5 Steps to Attract Your Dream Job
In today's episode, I go through the 5 steps to help you attract your dream job. I know first hand how discouraging it can be to apply to all of these jobs and not hear anything back. This can lead to having limiting beliefs... you're not hearing anything back because you're not qualified. Well, this isn't always the case. Tune into today's episode to learn more!
"You are worth more than you give yourself credit for" - Danielle Cobo
Highlights
💫 2:52 Do you feel discouraged at not hearing back from employers?
💫 7:40 Is your resume even getting seen by the hiring manager?
💫 11:28 Taking inventory on what brings you the most joy
💫 14:22 How to push past your limiting beliefs
💫 19:41 Get clear on what kind of actions you need to be taking
💫 22:33 How to establish your personal brand
💫 28:51 Some tips on sharpening your interview skills
Let's Connect!
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A Glimpse of Reality in the Business World
I am going to share something with you. So this has been weighing on my heart. It's been weighing on my heart for a long time. A woman reached out to me last week. And she was feeling frustrated. And she's feeling discouraged. She had been in this job search process for the past month, and she was spending so much time applying for jobs online. And she either wasn't getting a response, it was like crickets out there. Or she was getting these automated generated emails from HR saying, you know, thank you so much for applying, but we've decided to choose another candidate. And in that process, I was watching, and I've seen these women countless times go through this process. And it's frustrating. You know, when you're not feeling valued in your job. And you're confused about like, what's the next step that you're going to take? And this job search process, it's overwhelming. Looking for a new job can sometimes be a job and itself. And let's face it, those job applications are time-consuming. You know, some of them will have these personality tests. They're very detailed and putting the information that you're putting on there. And it takes a lot of time to apply for a job. And so you can be taking 2030, even to an hour with some of these job applications. And then to not even either get a response or just get an automated email from HR is discouraging.
And so I really felt for this woman, because I hear this from people all the time. Every week, I get calls from women, and they're saying, I've been in this job search process for a while I'm not getting any results. I'm just so frustrated. I'm so discouraged. I just want clarity on where I can take this next step, and what can I be doing differently. And I get it. I mean, I absolutely get it. It's one of the reasons why I left corporate America and became a career coach. Because one of the things that I loved when I was a hiring manager was I loved finding that diamond in the rough, that woman or that man that had those intangible characteristics, not necessarily industry experience, because you can teach that. You can teach someone products, you can teach somebody the industry; what I can't teach somebody as a hiring manager is to wake up every single morning and have the motivation, to have the drive and the perseverance to get up that morning and say, I'm going to make it happen today. You can't teach that; it's either innate within somebody or not. And so I love finding those diamonds in a rough where they had that grit, they had that resiliency. If they don’t have industry experience, that's okay, I can teach them.
Now, of course, it's going to be a little bit more of a longer onboarding process. And I get that, I know what I'm getting into as a hiring manager. But I would take that drive over somebody that has industry experience but doesn't have the drive any time of the day. Now, if you can get somebody that's got both, that's great. You know, that's obviously beneficial. But I could tell you that in my seven years as a hiring manager, I only really hired one to two people with industry experience. So what I also hear is, is that these women are losing confidence in themselves as they're going through this job, this job search process right there. They're getting frustrated, they're getting discouraged. And I'm hearing as this starts to unfold, you start to hear these limiting beliefs.
I really want to share kind of some stats with you, we're gonna get in deep here, right? Job seekers, on average will spend 11 hours a week looking for a job. That's a lot of time. I don't know about you, but I'd much rather spend 11 hours a week, going for a walk. I’d rather go on date nights with my husband, I'd rather spend quality time with my kids. 11 hours is a lot, especially when you have a job. And the average amount of time it takes to find a job is 24 weeks. That's insane. 24 weeks to find a job. Now, here's something that is a kicker on this. And this is the reason why it takes so long, okay? And this is why it's so important that we go through these steps on how to successfully go through a career change. If a job is posted – because not all companies post their jobs – on average, each job posting receives over 250 resumes. That is a lot of flipping resumes. And so you think about it, these companies have this artificial intelligence filtering system. So every application that comes in online, goes through this artificial intelligence filtering system. And it basically is like, do you check the box? Right? Do you check all the qualifications that we're looking for in candidates? And I can share them with you from experience.
First up, I've never really hired somebody through an online application. Everybody that I hired throughout my seven years as a hiring manager came from a referral. And I know that that's to be true with most of my peers that are hiring managers as well. The second thing is that there are multiple people that came through that applied online. But I never saw the resume of the hiring manager, because they never passed that artificial intelligence filtering system. And so I did find out about them, and I did hire several people, because a friend referred me and I said, Okay, well, even though they don't have that three to five years of outside business sales experience, even though they don't have this, they do meet these qualifications. And when I look at what are the needs of my territory, or my team, or if can I spend eight hours in the car with somebody – those are kind of the three T's I look for in hiring – and they met those. And so, why this episode is so important to listen to is because it's gonna be extremely valuable.
I've spent 15 years in medical sales. I started my career in Dental. I did five and a half years in Dental. I had an amazing career in dental, it was so much fun. While I was in dental, I earned four back-to-back President's trips. I say earn because you don't win them, you earn them. I got accustomed to enjoying lavish vacations that were paid for, which is different now. Now, being an entrepreneur, I'm like, oh, gosh, I gotta pay for vacations. A little different. Then from there, I was recruited into medical esthetics. And from there, I worked for one company during capital equipment. And then from there, I was hired by a Fortune 500 company. And I was hired with no direct management experience for a manager role. So it's possible to not meet qualifications and still accelerate your career.
While I was a manager for a Fortune 500 company, I recruited top talent and conducted over 1000 interviews. I led a team to number one, and I share this with you because it really just kind of provides some perspective of why I do what I do and why I'm so passionate about supporting women and achieving their career goals. I have a lot of clients I'm working with right now where they're like, you know, I want to know what it feels like to be up on stage, I want to max out my compensation plan. Claire, right now who's gonna be buying a second house, wants a lavish beach home. And so I have clients that I get to support that want to have the same successes. We're really going to hone in on how you can successfully set yourself up for a career change. And here's what I'm gonna say, and I'm gonna say something that's probably shocking. Okay, stop wasting time applying to jobs online. Let me say it again, stop wasting time applying to jobs online, your dream job is a lot easier to get with the right strategy, and the right support.
Five Steps to Successfully Go Through a Career Change
So I'm going to dig in deep here. And we're gonna go into a little bit more detail as to what the steps are for a successful career change. And this is really going to kind of create this framework and this guide to support you through this process.
The first step is to take inventory.
What brings you joy? What do you love about your job? What do you not love about your job? So for example, when I was in corporate America, and I was COVID hit, and it really just kind of gave me an opportunity to take a step back and go, Hmm, what do I love about my job, what do I not love? So I loved partnering with people on my team, and we would create these career plans. And we would say, okay, where do you want to be for the next year? Where do you want to be for five years? And we would work together on them. And I would see so many people from my team get promoted, or they would go to lateral moves, different divisions they wanted. I loved that part of my job. I loved seeing people on my team achieve President's Club. I love seeing people on my team, and we would create these SMART goals and I'd say, okay, you know, when you achieve this particular goal, how are you going to reward yourself? And then when they achieve that goal, they'd send me a picture of what they just spoiled themselves with. I always say if you have a stretch goal, also write down what you're going to reward yourself with. So I've had some you know, every time I've put on my Christian Louboutin shoes, I'm like, oh, yeah, that's when I earned President's Club. You know, it's that reminder, right? So write down, what brings you joy. What do you love about your job? And then what do you not love about your job?
One of the things that were always frustrating to me is that I never liked getting on top of my team members for doing their expense reports, you know, having to call somebody and say, Hey, dude, you know, you didn't get your expense report on time. That was not a fun call to make. I also love working with people that are really accountable and take action on whatever they're doing when it comes to sales or when it comes to their career development. And so that's what I get to do every day, right? I get to partner with people that believe in investing in themselves and that are saying, Yep, I want to get there. I know what it takes to get there. And I want to link arms with somebody to do it. And so write down. You know, that was my experience when I was creating my dream job. Write down what brings you joy. Write down what you don't love about your job. Look at ways that you can create your dream job because it's out there. Maybe it's switching industries, maybe it's switching roles, maybe it's switching, just job descriptions, maybe it's different products, whatever it is, what brings you joy.
The next step is limiting beliefs.
And you've probably heard me talk about this before, and I'm gonna go into it again. Limiting beliefs are a state of mind. It's the negative things we tell ourselves. It's what you think and feel about yourself. And as I see women go through the job search process – or whether they're saying I want to step into a leadership role, but maybe they don't have leadership experience – what happens is I often hear them say, I don't have industry experience. I'm too old. No one will hire me, everybody's hiring people that are younger and they're paying less money. Know that on the same day, I hear other women come to me and say I'm too young. I don't have industry experience or I don't have experience. I don't have, you know, the President's clubs, all the other candidates do. I hear these all the time. And here's the thing, you are worth more than you give yourself credit for. And if you truly believe these things, these negative thoughts, they are going to show up either consciously or subconsciously, every time you apply for a job. And sometimes I'll be in an interview and I'll hear somebody say, you know, I know I don't have any medical aesthetic experience, but I do have this. You're already putting that negative thought out there.
And so if you have these limiting beliefs, what I want you to do is, here are two of my favorite exercises. The first one is to write them down on a piece of paper, all the negative things that you've thought about yourself. Take 20 minutes, sit in a quiet room, and challenge yourself to write down 20 things you've told negatively about yourself. And it can even be something like, you know, I yell at my kids too much, or I'm not in the place that I should be in my career; whatever it is, write them down. Then after that exercise, tear it up, tear it all the way up and throw it away. And then I want you to write down five reasons why you are right for a career change. You add expertise in your field, you are knowledgeable, and you bring value to everything that you do, you are a quick learner, you are driven, you are motivated, and you bring positive energy and attitude; whatever it is, write them down. Okay, another exercise that you could do that can be really fun is you take a white plate. You can get one at Dollar Tree and with a black sharpie, you start in the middle of the plate, and you write all the negative things that you've written about yourself. Write it all the way to the end of the plate, and just fill up that complete plate with all these negative things that you've said about yourself. And then you take it in a very safe spot, because you're in a safe spot, throw it on the ground, break it apart, crush it. eliminate those limiting beliefs.
Because again, once you believe in yourself, others will believe in you as well. So what if you could change the way you feel about yourself for good? What if you could do that? How would you feel? What if you could change that thought process from frustrated or discouraged and undervalued, to a place of confidence and power and motivation?
The next step is to develop a career change strategy.
So oftentimes I hear clients say, I really want to gain clarity on what my next steps are and the clarity on what actions will most effectively get you to your goal. So how would you feel if you had a guide, helping you take the steps that work and avoid the steps that don't? So when I say this in a career change strategy, oftentimes women will be applying to jobs online and they're getting no results. They've been applying to jobs or getting those generated emails. They're getting weeded out through the artificial intelligence systems, or they're going on interviews, but they're not getting the offer letter. Doing the same thing over and over again is a definition of insanity. And so what are you going to do differently? The job market has changed over the years. What we used to do in applying for jobs years ago is totally different than what we do today. And so when I'm working with my clients, we first step down; we first identify, again, what are those limiting beliefs, we eliminate those limiting beliefs, we crush them, we get them out of their minds, so that we're walking into our career change. And we're going into this strategy with clarity, confidence, and motivation. And it also affects every other area of your life, right? Because if you are confident in yourself, that's going to be a positive influence when it comes to your career, your relationships, and how you show up in the world. And so once I work with my clients on eliminating the limiting beliefs, then we really develop a career change strategy. And we say, okay, what brings you the most joy? If we were to create a job, what would that look like? What are the top companies that you want to work for? And we put together a list. And I say, Okay, those are the top companies that you want to work for. Then we identify, you know, who are those people that are the decision-makers in that process. Who are the recruiters that are recruiting for those particular jobs? How can we expand your network with those companies, what relationships may I have, that I can support you with? And we really put together a strategy, so that you're not wasting time applying to jobs online, what you're doing is you're actually taking a different approach, we're attracting the jobs that you want, you're leveraging your network, you're building intentional connections with people, you're developing your brand. So we take a very strategic approach when it comes to your career change strategy.
The next step is developing your brand.
So once you're very clear on what your career goals are, once you know exactly what you're going to do, then I partner with my clients on developing their brand. So I'm going to kind of eliminate the myth here. Your resume is no longer your first impression. I'm gonna say that, again, your resume is no longer your first impression. Your LinkedIn profile and your reputation are now your first impression. 87% of recruiters recruit talent from LinkedIn. And so one of the things I invite you to do is called the social selling index. What your social selling index does is measure what your brand presence is on LinkedIn. It looks at, are you building connections with people in your industry? Are you establishing relationships? Are you developing your brand?
And the way that you can develop your brand is really from five different areas.
The first one is filling out a comprehensive LinkedIn profile. Have the right picture, make sure it's a professional picture, and have the right headline. LinkedIn automatically defaults to your most recent position, but you want your headline to reflect words that are going to optimize the search engine optimization when recruiters are recruiting talent. You want your cover photo to stand out. In your “about section”, you can have up to 303,000 characters. And so filling that out with intention is an overview of your entire career. But on average, recruiters only spend about seven seconds looking at your LinkedIn profile. So you want to have enough content where you're optimizing the search engine optimization with keywords. And at the same time you want it to look aesthetically pleasing, so that recruiters can easily scan through your LinkedIn profile and say, okay, yeah, this is somebody I want to reach out to. Having all your jobs filled out, the companies you've worked for, what was the description of that particular roles and responsibilities? What were your accomplishments?
The other one is ‘skills’. So on LinkedIn, you can have up to 50 skills that you're putting there as your top skills. Are they aligned with the positions that you're applying to? Because there's a very strategic approach on that, actually, when you go to apply for jobs, a lot of times if you have LinkedIn premium, it will say what are the top 10 skills of candidates are applying for or for the top 10 skills that they're looking for. For candidates, you want your 50 skills to align with the jobs that you're applying for.
Another area is recommendations. How many recommendations do you have on your profile? I invite you to go to my LinkedIn profile, Danielle Cobo. You can see the comprehensiveness of my profile, you can see the LinkedIn learning courses that I've taken and the recommendations that are on there. I have upwards of like 30 recommendations from people, from clients, from previous co-workers. And so developing your brand is important, because your brand is your first impression. In addition, I'm going to really invite you to step outside your comfort zone. Why is it that we are so comfortable posting on Facebook and so comfortable posting on Instagram, yet there's this fear with posting on LinkedIn? LinkedIn is an opportunity for you to amplify your leadership voice, share your knowledge, motivate, to bring positivity. When I'm working with my clients, we work on strategies to develop their brand, so that when they do connect with recruiters so that when they do connect with hiring managers, we're creating top-of-mind awareness through the posts that they're creating the posts that they're posting. So for example, I have 130 quotes that my clients can use to start posting online. And then maybe write like, you know, you have this quote that you love and talk about why that really resonates with you. Why does it stand out? Why do you love that quote? Start to amplify your leadership voice. Because this is part of your brand, you want to have a comprehensive profile, a LinkedIn profile, with keywords that are going to support search engine optimization. You want your LinkedIn top skills to align with the companies that you're applying to. You want to connect with recruiters at a network of 160 recruiters. You want to connect with recruiters and let them support you in finding a job. They get paid 1000s of dollars to place a candidate, they're motivated to align top talent with jobs. So make those intentional connections. And then again, amplify our leadership voice and be active on LinkedIn. I love LinkedIn because every time I go on LinkedIn, I learn something. There's motivation in it, you get to be inspired by people. I have a Facebook, I have an Instagram, but I love spending time on LinkedIn because you get to connect with people all over the world that are just like-minded, they're professionals, and they have a positive vulnerability to people. They share their challenges and they share their triumphs and how they got through their challenges. You can learn so much from people. So develop your brand.
The next step, the final step is to sharpen your interview skills.
Even even though hiring managers know how to interview, I have a lot of clients that are hiring managers, that still we do mock interviews. And so when I work with my clients, I will record the interview. So I'll provide them with the questions ahead of time and then they get to we get to work on creating scenarios that are going to align with that STAR format, the Situation-Task-Action-Result. And then from there, we record a mock interview. And we'll practice and when we go through this mock interview, we'll look at ways that we could be concise, be clear, be specific on what that person steps they've taken to overcome challenges to create results, what's led to their success. So then they are walking into that interview with confidence. They're walking in going, I'm going to nail this interview, I'm going to get my dream job. Because they have that mindset that we've already eliminated the limiting beliefs. We've developed their brand. We've created a network of people that are going to support them and get a job Now it comes to the interview process and they're gonna nail it. Because they've practiced it. They've had somebody to link arms with them and support them through that interview process. How awesome would that feel if your success rate changed? If you had somebody to support you through that interview process? How awesome would it be if you went into the interview, and when the hiring manager says, Do you have any questions for me? You came up with five compelling questions that the hiring manager has never heard before. And that's the lasting impression that you get to leave with that person or that hiring manager. You had five questions where they walked away going, Wow, I've never been asked that before. That's such a great question. How would that feel if you took these steps, you can accelerate the way and how you're changing your career path, you can be stepping into that dream job.
These are the steps that I work with my clients to support through their job search. And my philosophy is, let's not search for jobs, stop wasting time applying for jobs, and attract your dream job. Attract it. I haven't had some major career changes. I was recruited. I had no intention of leaving dental sales, I had just earned four back-to-back President's trips. I was making six figures since I was 23 years old. You know, and I was receiving lavish vacations, I had no intentions of leaving. But a recruiter called me. And I went on an interview. And in fact, the funny story is I went on this interview, and I turned the job down. And then something happened at work where they had changed the comp plans. And I was like, Okay, wait, this is happening at the same time. So I went back to the hiring manager, and I reapplied and got hired. I believe everyone can have the same success, not only the success that I've had but the success that my clients have. I've had so many clients that have spent months looking for a job. And then when we work together, they have a job within a month and they're making more money. Because I support them in negotiating their salary as well. How would it feel if you went from frustrated, discouraged, undervalued, underappreciated, to now you're walking into that interview, and you're confident, you're motivated, you're empowered, and you're getting your dream job?
