Career Changers & Students Coronavirus Job Search - Get a Job with No Experience

Hey, y'. All. I accidentally started it a little early.

Oopsie, poopsie. But hey, everyone. So it looks like we're just gonna start this a little bit early because I accidentally hit go. But thank you all for coming. So we are talking today about, about career changers and job and recent graduates who are entering the job market. Full story. I know, I know.

It'S tricky out there. Okay. And so, okay, so I hear all of you emailing me saying, what am I going to do? Is this the worst possible time to look for a job? I'm graduating into this client that is really tough. I'm deciding to change my career. How am I going to even do this? Is this the worst possible time to do it? And I'm here to say there's absolutely hope. There's absolutely things that you can do in your job search that can get you to the next level. And there are actually advantages that you have as a student, as someone who has recently graduated, as someone who is a career changer that other people don't have. And so I am going to go through all of those things. I'm also going to take some of your questions. And so let me jump in then. So.

So let's start from the top here. So.

The question I get the most right now is are companies still hiring? And I absolutely want to say yes. Now, are the number of jobs out there fewer? Yes. And everything is kind of slowing down. But there's absolutely jobs out there and there are so many different ways that we can also as career changers, as students can break into those jobs with different routes. I did do a search last night on what new jobs and I had, I was on LinkedIn and LinkedIn will auto populate some searches for you and they will do something where they put in your job, your job title. And I looked and within the last 24 hours, 8,000 jobs were posted that had my job title. And so that is, that's something that you can then sort by when you are looking at jobs. So when you're looking at these job boards, sort by most recently posted Because a lot of you are asking, okay, are these companies still hiring? I know that there's a posting out there, but is even worth it pursuing. And what I have to say is absolutely still pursue these opportunities. But also noticed who has posted in the last 24 hours? Who has posted in the last three days. You can, you can, you can organize your postings in that order. So check that out. There absolutely is hope. So.

One of the things that I Recommend is to look at different industries. I went through this in my video 5 industries to 5 insights. As far as the coronavirus job search goes, I did this video last week. And so Tom will put this in the, in the chat of that video if you haven't checked it out yet, but definitely check that out. I talk about different industries that are hiring. I would say that one core way to understand what industries are hiring is looking at their business model. So thinking about, is this the type of company that has a digital presence? Are they someone who does delivery or has a product or something or service that can be either telecommuted or delivered as well as do they have a subscription based product? So is that something where they have these reoccurring revenues? So really look at those different industries or different types of companies with those business models and you might be surprised, right? You might think of a certain company like Uber or something, right? Like, oh, not that many people are driving anymore. So I can't apply to Uber, but maybe their Uber eats aspect of their business model of delivering food is doing well. So really think through those aspects of the business model to understand which of these companies are still viable. And again, just check those job boards. But I'm going to tell you all about something that because you are career changers, because you are students, because you are recent grads that give you an edge and that is on the area of relationship building, okay? And so I would say that there's really, there's a lot of advantages you can have in relationship building. And you might think, madeline, we are all in quarantine. How am I supposed to build relationships during this time? And the way you can is really.

You need to reach out to people and you need to build these relationships based on either admiration and like fueling them in a way of bringing positivity to their life or by adding value. So what you have to do is when you're thinking about what career paths you're targeting, look for people in your career path on LinkedIn who are at companies that you're interested in or could potentially be interested in and approach them on LinkedIn. I know this part is scary and a lot of you will not do it, but those of you who will will see amazing results from it. And so one of the things you'll do is you ask them for kind of a virtual coffee. So you could say something like, hey, I came across your profile. I noticed you have a really great career in X. And given this, despite these difficult times, I took this as an opportunity to really start digging in to really understanding my passion in that area. And I was wondering if we'd be able to hop on a 15 minute call and share virtual coffee so I could hear more about your story and how you found your career. So that's like something I would say as a career changer is I'm sitting here, I am kind of using this connection of having this pandemic happening of I'm going to use this time to work on myself. I'm going to use this time to network with other people and acknowledging that they have a really interesting career path. And the format I just said.

Is, is a little bit.

It, it is generic. And so what I want you to do is to look at that person's LinkedIn profile, look at anything they've put out there and try to customize it. Right. Of like seeing you go from X University to then land a role here, that's, you know, that's really impressive or seeing you, you also do a career change that was really inspiring to me. Whatever it is, the more custom you can make that message or even if they went to the same alma mater as you or anything that will make it more likely for them to respond. I think if I was a student your odds so if you're a career changer people will be more likely want to help you than if you're just someone who is in the same career. So that's an advantage you have of you can play up of I'm just trying to learn, I want to learn from you. You have a cool career. So that is a, that is an element you can really play up. If you're a student you get a whole other deck of cards to play on this because people love helping students. When you have that edu email address that is when you really people are much more willing to help you. And so.

A way that I would say as a student is I'm a student at X University.

I'm looking into pursuing a career in Y and I saw your experience in Y career path and was impressed by it and was hoping to grab a 15 minute virtual coffee with you and hear your story. So it's a very similar format to the Career Changer but really emphasizing that again your student, you're noticing certain things about their career that interests you, you're taking a personal interest in them. And notice in neither of these messages did I say can I have a job? Or can you do this for me? Or you know, obviously you are asking for their time but you asking for them to tell Their story is something that is intrinsically motivating for a lot of people to share their, their, their personal story. So frame it in that way. Ask for advice, not a job. Okay, let me go to the chat. How is everyone doing? Everyone's saying hi. We've got some good questions coming through. Keep that happening and looking good. I know, Jan, I did start a little bit early because my finger got a little bit happy on the button. But we have a lot of great info coming up here.

So this is what happens if you get. Okay, hi, hello. If you get responses, if you get 1 in 5 of your messages responded to, I would say that that is a good success rate. I know it feels, it can feel exhausting to send those messages and only get a 1 in 5 rate, but it really, it really is. You do have to reach out to quite a few people to get this volume of responses. Now when you do get them on the phone, the number one thing you want to talk about now, I have a video on informational interviews and I have a digital download where there's a full script on how to conduct these. But in this context for you all, for you students and recent graduates and career changers, the number one thing I want you to ask them when you finally get interactions with these key people in these companies is what are you working on right now and what are some of your biggest challenges? This is so important because this is going to take us into the next step. Now I hope you all are with me right now. So we are focusing on building relationships in these companies while we are all remote. And the reason why I'm focusing on building relationships is because.

You all are looking for these kind of hidden job market, right? This will help you get the hidden job market. I think with career changers and students and recent graduates, you all actually have an advantage here because.

People are more likely to help you. And so you can really utilize this. And also, I'll mention it in a little bit, but there's a second tier reason why you all are a group where in this hidden job market, you're sometimes more likely to get the offer than others. And I'll talk about that in a minute. But usually if you all are just simply applying online to those roles that are up there, it's tough because you're competing against hundreds of applications. And for some of you, you might be qualified, right? Because if you're going for an entry level role and you're a recent graduation, that you might be, what I say, 80% qualified. So if you're 80% qualified for any role, you should definitely apply. But if you are a career changer or if you're a student lacking experience.

Your resume will often kind of be sidelined compared to the others. And so what's another way that we can break through that isn't just this, you know, through, through these machines, through these databases, right? Is that your, your resume is just going in there and who know, a human is seeing it right now. So it's really important that also, even if you do end up applying because you do feel like your resume has some good elements to it that could catch their interest, that you're still following up with the hiring manager or who you assume is the hiring manager, you have to go on LinkedIn, do a little bit of research at the company.

Thinking about org structure, who would most likely be the manager of this role and shoot them a message just saying, hey, I want to let you know I just applied to your customer support role. I'm really interested in X company and you know, I, I have, you know, X amount of experience or, you know, and I hope to hear from you soon. Just something really brief and I have a full video on how to do that. But if you are looking to get your resume up into a better state, I do have a live.

Masterclass next week, April 1st resume revamp masterclass. So you can find that@ either standoutresume.com so that's like the vanity link of that'll take you there. And also Tom will shoot that link in the comments. It's a free masterclass. We will go over how to, even if you're a student, even if you are a career changer, how to pitch your experience in the right way, where they go, huh, I see how this is transferable or I see how this student experience is really relevant to this experience that we are asking for in this role.

And so, okay, so now you all know why building these relationships is so important. And I know it's scary and I know it's tough to talk to people who you don't know, but trust me, this is the way you will get your foot in the door. So let's talk a little bit more about it. So they.

So when you then have your, you understand what it is that they are having as challenges in their job or what they're focused on right now, you can then find ways to add value, right? So I said the two ways that you can build this relationship is to add positivity, lift them up, make them feel good. And the second way is to add value. So you think about, hey, you told me that you have this really big presentation coming up next week.

Why don't I just take a quick stab at your PowerPoint presentation and build up some slides for you? Or hey, let me, you know, you just wrote this article for your company. Like I'm just going to take a moment and share it on social media so you, you all can get more visibility. Like thinking through little ways that you can now help this person. And this is where being a recent graduate or a student or career changer is so much better is because you can, you present it in a way where you're like, look, I am new in this career path. I just want to get close to this work. Because people will be a little bit weird of you offering this advice if you're someone who's like really senior. Because there's always this idea of being overqualified, which is actually something that I'm sure a lot of you aren't really worried about. Oh no, I'm going to be overqualified for every role. But it's actually something that a lot of other people are worried about who are also job searching right now is that they want to approach these other roles that you're also probably interested in. But they're getting rejected because they're like, no, you're going to be bored at this. But you all don't have that issue. What instead you can do is say, hey, I will, I can tell you're super busy. Like here's ways that I can add value to you. Like, let me bring me on even as like someone who's part time helping you or someone who's helping you without you having to pay a big salary of a person who has been doing this for, you know, six to 10 years. And this is such a cool way to get your foot into the door of a company because a lot of these teams, their headcount is being slashed. So if you can be this person who's like, hey, I'm going to add value right away and I'm not going to be a huge line item like the company was expecting to have. With these types of roles, it can be extremely alluring. Now.

Now it can be tough because.

Even though your salary might be lower than other people, so a lot of times when layoffs happen, they'll sometimes keep maybe some of the top people and they'll also sometimes keep some of the people who are had the smallest salaries who can just keep the trains running. Right. So you actually have an advantage of people bringing in less experienced talent that is more affordable. But every company knows that there is an additional price tag to less experienced talent because.

There is. The amount of time that it takes you to do a task versus someone who's experienced is longer. The amount of mistakes you'll make are more. The amount of time it's going to take to, for the person who you're reporting to, to train you and get you up to speed on everything is going to be significantly longer. All of these things are kind of these hidden costs of hiring someone who has less experience. And so what you need to do is knowing that, knowing that that's the reason why they're hesitating on taking a chance on you versus maybe potentially paying someone a bit more. But not having to take on all that responsibility of training you and really kind of holding your hand through things is to take the, take the, the mystery out of it of if you're going to be a good employee or not. So that's what I'm saying about adding value of like building projects or figuring out ways to add value in a way that's very tangible for them to where they can see your character. And then they say, I'm going to take a bet on this person. And now a lot, I get a lot of pushback here where people say, oh my gosh, like I, I don't want to work for free or anything like that. And.

That is.

If you understand the amount of money it costs to train you and to kind of take that, that leap with you, you'll kind of understand why giving them that kind of, that peace of mind at the beginning can be really helpful. So if you all have put in the chat, if you have seen the video or read any of the content on Austin Belsack's Value Validation Project, go ahead and put it in there. And I can see also.

A lot of really great comments in here. You guys are grabbing the links.

Okay, so I see Peter has seen it. Okay, so Value Validation Project is about how you. Okay, we have some other people. Zane has seen it. Kusha, Brittany has. Great. So Value Validation Project is where you. This is something that Austin Belsack really made popular and it's where you think about exactly what I was saying about like, what are some of the challenges that these company is facing and then building a project around it. So like, one of his examples is noticing there were certain, like, user interface things that a person's, like a person was applying to Airbnb and they wanted to do some user interface design and they surveyed their friends about what are some of the things that they most wish would change about Airbnb. And they took that not really scientific research, but it is still research that they conducted and created a bit of a report on it and just said, hey, like, here's how I would approach this, this problem, stuff like that, you know, of like if you going into marketing and maybe you just do like a quick audit of their social media platforms, be like, here's some of the campaigns and things, ideas that I would have if I was to work for you, stuff like that, you're showing your value and really taking that mystery out of it of how you could potentially work. And so we'll put that, the link of that video, the comments so that you all can experience that and watch that. And any link I mention, I'll make sure is in the comments as well. For anyone who's watching this after.

So great jotting it down in your notes now. That's great to see, Emma. So.

There are a tremendous amount of volunteer opportunities, opportunities right now. And I know volunteer opportunities do not pay the bills, but it can be a stepping stone of first networking with other people, networking with other volunteers, and also really getting that, that true experience you need. And if anyone here right now is someone who's hiring or someone who has volunteer opportunities, please put it in the chat. If you're here and you have those resources, definitely share that. But there's a lot of opportunities right now to really help with a lot of the efforts and either build websites or help organize virtual events to bring resources to people or anything like that, really look for those opportunities because that may be a really great way to connect with some powerful people and get those line items on your resume. Having gaps on resume happens. It does. But if there's anything we can fill this time with, with you doing something, and even if it's just a bullet of an afternoon you spent, you know, helping to, you know, put together a presentation for someone who's in the industry who is going to do a webinar to help people during this time, whatever it is, that can be something that can really bolster your resume.

I also want to say that right now.

That you, that if you are a creative person, if you're going into any fields of creativity right now.

This is a unique moment in time where you could really make a splash. So I'm talking to all of you out there who are in film or music or writing, anything like that. I think you all are actually poised in an even better spot right now, and I'll tell you why you could do this without getting a job. There has never been a. More like.

You know, so many people online ready for content ever. You know, there hasn't ever been this much of a, of a, Of a focused group that are ready to take in your art. And so if you can take this time to think about this experience that we're all having, this unified human experience of this quarantine and this pandemic, and you can make any sort of art or film around that, you can actually take your career to new heights and get new visibility that you probably wouldn't have if there wasn't this major platform and this major shared experience. So, so what I mean by that is I saw a video the other day of this skateboarder getting filmed in the streets of Los Angeles and there's these massive freeways that are usually full of cars.

And he was skateboarding through it. And it was such a poignant view. And so thinking through ways that you can actually create art and different things that can show the shared experience. So I have been talking for a long time, but I do want to definitely answer some of your questions.

So Joanna asked, can you make fake projects like writing samples and blog posts? I would say that.

The interesting thing is that creating blog posts is such an easy way to get your foot in the door. So what I mean by that is.

And you don't have to make them fake like you post them on medium or you post them on your LinkedIn profile. So here's what you do is you can do something like depending on whatever profession you're going into, right? Let's say it is.

Let's say it's banking. Okay, let's take that. How bankers are approaching the Coronavirus outbreak. And you network, you go on LinkedIn, you find a bunch of bankers at different, at different banks that you want to work for. And you ask them, hey, I'm writing a blog post on how bankers are reacting to the Coronavirus outbreak. Could I interview you for this blog post? It's just going to go up on your, on your own blog or your own LinkedIn or on your alma mater's newsletter or something. But you're now networking with people in your industry. And not only are you networking with them, you're making a relationship with them. And then you can then put that on your resume as like, hey, I, you know, that's. Now, you know, it's not truly banking experience, but it's showing that you are taking a lot of efforts to be in that industry.

So I am in the hotel industry and recently furloughed. Any suggestions for event planners? Okay, so online events are going bananas right now. If you can be an early person for online events right now and really like, you know, notice anyone who's doing online events, I've been invited to quite a few. I know it's like it's a different skill set or it's not the same thing. But really thinking about how you can kind of turn that around. I mean the promotion of events can be similar leading up to it. So really start branding like even your LinkedIn headline of like.

Webinar marketer or like event or webinar planner or something like that, stuff like that. Just thinking through what are. And maybe there's some other events that are also really great that aren't necessarily webinar format. But yeah, so just think through some of the things like that. I think that also just like remote planning, remote coordinating, there's, there's plenty of, there's plenty of industries and stuff. Like I've hired a lot of event planners as executive assistants because I know event planners are on their details.

How can I find recruit recruiters at companies that I want to work for? So I wouldn't really recommend finding recruiters.

Because their inboxes are generally more full than other people who are at the company when it comes to like their LinkedIn inbox. So I would say that I would go on LinkedIn and I would go to the company page and you can click who works there and then you, once you've clicked that page, you can search for certain search terms. So let's say you want to work in, you know, the software engineering team. So you look, search for software engineer, you look, you find software engineering manager and that's who you reach out to. So and it's a guess you don't know. And, but then also you could just search recruiter within there as well. But I'm just saying that I think it's better to go with the, with the hiring manager.

Great. You're welcome for doing this. Hello everyone. Kyle says Madeline is still speaking gold right now. Thank you. Thank you. I do want to remind you all that I do have this resume revamp masterclass next week. I'm going live again. I'm hopefully I'm going to start it the right time this time. This is difficult, you guys. So I'll link it again in the comments, but definitely join me there. That's going to be highly curated information for you guys to really launch your Resumes to the next level.

Great. Lots of comments. Okay, let's just take a couple more questions. I know like this time flew by. You all are great.

Okay, so how does it. How I thought I had work experience or at least professional experience, but it never seems like enough. Megan wrote that. I know, it's so tough. It really is. I would say definitely that's when the relationships really need to come into play to show your value. I know, I know it's really tough.

What are some of the best sources for finding remote work in the tech industry? Asks Chris. So I would say that you definitely want to. There's certain sites like Built In LA is the one I think of because I live in Los Angeles. But there's lots of different tech sites, Angelist, where they actually will say remote work. Okay. Like on the job descriptions. The tech industry is a little bit better at that. So I would say that definitely kind of look for those cues and you can often usually filter by that. And with, with everything that's happening, I think it's going to be easier to get remote jobs now. I'm hoping, I'm hoping that that is going to really open things up and people are going to be more open minded.

Okay. So.

I'm going to do one more question here.

Let's see. There. There's no Billa says there's. There's this company I want to work for, but it currently opens for different position than I want. Should I still apply? I. But it currently opens for a different position.

No, don't apply if it's not the right position for. For you. Make sure you're building relationships instead and do the format that I kind of mentioned earlier of how to really kind of get your foot in the door and get those people to see your value and then you can kind of inquire of, hey, like you're a busy person. Let me help you again, they are so much more likely to hire you to just like help pick up some slack than someone who's going to request a higher salary. Like you need to use this to your advantage because it can really make a huge difference. Dylan says, thanks to your videos, I managed to get an interview. I just got an email saying it's canceled. Oh no.

Do you suggest I respond and it's not a position to hire? Do you think I should respond? Yes, you should always respond. You should say, I am sorry to hear that. I definitely was very interested in your company and I really wish you all the best in this tough time and know that should this this role open again, I would be, I would be so happy to be considered again. Okay, you got to come in graceful. You got to come in super gracious and that is really the way that you are going to continue building relationships. Because me as someone who's doing the hiring, if you wrote that note, Dylan, I'd put a note in your profile in the ATS saying Dylan is really committed and interested. Reach out to him in six months or whatever it is. So definitely do that. Okay, so I'm going to link some helpful links in the comments so that you all can check those out. Thank you so much for showing up today and definitely come on April 1st to the resume revamp masterclass because it is going to get in depth. If I could get you a wi fi high five over there in the comments that would be amazing. And again like you all can do this. There's opportunities out there. I believe in you. So thank you so much and wi fi high five.