Employment Digest

Keep up to date on articles and news and subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Social Networking Opens Job Doors

The face of the employee recruiting process has changed considerably when compared to a mere five years ago. The days of pouring over resumes to learn of an individual’s work history and level of education are quickly disappearing.

Since I handle recruiting for an online marketing company, I am frequently on the prowl for talented graphic designers. These days however, I no longer have to meet in person with a candidate for an initial glimpse of their creative design and artwork. By placing a hyper-link within their resume, a talented graphic designer has the ability to “woo” even the most experienced recruiter within a few short seconds.

Also, with the ability to “Google” an individual’s name and e-mail address, it’s possible to open a window to his or her personal and professional background.

However, the most interesting new technology impacting the hunt for job candidates is the arrival of social networking websites, similar to MySpace and Facebook.

One such site, LinkedIn, includes an online network of 8 million professionals spread across the world, including executives from all of the Fortune 500 companies.

A LinkedIn press release states that more than 3.3 million professionals find jobs, people and service providers through this existing network of business relationships. By simply typing keywords into LinkedIn’s search function, recruiters can graze the entire network to find high quality candidates for any desired position.

For job seekers, this site provides a great venue to market yourself. Simply setup your own profile that includes work history, educational level and specific skills and experience. Again, keywords are the key. Loading your profile with the right keywords makes it a relatively easy process for recruiters to find you. In addition, privacy controls allow you to maintain, control and revise your profile.

Being new to the possibilities of LinkedIn, I am excited to find out more about this new recruiting tool. It won’t replace my past hiring practices but will help to enhance them by allowing me to search the Rolodexes of working professionals online.

The long and short of it is face to face interviews will never become obsolete but the ability to tap into a professional pool with a simple click will make my job a whole lot easier. Just don’t tell my boss, deal?

How Many Pages Should Your Resume Be?

Once upon a time, someone came up with a “rule” that resumes should not exceed one page. No one really knows who came up with the rule, but a great many job-seekers still seem to live in fear of this supposed edict.
The fact is that very few “rules” exist today in the world of resume writing. Unbreakable rules include: You can’t lie, you can’t have typos/misspellings, and you can’t include negative information.

Just about every other rule you’ve ever heard about resumes, however, is breakable, including rules about how many pages your resume should comprise.
Times have changed, after all, as Grant Cooper, president of Strategic Resumes, notes in the Resume Critique Writer software that he authored. “Brief resumes are simply no longer effective in today’s increasingly competitive job market,” he said. “The advice that ‘They only want to see one-page resumes,’ is perhaps the single most outdated and incorrect statement job-seekers hear today.”
But if you’ve come to this article looking for the definitive word on how long a resume should be, you’ll probably be disappointed. We informally surveyed experts — members of Career Masters Institute and the Professional Resume Writers and Research Association — about resume length. And their consensus:
It depends.

This situational view of resume length is pervasive among resume experts. The comments of Marnie McCown-Guard of Profile Career Services are typical: “I have written one-and-half-page resumes for senior-level people with 20+ years of experience, and I have written a three-page resume for a recent college graduate.”

Virtually every expert in our research said each individual situation dictates resume length. From their expertise, however, we developed some guidelines to help you determine the right length for you.
It should be noted that length is primarily an issue that pertains to the traditional, formatted, “print” version of your resume. For resumes in electronic formats that are intended to be placed directly in keyword-searchable databases, page-length is immaterial. So this article’s guidelines apply either in situations where your formatted resume is screened by human eyes without having been placed into a keyword-searchable database or after a keyword search has narrowed the field of applicants.

The guidelines:
Resumes for new grads and entry-level job-seekers are often, but not always, one page.
Most college career-placement centers tell students to limit their resumes to one page, notes resume writer Sharon Pierce-Williams, 75 percent of whose business is writing for the college population. Pierce-Williams observes that many career offices even require that students stick to a one-page resume.”
Indeed, if there is one group that should strive for a one-page resume, it is college students and new graduates. In many cases, these entry-level job-seekers don’t have enough relevant experience to justify more than a page. Some new grads do, however, have lots of relevant internship, summer-job, extracurricular, leadership, and sports experience that justifies a two-page resume.

Pierce-Williams takes an unusual approach to new-grad resumes. “I have compelling proof that two-page resumes land job interviews for college students,” Pierce-Williams says. “Length depends on extra-curricular involvement and leadership. It takes a certain ‘go-getter’-type student for a two-page resume.”

Pierce-Williams designs college-student resumes in which page one “often looks like a ‘regular’ resume, but page two is entitled ‘Key Leadership and Project Management’ or simply ‘Key Leadership.’” Pierce-Williams says she uses this page-two section to list three to four projects in which the student made a difference in an association or sorority/fraternity.
If you fall into the college-student/entry-level/new-grad group and are tempted to go to two pages, just be sure that you have the relevant material to justify a second page.

A two-page resume may be the best bet for the vast majority of job-seekers who are above entry-level but below the executive level.
“Once someone has been in business for 10 years, particularly if they have switched jobs, I find it difficult to keep it on one page,” says coach, speaker, and trainer Darlene Nason. “I think a two-page resume is a good average.”
In his Resume Critique Writer software, Strategic Resumes’ Cooper offers this view of the growing acceptance of the two-page resume: “The resume has now taken the place of the initial interview, and only those with significant qualifications and strong resumes are even invited to interview. As a result, more, not less, information is now needed on the resume, and the past insistence on short resumes has now given way to more in-depth, two-page resumes for most professional positions,” Cooper writes “True, it does take an additional minute or less for an HR professional to review the second page of a resume but that extra minute is seen as far more helpful than scheduling a questionable candidate for a personal interview.”

One-page resumes have typically been expected at job fairs, but that tradition seems to be falling by the wayside.

“Even the job fairs that claim to accept only one-page resumes seem to be more and more accepting of well-crafted two-page resumes,” says Cooper, “and the candidates that present them at those events often stand out above the crowd with simplistic or crammed one-page resumes.”

Even among employers, there’s no consensus on preferred resume length.
Surveys show that employers who prefer a one-page resume are in the minority, and the situational view is prevalent, as writer Susan Britton Whitcomb discovered while researching her popular book, Resume Magic (JIST Works).

“I conducted a survey of HR managers from some of the Top 100 Companies to Work for in America (from the book of the same name by Levering and Moskowitz),” Whitcomb relates. “One survey question asked their opinions as to the length of a resume.” The results revealed that 12 percent of respondents felt resumes should be “one-page, never longer;” 67 percent felt resumes should be “kept to one or two pages;” and 21 percent responded “as long as needed to convey the applicant’s qualifications.”
Read the rest of this entry »

How to Stand Out In a Job Interview — Tips on Getting the Job You Want

With the busy hiring season just ahead, now is the time to think about preparing for the interview that can land you the job you want in 2006. To get that coveted offer, the interview must be considered one of the most important steps in the hiring process to create a relationship with a potential employer. With the right preparation, qualified candidates can take the driver’s seat and position themselves as the top pick for the position.

JillXan Donnelly, president of CareerWomen.com advises, “Practice, practice, practice. Many questions, such as those inquiring about your experience and qualifications, should be expected. By creating the right storyline to anticipated questions, your delivery will sound natural and confident. Remember, if you are qualified, the interview is where you can win or lose the game.”

To get the job you want, CareerWomen.com’s top five tips to impress interviewers are:

1. Be the qualified candidate, Know why you are qualified for the position by matching your experience to the specific requirements of the job ahead of the interview.

By offering examples that match your qualifications to the exact position, the interview will be a breeze for you.

2. Prepare by doing your homeworkDo your homework on the company as well as the position. Get up to date on the company’s current business issues so you can address any questions about direction and opportunity. Develop a list of questions prior to the interview to demonstrate your interest and curiosity about the company.

3. Speak with confidenceThis is not the time to by shy and timid. Be confident about your professional accomplishments and talk about your results. Talk about yourself through your previous employer’s words to give your claims needed validation. If you have some work samples you are proud of that are related to the position, why not show them off?

4. Act like a professionalThis may seem like common sense, but you’ll be surprised how many people forget this completely. Common courtesies will take you a long way at setting the right professional impression. For example, dress appropriately for the position, be sure to turn off the cell phone and most importantly, be on time!

5. Be a good communicatorListen and be appropriately enthusiastic. Listen to the questions before you answer. If you interrupt, it could send a warning flag that you are not interested. Lean forward, listen carefully and be sure to make direct eye contact. Additional resources to enhance professional development and advance women’s careers can be found at

http://www.CareerWomen.com

including career development tools, career and employment news, professional associations and employment opportunities across the US with some of the best women-friendly companies.

Traditional Resumes Don’t Work

Non-Guerrillas do the following when they are looking for a job:

-write a resume that details their responsibilities,
-ask their friends and neighbors if they know of any job openings,
-respond to newspaper ads, and
-a few of the tech savvy ones will reply to job board postings.

That’s it. That’s not enough anymore because that’s the bare minimum everyone else does too. Non-Guerrillas can count on the competition for the few advertised or known jobs to be fierce. Good luck to them.

Your resume is a marketing tool. Does it include a statement about your background that’s so powerful that it transforms the reader’s initial scan into a lengthy read and then into a call to you? It has to.

Whether you’re replying to a specific opportunity or trying to uncover a hidden need, your resume needs to be read if you want to be considered.

Many people are under the false perception that just because they’ve gone through all the trouble and agony of producing a resume, someone is actually going to read it and care.

The fact of the matter is that you have somewhere between 6 - 10 seconds to impress a reader enough to get them to read the entire document. If they to they will likely take no more than 30 seconds.

The All-Purpose Resume Is Dead

Since resume writing is not perceived as an enjoyable task, people will often try to produce one version they can use for every possible situation.

They keep it nice and generic and stuff it with gobs and gobs of “responsible for[s]”. Unfortunately, these resumes are usually the ones that end up in employers’ wastebaskets. Writing an all-purpose resume is like writing an all-purpose marriage proposal: you’re going to have to kiss a lot of frogs …

A Positive First Impression
Your resume is your personal emissary. It should provide a positive first impression and an honest summary of your skills and attributes.

It should always be typed or computer printed and meticulously prepared with no spelling or grammatical errors. It must convince the reader that you are reliable, responsible, and ready to successfully handle the responsibilities of the job.

When your resume moves to the top of the pile, the reader will give it a brief look—perhaps for 10 to 15 seconds - for anything that piques their interest.

Background Statement
Does your resume include a statement about your background that’s so powerful that it transforms their initial scan into a lengthy read? This is your one chance to make an impression. ARE YOU MAXIMIZING IT?

Distinct Purpose
Resumes, like every document, have a distinct purpose. Your success, as both a job seeker and resume writer depends on how effectively you tailor your message to each situation.

Length
If the job is worth going after, pursue it with a resume that has been carefully produced with a specific job in mind. Length is not an issue. Content is. People will read any length of resume IF the content is of interest to them, and that’s the secret.

Uses of Resumes
A resume can serve you in a variety of ways, but it’s primarily used in making the following types of contacts with prospective employers:

-respond to a job opening;
-create unsolicited demand for your skills;
-to cut and paste from to fill out an on–line application form;
-supplement [not replace] a company’s standard job application;
-before interviews to rehearse;
-during interviews to draw the interviewer’s attention to a particular accomplishment;
-after an interview to tailor a thank you letter;
-as an aid for your references so they’ll remember what you did, especially if you were one of many on a large team;
-during telephone interviews as a reminder because, after all, the interviewer has a copy; and
-to prompt a recipient for the purposes of networking.

Sell Benefits
A Guerrilla’s resume screams, “here’s what’s in it for you”. A Guerrilla builds resumes that are relevant to a specific reader.

They target them to a specific group if not an exact individual. Their resumes are always focused. They are never general. They are results-based never wishy-washy. They are accomplishment focused not responsibility laden.

GUERRILLA RESUMES ARE MULTI-DIMENSIONAL, MULTI-PURPOSE DOCUMENTS.

THEY’RE
-your introduction to a prospective employer;
-the first impression recruiters will have of you;
-the key to positioning your seniority; and
-a bargaining chip for your salary negotiations.

Create Six Resumes
In other words, it is a significant document in the advancement of your career. You should create SIX eye-popping, attention-grabbing resumes. Each of which has its own use.

Workforce pro gives her top 50 job seeking tips
1. You have a job. Finding a job is a job. So treat it like one. Devise a plan of action and carry it out. Don’t just spend an hour or two a day and then give up. No business could continue to operate if it were only open a couple of hours a day.
2. Take the initiative. Even when people know that you are hoping to find a new job, they aren’t always comfortable stepping in unless asked, so ask. Remember though, not everyone likes to get involved, so if someone turns you down, be polite and try not to take it personally.
3. Get involved. The more people you know, the better your chances of making helpful connections. Opportunities are all around you. Your family members and current friends are rich sources of employment referrals, of course, but try to actively seek out other connections. Get to know the people on your block, at your church, at your children’s school and extracurricular activities, and let them know that you are job hunting. No matter whom you meet try to weave it into the conversation that you are looking for a job.
4. Research. Before you apply (but especially before you interview), be sure to find out as much as you can about your prospective employer. Be sure to understand what it is that they do, their market is, their competition, and things that they feel are important or exciting about their business. Remain current on any issues or developments in the field. Read trade journals or professional publications, and read the newspaper.
5. Target your resume. Make sure your resume is targeted to the employer who will receive it. Try to tailor your resume to each job you are applying for. If you need to have more than one resume.
6. Be prepared. You never know who you might meet so keep a copy of your resume with you at all times and have a brief elevator speech about what you can offer to a company prepared.
7. One step at a time. Remember that your resume will not get you the job on its own. Its purpose is to get you the interview. Make sure your resume will pique the employers’ interest so that you can get the interview and then that is where you will get the job.
8. Subscribe to a trade publication or some type of magazine that specializes in the industry you are seeking employment. This will keep you abreast of any changes in the industry and will also be helpful in the interview to show the prospective employer that you are current on the issues and developments in that industry.
9. Proof read. When you are proof reading your resume have one or two other people read it also before you show it to an employer. Sometimes when you work on something a long time your brain automatically makes changes and corrections to what you are reading without you even realizing it. Spell check is not infallible and cannot discern between words like wood and would. Try reading your resume out loud to get rid of sentences that may be awkward or confusing.
10. Start your own business. Don’t rule out the possibility of starting your own business. Many great companies have started because the owners could not find a good fit when looking for a job. Talk to other people who have started their own business. Contact the Small Business Association and ask them for advice and information about business loans. Make a business plan.
11. Be sure to develop all the materials that you will need in filling out an employment application in advance. Even if you are supplying a resume, it is possible that you will also need to complete a standard application for the human resources department. If you have not seen an application in a long time, some of the standard questions may have changed. You can stop at almost any store and request an employment application for review.
12. Write down all of your standard information on a separate sheet of paper, and take it with you when you apply for a position. Such things would include past job contact information, dates of hire, personal references, etc. If you are required to fill out the application in the employer’s office, you will then have all of the information that you need, and can complete it quickly and completely.
13. Before you apply for any job, be sure to contact all of your references that you want to list and ask permission to do so. It’s always good taste to do so but it can also prepare the individual for when it happens. In most cases, you will end up with a far better recommendation because the person isn’t taken off guard, and they will have a chance to think of what they will say about you.
14. Find out about potential job opportunities through multiple avenues. No job board will carry even a small portion of the possibilities that are out there, and some of your best alternatives may come through networking with friends and past co-workers. Touch base with those that you haven’t talked to in some time. If it is a very casual or distant acquaintance, you may not be able to ask them for many favors. But it won’t hurt to ask and see if they’ve recently heard of something. Old co-workers and people at church are some of your best contact possibilities.
Read the rest of this entry »

Job search could benefit from middleman

There’s just one thing between you and that great new job: a middleman, also known as a search firm or recruiting agency.

You could find yourself working closely with a recruiter before you ever land an interview with the company you want to work for.

It’s the job of the recruiter, who is hired by the company, to weed out candidates, search for stellar employees and narrow them down based on a profile from the company. The recruiter then hands over a best-of-the-best list to the client.

If you thought you never would have to deal with recruiters because they only do executive position searches, think again. There is a recruiting middle market for positions paying from $30,000 to $100,000 that companies also need help filling.

Here are some tips that will help you deal with the middleman.

• Research the search firm. There are generally two types of search firms.

Retained search firms are hired and paid by a company to identify and recruit employees with a specific skill set. A contingency firm, on the other hand, is paid only when a company hires a candidate it found.

While companies often contact recruiters, it’s OK for you to send a résumé and cover letter to a search firm, but don’t be pushy. Simply state, “I would appreciate your adding my résumé to your database in case you are retained for a search that would match my qualifications,” says Jane Howze, founder of The Alexander Group.

• Pretend the recruiter is the employer. When you are dealing with the search firm, act no differently than you would if your dream company were calling, says Dave Hickman, managing partner at HirePursuit, a Princeton One Search recruiting firm in Indianapolis.

• Respect the search. It can be tempting to make contact with the company, going over the head of the recruiter. But don’t even send a résumé to the company.

• Know the expectations. Each recruiter is different, and a candidate must find out how the process is going to work at the beginning. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, says Hickman.

Will the recruiter get back with you every two weeks? Or should you check in every two weeks? Should you call or send an e-mail when you have questions? Will the recruiter contact you if you are up for the job?w.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061120/BUSINESS/611200310/1003″>Harmful job myths abound

People believe some weird things.

Like telepathy or astrology. That it takes seven years for your body to digest chewing gum. Or that the devil can steal your soul when you sneeze.

They also believe some strange things about job hunting. Here are some of the most common — and most damaging — job-seeking and other workplace myths that young workers fall for:

Long résumés are impressive. No. In fact, they are ridiculous for someone younger than 30. Excessively long résumés are consistently listed as a pet peeve in surveys of hiring managers. Hiring managers barely have time to scan most of the résumés that come their way, much less read them line by line. Edit those internships, extracurricular activities and classes into a clean, readable one-page document.

The Internet is the best place to look for jobs. Sure, if your idea of “looking” for work is reading ads for jobs that you probably won’t get. Online listings are just a tiny fraction of the jobs out there. Other, often more fruitful sources for leads include professional associations, specialized job fairs, your professors and career counselors and places where you have been an intern.

Entry-level salaries will be sufficient to pay back student loans. After all, the lenders would not have let you borrow all that money if they weren’t certain you could pay it back with your postgraduation paychecks, right? Afraid not. Student loans are an exception to the general lending principles that limit people to borrowing according to their earnings. The gap between how much college students expect to make when they graduate vs. their likely earnings continues to be frightening.

An MBA always brings big bucks and promotions. Before you put the time and money into getting a graduate degree in business, have a specific goal in mind for life post-MBA, and make sure that particular credential is really necessary to get you there. In particular, run the numbers and see if the expected boost in pay is worth it.

There’s no point in applying for jobs in the summer. Or Christmas. Or whatever time you imagine hiring managers get to slack off. Filling professional jobs isn’t like selling houses. The market isn’t seasonal. People quit and get promoted year-round. When they do, they have to be replaced.

If you don’t like your boss, you should quit. After all, life is short, right? Sure it is, but the tenure of really bad bosses is often even shorter. People move on. Sometimes you even get promoted to their job when they leave. Even if they stay, all hope isn’t lost. If you really like other aspects of a job, make the effort to learn to work with your obnoxious boss. Every job will require you to work with people whose personalities or work habits don’t suit you.

It’s illegal for an employer to … You can insert just about anything here and you’d be wrong. U.S. employers have a lot of leeway in hiring, firing and promoting people, as long as they aren’t discriminating against specifically protected classes of people, such as for race, gender, religion or age (this applies to people 40 and older). “Favoritism,” while demoralizing, is not illegal. Neither is a boss being an equal-opportunity jerk. Likewise, no laws in this country require employers to provide health insurance, paid vacation or sick leave, paid parental leave or regular raises. Some union contracts provide these protections, but even those are increasingly rare.

Harmful job myths abound

People believe some weird things.

Like telepathy or astrology. That it takes seven years for your body to digest chewing gum. Or that the devil can steal your soul when you sneeze.

They also believe some strange things about job hunting. Here are some of the most common — and most damaging — job-seeking and other workplace myths that young workers fall for:

Long résumés are impressive. No. In fact, they are ridiculous for someone younger than 30. Excessively long résumés are consistently listed as a pet peeve in surveys of hiring managers. Hiring managers barely have time to scan most of the résumés that come their way, much less read them line by line. Edit those internships, extracurricular activities and classes into a clean, readable one-page document.

The Internet is the best place to look for jobs. Sure, if your idea of “looking” for work is reading ads for jobs that you probably won’t get. Online listings are just a tiny fraction of the jobs out there. Other, often more fruitful sources for leads include professional associations, specialized job fairs, your professors and career counselors and places where you have been an intern.

Entry-level salaries will be sufficient to pay back student loans. After all, the lenders would not have let you borrow all that money if they weren’t certain you could pay it back with your postgraduation paychecks, right? Afraid not. Student loans are an exception to the general lending principles that limit people to borrowing according to their earnings. The gap between how much college students expect to make when they graduate vs. their likely earnings continues to be frightening.

An MBA always brings big bucks and promotions. Before you put the time and money into getting a graduate degree in business, have a specific goal in mind for life post-MBA, and make sure that particular credential is really necessary to get you there. In particular, run the numbers and see if the expected boost in pay is worth it.

There’s no point in applying for jobs in the summer. Or Christmas. Or whatever time you imagine hiring managers get to slack off. Filling professional jobs isn’t like selling houses. The market isn’t seasonal. People quit and get promoted year-round. When they do, they have to be replaced.

If you don’t like your boss, you should quit. After all, life is short, right? Sure it is, but the tenure of really bad bosses is often even shorter. People move on. Sometimes you even get promoted to their job when they leave. Even if they stay, all hope isn’t lost. If you really like other aspects of a job, make the effort to learn to work with your obnoxious boss. Every job will require you to work with people whose personalities or work habits don’t suit you.

It’s illegal for an employer to … You can insert just about anything here and you’d be wrong. U.S. employers have a lot of leeway in hiring, firing and promoting people, as long as they aren’t discriminating against specifically protected classes of people, such as for race, gender, religion or age (this applies to people 40 and older). “Favoritism,” while demoralizing, is not illegal. Neither is a boss being an equal-opportunity jerk. Likewise, no laws in this country require employers to provide health insurance, paid vacation or sick leave, paid parental leave or regular raises. Some union contracts provide these protections, but even those are increasingly rare.

Top 10 Tips for Salary Negotiations

Negotiating a better salary package has put more than a few stomachs in knots over the years. Remember, we all go through it sooner or later. Try to keep these 10 basic tips in mind when it’s your turn to ask for a sweeter deal.

1. Be Persuasive

It’s hard to force your boss to increase your compensation, and trying to do so can potentially damage your working relationship. Think about the process as trying to convince him that it might benefit the organization to pay you more.

2. Aim High and Be Realistic

Many researchers have found a strong correlation between people’s aspirations and the results they achieve in negotiation. At the same time, you want to suggest ideas to which your boss can realistically say yes.

3. Start Off with the Right Tone

You want to let your boss know you will listen and try to understand his views. At the same time, you expect your boss to do the same for you so you can work together to address this issue. Avoid ultimatums, threats and other coercive behavior.

4. Clarify Your Interests

Your compensation should satisfy a range of needs, not just salary. Make sure you have thought about other points of value to you as well — like profit sharing, stock options that vest immediately, a bonus, greater work responsibilities, a quicker promotion schedule, increased vacation or flexible hours.

5. Anticipate Your Boss’s Interests

Just like you, your boss has needs and concerns. To persuade him to say yes, your ideas will have to address those things that are important to him.

6. Create Several Options

Joint brainstorming is the most effective way to find ideas that satisfy everyone’s interests. It works best when you separate it from commitment — first create possible solutions, and then decide among them.

7. Focus on Objective Criteria

It is far easier to persuade someone to agree with your proposal if he sees how that proposal is firmly grounded on objective criteria, such as what similar firms pay people of like experience or what others in the company make.

8. Think Through Your Alternatives

In case you cannot persuade your boss to say yes, you need to have a backup plan. Part of preparation is creating a specific action plan so you know what you’ll do if you have to walk away from the table.

9. Prepare Thoughtfully to Achieve Your Goals

This is the only aspect of your negotiations you can completely control. To take advantage of all of the above advice, you have to invest a significant amount of your time and energy.

10. Review to Learn

The only way you can really improve your ability to negotiate is to explicitly learn from your experiences. After you finish negotiations, reflect on what you did that worked well and what you might want to do differently.

How Do I Write the Killer Resume?

It seems that on a weekly basis someone is asking me for help with their resume. I don’t mind helping but the truth is that I simply run out of hours every day to do so. I’ll continue to suggest that there is no perfect way to write a resume but there are definitely better and worse ways to display your skills and background.

Today I spoke with a candidate who definitely has the skills that more than one of our clients is looking for. We’ll be speaking again but in the mean-time, he has a great road map from which to create a Killer resume.

I’ve just written two very detailed job descriptions that fully describe my client needs. All the candidate has to do is turn the job descriptions inside out and make his resume speak to the needs of each client. In this case, my client needs are so similar that one resume will do the trick for both jobs.

Anytime you have inside information on the needs of a company or better yet, a well written detailed job description to use as a road map, take the time to make your resume speak to the job if you’re really serious about becoming a contender for the job.

Think of it this way. When you’re engaged in a job search, you are for a brief period of time, a sales person. What are you selling?

YOURSELF

Nobody should be better qualified to sell you than you!
Read the rest of this entry »

Online Resume Not Generating any Calls?

Want to get your online resumé noticed and have employers
picking up the phone and calling you? Then forget how
pretty your resumé is. What really matters is how your
resumé scores on a search. Most resumés today go straight
to a computer tracking system that saves online resumés in
the company database allowing for later searches. A
computer will “score” your resumé by the number of keywords
or “buzzwords” that the employer will find most relevant to
their needs. If you don’t account for this, you’ll just sit
waiting by the phone for the call that never comes.

Keywords, Keywords, and More Keywords

The magic is in the keywords and how and where you can use
them. Focus on the keywords most likely to be used by a
human resources person or recruiter doing the resumé search
for a particular job requirement. The greater the number of
relevant keywords, the higher relevancy score your online
resumé will receive.

Let’s look at the four major keyword areas you need to
account for in an online resumé that will get an employer
to pick up the phone and call you:

1. “Keywords Competencies”:

A.) List this section at the beginning of your resumé to
introduce your skill sets from an interviewing standpoint.

B.) Include no more than 75 keywords. List as many
relevant, searchable keywords that describe your potential
job title, technical skills, management or organizational
skills, relevant software and/or mechanical abilities and
expertise as you can. Include anything that might be
important to the particular job.

For example, if you were a Java Programmer, your Keyword
Competencies section might look like this:

“Java, Visual C++, perl, ticl, application development,
visual basic, Windows NT/XP, programming, GUI, html,
project management, layer 2, BSEE, etc”.

2. “Job Description” : Include every title that may
pertain to your duties and function. For example, if your
official title is “Member of Technical Staff”, other
companies may call that a Software Engineer, Software
Developer, or even a Programmer. Take this into account
when you write your resumé for online use. The computer
doesn’t care as long as you have all your bases covered for
whatever human-based search may arise.

3. “Objective” : Once again, keep it limited to specific
keywords when you identify your present and/or aspiring job
title with an added major skill or function (such as
project management, mergers and acquisitions, electronic
design, product verification, quality control, etc).

4. “Past Experience” : Many searches are performed in the
interest of finding people who have worked for or with
certain companies. This can mean not only working as an
employee, but also having worked with their products or
with them as a client or vendor. Be sure to list all the
major companies with whom you have had connection. This
includes experience with their tools or products or your
roles as either a vendor or a customer.

Summary

The bottom line is not how pretty your resumé looks. The
most important element is to cover all the possible
keywords that an employer will be searching for. There’s
potential gold in your background and you want to make
certain that it is brought to the surface. Keywords are
truly powerful for this.