1. Welcome to Virtual Job Coach 2. Plan your job search campaign.
2.1. What job do you want? 2.2. What company do you want to work for? 2.3. How much time will you devote to the search? 2.4. How are you going to divide your time? 2.5. Do you need a back-up plan? 2.6. How will people contact you? 2.7. What to have scripted? 2.8. Support network.
3. Managing your job search campaign.
3.1. Avoid activity clumping. 3.2. Always set a next action. 3.3. Balancing your activities with your availability. 3.4. Do something different, even totally self indulgent. 3.5. Maintain a hobby, or exercise.
4. Dealing with Procrastination.
4.1. Break tasks down to small enough steps. 4.2. Create little successes for yourself. 4.3. Just do it, it doesn’t have to be perfect. 4.4. Practice in a safe environment. 4.5. View each risk as an experiment. Have fun with it.
5. Networking.
5.1. What is networking? 5.2. The aim of Networking. 5.3. Types of relationships. 5.4. Start networking.
6. Generating list of target companies.
6.1. Researching companies. 6.2. Finding contacts at a company.
7. Informational interviews. 8. Interviewing.
8.1. Preparing for the interview. 8.2. Phone interviews. 8.3. Pre Interview. 8.4. The interview. 8.5. After the interview.
9. Prepare your references. 10. Constructing an elevator pitch.
10.1. Using the elevator pitch in an informal setting. 10.2. Using the elevator pitch when you’re networking by phone.
11. Resumes.
11.1. Types of resumes and their use, when and why.
12. The Chronological Resume.
12.1. The Traditional Chronological. 12.2. The Technical Chronological. 12.3. The Prior Experience Chronological. 12.4. The Education Focus Chronological.
13. The Functional Resume. 14. The Hybrid Resume. 15. Resume sections.
15.1. Contact details. (Required) 15.2. Summary statement (optional). 15.3. Objective statement (optional). 15.4. Selected Achievements. (Optional) 15.5. Key Skills. (Optional) 15.6. Technical skills (optional). 15.7. Employer Section. (Required) 15.8. Position Section. (Required) 15.9. Achievement Section. (Required) 15.10. Education and training. (Required) 15.11. Prior experience. (Optional) 15.12. Membership and affiliations. (Optional) 15.13. Volunteer. (Optional) 15.14. Certificates. (Optional) 15.15. Licenses. (Optional) 15.16. Publications. (Optional)
16. Cover Letter.
16.1. Contact Information and Addressee (Required) 16.2. The opening. (Required) 16.3. The first paragraphs. (Required) 16.4. T-style (Optional) 16.5. Bullets. (Optional) 16.6. Closing Paragraphs. (Required) 16.7. The Closing. (Required) 16.8. Enclosures (Optional)
17. Marketing Letter.
17.1. How to create a Marketing letter. 17.2. The target company section.
18. Reference Letter. 19. Thank you. 20. Acceptance Letter. 21. Rejection Reply Letter. 22. Action Verbs 23. Find Jobs Page
23.1. Search for Jobs using VirtualJobCoach 23.1. Adding an RSS feed from your favorite job board
24. Saved Jobs Page
24.1. Add jobs from the Find Jobs page 24.2. Save jobs manually 24.4. Track your progress through the selection process 24.3. Import positions from 'pipe' (|) delimted file
25. Companies page
25.1. Add companies manually 25.2. Import companies from 'pipe' (|) delimted file
26. Contacts page
26.1. Add contact information 26.2. Import contacts
. vCard format (.VCF) . CSV exported from Outlook or Outlook Express (.CSV) . CSV exported from ACT . CSV exported from Gmail . CSV exported from Yahoo . CSV from another source
26.3. Exporting Contacts
27. Calendar page
27.1. Adding a calendar event 27.2. Importing calendar events using iCalendar 27.3. Exporting events 27.4. Adding a To-Do
28. Documents page
28.1. Create a new Resume 28.2. Create a new Cover Letter 28.3. Import a document 28.4. Make a copy 28.5. Preview a document 28.6. Email a document 28.7. Print after download a document 28.8. Show Links 28.9. Delete a document
29. Quick add

19. Thank you.

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During your job search you are going to interact with a lot of people, from potential employers, network contacts, family, friends, and other job seekers, and most will have helped you in some way. It may seem like a simple common courtesy to send a follow up Thank You, but most people don’t do it and that is to your advantage.

A Thank You is either a handwritten note or card, or a typed letter or email. The timing is also important, send the Thank You within a day, ideally write the Thank you the same day, that way the details of the meeting are still fresh in your mind.

When you follow up with a thank you:
  • You make a positive impression,
  • You also remind the reader about you.
  • They will think more of you for having gone to the trouble of saying thank you (when in reality it’s no trouble at all).
After a networking meeting:
  • They are more likely to help you in the future.
  • It can jog their memory, if they had forgotten about something they promised to do for you
After an interview:
  • Confirms your interest in the position and the organization.
  • Gives you the opportunity to repeat or reinforce some of your key strengths.
  • Gives you an opportunity to mention something you weren’t able to at the interview.

How to construct a “Thank You”.

Thank you documents are written in an informal style and handwritten notes or cards are considered more personal and better, providing you have neat writing. Sometimes you may only have a persons email address and as such is the only method you can use. The important thing is to send a Thank you, and promptly.

There are three details a thank you should contain:
  1. The words thank you,
  2. The reason you are thanking them,
  3. A reference to some aspect of the meeting.

Examples:

After an interview.

Thank you for taking the time to meet with me today. I enjoyed discussing with you how my skills meet the needs of the Manager position.
I would like to reiterate my interest in the position and look forward to hearing from you.

or
Thank you for an enjoyable and informative interview. I now have a much better appreciation of the position and the challenges it faces.
Once of my previous experiences we didn’t have time to talk about which is quite relevant to your needs was my time with ABC company, I have included a summary of that time which I think you’ll find suits the training issues your facing.

or
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to discuss how my skills and experiences could benefit ABC Company.
I am excited to be considered for the role, and know my leadership and customer service skills will be invaluable for the organization.

After a networking meeting:

I wanted to drop you a quick note to say thank for meeting with me today, and for sharing your knowledge of ABC Company.
I heard from their HR manager just after our meeting and we have scheduled an interview for Wednesday next week.

or
Thank you for taking the time to meet with me today, I enjoyed chatting with you. I have already heard from David Brown, and we are meeting next week

or
I learned a great deal about ABC company and wanted to thank you for providing me with the contact information for the Division manager. I have emailed my contacts at BBB Inc. and will pass on the information once they respond.

After someone provides you with a reference:

Thank you for agreeing to take the reference request from ABC Company.
I heard today they are about to make me a formal offer, and I know it was dependant on them receiving very favorable responses.

or
I have just accepted ABC Company’s offer of the Administrative Assistant position and wanted to thank you for being a reference for them. The HR manager mentioned she had spoken to all my references and everyone had very positive feedback.
Thank you again, I will stay in touch and let you know how it works out.

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