Welcome to A Best Impression!
Hello! I’m glad you’re here.
I’m Colin Murphy, and I started A Best Impression to help job seekers make exactly that: their best impression to potential employers. Job search can be a tedious process, and much like any other relationship, it’s important that until a commitment is made that you’re presenting yourself as a match for the role and for the company.
What does making a best impression mean? It means that at each step of the job hiring process, the person considering you will continue to nod their head ‘yes’, up-and-down, instead of shaking their head ‘no’.
We want ‘yes’s’ for you throughout their interactions with you, whether it’s reviewing your resume and cover letter, double checking your LinkedIn profile and other social media, meeting you in person, or reading your thank-you note following an interview.
There are seven essential elements that make up a comprehensive job search. They are:
1. Research
2. Applying
3. Interviewing
4. Networking
5. Skill Building
6. Marketing
7. Self-care
The first, Research, is the steps you should take to identify potential companies and employers. This typically starts with LinkedIn and then splinters to other sites to help you confirm that this company is a place you want to spend this next step of your career.
The second, Applying, is presenting yourself as a candidate to consider with a targeted and customized resume and cover letter.
The third, Interviewing, is a hard element to master and typically is the first or second most challenging (with Applying). Applying is all about getting the interview, and then it’s up to you to move forward.
The fourth, Networking, is important because of how much connections can help as a resource, a referral, a provider of information. Networking is a mutual activity and should be approached as such — a two-way street of information, sharing, and gratitude.
The fifth, Skill Building, is a fun essential element because learning can only help. Taking an online course, for example, can provide you with enough information that you can honestly and accurately claim a required software on a job application or during an interview.
The sixth, Marketing, includes everything that is employer-facing: LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, and to another extent, your resume and cover letter. Each of these is an opportunity to continue to get that nodding head or start a shaking head, so learning what is appropriate to share and publish and what may hinder your search is important.
The last, Self-Care, is the most forgotten or dismissed. Taking care of yourself mentally and physically is crucial. Job search is not a full-time job in the sense that unless you have a list of available, posted jobs at companies you want to work for, and these other elements are in process and progressing, then it’s encouraged to spend time with ourselves and make sure we’re healthy inside and out.
After you’ve identified the elements you need to master, I’ll make sure to check that your understanding of the remaining elements are sufficient. What makes this a fun puzzle is that these steps are presented in a numerical list but they are not an order. Each of these can be individually worked on and all happen both independently of each other and also at the same time.
Keeping track of all of these is a challenge and having support and encouragement to keep you focused where you need to be — in a positive headspace and shifting the job search experience from laborious to enjoyable (can it be? Yes!) — can make a difference. Getting expert help can provide you with the knowledge to know that your efforts are efficient uses of your time and that you’re not wasting time applying for jobs you don’t want or probably won’t get. It takes at least 4 hours of solid effort to get through just Applying, so knowing how to make decisions on whether spending time is worthwhile or not will ultimately positively affect the other elements.
Job searching can be tough on anyone. I consider it to be a puzzle with pieces that keep changing. There are always new resources, best practices, and technology that will make the search for talent easier on a recruiter but perhaps more difficult for a job seeker. Understanding those puzzle pieces and how to keep the puzzle intact will help you become a more focused and effective job seeker and give you more opportunity to continue to make those best impressions each step of the way until the ‘yes’ head nod will be yours accepting a job offer that you want because you’ve done the work to show the employer they are a fit for you and you’re a fit for them.
