No matter your situation, don’t feel bad: over 10% of America finds themselves exactly where you are.

Your unemployment might be recent, or maybe you’ve been on the job hunt for quite some time. You might have been laid off or maybe you just graduated from college only to enter a new, more difficult place called the “real world.”

The number of job searchers is at an all-time high, while job availability is low. For every position, there are 6.3 unemployed for every job opening Our current times are arguably the toughest seen by job searchers in a whole generation.

That’s the bad news. Beat your chest a few times and get over it. There is work to be done.

Now the good news: In 2009, almost 50 million people have been hired.

See the statistics here.

That’s a lot more than zero. Fifty million! It’s time to start restructuring your thinking right now. Forget about languishing with your competition. Spend your valuable energy thinking about the 50 million people who were successful. They did it, and in the hardest of times! It’s time for you to think “How can I join that 50 million? What are they doing that I’m not? My goal is to join the 50 million”.

What is the difference between the 50 million who were hired and the 130 million who are still looking? What special knowledge do the 1 in 4 who were hired have that the rest of us don’t? That is the question of the day, and Fastest Job Search is here with real answers.

Why Fastest Job Search?
Fastest Job Search was created is to help people like you reveal the secrets of a successful job search. When you are finished with this course (and it is a scientific step-by-step course), you will have gained a new level of confidence. You will feel in command because you will now know the rules of the game that bring success to those who practice it, and failure to those who don’t.

You are your most critical marketing campaign
Successful job hunting is very similar to successful marketing. The only real difference is that when searching for a job, you are marketing yourself, and that can be tough. But we are here to help.

Bring scientific methods to the job search
When scientific methods are brought to the job search, results improve dramatically. Results can be measured a number of ways: the time it takes to get a job, the appropriateness of the job for the applicant, and of course, the compensation. If you add a scientific approach and a marketing mentality to your job search, you will get your job not only faster, but when you do get hired, there will be a greater chance that it will be right for you.

Guaranteed Job Search!
Follow this plan for 4 months, initiating at least 10 new contacts every day (this is easy once you get the hang of it). If you don’t have a job at the end of 4 months of implementing this program and you wish to discontinue service, simply notify us at support@iTickleMe.com and we will refund your $19.95 in full! You have nothing to lose, and a lifetime of rewarding employment to gain. You owe it to yourself and your family to sign up right now!

The most powerful tool you can have in your job search is iTickleMe Email Reminders. Try it for free!

Like pretty much everything else, the days of mailing hard copies of your resumé and cover letter to a company have given way to the internet. Typically, you will email your job application directly to a company’s recruiter or HR department. An organization will often have an online submission program in which you upload your documents to its online database. But once you email or submit it online, you will find yourself one of many minnows swimming in the huge internet ocean.

Your application will be thrown into the mix with dozens, sometimes hundreds, of others. Simply having a stellar work history won’t help you stand out in any significant way. If it is a bigger company, chances are your application will not even be read by a human. Your online application might be first filtered by a job application spider that is looking for job-specific keywords. At this point, you may be in the game, but your value as an applicant is low.

Give greater value to your online application

There are two important steps to creating a winning online application and get yourself noticed over the fray: Correct File Formatting and Targeted Content.

Correct File Formatting

A company will not hire you if they can’t read your job application. If the person trying to read your job application cannot open or read the file because it is in an improper format, he/she will simply throw it away. You must be sure to file documents that are in readable file formats such, as Microsoft Word “.doc” or “.pdf” format.

A “.pdf” is preferable because you can be sure the person reading your resume and cover letter will see it just as you do. Borders, bullet points, and other stylistic elements of layout will remain as you intended them. The aesthetic qualities of your job application will not suffer from you and your recruiter having incompatible versions of Microsoft Word.

IMPORTANT: If you are going to file a .pdf, be sure it is a readable .pdf and not an image. To tell if your pdf is readable, open it in any pdf reader (such as Adobe Acrobat Reader) and attempt to copy a line of text and then pasting it into, for example, an email. If you can do this, it will be readable.

Targeted Job Application Content
In order to receive consideration for a job opening, your job application must be on point. This is not just about spell-checking. For each job to which you apply, you must edit your application so it accords closely with the job description, highlighting skills and experiences that would make you the ideal candidate for the job.

Look for important key words in the job posting. If the job post says the applicant must be “capable with Excel,” then make sure your application also says “capable with Excel” (that is if you really are; while slight embellishments are ok, blatant lying on your application will come back to bite you). This is where the importance of targeted content comes into play.

Online job applications may be crawled for keywords much in the same way websites are crawled by spiders and robots. So, rhetorically, “proficient with spreadsheets” and “capable with Excel” mean the same thing, but to a robots sifting through the glut of applications, your words will not register as a match.

To summarize, a competitive job application must be in a proper, readable format – such as a .doc or readable .pdf (not an image) – and its words must be specifically edited for each job.

While necessary to give yourself an edge in the hiring process, this work is by no means sufficient. You could have the perfect job application, an impressive resume and crisp cover letter, and still not even get an interview. Developing a successful online job application is just the beginning. The important work is yet to come.

In the next post on Fastest Job Search, we will discuss the second step on your way to being hired for the right job: “Start a Job Search Management System.”



iTickleMe Job Search GUARANTEE:
Follow this plan for 4 months, initiating at least 10 new contacts every day (this is easy once you get the hang of it). If you don’t have a job at the end of 4 months of implementing this program and you wish to discontinue service, simply notify us at support@iTickleMe.com and we will refund your $19.95 in full! You have nothing to lose, and a lifetime of rewarding employment to gain. You owe it to yourself and your family to sign up right now!

The most powerful tool you can have in your job search is iTickleMe Email Reminders. Try it for free!

• A way to keep track of all the job applications and follow-ups you have already done in your job search, and
• A way to keep track of follow-up tasks you must perform in the future in order to keep your job search moving and effective.

If your image of a job search involves filing online applications and waiting for responses, you are sorely mistaken and you will wait a long time for a job interview. A successful job search involves not only the initial activity of filing an application, but also the critically important follow-up activities that will make the difference between success and failure.

During this course, you will learn the various types of follow-up activities essential to your job search. To be effective in your job search, you will need to follow-up on every job application at least four times at appropriate moments in the future.

At Fastest Job Search, we want to stress the importance of giving each potential employer your greatest devotion, as if it were the only company for which you want to work. Demonstrating dedication and enthusiasm will be the key to getting you hired.

The core of this program is the creation of a system that tells you:

• When to perform these follow-ups,
• What the follow-ups should consist of, and
• Empowers you with all the tools you will need to follow-up effectively.
• Enables you to keep track of job applications and follow-ups

iTickleMe Job Search Management System
When you think of a Job Search Management System, you probably envision spending $100 or more on software, or filling filing cabinets with file folders with colored tabs and labels. This is NOT what iTickleMe Job Search Management System is about.

Rather, iTickleMe uses the most commonly used business tool – your own email system – as the basic, fundamental tool of your Job Search Management System. Because specially configured job search follow-up emails are used to fuel your job search, you will never forget to follow up because follow-up tasks will be waiting for you in your inbox on the exact day you need to perform them.

What is a Job Search Follow-up Email?
A Job Search Follow-up Email is an email that you will send to yourself, but it doesn’t arrive until you need it. It will carry all the information you will need to perform a well-timed, effective follow-up in your job search. The Job Search Follow-up Email will contain:

• The job posting
• Company name, address, phone, contact name
• Copy of your resume and cover letter
• Dates list of all previous activities
• Dates and tasks for future follow-ups

Imagine sitting down at your computer in the morning, finding twenty or thirty Job Search Follow-up Emails in your inbox, each carrying your follow-up tasks for the day. When you open one, it immediately dishes up all the prior history of that job application. In seconds, you are up to speed. You remember the company, the job posting and your previous communications in seconds.


Then you look at the follow-up task you have assigned yourself for that day. If your tasks is to make a phone call, go ahead and do it. The contact name and phone number are there in your Job Search Follow-up Email. If your task is to send a letter, go ahead and do it. Everything you need to accomplish the task is in front of you.

Click the “Forward” button for your Job Search Follow-up Email, but don’t send it yet! The email is now ready to be updated with today’s activity.

Whatever follow-up task you performed, whether it was a phone call or sending a letter, record it in the forwarded version of the Job Search Follow-up Email. If nobody answered, write “Left message, will call next week”. If you sent a letter, write “Sent letter below. Follow in 2 weeks”. Then paste a copy of that letter right in the Job Search Follow-up Email so it will be there ready for you the next time a task is required.

When you have performed the follow-up task and recorded it along with your plan for a next follow-up, send your Job Search Follow-up Email to yourself so that it arrives at the right time in the future for your next continue follow up task.

Q: Huh? How can I send an email “so that it arrives at the right time in the future?”

A:Here’s the beauty and simplicity of iTickleMe Job Search Management System. Only iTickleMe allows you to send yourself emails so that they arrive exactly when you need them, enabling you to follow-up in a well-timed, well equipped way.

Q:How can I tell iTickleMe to send my Job Search Follow-up Email back to me in, say, 2 weeks?

A: Simple! Address your email to 2w@iTickleMe.com. Your email will return to you as a Job Search Follow-up Reminder in 2 weeks. It works for days(d), weeks(w) and months(m), too.

Q: How do I start a Job Search Management System?

A: Sign up for a free trial at iTickleMe Email Reminders.

In our next post, “Build a Job Search Follow-up Email” we will discuss how to build a powerful Job Search Follow-up Email.

iTickleMe Job Search GUARANTEE:

Follow this plan for 4 months, initiating at least 10 new contacts every day (this is easy once you get the hang of it). If you don’t have a job at the end of 4 months of implementing this program and you wish to discontinue service, simply notify us at support@iTickleMe.com and we will refund your $19.95 in full! You have nothing to lose, and a lifetime of rewarding employment to gain. You owe it to yourself and your family to sign up right now!

The most powerful tool you can have in your job search is iTickleMe Email Reminders.You can try it for free.

• First, it should quickly remind you all of your prior interactions with the prospect. This includes your resume and cover letter you sent, along with any information gathered from or notes on conversations you have already had. In other words, you need a way to “get up to speed,” and fast. Who did you talk with? What was said? You will need to quickly remind yourself of as much detail as possible. That way, you can seamlessly continue the thread in your next communication with that person.
• Second, you need to know what to do next. Say your plan was to place follow-up call one week after sending a resume, and a friendly note two weeks later. You will need to have these tasks laid out for you. That way, you can easily act on one and move on to the next.

To achieve these objectives and compose an effective Job Search Follow-up Email, follow these steps:

1. Copy all pertinent text from the job posting into your Job Search Follow-up Email. This should minimally consist of the job title, job description, and desired qualifications. Make sure to include a link to the posting’s website in the email. As such, you will have quick access to anything you may have omitted.
2. Paste your cover letter it in or attach it to the email.
3. Paste your resume it in or attach it to the email.
4. Subdivide the email into sections with bold headings (i.e. “Job Description,” “Qualifications,” and “Cover Letter”). This will help to neatly order and organize of all relevant information in your mind.
5. Be sure to include the company name in the subject line.

Here is what it looks like:

Sample Job Search Follow-up Email

You will schedule this email to come back to you at key times in the future – that’s the special function of iTickleMe. When it returns, you will be able to refresh your memory about that particular job application just by re-reading the email.

With all of the information organized into one place, you won’t waste time shuffling through disparate files on your hard drive and your web browser’s history to find what you need to know about that job search. Everything will be right there in front of you in the email!

Now that job search email is almost ready to be sent. But there are still a few things you can do to accrue even more benefits from its service. In our next post, “Find the Target Person,” we’re going to show you how to make this email bomb even more powerful.

iTickleMe Job Search GUARANTEE:

Follow this plan for 4 months, initiating at least 10 new contacts every day (this is easy once you get the hang of it). If you don’t have a job at the end of 4 months of implementing this program and you wish to discontinue service, simply notify us at support@iTickleMe.com and we will refund your $19.95 in full! You have nothing to lose, and a lifetime of rewarding employment to gain. You owe it to yourself and your family to sign up right now!

The most powerful tool you can have in your job search is iTickleMe Email Reminders.You can try it free for 90 days.

In this post, we’re going to talk about how to fill those gaps in your Job Search Follow-up Email by finding the Target Person.

In a previous post, we talked about how the internet can hinder an effective job search. The Internet acts as a barrier between you and your target.

When you upload your resume and cover letter to XYZ Corporation’s website, or email your application to humanresources@xyzcorp.com, you are lucky if even get an automatically generated response acknowledging that your application was received. If that is as far you go with your efforts, then chances are strong that this is the last you will hear from XYZ Corporation. Your application could become one of hundreds of daily entries into a database or someone’s mailbox.

Sadly, you can never be sure that there is a human being on the other end reading your application.

This is why you must extend your reach to the Target Person. The Target Person is the human being responsible for hiring for your position. Instead of relying on the same channels everyone else uses, you must establish direct contactwith the Target Person. Locating the Target Person takes research.

Through the Internet and phone calls directly to your target company, find the name, address, phone number and email address of the person who is actually responsible for hiring for your position. When searching the company’s website, use keywords such as “employment”, “careers,” “jobs”, “hiring”, “human resources”, “HR”, or “positions”.

When calling the company’s switchboard, try saying, “I am hoping you can help me. I am interested in speaking with the person responsible for hiring for a (sales, production, management, etc) position. Can you tell me the name of the person responsible for hiring for that position? Is there an email address I can use?”

If they transfer you to someone else, do the same thing again. Use a friendly voice and sincerely ask for help. You will be surprised at how many nice, helpful people there are out there. The most important thing is to be persistent. Eventually you will find someone willing and able to help you.

If the position is attractive enough, consider visiting the company and befriending the receptionist. Bringing candy or flowers is a time honored tactic, and can be very effective in unlocking closely held secrets, such as, “Who is my target person?”


Creativity, resourcefulness and an amount of audacity will come in very handy when you are on your mission to locate and contact the Target Person.

Once you have all the necessary information on your Target Person, add it to your job search reminder email. Now you’re just about ready to establish a direct line of communication with the Target Person. In doing so, you will add huge additional value to your job application, and will you boost your chances dramatically.

Next time, we’ll talk about how to use this contact information and increase your value in a section called “Program Your Follow-Ups.”

iTickleMe Job Search GUARANTEE:
 
Follow this plan for 4 months, initiating at least 10 new contacts every day (this is easy once you get the hang of it). If you don’t have a job at the end of 4 months of implementing this program and you wish to discontinue service, simply notify us at support@iTickleMe.com and we will refund your $19.95 in full! You have nothing to lose, and a lifetime of rewarding employment to gain. You owe it to yourself and your family to sign up right now!
 
The most powerful tool you can have in your job search is iTickleMe Email Reminders.You can try it free for 90 days.