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With unemployment soaring and the job market becoming saturated with quality candidates, it’s time for you to start getting creative in your quest to engage in your next professional opportunity. Give some thought to engaging the services of a recruiter or career coach.

In developing your brand and proper messaging, there are five valuable discussion points to consider when meeting with a recruiter or coach:

1. Professional integrity

One way to demonstrate your professional integrity is to make sure that you leave a company in great standing. This shows that you are accountable for your performance at your former company and relationships with your previous colleagues.

In completing reference checks on candidates, I have had prospective employers ask for references from people in the most recent applicable employer, which may include your former boss; peers; subordinates; and in some cases, the clients. Have a complete understanding of what your references will say about you, and make sure that they are ready to start taking calls.

2. Showcasing capacity

One of my favorite things to do when screening candidates is to determine if they have the appropriate skill set to become flexible and scalable. Candidates often need to be ready for expansive growth with the prospective employer. That said, I often ask the candidate to explain the difference between having depth and having capacity to be successful in the company; rarely do they have the right answer.

Depth is coming into a role with a solid background and necessary knowledge to do the job. Capacity is demonstrating the skills and proper knowledge base to assume the role but also possessing the skills to take on more as the job grows.

As you look around, you may know people that are very content having the depth to do the job. The ones that get promoted are usually those who demonstrate the capacity to take on more responsibility.

3. Claims versus evidence

As the candidate, you must be able to demonstrate examples of your performance as solid evidence in the body of your resume. In other words, you can talk about the success that you may have had in your previous role, but it has a much higher perceived value when it becomes a statement on your resume.

Nearly every task in every job affects revenue, systems or people. This is the evidentiary and supporting data that is vital to understanding the effect you have had in your previous role. Your resume should not look like a job description. It must contain quantifiable results, especially if you were in a sales role.

4. Communication skills

Lack of conversation reflects lack of interest. A solid candidate should have exceptional communication skills on several levels. It’s important to be able to carry on with typical small talk because many relationships are established this way, but you must also be a person that the company can count on to deliver executive-level presentations to internal and external clients and customers. Recruiters will gauge your level of comfort with communication.

5. Financial benefits to the company

Among other things, remember that the hiring manager really cares about the financial aspect of the candidate’s contribution to the company. Regardless of the role that is being filled, there are usually two important considerations that must be reviewed in screening the right candidate for the role: Revenue and Timing.

Revenue - Based on the background of the candidate and the role that will be filled in the company, the hiring manager must be able to determine or anticipate how much revenue you will generate as the candidate of choice.

Timing - The hiring manager then needs to understand how quickly this candidate can begin to generate revenue for the company. The return on investment will vary based on the role being filled, but this is vital to determine that the candidate is of long-term value to the company.

As you embark on your professional journey, and establish relationships with your recruiter or career coach, I am confident that these five points will prove instrumental in your search strategies towards success!

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Support groups for the unemployed are getting creative as the jobless rate stays stubbornly high, trying approaches from using Weight Watchers-style accountability to encouraging people to work for free.

Support networks have previously popped up after large-scale layoffs. But with nearly one in 10 Americans now out of work, they are becoming more widespread and accepted, said career consultant Alison Doyle.

“The stigma attached to being unemployed that was there in the past isn’t as prevalent now,” Doyle said.

The August Group, which hosts networking events in the former manufacturing hub of Rochester, New York, holds members accountable for sticking to their job search goals.

“We’re like Weight Watchers for job seekers,” said Tracey Aiello, one of the group’s organizers. “Every week people say what they will do to look for work and, at the next meeting, we ask them if they did, and if not why not.”

Brooke Allen is a trader at a securities firm. But after giving an inspirational speech at a conference about how to find work, he started the New York group “No Shortage of Work” in his spare time as a community service to job seekers.

“For most people, the worst thing about unemployment is feeling like you are of no use to anyone,” said Allen, who recommends volunteering at for-profit firms.

In a weak economy, he said, many struggling small businesses don’t have the money to hire, even as the work piles up. Working for free can help job seekers make contacts, learn new skills and get hired when hiring freezes lift, he said.

Others are urging new approaches. Last summer, Stacy Kendall of New Bern, North Carolina, started a skills database to help people in her support group find part-time work.

For example, an unemployed social worker might be able to earn income teaching needle work to others, an office worker might get paid for doing yard work. And skills are also bartered within the group, she said.

SPECIAL ATTENTION

Kimberly Brady, a 40-year-old ex-Citigroup employee who has been unemployed since late 2008 and is a member of the “No Shortage of Work” group, is bartering her skills. A tech-savvy acquaintance helps with her computer and in return she teaches his friend, a Chinese national, business English for free.

Brady’s work as an English tutor has reignited her love for literature, which she studied at university. She now hopes she may eventually become a college-level English teacher.

But still Brady said the longer her unemployment lasts, the tougher it gets to stay motivated.

“I have days when I go to bed at night and I think, ‘Did anything I did today matter? Will it lead to anything?’ But generally, talking to others going through the same emotional stress helps,” she said.

A study by Princeton economics Professor Alan Krueger found job seekers sharply curtail time spent job-hunting as time passes. The New Horizons group in Rochester is trying to combat that problem with a program specifically targeted at the long-term unemployed.

Formed after a 2002 mass layoff by Xerox Corp, New Horizons has grown from a handful of former co-workers to 1,200 members from all industries. Xerox slashed half its workforce in the Rochester area — to 6,800 in 2010 from 13,950 in 1990 — as it adapted to a changing global marketplace.

In September, organizer Pete Chatfield started a program for members out of work for more than a year, starting an Alcoholics Anonymous-style buddy-system to encourage job seekers to motivate each other. Of the 23 in the program, seven have found jobs, he said.

“You have been out of work 12-plus months, otherwise you wouldn’t be in the program, so you probably think you know it all, because you been through almost all of this stuff before,” he said. “But chances are, you have shortchanged yourself.”

(story via Reuters)

Be sure to look for us on your favorite networks:

Visit Our Bookstore for Great Values!

101 Tips Every Job Seeker Should Know	The Ultimate Online Job Seekers eBook	10 Biggest Interview Mistakes	10 Biggest Resume Mistakes

Check out these hot articles!

This makes us laugh… every time we see it	The First Step to a Job You Love	Palestinian Traffic Cop Loves His Job	Beef up your email signature

Higher Learning Leads to Higher Earnings, Especially for Men [InfoGraphic	How to Ace the Interview BEFORE it Starts	Video Resume – May Work Wonders, But Not for Everybody	How to Develop All Star Job References