Resume Help Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Job Search Tips’

Richard Bolles, job search guru and author of “What Color Is Your Parachute?” predicts that you can expect to search for work 1-2 months for every $10,000 you hope to earn. So, if you’re looking for a $40,000 a year position, you may search for 4-8 months to land it. Back when the economy sizzled, that job search length would have seemed outrageous, but now, many people would be thrilled to only search for 4-8 months. Now the question is: How can you limit your job search length regardless of what’s happening with the local economy?

The answer to that question depends on the strength of your job search campaign. Take a look at these common job search problems. If your campaign is suffering from any of these symptoms, try one or more of the tips suggested for each.

If you’re mailing resumes but aren’t getting interviews:

Your campaign may not be intense enough. Remember that searching for a job is a full-time job. Increase your employer contacts by phone, fax, mail and email to 10-20 per week. Networking is always the best method.
Bottom line: Getting interviews from resumes is in part a numbers game. Contact more employers to increase the odds in your favor.

Your resume may reveal that you do not possess the skills sets employers want. Get them! Or another possibility is you would benefit from a professionally written resume. A professional knows how to highlight your strengths and minimize your weaknesses.

Bottom line: It’s up to you to qualify yourself for the job you want. Demonstrate your initiative and enroll in that class now, then be sure to claim your new skills on your resume.

. You may not be contacting the employers who are buying the skills you’re selling. Always remember, the major companies are always hiring if the right candidate comes along. It’s up to you to convince them that you are the one. That’s why a professionally written resume is worth the investment. If you already have a good resume here are the steps to follow: First, identify the three skills you possess that you most want to market to employers. Second, match those skills to three different kinds of positions that commonly use your preferred skills.

Next, tie each of the positions you identify to specific local industries and employers who hire people with the skills you’re marketing. Then create different resume versions for each of the types of positions you intend to seek. Make sure each version highlights and documents your ability to do what you claim you can do.

Bottom line: Different employers need different things from their employees. Know what you have to sell and sell it to the companies that want it. At all costs, avoid generalizing your resume with clichés and vague statements.

. Your resume may poorly communicate what you have to offer. If you have weaknesses in your employment chronology or if you are changing careers, you will need to take great care in structuring your résumé’s content to overcome any perceived deficiencies. Create a powerful career summary statement which emphasizes your primary skills, qualities, credentials, experience and goals.

Group your most marketable skills into an achievements section and showcase those using numbers, concrete nouns and clear indications of the results you accomplished. Use company research and the employer’s job description to focus your revised resume on the company’s needs.

Bottom line: The person who decides whether or not to interview you will make that decision in a mere 15 to 25 seconds. Be clear, organized and achievement-focused to use those seconds to convince the employer to interview you.

If you’re getting interviews but no job offers:

. You may have the basic skills the employer needs but not the advanced skills they prefer. Review the second bullet above and act on the suggestions presented. Once you have updated or expanded your skills through additional education, experience or self-study, begin building a career success portfolio to prove your success to prospective employers. This will also help you respond to those behavior-based interview questions that are the rage these days.

Bottom line: It is up to you to advance your career. Figure out what you lack, then learn the skill or develop the ability.

. You lack strong self-marketing skills and this is showing in your interviews. To improve the quality of your interpersonal communications and interview responses, take a class. Invite someone to role play an interview with you. Practice answering behavior-based interview questions. Arrange to participate in a videotaped mock interview.

Go into the interview armed with 5-8 words or phrases that positively describe your workplace personality and use those words or phrases throughout the interview. Match your communication style to the interviewer’s questioning style. Know your resume and defend it. Keep your responses brief and always to the point.

Bottom line: Your interviewing performance serves as a preview of your on-the-job performance, so project your best. Research, practice, and sell!

To job search is to make mistakes. Question is, are you learning from the job search mistakes you’ve made? Evaluate your search every two to three months so you can fine tune your campaign on a regular basis. With the right knowledge and proper tools in place, there will be no stopping you!

Authors bio: Cheryl Lynch Simpson, L.P.C. is a Career Coach with over 20 years’ experience helping professionals bring new life to their career campaigns. She can be reached at idealwork@earthlink.net

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

Mary Berman, from Farmington Hills, Michigan, had been looking for work since February 2009 before starting a “Guerrilla” job search, in late September.

Up to that point, 20 weeks of job hunting had produced zero job interviews.

Just 7 weeks later, she accepted a job on Thursday, November 12, as a marketing executive assistant.

How did she use Guerrilla job hunting tactics to find work 65% faster?

“I saw a job advertised online and applied by mail. I sent a box with a paper Starbucks coffee cup, my cover letter, and resume inside. On the side of the cup, where it has boxes for the type of coffee, I made my own box that said, ‘Hire Mary’ and checked it with a black marker. I heard back a couple days later to get my first interview,” says Berman.

After her first job interview, which went well, Berman followed up with panache.

“It was Halloween time, so I decided to send them a chocolate covered apple with my hand-written thank-you note in a bag. I had a friend of mine, who was off work that day, take it over and deliver it to [the employer]. That was a big hit — they were thrilled — and I got the second interview out of it.”

Berman’s second job interview was with the executive vice president. Afterwards, she followed up diligently. “When I came home, I wrote a 30-60-90 day plan. I had taken copious notes during the interview and used that information to create suggestions for what I would do in my first 30, 60, and 90 days. I sent that to them via FedEx with another thank-you note. And I got a job offer.”

Now. Let’s break this successful Guerrilla Job Search down …

1. Start smart

The Coffee Cup Caper — a paper Starbucks cup, full-color Guerrilla Resume, and a cover letter (asking to meet for coffee), shipped in a box — gets extraordinary results. By contrast, ordinary resumes and cover letters, sent by email, get ordinary results.

2. Follow up with style

Delivering a Halloween treat with her thank-you note was correct seasonally, if not politically. Use good judgment before sending items that might be perceived as bribes by employers sensitive to such things, such as universities or public-sector organizations.

In Berman’s case, however, it worked like a (chocolate-covered) charm.

And, leaving out the gift, think of the impact a hand-delivered thank-you note can have on an employer, versus standard U.S. Mail or email. Could you arrange to have your thank-you note delivered by a courier, or a friend acting as one? Of course you could!

3. Give employers another reason to hire you

Mary did this in spades after her second interview, when she sent a written plan of action that outlined her first three months on the job.

A 30-60-90 day plan is a way of proving you can do the work — before you’re even on the payroll — by describing how you would learn the job, build rapport with employees/customers, and contribute to the bottom line.

Mary’s plan was 8 pages long and took the better part of a Friday night to prepare. (Before you balk at spending an entire evening at home researching and writing a 30-60-90 day plan, ask yourself if you wouldn’t trade a night out for getting a steady paycheck again.)

4. Score style points with your delivery

Mary’s first follow-up, the chocolate-apple-thank-you note, was delivered by a courier, not by email. Her 30-60-90 day plan was delivered by FedEx, not by email.

Do you not see a pattern? Email should NOT be the delivery method for your career documents. Because you can’t delete a courier, and a FedEx envelope can’t get caught in a spam filter.

Bottom line: This smart Guerrilla had failed to get even one job interview in 20 weeks of job hunting with conventional tactics.

After adopting unconventional Guerrilla tactics, she found work in only 7 weeks.

If Guerrilla job search methods can work in Michigan, where the unemployment rate tops 15%, they can work where you live. The only thing stopping you from thinking and acting like a Guerrilla is you. Why wait another minute? To get started with your own Guerilla search plans here’s where to start!