Now is the time for job seekers to position themselves for the last round of employment during the Fall of 2009. Once the holiday season arrives, job seekers (who are still available) may have to wait until after the beginning of 2010 to land their next opportunity. Feeling this urgency myself as a job seeker, I want job seekers to join me on Monday, July 20^th as we work to have our dream jobs created for us. To accomplish this, we will focus on two areas: job postings and hiring managers.

There are 5+ alternative ways you can apply to suitable job postings instead of applying blindly. These techniques can tremendously increase your application to interview conversion rate. I have provided three of these techniques in the training center wiki. The other 2+ techniques are reserved for participants of the “8 Weeks Till Our Next Job” campaign.

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In addition to job postings, you can learn the 5+ ways to have dream jobs created for you by networking with hiring managers. Most of these techniques are discussed in the training center wiki. The job seekers who join me on Monday, July 20^th for the “8 Weeks Till Our Next Job” campaign will learn how to accomplish this creatively and by becoming “friends” of hiring managers.

As you know the last 6 weeks I spent the majority of my job search creating this online community. I also did not complete 60% of my tasks for the Guerrilla Job Search Boot Camp I was a member of. As a result, I will implement variations for only ~3-4 (out of ~40+) of the boot camps’ tactics over the next 8 weeks and share my experiences with the “8 Weeks Till Our Next Job” campaign participants. These tactics are plentiful, creative, and powerful. They are not in the training center wiki.

For example, I have three business discussions with hiring managers scheduled for August after mailing them a sales letter (included in the training center wiki) and a coffee mug; the least powerful version of the coffee cup caper technique. I used this boot camp technique for 14 of my top 20 employers. It generated a 50% response rate and a 21% interview conversion rate during the Great Recession when senior executives are getting slammed from headhunters’, sales professionals’, and job seekers’ calls. The 7 senior executives who did not respond are probably waiting to see the next creative technique I have planned for them.

In addition, I will work to become “friends” of hiring managers since people hire people they like. The master of this job search tactic is Ron Nash, who is also the master career strategist for the “8 Weeks Till Our Next Job” campaign. Ron Nash is also the guest expert for next Tuesday’s episode of the Career Factory weekly talk shows.

Instead of the “blind” leading the “blind” I asked Ron to donate some of his time (at a massive discount or for free) to help the campaign’s participants with this worthy cause. Likewise, Ron will help us execute our plans successfully by providing expertise and solutions for the problems we will encounter during our journey. To sign up for this campaign you must:

• Send an email to kac@kenrickchatman.com by July 24^th (extended deadline)
• View the community overview and Wiki tutorials
• Register for the Wiki

For more information click here.

Last but not least, job seekers can also acquire expertise from career experts during the Career Factory Weekly talk shows. A good portion of these shows are dedicated to questions and answers. When you call in to the show you must select the option to speak with the host to ask the career expert questions. For all of the previous episode listeners who asked questions and I did not respond; now you know the reason why.

Out of the thousands of online talk shows hosted by Blog Talk Radio (BTR), our first episode: “How to Create Your Own Job Market” was one of BTR’s Today’s Picks or Featured Shows. Not bad for our first episode. If you missed this episode you can listen to the archive version by clicking the player below. David Perry, the expert guest, shared:

• The 5 steps for concluding your job search
• The overview and steps you can take to create your own job market
• Answers to tough questions from our audience

Play Episode I: How to Create Your Own Job Market. | Download this episode (right click and save)

If you cannot participate live in next week’s show, feel free to send your questions to kac@kenrickchatman.com by Tuesday. Remember the wisdom of a crowd is richer than the wisdom of a few. The more active participants, the more knowledge and years of experience job seekers can utilize. So actively participate in this online community and encourage fellow job seekers to do the same.

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