[Note: The very bottom of this post gives instructions for becoming a founding member of Midlife Job Finders (jump there now). Registration closes this Sunday evening, March 6th, 2016]
Midlife Job Finders founding member registration closes in:
The Main Purpose of Midlife Job Finders
The main purpose of Midlife Job Finders is to help you win at the midlife job search game by finding a good, meaningful job as quickly as possible, doing the work you want to be doing, without needing to worry about ageism, being told you're overqualified (if you get a response at all), applying for entry-level jobs, or requiring you to become a job search expert yourself just to get results.
This online course is aimed at job seekers 40 and up, employed and unemployed, who want to take action by following a proven strategy for midlife job search success.
I started creating Midlife Job Finders after it became clear that …
- The “one job until you retire” job market is dead
- Most midlife employees are completely unprepared for their next job search
- Midlife job seekers are more likely to be told they're overqualified than they're hired
- Most midlife job seekers will ultimately settle for the first job offer, even if it undervalues their skills and experience, and that's if they get any offers at all
- Midlife job seekers want job counselors and mentors attuned to their needs versus career advisers accustomed to counseling college students and recent alumni
Where I'm At With Midlife Job Finders
Although Midlife Job Finders isn’t ready for a large public launch, the pre-launch version of the site is almost ready.
Anyway, when the course launches PUBLICLY, I want to make absolutely sure that the forums are already populated with good content, that the membership software works flawlessly, that the server won’t crumble under user load, and that the helpdesk software I’m using integrates smoothly with the rest of the site.
In a nutshell, I want to make sure that every possible kink has been ironed out.
And so I’m offering an initial limited group of 50 people access to Midlife Job Finders… for 90% off the eventual price.
(I was originally going to offer spots to 100 people, but that just isn’t feasible — I’ll be working with founding members on a 1-on-1 basis and I simply can’t maintain high quality standards while working with 100 people).
Here’s the tradeoff:
I want you to use the forums, give me feedback on the content, let me know if the software breaks, and complete a few surveys . . .
. . . and in exchange for this, you get 90% off the final price.
Oh, and you’ll also get a full lifetime membership. Access to the course forever (note: this access is not transferable).
AND I’ll also work with you one-on-one for two months during private, bi-weekly consulting calls (I currently charge $150/hour for consulting, so this alone pays for your lifetime membership).
What We'll Cover in Midlife Job Finders
Midlife Job Finders will be a 2-3 month program… with a few interesting twists. We’re going to take a very new approach to teaching and learning and I think you’ll be in for quite a few surprises.
Keeping in line with the JobMob blog and JobMob Insider ebooks, my style is to be comprehensive yet to the point. No time-wasting, vague fluff.
The course will be divided into 6 modules of midlife job search topics, and each module will be divided into short lessons taught over video, with accompanying audio, transcripts, slides. Each module will also have homework, and a dedicated discussion forum for followup questions and answers.
There will be other forums, such as an accountability forum whose purpose is to motivate you to take action and move forward, and there will be 4 biweekly consulting calls, where you can talk to me one on one.
Throughout the course, there will be updates from our live case studies, the two winners announced earlier this week, so you can see how other people like you are applying the lessons in the real world.
All course materials will be available for download, or you can follow online via computer, tablet or smartphone.
Over the course of 2-3 months, we’ll cover…
1. Mindset
This module introduces the course, its website and features, while also introducing you to a new way of job searching by teaching you the mindset you need for midlife job search success.
Some questions we'll answer are:
- How job search has changed since you last needed to find a job
- Getting motivated to take action, and motivating others to take action for you
- How to build your self-confidence and self-esteem to reach your job search goals
- How to juggle your job search with family obligations, current job, etc.
- How to specifically focus your time and energy so that you’re not wasting time or resources
- How to best handle the classic midlife job search obstacles such as ageism and being rejected as overqualified
Once you have the right mindset, you're ready to choose a…
2. Direction
This module is all about choosing the right direction for your job search, as in the direction that is most likely to lead to success.
Some questions we'll answer are:
- How to find demand for your skills
- How to prioritize which skills to learn or improve
- How to eliminate much of the uncertainty involved in starting a new midlife job search
- How to discover roles and positions you might have otherwise overlooked
- How to find, research and target companies that you actually would want to work for
- How to recognize where you'd be a good culture fit
Once you've chosen a direction, you can select and prepare the right…
3. Materials
This module is focused on the tools and documents that will ease and accelerate the personal job marketing campaign that is your search. It's not just resumes!
Some topics we'll visit are:
- The best job search tools for midlife job seekers
- How to determine the best way to market and promote yourself to stand out and be seen, both offline and online
- Which job search documents are key to getting hired, and how to craft and polish them for maximum impact
- How to grow your perceived value for recruiters and employers
Once your job marketing materials are ready to go, it's time to leverage them in contacting…
4. Recruiters
This is the topic that tends to stump midlife job seekers most: the application process, impressing recruiters and getting any the right responses from them.
We'll cover topics such as:
- Good job leads and bad job leads
- How to highlight your strengths when networking and interviewing
- How to get your resumes into the ‘right' hands
- How to get recruiters to respond
- How to promote yourself to stand out and attract leads and interviews
- Best practices for keeping in touch with companies
If you can impress recruiters, you'll soon get…
5. Interviews & Offers
Too few midlife job seekers reach this stage of their search on good terms, and this module will change that.
We'll go over the following:
- The pre-interview: how to prepare for in-person, phone and video interviews
- What to say and ask in interviews that will convince, and what won't
- How to read your interviewers' intentions
- The dreaded topic that is talking compensation
- The post-interview communications: thank yous, follow ups, and offers
- Negotiation tactics that get you hired and happy
6. Conclusion & next steps
Once you find a job, sign a contract and start working, is that the end of your job search?
This final module wraps up the course by coming full circle in making sure you have the right mindset moving forward so that your eventual next job search will be even easier.
These are the 6 modules, and sprinkled throughout the course will be mentions of relevant, classic midlife job search mistakes and how to overcome them, and out-of-the box techniques that most job seekers, midlife or younger, aren't using enough of.
This is the proposed format for the course. Because Midlife Job Finders is a brand new course, I can make changes according to what will best suit your needs as founding member.
This is something very unique about Midlife Job Finders in its first iteration: the course isn't finished, and that's intentional. I want founding members' feedback on the content, format and features of the course so that I can tailor it for the best learning experience and subsequent results.
I need your active help to make the course the best it can be for an eventual, wider public launch, which is why I'm heavily discounting the price for founders to the reasonable $97 and keeping the group to a compact 50 motivated people for the best experience possible.
The final version of Midlife Job Finders will cost about $1,000.00, but founding members can join for $97.
With that said, I might as well get to the part about…
How to Become a Founding Member of Midlife Job Finders
Since founding members receive (1) lifetime access to the Midlife Job Finders site, and (2) twice-monthly consulting calls for two months, I’ve decided to restrict the number of openings to 50 people.
I simply want to ensure that everyone has a good experience and I don’t think I can do that if I’m consulting with over 50 members.
Midlife Job Finders founding member registration closes in:
There are only a few spots left available in the first class.
Once they're gone, they're gone!
To claim one of the remaining founding member spots:
IMPORTANT: Read This!!
First, you should know that — since we’ll be working together 1-on-1 — there will be no refunds issued. Period. After I’ve given you my time, I cannot take it back.
Second, please, please do not send me your last $97. If your funds are severely limited and you only have $97 to your name, then Midlife Job Finders probably isn’t the best use of your money right now.
If you have any questions about the course, ask in the comments here below.
What are your qualifications? How have you devised this ‘course’? What are the success rates of your former members?
Am somewhat interested, but am low on cash too. How is th course administered and given ie materials, suggestions, links, etc.
Thanks for your questions, Myra. I’m sure others will have the same ones.
> What are your qualifications?
I’ve been teaching job search for years on JobMob, at events and to private coaching clients. You can see recommendations from some of them here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobshare#recommendations
> How have you devised this ‘course’?
It depends on what exactly you mean. The content of the course is a combination of the strategy I teach and solutions to common problems I’m hearing from midlife job seekers based on a number of surveys I’ve done with my readers. The format of the course (multimedia lessons, biweekly calls, etc.) is based on successful online courses I’ve taken or have seen elsewhere. Also, it’s important to mention again that founders’ input will be critical and that a feature of Midlife Job Finders is that as a first version of the course, there’s a lot more flexibility so changes can be made as we go to better correspond to the actual founding members needs (if necessary).
> What are the success rates of your former members?
As this is a new course, I don’t have any numbers to share. It’s also not so cut and dry. Every client is different. For some, success is finding a job quickly. For others, it’s finding a job in a new industry. And so on.
> How is the course administered and given ie materials, suggestions, links, etc.
The course will be divided into 6 modules of midlife job search topics, and each module will be divided into short lessons taught over video, with accompanying audio, transcripts, slides. Each module will also have homework, and a dedicated discussion forum for followup questions and answers.
There will be other forums, such as an accountability forum whose purpose is to motivate you to take action and move forward, and there will be 4 biweekly consulting calls, where you can talk to me one on one.
Throughout the course, there will be updates from our live case studies, the two winners announced earlier this week, so you can see how other people like you are applying the lessons in the real world.
All course materials will be available for download, or you can follow online via computer, tablet or smartphone.
Thanks again for your questions, and please reply if you have any more, or want clarification.
Hello. Review my profile on Linedin.
Yes, in the Midlife Job Finders forums, you’ll be able to get feedback for your LinkedIn profile.
SK asked: Is the course based on pre-recorded video content, audio content, or live coaching sessions?
The plan is this: all lessons in the modules will be delivered as short videos (no longer than 10 min each) which can be watched on the site (via pc/tablet/smartphone) or downloaded for offline viewing. Most videos will be of me talking over slideshows, and the slides will be downloadable. Each lesson will also have a downloadable audio version. I say ‘this is the plan’ because it could change. For example, if there’s demand – this is one of the questions in the new member survey – I will also provide a full transcript of each clip for people who prefer reading, but it’s not planned just yet. Those are the modules.
I’ve promised 4 bi-weekly consulting calls where members can call in (phone/skype/something else? TBD) and ask me questions live. These are planned as purely Q&A, but I’m flexible depending on member demand. In my experience, it’s rare that everyone can make each call due to scheduling (which people will vote on soon), so these calls will be recorded and available for download asap afterwards.
There will also be discussion forums where people can go for q&a and any other sharing, 24/7.
One of the benefits for founding members is leverage. Because the course will take shape as we move forward, there’s a lot of flexibility for unanticipated member requests and suggestions I haven’t thought of.
Put differently, above is what I’ve planned and promised, but more may be added depending on what will work best for you and other members.