Laurie jump starts her job search with help from CareerForce staff member Gina

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Laurie shared her CareerForce success story recently. She worked with Gina Meixner, who is based at CareerForce in Bloomington, to jump start her job search. CareerForce Tip 3: Network was especially helpful to Laurie, as she describes in her own words:

“  'You will land a position, but you are significantly more likely to get a job through networking than just applying online' is what Gina Meixner would say in her classes at Bloomington Career Force. It was easy to get down after a layoff and with an extremely challenging mortgage market where my last 25 years of experience was. But I heeded Gina’s advice and I did my best to remain connected to my prior co-workers as my strongest network.

“Gina also gave great advice on setting up and improving my LinkedIn profile. I believe her profile advice helped me land my current position, since my interviews were all over the phone (no video calls) with HR and the hiring managers. The hiring managers had direct input from my previous co-worker who recommended me but still had to decide without meeting me face to face. I had built my connections, had a solid write-up, reached out to past co-workers for recommendations, and had a solid picture that could add to my seriousness as a quality candidate.

“Always say thank you to your network connections, even when you don’t land the first or second time. You maintain goodwill and they know you are interested. Hopefully, the third time is a charm like it was for me.”

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