Warning: This is a longish post. It is long because there are specific steps you can follow.

Recently, some of my clients in certain industries, overseas and in Australia, have told me that they have been made redundant or that they are fearful they might become redundant.

If you have been made redundant or are fearful of being made redundant here are some ideas and techniques to approach the contemporary job market with confidence.

In your search for a role, contact people from companies you may want to work for, for an ‘advice coffee’.  Below is information on the advice coffee process and on a job interview process:

Advice Coffee Process 

#1 How to find people to meet:

1. Start researching LinkedIn for people you’d like to meet in an Advice Coffee meeting and send your adaptation of the below message.
2. Put their names in an Excel spread sheet.
3. Start contacting them via LinkedIn with your adapted copy.
4. You might get very little response, but persist.

Subject line: “New contact/Your wisdom – my learning/20 minutes”

Message text:

“Hi Emily,

We haven’t met before. From my research of you and your career, I believe you’d be an ideal person to give my advice about my career. Your experience with P and also Q is inspiring.

If you can spare 20 minutes (I’ll fit in with your schedule, including before or after hours) I’d love to buy you a virtual coffee or a face to face coffee at a café near your office – to tap your wisdom.  Whatever time frame works for you would be fine with me.

To be clear, in the meeting I won’t be asking you for a job – just advice.

Please let me know if you would be open to arranging this meeting.

Thank you for your consideration.

Cheers,

X Y

0429 111 222

#2 Advice Coffee Agenda

When you secure a virtual or face to face advice coffee meeting arrive early.

Bring a copy of your CV and questions to ask.

Sample questions

1. For the first question, ask something in relation to the person’s career or something that caught you eye on their LinkedIn profile or ask a bold question after flagging that it’s bold; eg. You could ask, “What behaviour or attitude has paid off for you in your career and because it’s paid off you continue to use it today?” (By the way people will make judgements about you on the quality of your questions, not your answers).
2. Ask them about how they’ve achieved their success (listen carefully to their answer, as your next question could be based on their answer).
3. Ask them about their company and what they like about working there.
4. Tell them you career aspirations and show them your CV and ask for advice.
5. This is important! Near the end of the meeting ask them if you could keep in touch with them a couple of times or so a year (Most likely they’ll say yes).

#2 Post meeting action

1. Send a physical greeting card or soft thank you note.
2. Log, in an Exel spread sheet, the results of the meeting and the dates of your two times a year contact with the person and/or log the times in your calendar.
3. For the two times a year contact with the person aim to give them something of value, for example an article related to their business, or a resource and/or information about the action you took from their advice in the advice meeting.
4. Keep contacting them two times every year.

Clients who use the above approach report that with the regular contact over time, the target person mentions an opportunity/job in their organisation or another organisation that might suit them.

Job interview suggestions

#1 When you do get job interview date,

every day until the date of the job interview day, repeatedly ask and answer the WECID (What Else Could I Do, that my competitors won’t do) question. Many of the ideas won’t have value. However, doing this might unearth a piece of information, intelligence etc, that could help you outpoint other candidates on the short list and be the reason you win the role.

#2 On the interview day:

• When you enter the building or enter the virtual meeting, radiate warmth and acceptance and calm enthusiasm through your facial expression. We underestimate the power of first impressions.
• Project energy and a sense of certainty; with a measured speaking cadence, with a tall posture; with arms uncrossed on the table and with measured, firm, held gestures. People will believe your certainty. They might now know if an ideas is good or not. But they will believe how certain you are that it is a good idea.
• Answer the first formal question in no more than 75 seconds or so with a Message, Flesh out the message, Repeat the message structure.

Own the Conversation

Here is an offer that might interest . . .

• For the first five people to email me after receiving this post, I’ll give a complimentary 20 minute virtual consultation about landing a job role.