Roxanne Flores On Landing Your Dream Job

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

Roxanne Flores, a native of Brooklyn, NY, is Vice President, Human Resources & Chief Diversity Officer at Meredith Corporation, a role she assumed in April 2018 when the company acquired TIME, Inc. Roxanne oversees all aspects of the company's human resources worldwide, including talent development, employee engagement, labor relations and compensation and benefits.

Hey girl -

During that last couple of weeks, we've worked on your self-branding and laid it out in the form of a resume. Congrats! But our work is not done. If you've participated in the last two exercises, chances are you're thinking about landing a job. Whether this is your first or your next job, the work required to land just the right one is the same.

Let me tell you a story about this, it's really what gave me the idea for this article (thanks, Edouard!). A few weeks ago, I had lunch with Edouard, a former colleague who was laid off during our company acquisition. He had taken the summer off to spend some much needed quality time with his family and was now searching for his next opportunity. His method impressed me: he approached his search like it was his full-time job.

For most, a job search can be overwhelming because the idea of selling ourselves to strangers can be intimidating. And if we're being honest, this self-promotion can seem like boasting -and especially for women, it doesn't feel great, right? So, let's push the pause button and just get over this. YOU ARE READY! As the American author Zig Ziglar said: "You don't have to be great to start but you have to start to be great."

Back in my early job searching days, looking for available work was hard. You had to comb the want ads in newspapers and trade journals, or if you were lucky you knew someone who knew someone at a place where they were hiring. Today you have so much available at your fingertips. Let's map out the process in four steps:

Create a profile on a job site. In May 2018, eBizMBA ranked www. Indeed.com, www. Monster.com, and www. Glassdoor.com as the top three sites

1. 1. Insider tip # 1: data shows that Tuesdays are the best days to upload your resume and you find more success in the months of February, March, May and June.
   2. Insider tip # 2: read the job description carefully and use key words and phrases in your cover letter / summarize that align your strengths to the most important aspects of the role. You don't have to address every single requirement, just the main ones.
2. Join social networks for business professionals. These sites give you the opportunity to acquire new business leads, career opportunities, general support and guidance. Insider tip # 3: I really like www. LinkedIn.com, www.nexxt.com, www.networkingforprofessionals.com
3. Connect with people you know. My friend Edouard used his LinkedIn contacts to determine who to reach out to. His system included sending emails to schedule coffee, lunch, dinner or cocktail meetings -reserving lunches and dinners for people he enjoyed spending time with. #brilliant
4. Contact search firms
5. 1. If you're more experienced, this is often the only way to learn about senior level and executive roles that are never posted. Look online for a local search firm in your area.
   2. Avoid paying any fees to use these services. Generally, employers will pay recruiters 15 to 25 percent of your annual salary in a one-time fee. #NoDoubleDipping

Schedule a repeating appointment with yourself to research, plan, apply and respond to any inquiries related to your search. Investing this time in you will provide the best self return on investment (#ROI). And if you do this while sipping a yummy macchiato -or café con leche- at your favorite coffee place, even better.

So, go for it, let's get to work! Until next week.

I'd love to hear from you! Drop me a tweet on Twitter @FloresRoxie