Job Search Archives - Page 6 of 7 - Palladian Career Resources

Organizing Your Job Search: HappyJob Search

I ran into a tool today that could be helpful in a job search. The tool, HappyJobSearch, allows a job seeker to create an online account to track their job search activity. What I like about this tool is how it organizes your job search. It is very easy in a job search to forget where you have sent resumes.

I ran into a tool today that could be helpful in a job search. The tool, HappyJobSearch, allows a job seeker to create an online account to track their job search activity.

What I like about this tool is how it organizes your job search. It is very easy in a job search to forget where you have sent resumes. In my job searches earlier in my career, I organized organized everything with lots of paper. I printed each job description, information from the company’s website and news on the company, and kept it all in a file folder with notes. This was effective, but tedious.

Using an online database should make the process more efficient. Additionally, the tracking system at Happy Job Search allows you to set the next action for each opportunity. The display of the opportunity is sorted by the next action, so it’s very easy to go to your top priorities.

The website does have some limitations. For example, it doesn’t allow any type of scheduling. Knowing your next action is helpful, it’s also important to know when to complete this action. Additionally, the database stores the link to the job description – not the actual posting. Many job descriptions are only posted for a specific time – typically 30 days. After this, the link won’t work. Printing or saving the description is important if you want to ensure you can go back to it.

I’m interested in how useful this is for an active job seeker. If you decide to try this out, let me know your experience with it.

Personal Information on a Resume

A resume is a presentation of a person’s professional background, demonstrating their capability and potential. It needs to sell the job seeker to a hiring manager and generate interest that will lead to an interview.

Some job seekers try to personalize their resume by including information unrelated to their career. This can include their age, family status, religious affiliation, hobbies, volunteer work or other details. The only reason to put something on a resume is to make it more effective – in other words – land an interview. By putting personal information on your resume, you are asking a hiring manager to make a hiring decision based on this information.

Do you think that having three kids, being an active fisherman or volunteering at a charity is a reason why a person would be a better quality manager, distribution supervisor or sales executive? There are much better reasons why to hire a person. For example, their experience in a similar job and their education are usually good criteria for making a hiring decision.

Including some personal details is not a major detractor on a resume. Just as a hiring manager won’t hire someone because they ballroom dance, they will not reject them for this either. The reason you want to omit personal information is that your resume is limited in length. The vast majority of resumes need to be two pages or less. There are exceptions to this rule, but they are rare. With only two pages to show your entire professional background, extraneous information needs to be avoided.

Every element of your resume needs to demonstrate your potential. If a detail doesn’t help you get an interview, you should put something else in it’s place. For example,

Expand the descriptions within your work experience by adding additional accomplishments.
List training classes and continuing education you have completed in your field.
Qualify the skills you list on your resume with examples of projects that demonstrate your skill level.

Adding information to your resume that could impress a hiring manager and eliminating informations that is far less important to your career will improve your chances of landing an interview.

What Have You Created?

For many job seekers encounter, developing a good list of accomplishments to include on their resume and to discuss in an interview is a challenge. Listing accomplishments sounds like an easy task – just write about your successes. Despite this, it often proves to be very difficult.

The result, nearly half of all resume list no accomplishments.

There are several causes of this. Many people forget details from prior positions. Some job seekers find it difficult to focus on their successes after a job loss. Their reduced confidence affects their resume, interviews, and job search success. The most common cause I see is an a failure to recognize an experience as an accomplishment that will impress a hiring manager. This stems from a lack of understanding of what a hiring manager wants.

You can find accomplishments that will demonstrate your potential in a wide variety of work activities. One particular focus I find uncovers a lot of impressive accomplishments is to look for things the job seeker has created.

There are a few questions you can ask yourself to get the process started:

What systems have your created and implemented?
What processes have you created and implemented?
What tools, including forms, spreadsheets and databases, have your designed?
What products or services have you designed?

These questions will help identify potential accomplishments. From there, you need to look at your specific actions and the results that were achieved. Designing a great system that never gets implemented or a product that never makes it to market is difficult to sell as an accomplishment. Provide specific results. Did the project you completed increase sales, reduce costs, improve quality, increase customer service, or provide another benefit.

It is the benefit, the tangible value you provided an employer, that will impress a hiring manager.

The Importance of Self-Confidence in Your Job Search

I’ve worked with many job seekers that lost a job and all their confidence with it. They take a job loss as a definitive statement of their value as a professional. Somehow, they feel that getting fired once more than cancels out every success and achievement they have had in their career.

It should be clear to anyone that being fired does not reverse every success a person has achieved in their career. In speaking with job seekers, virtually all of them will say they understand that a job loss is not the end of their career. Despite this, many act as if they truly believe it.

A loss of self-confidence may be the biggest obstacle to finding a job. Candidates that have little confidence fail to talk about their accomplishments. They also tend to present their limitations much more than other candidates. As you can expect, a candidate that focuses on their limitations and not their accomplishments will rarely win out.

If you can’t get excited about your work experience, you won’t be able to get a hiring manager excited about it. For most people, this is a temporary reaction to losing their job. The key is working through these self-doubts before you interview.

Review your past successes. Focus on the times when you were successful. Work on getting comfortable talking about your successes. This may sound easy, but for many people it can be very difficult. Often, talking with past co-workers can be a huge benefit. They will remember and recognize the successes you have achieved. Getting fired can make a person feel embarrassed and withdraw from their professional relationships. Don’t make this mistake.

Networking is the most effective search strategy. Withdrawing from relationships makes it impossible to network and will drag out your search.

Some individuals will experience more than just reduced self-confidence. Depression can set in after losing a job. A job loss can be one of the most stressful life events. If you have feel paralyzed with anxiety or despair, talk with a medical professional.

When to Work With a Recruiter

The recruiters at Palladian are seeing a consistent pattern with job seekers. Individuals are worried about the economy and are unwilling to consider changing jobs. They don't want to talk about new positions and are not interested in speaking with a recruiter. Then, a few weeks or months later, the job seekers call back and explain that they have just been laid off.

In a strong economy, this pattern is rare. Today, it's becoming common. As the economy continues to slow, this will become more prevalent.

Managing your career is not a part-time activity, and yet, most people treat it this way. They job hunt when they need a job and avoid all job search activities when they don't. This is a mistake. You never know when your career situation is going to change. We're seeing companies go from stable to bankrupt in weeks. There is little warning and no one knows who is going to be next.

The only solution to this is to develop a “plan B.” You should update your resume, work on your interview skills and network in your industry. Be ready to start a job search if needed. Hopefully, you won't get surprised with a layoff. If you do, you will be ready when your peers will be scrambling.

When you talk with a recruiter, don't just hang up. A recruiter is a person that works full time to identify opportunities and match them to job seekers. A recruiter can be a great resource for you. The key is to build a relationship. You might talk with a recruiter for years before they find the right job for you. The key is that they are always looking.

If you wait to speak with recruiters until you're out of work, you will have much less success. This is due to several factors. The first is that the recruiter doesn't know you and it will take time for them to learn what you want and what your potential is. Building a relationship in advance can eliminate this learning curve when you decide to make a change.

Second, if you wait until you need a job, the recruiter is going to know that you are very active. The recruiter will assume that you are talking with a lot of other recruiters and that you have posted your resume on the job boards. This makes the job seeker much less attractive. A good recruiter finds candidates that a hiring manager can't find. If the job seeker is broadcasting their resume everywhere, there is no need for the hiring manager to rely on the recruiter to find the job seeker.

Third, by waiting until you need help, you do not build trust with the recruiter. Picture a recruiter getting a call from their best client. They need to hire someone with a background similar to yours right now. The recruiter probably has a number of candidates that could fit the position and will want to submit the top three. Although your skills, experience and education will be important, the recruiter is more likely to present a candidate they know well than one they don't, if the two candidates have a similar background. This isn't a result of favoritism – it's a result of the trust that has been built.

A recruiter wants to make a good impression on their client each time they submit candidates. Knowing a candidate – how they communicate and what their values are – can help a job seeker get exposure to a recruiter's clients.

To capitalize on this, you need to start working with recruiters (and network with other professionals) long before you decide to make a change. Update your resume periodically and keep your interview skills fresh. If you do these things, you will be in much better shape if you career takes an unexpected turn.

Your Competition: The Perfect Job Seeker

When you interview, you may be competing against the perfect person. In fact, your competition may be the absolute ideal candidate that the hiring manager can imagine.

We all know that there isn’t a perfect candidate. Despite this, you may be competing against perfection.

How is this possible? A hiring manager usually doesn’t have a requirement to hire someone right now. When they interview job seekers, they need to be convinced to hire someone. The best candidate interviewed will not get hired if the company decides leaves the position open.

The Economic Situation

In a strong economy, there are more jobs than people. Some companies will hire as soon as the see someone with skills they need. In some industries, companies would hire even if they didn’t have an open position. The need to add talent was so critical, job seekers only needed prove they had the potential to do the job.

The situation has changed. The economy is slowing and we’re seeing more job seekers than jobs. Companies are still hiring, but are becoming much more reluctant. To make a hiring decision, the company will need to be convinced that the job seeker will add significant value to the company over the long term. The bar that must be met is in the expectation of the hiring manager – and this expectation may be extremely high.

What You Need to Do

There are three things that you need to do to get hired. You need to show you can do the job. You need to show you are better than your competition. You need demonstrate you will add sufficient value to persuade the hiring manager to fill the position.

Most job seekers focus on the first of these goals. They try to show that they are qualified and are capable of doing the job. This is the cost of admission for the interview. A hiring manager expects everyone they consider to be capable. This will not motivate them to hire you.

Some job seekers will try to show they are more capable than others. This is an improvement, but still not enough to prompt a hiring decision.

The job seekers that will get hired will demonstrate a clear benefit that they will provide to the company. The key to doing this is understanding what the company wants to achieve with the position. Consider how you will help the company reach these goals. Be able to articulate a the benefits you will deliver to the company and the hiring manager.

Are You Doing It Right?

Your results will tell you if you are providing a significant reason why you should be hired. If you get hired, you probably did it right. If you didn’t, that doesn’t necessarily mean that your interviewing was the problem. There is a chance you didn’t have the skills or experience that were important to the company, or another individual was more qualified. You can identify times when you interview skills were the problem.

To assess your interview skills, review your recent interviews. At what stage did you get eliminated – the phone screen, the first interview or a later interview? If you’re not getting past the phone screen, your interview skills are most likely the problem. Companies decided to phone screen job seekers because their resume shows some capability to do the job. If you convince them during the interview that this capability isn’t as strong as they thought, you need to improve your interviewing.

If you are getting to later stages of the process but still are not hired, there could be a lot of factors. The clearest indicator of poor interview skills is a slowing in the process without an outright rejection. In this situation, you go for an interview and all signs indicate a very positive connection with the hiring manager. You leave the interview with a strong indication that the hiring manager thinks very highly of you. Then, nothing happens. Weeks go by. You follow up, and each time you are told that the hiring really likes you but is considering other candidates. Eventually, contact ceases and you move on.

In this situation, the job seeker did well enough that they never get rejected. The hiring manager sees that the person can do the job – perhaps very effectively. Despite this, they aren’t sold on hiring the person. They keep looking, searching for a perfect candidate that will give them a compelling reason to be hired.

If this sounds like your job search, work on your interview skills. Get a practice interview and have an expert assess you. Develop a clear value proposition before each interview and be able to demonstrate the benefits you will provide if you are hired.

Job Fair Advice

Yesterday, I attended the Military Job Fair of Virginia. This job fair caters to transitioning and former military personnel. My firm does a lot of recruiting for defense contractors and we wanted to expand our network of candidates. It was a great event and we met a lot of good people.

Interestingly, the most common first question I was asked was “What jobs do you have?” This may seem like an acceptable question – it is a job fair with companies trying to fill jobs, after all. The problem is that it demonstrates that the job seeker is focused solely on their needs. This goes to the heart of the biggest mistake you can make in your job search.

Who is the Customer?

In a job search, who is the customer and who is the sales person? Companies advertise jobs, market themselves to generate interest and traffic and need to persuade job seekers to work for them. Based on this, most people consider the company as the party that is selling and the job seeker is the buyer.

This is wrong. The company is the one with the money, and the job seeker is the one that has the “product” to sell. The “product” the job seeker is offering is the contribution they will provide the company. How can you make a good impression and get a hiring manager excited about you if you are focused on “what’s in it for you.”

The other problem with asking about jobs is that it is almost impossible to answer. A company that goes to a job fair usually has multiple needs. For large companies, this could be hundreds, or even thousands of jobs. The company representative then has to pick what job they think is most appropriate for the job seeker based only on what they see. Do you want to be categorized and stereotyped based on your appearance? Leading off with this question is asking to be stereotyped.

For some people, how they look will not create the right impression.

Job Seeker Example

Although the job fair was designed for transitioning military personnel, it covered a much broader range. In fact, there were a number of entry level job seekers, particularly in administrative roles. Because the event had a military focus, there were less women than men.

There was a point midway during the day, when I had talked with a series of young women that were all looking for administrative positions. Then, a woman I remember walked up that looked especially young and had a similar image to the others I met.

If she had led off with “What jobs do you have,” I would then have to guess what career field and the level of the position would interest her. Essentially, by asking about jobs first, she would be requesting that I stereotype her based on the other job seekers I had met that day.

Instead, this woman started off by saying, “Hi, I’m <name>. I have been working in the <industry> for the last eight years and just completed my MBA. I’m interested in learning about your firm.”

By framing her background, she ensured that I got the right impression of her from the start.

What Should You Do at a Job Fair

Your goal at a job fair should be to build a relationship with a number of companies. Talk to as many people as you can. Learn a little about each company. Make sure you take away information that will allow you to follow up with the person you met.

I talked with well over one hundred people. I can only a recall a few. The ones that I will end up working with are the ones that are proactive and follow up with me. This demonstrates both initiative and organization.

If you have attended job fairs in the past and didn’t get the results you wanted from them, change your approach. Focus on building a relationship with the recruiters that are there (both corporate and agency), and follow up after the event.

Additional Resources

I’m going to start working on a guide to help job seekers get better results from job fairs. On the way home yesterday, I mapped out the organization for the guide and some of the tools I’m going to include. It should help you make job fairs much more effective for you in the future.

I’m hoping to make this available in the next few weeks and will announce its availability here on the blog. Check back for more information.

How to Start Building an Industry Presence

Yesterday, I wrote 10 Ways to Get Employers to Find You. Today, I want to give you a simple, easy to follow plan to get started utilizing a few of these techniques.

You’re probably thinking that this isn’t going to be easy, no matter what I say. The truth is, it can be easy if you make it easy. Despite this, very few people will do what is necessary. This isn’t because the techniques are difficult to implement. The reason that few people will do these things is that they are slow to work.

Most people want a quick solution. A slow, methodical plan, no matter how effective, just isn’t appealing. If you want employers to seek you out, you need to do two things, and neither can be achieved overnight. You need to become a recognized expert in your field and you need to build a huge network of professionals that know and respect you.

The Step-by-Step Plan

Step 1: Setup a LinkedIn account and build a profile. This will give people a place to learn about you and your career.
Step 2: On LinkedIn each week, invite one or two people in your industry that you don’t know to connect to you on LinkedIn. To do this, consider getting a premium account on LinkedIn. It will make the process much easier.
Step 3: Start following the LinkedIn Answers or Yahoo Answers for topics in your field. Participate by answering a few questions a week.
Step 4: Search for blogs and forums related to your industry and pick one or more to follow. Participate in the discussions by posting comments.
Step 5: Write one or two articles per month and post them on an article marketing site.
Step 6: As you build a library of articles you have written, begin referencing these in you Answers, blog and forum postings. This will reinforce with your network that you are an expert and that you actively contribute to the field.

Time Commitment

Building a network is not something that will happen over night. It will take work and time. Fortunately, the time commitment isn’t huge.

LinkedIn Profile Setup – 5 Hours – One-Time: Setting up a profile can be done very quickly, but to do this right, it will take a few hours. The more time you put in writing about your background the more effective the profile will be.
Invitations – 10 min/wk: Sending one or two invites per week will only take a minute or two. What may take time is conversing with your new connections. Some will accept your invites without a response. Others will send a personal email and start a discussion to get to know you.
Answers – 30 min/wk: The time commitment here is up to you. 30 minutes a week to read and answer questions can be very effective.
Blog Comments – 30 min/wk: Reading and participating in blogs and discussions can be effective with 30 minutes a week.
Articles – 1-2 Articles per month – Time Varies: The time commitment here will vary with your writing skill. Some people can knock out really good articles very quickly. Others may require 10 or more hours per article. The key isn’t writing a lot, it’s being consistent over time. One article per month will develop a significant portfolio over next couple years. Expect the first few articles to take some time, but you will get faster and it will get easier with time.

If you follow these steps, you will build relationships and propel your career forward. Because this is a slow process, few people will take the time to do this. If you do this, you will differentiate yourself from your competition. Don’t give up if you can’t devote this much time – just scale back to what you can do.

The Results

Now, fast forward a couple years. You decide you want to make a career change, and start the process by contacting people in your network and ask them for help. Some of the individuals you have developed a relationship with will be happy to recommend you to their companies. Their referral will be more than just passing your resume to HR. They will be able (and probably very willing) to share with key managers that you are an expert in the field, have published a number of industry articles and are a resource others in the industry turn to with questions. In most cases, you’re going to get a very close look and have a great chance of getting hired.

10 Ways to Get Employers to Find You

In life, it is not what you know or who you know that counts — it is both!
Anthony J. D'Angelo, The College Blue Book

Becoming a recognized expert in your industry and developing a large network are two steps that can propel your career. Very few people devote much if any time to either of these tasks. The ones that do, are often sought out by employers.

Both of these goals may seem extremely difficult to achieve. The truth is that they are much easier to reach than they appear. I'm going share 10 ways to improve your industry standing and build your network. These techniques will help employers find you when they need to fill a key position.

The benefits are simple:

You will learn more and develop faster as a professional
You will build relationships that will expose you to opportunities, often before you decide to make a career change
You will have a network to tap into for opportunities if you find you need to make a career move
You will meet potential employees you can hire

Most of these steps require very little time on a weekly basis. What they do require is a commitment to consistently work on them. If you do this, a few minutes each day, you can make a huge impact on your career.

The Plan

To become an industry expert, recognized by your peers, it is important to study your industry. Find resources that publish good content in your field and follow them. Google Reader, RSS Feeds and other free services make this easy. If you are not familiar with these, check them out – they're really easy to use and can save a lot of time.

Once you are comfortable that you understand your field (you are probably already at this point), start contributing. Share your expertise, either by writing articles and white papers, or by participating in online discussions. In either case, you will begin interacting with people in you field you would not otherwise know.

As your presence in the field grows, your expertise will continue to increase and you will build your network.

10 Ways to Build Your Presence

LinkedIn – Create a profile on LinkedIn and link to people in your industry. Try to add one or two new contacts every week. In a couple years, you will have 200 people in your field that you know and can help you. Remember, networking is always most effective when you look for ways to help others, not just yourself.
Personal Website – Create a personal website outlining your background and professional interests. This gives people a chance to find you and understand your career.
Facebook – Create a Facebook page (or Myspace or one of the other Social Networking sites) and share you career background and interests. The social networking pages are designed to be places for social interaction, but this doesn't mean they can't be used to help your career. Obama and McCain both have Facebook pages. In fact, Obama has over 40 different Facebook accounts (Virignia for Obama, NY for Obama, etc.). Janis Joplin, the singer who died in 1970, has a Facebook page. There's a book store in the UK with a page, a number of charities and a bunch of Arts festivals with Facebook pages.
Industry Forums – Most fields have industry associations that sponsor online forums where people can post questions or participate in discussions. Join one or more of these and contribution to the group. In the IT field, searching forums has been a very effective way for recruiters to find talented candidates. If you are in an industry without an effective forum, you can start one, although this is much more time consuming.
Article Marketing – Write articles and post them on article databases. EzineArticles.com is the biggest. By posting an article you authorize publishers to reprint your article on their websites or in print as long as they credit you as the author.
Answers – LinkedIn Answers and Yahoo Answers both have very active communities. You can post a question on any topic if you need information. By answering questions, you can develop a reputation as an expert.
Blog Comments – Visit blogs in your industry and post comments. Add additional information to a post or pose a question for the author.
Hub Pages/Lens – Set up an account on Squidoo or Hubpages and create a resource page for your industry.
Knol – This is a new article posting site on Google. Post some articles in your field.
Blog – Start writing a blog about your industry. One or two posts a week will grow and become a significant online presence. This a bigger commitment, both in time and effort, but can be very effective. If you can't write consistently, look to the article databases like EzineArticles and publish articles from other authors to supplement what you write.

If you commit to a few of these activities on a routine, consistent basis, you will build a very effective network that will provide significant benefits to your career.

Generation Y: The Next Lesson to Learn

Over the last five years, there has been a lot written about Generation Y – the generation that is currently in their 20’s. One of the topics that is most prominent about the Y’s is the development of helicopter parents.

If you haven’t heard about this it will probably come as a shock. Helicopter parents refer to the parents of college students and recent graduates that take an extremely active role in managing the lives of their children. This management typically involves the parent(s) attending meetings with the student and teachers and job interviews. This can include the parent questioning hiring managers and even negotiating the job offer for their child.

For many people, the idea that a person would take a parent with them to a job interview is tough to grasp. Other generations were taught to demonstrate independence. This new generation is comfortable seeking the advice and guidance of others.

In recent years, much of the writing on Gen Y has focused on helping hiring managers from other generations understand and attract Gen Y candidates. We had a significant labor shortage in many areas of our economy, and companies had to change to get the best people.

As our economy slows, this labor shortage is changing into a job shortage. The job seekers won’t be in driver’s seat.

In some companies, this could lead to a shift in their expectations of job seekers. Hiring managers may not cater to Gen Y candidates that maintain a visible helicopter parent the way they did. They know that there will be other candidates that fit the hiring manager’s expectations better.

Does this mean that Gen Y needs to stop listening to their parent regarding career decisions? Of course not – a mentor in your career is very helpful. What it does mean is that it is very important in a tight job market to meet the expectations of a hiring manager. Don’t expect to be able to be a rebel or maverick (it’s a little weird referring to a person, that listens their parents to an exceptional degree, as a rebel).

This economic crisis could be the defining time for an entire generation. Gen Y will grow from this and become the leaders of tomorrow. They will bring both an openness to the advice and guidance of others and an independence and work ethic that will drive success.