Ask The Career Coach: Your Job Search Questions Answered (October 2019 Edition)
Do I have to use LinkedIn for my job search? I am not keen on social media.
You can do whatever you want. If social media is not your thing and you do not want to be involved in LinkedIn, that is your choice. As a Career Coach, I do advise my clients to use LinkedIn. Why? For two main reasons. One, if you have a LinkedIn profile that is properly filled out, you can attract recruiters to view your profile. When in job search mode, what is better than having recruiters reach out to you to see if you are interested in a position? Here are tips on how to attract recruiters on LinkedIn. Additionally, if you are active on LinkedIn, meaning that you provide value to others by posting valuable information as well as commenting on the posts of others, you also get to be known in your field. That also helps you attract recruiters, but it also helps others know and provide job leads.
Secondly, LinkedIn has a wealth of information about companies as well as the people that work at them. When deciding if a company would be a good fit, either when submitting an application or in the interview process, LinkedIn will help you learn more about the people that work there and their backgrounds, as well the company page can tell you more about that employer. Additionally, it is a great place to network with others. You can use various search fields to find people including location, current company, past companies, and industry. This can help you identify people in target employers and industries to reach out to and develop professional relationships.
LinkedIn is a powerful social network focused on business and careers. It has over 300 million active members which makes it a great tool for job seekers. If you choose not to participate in the LinkedIn community, you do so to your detriment.
What question or questions should I ask at the end of an interview?
If you have done well in an interview, you will usually get the opportunity to ask your interviewer one or more questions. What you ask is very important, as it is the last impression you make in the interviewer. Here I talk about what questions NOT to ask during an interview. Smart, thoughtful questions help you get good information to understand the job, the culture of the company and the potential relationship you might have with your new boss. There are many good questions to ask. What you should ask will depend on what you already know and what was said in the interview. Here is an example of twelve good questions that you might ask:
Expectations
What do you expect for me to accomplish in the first 90 days? First year?
What did the person previously in the role do well? What were the opportunity areas?
If I was to be hired, what are your personal pet peeves that I should know about?
What should be my expectations of you as my manager?
Culture
How would you describe the culture?
What do you most enjoy about working here?
If you had a magic wand and could change anything about the company, what would it be?
Business
How do you see the prospects for the company? Is there anything in the short or long term that you think may pose a threat to the business?
What business problems keep you up at night?
Personal
What was it about my background/experience/skills that were initially of interest?
Is there anything that I have said thus far that makes you think that I might not be a fit for the role?
When should I expect to hear about from someone about whether I will move forward in the process/be given an offer?
The questions you can ask are limitless. Ask questions that show your professional maturity and desire to learn. This will put your head and shoulders above most candidates.
Should I give my present employer my resignation based on a verbal offer from another employer?
I wouldn’t do it. Having been in HR for the majority of my professional career, I have heard many horror stories of job seekers that were burned by not waiting to resign until they received a written offer. Sometimes the verbal offer is given by the hiring manager. That person may promise something that is against company policy or practice or even can be against the law. As an example, increased time off, bonus targets or guaranteed payments, or eligibility for certain benefits may not be altered at all or will need high-level approval. The hiring manager may have set that expectation that you can receive something that s/he may not be able to deliver. The written offer letter generally comes from HR and officially states the terms and conditions of your employment. This is the commitment from the employer. Only when you see it in writing can you feel confident that the compensation and benefits that you negotiated and that were agreed to verbally are going to be honored. You do not want to resign until you have that assurance. If you find out that the terms cannot be honored, you may decide to stay with your present employer. Yet, if you have given your resignation, your present employer may say they are honoring your resignation, so there will be no job for you, or, if they do allow you to rescind the resignation, you have now told your manager that you are looking elsewhere.
I would be remiss to not also say that everything negotiated should be in the written offer letter. If a hiring manager (or even HR) says that something cannot be put in a letter, I would question this. You want to make sure that anything that you negotiated that is not standard is somewhere