Resume Help Blog

Posts Tagged ‘career counseling’

Let’s take a look at eight common job search myths…and the reality behind them:

The best qualified individual gets the job.

Actually, it’s the best candidate who gets the job. That person may or may not be the best qualified. Understand the difference.

Job boards are the best source of leads.

Your network is the best source of leads. It’s fine to check online and to peruse the want ads…but don’t spend too much time there. Most jobs are never posted.

It’s nearly impossible to find those hidden jobs.

Not if you put some work into it, and if you’re purposeful about how you go about it. Make sure people know about your search. They can’t help you if they don’t know you’re looking. Keep working to expand your network. Every meeting with another person is a potential networking opportunity. Think about who might be able to help you – even if it’s someone you don’t know yet – and figure out how you can go about meeting that person.

Thank you letters are passé.

If you don’t really want the job, skip the thank you letter. Otherwise, you’d better write one. It’s your last chance to sell yourself – to underscore why you’re the person who can help solve whatever problem it is the hiring manager is facing.

Your recruiter works for you.

No, no, no. He works for the hiring company. His job is to fill the open position with the best candidate – as defined by the hiring company. If you’re a good match, it’s in the headhunter’s best interest to try to close the deal and get you placed. But you’re not paying him, and he’s not an employment agent.

Offering to take a cut in salary will boost your chances of landing the job.

That depends – on how much of a cut we’re talking about, and how you bring it up. Flexibility is important – even in this market, you’d be surprised how many candidates draw a line in the sand regarding what they will and will not accept. Still, it’s important that you broach the subject at the right time, especially if it’s a significant decrease from what you were previously earning (say, 20%). You don’t want to come off as desperate, and neither do you want to be perceived as someone who will bolt the minute the employment situation improves.

The hiring company will contact you if they’re interested.

Maybe. Maybe not. Don’t sit back and wait for the phone call, especially in this tight job market. Submit your resume, wait a week, and then follow up.

University employment resources are only for kids.

Career assistance isn’t limited solely to recent graduates. Whether or not your alma mater offers a robust slate of services is another story – but you won’t know if you don’t check it out. You might find things like career coaching or counseling, networking events, and recruitment firm referrals. Go to your school’s website and see if there’s some sort of Career Center, online community, or yellow pages.

About the author: Rebecca Metschke helps professionals seeking a competitive advantage in today’s global economy.

You just graduated and think the world is just waiting for you to leap on life’s stage. Don’t be so smug, every graduate feels the same way. But now comes the next challenge; finding the right position that you have been planning for so long. Where do you start?

I don’t want to burst your bubble or prick your ego but competition is fierce especially now during this current recession so let’s just start with a couple of ideas to help you get started.

First—always the best place to begin is with your friends and neighbors; friends that you have known for some time especially if they have a pretty good position in a major company. Possibly someone in your graduating class that you have become friendly with who may have a relative or good friend that can give you a hand up. That may take a while to run down the list of people you know and have known over the years, especially if you have lived in the same place for a while. If you have moved around a lot it will take more time.

Second—consider having a professional resume company help you work your resume to your best advantage. If you are a person that believes that a resume, is a resume, is a resume etc. then you are in for a rude awakening. That isn’t so, a professional resume writer is just what the name says – “a Professional”! Who is most qualified to help you find the perfect position that you have worked so hard for – the professional resume writer!

As if the dreaded R-word wasn’t already making the job hunt tough, applying for work online can feel like you’re tossing that carefully crafted cover letter and résumé into an abyss of HTML. After polling experts in human resources and career development, we gathered a few tips for separating yourself from the other online applicants.

1. Use position-relevant keywords: “Most recruiters today do not look at each individual résumé that comes in. They perform searches on electronic résumés by keywords,” says Allison O’Kelly, CEO of staffing firm, Mom Corps. “Therefore, it is critical that you make sure that you have keywords in your résumé that you would expect a recruiter to use in a search.”

2. Label your résumé clearly: “If you are e-mailing your résumé directly to an employer, you can name the document “Full Name’s Résumé for Name of Position Applying to,” says Tara Malone, assistant director of career development at Purchase College.”

3. Use the appropriate subject heading: “If sending via e-mail, the subject line must clearly state “who” you are (for example, sales associate- pharmaceutical industry) or the position for which you are applying,” says career consultant Wendy S. Enelow.

4. Don’t use “helper words”: Jane Goldner, president of the Goldner Group, adds that words like “assisted” and “coordinated” emphasize that you’re less of a doer and  more a passive helper.

5. Try the FedEx trick: “A candidate sent FedEx envelopes to each hiring manager with a short note telling us that the best candidate we could hope to see was about to present her résumé and that we should be ready,” says David Lewis, president of a human resources outsourcing firm, OperationsInc. “A few days later, another FedEx arrived with the résumé. She got the interview. She was as advertised, and we hired her.”  Click here for more ideas like this that really work!

http://www.metro.us/us/article/2010/02/28/22/4724-82/index.xml