Career Services

Dr. Dan’s main focus is about finding you the right role within the right organization, and his Job Search offerings will help you strategically identify and navigate through opportunities, target your career marketing materials, and give you the confidence and preparation you need to stand out from other candidates during the interview process and ultimately land a great offer. Dr. Dan has a deep understanding of Career Development and will help you identify options and strategies that will position you as a top-tier candidate. Dr. Dan Neundorf’s Career Management Practice focuses on 2 areas: Job Search and Career Advancement.

Job Search

Within this practice area the focus is finding the right organization and role within it. Dr. Dan’s service offerings include:

Job Search strategy

Searching for a new role needs the same focus and attention that you provide to any other job: planning and execution are key, as are developing your skills in order to better target the employers you’re keen to pursue. You are a company of one, and it is up to you to promote your talent – you are your own ‘brand’. How best to leverage your brand to gain exposure in today’s job market is where Dr. Dan comes in. Finding your next great position isn’t about sending your resume out to hundreds of different organizations and seeing what response you receive back; it’s about being proactive and having clarity. How do you identify your target roles and the organizations that will be a good fit for you? How do you ensure the company’s values align with your own? How can you tell if a particular company will be a great place to grow your career? Dr. Dan’s job search strategies will help you make informed decisions when it comes to navigating this challenge.

Networking, internet and social media, and finding the hidden job market become powerful job search tools when utilized for job searches in the right way. Dr. Dan will help leverage best-in-practice techniques for planning and carrying out your job search, and prepare you to confidently enter the job market with practical and effective tools that will ultimately yield faster results.

Resume development:

Today’s job economy is a rapidly changing one, where jobs for life are no longer, and employers want to know up front what value you’ll be able to bring to the company. It’s equally difficult to sometimes convey that value in a one-dimensional resume. Creating an effective, polished, and tailored resume and cover letter takes time; employers can quickly spot mostly generic applications and won’t be enthusiastic about you if you aren’t sounding excited about them and the opportunity. The job of the resume is to catch the recruiter’s interest and secure you an interview; it is a marketing tool and you are the product. Packaging is important! While you may be highly qualified, being able to properly highlight those qualifications can be a completely different challenge, particularly for those who haven’t had to craft a resume for some time.

Today’s organizations can also be heavily reliant on Applicant Tracking Systems, which are set up to pre-screen resumes based on key-words. Ensuring your resume highlights certain qualifications can be the difference between being screened in and being screened out. An effective resume is an investment in you and your future.

Interview preparation:

Most of us are not all that comfortable speaking about ourselves and boasting about our accomplishments. Interviewing isn’t something that most people do everyday, and often candidates can be thrown off by questions that they were not prepared for. For some, interviews can be torturous, particularly if they are in front of a panel or require a presentation. Dr. Dan’s interview preparation will help you avoid making common interview mistakes that can derail your chances of landing an offer. When it comes to interviewing, preparation is key. You are a highly qualified and specialized professional with a lot to offer, and it is critical that you are able to showcase that during the interview. With any other activity, the more you practice at it the better you become, and interviewing is no different. Dr. Dan’s personalized interview preparation process will give you the opportunity to have your ‘interview self’ critiqued, so you can focus on improving those areas that may hinder you in the interview, such as content, body language, tone, eye contact, and speech patterns.

Additionally, a focus will be on determining probable lines of questioning so that you are better prepared to answer with quality responses, and includes scenario, behavioural, and theoretical interview- style approaches.

Career Advancement

Opportunities abound within our own organizations, however many of us hesitate in proactively planning our career path in-house. Dr. Dan is able to bring clarity to your career goals, and help you define your differentiation from the pack, allowing you to take charge of your career and ready yourself for promotion. Within this practice area the focus is getting promoted in your current organization. Dr. Dan’s service offerings include:

Career Clarity

Many professionals often don’t purposefully think about their career – how they got where they are, or where they want to go. Bringing clarity to your career trajectory helps by defining what type of work you thrive in and enjoy most, how to be aware of these types of opportunities when they come up in your organization, and how to engage others to help you as you progress throughout your career. Dr. Dan can help you assess your professional situation, develop concrete steps to help better understand your career options, and how best to achieve your career goals.

Defining Your Differentiation

Standing out from the crowd is critical in today’s competitive market. Can you elaborate on your value proposition? Your personal value proposition is the key to career progression because it sets you apart from internal competition and highlights what makes you unique and promotable ahead of others. Consider if you and four others were all vying for the same promotion, and you’re all equally qualified: What would make your company pick you over the others? That’s your differentiation. Dr. Dan will help you define your differentiation and prepare you to speak to it confidently.

Networking Strategies:

Networking is an essential piece of any career toolkit and being able to network effectively can mean the difference between career progression and career stagnation. Networking isn’t about mindless socializing and collecting business cards; it is about purposeful targeting of individuals and associations that could be helpful to you in your career. Many opportunities are uncovered through various networking strategies that otherwise may not have come to an individual’s attention. Information interviews are an example of a great networking tool that can be utilized to make connections and inroads in a chosen field or department, and are just one example of networking strategies you’ll learn from Dr. Dan.

Resume Development:

Resumes are not just for those who are actively out looking for their next position; they are also a valuable marketing tool. Creating a strong resume that highlights your key skills and competencies with your career path in mind will enable you to quickly respond to promotional opportunities. Dan will also discuss the value of documenting career achievements, and how to build your own ‘success portfolio’.