Have you ever applied for a job and then got an outright rejection instead? That rejection is difficult to deal with no matter what the situation that you're in is, and also that we do work because it's high-stakes since work enables us to live the kind of life we want to live. So, it is a little bit high stakes for everyone, job search strategist Melissa McClung explains.
Who’s Melissa?
Melissa McClung is a coach for healthcare, medicine, and science professionals who are trying to answer the question "what's next?" in their career. She helps them both with traditional job searches, and more creative job searches to help them land the right job for them.
Melissa believes that everyone deserves to have a career that allows them to use their favorite skills (most of the time), leaves them enough time and energy to do their favorite things, and compensates them well for their effort. She has helped over 150 clients individually find these roles and has had a 100 percent success rate.
Melissa specializes in helping professionals in healthcare, medicine, and science because of her vast experience in those areas. As the former career services provider for the University of Kansas Medical Center, and a training and development specialist for one of the top 10 global pharma companies, the ins, and outs of this profession are no secret to her. She uses that specialized knowledge to help clients identify unique paths to success and explore options they may not even realize are opportunities.
3. But Why Do You Even Get a Rejection?
You’re probably making the same mistakes that tons of other applicants have made in the past and weren’t hired: you don’t know what you want; you’re applying to jobs indiscriminately; you haven’t researched the company; you didn’t follow up with the interviewer; or you only search for jobs when you’re unemployed and miss an opportunity of even landing a better job.
According to Melissa, job seekers are usually unable to secure a job because “one of the things that a lot of people do is they really scramble to try and find something very quickly, but what they do in order to do that is they just send out a bunch of different resumes as quickly as they can to anything that they think they're remotely qualified for.
“And the reason why this tactic is not very effective for people is that you end up getting contacted about the wrong kinds of roles, which means you put yourself in a position of possibly accepting the wrong kinds of roles, but also you reduce your response rate by not taking the time to tailor your applications.”
3. What’s the Best Way to Find a Job?
With years of experience in career counseling, Melissa advises that finding a job requires that you know what you need from a job to be successful, what you can do for people that's valuable, and then being able to communicate both of those things in a way that the other person understands both through applications and through networking.
In specific terms, Melissa says you should do the following while looking for a job:
- Identify Your Career Goals
Know the type of career you want. This will help you narrow your job search, stand out from the crowd, and increase your chances of landing your dream job.
If you do not know how to go about it, ask your family, friends, former lecturers, a career coach or even former colleagues.
2. Customize Your Resume
Tailor your resume to suit each job you apply. To do this, you need to study the job description to know if you are the right fit. Remember to add relevant skills, experience, and achievements.
Melissa believes that “tailored applications” remain one of the best job search strategies because it shows that you’ve done your research, your resume matches the qualifications that they need for that role, your cover letter has been written for that role specifically, and you've paid attention to what is needed for the role.
3. Research Companies
It makes sense for you to know the company you are applying to. If you do this, you will be in a better position to know the company culture, work environment, products and services, employee benefits, salary range, and so on.
This shows that you have a lot of interest in the company and you can reference such information in your cover letter or resume.
4. Network
Interact with professionals in person and online and develop contacts with them. Let them know you’re open to new opportunities, and the type of industry you want to work in.
Talk to people at seminars, workshops and other gatherings and tell them you want a job.
Melissa admits that targeted networking is among the two most powerful job search strategies, and recommends that job seekers do “targeted networking around who are you going to talk to that can help you get more information about that company or who can help you navigate each individual HR process, or even people who are well positioned to refer you within their network so that you can access positions that maybe aren't even posted.”
5. Follow Up
Send the hiring manager a thank-you note right after the interview. Then, follow up with a call or an email maybe after a week. It does not hurt if you show your excitement and interest in doing so.
This will go a long way to convince the HR manager that you are really passionate about the job and boost your chances of getting it.
4. How Can Melissa Help?
Over the years, Melissa has been helping a lot of people secure their dream job, that they keep on referring others who are stuck in their job search to her for similar help.
So, what she does is that she’ll walk you through a job search because she knows where and why you're going to get stuck and how to get you around those common roadblocks which every other job seeker experience.
She does that through her coaching programs: Dream Job Rebel, a 12-week group program that is designed to teach people the foundations of how to borrow the entrepreneur mindset for their job search; and Dream Job Intensive which is a self-paced one-on-one results-oriented program that helps people find the job that they're looking for.
According to Melissa, the dream job intensive program starts with the discovery process where she walks enrollees through the entire strategy and helps them with their application materials, interviewing, and salary negotiation until they accept the role that is the right fit for them.
It is therefore imperative to know that job prospecting has gone beyond the ordinary. It now needs a more painstaking and practical approach, and it is only those equipped with the right mindset of running a job search like an entrepreneur who can successfully secure their dream job in today’s world.
You can reach Melissa at 816-872-5405, website, LinkedIn , and Facebook.
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