Stand Out: Get a Job Interview with a Great Resume
More and more job seekers complain they don’t get acknowledgment when they apply for positions with prospective employers. It’s disappointing, especially if you’ve done your best to stand out in a crowd when jobs are scarce.
Yes, it takes energy and resources for a company to respond to applicants. A sign of the times, that hasn’t always been the case. Aside from being gauche, such companies miss an opportunity to demonstrate they have a heart as an employer.
Nonetheless, a 2012 blog for job hunters caught my eye – “Write a resume that gets an employer’s attention,” by Chad Bauer of New Grad Life.
Mr. Bauer suggests there are three qualities that good resumes must have in order to cut through the labyrinth of databases, human resources employees, and recruiters.
He says companies look for resumes to answer three questions – here’s an edited excerpt:
Can the candidate solve the specific top problems I have today?
- Do your research to find out the specific problems, challenges, and goals a company has today
- Do more research to determine how those corporate challenges, problems, and goals affect the department and hiring manager
- Don’t just list broad industry skills, hoping it meets your target’s needs
- Don’t just say that you can learn – beyond entry level jobs, few companies will pay you for training or ramp-up time when they can find plenty of candidates who won’t need training
Can the candidate build shareholder value?
- Do your research to find out the type of value likely to be important to this specific company, department and manager
- Demonstrate your value in numerical results or percentages
- Translate your accomplishments to shareholder value
- Claim responsibility
- Don’t emphasize responsibilities
- Don’t emphasize your past company’s accomplishments over your specific achievements
Will the employee fit in with the company’s culture?
- Learn as much as you can about a company’s culture before applying for a position
- Be who you are, rather than trying to present a different persona
- Do research to find companies and positions who will value an employee with your personality
- Don’t fight ageism – embrace it
- Don’t waste your time – if you’re not a culture fit, apply somewhere else
Need more insurance? Here are seven strategies to use in your job interview. Here are an additional 15 tips to improve your odds for a job.
If you want to be a boss, here are proven strategies to advance into management.
From the Coach’s Corner, perhaps most importantly, here are the top 11 tips for a great elevator pitch.
“All our dreams can come true–if we have the courage to pursue them.”
- Walt Disney
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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.
Do Holidays Frustrate You in Looking for Clients or Job? Soften Your Approach
Is the holiday season a misnomer for you? It probably is if you’re overwhelmed looking hard for income — either for clients or in job hunting. Take heart, there are options for a new approach.
These days if you have desperation in searching for clients or a job, it doesn’t feel like a holiday season. So turn it into one.
Yes, this can be an unnerving time. So don’t try so hard.
Aside from family and close friends, this is a season for reconnecting with longtime business associates and pals. Use the holidays to your advantage.
Sure, continue your quest, but spend the majority of your time building your network. Meet for coffee. Take someone to lunch. Connect with past associates or people with whom you’ve done some profitable business.
Out of sight, out of mind – too often , that’s true. So rekindle your relationships. Your acquaintances will remember your commitment to excellence and skills.
Don’t forget to get your exercise.
Oh, now’s a good time to brush up on the 22 Do’s and Don’ts for successful negotiations or to get a head start on New Year’s resolutions to recover from the Great Recession.
And if all else fails, look around for someone less fortunate to help. Believe me, these folks are out there. Volunteerism will put a smile on your face. You’re more apt to get some deserved attention.
You don’t have to feel frustrated in looking for clients or job. Soften your approach.
From the Coach’s Corner, whether you’re searching for new clients or job hunting, here are more resource links:
- Business Got You Down? Tips for a Morale Boost
- Discouraged in Job Hunting? Powerful Tips for the Best Job
- Job Hunting? Tips to Land Your Dream Job with Style, Substance
“Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving, make every day a holiday and celebrate just living!”
-Amanda Bradley
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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.
15 Tips to Improve Your Odds for a Job
If you are unemployed, you are probably feeling desperate. Being out-of-work is one of the top five ego-destroying emotions.
Your lifestyle is threatened. You are reevaluating your spending, where you shop and studiously comparing prices on private-label food products.
But it’s time to get and stay busy. Looking for work is a full-time job.
Here are 15 strategies:
- Lean into your pain from being laid-off or being under-employed. Understand grieving is part of the process for growth and it takes time to heal. The three stages of healing: Shock-denial, anger-depression, and understanding-acceptance.
- Get out of the house daily. Continue to exercise and perform community service. Both will increase your morale. The reward of high morale, alone, is worth it.
- Assess your strengths and weaknesses. Be sure to analyze your interpersonal skills, too. Employers prefer teamwork and soft skills.
- Market yourself effectively. By building on your strengths, you will be prepared to tell prospective employers how they will benefit from hiring you. They want to hear how you will save them time and money while helping them to make a dollar. For that you need a great elevator pitch.
- Polish your resume. Your contact information should be at the top of the page and then followed by a realistic objective, and a summary of why you’re qualified. Think like a recruiter – why should someone hire you? Employers want to know your skills, experience, and successes. Mention specific achievements that would be important to your prospective employer. Subdued, easy-to-read font on white or off-white, good quality bond paper is preferable.
- Hone your career-management skills. Make a list of people to see and include your public officials at all levels. They are great centers of influence and are cognizant about economic development efforts. Personally visit each office to make an appointment. Seek the opinion of managers two levels above your skill level. They are not intimidated if you have great skills and your worth. If they hire you, they likely will take you with them up the employment ladder.
- Be open-minded and consider all options. If you are mobile, consider working abroad. In this age of globalization, future employers will be impressed that you know how to conduct yourself in a foreign country.
- Consider a new field. The best available jobs include information technology, medical and retail sectors. And great employers can never get enough good salespeople. If you need a career change, here are 10 steps for a career makeover.
- Make it easy to contact you. Take advantage of wireless e-mails at coffee houses and libraries, but be security-minded. Don’t use a device containing personal information and make sure it isn’t ever connected to your computer with sensitive information. Forward calls to your cell phone.
- Use the Internet. Get online – not to search job boards, but to go on offense. Applying at job boards is probably a waste of time. The competition is too great. Create an edge by building a Web site, blogging, and leveraging social networks from LinkedIn to Twitter.
- Consider temporary employment services or freelancing. If you can avoid collecting unemployment, take work either at a temporary service or freelancing gig – you will be better off emotionally. Not to be gauche, but standing in line at the unemployment office will only put you in a position to network with other unemployed folks. Benefits will include networking, building your resume, maintaining your work ethic and best of all – earning a paycheck.
- Accept any opportunity until you get the right job. You will attract options you never thought possible.
- Get a mentor. Find someone who has the success you want for personalized one-on-one strategies.
- Body language. When you land the big interview, remember the employer thinks you’ve got the necessary tools. It is your opportunity to assure the company that you will solve its needs and that you’ll fit into the culture. You only have a few seconds to make a favorable first impression with a warm voice, direct answers, a smile, and good body language. To err in being too formal is preferred over being too casual. Sit erect, feet on the floor, comfortable hand-placement in your lap, and maintain good eye contact.
- Attitude of gratitude. A well-written thank you letter will help you stand out in a crowd. Write anyone who helps you. Mail a thank you letter immediately after each interview so that the employer hears from you the next business day. Mention a specific topic from the interview and include a bonafide compliment for the company. Reiterate the benefits of hiring you. Thank the interviewer for her or his consideration. Prevent buyer’s remorse by reassuring the reader you will provide the necessary results the company expects. If you have not heard from the employer, it is businesslike to make a follow-up telephone call in five business days. Your odds will be enhanced once the company has had five positive contacts or interactions with you.
Being unemployed is not easy, but as long as you make an effort to stay productive and keep open to new opportunities, you will be fine – you might even come out stronger.
The moral: Layoffs are really stepping stones as opportunities for personal and professional growth.
From the Coach’s Corner, to improve your selling ability to employers, here’s related reading:
- Job Hunting? Tips to Land Your Dream Job with Style, Substance
- Discouraged in Job Hunting? Powerful Tips for the Best Job
“Fall seven times, stand up eight.”
-Japanese Proverb
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Author Terry Corbell has written innumerable online business-enhancement articles, and is a business-performance consultant and profit professional. Click here to see his management services. For a complimentary chat about your business situation or to schedule him as a speaker, consultant or author, please contact Terry.