In June 2022, we <a href="https://www.prweb.com/releases/careercircle_teams_up_with_klay_thompsons_941_project_and_crosschq_to_support_workforce_re_entry/prweb18713559.htm" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">announced our partnership</a> with <a href="https://www.crosschq.com/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Crosschq</a> and The Thompson Family Foundation to support The 941 Project. <a href="https://www.thompsonfamily.foundation/">The 941 Project</a> aimed to assist and support re-entry into the workplace for those who were facing career setbacks and were ready to get back to work.
After spending 941 days off the court due to two career-threatening injuries, Klay Thompson, co-founder of <a href="https://www.thompsonfamily.foundation/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">The Thompson Family Foundation</a> and four-time NBA Champion with the Golden State Warriors, turned his attention to providing support to people who needed the right resources to get back on their feet. And just like that The 941 Project was started. 
Now we get to share something exciting&hellip; 
<h2 dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;">We have officially reached our joint goal of changing 941 lives! </h2>
<a href="https://www.crosschq.com/press/crosschq-marks-success-klay-thompson-941-project?hs_preview=cjWnSCUH-110536904248" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">As of April 2023, over 941 people have received career education resources, personal assessments, networking opportunities, and, most importantly, new jobs.</a>
Over 70% of those opportunities have supported people from diverse underserved communities, like people of color, veterans, and parents returning to work.
After completing a Google Data Analytics Career Certificate, one person who reskilled through this program got their first role in finance analytics and is making over 30% more. Another individual worked with CareerCircle to build their resume and prepare for interviews after completing their Google IT Support Career Certification. Before long, they had found a desktop support position that increased their pay and provided them with the stable employment their family needed.
&ldquo;Partnering with The Thompson Family Foundation and Crosschq for The 941 Project has not only strengthened our ties with those incredible organizations, it has allowed us to provide equitable access to career resources that we know change lives,&rdquo; Kim Sneeder, Managing Director at CareerCircle. &ldquo;We may have hit our goal, but we&rsquo;re certainly not slowing down when it comes to advocating for the power of diversity in the technology industry. We will continue to drive change at scale and can&rsquo;t wait to see what the future holds.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Klay Thompson shared,&nbsp;&ldquo;The 941 Project holds special meaning to me. I am unbelievably proud that, in less time than it took me to get back to playing basketball, we were able to help 941 individuals advance their careers.&rdquo;
Moving forward, CareerCircle will continue to change lives through our <a href="https://www.careercircle.com/blog/post/employ-3000-how-careercircle-is-changing-3000-lives" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Employ 3000 challenge</a> and providing free resources to job seekers, like our <a href="https://www.careercircle.com/resume-builder" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Resume Builder</a> and <a href="https://www.careercircle.com/quizzes/interview-prep" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Interview Prep</a> tools. 
Want to join the circle? Sign up for a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.careercircle.com/candidates" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">free candidate account here</a> and let&rsquo;s get your career journey back on track.

As of April 2023, over 941 people have received career education resources, networking opportunities, and, most importantly, new jobs.

The Power of Changing 941 Lives

As of April 2023, over 941 people have received career education resources, personal assessments, networking opportunities, and, most importantly, new jobs.

*UPGRADE IN PROGRESS* -- CareerCircle platform upgrades will occur between Monday June 27th 10PM Eastern Time through Tuesday June 28th 4AM Eastern Time.&nbsp; The system may be intermittently unavailable during this timeframe.&nbsp;&nbsp;

*UPGRADE IN PROGRESS* -- CareerCircle is upgrading its capabilities and as a result the system may be temporarily unavailable as we bring new capabilities and infrastructure online to better serve our members.&nbsp; If you receive an error during this timeframe please bear with us as we're working to improve our system and you may need to retry that operation at a later time.&nbsp; &nbsp;

Did you know that job seekers who <a href="https://www.zippia.com/advice/how-many-applications-does-it-take-to-get-a-job/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">apply for between 21 and 80 positions have the highest likelihood of getting a job offer</a>? In our current economic climate, it&rsquo;s even more. That&rsquo;s a lot of applications to create, personalize, and keep track of. When you&rsquo;ve been dealing with a layoff, the last thing you want to do is make your job search more stressful than it has to be.
We&rsquo;ve got 7 tips to help you organize your job search so you can focus on highlighting how great you are, rather than tracking down that file that you swear was on your desktop yesterday.
This post is part of&nbsp;The Layoff Series, a series of blog posts built to help jobseekers get back on their feet after a layoff. Be sure to check out the first article in the series, <a href="https://www.careercircle.com/blog/post/what-to-do-after-a-layoff" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">What To Do After a Layoff</a>, to learn how to handle a layoff from the moment it happens until you&rsquo;re ready to job hunt. 
<h2 dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;">How To Organize Your Job Search </h2>
For many people, job searching becomes a full-time job. When it carries that much weight in your life, it deserves just as much care and attention as a full-time job would. Staying organized can help to reduce stress in the job search process and make applying for roles easier and faster, but it takes some habit-forming. 
<h3 dir="ltr">Tip #1: Create a Tracker</h3>
Let&rsquo;s face it: If you&rsquo;ve got 80 job applications floating out in the world, it&rsquo;s going to be pretty impossible to keep track of them without some level of tracker set up.
You have a couple of options when it comes to tracking your efforts ranging from as simple as a spreadsheet to as involved as a project management platform.
If you want to keep it simple, try using a spreadsheet. Create a column each for:
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Company name
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">If you&rsquo;re working directly with a recruiter or referral, add in a column with their name and contact information.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Job title</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Date you applied</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">A link to the job posting</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">A link to the resume and cover letter you applied with</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Status
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">You can have statuses like, &ldquo;Waiting for Response&rdquo;, &ldquo;Interview Scheduled&rdquo;, &ldquo;Rejected&rdquo;, &ldquo;Declined&rdquo;, etc.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
Then every time you apply for a role, simply add it to your tracker so you can follow up as needed.&nbsp;
If you want something a little more in depth that can help you assign tasks and due dates, try a tool like <a href="https://www.notion.so/templates" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Notion</a> where you can download a premade template with a tracker already set up. You can also try a project management tool like <a href="https://monday.com/project-management" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Monday.com</a> or <a href="https://asana.com/uses/project-management" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Asana</a>.&nbsp; 
<h3>Tip #2: Make a Top 3 List and Connect on LinkedIn</h3>
We know it can feel really uncomfortable to network so remind yourself that this is exactly what LinkedIn is for and when&nbsp;<a href="https://www.zippia.com/advice/how-many-applications-does-it-take-to-get-a-job/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">80% of job offers come from networking</a>, use that network! Remember to add this outreach to your tracker to keep track of who you talked to and what information you shared with them and what they shared with you. 
<h3 dir="ltr">Tip #3: Have an Easily Editable Resume</h3>
While we know that a <a href="https://www.careercircle.com/blog/post/the-360deg-view-of-you-how-transferable-skills-can-help-you-make-a-career-change" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">360&deg; view of a candidate</a> is unbelievably valuable, hiring teams often rely on resumes to organize their own hiring process. Since they&rsquo;re so important in the hiring process, resumes need to represent the best parts of your work experience. It&rsquo;s good practice to have a resume that is more of a template that allows you to edit and change any of the contents to align with the particular role you&rsquo;re applying for.
Remember: When sending in your resume, send it with a file name that has your first and last name in it like John_Smith_Resume. If the job posting requires particular formatting rules, follow those too.&nbsp;
If you need help getting your resume started, we&rsquo;ve got your back. Our <a href="https://www.careercircle.com/resume-builder" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Resume Builder</a> is a completely free tool that will guide you through building your resume so you can overcome that fear that comes from staring at a blank page! 
<h3 dir="ltr">Tip #4: Timeblock Your Calendar</h3>
Remember how we mentioned that job searching often becomes a full-time job? Treat it like one!
That means, having working hours and breaks on your calendar, tasks to complete each day, and blocked out time to prepare for interviews and follow up. Job searching is stressful enough - don&rsquo;t add more to your plate by working at all hours.
If you want to learn more about how you can timeblock, check out this <a href="https://todoist.com/productivity-methods/time-blocking" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">how-to guide from Todoist</a>. 
<h3 dir="ltr">Tip #5: Set up Job Alerts</h3>
What if you could job hunt without actually job hunting? Job alerts are available on most major job boards (including <a href="https://www.careercircle.com/jobs" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">CareerCircle</a>) to help you get jobs that fit your needs delivered directly to your inbox.
To set up a job alert with CareerCircle, simply login to your account, select &ldquo;Your Jobs&rdquo; from your dashboard homepage, and click &ldquo;Create Job Alert.&rdquo; You can even set up alerts based on your certification!
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/D4DFPa54Qpms8qPPmqCD" alt="undefined" width="326" height="407" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
Setting up job alerts means that you won&rsquo;t have to scroll through endless pages of new positions and instead make sure that you&rsquo;re focusing your search on the roles that most closely align with your career goals. 
<h3 dir="ltr">Tip #6: Clean Up Your Inbox</h3>
Build out some folders in your inbox that make it easy for you to track your applications and job opportunities.&nbsp;
You can organize by the action you need to take and have a set of folders like &ldquo;Application Submitted&rdquo;, &ldquo;Interview Scheduled&rdquo;, &ldquo;Second Interview Scheduled&rdquo;, etc. Or you can organize by the role and create a folder for each position you&rsquo;ve applied for.
You can also set automations within your inbox, like with Gmail&rsquo;s Snooze function, to remind you to follow up with any roles you haven&rsquo;t heard back from.&nbsp;
Remember: Your email address should be easy-to-read and understandable. Consider making it your first and last name or your first initial and last name.&nbsp;
If you don&rsquo;t already have a professional email address, create a new one before beginning your job search. Some people even create a new email address for their search simply to keep it separated from their personal emails. Whatever works for you is the best route to go! 
<h3 dir="ltr">Tip #7: Draft Your Answers to Common Interview Questions</h3>
There are some questions in the interview process that will come up again and again. By taking the time to think through these questions and what your answers are, you can feel more equipped to handle any interview that comes your way.
Some common questions include:
<ul>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Tell me about yourself.</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Why do you want to work here?</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">Tell me about a time when you faced a difficult situation at work and how you handled it.</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">What do you think you can bring to this position?</li>
<li dir="ltr" role="presentation">How do you handle multiple projects going on at the same time? What keeps you organized?</li>
</ul>
Remember: Use the STAR method when you are answering questions that are behavioral-based like, &ldquo;Tell me about a time when you faced a difficult situation at work.&rdquo; The <a href="https://www.themuse.com/advice/star-interview-method" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">STAR method</a> helps you discuss the situation, task, action, and result of whatever you&rsquo;re describing.
For example, &ldquo;As a project manager, I was tasked with implementing a new project management tool across all of our departments. My goal was to train all of the department leads as well as hitting a 60% usage rate across all team members. I coordinated training times with our implementation manager to get all department leads trained and then scheduled and led training sessions on a one-on-one basis with each of the departments. I created a user guide for how our team members would be expected to use the tool and scheduled standing check-ins on a biweekly basis to go over any issues team members were expecting. By the end of the three-month implementation period, all department leads felt confident leading the usage of the tool and we hit a 80% usage rate across all members - a 20% increase over our goal.&rdquo;
Jot down your answers in a note-taking app and, while you can always refer to notes during an interview, it&rsquo;s particularly impressive to have a couple of talking points memorized.&nbsp;
If you want to take your interview preparation to the next level, check out our <a href="https://www.careercircle.com/quizzes/interview-prep" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Interview Prep tool</a>! 
Job searching is incredibly stressful, especially after a layoff, but being organized could make all of the difference for you. &nbsp;
Do you have a favorite tip to organize your job search? Let us know about it over on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/careercircle/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a>!

Job searching is incredibly stressful, especially after a layoff, but being organized could make all of the difference for you.

The Layoff Series: 7 Tips to Organize Your Job Search

The Layoff Series: 7 Tips To Organize Your Job Search

As one of CareerCircle&rsquo;s recruiters, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-pugh-278699161/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Daniel Pugh</a> spends his days scouting for talent from our pool of skilled candidates, preparing candidates for their interview process, reaching out to past members to learn more about their experience, and more. But his career journey actually started with over 6 years in the Air Force and a hearty dose of imposter syndrome to contend with when it was time to reenter the civilian world.


<h2 style="text-align: center;">From High School Graduation to Air Force Security Forces </h2>
When Daniel graduated high school, he faced the same question we&rsquo;ve all faced: What do I want to do?
&ldquo;Do I go to college? Do I take out a student loan which sounds very scary? What degree do I want? Do I join the military? Do I go straight to work? I didn&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; he shared. One of the things that he knew was that, while he loved his hometown, he wanted to explore. &ldquo;I knew that I wanted to go somewhere. I wanted to do something. I just didn&rsquo;t know what and I was okay with that. But I was going to take a leap of faith to find out what that was.&rdquo;
When most of us hit this stage in our lives, we look to the people around us to help guide us. Daniel looked to his family for that guidance.
Coming from a military family, Daniel knew that joining the military was a stable option for him. He understood the roles and responsibilities and it would allow him to get some skills that he wouldn&rsquo;t get otherwise. But, as most military family members know, there&rsquo;s always a bit of competition between what branch would be best. While his father was in the Air Force, his grandfather was in the Army, so teams began to spring up with suggestions of which branch he should go into. Even his friends had an opinion based on what branches they were interested in going into!
After taking the <a href="https://www.officialasvab.com/applicants/fact-sheet/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">ASVAB</a>, he decided to follow in his dad&rsquo;s footsteps and enlist in the Air Force.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I started out in the Security Forces, mainly because it was something I was interested in doing and it was immediately available. It didn&rsquo;t hurt that the beret looked really cool, too. There were positions available on every base which would let me travel the way I wanted to,&rdquo; he shared. He completed his training at Lackland Air Force Base and was stationed at F.E. Warren in Cheyenne, Wyoming. In his time in Wyoming, he started out as an RFL (Response Force Leader) before transitioning into his daily role as an FSC (Flight Security Controller). To say his day-to-day was high pressure is an understatement.
&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t even 21 yet. I was 20 years old, became an E4, and then from that position was responsible for billions of dollars worth of critical weapons systems that were vital to national security. If I had a bad day at the office, based on the type of report, it would go straight to the Pentagon or the President&rsquo;s office just because of the nature of the situation,&rdquo; he explained.
In his role, he had to be perfect. He had to follow direct rules and checklists and there was no room for error.
He loved what he did and he was really good at it, which meant that his first duty station became his final duty station. Despite wanting to travel, Daniel spent his military career at F.E. Warren, where his skills could be used most effectively. When it came time to reenlist or move on, he had to take another hard look at what he wanted to do with his life and his career.
&ldquo;I had a great time, but I wanted to go explore. I wanted to go see the world. Due to my duty position and due to the fact that I did very well, if I continued in the military I was going to have to stay stateside and I realized that I just didn&rsquo;t want to do that. So I made the decision to transition out of the military.&rdquo;
A tip for you:&nbsp;Sometimes the job you&rsquo;re good at isn&rsquo;t the right job for you. That doesn&rsquo;t mean the time in that role was a failure, it simply means that you are ready for the next step on your journey.


<h2 dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;">Making Leaps of Faith a Way of Life</h2>
While his first leap of faith was joining the military, his next, and more intimidating one, was leaving. 
When going through TAP (<a href="https://www.dol.gov/agencies/vets/programs/tap" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Transition Assistance Program</a>), Daniel realized that he had no idea how to apply for a job, build a resume, or interview, but he knew he had to figure out how to transfer his skills from a niche military background to civilian work. As he shared, &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t just Google, &lsquo;I worked in the military to protect nuclear weapons, what do I do as a civilian?&rsquo; I needed to get some personal help.&rdquo;
That&rsquo;s where <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethparker/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Ethan Parker</a>, his best friend and Aerotek recruiter, came in.
&ldquo;Ethan was a huge mentor for me because he understood how to go ahead and take those transferable skills and transition them into different opportunities that I would actually be interested in.&rdquo;
After working with Ethan, he realized that he really enjoyed working one-on-one with people and helping to coordinate projects, troubleshoot problems and, ultimately, be the person you can come to when a problem needs to be solved.
&ldquo;I never would have realized that those skills were something that I already had or that they could transition into a software and tech support role without working with Ethan. Having that one-on-one support from him as a friend and a recruiter was incredible,&rdquo; Daniel explained.
He applied for a role as a Commissioning Agent at General Electric and, given that he had never done an interview before, he ended up staying up the whole night before Googling what happens in an interview, what to wear, what questions to prepare for, and more.
He landed the role and enjoyed his time at GE, but unfortunately was let go in an initial round of COVID layoffs. It was time for another leap of faith.
&ldquo;I was 26, 27 years old at the time, and I have a lot of experience, but I still really don&rsquo;t know what I want to be. I thought, &lsquo;Well, let&rsquo;s try something new. I&rsquo;m going to work at a warehouse. Maybe I can learn more about physical labor roles and dive deeper into that operation process and support people from that angle.&rsquo;&rdquo;
It didn&rsquo;t take long to realize that while a warehouse job had sounded appealing, it wasn&rsquo;t the right fit for him. Once more, he was left trying to define what it is he wanted to do. Then Ethan reached out.
&ldquo;Ethan had continued to be a huge support and he was working here at CareerCircle at the time and called me and went, &lsquo;Hey, you would be a very good recruiter.&rsquo; and my immediate reaction was, &lsquo;No way.&rsquo; I had talked to a lot of recruiters in my life both in the military and out of it and I just thought there was no way that I had the skills for it.&rdquo;
Daniel had a hard time seeing how any of the skills or passions he had could be transferred into recruiting. He had dealt with imposter syndrome before when he was first leaving the military again and it hit him again when he was presented with this new industry to look into.
A tip for you: BetterUp suggests when facing <a href="https://www.betterup.com/blog/what-is-imposter-syndrome-and-how-to-avoid-it" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">imposter syndrome</a>, &ldquo;Making a simple 2-column list &mdash; on one side, &ldquo;Evidence that I am inadequate&rdquo; and on the other side, &ldquo;Evidence that I am competent&rdquo; &mdash; can help bring perspective.&rdquo; Focusing on objective fact is critical for combating that negative inner voice.
But ultimately, Daniel&rsquo;s previous leaps of faith had served him well, so he decided to take one more. He started working on his resume and in that time took the opportunity to learn all he could about what he needed to know to start on a career in recruiting. He looked up what the different types of resumes are and when each should be used, what types of interviews there are and how to help people through them, what employers and hiring managers are looking for in recruiter partnerships, and more.
When he had worked through learning on his own, Ethan reached out with an offer to apply for a <a href="https://www.careercircle.com/jobs" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">CareerCircle recruiter position</a> that had opened up. While Daniel didn&rsquo;t feel quite ready or qualified, he did what he could to quiet the imposter syndrome and applied.
&ldquo;I was a nervous wreck,&rdquo; he shared when recollecting the interview with CareerCircle Managing Director, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-sneeder-a49a723/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Kim Sneeder</a>. &ldquo;I was sitting there thinking there&rsquo;s no way I&rsquo;m going to get this. She actually ended up asking me what I thought I would struggle with going into recruiting and I didn&rsquo;t even try to lie, I just straight up said, &lsquo;Resumes.&rsquo; They had been a bit of a nemesis for me since I left the military and I knew they would be a big spot for me to learn.&rdquo;
Thankfully, here at CareerCircle we care less about resumes and more about a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.careercircle.com/blog/post/building-the-360deg-view-of-you-how-to-develop-a-job-skills-inventory" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">360&deg; view of candidates</a> so Daniel&rsquo;s honesty did nothing to dissuade Kim that he was the right person for the role.
Daniel ended up taking the job with CareerCircle because he loved <a href="https://www.careercircle.com/impact" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">the mission</a> we have to look beyond resumes and help people find the skills they may not even realize they have. He wanted to help bring those skills to light for other people in the same way that Ethan had helped bring them to light for him. In fact, he was most recently awarded our Top Recruiter Award given to those who have produced only the most stellar results for the recruiting team, so we say he made the right choice!


<h2 dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;">Building the Right Support for Every Step</h2>
&ldquo;The advice I give to everyone when it comes to job searching is to use the resources and connections that are available to you. I look back now and I wish I had used those resources more readily,&rdquo; Daniel shared when asked what advice he would pass to job seekers today.
&ldquo;One of the ones I really wished I had used, and still might in the future, is the free education from my time in the service. I remember thinking, &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t want to go back to school so that&rsquo;s not valuable to me,&rsquo; but in reality, I should have taken the opportunity as soon as it was offered.&rdquo;
He now works with his candidates to make sure they know about all of the often free resources that are available to them, like our <a href="https://www.careercircle.com/resume-builder" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Resume Builder</a> and <a href="https://www.careercircle.com/candidates" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">1:1 Coaching</a>.
He also works with candidates to be the support that he needed on his own career journey. As a veteran who has worked in vastly different roles and faced imposter syndrome at every turn, he is able to understand where his candidates are coming from and be the mentor that they need.
&ldquo;My dad has always said to me that the most important thing I can be is happy,&rdquo; Daniel shared when asked how people have supported him in his journey. It&rsquo;s clear that Daniel has taken that advice to heart and found a role that not only makes him happy, but allows him to bring that happiness, support, and compassion to CareerCircle members.&nbsp;
As you move forward in your own career journey, remember that no matter how many transitions you have to face, taking that leap of faith could be the thing that makes your life happier than you could have imagined.
<h3 dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;">When you&rsquo;re ready to move on in your own journey, you can&nbsp;<a href="https://www.careercircle.com/candidates" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">join the CareerCircle community here</a>.</h3>

Daniel Pugh started his career in the Air Force. Now he's the Top Recruiter at CareerCircle. Here's how he handled his career switch with transferrable skills.

The Power of a Leap of Faith: A CareerCircle Career Journey

As one of CareerCircle’s recruiters, Daniel Pugh spends his days scouting for talent from our pool of skilled candidates, but his career journey actually started with over 6 years in the Air Force and a hearty dose of imposter syndrome to contend with when it was time to reenter the civilian world.

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The Power of Changing 941 Lives

We have officially reached our joint goal of changing 941 lives!