20 years ago when I graduated from university, job hunting was pretty simple. You had your standard resume, that you probably had printed somewhere, because most people didn't have printers at home. You looked in the newspaper for job ads. You typed up a personalized cover letter, put it in the mail, and you got an acknowledgement of your application. If you didn't get the job, you at least got a form letter telling you you didn't get the job.

I just came out of a 2 day job search workshop that was really good, and definitely challenged me to think outside the box. But here's the catch now to be successfull according to the career coach I need to:

Completely redo my profile on LinkedIn (Being on LinkedIn is a given)

Join lots of groups on LinkedIn and post discussion topics to them.

Have a business blog, linked to my LinkedIn profile, to give people a reason to keep coming back to my profile.

Have a glossy 1 page summary of my resume, with testimonials, that I can link to from my LinkedIn page, use as a marketing tool / leave behind.

Send out a minimum of 2 cards a day directly to hiring managers (a kinder gentler version of cold calling) so I have to research companies and use my network to get names of hiring managers. Oh and I have to create the card as a marketing piece of myself.

Have a mindmap, demonstrating, how I think and would approach a new job that I take to interviews to use as a discussion piece.

Have a Unique Selling Proposition, that I use as my personal branding statement.

Have networking meetings with complete strangers (sends my anxiety through the roof.)

Customize the first 3'rd of my resume to every job I apply to.

oh yeah - and there's still applying to job ads.

splitimage, whose head is still spinning...