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

Job Search in a Difficult Market

I don’t think I am breaking any big news story when I say that finding a good job in the Maine job market can be difficult. Many of you have already reminded me of that fact and my daily work with USM students confirms it.

But I also know that there are good jobs to be had. Just this week I had three calls from local employers about good positions they are seeking to fill. The problem seems to be finding a way to connect the two parties: the applicants with good skills and the employers with solid opportunities. Our approach is to post the information to our website for all to see. But not every job seeker knows to look there and not every employer realizes we have this free service.

So how do you, as a motivated, talented, hard-working, qualified candidate get to the head of the line for consideration in such a competitive market?

First of all, realize that it IS a competitive market. You have to be extremely pro-active and tenacious. Just sending off a generic resume and waiting for results doesn’t cut it. It will most likely languish on a desk, get filed, or even get thrown away. Unsolicited resumes show up in droves on manager’s desks and, unless there is a matching open position currently being advertised, the chances of it being read are pretty slim. They are usually passed along to the HR department for appropriate filing, circular or otherwise. If there is an advertised position, your resume is most likely sharing a pile with dozens if not hundreds of others, making the selection process extremely difficult.

The key is personal contact. Employers hire people, not 8 ½ by 11 pieces of paper so their decisions are based on how they feel about the real live flesh-and-blood human behind the resume. Your goal needs to be maximizing the opportunities for those meetings.

Consider using a process called Informational Interviewing to meet some of the players in the job market of your choice. A recent statistic I saw claims that only one out of every 500 resumes results in a job. By contrast, one out of every 12 informational interviews results in a job. Yeah, yeah, I know I said I don’t really trust statistics but I do believe there is a great deal of truth in this one.

Informational Interviews are NOT a subversive way to sneak past the secretary to ram your resume down a manager’s throat. They need to be conducted in good faith. In other words, if you say you are there to research a career field and interview someone, that must be the real reason you are there. You need to be prepared to ask intelligent questions and listen carefully to the answers.

But, wait, you say. People are too busy to do this. I’ll never get in to talk to anyone.

My response: You would be surprised how easy this is. People love to talk about their own experiences and share advice with someone considering their career field. It makes them feel important to be asked and interviewed about something they know so well. It also gives them a chance to “size you up” in a very non-compulsory environment. They don’t have to evaluate you as a potential hire, but if you come across as a promising candidate they can (and often will) approach the idea of working with you in your job search. It presents a win-win situation for both parties.

Your first step is to identify the people you would like to talk to. This means knowing what direction you are looking to take your career. A person with more focused career objectives will tend to ask better questions and come across more powerfully. Nothing leads to success like sincerity and enthusiasm.
Read the rest of this entry »

When it comes to resumes, remember less is more

Want to impress a potential boss with your resume?

If you’re contemplating a creative, quirky, unique way to grab a hiring manager’s attention, take a hint from Aleksey Vayner and skip the personal video.

Vayner, a Yale University student and aspiring investment banker, submitted a seven-minute video resume to a potential employer. (Check it out at www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbr-VwhPoCc.)

In the video, titled “Impossible Is Nothing,” he showcases his physical abilities — grunting with exertion while apparently bench-pressing nearly 500 pounds, performing a suggestive ballroom dance with a scantily clad woman, and hitting the tennis courts with supposedly a 140 mph serve.

The video eventually found its way to YouTube, and the rest is history. He thought the video would help him stand out among applicants and that his success in physical pursuits would prove useful in his banking career, according to an interview in The New York Times.

Recruiters told WorkBytes that under no circumstances are personal videos acceptable — ever. They said resumes should be concise, detailed and relevant to the job you seek.

Trish Stueckradt, senior recruiter with Executive Resources in Des Moines, said if a resume doesn’t grab her within 15 seconds, then she knows it won’t catch the attention of a hiring manager, either.

“Any time you send a resume, that’s the first impression that a client receives from you,” Stueckradt said. It can also foreshadow what the quality of your work will look like, should you get hired.

“Less is more,” said Tom Darrow, an expert with the Society for Human Resource Management.

“The best way to do it is the way the company wants you to do it,” said Darrow, founder and principal of Talent Connections, a recruiting firm in Atlanta.
Read the rest of this entry »

Ten Job Hunting Myths

The job market is improving. A recent study from the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that employers plan to hire 13% more new college grads this year than last year — with business, engineering and computer fields taking top priority.

That’s good news if you or someone you know is preparing to make the move from library stacks to a corporate cubicle. But it doesn’t mean the perfect job will just fall in your lap. And misconceptions about job hunting, the working world and the entry-level employee’s role can easily bog down a young professional’s progress.

Improve your chances of finding your dream job. Don’t get sucked into these ten common job-hunting myths:

1 | Finding a job after college will be quick and easy

Although the job market for this year’s college grads looks rosier than last year, don’t expect the job offers to come rolling in. Finding work may be a cinch for a select few, but for the vast majority, it will still take serious effort.

The length of your hunt will depend on a variety of factors, including:

* The job market

* Your location

* Your qualifications

* The amount of time you dedicate to your search

* Your interviewing skills

* The types of resources you use to find job openings

If it takes a while, don’t get discouraged. The average job search lasts four months, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas. To make ends meet in the meantime, you may have to take a less glamorous (and lower-paying) gig. A few of my friends have worked in call centers, flipped burgers or cleaned toilets for a couple months after graduation — just until they landed a job where they could use their degree.

2 | The Internet is the best place to look for a job

“One of the most prevalent misconceptions in job hunting is that job hunting on the Web is some magic elixir that will result in employers lining up to interview you,” says Randall Hansen, associate professor of marketing at Stetson University and publisher of Quintessential Careers.

While the Internet should probably make up one component of your search, says Hansen, it shouldn’t be your only strategy. Only about 15% to 20% of all job openings are ever publicly advertised in any medium, and only about 5% of job seekers end up getting jobs through ads, Hansen says.

How does everyone else do it? Word of mouth.

“Networking is by far the most effective job-search tool you can use,” Hansen says. When you’re first starting out, you probably don’t know many people in your field that can help in your job hunt, so this can present a challenge. But there are plenty of ways beginners can plug into the grapevine:

* Check out the resources offered by your college alumni association.

* Join a professional organization or club.

* Subscribe to a trade magazine.

* Consider getting an internship.

* Find online discussion groups for your industry though groups.google.com.

* Set up informational interviews with experts in your field

* Keep in touch with college acquaintances in your major, especially those who may have graduated before you.

The Internet may not be a total bust — I found my first job out of college through an online journalism job board. But taking the time to weave a web of professional contacts could create more opportunities for you now and enhance your career options down the road.

Learn how to use the Web productively in your job hunt.
Read the rest of this entry »

The Dos and Don’ts of Looking for Work

Q. You’re applying for a high-powered job and you want to impress the hiring manager. What can you do to make your application stand out from the stack?
Skip to next paragraph
Illustration by Chris Reed

A. Be succinct and, above all, truthful. As tempting as it may be to embellish your materials, Karen Suarez, director of career services at Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif., said the most successful applications were those that convey a frank and concise image of who you are.

“An application should stand out because of skill and experience,” Ms. Suarez said. “If it stands out for any other reason, it probably needs to be toned down.”

Q. What are the standard components of a job application?

A. Job applications typically consist of a one-page cover letter and a résumé.

Anna Ivey, a career counselor in Orlando, Fla., said cover letters should not exceed one page and should convey some familiarity with the job being sought. Résumés should list previous jobs in chronological order, Ms. Ivey said, and should enumerate skills so that hiring managers don’t have to guess about the applicant’s experience.

Jo Bennett, partner at Battalia Winston International, an executive search firm in New York, added that applicants should proofread both documents carefully. It’s also wise to eliminate jargon, Ms. Bennett said.

“If you want to say you’re a ‘short-sleeved executive’ with ‘team-building skills,’ just say you’re a good leader,” she said. “The easier it is to read, the more people will read it.”

Q. Is it possible to provide prospective employers with too much information?

A. Absolutely. Ms. Ivey said that personal details about hobbies, marital status, political affiliation and religion had no place on a job application.

Employers are not legally allowed to ask for some details, including age, health status and religious affiliation. If they want other specific personal information or materials like work samples, they’ll ask. In those cases, said Paul Endress, chief executive of Maximum Advantage, a human resources consulting firm in Harrisburg, Pa., it is acceptable to send four or five relevant items; anything more is overkill.

“The last thing you want to do is make it seem like you’re dumping a wheelbarrow at their door and saying, ‘See what you like,’ ” he said. “The more superfluous information you give them, the more risk you’re introducing into the process.”

The job-hunting saga of Aleksey Vayner, a junior at Yale, illustrates the problem. Mr. Vayner, 23, filmed a seven-minute video autobiography and submitted it as part of his application packet for positions at a number of investment banking firms. The video depicted Mr. Vayner lifting weights, serving tennis balls and ballroom dancing. He offered inspirational messages throughout the presentation.

The video circulated widely on Wall Street and was posted to the Internet last month, making Mr. Vayner the subject of mockery worldwide.

As of last week, he had not yet landed a job.
Read the rest of this entry »

Focus your job search, then make contact

In last week’s column, I discussed the common but somewhat unhelpful tendency of job seekers to rely on print and electronic postings as their primary source of job leads.

The problem isn’t that these sources don’t provide good leads — they do. They just don’t provide all, or even most, of the leads available at any given time. To make matters worse, these sources are known to everyone, creating more competition than is helpful.

As I noted last week, the solution is to learn of openings before they are advertised in a public forum. By doing so, the job seeker becomes one of only a few people — or the only person — vying for the job. Although this is a more difficult job search, because it requires one to act instead of react, the payoff comes in higher-caliber jobs from which to select.

So how to find these jobs before they’re posted? The key is focus. You need to identify at least one primary descriptor of your next employer before you can start. Mind you, “an employer who pays well” doesn’t count as a descriptor. Not only is “well paying” a subjective concept, but it’s also difficult to research and doesn’t narrow the field enough.

Better criteria will include one or more of the following: an employer of a particular size, in a particular field, specializing in a certain product line, or doing business in a particular geographic territory. Add to this mix your work area or job title and you’re starting to build a nicely focused job goal.

With a list of potential employers in hand, and an understanding of the work you would like to do for them, you are ready to launch your job search. Now, you don’t have to rely on posted openings, but can instead (or also) look for openings before they are advertised.

This type of job search is often called “the hidden job market,” which simply means the openings aren’t known to the general public. To find them requires you to approach companies without knowing in advance if they are hiring. If that sounds scary, remember that the payoff is huge: With the right timing, you could be the only candidate a company considers.

The best way to find these openings is through someone who works at the company, or through someone who knows someone at the company. This leads us to the well-known but dreaded territory of networking.

If it helps, you can reframe the word into something softer, such as “connecting” or “relationship building.” Or you can just call it networking and get on with things. Whatever you call this process, the steps will always be similar: Make a list of people to contact, then do it. Some of the people will be folks you know, others will be people you need to meet. But if you’ve chosen well, all of them will be people who can provide a link in the chain leading to your next job.

Here are a few tips to get started.
Read the rest of this entry »

5 working with a recruiter tips

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.

If you never have worked with a recruiter, it can be intimidating. But if the job you seek is connected to a search firm, you want to know your stuff. Here are five tips that will help you deal with the middleman.

1 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 resume and cover letter to a search firm, but don’t be pushy. Simply state, “I would appreciate your adding my resume to your database in case you are retained for a search that would match my qualifications,” says Jane Howze, founder of The Alexander Group.

2 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.
Most likely, you won’t be called in for a face-to-face interview, but you will be asked to participate in a thorough phone interview with the recruiter.
“Remember, a recruiter has the exact same agenda as the company,” Hickman says. “They are trying to figure out what a candidate’s goals are and if they match what the company is looking for.”

3 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 resume to the company. And definitely don’t e-mail or call, even if it seems like an innocent expression of your desire for the job.

“In hiring a search firm, a (company) has basically outsourced the search,” says Howze. “It is not usually a good strategy for the candidate to call the (company) directly. Many (companies) believe that it shows impatience, entitlement and a refusal to follow rules.”
If you fit what the company is looking for, you will get in soon enough. Don’t let impatience ruin your chances.

4 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?
When you get the answers, follow the rules with a few exceptions. If you want to add something to your resume, you can contact the recruiter. Also let the recruiter know if you are considering another job.

5 Don’t take advantage of the recruiters
If you are going to put your name in with a search firm, you should be serious about changing jobs.

Sure, it’s a great resource for job openings, but it isn’t there to work for you personally.

“You will get black-listed from their firm and possibly others, as well as some employers, if you use them to tire-kick just to see what is out there,” says Gary Daugenti, president of JustSTAFF, an executive search firm in Los Altos, Calif.
He also suggests limiting the number of recruiters you work with.

Consulting lucrative gig for baby-boomer CIOs

More and more, older CIOs are getting into the consulting game. For some, it’s a way to keep busy after retirement. But others have no choice.

Increasingly, baby-boomer CIOs are finding themselves the victims of subtle age discrimination. As they get older, finding that next job gets harder.

“A lot of guys who are between jobs are doing consulting,” said Michael Rumak, the former CIO of Enesco Group Inc., an Itasca, Ill.-based maker of home décor products. “The primary focus for those that have been out of work is that they manage to at least pay the bills with consulting work. It’s not what they want to do long term, but at least it pays the bills.”

But this isn’t a problem unique to CIOs.

Age does matter, Gartner says

CIOs use boards to advance careers

Research by the AARP has found that older job seekers spend more time unemployed than younger ones. The average duration of unemployment for workers age 55 or older was 24.1 weeks in 2005. Workers younger than 55 were unemployed for an average of only 17.1 weeks.

When companies shop for a new CIO, age isn’t necessarily an explicit issue. Age discrimination is illegal. No one asks, but older CIOs know the question is always out there.

Rumak, a former vice president of international information systems at New York-based cosmetics firm Revlon Inc., was recruited in 2005 by the CEO of Enesco. When a leadership shuffle ousted the CEO this spring, Rumak, without a CEO sponsor, soon followed her out the door. Finding a new CIO position has been tough for Rumak. With children in college, he’s started consulting. At 52, Rumak believes age has something to do with his slow job search.

“We recognize that we’re going to have a tough time going against the 30-year-olds,” he said. “There’s no use complaining about it. We are what we are.”

He also attributed part of his trouble to a lack of local contacts. He relocated from New Jersey to Chicago when he joined Enesco. Rumak has joined several local networking groups in order to establish new contacts.

“What I discovered at these networking meetings was that I was not alone, that many senior IT people are out there looking for positions,” Rumak said. “What was impressive about that and scary was that people who are quite well known have been out of work for three or four years.”

Some CIOs join a consulting firm and draw a full-time salary while others have enough assets and savings to live comfortably while doing part-time consulting. They may not even need the money. They simply want to stay busy. But others work full time as self-employed consultants to keep earning the equivalent of a full-time salary.

“I managed over the years to build a nest egg,” Rumak said. “My first thought was, do I have enough left to just call it quits and do part-time work or part-time consulting? Unfortunately, I have two kids to put through college. So I need to have that kind of income.”

Tim Bretz, a consultant with The W Group, a Malvern, Pa.-based consultancy, said he moved to consulting 10 years ago after an early retirement (he was only 51) from his position as CIO of Blue Bell, Pa.-based PMA Insurance Co. For Bretz, the transition to consulting was his choice, on his terms.

“It was just the sameness,” he said. “There wasn’t a great deal of variety. The challenge wasn’t really there anymore, and I just felt I was losing the edge, the sharpness I had had. I was looking to make a change. I hadn’t really considered consulting until [I received] a retirement package. Then a friend pointed me to consulting.”

However, when the consulting firm Bretz joined was acquired by another firm a few years later, he and his colleagues were laid off. Bretz considered finding a new CIO position. He soon realized his age was an issue.

“I tried to see what was out there with regular work,” Bretz said. “That’s the roadblock I ran into. I was 58 or 59, and that’s just the way it is. It’s been that way as long as I can remember. I recall going through r&eacte;sumés myself and having the same response — these people are getting a little long in the tooth. It’s illegal maybe, but it’s on your mind.”

Faced by these prospects, Bretz went back to consulting with The W Group, where he helps companies set up outsourcing deals.
Read the rest of this entry »

Are You Resume Ready?

What if a recruiter called you today? Would you be ready to jump on the opportunity she offers you? If not, you could lose the chance to better your career, as jobs go FAST in this competitive market. If you are going to be “Resume Ready” you have to keep your resume up-to-the-minute.

Always check your resume once a year. Since you will always want to talk about your current job, add the new results and accomplishments you’ve achieved during the year. Try to shoot for adding two new bullets, at least. Then, when you go to a professional to update the whole resume, you’re already up to date. Another way to track your achievements is to keep a running list of your work accomplishments. You’d be surprised how many things you’ll forget if you don’t write them down.
Update your resume and cover letter when you have changed your focus. For example, if you are a Senior Accountant but now want to apply for CFO jobs, it’s time to update your skills and include more of your leadership talents.

Get ready for company layoffs if you see the handwriting on the wall. Don’t delay tetting yourself ready to hit the job market running. Your resume and cover letter should be ready to use immediately. And don’t delay preparing your resume if you are feeling dissatisfied in your job.

It’s time to take stock of yourself NOW and a resume is the best tool you have for clarifying your work goals and responsibilities. Remember, too, your resume is your first tool in your job search.

Resume writing can be the bottleneck to advancements in your career. If you find yourself getting writer’s block consider getting help. You can find experts who have written hundreds of resumes; they can help you, too. A good first place to look for help is online job search sites such as career builder or monster.com.

Get help writing resumes that will get you hired

There you’ll find a number of expert writers who can provide you critiques as well as do-overs for resumes. There are some services that specialize in niche markets for executive resumes. You can also find help distributing resumes.

Even if you’re a professional writer, you’ll recognize that these people know their stuff. They’ll help build resumes into effective marketing brochures that people can use to interviews. People often put too much or too little information in their resumes. They may not have the distance to critique their own resumes to decide what should stay in and what should be taken out.

Online job search sites have a number of sources that you can use for your career search. Getting help writing resumes is just one of them. You can also pick up interview tips, learn about career fairs, and get the low down on continuing education. Not only can you learn how to improve your interview skills, you can also learn more about hot careers.

Resume writing tips for the Internet

You need resume writing tips for the Internet because not all resumes are created equally. Sometimes employers will want their resumes in ASCII format only. That means you produce something in Notepad, not Word. You can write your resume in Word but then you make sure you save it in Text format. You’ll lose a lot of formatting when you do this so keep the resume simple and check what it looks like in Notepad.

Getting interviews depends on submitting the right kind of resume

The usual reason why an employer wants the resume in ASCII format is that they scan the resume into their resume bank. This way you might get a call for an interview when you’re not actively looking because your resume was scanned in to the employer’s database of resumes. Here are some tips to help improve how scannable your résumé is:

• Employ ample use of keywords in your resume when you write it. The recruiter uses keywords to search through the database to find resumes.

• Use a simple font, one that doesn’t have curly shapes to it. Look for sans serif fonts; Arial is a good one to try. This is so that the letter shapes don’t confuse the OCR software.

• Avoid bold or italic font. It’s harder for the OCR software to read the text that way.

• If you are using snail mail to get your resume to the company, don’t fold it. Folds in the paper can obscure the writing on your resume.

• Don’t use columns for your resume. It doesn’t get picked up that well by the OCR scanner. Use a single column table format instead.
Consider safeguarding your identity when posting resumes on to the Internet. Minimize personal identifying information on your resume. Create a job search e-mail that you shut down when you don’t need it anymore.

Resume Writing doesn’t have to be a solo gig

Resume writing can be the bottleneck to advancements in your career. If you find yourself getting writer’s block consider getting help. You can find experts who have written hundreds of resumes; they can help you, too. A good first place to look for help is online job search sites such as career builder or monster.com.

Get help writing resumes that will get you hired

There you’ll find a number of expert writers who can provide you critiques as well as do-overs for resumes. There are some services that specialize in niche markets for executive resumes. You can also find help distributing resumes.

Even if you’re a professional writer, you’ll recognize that these people know their stuff. They’ll help build resumes into effective marketing brochures that people can use to interviews. People often put too much or too little information in their resumes. They may not have the distance to critique their own resumes to decide what should stay in and what should be taken out.

Online job search sites have a number of sources that you can use for your career search. Getting help writing resumes is just one of them. You can also pick up interview tips, learn about career fairs, and get the low down on continuing education. Not only can you learn how to improve your interview skills, you can also learn more about hot careers.

Resume writing tips for the Internet

You need resume writing tips for the Internet because not all resumes are created equally. Sometimes employers will want their resumes in ASCII format only. That means you produce something in Notepad, not Word. You can write your resume in Word but then you make sure you save it in Text format. You’ll lose a lot of formatting when you do this so keep the resume simple and check what it looks like in Notepad.

Getting interviews depends on submitting the right kind of resume

The usual reason why an employer wants the resume in ASCII format is that they scan the resume into their resume bank. This way you might get a call for an interview when you’re not actively looking because your resume was scanned in to the employer’s database of resumes. Here are some tips to help improve how scannable your résumé is:

• Employ ample use of keywords in your resume when you write it. The recruiter uses keywords to search through the database to find resumes.

• Use a simple font, one that doesn’t have curly shapes to it. Look for sans serif fonts; Arial is a good one to try. This is so that the letter shapes don’t confuse the OCR software.

• Avoid bold or italic font. It’s harder for the OCR software to read the text that way.

• If you are using snail mail to get your resume to the company, don’t fold it. Folds in the paper can obscure the writing on your resume.

• Don’t use columns for your resume. It doesn’t get picked up that well by the OCR scanner. Use a single column table format instead.
Consider safeguarding your identity when posting resumes on to the Internet. Minimize personal identifying information on your resume. Create a job search e-mail that you shut down when you don’t need it anymore.If you enjoyed this article, visit my website Get-A-New-JobA site devoted to all the things you need to get a new job…education, resume writing tips, interviews, and career strategies.www.get-a-new-job.com