The Job Hunting Podcast

In this episode we will be discussing the 6 actions I shared from January 3 to January 8. My intention is to create a short-term project for job hunters and career enthusiasts that can really shift the needle. My goal is for you to look back after taking these small steps and think wow, this has been a great month, I’ve made some important improvements, acquired new habits, tested a few new things I hadn’t done before. And that overall, it has elevated your game substantially. This project is supposed to be fun, easy, actionable, simple and the way I like things, that is, step by step. One day at a time.Read the full Blog on the WebsiteJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe NowLear More About Renata's career coaching and courses About the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter

During the month of January 2020,  I’m sharing with my social media followers 31 daily actions to reset your career. These are small but very effective steps you can take to advance your career prospects this year. I already shared 2 actions, one yesterday, on the first day of the year, and one today. And we will go on, one day at a time, until the end of January.This will be fun! And also easy, actionable, simple and the way I like things, that is, step by step. If you want to follow the 31 Days of Actions to Reset Your Career, follow me on Facebook or Instagram.We will discuss in more detail the 2 actions for day 1 and day 2 on this podcast. In the next episode I will give more details and ideas on the next 7 days of actions coming up. My hope is that these ideas and step by step support helps you elevate your game, and keep motivated and energized as you pursue your career goals. I also want to promote the fact that it's the simple and easy to action steps that will make the biggest impact on your career prospects. Read the full Blog on the WebsiteJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe NowLear More About Renata's career coaching and courses About the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter

As this podcast is going live on Boxing Day, I thought it would be an appropriate time to check if there are any sales you can leverage from to purchase items or services to invest in your career in 2020, especially if you are job hunting. So, in this podcast we are going to look at 3 budgets, from super low to maxed out, and I’ll let you know what I would recommend you can invest in.Read the full Blog on the WebsiteJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe NowLear More About Renata's career coaching and courses Links mentioned in this episode:Up to AUD$500 Budget (US$350)LinkedIn Premium ( free for 1 month then AUD$39,99 per month)Everlane (currently on "Choose what you pay" annual sale!)Banana Republic (Currently on 60% off sale styles)Austin Reed (has discontinued women's suits :( and not on sale at time of publication)Eventbrite - search for events where you liveMelbourne Knowledge Week 2020 (11-17 May and one of my favorite weeks in Melbourne!)Lean in Circles: find a circle to joinInsight Timer (free meditation app, also has guided relaxation for those days you just can't sleep!)Yoga with Adrienne (YouTube Channel)Up to AUD$1,500 (US$1,050) Budget All of the above recommendations, plusBook mentioned: Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (not as up to date with research as it's from 2012, but a classic)Up to AUD$3000 (US$2080) All of the above recommendations, plusCEDA events (I mentioned State of State, but the ones happening early in the year in each state are actually the Economic and Political Overviews)Chartered Accountants eventsAustralian British Chamber of Commerce eventsGerman Australian Chamber of Industry and Commerce eventsAmerican Chamber of Commerce in Australia eventsKerri Gravina Hair, Makeup and Photo Package (AUD$600)The Photo Studio (in Sydney and Melbourne; be ready to have a good time!)About the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter

In this episode we go a bit "zen" in search for our "Best of 2019 Day". Then we look at how that Great Day holds the key to what we need to focus on in 2020. So, the Planning for 2020 begins! And it’s not just a new year, it’s a new decade! I’ve put 5 actions – or you can call them mindset shifts, strategies – into a webinar format, and I’ll be presenting it LIVE at 11am every day from Friday 20 December until Tuesday 24 December, AEST. I’ve called it RESET YOUR CAREER: THE 5 Actions You Can Take Now for Best Results In 2020.Read the full Blog on the WebsiteJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe NowLear More About Renata's career coaching and courses Links mentioned in this episode:The Imagineering Story : a tv series/documentary and inside look into the Walt Disney Imagineering company.Less, novel by Andrew Sean GreerAbout the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter

This episode is an interview with Brooke Young. Brooke has over 25 years’ experience across higher education, management consulting and the not-for-profit sector, where she delivered a range of strategically focused projects in the areas of marketing, digital solutions, organisational redesign, managed services and graduate employment. Brooke has held senior executive roles at the University of Melbourne, Victoria University and at Monash College. She is currently the President of the Aussie Hands Foundation and an Affiliate at Mercer. We discuss video interviewing:how different and how similar it is to traditional interviewing,how to prepare for it,what it looks in the back end for recruiters assessing candidates, andwhat it means for the future of job hunting.Read the full Blog on the WebsiteJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe NowLear More About Renata's career coaching and courses Links mentioned in this episode:Australian Government Future Job Outlook ReportVieple video interviewing platformAbout the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter

Alistair Freeman wrote a post on his LinkedIn profile describing his experience job hunting, following his redundancy a few months ago. He started by thanking everyone that helped him, and finished off by offering to “pay it forward”. His post was sent to me by one of our listeners and I loved it. Alistair described the rejections he received, the ghosting he got from some recruiters, but also pointed out the power of networking and that it had been fun for him to reconnect with great relationships he had lost touch with over time.It is rare for someone to share redundancy stories so I didn’t think twice, immediately contacted Alistair and invited him to be interviewed for this podcast. And I am so happy he agreed, because he had so much more to say, and a few surprises that I really enjoyed hearing about, and I hope that you will enjoy it too.Alistair’s story of redundancy may be unique, but there are many lessons to be learned here, such as:to use the disruption of the redundancy to re-evaluate your lifestyle;to be open to new sectors and opportunitiesto have a positive mindset while job hunting, because it is a stressful experience.So if you are wondering how Alistair dealt with his redundancy, where he is now and what he learned in the process, listen up!Read the full Blog on the WebsiteJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe NowLear More About Renata's career coaching and courses Links mentioned in this episode:Alistair’s LinkedIn PostAbout the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter

You want to keep it to yourself, but if you dress up to the nines, out of the blue, then take a 2-hour lunch break, it will be quite obvious you have gone to a job interview. Listen to the poscast where I tell a very sad story about what not to do, and how everything can go really wrong if you are not careful about job searching while working.Hi, I’m Renata Bernarde and this is the Job Hunting Podcast, where I try to help you nail your next job and have the career you want.If this type of content is for you, you are currently on the market looking for a new job, you are keen to get a new job, or if you want tips on how to advance or change careers, make sure you subscribe, share with friends and family who you think will like the content and I'd love if you could give me a 5-star review. Thank you!!About this episode: Three things you can try to do:If possible, take a day offPeople will know if you dress up better that day, so dress nicely every dayTry to book at the start or end of dayHave I done a job interview during work hours? Yes? Was it stressful? A bit, but not so much.The best way to do it in my view is to create an environment over time were you are excused from work every now and then to do personal things, as long as you are always able to catch up on work later, and keep on top of your responsibilties and KPIs, Remember your current work and boss are your best reference. Now more than ever you want to make sure your work is above bar.Maybe I have been lucky or it's my sector, but I was not micromanaged, and could take time out every now and then to run a personal errand, and catch up with work later, for example. I also never over-explained anything. For example, don’t say all the details of your medical appointment. Add to your calendar, give people access to your calendar, and then go. Period. I also always dressed professionally so that people never thought one day I was more overdressed than the other. If you read my 10 tips for making Job hunting Less Stressful and More successful, or listened to previous podcasts about building your brand (numbers 3 and 4) you will know by now that your next job can be found anywhere. A lucky person is a person prepared for opportunities. If your job requires you to be dressed more casually, then walk into the interview room and “destroy” with your confidence, exude leadership, and let them know you have been at work and need to go back to work so it explains things like a lack of tie or suit, for example.What you shouldn’t do:Over explain your lieCome up with complicated storiesHave a guilty attitudeTell people you are looking for a new job.Let's talk about the elephant in the room: you should NOT tell people at work that you are applying for jobs. No way, Jose! This is my opinion, but here is why I think like I do:Don’t tell anyone at work you are looking for a job. It may be fine for some people, but it’s a good rule of thumb to follow. It’s hard to keep a secret at work. You would be asking people to not tell anyone, when they have projects, deadlines and budgets on the line. It’s not fair for you to ask them that. Plus, if you don’t leave, you will be stuck there with them, and it will be awkward for everyone. They may start reconsidering your motivation and interest in your job, and it can negatively affect your ability to get an internal promotion or interesting project.Read the full Blog on the WebsiteJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe NowLear More About Renata's career coaching and courses About the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter

No opportunity should be lost when you have invested so much time and effort at applying for the role you didn't get. Let's find out how to make a lemonade of your lemon! Get to know recruiters and people in other organisations, departments, sectors: In the podcast I give a great example of someone who applied for a role even though he wasn’t convinced himself he was a good fit. Get connected to them via LinkedIn and keep in touch (schedule it!): I don’t recommend connecting with recruiters on LinkedIn. If you want to keep in touch, add them to your phone contacts, make a list on excel, but don’t add all recruiters to your connections on LinkedIn because what will happen is…listen to the podcast to find out. But you can and should connect with employers. Listen to the podcast and I will explain when.Visit other workplaces: to find out more about other businesses and finetune what you really want of a new job. Learn how I was interviwed once in a "fish tank" and that was very not cool! Become better at job interviews: less fragile, more resilience, better skilledAnd remember: failing at job interviews is common, much more common than we think. Examples:Politicians, like Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders – build relationships and became even more famousAustralian Former Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull’s first attempt at Rhodes was a decline: see the reference note for the interesting article about it. Anna Wintour had a messy career progressionMeghan Markle spent years auditioning.Read the full Blog on the WebsiteJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe NowLear More About Renata's career coaching and courses Links mentioned in this episode:'Likeable rascal': Malcolm Turnbull's Oxford report cards uncovered from the archives About the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter

In my previous podcasts (# 1-4) we discussed the effect of stress and anxiety on how we perform at interviews, or anything we feel threaten with. I can be a tough conversation at work, a difficult negotiation, a presentation you have to give and so on. When we get re-wired to cope with stress, we can sometimes forget our manners. This can be a real problem when there is so much at stake during the recruitment process.Here is the thing: I’ve interviewed others as much as I was interviewed myself. And it has surprised me that many interviewees don’t follow up. At all. I am such a pro-active person that I cannot understand why one wouldn’t follow up after being called about a role, or better still, being on a physical face to face interview with a recruiter or employer. Even if you don’t do that, you have to at least, the very least, say thank you at some stage during the interview, but I would suggest a sandwich so add a thanks to your introduction and a thank you to your goodbyes. To get to the job interview is a major milestone for everyone involved. It’s like you have been chosen to be in the finals of a competition, in the Olympics, nominated for an important award. IF you don’t win the prize (ie get the job), it does not mean you are not a great candidate. It means you are so good that people spent valuable time researching you, comparing you against other candidates, and choosing you for them to spend time getting to know. Ok, so if you didn’t get the job you were not a perfect match for the role for one reason or another, but please leave this recruitment experience with the strength and positive reinforcement that you are on track. We will address taking you from good to great at another time, but you know what is not going to make you a perfect match? Not saying thank you! At least 3 times. Three times is my "go-to", folks. The 3rd time is you know when? When you Follow up!!! Right? So, you sandwich it at the interview, then you wait a few days - you should be the best judge of how long - let’s say 5 days, then you call them (my preference is always a call if you have the number) and thank them and ask for an update. Note here: they may have given you a time frame in which case you follow their guideline.Another thing to note: If you have an intermediate, a recruiter who is managing the selection process, call them immediately after the interview to give them an update. And thank them! And ask them to thank the panel on your behalf. Because he or she will have a meeting with that panel once all candidates are interviewed and the way he or she refers to each one of you will make an impact of the decision. She or he may say: "I touched based with all of them, Mary ask me to convey her thanks to you, she really enjoyed the conversation, I only reached John a few days later and he said all went well." What do you think that shows the selection panel? Who seems more interested in the role?Don’t over flatter people, no one wants that. In my view you should however acknowledge "the process". This is the process: you are a box of cereal, they are choosing a cereal, they think you might be it. So you are doing the marketing, and enchanting the customer is part of the game plan.So there you go: 3 thank yous, everyone. What do you think? Looking back have you done it? I sure learned along the way. I think really it was when I was on the other side of the table, selecting candidates, that I realized that there is an etiquette that I would expect candidates to follow.Also remember to adapt this to your situation, sector, or country, yes? This is very important. Although the message is universal, the culture and also how much you know/don’t know the people involved may influence how you decided to activate the ideas above.Below I've added links to research done by Amit Kumar and his colleagues at the University of Texas on the power of saying thank you, for both the giver and the recipient. He says: "What we saw is that it only takes a couple of minutes to compose letters like these, thoughtful ones and sincere ones," said Kumar. "It comes at little cost, but the benefits are larger than people expect." I hope you enjoy the extra reading.Read the full Blog on the WebsiteJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe NowLear More About Renata's career coaching and courses Links mentioned in this episode:UT News: Writing Thank You Notes Is More Powerful Than We RealizeWriting a 'thank you' note is more powerful than we realize, study shows About the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter

In this podcast, I do have to finish what I started in Part 1 (podcast #3), on how to develop your personal narrative, aka personal brand, although you will be able to follow just fine if you found me here, but it may be worth going back and listening to Part 1.In Part 1 (podcast #3) I mentioned how I became obsessed with Roland Barthes’ A Lover’s Discourse, and mentioned a paragraph that often comes to my mind when people ask me to write about myself, be it a bio, a LinkedIn profile, or resume. Barthes' horror about writing about oneself is my own, and I think it resonates with many people. Although I want my clients to learn to feel comfortable in situations where they need to speak and write about themselves, I never complain about helping them in reviewing and editing their resumes, because frankly time is of essence when we are job hunting and I sometimes things just need to be done quickly. And it is SO MUCH easier to write and critique someone else’s work, yes? So keep that in mind, if that’s how you are wired, and most people are, and find someone you trust and have great skills to help you. But you shouldn’t expect them to do all the work for you!! You HAVE to put in the effort, deep down you have all the answers, and you most certainly have all the knowledge about your experience, skills and strengths.So how can you write and speak comfortably about yourself in a way that enhances your personal brand? Well, the answer for me is also with Roland Barthes. You see, what Barthes is known for is his expertise in writing, expression and communication. He studied discourse and narrative, which is how we communicate in speech and writing. And he came up with five different ways in which stories are told. I will leave a link in the episode notes for you to read about the 5 different types, but I will focus on two in this discussion. First the one I think we use to diffuse the focus on ourselves, which ends up hurting our career progress, at least in my view. The other the one I ask my clients to move towards: it is comfortable, it is not bragging. I hope you will find it easy to transition to it, as I am confident it will have positive results in your career.So what is it that people do that is ineffective in building their personal brand? I believe people are most comfortable communicating in what Roland Barthes calls Hermeneutics. It’s a big fancy word. Don’t bother remembering it, but here is what it means: it’s the way in which we communicate by delivering breadcrumbs, clues, that we hope people will follow to make a decision about us. Examples in literature are the Bible – it’s all written in clues, same with most poetry. Most recently if you played the type of video game where you have to find clues that leads to other clues, it is all cryptique, difficult to understand. A work-related example: someone asks how your project is going, you answer: “well you know, it is what it is, the report made its way to the board, the presentation was done last Monday…” You may want people to read into it that: you are confident? That you do these things all the time? That the project is done? That the project is important because it was material enough to be presented at board level? And you may want the person to read into it that you are a good project manager, right? Wrong. No one has time for all that guess-work.And when you miss out on your promotion and think ” but I always delivered my projects on time, and did them excellently, the board was always happy with the results” it is all true, but it may not have been communicated well enough to the people that make decisions about promotions.There is another way of telling a story that is more compelling, without being a brag-fest. Barthes called it Semantics. It’s when words, visual cues, body language the entire scene carry meaning and add up to the story. And you don’t have to spell out what you mean, it oozes out of you and people just know. Think about the Bridget Jones' movie and the famous scene when Bridget and her boyfriend break up, she is on the couch in her pyjamas, drinking alone, listening to “All by myself”, and you just know she is heart-broken. She does not say “I’m sad, my boyfriend and I broke up”, but you know. You just know. Every bit of that scene adds to the message and amplifies it. It’s an iconic scene.How can you apply that to build your personal brand? Well think about the whole composition about what you want to portray professionally. Let’s say you want to be the best project manager there is. Someone asks you how your project is going, you lit up, you are energized, you answer mindfully, remember you don’t need to spell out every detail (remember Bridget didn’t tell the audience she was sad!), but it needs to be something important to that person. If they are from human resources, for example, uou say it has been a great opportunity for you to lead a team and you really enjoyed it, invite them into the experience by offering to present at their next team meeting. You can say something like “It’s been great working with this project team, we met all delivery KPIs...” And look, if things have not gone to plan, think "glass half full": what have been the challenges and THEN tell them about the solutions implemented or under consideration. Right?? People who get promoted are people who find solutions to problems, who manage expectations, who are excited to take on projects.I hope you can think of better examples for your field, send me a message if you want to share an idea about this.Before I end, I need to say a few words about getting results. So, here is the thing: personal narrative, or branding, is built over time. Think about the concept of natural selection: repeat a strategy consistently over time, look back at what you are doing and review, do a self-assessment of what has worked well, what hasn’t. McKinsey has put together a list of questions on how to trust your instincts, I have added to the resources below. But basically, it’s experimenting and self-assessing, adapting when you notice something is working well, and evolving in your own personal narrative so that you are in a winning situation. Does that make sense? I may need to do another blog on this, as I’m really obsessed with this idea of personal best, and how to find it within yourself. Trust your findings (or instincts) but doing this in like a scientific-ish way? I think we can say there’s a bit of science in my crazy method!Read the full Blog on the WebsiteJoin 5,000+ Readers of The Job Hunting Newsletter: Subscribe NowLear More About Renata's career coaching and courses References I have made in this episode:A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments, by Roland BarthesBridget Jones singing "All by myself" scene: McKinsey’s & Company paper: How to test your decision-making instinctsAbout the host, Renata BernardeHello, I'm Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I'm also an executive coach, job-hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach corporate, non-profit, and public professionals the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress. Watch the Episodes on YouTubeFollow Renata on Social Media:LinkedInInstagramFacebookX / Twitter