PitchMasters builds networks AND self-confidence
Editorial by Christian Saint Cyr
National Director / Canadian Job Development Network
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PitchMasters is team approach to instructing job seekers on using many of the elements of Toastmasters, but for job search purposes. The idea is that continuous elevator pitch practice can make us excellent speakers and by extension excellent job seekers.
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While PitchMasters provides a great forum for people to develop their communication skills, it's also the vehicle job seekers can use to build their own network.
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Years ago, as a job search facilitator, I was given curriculum on how to teach networking to job seekers. As part of this curriculum, I gave participants a large piece of paper that looked like a family tree. This allowed participants to write out all of their contacts; their contact's contacts; and their contact's contact's contacts.
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Now this approach is fine for someone in marketing or human resources who has been working in their profession for a long time, engaged extensively in professional development and has been a leader in their industry association, but it wasn't quite as powerful for my clients.
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I was working in a small, rural community with youth ages 15-24. In many cases my clients hadn't finished high school and often were in families trying to get by on income assistance.
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Theese clients hadn't taken on a leadership role in the local 4-H club, student council or sporting associations.
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Like so many people we work with, they had few if any contacts and sadly an exercise such as this, while well-intentioned, actually served to demoralize my clients.
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This isn't exclusive to these youth either. This can be true of newcomers who've left their network behind; midlife job changers who've been too busy working to build a network or many stay-at-home parents who have a 15-year gap in their work history.
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Given what I do for a living, I get asked about job search quite a bit and so often the people who are asking are new to the job market. In many cases they are young people starting out but more often then not, they are highly skilled immigrants who are new to Canadian the job market.
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These job seekers are very skilled in using job search engines, websites, apps and LinkedIn, but have been getting very little success.
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This is likely because of employers' natural preference for experience and more specifically Canadian education, training and experience.
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What strikes me about unconscious bias is that employers have a fear or resistance to hiring people with a disability, but after an employer does hire someone with a disability, they are suddenly an advocate for inclusive hiring.
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Employers don't hire immigrants because they have a similar bias. For these employers, job search needs to be personal.
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I'll give you an example. Like you, I'm busy and if I got a random email one day from someone asking for help with their resume, I would likely refer them to the local employment service. I don't know this person and they aren't much more than just an email to me.
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And yet, if my neighbour Jackie were to approach me, I would invite her over, make coffee and spend a few hours assisting her with her resume and job search.
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I really don't know Jackie all that well. We've lived next door for years but have only ever exchanged pleasantries.
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And yet, if she asked my help, I'd gladly offer it because she's a 'person' to me. If she asks for my help, it strikes a cord of humanity and suddenly I want to help her out.
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Job seekers without a network, need to build human connections and they can do this through elevator pitches. It's making job search real. It's going directly into a business and shaking someone's hand. It's attending a networking event and talking to everyone you can. It's going to a job fair and have a face-to-face conversation with everyone who's there.
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People without a network, need to make one.
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When I'm asked about job search by a newcomer, I don't tell them how to use Indeed better. It's already not working for them.
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I suggest they make a list of 15-30 employers they would like to work for; search on LinkedIn or call to find out who the decision makers are; prepare cover letters and resumes for each one; and cold-call them all at a time of their convenience. I encourage people to go for an 'information interview' and not the job. And once they've approached each one, follow-up with emails, texts and messages until you can arrange an information interview.
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When you're working with someone who's GREAT but just isn't getting anywhere -- don't you believe in the bottom of your heart the employer would be better off hiring them? Then it's our duty to our client and to the employer to help make this work.
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I promise you -- if employers really got to know your clients. If the sat in on that very first intake appointment and heard your client's story -- they would want to hire them.
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But today, clients aren't even a resume. They are a line of text on a screen and job seekers themselves need to break this cycle by getting in the face of employers.(In a positive way, of course.)
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So, I started this article by talking about PitchMasters but I haven't shared anything about elevator pitches. You are job search experts, I don't need me to tell you how to do an elevator pitch.
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The idea of PitchMasters is the idea of practice. Too often, we treat the elevator pitch like it's just one more element of job search. It's like: resume (check); cover letter (check); interview prep (check); and elevator pitch (check). This isn't just one more element of job search.
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If you're clients are coming in every week, practicing their elevator pitch, it will become fluid to them. It's no longer a series of sentences they need to memorize, it becomes their mission statement.
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Think for example, if someone does basic training in the Canadian Armed Forces it's never a one-and-done situation. It's repetition, again and again until the actions become second nature.
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It's one thing to sit in front of the mirror or your employment counsellor and deliver an elevator pitch and quite another to do it in front of an employer who keeps looking at his watch, while other people are in the waiting room and the receptionist's telephone keeps ringing.
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PitchMasters is how you can truly lead your job seekers. This is something you can do every week where each one of your clients is doing their pitch and getting feedback. This is the one thing your clients can do to get jump started for the week ahead.
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And if you think this is a strain on your clients -- it's not. They need to hear themselves say why they are great and hear it again and again. They need to keep doing this every week and be comfortable being their own best advocate. This is what builds self-esteem and confidence.
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We’ll be discussing the challenges the tourism sector faces and what can be done about them at our #MotivatingMondays meeting of the Canadian Job Development Network, Monday Jan. 27th at 8:30am Pacific; 9:30am Mountain; 10:30am Central; 11:30am Eastern; 12:30pm Atlantic and at 1pm in Newfoundland.
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On the morning of Monday January 27th, 'Click this Link' to join the session LIVE.
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