Successful job seekers or career changers need to be able to network to facilitate their search. In times of the pandemic, however, networking isn't being practiced in person. That doesn't mean it isn't being practiced, though.
A substitute for in-person networking is virtual networking, and the perfect place to start that is LinkedIn. Listen to today's episode to learn how to approach LinkedIn if you aren't all that familiar with this platform. Get your profile completed and follow all the recommendations and protocols.
Additionally, seek out virtual job fairs that you may attend. In addition to a completed LinkedIn profile, you will want to have your resume ready as well.
Check out resources available for job seekers and career changes at http://teachersintransition.com.
If you want to talk with Kitty about how to get a successful job search underway, make an appointment for a 20-minute complimentary Discovery Session at http://teachersintransition.com/calendar.
Successful job seekers or career changers need to be able to network to facilitate their search. In times of the pandemic, however, networking isn't being practiced in person. That doesn't mean it isn't being practiced, though.
A substitute for in-person networking is virtual networking, and the perfect place to start that is LinkedIn. Listen to today's episode to learn how to approach LinkedIn if you aren't all that familiar with this platform. Get your profile completed and follow all the recommendations and protocols.
Additionally, seek out virtual job fairs that you may attend. In addition to a completed LinkedIn profile, you will want to have your resume ready as well.
Check out resources available for job seekers and career changes at http://teachersintransition.com.
If you want to talk with Kitty about how to get a successful job search underway, make an appointment for a 20-minute complimentary Discovery Session at http://teachersintransition.com/calendar.
Are you a teacher who's feeling stressed out and overwhelmed? Do you worry that you're feeling symptoms of burnout or are you sure you've already gotten there? Have you started to dream of doing some other kind of job or perhaps pursuing a whole different career, but you don't know what else you're even qualified to do? You don't know how to start a job search. You just feel stuck. If that sounds like you, I promise you're not alone. My name is Kitty Boitnott. I'm a career transition and job search coach and I specialize in helping burnt-out teachers just like you deal not only with the stress and overwhelm of your day-to-day job, but to consider what other careers might be out there waiting for you. Join me for"Teachers in Transition." In some episodes, I'll be speaking to stress management techniques and how you can manage your stress on a day to day basis. In other episodes, I'll be talking about career transition. What tools do you need to be successful in a job search when you're moving from one career into a totally different track? These are questions that you need answers to and I can help you find those answers. My name is Kitty Boitnott. Welcome to"Teachers in Transition." Hi, this is Kitty Boitnott of"Teachers in Transition" and welcome back to another episode of the YouTube channel and the podcast"Teachers in Transition." If you've listened to me before, you know that I alternate topics each week, I talk about either stress management or career transition because I am a certified stress management coach. I've written a book about stress management, and I'm also a trained and experienced career transition and job search coach. I specialize in working with burnt-out teachers who are ready to look for other opportunities that may feel more fulfilling and fun than teaching has gotten for them. So this week, the topic is career transition. And in the midst of a pandemic, I want to talk a little bit about the importance of networking, even though we're not having any networking events being held in person right now, networking can be extremely important in your job search because it exposes you to people that you would not otherwise know who may have connections with decision-makers in their companies or organizations. And if you aren't in a position to network and meet new people, you will never have an opportunity to be potentially introduced to those decision-makers who were looking for someone perhaps just like you with your specific combination of education experiences, aptitudes talents. So right now, probably the best way to be conducting your networking is through LinkedIn and a lot of teachers approach LinkedIn without a full understanding of exactly how it works or what it's supposed to be used for. So let me talk a little bit about LinkedIn. LinkedIn has been around for a while now. Uh, doesn't have as many users as Facebook, but it's growing exponentially every moment or so there are people from all over the world who use LinkedIn on a regular basis. It is primarily a professional platform designed to allow professionals to interact with one another about professional matters, including jobs. Now, if you are a teacher who doesn't understand LinkedIn, that before you get too overboard to start going in there to work on your profile, do a little bit of research. LinkedIn is something you need to approach very specifically with specific goals in mind and following specific protocols. Otherwise, you may inadvertently shoot yourself in the foot and create a faux pas that will harm you instead of help you. It is not to be mistaken for Facebook. Although increasingly I see some posts that look like they belong more on Facebook than not, but it's not Facebook and it's not Twitter and it's not Instagram. It's not any of the other platforms that are out there. It does have some of the features. It has LinkedIn live like Facebook live, but instead of talking about something personal, it's more effective. If you use the LinkedIn live to talk about something professional, some insight that you've had some experience that you've had that would lend itself to conversation or discussion or even debate professional debate. You don't want to be overly provocative, but you might want to post something that would be provoking in the way of getting people to think about something. So you could do that and get some positive attention that before you start posting anything on your wall, you may, you need to make sure that your profile is complete and being complete means that you have a professional looking headshot, uh, from the shoulders up smiling into the camera, looking directly into the camera, looking approachable, looking likable, looking competent professional, and then you want to create a unique, customized cover behind your head shot. You can do that using Canva or PicMonkey, or just upload a photograph from your camera, maybe a scene from a vacation. They don't leave that generic looks like a matrix on a blue background. Don't leave the generic LinkedIn cover there because that looks like then you don't understand that that cover is customizable and you should, you should be customizing it. The next thing you want to do is to make sure that you've customized your LinkedIn URL. That's the link that connects you to LinkedIn, but it's also going to be what you use on your resume and your perhaps your business card and other communications. The LinkedIn URL that you will be assigned will include probably your name with hyphens in between and a string of letters and numbers. You can customize your URL by clicking on that, going to the screen that asks you, would you like to customize your URL, try to get your name, just eliminate the letters and numbers. LinkedIn can use those that you don't need to use them and try to get your name, first name and last name or first name, middle initial, and last name. However it is that you normally go. And if you can't get that, if, if you're a John DOE and there are a million other John does than John DOE 10, 13, or John DOE four or five six, whatever, a number that would distinguish you from all the other John dos, make it customizable, and then select that as your customized URL, then you want to make sure that you provide some contact information because being on LinkedIn is no good. If you haven't offered an email address and a telephone number where a recruiter or a hiring manager might be able to reach out to you. If they have an opportunity, they think you might be good for now, if you don't want to put your phone number, get a Google voicemail number it's free and your email address should be something professional looking. So it might be time for you to get a Gmail address with your first name, your last name@gmail.com or if you need to customize because there's somebody else with your first and last name. But I would steer clear of, um, interesting looking handles like, Oh, I don't know, t-shirt ten@hotmail.com or, you know, one apple@yahoo.com go for something that includes your name and is professional. And perhaps if you don't already have a Gmail account, you could use that just simply for your job search communications. Those are some of the basic things that you need to tackle. When you start filling out your LinkedIn profile, there are lots of other things too. You can follow LinkedIn lead. They will guide you through each section and they will offer suggestions and on occasion to make sure that you've fully customized and, and filled out your applicant, your not application your LinkedIn profile, but those are some of the basics of professional headshot, a customized banner behind the headshot, a customized LinkedIn URL, contact information, email, and a phone number where you can be reached in a hurry. If they have something they want to talk to you about recruiters are looking on LinkedIn all the time for talent. So as you write the rest of your profile, your summary section, filling in all of the information about your skills, picking the skills that you'd like to be endorsed for, do all of that with an eye toward the job you want in the future, as opposed to the job you've had in the past, right about the person you aspire to become, not necessarily the person that you have been in the past and use your LinkedIn profile. Once you've completed everything, use it as a springboard to join groups that are interested in the same professional topics that you happen to be interested in. Start sending customized connection requests to people who are working in the industry that you are interested in working for, or with look for people who have similar interests as yourself. You can also connect with people that you went to college with, that you go to church with that, you know, from, from your previous work, if you worry that people will be suspicious, that you're working on your LinkedIn profile. I w I wouldn't give that too much credence. I mean, everybody, at some point decides that LinkedIn is a tool that might be useful for them, including school superintendents who are often looking for their next position, even after they've just landed. One, given that the average tenure for a superintendent these days is three to five years. There's a lot of movement in that arena. So don't expect that they're going to spend too much time wondering about why you're suddenly on LinkedIn and beefing up your activity. They're not going to pay that much attention to it. You can use LinkedIn for networking during this time that we're not networking in person. So do that. And then the other advice I would have for you is once you feel like you've got a beat on what it is that you would like to do in the future, you've completed your LinkedIn profile. You have a resume that you feel pretty good about, and you know, the direction that you want to go in is as far as professionally, then look for some online career fairs or job fairs, because they're there. And given that people aren't meeting in person that much right now, that's your next best option ways to meet new people who are working in the industry, in the organization, in the job field that you're interested in. So besides LinkedIn, look for virtual job fairs and try your hand at applying for one of the jobs that's available through that mechanism. And if you decide you need help, that's what I'm here for. So you can reach out to me at kittyboitnott@gmail.com. Take a look at some of the resources that I have available at teachersintransition.com. And until next week, that's it for today. I will talk to you again soon. Stay well, stay safe, be happy, be kind. I'll talk to you next week. So there you have it, an episode of"Teachers in Transition." I hope you enjoy the information and I hope you'll plan to come back. Please subscribe to teachers in transition so that you can be alerted of future episodes. And let me know if you have any questions or topics that you would like me to specifically cover in a future episode, I'm more than happy to help with individual questions as well. So email me at KittyBoitonott@gmail.com. If you are interested in finding a new career or just enjoying your life more, this is the place to start. I'm Kitty Boitnott. And this is Teachers inTransition. So there you have it, an episode of"Teachers in Transition." I hope you enjoyed the information and I hope you'll plan to come back. Please subscribe to"Teachers in Transition" so that you can be alerted of future episodes. And let me know if you have any questions or topics that you would like me to specifically cover in a future episode. I'm more than happy to help with individual questions as well. So email me at KittyBoitnott@BoitnottCoaching.com. If you are interested in finding a new career or just enjoying your life more, this is the place to start. Hi, I'm Kitty Boitnott and this is"Teachers in Transition."