Category Archives: Unemployment

Five Ways to Hold the Right Kind of Attention

No matter how talented or accomplished you are, you cannot always count on attracting and retaining the attention of others. Too many options compete for everyone’s attention, and they multiply with each passing day. It will be more and more challenging to rise above the noise and hold onto the attention of those who matter to you.

Attention provides leverage. The more people we can attract and motivate to join us on a challenging quest or initiative, the more impact we are likely to achieve. So, what are effective ways to attract and retain the kind of attention that helps us to address the challenges we face? Here are five steps that build on each other.

1. Embrace mystery – Frame really gnarly problems that are relevant to you and need to be solved. Help people to understand why these are such significant problems and why so many people have stumbled in trying to solve these problems. It probably will not attract the people looking for easy answers or silver bullets, but it can attract those who are naturally curious and looking for stimulating challenges.

2. Focus inquiry – Don’t try to suggest answers. Frame interesting questions instead. Help people gain a foothold by posing questions that intrigue and motivate them to start investigating the mysteries that lie ahead.

3. Excite the imagination – Provide some “what if?” scenarios to illustrate the possibilities that await those who manage to come up with creative answers. Paint the pictures but make it clear these are only pictures. Stimulate people to pursue the questions with a lot of energy and creativity.

4. Limit availability – Lots of people will seek you out if you are successful in exciting the imagination. If you try to connect with everyone, the conversations can spread you way too thin. Be more selective in your availability – you will often provide even greater incentive to tackle the problems, rather than simply engaging in conversations.

5. Be authentic – If you try to game this, you will be found out and the backlash will be significant. So, here is the catch—if you are not genuinely engaged in addressing these problems yourself, you will not be able to sustain the attention and effort of others to come up with creative solutions. On the other hand, if you are on a quest yourself, leading by example, you could have a contagious effect and the encounters you have can help both sides to learn from each other.

Do these techniques actually work? Well, think of how Martin Luther King excited and mobilized a broad group of people to tackle some very challenging social problems. On a completely different level, one leading tech company in Silicon Valley regularly attracts the attention of the venture capital community by sharing its most difficult technology problems and suggesting that they would buy the start-ups that come up with creative solutions to these problems. Or look at the way professional astronomers have mobilized a global network of passionately engaged amateurs to learn more about the vast universe beyond this one planet.

This kind of attention is priceless and powerful. We will all need to find ways to generate it and harness it. This is not just an opportunity, but increasingly an imperative. We are all experiencing increasing economic pressure as individuals and institutions. In this kind of environment, we not only need leverage, we also need to more rapidly improve our performance. We all get better faster by working with others. To do this, we first need to attract the attention of others. If we fail to attract that attention, we will not get better faster in an increasingly competitive global economy, and we could be marginalized. That is why attention is becoming more valuable at the same time that it is becoming scarcer.

 ~John Hagel and John Seely Brown / Harvard Business Review

Job Hunting Strategies to Get You Noticed

Feb 14th, 2011

So now you’ve got to look for a job. Maybe you’re experienced at this, maybe not. Maybe you’re a hot commodity, maybe not so much. Reportedly there are 5 applicants for every position, so for sure there’s more competition. I can say with certainty that no matter how great you are, among those five is at least one person smarter, younger, out of work a shorter time or with better credentials than you.

So, is it hopeless? Of course not. 9.5% unemployment, means 90.5% employment. You just have to be smarter and faster and yes, maybe settle for less pay, shorter hours, and/or fewer (or no) benefits. But if you need to have a job as soon as possible, you’ve got to start right away as the longer you’re out of work, the less desirable you are to a prospective employer.

Preparing Yourself

Update and target your resume for a few companies that you want to work for even if there are no job openings at the moment. Concentrate on those in growth industries, energy, health, security, for example. If you go after what you want, you’ll have better focus and determination.

When applying for positions, make sure you follow the instructions given. If they say, “no calls,” then don’t call. This seems obvious, but it’s easy to forget when you have a pattern going and then someone asks you do something in a way to which you’re unaccustomed.

Put your resume online. It makes it easier to find. There are many free places to do that. One of the easiest and best ways (also free) is to use blogging software, like WordPress or Google’s Blogpost. All you need is one page for this unless you want to elaborate in which case you can do that also. Just use your name, i.e., yourname.wordpress.com and you don’t need a domain name and you can reuse it for something else when you’re done having your resume online. Perhaps a blog about your job hunt?

Updating also includes updating your computer skills if they are rusty or non-existent. There are many courses given at the community level to help you in this area. Also, get a professional email address if yours is more like daffyducklovesdaisy @ whatever.com.

Learn how to speak about yourself effectively. Find some sample interview questions and write down your answers and do it until you feel confident speaking them aloud. No one employer will ask all of them, but if you prepare for any contingency, the confidence you’ll get will help you be a powerful and interesting interviewee. No matter what, it’s a good skill to have in life.

Doing Your Research

Do your homework about the organization and speak to your knowledge in an appropriate way in your cover letter. Have a list of questions prepared should you get to speak with someone. (Not “how much does the job pay?”, but more like “how did your company (or division) overcome challenges to growth last year?”)

Get the names of key people in the organization. Call the companies, get correct spellings and titles. Mail (by US Postal Mail) your personalized cover letter and updated resume. Speak to the specific skills and qualifications they are looking for. It’s “what can I do for X Company” approach, not the other way around. Try saying in your cover letter you’ll call on a certain day and time to be available for any questions they may have and follow through on that. If this sounds a little gimmicky to you, remember those 4 other smarter, younger, more qualified people. If you get to speak to someone and it’s a “no” or “I haven’t looked at it yet”, find out what you need to do to get noticed.

Getting and Staying in Touch

If there are no openings now, write a letter to the person who has the job you would want in that company, and request a short (telephone or email) informational interview about three things they would recommend you do to land a job in their field. Be creative and appropriately flattering to their position and knowledge in the field. Who could resist this? The possibility of landing such interviews and the information and networking potential here is worth any amount of resistance you might have to the idea. It works.

When you land an informational interview, make sure the last question you ask is, “May I stay in touch with you?” Keeping yourself in front of key people can never hurt. If they say “no,” thank them and move on.

No matter what the situation that got you a face to face with someone, follow up with a thank you note. Thank them for their time and ask (if it wasn’t covered in the meeting) what weaknesses you should address based upon their time with you. Another opportunity a) to learn and b) to keep in touch. An online search will yield tons of examples of post-interview or post-informational interview thank you notes.

Reinventing Yourself

Be open to possibilities you might not have originally considered like:

Freelancing or consulting. Many companies are farming out work to save on benefits. If you need a paycheck more than health insurance or a pension, this might tide you over or even create a new focus for you in the form of a new business.

Temporary work. Many a temporary position led to a full-time job. At the least it can help pay the bills until one comes along, possibly broaden your experience or keep your skills sharp and fill in resume gaps.

Consider job hunting your new job, although keeping busy at other endeavors can help fill in the gaps in your resume should you not have any temporary or part-time work to put on it. If you already were volunteering, volunteer more, or find something to do that shows you were trying to enrich your employment potential.

Janice Salomon is the creator of http://theamericanidle.com, a comprehensive blog/website offering the latest resources, tools, tips, news and information for anyone affected by job loss or change. From what to do if you get laid off to negotiating the unemployment insurance maze through job hunting or career change, we’ll help you with your journey. Come visit today and tell us your story about you survived and conquered being The American Idle.

~employmentdigest.net@bill

You won’t hear “you’re hired” if you spell it “your hired”

Each spring, schools from around the U.S. send their best spellers to Washington, D.C., for the Scripps National Spelling Bee. At the Bee, a moderator tosses out words that most of us have never heard before, and these prodigious pupils rattle off a stream of letters as if stromuhr and Laodicean are everyday words. If you saw the film Spellbound, you understand how gripping this display of linguistic skills can be. You’ve got silent Ks and hidden Ms and tricky origins that complicate words. It’s so exciting even ESPN broadcasts the Bee.

We watch in awe as students a fraction of our age spell words we never heard before and probably will never hear again. Yet, judging by the amount of typos I see on a daily basis (including the ones I write), many of us are having trouble with some basic words. Ridiculous doesn’t have an e; too is not the same as to. These misspellings don’t mean we’re not as smart as the youngsters at the Spelling Bee, it just means we’re not as focused on accuracy as they are. Yet, we should be because spelling matters, especially when you’re looking for a job.

Rather than let spelling be something you don’t think about much or a terrifying monster that looms over every cover letter you type, we think you can easily handle it. Here are a few tips for impeccable spelling and why it matters on a job hunt:

1. Check (and check again) the names of companies, references, interviewers
Names are some of the easiest words to spell incorrectly because there are no definitive ways to spell them. Thom or Tom? Stacy or Stacey or Staci?  Don’t ever assume you aced the spelling the first time, especially when typing out the name of the hiring manager of people you interviewed with. Check e-mails, business cards and online profiles to ensure you’re spelling their names correctly. Failing to do so will be a glaring error that suggests you have no attention to detail.

Above all else, spell your name correctly. You laugh now, but believe me, it happens.

2. Don’t rely on spell check
Listen, spell check is an amazing invention that has made life easier for everybody. However, it’s not perfect and shouldn’t be used as the authority on all things spelling. For example, a good spell check might catch some grammatical mistakes, but it won’t always know that you meant “through” instead of “threw.” Both words are spelled correctly but they’re not interchangeable in the least. If your résumé boasts of your “righting” abilities, don’t expect a call from the hiring manager.

3. Avoid slang
Thank you, Internet, for making us forget that “want to” is actually the grammatically proper way to say “wanna.” The same goes for “gonna,” “whatcha,” and “srsly.” We’re a world that loves abbreviations, especially in e-mails and texts, but they don’t translate well to the professional world. Using abbreviated netspeak in an informal e-mail is fine, but when you’re trying to impress a potential boss stick to standard English. Employers want to know that you’ll be a strong representative of their brand, so prove you know the difference between “b4” and “before.” For realz.

4. Have a proofreader
The hardest part about making sure you don’t misspell something is knowing what you might be misspelling. Not everybody’s blessed with the spelling gene, and it never occurs to some people that supposedly and supposably are not interchangeable words, and some people won’t even acknowledge “supposably” as a valid word. The easiest way to solve this conundrum is to let someone else look over your résumé and cover letter because they might catch a mistake you didn’t even know you were making. Have your significant other, friend, roommate or even your (hopefully smart) child take a look before you hit send.

5. Stick with the language you’re comfortable with
One surefire way to ruin your writing is to use words that you think make you sound smarter. In reality, they don’t. Not only will your syntax will sound weird because it’s not natural to you, but you are also going to be using words you don’t know how to spell. Suddenly your attempt to sound sophisticated has turned your correspondence into a word jumble that looks like an eye chart. Save yourself the headache and write in a way that makes you feel comfortable while still using proper, traditional grammar.

Another reason you want to display your most honest writing is so that you’ve set an accurate expectation for your writing. Pretending you’re someone else in order to get the job, only to be unable to perform at that level on a daily basis, is not going to be fun for you or your boss. Be honest in your writing style.

Not everyone is a gifted speller, and it’s a skill that’s more important in some occupations than in others. However, in today’s world where many of us spend our days sending e-mails and writing reports, knowing how to communicate with error-free writing is a skill you can’t afford to lack.

How has spelling played a role in your career? Does it not matter or is it one of your most used skills? Have you had a boss who relied on you because he or she couldn’t spell in the least? Let us know.

~Anthony Balderrama

Why Aren’t Employers Calling Me Back?

You write a killer cover letter, tailor your résumé to highlight skills described in the job ad and double-check your application before sending to make sure it includes everything the company requested. All that is left to do is sit back and wait for the employer to contact you.

But as days turn into weeks without hearing a peep, questions arise. Did they get my material? Has the job been filled? Did they just not like me?

Here, experts weigh in on what might be behind that silence — and what you can do to get the conversation rolling.

The reality of the situation

Companies truly are glad that people want to work for them. Unfortunately, many places simply do not have the manpower to offer individualized responses.

“Given the volume of applications an HR office receives, you should not expect a response beyond an automated ‘we received your application’ unless they are interested in interviewing you,” says Pennell Locey, senior consultant for Keystone Associates, a career management consulting firm headquartered in Boston. “In the event there was no auto-response, you can send a note via snail mail to someone in HR along with your résumé to ensure that they received it.”

But is there anything one can do besides play the “wait and see” game?

“After submitting a job application, it is wise to follow up with a telephone call to the appropriate contact within a week to 10 days,” says Mary Massad, vice president of talent acquisition and retention strategies for Administaff, a professional employer organization headquartered in Houston, Texas. “Some individuals might feel that following up may be perceived as being pushy, but this actually demonstrates to the employer that you are conscientious, organized and professional.”

When following up, Massad recommends asking if the application was received and if any additional information is needed. (Of course, if they didn’t get your application, offer to send it again.) “It also is important to restate your interest in the job, but don’t be overzealous.”

Locey suggests trying to stand out from the masses by seeing if you can find a contact at the company who can single you out to the hiring manager and speak to your strengths. “That can be beneficial to you (you may get an interview) and to the company (finding a candidate who someone is willing to vouch for).”

The waiting game, part 2

Job seekers who are fortunate enough to generate employer interest may feel like their days of waiting are over. In truth, however, an interview (or even two or three) may simply usher in a new era of frustrating silence.

According to Locey, if you have interviewed with a company and not heard back within two weeks, chances are that one or more of the following is happening:

They are talking to several candidates and it is taking awhile to get them all scheduled.

They can’t get the interviewers together to discuss the candidates post interview.

You are not the first choice but are strong enough that they do not want to say “no” yet.

Having talked to several qualified people has changed the hiring manager’s view of the job and he is working behind the scenes to upgrade or shift the role.

“The best thing you can do is try to set some expectations during the interview about what the company’s process is,” says Tracy A. Cashman, partner and general manager of the information technology division of Winter, Wyman — one of the largest staffing firms in the Northeast. “Ask when you can expect to hear if you are selected for the next round. Take that date, add a few days to it and then don’t be afraid to politely follow up.”

Sending a thank-you note immediately after the interview can help set the stage for further contact. Follow-up strategies later in the game may include:

Sending an e-mail that reiterates interest and offers to provide any additional information.

Finding an article on a topic discussed during the interview and sending it with a note as a way to show you are thinking about the company.

Phoning the person who interviewed you to thank her again, to ask if there is an update on the position and to share anything you might have forgotten in the initial interview.

While employer silence is anything but golden to an eager applicant, stay positive by remembering that the day will come when the quietness will be broken by the sweet sound of a job offer!

Beth Braccio Hering researches and writes about job search strategy, career management, hiring trends and workplace issues for CareerBuilder.com. Follow @CareerBuilder on Twitter

20,500 jobs lost across Georgia, NOT WITHOUT YOUR SIGNATURE!

Over the next 11 days, the President will ask Republicans to make a choice:

Set aside party politics — or risk 20,500 Georgia jobs.

Because if a budget agreement isn’t reached by next Friday, the government will shut down — and the President has made clear that the current plan as proposed by congressional Republicans is not acceptable.

The final budget cannot be dictated solely by one party or a narrow set of interests — it will affect every American.

That’s why true leadership means making tough choices and putting people before party or ideology.

And that’s the kind of leadership we need over the next 11 days.

The President is calling on both sides to come together, but it’s up to us to show Republicans in Congress that we have his back. As negotiations heat up, we all need to speak out to make sure they get the message.

Stand with the President by signing your name today — and OFA volunteers will deliver your signatures to House Republicans and make sure your voice is not ignored.

Congressional Republicans have less than two weeks to come to the table and help craft a responsible funding plan that won’t derail economic growth.

President Obama has laid out a plan that reduces the deficit by a trillion dollars. He’s committed to finding common ground to cut wasteful spending, but he won’t go along with a plan that eliminates nearly a million jobs, guts investments in education and innovation, and ends protections that keep our food safe and air and water clean.

We simply cannot afford any proposal that weakens our country or sets us back.

The Republican budget:

– Prevents the government from implementing health reform, rolling back critical patient protections and cost savings, and returning control of your health care to insurance companies;

– Slashes funding for preventive health services that millions of American women depend on through Planned Parenthood — and eliminates 2,200 community health center jobs across Georgia;

– Guts investments in education and infrastructure that will grow the economy and create jobs;

– Cuts Georgia homeland security investments by $2.3 million, hindering local law enforcement’s ability to keep our families safe; and

– Drops 5,693 Georgia children from Head Start, an early-education program proven to help students thrive later on.

And it could mean nearly 1 million American jobs lost — all without making a dent in the deficit.

With a shutdown looming, we’re approaching a critical moment that could quickly become a crisis.

Organizing for America will make sure Americans know that millions of people — from every district in this country — will be affected by these cuts.

And we’ll show lawmakers that we’re paying attention, we’re organizing, and we’re not going to stop. That we refuse to accept partisan games that could cost hundreds of thousands of jobs — or a government shutdown that puts our economy at risk.

Please add your name in support of the President today:

http://my.barackobama.com/Stand-Up-For-Jobs

WIA FUNDING WILL BE CUT—WILL YOU HELP US?

***WIA FUNDING will be cut-we need your help!!***
The skinny on the funding-Underemployed and Unemployed constituents that are receiving TANF, Food stamps, Unemployed benefits, are eligible to go to school and receive the funding. It pays for their training. Please click the links and ask to NOT CUT the funding. You need to submit to both links!
WIA info link.
Thank you,
On-Site Computer Training Staff

Worried because You’re Not a College Graduate?

By: Mauri Schwartz

When nearly all job postings are asking for a college degree, and even some for a master’s, what do you do if you don’t have one? The one thing that you do NOT want to do is to lie on your resume, about a degree or anything else. If you do, you will ultimately pay dearly for your dishonesty. But there is a way to lower your frustration level.

Believe it or not, there are a lot of positions that don’t require a college degree. Here’s how you can find them. In previous columns I’ve mentioned that my favorite job search site is Indeed.com. It isn’t an employment bulletin board, but rather a search engine for jobs that allows seekers to find positions posted on thousands of company career sites and job boards.

The simple search on Indeed.com’s home page lets you enter a job title or keywords plus a geographic location. However, using its advanced job search feature you can refine your search in several ways. Look for the phrase “Advanced Job search” in tiny letters just below the “Find Jobs” button on the right side of the screen and click on this link. On the subsequent page you’ll be given an array of options, such as job type – full-time, part-time, temporary; commute tolerance – distance between home and employer; salary; and age – how long the job has been posted (not your age!).

There are also options that allow you to get specific with your keyword search. You can specify an exact phrase, or look for certain words in the title. The choice you want is the one that allows you to exclude job descriptions with stated words in them. It’s called,”With none of these words.” Type these words into that box: degree ba bs. When you complete the search, the result will be a list of positions that don’t have these words in their requirements section. A few jobs may slip in for which the employer requires a degree but failed to include it in the job description. In general, however, you should be able to apply for these positions without getting screened out for not having a degree, as long as you’re otherwise qualified.

About the Author
Mauri Schwartz, President of Career Insiders, is a leading figure in the San Francisco Bay Area career management community. Career Insiders consults with companies and nonprofit organizations in the form of outplacement and hiring assistance, as well as with individual job seekers. In addition to her outstanding success rate in helping clients achieve their career goals, Mauri is a frequent speaker at conferences, job fairs, and career panels. She serves as Adjunct Advisor of Career Services at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. Mauri’s motivational style uses techniques that combine old fashioned interpersonal relationship building skills with the latest technological tools.

 

Do You Know Anyone Unemployed?

CAREER FAIR
Date 02/03/2011
Time 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM
Location JOHNSON FERRY BAPTIST CHURCH
Address 955 JOHNSON FERRY ROAD
MARIETTA
Information Maximize your Career Fair Experience. Participate in job procurement workshops and speak face-to-face with hiring employers at the Johnson Ferry Road Baptist Church on Thursday, February 3, 2011. Bring plenty of resumes and dress professionally. There is no fee for participating or parking.
Employers Scheduled to Attend
ACCUCLEAN
AFLAC
ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY
AMERICAN GENERAL LIFE
ATLANTA MARKETING CONSULTANTS
CLEAN CORP
COBB COUNTY DEP. PUBLIC SAFETY
COBB COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE
CORE-MARK INTERNATIONAL
DESTINY CHILDCARE
DEVRY UNIVERSITY
EDWARD JONES INVESTMENTS
EI OF GEORGIA
GA ARMY NATIONAL GUARD
KELLY SERVICES
LABOR FINDERS
METRO AMERICA SAFE DRIVERS
MSC MANUFACTURING
N. GEORGIA STAFFING
PAWNMART
SPARTAN STAFFING
TRANSFORM BY VI WITH RACHEL
UNITED ACCEPTANCE
US ARMY
US NAVY
WESTIN PLAZA
1-800-DRYCLEAN OF VININGS

 

Which Employment Agency Worked For You?

Kelly Services provides staffing services and employment opportunities globally.
Careers – Contact Us – Equal Employment Opportunity – About Us
www.kellyservices.com

AppleOne employment agency | find better job | advance career …
Internet employment resource center representing direct hire and temporary employees.
www.appleone.com

The placement service for accountants, bookkeepers and administrative assistants in the Atlanta, Georgia area.
employmentatlanta.com

Labor Staffing, Inc.
www.laborstaffing.com

Spherion – Place page
www.spherion.com – 120 Penney Road, Forest Park – (404) 362-6685

Labor Finders – 1 review – Place page
www.laborfinders.com – 4422 Jonesboro Road, Forest Park – (404) 361-7733

Ultimate Staffing – Place page
www.ultimatestaffing.com – 16 Forest Parkway, Forest Park – (404) 361-1136

Select Staffing – Place page
www.selectstaffing.com – 526 Forest Parkway, Forest Park – (404) 362-8551

Onin Staffing – Place page
www.oninstaffing.com – 526 Forest Pkwy # E, Forest Park – (404) 366-8611

Staffmark Transportation – Place page
www.staffmark.com – 5300 Frontage Rd # A, Forest Park – (404) 366-3243

Manpower Inc. – Employment services in the workforce solutions; creating and delivering services that enable its clients to win in the changing .
www.manpower.com/

Headhunters Directory.com – employment agencies, headhunters …
Headhunters Directory Dot Com – is an online directory of employment agencies , headhunters, executive recruiters, staffing and personnel agencies, …
www.headhuntersdirectory.com/

Randstad staffing and recruiting – Randstad US
Randstad is a leading employment services provider with hundreds of client-dedicated locations nationwide to serve your recruiting needs.
www.us.randstad.com/

Adecco – Temp Jobs | Full-time Jobs| Employment Agency | Temp …
Adecco USA offers exciting jobs with top employers in various fields including Accounting, Administrative, Clerical, Customer Service, Healthcare,Marketing, …
adeccousa.com/

Employment Agencies in The United States and Canada
The United States and Canada employment agencies, recruiting firms, and headhunters in the US and Canada.
www.jobopenings.net/agencies.php – Cached – Similar

USAJOBS – United States Office of Personnel Management
The U.S. Government’s official site for jobs and hiring information. Includes information on how to obtain service-related preference, for listed positions.
www.usajobs.opm.gov

Adecco – The world leader in Human Resources solutions
Provides personnel services to businesses worldwide including temporary help, placement of permanent employees, outsourcing, and training and testing of …
www.adecco.com

Unemployed? Use This Strategy To Gain Employment!

By Laura Raines
For the AJC

Jobs are a rare commodity in today’s marketplace. Georgia’s unemployment rate is still close to 10 percent. Confidence in the job market and job growth expectations dropped from 56 percent in the third quarter to 39 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, according to the Society for Human Resource Management’s Labor Market Outlook survey.

Leita Cowart, Special Ben Hudson has worked as a project consultant, career coach and business startup adviser.
Fifty-five percent of the employers surveyed said that they would maintain staffing levels, while 11 percent said they plan to cut jobs. Only 26 percent of human resource managers said they expect to hire in the fourth quarter.

“We find ourselves in an unprecedented job market, where there are at least five qualified job seekers for every job posting. The traditional resume-interview approach is no longer producing results in this radical economy,” said Ben Hudson, the president of Finding Work Inc. and author of “How to Find Work … When There Are No Jobs.”

Believing that it’s time for a more entrepreneurial and active approach, Hudson wrote and published methods for obtaining consulting work that he has practiced and taught for more than 20 years.

“The good news is that there are still plenty of business needs,” Hudson said. “If you find the needs and fill them as a project consultant/contractor employee, you can improve your cash flow and build a consulting practice. Once you get your foot in the door, you might even be offered a full-time job.”

As a successful project consultant, career coach and business startup adviser, Hudson has refined his “Solutionship” method to finding project work.

“Most consultants set themselves up as an expert, or a ‘solution in search of a problem,’ but company decision-makers don’t want to be sold an off-the-shelf solution, especially today,” he said. “Solutionship means developing solutions to specified needs in partnership with potential clients. It allows you to position yourself in a different and more effective way.”

The first step to becoming a successful project consultant is to understand what benefits and values you have to offer prospective clients. Once you know your value, you research and network to identify potential corporate decision-makers. You ask for a 30-minute conversation.

“You make it clear from the beginning that you aren’t selling anything or asking for a position,” Hudson said. “Your intention is to help uncover ideas that could improve the client company’s bottom line.”

Through guided conversation and interest, you get the prospective client to talk about his company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (reasons they aren’t taking advantage of opportunities). You take notes and offer to get back with a written list of ideas after a few days. Ideally, this could lead to a project using your skills.

“But if the client can’t afford to hire you or can do it in-house, you give him free rein to use the ideas developed,” Hudson said. “Telling him that up front takes any defensiveness out of the meeting.”

Developing a conversational approach that establishes relationships and engages prospective clients takes practice, he said. He advises job seekers to start with family and friends until they are comfortable with the process, and to always ask for additional contacts.

“If they don’t hire you or use your ideas, you still have made a valuable contact,” he said. “You’ve demonstrated your value, so that if a job or project does open up, you’ll come to mind.”

Hudson has seen his methods work across industries and functions ranging from human resources to information technology. He said it is particularly appropriate for today’s market, when companies are reluctant to hire and are outsourcing more work. It fits a market, he said, where “there’s an awful lot of talent just sitting there waiting to contribute. And when they contribute in a focused way to real needs, productivity goes up for everyone.”

“What’s different is the mindset,” Hudson said. “You’re not there to sell anything, but to help someone.”

Ron Reardon, the president of Patents & More Inc., a registered patent agent in Lawrenceville, said Hudson’s advice works.

“Project consulting allows job seekers to use their skills, to get paid, to re-engage with the marketplace and to learn valuable new skills,” he said. “I was an introvert, so the conversational methods didn’t come natural. But the more you practice, the easier it becomes.”

Reardon retired in October 2002 from BellSouth after 32 years. He met Hudson through outplacement services, passed the patent bar in December 2002, and had his first patent by January 2003.

Reardon has helped almost 400 clients since then and continually develops his pipeline through networking.

“I give potential clients some initial services for free,” Reardon said. “A 40-question form and an hour of free consultation helps clients assess whether their invention has potential.”

If so, he charges for searching, writing and registering the patent. As an added value, he helps prospects envision their end results — whether they want to sell the patent, license it or start a company. He can also provide connections to other professionals.

“When you develop a relationship with your client, you start to see what benefits he wants and you know how to help him,” Reardon said. “It’s a step-by-step process that works.”