Find Your Dream Job: Insider Tips for Finding Work, Advancing your Career, and Loving Your Job

When you apply for a job, your competition is probably pretty similar to you in terms of experience, expertise, and credentials. But we all have something unique to offer, and that’s what you should sell in your professional bio. Tell your story in your bio! There’s no other story like it, and it will help you stand out from the crowd. On this episode of Find Your Dream Job, William Arruda explains why your biography matters more than a resume.

Marie Zimenoff is the CEO of the Career Thought Leaders Consortium and Resume Writing Academy. She trains career professionals around the globe in resume writing, career coaching, and business development. Marie has delivered hundreds of presentations for career service providers, job seekers, and business leaders. She is also a frequent presenter at national conferences and the host of The Career Confidante podcast.

On this bonus episode of Find Your Dream Job, Mac announces the launch of the newest Mac's List resource: our Top Career Podcasts Guide for 2018. Each year,  Mac gleans Apple Podcasts for shows that can help people find meaningful, rewarding work. The Top Career Podcast Guide is the culmination of this work - a single directory with the best of the best programs for job seekers and active career managers.  To view the guide and download your free copy, visit www.TopCareerPodcasts.com.

You probably know that you shouldn’t treat your LinkedIn profile as an online resume. Instead, says this week’s guest expert, Shelly Elsliger, use LinkedIn to tell your professional story. And she says if you do it right you can establish yourself as a leader in your industry. Shelly and I talk more about LinkedIn’s story telling powers later in the show.

Returning to the workforce after a substantial break can be daunting. Leslie Yeargers managed this reintegration successfully, landing in a new role as an Intake Career Counselor, but she learned a lot, herself, along the way.  In this bonus episode, I talked with Leslie about her job search, how she honed in on her goals, navigated the ups and downs, and why her current job with Vicki Lind and Associates is so perfectly matched for her skills and interests. 

Last year LinkedIn offered a new option. You can now check a box visible only to recruiters that says you’re open to new opportunities. Recruiters can now search and find people who use this feature. Our guest expert this week is Donna Serdula, a nationally recognized LinkedIn expert. She says you need to do more if you want recruiters to find and talk to you.

We all know that LinkedIn is an important part of any job search. But too many people keep making basic mistakes on LinkedIn. Our guest expert Christie Mims shares four LinkedIn mistakes we can all avoid to improve the way we build and engage our network on LinkedIn. The key is the invest in your network before you need a favor.

Most professionals avoid rookie blunders in a job interview. We do the research, practice answering questions, and shake hands and make eye contact in the meeting. But hiring managers say even the savviest of professionals make some errors again and again. And many of these errors are based in a lack of communication and self-knowledge. Our guest this week, Thea Kelley, says you need to know what makes you stand out, and sell yourself to the employer in the interview.

Culture fit and team chemistry are important factors in hiring today. If you’ve got a job interviewer, the hiring manager probably knows you’re qualified for the job. What they want to find out is whether you’ll fit in and work well with their team. While you need to prepare to answer tough questions in a job interview, you also need to be friendly and win over the hiring manager. In this episode, our guest shares lots of tips to do just that.

Taking a leap mid-career can be scary, especially when you’re looking at new roles across the country. Stephen Marc Beaudoin made it look easy to land a new nonprofit leadership role, but he approached his job search with a clear strategy, support from trusted advisors, and “a long runway.” Stephen has simple-sounding advice for every job seeker to strive for: know yourself and make decisions accordingly.

The resume is evolving, but it’s not dead. While paper resumes are less ubiquitous, there’s an essential feature at the core of the resume that professionals still need. We needed resumes decades ago because they were a way to tell your professional story in a brief, succinct way. Today, there are more ways to tell your story through technology, but your resume - both paper and digital versions - is still important. Approach your resume as an important piece of your professional life.

Your professional references can make or break your chances of getting a job. Select, nurture and prep your people to give you the best possible reference when they get the call from your potential new boss! Our guest on this episode of Find Your Dream Job gives you practical tips to strengthen your references.

If you’re over 50, you’ve likely encountered ageism in your career. Older workers struggle in the job search and feel a disadvantage in competition with younger professionals. So what can you do? The first thing to do might be to rethink your entire job search strategy. On this episode of Find Your Dream Job, we discuss one strategy to overcome ageism in a job search: positioning yourself as a subject matter expert.

When you don’t make it to the second round after a decent first interview, you might be wondering what went wrong. On this episode, we talk to a seasoned recruiter, Will Thomson, about common mistakes applicants make in the first interview and how to avoid them in the future to get more second interviews, and more job offers. Please take our listener survey and you’ll be entered to win a $50 Amazon gift card: visit macslist.org/podcastsurvey and complete by February 28, 2018 (Thank you!)

None of us expect to do one job alone in the 40-plus years most of us will spend in the workplace. But how do we make sure we don’t get left behind by the changing needs of employers? To future-proof your career you need to play to your strengths. And you always need to be learning. Please take our listener survey and you'll be entered to win a $50 Amazon gift card: visit macslist.org/podcastsurvey and complete by February 28, 2018 (Thank you!)