Welcome to Pre-employment . . .
Resources to help when you find yourself unemployed
Michael L. Carver, CBCP
September 14, 2010
ACP Proprietary (Internal Use Only )Not for use or disclosure outside the ACP Corporation except under written agreement
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Purpose for this Presentation
1. Add additional value to being a member of
North Texas ACP
2. Increase awareness about existing
resources—including limitations . . .
3. Encourage North Texas ACP members to
notify membership about available jobs
ACP Proprietary (Internal Use Only )Not for use or disclosure outside the ACP Corporation except under written agreement
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Welcome to “Pre-employment”
•
Pre-employment
• Definition: The time you find yourself
between positions. – Lisa Miller, Dallas-based Career Connection
group
•
Others would call this unemployment…
• Your Objective: Find your next position as
quickly as possible, while making sure that new
position is a viable match for 3 of the 4 items:
skills, salary, travel, and commuting distance.
ACP Proprietary (Internal Use Only )Not for use or disclosure outside the ACP Corporation except under written agreement
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Welcome to “Pre-employment”
•
Immediately
• File with Texas unemployment
• http://www.twc.state.tx.us
• Their week runs from Sunday – Saturday
• 5 or 6 contacts per week (for me)—and ONLY report the minimum number!
• Reporting every 2 weeks (phone or internet)
• Find a networking group
• Career Connection (www.careerconnection.org)
•
There are others all over Dallas / Ft. Worth
•
I could not find a Special Interest Group for BC / DR—so I would select Project
Management
• Review Facebook, LinkedIn, …
• Potential employers will be looking at this content!
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Search Process—Websites
Excel workbook I used is loaded on North Texas ACP Website,
including spreadsheet with websites that assisted me
Website
Address
ACP
http://www.acp-international.com
Erickson
http://www.ericsson.com/careers/browse
Keywords
disaster recovery, business continuity, IT
continuity
HP Careers
http://careers.bankofamerica.com/overview/
overview.asp
http://www8.hp.com/us/en/jobsathp/index.ht
ml?jumpid=ex_r1675_us/en/any/various/tale
o-mu-xx-xx-/chev/
DRII
https://www.drii.org/bccommunity/searchjobs
.php
n/a
Federal Reserve of Dallas
http://www.dallasfed.org/careers/careers.cfm
none
Federal Reserve of Richmond
http://www.richmondfed.org/about_us/career
s/
Dallas
IBM
https://jobs3.netmedia1.com/cp/
disaster recovery, business continuity, IT
continuity
Work In Texas board
http://www.workintexas.com
disaster recovery, business continuity, IT
continuity
Bank of America
disaster recovery, business continuity, IT
continuity, resiliency
disaster recovery, business continuity, IT
continuity
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Search Process
• Search websites frequently
• I found new postings daily
• Let others know your situation ASAP
• LinkedIn: your connections are critical!
• Get your resume ready ASAP
• You may need to plan some practice interviews
• The initial jobs you see may already be closed
for new applications
• Assume every posting is a viable position
• Use your network to find out more, but, don’t
wait on them for days . . .
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Search Process (cont.)
• Your Tracking Process is Key
• Store each job posting—including the link
• Each application requires a well-tuned resume
• Include the position’s title in your resume
• Every online resume submission required an
ID and password
• Sometimes you cut-and-paste your resume
• Set up auto-notification on company websites
and sites like www.Indeed.com
• Ask others if they have any of these emails saved (so you
can understand what is old and what is brand new)
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Texas Unemployment Questions
How much?
• $406 / week [Benefit year max.: $10,556]
• How paid?
• VISA debit card (now direct deposit?)
• When do I file—and get paid?
• Week 3 (Tuesday): For weeks 1 and 2
• Paid (Thursday): For week 1
• Week 5 (Tuesday): For weeks 3 and 4
• Paid (Thursday): For weeks 2, 3, 4
•
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Benefits—COBRA
COBRA is expensive
• My benefits cost $278 / month when employed
• $1,133 / month on COBRA
• $396 / month under 65% government
subsidy—for first 6 months [program may have
expired]
• Tips:
• Our benefits were cancelled immediately (to get
the 65%), so it took 3+ weeks to get benefits back
• That included prescriptions
•
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Pre-employment Tips
• You may need time to grieve the loss of the job
• You will likely spend 10 hours per day in job search
mode—and need some search time on weekends, too
• Get to a Career Connection type organization!
• Work on your resume ASAP
• Create a professional card
• Network, network, network
• But, not by just sitting at your PC
• My easiest search time was the first 2 months
• After that, the Career Connection type groups were
more critical to get the lead on new job openings
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Pre-employment Tips (cont.)
• Don’t apply for everything—but be realistic
• Determine your minimum salary requirements; travel
preference; location preference . . .
• Resumes HAVE changed
• Use bullets showing results, focused on your skills
• Specific to that position
• LinkedIn is a better resource than Monster, …
• You can search on CBCP and then only show DFW!
• You can add others to your network:
Your trusted friends and colleagues 569
Two degrees away
Friends of friends; each connected to one of your connections 57,800+
Three degrees away
Reach these users through a friend and one of their friends 3,840,200+
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LinkedIn: CBCP Search
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LinkedIn: CBCP Search
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Pre-employment Tips (cont.)
• My Pre-employment
• Started: Friday, February 26, 2010
• Transitioned to Employment: May 10, 2010
• Sent 21 applications
• Had 4 phone screens / 6 phone interviews
• Had 5 on-site interviews (3 companies)
• Things that helped:
• Current CBCP
• Member and Officer in North Texas ACP
ACP Proprietary (Internal Use Only )Not for use or disclosure outside the ACP Corporation except under written agreement
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