Managing your online identity means understanding that your presence in the world is bigger than just your physical presence. Your digital presence is worldwide and it's accessible to everyone. Know what's out there, manage it, and get in front of things that are negative.

Trevor Calton speaks to university masters students about job hunting and networking. (Live)

You're Not Applying for a Job
hen you apply, you're actually applying for an interview, and then you interview for a job. 

This is an important distinction to make because we often think that the only way that we're going to get to the job is if we get to the interview through the application process. 

You don't necessarily have to go through the application process to get the interview. There are a lot of different ways to get an interview and through the traditional application process is just one of them.

So let's talk about how do we get more interviews and how do we do that without necessarily applying for them?

Any Interview Can Become a Job Interview

What is an interview anyway? Pretty much any interview can become a job interview. 

Anytime a job seeker is meeting with a hiring manager or someone in the network of the hiring manager, they can typically include the context of a job interview by just creating awareness that that job seeker is looking. 

The Power of the Informational Interview

An informational interview is different than a job interview. But what people don't realize is that almost any informational interview can very easily be turned into a job interview. Especially if the two parties identify an opportunity that or some sort of connection comes up during the informational interview process. 

Be Honest About Your Motivations

We talked about earlier about being authentic and being honest and being genuine. And it's important to know that when you're doing an informational interview, you always do it with integrity and never try and be deceptive or misleading about why you're there. 

An informational interview is probably the most powerful thing that you can do to build your network and to uncover opportunities in the job market.

If you do it right, there's absolutely no reason that you can't get five or more interviews per week. I think it's really common for people to underestimate how powerful an informational interview can be. 

Flip the Script

In the informational interview, you are flipping the script. 

In a traditional job search, people are trying to get others to interview them. But in informational interview, you flip the script and you are the interviewer, and they are the subject that you are interviewing. 

It allows the job seeker to gain information about an industry, a company, or a particular job. It allows the job seeker to expand their network. And potentially create rapport or even a relationship with somebody who is in a particular position that might know the hiring manager, or might be able to recommend them, or might steer somebody in a particular direction towards a company.

Ask Open-Ended Questions
" Who's growing?" 

"Who's hiring out there?" 

"Which companies are the best ones to work for?" 

"Who dominates the market?" 

"Who's the most successful?"

"What companies are hiring?" 

"Who's growing right now?" 

"Who out there do you think would be looking for somebody like me?" 

Informational Interviews Are Incredibly Valuable

henever possible, think about creative ways that you can skip directly to an interview and recognize that interviewing other people is just as valuable, if not more valuable than trying to get them to interview you.

Once you have done that, then we can talk about how to go about conducting those interviews in a way that's going to help you expand your network, present yourself as a more attractive candidate, and arm you with better information to make your job search more robust.