Landing A Job 1.0

As graduation approaches, the job hunt is on. According to the American Foundation for the Blind, roughly 70 percent of people who are visually impaired or blind are unemployed. Those are some very scary statistics. However, I simply refuse to be an unemployed person with a visual impairment, so I’m doing all that I can to obtain gainful employment. If you have a visual impairment and are reading this, know that you are not alone. I hope this post will give some insight into what it takes to avoid becoming another high unemployment statistic.

The Power of Networking

I quickly learned the power of networking. We hear about networking all the time, but what is it and how does one network? First of all, it’s important to employ a resourceful mindset. Anybody that you know has the potential to be a link in your professional network chain. If you are finding yourself a little short on professional contacts, you may have to go looking for network contacts. I think the best and easiest way to establish this is by asking professionals in your field of interest if they would allow you to conduct an informational interview. This social exchange gives you the opportunity to create contacts out of complete strangers, as well as raise awareness about your intent for employment without directly asking for a job. You can start by contacting the human resources department at your organization of interest, introducing yourself, and asking to be connected to somebody in your job of interest. Most people are open to this concept, because people love to talk about themselves. Remember to plan ahead, think about what it is you want to know, write out strong questions, take good notes, and be very appreciative of people’s time and information.
Perhaps you have one or many professional contacts. Use this to your advantage and reach out. Maybe your contact knows of the perfect job for you, or maybe they know somebody who knows somebody who is looking for your skill-set. Either way, take advantage of people who want to see you succeed.

Writing More than 140 Characters Still Gets You somewhere

In today’s fast-paced society, writing has been shortened to somewhere between 140 characters and a few short sentences. A few months ago, I read Richard Branson’s new book, The Virgin Way. If you need a little inspiration, and or you want to know how one man dropped out of high school and still did well for himself, I recommend you read The Virgin Way. One concept that stood out to me was the positive effect of writing a letter to somebody. I have found this to be true in my own job searches. In keeping with the times, an email with appropriate subject line and good grammar/spelling will do. Though I haven’t received a solid job offer as a direct result of my writing a letter or email to a professional contact yet, the action of sending that letter has opened up other potential job leads.
If you find yourself wanting to send a letter of interest to a key contact of a specific organization such as a Human Resources Manager or President/CEO, there’s a relatively easy way to find their email address.
First, get their name. If it’s a CEO or other top leadership figure, and depending on the type of organization, you can usually find her or his full name on a bio page of the organization’s website.
Then, you will need to figure out how the organization structures their email addresses. A good place to start is the employment or media inquiries sections of the website. Sometimes a specific contact and email address will be listed. Take note of how this person’s email address is structured. After doing this, apply the same format to your desired contact. This doesn’t always work, because some organizations may have more than one person with the same name, and as a result, may put numbers before the at sign in the email address. Still, this method is a good way to start when attempting to develop cold contacts. If this method doesn’t work, call or email the human resources department and ask to be connected to your new contact. Remember, human resources is there to be a resource for humans wether they work for the organization or not.

Practice Strategic Communication

Everybody has the ability to use strategic communication to her or his advantage. Actually, you probably use it often without realizing it. Do you talk or write differently to the various groups of people in your life? If you answered yes, then you are using strategic communication.
You can also use this concept in your job search. When communicating with potential employers or professional contacts, think about the best form of communication to use. Remember, apart from your resume, professional skills, and personal attributes, all you’ve got is the message that you want to transmit to your contact. It’s very important that you consider the best method for communicating with this individual. Some people love email, while some prefer speaking over the phone. If you are networking with a person for the first time, you may not know what method they prefer, so it’s a bit of a shot in the dark. You could try calling the human resources department and asking for the best way to contact this person.

The Moral of the Story

Finding a job non-visually isn’t the easiest thing I’ve ever done, then again nobody said it would be either easy or hard. It’s important to realize in most instances the job opportunities will not come to you; but instead you will have to go to them. So get out there, meet people, ask favors from total strangers, ask good questions, be grateful for any information given to you, be resourceful, developed your professional network, don’t be afraid to take risks, and put your all into it. Remember, it takes a lot of good ideas to create some great ideas, and it may only take a few great ideas to achieve personal and professional success.