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Ruth Sternberg | Confident Career Search

Ruth Sternberg, Confident Career Search

Specializing in interview-attracting resumes and LinkedIn profiles. Talk to a career search professional at 614-746-4587!

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There is No Substitute for Personal Contact

Filed Under: Essential Job Search Tactics, Get an Interview, Your Resume and Personal Marketing

I often hear from people, “No one is responding to my job appplications.”

Well, the truth is that merely applying for a job isn’t enough. You have to do more than than.

A client of mine is doing a great job at this.

She is deep into her search for another role in her field. She was excited to tell me that she has been having lots of valuable conversations with folks she already knows, and some new ones she has made contact with, and she’s quite excited.

I was excited, too.

This is an area many people struggle with. It’s not easy to reach out to people during a job search. You feel like you’re bothering them. You are convinced they won’t respond; why bother?

Let me try to convince you: This is the best thing you can do. It’s better than submitting applications and waiting. It’s better than waiting to be found by recruiters.

Three truths:

1. If you want to make things happen, you have to make them happen.

2. The best jobs are the ones you learn about from people. Great hiring happens between people.

3. You can find out a lot of great stuff about companies by talking to the people who work at them.

My client started her process by getting clear with herself about what she wants; things like:

  • The role level
  • The type of work
  • The hours
  • The flexibility
  • The pay range
  • The management style

Then she began to reach out to people she already had done business with, to let them know (confidentially) that she’s checking out the market and wondering what’s new at their company; or what they’ve been hearing lately.

She also reached out to someone who works at one of her target employers. She found out a bunch of information about the company, like the hours she would be expected to keep.

 “I would know that nowhere until I got into the job,” she said. “I found out that they are located on the West Coast, and they expect everyone to keep those hours. And that wouldn’t work for me.”

Just so that she can be confident about communicating, my client has developed her own replicable contact method.

“I always check out the person I’m going to ask about, first. I look at their LinkedIn profile. I ask myself, ‘What do I know? What can I figure out based on their profile?’ You sometimes just get a sense of whether they will respond to you. Sometimes, I reach out anyway, because maybe the might remember my message or check out on my profile. Maybe you’ll go back and look.”

Here’s her message template:

<Name>,

Thank you for connecting!

It’s interesting that <insert a fact about them>

I am an <insert title>  looking for my next opportunity.

I saw X company (their company) has an X position and I would love to chat about how [insert something about the goals of the company].

I’m including my availability and email below to setup a chat.


It’s possible for you to put a calendar link in your message, too. You can get a free account from many different sources, including Calendly.com. Once you have a date in mind, you have lots of options.

LinkedIn includes a way to set up a video meeting.

Look in the direct message box. At the top left, click on the camera icon. If you want, you can set up a meeting this way.

So, this week, make it a goal to reach out to three people who work at companies you are interested in. You might be surprised at what you discover.

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A Cure for Job-Search Paralysis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiRsEnarfcw

Client Praise

Ruth is a gifted master of words. I hired Ruth because I needed someone who could clean up and reorganize my resume and LinkedIn profile. Ruth took in my career… Read more “Maria Blauvelt”

Maria Blauvelt

I was really struggling during COVID after getting laid off. I just could not seem to break through and get noticed.  I had used Ruth’s services before and gotten a… Read more “Sam Lewis”

Sam Lewis

I am truly honored to have the privilege of working with Ruth. She took the time to reach me on my level, and assist me in honing my interviewing skills… Read more “Randall Johnson”

Randall Johnson

Ruth is passionate about her clients. She truly cares and loves to see us find our next “Big Step” on our career journey. She is engaging in conversation and she listens. She… Read more “Karen Diehl”

Karen Diehl

Ruth worked to help me understand my strengths, weaknesses, likes and dislikes. She not only built a great resume and LinkedIn profile for me, but also coached me to believe… Read more “Matthew Knouff”

Matthew Knouff

Ruth is a tremendous resource for help in overhauling a resume and building a LinkedIn profile. She is very knowledgeable about what it takes to get noticed by recruiters. Ruth… Read more “Dan Carson”

Dan Carson

I highly recommend Ruth as a career coach. She provides clients with concrete tools and advice to create a plan of action. Ruth truly understands the job search process, from… Read more “Francesca Fuerman”

Francesca Fuerman

Ruth became passionate about my professional experience immediately. She knew I was struggling to effectively portray my depth of experience in writing for effective recruitment by employers. Once I had… Read more “Anthony Bahr”

Anthony Bahr

I felt so confident in myself after working with Ruth, after I was able to take a step back and look at my résumé and see just how accomplished a person I… Read more “Logan Weissler”

Logan Weissler

When you said to me, ‘Okay, we got this. We are going to figure this all out and get you into these companies,’ I felt my whole body relax and… Read more “Cathy C.”

Cathy C.

Ruth took the time to get to know me and understand my strengths and abilities. She overhauled my résumé, which was essentially a list of job tasks, and created an attractive, compelling… Read more “Jillian O.”

Jillian O.

Ruth is an amazing, thorough, and professional résumé writer with an eye for bringing out your hidden story and value. Over the course of a month we were able to transform my résumé from zero… Read more “Craig M. Chavis, Jr.”

Craig M. Chavis, Jr.

Ruth has a gift for listening to her client’s needs with real empathy, and for translating their background into words that accurately reflect relevant talents. Moreover, Ruth is the kind… Read more “Cory Joyrich”

Cory Joyrich

Working with Ruth was an excellent experience. Coming out of the military, I spent several years working with resumes that never seemed to achieve the goal of interviews. After realizing… Read more “Calvin Jones”

Calvin Jones

Ruth fit a wealth of resume advice and career guidance into a one-hour video-call! She led me through my resume and showed me exactly how to reformat its content for… Read more “Veronica Dye Johnson”

Veronica Dye Johnson

I worked with Ruth to gain a different perspective on my resume and LinkedIn profile. Her process is in-depth, starting with a questionnaire that pushes you to really consider the… Read more “Mike O’Brien”

Mike O'Brien

In preparing for my nursing career, Ruth was super effective in organizing the details of my education and work experience. So effective that she helped me secure a position in… Read more “Alexandra Reynolds”

Alexandra Reynolds

My experience with Ruth was amazing, I would highly recommend her to anyone for that personal and professional touch. Ruth is great at listening and helping you find out what… Read more “Marcia Johnson”

Marcia Johnson

Resources Library

  • Get an Interview
  • Job Search
  • How to Answer: “Tell Me About Yourself?”
  • Identifying Transferable Skills
  • Ghosted by Recruiters
Ruth Sternberg | Confident Career Search

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