I read an article today that really hits home on the things I do to educate my job search clients. I really emphasize these main points as things that make a huge difference in the job search process. There are many other aspects that wrap around job search, but I wanted to share this short article as it is good information.

Read the full article here.

I recently asked the question “What do you feel is the most important part of the job search” on Linkedin. The responses I received included things like networking, the interview, attitude, and following up on leads. These are all decent answers. In my professional opinion, there are two core aspects of the job search that many people overlook, and I am going to share those with you now.

Part one of the core (and the second Pillar of my 4 Pillar Job Search System) is positioning yourself with your job target. It’s about knowing what you’re worth in the employment market and making sure your resume and your message shows that you are worth the market value. If you are worth $100K+, then you need to make sure your job search is not positioning you for a $70K job. Part of this positioning is making sure your message of value is crystal clear. And, your resume and your message uses the right words for resume software scanning and Internet search engine optimization (SEO), including searches done on job boards or social networking sites.

This brings us to the second part of the core (and the third Pillar of my 4 Pillar Job Search System) which is making connections to get interviews. Yes, this is networking, but how are you approaching networking? There’s the traditional way of asking family and friends who they know, and going to local face-to-face networking events. There’s also the new-age technology way of using social networking sites to meet new people, create new leads, and learn about new job opportunities. You really need to have a positive and professional online presence these days to be considered as a top job candidate. Hiring managers are hanging out on the social sites like Linkedin, and they are searching for you, so you need to enable them to find you. You have to push yourself out there to pull back new contacts.

For example, if you go to Linkedin and do a people search with keywords of “executive job search help”, you will find my profile at the top of the list among more than 2,900 results, and this is from more than 40 million people who are on Linkedin. This is what you want your profile to do when someone searches for a Marketing Director or a SAP FI CO expert (or whatever your area of expertise may be). Push it out there to pull back activity – enable people to find you while you are trying to connect with people to get interviews. If you’re not leveraging technology in your job search, then you are missing out and you may be overlooked entirely.

Bottom line is that you’re worth more than what you might settle for, so don’t overlook your positioning with your job search and don’t fall behind the trends of job search networking.

Nope, not talking about a 3-pointer at the buzzer where the game was won with someone draining the basketball through the net while having a defender’s hand in their face.

I’m referring to a job search report I read today that talked about how job search is different today than it was just a few short months ago, and how significantly different it is from a few years ago.

Things aren’t done the way they were in 1999 or 2008. With the way companies, HR Professionals and Recruiters are embracing technology to make their jobs easier, it is putting more of a challenge on job seekers to adapt.

More and more efforts to find good job candidates are taking place on the Internet, and job seekers who don’t adapt to that change may struggle hard to find opportunities for the kinds of jobs wanted at the pay deserved.

$100K+ job seekers could suffer the most because of the number of job candidates. That’s why failing to plan a job search is surely planning to fail.

Can’t predict the future, but trends sure do point to “nothing but Net” at some point in the future.

If you do the job search wrong, then three things happen…. 1) You don’t get the chance to show hiring managers what you are worth…. That leads to… 2) You start losing confidence in your ability and start thinking that you aren’t worth anything to an employer, and this starts spilling over into your self-esteem… This leads to… 3) Just taking a job that you don’t really want at a pay less than you are qualified to get.

”You’re Worth More”. It’s not just about the resume, or the networking, or the interviewing – it’s about the whole job search working together, leveraging the power of the Internet to reach people, and then showing them what you are worth to them.

I would be happy to explain this simple 4 Pillar Job Search System to any jobseeker. It is a proprietary system I’ve developed that builds confidence while moving people through the job search smarter and faster, with more fun.