Posts Tagged ‘job hunting’
January 5th, 2010 | 
Author: It is astonishing how many recruiters say they receive resumes and cover letters filled with spelling errors. A spelling slip-up, even a minor one, says more about you than the most articulate choice of words. For instance, is it “too” or “to”? Did you write “it’s” or “its”? Just those two words alone count for a lot of mistakes.
Get as many people to proof and edit your resume and cover letter as possible. You can never have too many eyes. The corporate content manager of a large instrument company says she sees a lot of spelling and grammatical errors. Once she sees a mistake she won’t read any further. She is not alone. When asked about the worst resumes and cover letters they have ever received, those that read them can come up with some hilarious shockers. How about the person applying to work at ExxonMobil? Nice resume, great cover letter, but he spelled the company’s name Exxon Mobile. There goes that job prospect.
While such big blunders are not that common, many people do make simple mistakes that could be easily avoided.
The top four common mistakes are:
Spelling and grammar are at the top of the list, probably because people rely too much on spell check. Spell check is a useful tool, but you also need several sets of eyeballs to catch everything. Spell check doesn’t check the context and use of words—your or you’re, four or for?
Repeating verbatim what’s in your resume on your cover letter
Forgetting to replace a company name when cutting and pasting parts of a letter
Carelessness — “I’d like to work for your company” (and the organization is a non-profit or government agency) or “I read your ad in the Philadelphia Inquirer” and it was run in another publication.
To make your way through the maze of errors that inevitably pop up, follow these simple steps:
Find people who will critically read each resume and cover letter you write for the content as well as the details. You might not notice that a period is missing from a sentence or an indentation that should be there isn’t. A reader hunting for errors will find them.
Read your resume and cover letter backwards from the bottom up, word by word. It sounds silly, but doing so allows you to see errors you would probably gloss over reading it from the top down.
Read the resume and cover letter aloud to find words that don’t make sense or aren’t meaningful.
If you send a resume or cover letter to several companies, highlight each specific change so you make sure not to send Company A’s letter to Company B.
Finally, if you send a resume and cover letter via e-mail, stick it in the draft folder for an hour and then read it again before actually sending it. However sending something this important email is not recommended.
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Today’s economic news may be gloom and doom but it needn’t derail your job hunt. You can still win a great job, even in a lousy economy. You WILL have to get smarter in your job search strategy, though.
Here are 5 tips to incorporate into your job search approach during the recession:
1. Research Your Options
Does your industry or line of work offer little promise of employment in the coming months? If so, now is a good time to step back to identify the projected top performing industries and jobs. The best place to find this info is on the web through Google or Yahoo. Start with “best industries work recession” or “recession jobs 2008″ to uncover articles describing some of the more “recession-proof” sectors to target.
2. Change Your Focus
Start asking yourself the question, “What’s in it for them?” as opposed to, “What’s in it for me?” Especially in an economic downturn, you’ll want to stay focused on what you can accomplish for your next employer. Show them that you understand the macroeconomic “bigger picture” of the role you play in moving the company forward.
3. Sell Results, Not Skills
Leave behind that old mindset that your job-related skills or length of service are selling factors. The new mindset is to think of yourself as a mini profit-and-loss center rather than just an employee. Employers today buy results and are less impressed with candidates promoting a long laundry list of skills. You’ll want to define the many ways your past and present job performance are assets to your next employer.
4. Start Talking Money
The recession has made the private sector economy even more bottom-line oriented than ever. Hiring managers categorize employees into one of two distinct groups:
- those who help make money
- those who help save money.
Which One Are You?
For example, Barry worked as the human resources manager of a mid-sized company. While much of his work focused on compliance issues, he noticed that the company was paying many thousands of dollars to locate and hire good employees. As a result, Barry developed and implemented an in-house employee referral program that netted three quality hires in a six-month period. This saved the company almost $70,000 that the company would have paid for recruiters and advertising costs.
Barry saves money for his company and this is an accomplishment future employers will want to hear about.
Rethink your current or past job to understand your position in the bigger corporate P&L picture. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
- How did my work improve the performance of my department or company?
- How many roles did I perform that saved the company the expense of added employees or contractors?
- How has my work made the work of others (employees and managers) easier, faster and more effective?
Collect specific examples of the benefits that your company gained from the work you’ve already performed. Clarify the specific benefit your company received by making money or saving money, and write them down.
5. Add Achievements to Your Resume
Employers don’t hire employees, they hire problem-solvers. Your new resume should be a hard-hitting sales tool designed to accomplish one goal: get the interview. To demonstrate this, add a specific achievements list to your resume. Take the list that you developed in the previous section and hone it down to your biggest and most notable accomplishments. Now, describe the benefit that your employer gained from each example. This will put you several steps ahead of your job-seeking competitors. Plus, you’ll now have some talking points ready for that next phone interview.
Summary
Don’t let all the hype about the recession spook you into a state of panic. By revising your tactics to include a more solution-selling approach to employers, you stand a better chance of getting hired in today’s faltering economy.
