Resume Help Blog

Archive for June, 2009

By Joe Turner

We are in a recession and who knows how long or how deep it will go. Are you prepared? Do you know how to find and win a job in a smaller, more competitive job market?

Here are six winning ways to maximize your chances of scoring a secure paycheck:

Get in the Game:

If you’re serious about finding employment, become proactive. Stretch yourself, get out of your comfort zone and aggressively search beyond the listed jobs you find on the Internet. This requires a game plan and the expectation that you’re going to win this game. Decide to excel and achieve at job search.

Do something every day to further your search. Positive action diminishes anxiety and other negative feelings. This goes beyond survival of the fittest. For anyone who wants to succeed, it requires an iron will and determination. You will not be defeated by this job search process. You will prevail and you will outlast this challenge. Remind yourself of that.

Lose the Neediness:

Take the words “desperate” and “defeat” out of your vocabulary. Employers can sense neediness and they won’t hire you. If you present yourself with a sense of desperation, you’re bringing your anxiety and fears to the table. Rather, focus on what you can do for an employer. Don’t focus on your needs. Instead, focus on what the employer needs, and this leads us to Resolution #3.

Think ROI:

Employers don’t hire people to be liabilities on their balance sheets. They hire people to be assets (to provide a Return On Investment) and to solve a problem. To do this, demonstrate clear benefits that you offer them.

Take a look at your skills, experience, abilities and talents. Determine how you can best help the employer either make money or save money. Turn your skills and talents into benefits that an employer understands and appreciates. Pull out examples from your past work experience. Ask yourself, “How did my work save time or money, make money or otherwise improve the overall situation for my employer?”

Education and skills, while valuable, do not translate into benefits. What can you do for this employer that your competitors can’t? You have a unique set of skills, experiences and talents. Turn them into a “Unique Selling Proposition” for the employer.

Widen Your Network

In the past it was easier to find work by responding to ads found in the newspaper or on the Internet. That was before the bar was raised. Now it’s foolhardy to limit yourself to ads on the Internet and expect success. Aggressively seek out those 80% of jobs that are not advertised.

Start widening your network both in person and online. Begin by making some new contacts each week through local events or related professional meetings. Online, you can add your bio to LinkedIn, Spoke and even MySpace, for starters. Don’t forget family, friends and neighbors who might know someone. Job searching is tough enough. Don’t isolate yourself behind a computer screen.

Be Persistent

Nothing worth having is ever easy to achieve. There is a lot of rejection in job search. Sometimes it seems as if you’ll never get a “yes”. Remember what good sales people already know. That winning a sale, a job, or any other goal is a numbers game. Commission sales people will tell you that every “no” is one step closer to a “yes”. When you can see your process from a more objective viewpoint, knowing that you’re one more rejection closer to a “yes”, you’ll be less inclined to take the “no’s” personally, and less likely to get discouraged.

Inoculate Yourself Against Negative Messages

Succeeding at a job search is a mental process, and negative input from anywhere can poison your outlook and encourage fear, discouragement, anxiety and other negative emotions. Associate with positive people and protect yourself from all types of negativity. A job search can be a big undertaking. You need all of the assets and advantages that you can possibly bring to the party. You can’t afford to be exposed to the negativity of others. This includes friends, relatives and negativity from newspapers, magazines and TV. Read books and articles that motivate, encourage and inspire you. Avoid anything and anyone that doesn’t fall into this category.

Summary

The job search market will only get tougher and more competitive in 2009. Get an early edge by implementing these six resolutions now to catapult your job search into the fast lane in a tightening job market.

Believe it or not that is exactly what a friend of mine said to me the other day when I suggested that she take a look at one of the professional resume writers we feature on our site.

My friend has been out of work for four months. She has a good job history as far as the businesses go that she has worked for. And yet in four months, not one job interview. Why? she was asking.

My friend is attractive, dresses well, doesn’t smell bad; then why? I looked at her resume and she does have the good job record she claimed in a good field that I know is hiring now.  What would you tell someone who asked you?

My suggestion to consider having her resume re-written by a professional resume writer wasn’t well received so I explained further:

Having your resume professionally written gives you a leg up on the competition because the writer will interview you and get to know you, your personality, likes and dislikes, the type of job you are looking for and are best suited for. You can be sure that your resume won’t look like it came from a template or like everyone else’s.

With a professional resume writer they look at the jobs in the market and what “key words” are being used to describe the positions, then they incorporate those into the resume so that your resume hits the right note with the prospective employer. Her resume will be “truly unique”. And will show off her strengths. And if she will get her cover letter professionally written at the same time so she will be ready to go!

Does this sound like you? If so what are you waiting for? The investment of a few dollars for a new career is the best investment you can make. Invest in yourself; you are worth it! We have some of the best professional resume writers anywhere. Take a look then contact one of them. Do it now! Don’t be out of work needlessly another day.