Overall Approach

by Rachel Musicante Our nation’s teetering economy has prompted many organizations to offer free resources and training to the public. This article highlights LinkedIn’s free training options and how and why LinkedIn (LI) is offering them. From now until the end of March 2021 LI is providing training in 10 key skills. Each of the 10 learning paths (flexible, user-led courses) is online, free, and marketable. LinkedIn carefully chose the 10 roles to help job-seekers get back on their feet now and post-COVID. What Are the 10 Roles and How Did LI Choose Them? These are the roles that LinkedIn is offering (in descending order of demand): software developer sales representative project manager IT administrator customer service specialist digital marketer IT support/help desk data analyst financial analyst graphic designer To identify the right skills to offer the public, LI analyzed data on 690 million professionals, 50 million companies, 11 million job listings, 36,000 skills, and 90,000 schools. LI tracked trends for “in-demand skills, emerging jobs, and global hiring patterns” to develop a set of critical skills that are gainful both now and in the future. In developing the learning paths for this free training, LI’s sought to pinpoint the right combination of utility and accessibility. The 10 roles that emerged met four criteria: 1. “[have] the greatest number of current job openings, 2. [have steadily] grow[n] over the past four years, [pay] a livable wage, and 4. [require] skills that can be learned online. Why is LI Offering this Training? According to LinkedIn’s CEO Ryan Roslansky, the company’s goal is “to help those who have become unemployed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic crisis get the skills they need to land their next job. By giving free access to the skills and training that job seekers need to get jobs, we hope to do our part and help connect job seekers around the globe to new opportunities.” LinkedIn’s goal is to engage 25 million learning path consumers by the end of 2020. Additional Benefits of LI’s Training Opportunities If obstacles such as money, time, and academic prerequisites prevented career training and advancement in the past, LinkedIn’s training initiative might be the right opportunity to seize now. As previously mentioned, the learning paths are completely free. If setting aside time for training was once a problem, many job seekers can now optimize daytime hours, newly available due to lost employment. The problem of unemployment thus carries a potential upside: allotting time for “reskilling” becomes manageable. And the upsurge in online learning opportunities means increased access to new career possibilities without going back to school. Unlike traditional college courses, there are no prerequisites to take these self-paced courses. Additionally, registration is not required to view the content. With less demands on money and time and no previous experience required, the barriers to entry virtually evaporate. How Much Training is LinkedIn Offering? The amount of training varies by course. Average instruction time is roughly 21 hours; customer service specialist course time clocks in at just 5½ hours, while IT support/help desk requires the greatest time commitment at 34 hours. Some learning paths prepare you for an exam and have associated costs and commitments beyond the LinkedIn learning path. Access to Training and Broader Initiative To explore or embark on a learning path: click here scroll down to the list of 10 roles click on “become a…” next to the role/s that you want Upon completion of a course, you can post a certificate on your LI profile. This notifies recruiters, potential employers, and your network that you have upgraded your qualifications. LI is offering a range of other resources to get job seekers back into employment, available by scrolling further down the linked webpage above. For example, LI users can access free interview preparation tools, including an artificial intelligence-based feedback feature. The 10-skills training detailed in this article are actually just one component of a larger initiative by LinkedIn (and its parent company Microsoft) to support job seekers. Please see “Helping Job- seekers in the Covid-19 Economy,” a video linked here, in which top Microsoft and LI representatives discuss various training initiatives, including the 10 learning paths. Resources  Our economy is crisis only one candidate realizes it – Washingtonpost.com Helping 25 million jo seekers get back to work –Blog Microsoft makes 250+ hours of LinkedIn learnign content available for free –Class Central LinkedIn, Microcsoft launch free learning path job training courses to fight coronavirus unemployment- USA Today Resources J. T. O’Donnell, “Laid Off: 4 Options To Help You Add Value & Move Forward” (12-minute video), April 15, 2020 Ryan Roslansky, “Helping 25 Million Job Seekers Get Back to Work,” June 30, 2020 Christof Rindlisbacher, “Microsoft Makes 250+ Hours of LinkedIn Learning Content Available for Free,” June 30, 2020 Mike Snider, “LinkedIn, Microsoft launch free Learning Path job training courses to fight coronavirus unemployment,” USA Today, June 20, 2020

by David Marwick, 08.09.20 Searching for a job can be a lonely, frustrating, and lengthy process. To develop a constructive attitude for your job search, it’s vital to understand what you can’t control and, more importantly, what you can control. You can’t control the state of the economy—nationally or locally. You can’t control which positions are open. And you can’t control who else is applying for those positions. However, there is much that you can control. It may be challenging, but you can control how you react to what you can’t control. We believe that the following seven attitudes can help you succeed: 1. Take a long-run perspective A career is a marathon, not a sprint. It’s a succession of jobs and even careers. In fact, changing jobs and even careers is increasingly common. Therefore, keep in mind that your first job will, almost certainly, be the first of many. Therefore, a “bad” first job does not doom your career. 2.  Understand that it’s not (only) about you You want a job to provide income and satisfaction. Employers want to hire someone to fill a specific need in their organization. How can you meet that need? To use a sports analogy, if the Washington Nationals need a new third baseman, they will limit their search to highly competent third basemen. You may be an excellent outfielder, but you’re not what they’re looking for. That means that what you offer does not mesh with what the employer needs. But it’s only when you are the “square peg” to fill the employer’s “square hole” that you will be hired. 3. Be flexible You may have had specific expectations for your first (or next) job, in terms of the employer, the city, and the role. However, especially when jobs are scarce, you may need to adjust your expectations. If you can’t find your “dream” job, or even something close to it, you may need to adjust your expectations even more. Three types of jobs warrant your consideration: “Survival” or “gap” jobs. You are overqualified for these jobs, but such jobs may be the best you can do—at least right now. (When jobs are plentiful, taking such a job might raise questions in an employer’s mind, but when jobs are scarce, it will not seem odd.) Temp jobs. These jobs exist in all sectorsof the economy, and many companies recruit workers to fill such jobs. Kelly Services, Manpower, and Ranstad are among the more prominent firms. Employers may need temporary employees to meet a surge in orders or to fill in for someone on vacation or out sick. Volunteer jobs. Many non-profit organizations seek volunteers to help them provide their services, all the more so when budgets are tight. All three alternatives can provide a solid entry for your resume. Also, they can help you keep your skills sharp and perhaps even learn new skills. Moreover, they may provide an opportunity to meet people for networking purposes. Finally, they may constitute an “audition” with a prospective employer, where the employer gets to see whether you would be a good long-term fit. “Survival” or “gap” jobs and temp jobs can also provide income that can pay the bills. Volunteer jobs can provide “psychic” income.. 4. Be mentally tough Michael Barone coined the terms “soft” and “hard” environments. Here’s an extract from a summary of his book, Hard American, Soft America: A peculiar feature of our country today…is that we seem to produce incompetent eighteen-year-olds but remarkably competent thirty-year-olds. Indeed, American students lag behind their peers in other nations, but America remains on the leading edge economically, scientifically, technologically, and militarily. The reason for this paradox…is that “from ages six to eighteen Americans live mostly in what I call Soft America–the parts of our country where there is little competition and accountability. But from ages eighteen to thirty Americans live mostly in Hard America–the parts of American life subject to competition and accountability.” While Soft America coddles, Hard America plays for keeps. As he notes, schools are generally a soft environment. They are client- (that is, student-) oriented. Deadlines may be flexible. Professors are generally available for discussion. Workplaces are generally a hard environment. Deadlines are deadlines. For example, if a court filing needs to be submitted at 12:00 midnight, it will not be accepted if it is submitted at 12:01AM—and no one will be interested in your excuse for why it’s late. A hard attitude will be manifested in how you are treated by prospective employers and recruiters—and may come as a shock to a recent college graduate. If you apply for a job and don’t get an interview, you won’t be able to get anyone to tell you why not. If you do well at the first interview and are invited for a second interview but don’t get the job, again don’t expect anyone to tell you why. This is called “ghosting.” You can learn more in our article about “ghosting.” [link] Therefore, be prepared for rejection, especially when there’s lots of competition, but try not to be discouraged. The articles listed below may help. 5. Know your strengths Whether you’re a new college graduate or have been working for a while, you have a lot of accomplishments. It’s important to inventory them and appreciate them. These may include academic degrees and awards, paid and volunteer jobs, and community activities. Moreover, you have specific skills. “Hard” skills include analytical approaches, computer languages, and foreign languages. “Soft” skills include leadership and working with a group. Think about your more challenging and more satisfying accomplishments. What specific factors made them so challenging? What specific outcomes made them so satisfying? Well-developed stories about these accomplishments will serve you well in interviews. 6. Manage your time Searching for a job in any economy can take a long time. Therefore, it is critical to manage your time and your job-search activities. It may be helpful to set goals for each week and each day of the week and

WRITTEN BY DAVID MARWICK FOR KEMPMILLJOBASSIST ON 20 JUNE 2019 You worked hard in school (be it high school, college, or grad school) and you finally graduated. Congratulations! Now what? In a way, doing well in school is like a child’s game of connect-the-dots. It takes a lot of work, but if you follow the rules, you will end up with a degree. Looking for a job is very different. It’s like being handed a blank piece of paper and a box of crayons and being told “Good luck!” Myriad online articles cover various aspects of the job search, but I recently found a free podcast series that walk you through all the major steps of a job search. Earlier this year, Caroline Ceniza-Levine of SixFigureStart recorded a seven-part podcast which she calls “Five Days Behind the Scenes in the Hiring Process.” You can sign up to watch them at https://www.sixfigurestart.com/job-search-mini-course. The seven episodes total 107 minutes, with very little “selling” imbedded in them. Here is a summary of each: Episode 1: Introduction (9 minutes). She describes how her career unfolded, provides an overview of the five substantive modules, and explains their sequence. Episode 2: Resumes (17 minutes). She highlights what makes a good resume and how recruiters (and others) read resumes (focusing on career progression, brand names, and tangible results). Then, she offers tips on preparing a resume and clarifies the limits of resumes. Finally, she notes that resumes are just one marketing tool and that marketing is just one of six major steps in your job search. Episode 3: Job postings (17 minutes). She describes sources of job postings, ways to analyze them (in terms to content, tone, and emphasis), and their limits. Episode 4: Recruiters (14 minutes). She defines the different kinds of recruiters (for example, inhouse vs. contingent), the best ways to work with recruiters, and actions you should take when a recruiter calls you. Episode 5: Interviews (14 minutes). She identifies the common types of interviews (such as phone, Skype, and group interviews) and identifies job seekers’ common verbal and non-verbal mistakes during interviews. Episode 6: Job search targets (12 minutes). She notes that your “ideal” job lies at the intersection of four factors–your interests, strengths, priorities, and opportunities. To stimulate your thinking, she suggests a lengthy list of possibilities for each factor. Finally, she explains how knowing your job search targets affects all of your job search steps. Episode 7: Wrap-Up (25 minutes). She outlines her six-step approach to a job search and explains how the material in each of the five substantive podcasts relates to these steps.

WRITTEN BY DAVID MARWICK FOR KEMPMILLJOBASSIST ON 12 JULY 2018. Looking for a job can be lonely. Having someone to check in with periodically can offer emotional support and accountability. We call this person a “job search buddy.” (A job search buddy is one type of “accountability buddy” or “accountability partner.” This buddy can help you meet your goals in maintaining your exercise routine, writing a minimum number of pages, and so forth.) For many job seekers, it is easy for weeks to turn into months without forward movement if their days are not structured. Career coaching expert Caroline Ceniza-Levine suggests that “you have either a formal accountability partner that you check in with about your job search or at least a good friend who encourages you when you need it.” The job search buddy notion is based on a practice at my job many years ago. Each Monday afternoon, our boss would meet with his half-dozen or so direct reports to review the status of all our projects. One week, he would ask where we stood on each project; specifically, whether we were on target to meet the project’s next milestone and, if not, why not. Thus, we had to commit — to him and to our peers — to our progress in the weeks ahead. The next week, he would review our progress against those commitments. If anyone missed a milestone, he would bore in on that failure. He was generally not very understanding about missed milestones. Even if his implementation left something to be desired, the concept was sound. Here are some thoughts about how this can work. The buddy need not be an expert in job search or in the job seeker’s chosen field. Rather, the buddy should be calm, mature, and organized. The person doesn’t necessarily need to be a family member or a close friend, as the people closest to us may not fully understand the stress being experienced of one’s unemployment. After an initial meeting or phone call, the job seeker and buddy will check in by phone regularly (preferably once a week). Having a set meeting schedule contributes to accountability, discouraging the job seeker from postponing the meeting if there’s little progress to report. Each week, the job seeker will agree on a few goals to pursue during the coming week. (These goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based, as noted in the articles listed below.) The following week, they will discuss the progress made — and obstacles encountered — in achieving those goals; brainstorm on ways to overcome the obstacles; and set new goals for the following week. Some buddies click, but others don’t. After four to six weeks, the buddies should discuss whether their partnership is working. If it is not working for either partner, no one should continue out of a sense of obligation. It’s not a negative reflection on either one. Unless you’re making great progress on your job search, consider enlisting a job search buddy. And good luck! For Further Reading: Caroline Ceniza-Levine, “Stop Editing Your Resume! Ten More Productive Actions To Improve A Slow Job Search,” June 24, 2018. Lelia Gowland, “How To Get (Or Be) A Good Accountability Buddy,” April 16, 2018 Alyssa Gregory, “SMART Goal Setting 101,” March 12, 2018 Steph Corker, “How to Be an Accountability Buddy,” January 17, 2018 Daniel Zahorsky, “5 Elements of a SMART Business Goal,” January 8, 2018 Monica Torres, “4 Crucial Steps to Finding a Job If You’ve Been Unemployed for More Than 6 Months,” June 29, 2017.

WRITTEN BY DAVID MARWICK FOR KEMPMILLJOBASSIST ON 18 MAY 2017 Your choice of a career can have life-long implications. This is true whether you are a high school or college student preparing to enter the workforce, or an experienced worker considering switching to a different field. In addition to the conventional information sources that are available to help guide such choices, gerontologist Dr. Karl A. Pillemer offers a novel set of data on choosing a career. He asked his “experts” — nearly 1,200 seniors (at least 65 years old, and often 80 or 90 years old) — what they would recommend to the next generation regarding choosing a career and five other areas. He summarized his findings in “30 Lessons for Living—Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans,” published in 2011. Dr. Pillemer used several techniques to collect information from nearly 1,200 seniors. Among other things, he conducted interviews (averaging about 20 minutes each) with a randomly-selected sample of 314 respondents (whose average age was 74). He also conducted interviews (typically lasting one hour or more) with a non-random sample of 240 others (whose average was 81). He sought information in six areas — marriage, careers, child rearing, aging, avoiding regrets, and remaining happy despite setbacks. In each of these six areas, he consolidated his results into five findings — a total of 30 “lessons.” Here are his findings, garnered from these “experts,” along with my comments. 1.) “Choose a career for the intrinsic rewards, not the financial ones. The biggest career mistake people make is selecting a profession based only on potential earnings. A sense of purpose and passion for one’s work beats a bigger paycheck any day.” Agreed, in part. This conclusion may demonstrate 20-20 hindsight. At age 70 or beyond, people may wish they had chosen a career that provided more satisfaction. But when they were starting out, or when they were mid-career, the pressure to pay the mortgage, day school tuition, and other expenses may have swayed them to choose bigger paychecks over more satisfaction. 2.) “Don’t give up on looking for a job that makes you happy. According to the experts, persistence is the key to finding a job you love. Don’t give up easily.” Agreed. Switching jobs, and even careers, is far easier today than it was in previous generations. His “experts” entered the workforce 45 to 70 years ago. 3.) “Make the most of a bad job.If you find yourself in a less-than-ideal work situation, don’t waste the experience; many experts learned invaluable lessons from bad jobs.” Agreed. In my experience, you can learn something from every manager or co-worker. From the good ones, you can learn what to emulate. From the bad ones, what to avoid. 4.) “Emotional intelligence trumps every other kind. Develop your interpersonal skills if you want to succeed in the workplace. Even people in the most technical professions have their career torpedoed if they lack emotional intelligence.” Agreed. Being technically adept is necessary, but not sufficient, to succeed. Don’t be “smart in the classroom but dumb on the playground.” 5.) “Everyone needs autonomy. Career satisfaction is often dependent on how much autonomy you have on the job. Look for the freedom to make decisions and move in directions that interest you, without too much control from the top.” Agreed. Relative to the past, modern management theory emphasizes the importance of autonomy for workers at all levels.

WRITTEN BY BY: DAVID MARWICK FOR KEMPMILLJOBASSIST ON 02 FEBRUARY 2017. POSTED IN FINANCIAL Introducing Job Search Nuggets provided by KempMillJobAssist, an all-volunteer organization formed about 12 years ago by residents of Kemp Mill to help their neighbors find jobs. The nuggets will include advice on job search topics, highlight free online resources, and answer questions of general interest. Please send questions and comments to DMarwick@JobAssist.org. “A company doesn’t care what you want.  They want to know how you can meet their needs.” –– Lisa Rangel, founder of Chameleon Resumes Having a realistic perspective on the job market, especially about why a company posts a vacancy, is vital to success in finding a job.  An unrealistic perspective can lead to frustration–– lots of applications, but no job offers. Let’s begin with two basic questions and answers. The first question is, why does an employer advertise a vacancy? An employer advertises a job opening because the employer has a mission to accomplish and needs someone to help accomplish it. The second question: why do you, job seeker, want to fill that vacancy?Possible answers could vary; maybe you want to earn additional income, use newfound skills, or advance your career. If your qualifications closely match the employer’s needs, the employer may be interested in speaking with you and possibly in hiring you–– but, to be blunt, the employer usually does not care why you want that job. Below are three typical mistakes by job seekers who are, to be delicate, less than fully qualified for a position and an employer’s likely response to those rationales. For the purposes of the example, this job seeker is applying for a position in the field of gerontology. What you say: “I have a lot of skills, and I’m sure you can find a role for me in your company.” What the employer thinks: If you haven’t made the effort to identify how you can help me fulfill my mission, please don’t expect me to take time from my busy schedule to figure it out. What you say: “I’ve always been interested in gerontology.” What the employer thinks: Your interest in gerontology is admirable, but I see little evidence in your resume that you are well qualified to work in the field, and I want to hire the best-qualified person available. What you say: “I don’t know much about gerontology, but I’m a quick study.” What the employer thinks: Why would I pay you to learn about gerontology when there are other candidates who already know about it? In short, when you make your case to an employer, always remember: It’s not about you. (For further reading, check out “Work Advice: No, temp agencies do not exist to find you a job” by Karla Miller for The Washington Post, January 19, 2017.) David Marwick is KempMillJobAssist’s Workshop Coordinator. He studied economics at George Washington University and worked as an economist for George Washington University and the U.S. Government Accountability Office.