewing resumes for longer than what I considered and I did that and I mean in freelance right, Not like in terms of my jobs, but my mom's network, my mom is a nanny.
Speaker 2:She's a full-time nanny for over 16 years. Like I can't tell you the amount of times, the amount of individuals that I've had to help and find an opportunity right, help brand themselves on. I never even thought about this until, like a lot more recently within the last couple of years, of how often I've done that. So it's interesting how your network can help you both ways in terms of like looking for that outcome, but also preparing for that opportunity too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So once you start thinking about it like these are situations where we didn't like, intentionally, try to network with people.
Speaker 1:I wasn't intentionally going around and telling my network, like my mom works with children, right, like it just happens, as you're building relationships with people, and someone will tell you like, hey, this is what's going on in my life and I'm like, oh yeah, like I know someone who can help you out with that. So it's where you're building real relationships with people that you can offer and get some I don't want to say get something out of it, but you can offer your support, they can offer their support, depending on what the situation is.
Speaker 2:You'd be more surprised how many people are really willing to support you and help guide you in this process and like hey, like root for you in a way and be on the lookout. To be completely honest, one of the best ways I think we should now officially be sponsored by LinkedIn. Linkedin please reach out soon. Info at careerriseorg. However, when your job seeking right it's something you is pro tip kind of here is posted on LinkedIn right, posted on your professional social media with the banner right, open to all, let everybody know you don't have to tell people why you're switching jobs. You don't. You know you don't. Again, you also want to be mindful. If you have your current employer and colleagues on LinkedIn, you want to be mindful of how you kind of go about that Right, but also let people know that you're actively looking for roles. You'd be so surprised in who and how many people are willing to keep an eye out and refer you to different things, but also introduce you to the world of the hidden opportunities right, which are opportunities that aren't posted as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely so, and we have gotten in more depth about networking in previous episodes, but this one week today, we wanted to emphasize the importance of networking when it comes to finding a job. So we've kind of talked about online databases, professional associations, conferences, job fairs, networking in all of its glory. And then there's another platform that we've actually never talked about and it's becoming more and more up and coming. You may or may not have heard of it. It's called Slack. Slack is generally used in companies right now. Most of the time if you are using Slack, it's probably through your work, your company, because that's how it started. It started off as a workplace communication app, but it's expanded over the past couple of years to now basically be for, like, community building for different industries. So even if you're not working in a company or you're not using Slack through your company, but you want to use it as your own professional development, as you want to like find community within your industry, you can actually use Slack for that purpose.
Speaker 2:Yeah, slack is generally, if you're familiar with, an instant messaging type of platform Discord, reddit and a lot of instant messaging platforms, just to name a few, that are popular right now. Slack is essentially that. You want to use Slack strategically. We use it for work, but I never in my life would have thought I was going to use it for job search. So that's amazing as well, but we also, up our sleeve, have a couple other platforms to share. I'm going to let you share the next one, because that one's a little more personal.
Speaker 1:Yikes.
Speaker 1:Okay, as you all know, I host, I am the owner of Career Rise and my website is always linked at the bottom of the show notes.
Speaker 1:But on my website, on the homepage, actually, there are a number of job search websites that are targeted for different industries or different populations. So I personally went through these websites and vetted through them and identified the ones that I liked and ended up posting those on my website. So if you're looking for something a little bit more targeted such as, like the tech industry, or something for creative, creative type of work or remote jobs or jobs for female females in tech, those kinds of things there are specific targeted websites on my website that you can use free of charge. You don't even have to subscribe to my website for this, but you should. But I wanted to put that on the homepage right there without any, without any subscription requirement, because I really want people to be able to access these targeted websites, as I know that sometimes it's really difficult to find positions on the general job search websites like LinkedIn and Monster that we talked about. So the targeted ones can help a little bit, but we'll talk more about that in a second too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, something random that I like. This is something that I remembered. It's not really random, I mean, it's random. You, I don't.
Speaker 2:I don't know if people ever thought to search for jobs on here, but why am I saying this? Because recently I was following, so you all, you all know about career confidence and on there I follow a lot, a lot of different women, a lot of different women who are Latinas in different areas of career, in their life and career development, and all different types of professionals. To be completely honest, not just Latina, but that's kind of, I think, the the era that I'm not the era because that's who. I am Right, but that's kind of like the niche that I've actually developed, which is amazing too, but funny enough. Why am I mentioning this? Why is this all relevant? It gets the point. Recently, somebody that had follow on there I don't remember the Instagram handle and I'm so, so, so sorry, but she is it's something. I think it's Latina engineer. However, she actually hosted they ate the platform. The influencer hosted like a virtual job fair and I thought that was amazing.
Speaker 2:I thought it was amazing because, like, who would have ever thought on Instagram? And they're scrolling right in the middle of my work day when I should really be responding to emails and I see that this person has a virtual job fair lined up right for engineering especially women in engineering and I thought how amazing that this platform that's so not meant to be like, supposed to be fun, creative, right. People have developed it and if you really do try hard enough to search on Instagram Instagram is a platform I'm referring to, by the way you can also find opportunities on there and it's also a really good way to network. In that case that you're showing your brand on there, such as Arm and Air myself are also doing to it's a really good opportunity to network, showcase, brand. But people are hosting more and more events. But the other day I was coming across a good job fair and I thought that was amazing.
Speaker 2:So LinkedIn great place, I mean sorry.
Speaker 1:Instagram.
Speaker 2:LinkedIn is also a great place. Please sponsor us, but Instagram is awesome too.
Speaker 1:I love it. I love it, yeah, honestly. I mean, this is. This is where we kind of talk about going outside of the box, right, like you all know, you can find jobs on online databases. I'm sure you've all heard about networking, even before we talked about it on our podcast. Everyone kind of hears about that stuff. But, like Instagram, job search, following influencers, attending their job fairs or some of these other things we've talked about, might be a little bit outside of the box, but it really is a combination of doing all of this which actually takes takes us to our next point, which is there are no shortcuts. I know we've said this before too, but there really are no shortcuts, even in the job search process. So what I mean by that is you know, sometimes I'll get the sense when I'm working with my students or clients is that they want something that's fast, so they'll be doing some of these things that we talk about, and then they're like I'm not getting any results, so am I doing something wrong?
Speaker 1:So they'll come, we'll look at their resume, we'll look at their cover letter, we'll look at the process they're doing and sometimes really, it's like, actually, your portfolio looks great, you are doing all the right steps, but you have to be patient and continue doing the work and maybe do a little bit more of the above and beyond like we talked about, like following up or leveraging your network a little bit more, but the reality is you have to do the work and when it comes to like finding jobs on these bigger platforms like LinkedIn and Monster and stuff, sometimes my students will say, like I can't find anything on there, like, do you have any other resources? And yes, there are niche websites like the ones I talked about on my website career rise but the thing is that a lot of what's going to be on the niche websites will possibly also be on the general job search website right Like.
Speaker 1:LinkedIn. Most companies are going to post their jobs on LinkedIn. So let's be honest, the thing is you've got to do the work and filter it out, read through the job descriptions and identify what it is that you're really looking for. So there is no quick fix to that process. Like, honestly, job search is really it has to be a thoughtful process. You have to do the work. So I always want to like put that at the end of the episodes that we talk about, like, yes, do some targeted things and go to the targeted professional associations, go to the targeted websites, but know that those aren't going to be shortcuts because, at the end of the day, you have to do the work and engage in all of these processes that we talked about and sit through and vet through those job descriptions and identify what you really want. And those applications tend to be the ones that become successful because you were actually thoughtful in what you're applying to.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. You bring up such a valid point because job search isn't just this, isn't just the action of searching. Then there's the applying, and then there's the preparing to applying, and then there's submitting, and then there's the following up Right, so that's like step one of step a million and it is a full time job. But, to remind you like, there are resources like Armin a and myself for here to really support and guide you in this journey. Right, you are not alone. We have tips and tricks, and that's why we do this podcast to really talk about these things. Right, but the job search isn't easy and we just want you to, to remind you that we're here to help. So let's wrap up with some of our top tips. Right, so for job search, there are online databases that you can use, job fairs within your local city and counties, conferences, professional associations, networking and unique platforms like Instagram and Slack. And, of course, career rises always. But doing the job search, there is no shortcut, so take the long run with us.