Mark, is a Career Consultant who inspires the unemployed, underemployed, and under-appreciated job seekers by helping them find and create their voice so they can be heard by employers.
His website, TheVoiceofJobSeekers.com, has been named a top career website by the Career Rocketeer, Career Igniter,
You Tern and New Career 101
Mark’s advice has appeared on major career sites such as AOL Jobs, You Tern, CAREEREALISM, Payscale.com and the Brazen Careerist.
Congratulations to Mark and his wife on their 25th wedding anniversary which occurred between the time we recorded today’s show and when it aired.
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MARK ANTHONY DYSON’S CAREER JOURNEY
In college, Mark worked as a news reporter for the local radio station. A skill that he would later put to use as the host of the Voice of Job Seekers podcast.
Mark started his working career in a small PR firm and eventually left to manage a call center.
As you can imagine running a call center comes with a lot of expectations and stress. The stress pushed on Mark more and more with every shift.
He knew the job was wearing on him because he found himself bringing home his work even after staying late to do work.
Then one day he reached his boiling over point and left, without notice, he didn't even tell his wife until he got home that is.
Mark and his wife have great communication. Something that no doubt has contributed to their 25 years of marriage.
After leaving the call center that both agreed it was the right move, even if Mark didn’t communicate that decision quite as well as he probably should have.
Fortunately, Mark and his wife taken steps financially to allow him to take what he calls a “substantial“ pay cut so he could be home with his boys more often.
I’ve mentioned before how debt can keep you chained to a job or role that does not agree with you.
Mark’s financial stability allowed him to take a series of lower paying jobs in order to support his values based decision to leave the call center.
One of the jobs Mark took during this time, was helping others update their resumes.
On the suggestion of his brother-in-law, Mark founded CompetitiveResumes.net.
For the next couple of years, Mark continued to help other with their resumes while at the same learning more and more about the career space and online marketing.
THE VOICE OF JOB SEEKERS
Like all new bloggers, Mark was blogging about things that “didn’t really move anyone”. He was blogging without an audience.
However, the more he practiced the more he knew this was the path for him and he founded the Voice of Job Seekers.com.
The voice of job seekers is truly a descriptive name for what Mark. He believes that all job seekers have a voice and that voice deserves to be heard.
Mark looks at each client as a “total” person not just the working person who comes to him for resume help. Mark believes our voice comes from all of our life experiences, our careers being just one of the contributing factors to our overall voice.
Mark helps his clients find our “overall voice” and use that voice to help with the job search.
THE JOB SEARCH PROCESS HAS CHANGED
Mark has seen a lot change over time in the job search process. He knows he can’t write a resume the same way he did several years ago.
Google has forever changed the way we find and get jobs and, unfortunately, many job seekers today, especially GenXers who may not have updated their resumes or even interviewed in many years, still don’t understand this.
One thing Mark espouses to his clients is the need to be proactive in your job search. Gone are the days of posting a resume and waiting to be contacted.
Today, you as the candidate must take the necessary steps to move your job search forward.
Employers and job seekers alike, have access to information about each other never before possible. For example, as a job seeker, you can now find out who the hiring manager is for a particular position.
The same is true about employers looking for job candidates. Mark believe we should all think of the web as our second workplace.
JOB SEEKERS NEED TO BECOME SOCIALLY SAVVY
Our social profiles should be used as if we were using them at work. This doesn't mean you can’t have “fun” online but it does means we need to pay attention to what we post.
If you Googled yourself today, chances are good your social profiles will come up first. If you’re being honest with yourself do they accurately represent who you are as a potentially employable person?
Social media goes two ways today which means it can work against us or it can work for us. The choice is ours.
Live streaming, for example, is a great way for job candidates to show their personality, knowledge and expertise on a topic.
It’s also a great way to “screw up” your job search which many people do since live streaming is available to us 24/7 on our mobile devices.
If you view the web as your second workplace, like Mark suggests, apps like Periscope and Blab can be used to your advantage.
Instead of jumping on blab to talk about nothing or periscope to stream your stroll down the road, schedule a Blab session to talk about your area of expertise.
Doing so can be a great way to get in front of recruiters. For example, if a hiring manager is on Twitter, you can invite them to participate on your Blab.
This is a great way to begin to build a relationship with the recruiter as well as demonstrate your knowledge and expertise.
YOU ARE A CONSULTANT
Mark thinks we should all look at ourselves as consultants. I love this idea.
Think about it for a minute. What does a consultant do? They help companies solve problems. When a company hires someone what have they really done?
They hired what they believe is a person who can help them solve a problem, a full-time consultant if you will.
Viewing yourself as a consultant and seeing your job or your potential job through the eyes of a consultant will open your eyes to the possibilities.
Viewing yourself as a consultant, I believe, is the perfect strategy for every job seeker. As a consultant, it’s easier for your to concentrate on the problem the company is looking to solve vs. the fact that you want a job.
Using your “I want a job” voice, will make you less confident and will not allow you to focus on helping resolve the problem the company is hiring for.
THE VOICE OF JOB SEEKERS PODCAST
Calling on his experience as a new reporter for the radio station during college, Mark started The Voice of Job Seekers podcast in September 2013.
The podcast releases every Tuesday and he interviews career coaches, CEO’s and other job search experts in order to find and understand the latest job search trends and advice.
He has had some great guests on the show. It’s a regular listen for me. You can listen and subscribe to the show HERE.
THE BEST WAYS TO CONTACT MARK ANTHONY DYSON
Web: TheVoiceofJobSeekers.com
Twitter: @MarkADyson
