As a career coach and professional resume writer, I'm often asked "How important are cover letters to my job search?" My answer is, "It depends on how long you want to search for your next job." If you are in no hurry to get interviews, then don't worry about your cover letter.
The fact is I've never met a job searcher who wants to have a painfully slow job search. The whole point of sending out resumes is to get multiple interviews as quickly as possible. But many job seekers still unwittingly sabotage their efforts by using substandard cover letters. Instead of helping you, your cover letter may actually be hurting your job search.
For fast job search results, make sure to avoid these top three cover letter mistakes:
1. Not understanding the hiring motives of your audience
2. Repeating rather than introducing your resume
3. Overuse of the word "I"
1. Not understanding the hiring motives of your audience
There are three basic audiences that a job seeker sends his/her resume to: executive decision-makers, resume screeners, and third-party recruiters. Each of these groups has its own hiring motives.
• Executive decision-makers are looking for candidates who will have a significant impact on bottom-line initiatives, such as time saved, income generated, revenue built, etc.
• Resume screeners are searching for candidates who directly match the lists of qualifications in the job description.
• Third-party recruiters are looking for selling points to help position you as a top candidate.
Knowing these hiring motives will help you craft your cover letter specifically to catch the attention of your particular hiring audience. By appealing directly to the reader, you are creating an immediate bond that will make you a stronger candidate.
During my time in management I have had the opportunity to hire many people which means I’ve interviewed over 50 people both for my positions and for fellow managers. It was one of my favorite parts of the job getting to meet new people, learn their motivations and in many cases learn what not to do. I guess you could call this of a collection of non job interview tips. Frankly it’s much easier to identify those things that are going to keep you from your dream job. For background my current company follows a rigorous interview process that involves no less than 5 different interviewers over the course of the day including a high level manager we call the As Appropriate. So without further ado 12 sure fire ways to fail your job interview.
1. Chew Gum.
Constantly. Through all 5 different interviewers. Okay honestly I never thought this was necessary to mention but this was the proverbial nail in the coffin of this interview candidate. He sat their masticating all day long. Every interviewer commented on it.
2. Lie on your resume.
Show some integrity and at the very least if you are caught in a lie your best course of action is to fess up or bow out. This candidate listed a technical certification that was easily looked up. They assumed we wouldn’t look. We did. It’s fine to polish your resume and use language to dress up your skills and experiences but just make sure they really happened.
3. Arrogance is a Sign of Confidence.
Nope it isn’t, arrogance is a sign that this person is going to be difficult to manage. Attitude can easily trump experience and skills both positive and negative. We’ve said no on candidates that had incredible experience and technical depth but just were so caustic we couldn’t hire them.
4. Act Indifferent about the Job and Play it Cool.
The job interview is the time to shine and demonstrate how you would fit in to the team and how your skills and experience can be a match for the position. This is not the time to show that you could settle for this job.
As the Class of 2011 graduates from college and joins the ranks of millions of other Americans desperate for work, there are several things to keep in mind for these latest members of the Austerity Generation.
The term, which implies a severe reduction in the standards of living affecting a generation of people, was last widely used during the Great Depression. The often bare and meager existence many young Americans suffered under during the 1930s shaped them and the "stability-at-all-costs" society they would later build in the 1950s.
While the situation currently is nowhere near as dire as it was in the 1930s, the collapse of the job sector, home foreclosures and creeping inflation of basic necessities are throwing many in their 20s for a loop. Promised freedom, prosperity and security as children by Presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush Senior and Bill Clinton, many of us have now grown jaded and cynical as young adults when these false promises unraveled under Presidents George Bush Junior and Barack Obama.
The post-9/11 easy credit bubble fueled our fantasies of a bigger home, a newer car and a stable middle-class career, while simultaneously popping them as the scheme came undone in 2008.
We have stability now, but in the guise of the same nonimproving numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in unemployment and inflation we have had for over a year now. With several more bubbles – college tuition, government bonds and even the American dollar itself – to come down the pike, the time to wait for change has passed us. To borrow a phrase from Mahatma Gandhi, "we must be the change we wish to see in the world."
Many current and former West Virginia University students are adapting to the changing situation instead of letting it change them. Chris Liddle was formerly one of the Class of 2011 at WVU, but in a situation becoming more and more common, has had to delay graduation and transfer back home to a local college because of financial difficulties.
This post was written by Diane Coffey and originally appeared on PongoResume.com. Tweet
Job seekers often make mistakes during their job search - but in these tough economic times even the slightest detail must be taken care of. From resumes to cover letters, and from the interview to the reference and background check, there are 12 huge mistakes that can be avoided with just a little bit of effort on the job seeker's part. Read on to see what they are and improve your job search!
RESUMES and COVER LETTERS
1. Not customizing your resume for each job submittal: Each resume you submit should be tailored to the position, highlighting those dimensions of your background that are most important to the job.
2. Only using job boards to search for opportunities: The least effective way to find a job is by applying to job listings on job boards. Other, more useful tactics for identifying job opportunities include networking with colleagues, targeting specific companies, and attending professional association meetings, to name just a few.
3. Not using a cover letter: Cover letters provide a way to highlight the personal qualities and accomplishments that differentiate you from other applicants. Your cover letter also allows you to draw the reader’s attention to the parts of your background that are most applicable to the specific job.
4. Not following up on resumes and interviews: Professional follow-through on resume submittals and interviews helps set you apart, puts your name in front of the hiring authorities, and demonstrates your interest in the company and position.
5. Not taking extra copies of your resume and cover letter to each interview: Interviewers are notorious for forgetting to bring your resume to the interview, so demonstrate your preparedness by taking extra copies for them. You may also meet people who have not seen your resume before.
6. Lying on your resume or at any point in the hiring process: Lying is very high risk, both during the selection process and after you get hired. Many people have been fired for lying on their resumes, even after years of high job performance. Positive spin is good; lying is bad.
7. Putting personal information on your resume: Personal data is irrelevant to the hiring process. Companies are governed by law to not discriminate based on personal characteristics or circumstances. Listing personal information on your resume, which used to be standard, is now viewed as unprofessional.
So you’ve found a job posting for your dream position. Now what?
The job search can be a frustrating process, but it’s also a time full of possibility and potential. Each new listing is a chance for an exciting new opportunity. But once you’ve found a job that sounds like the perfect fit, how do you make sure your resume gets read? Our experienced team has seen thousands of resumes. We know what works…and what doesn’t. Here are 50 of our top resume tips.
Make a Great First Impression
1. Avoid fancy fonts. Prepare your resume in 10-point or 11-point Arial or Times Roman typeface.
2. Edit carefully. Then edit some more. Spelling or grammar can kill an otherwise strong resume. The ability to write well is expected, not seen as an extra perk.
3. Read backwards. This is a great editing trick that helps your eye catch errors.
4. Ask a friend. Another pair of eyes really helps here, so ask a friend to look it over and give you feedback.
5. Make things easy for HR. Human Resources people are overwhelmed with resumes, they take just a few seconds to skim each one. Grab their attention quickly by putting the most important information on the front page, then entice them to read more.
6. Get your resume in early. Establish yourself as a strong candidate early on, and you become the standard by which other applicants are measured.
7. Mix it up. A combination of paragraphs and bullet points is the best way to convey your experience. Start with a brief paragraph that outlines your responsibilities, followed by a bulleted list of specifics.
8. Keep it consistent. Make sure the layout, font, and margins of your resume match those of your cover letter.
9. Keep it simple. Don’t go overboard with underlining, italicizing and bolding. When used sparingly, it will highlight what’s really important.
It’s always a good thing to give back. Whether it is doing hands on service with a group like Habitat for Humanity, or assisting in the back office of a local non-profit, there are benefits beyond money that come from volunteering. Apart from just the positive feeling of sowing good actions into a cause you believe in and the impact on the lives of the recipients, volunteering can also help your career. Here are six ways volunteering can help your career:
1. It can fuel your passion. If your current job is not your ideal work, volunteering at something you enjoy is an alternative source of the passion that your you can’t get from your job right now.
2. You can practice new skills. No opportunity in your current job to stretch or learn something new? Find a volunteer opportunity that allows you to explore new roles and skills that you’d like to develop. It’s experience you can add to your resume.
3. Volunteer your way into a potential job. Maybe you don’t have the experience to earn the paid position yet. Signing on as a volunteer gives you a chance to learn the organization, build relationships there, and show that you have what it takes to do job.
4. Volunteering is an opportunity to expand your network. Not only will you meet people who support the same cause, you will find people that have personal and professional connections that can help you—especially if you are looking for a job.
5. Exposure to new ways of doing things. Seeing how another organization runs things, and being exposed to different ways of managing, brainstorming, solving problems, can provide a fresh way to look at the challenges you face in your paid position.
6. You can use it as a team building experience. This one goes beyond just you. Do you lead or work with a team? Finding a group volunteering opportunity can be a low-cost way to do good and re-establish positive connections with your team.
Looking for volunteer opportunities? Here’s a few links to jump-start your search:
Idealist.org
1-800 Volunteer .org
Network for Good
Volunteer Match
Volunteer.gov (powered by Network for Good has additional volunteering info on main site)
Global Volunteer Network: Volunteer Abroad
BoardNet: Serve on a non-profit board
Preparing for an interview can be a nerve wracking experience. Fortunately, there are some ways to prep for it which will let you ace the interview. While these may seem like strange pre-interview routines, they actually do work and will help you to land the job of your dreams:
1. Look at Facebook
This is actually two strategies in one. First of all, check your Facebook profile out and make sure that your own profile is set to private and there are no embarrassing photos of you tagged on the site. If there are, untag yourself from those photos and ask your friends if they would please refrain from tagging you. If possible, get the photos taken down. Double check as well that status updates you’ve posted aren’t embarrassing. If they are, delete them.
While this won’t completely remove the record of those photos, it does make it harder to find. That in turn means if you ace the interview, your interviewer is less likely to find embarrassing material online which will make them think twice about calling you back for a second interview.
The second half of this technique is to find out the name of the person who will be interviewing you and look up their Facebook profile. Get as much information as you can about the person since this will be helpful to you to throw into the conversation when you are meeting with them. Showing an interest in something the person is interested in is a sure way to get yourself remembered out of the hundreds of interviews the hiring manager has to conduct.
2. Prepare a Folder to Fiddle With
Yeah, it sounds strange, but this is a great pre-interview technique that can come in handy. Often, you will be asked to wait for a few minutes before your interview. Most times, it’s just because the person interviewing you is busy or wants to make you feel as if you aren’t the most important person for them to meet. However, on occasion, this is actually a test. They will secretly observe you to see what you do when you are waiting to be interviewed. If you have a folder with your papers in it, you can spend the time appearing to organize yourself so you ace that test.
Nursing school students encounter unexpected difficulty in finding work after graduation.
Armine Khudanyan left college in 2009 ready for a career in nursing. But despite hearing for years about a nursing shortage, what she and her fellow Cal State Los Angeles nursing graduates found was a bunch of closed doors.
"In my graduating class there were 10 of us," said Khudanyan, 30, a native of Armenia who lives in Glendale. "Right out of school only three of us were able to get jobs. A lot of hospitals were not hiring, especially new grads."
Through a Verdugo Workforce Investment Board program funded by federal stimulus money, Khudanyan landed a job she loves in the emergency room at Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center.
The workforce board pays half the costs for hospitals to train new nurses, said Don Nakamoto, labor market specialist for the agency. The board has spent roughly $250,000 to subsidize the salaries of about 40 nurses during their 12- to 16-week training periods at Glendale Memorial, Glendale Adventist Medical Center, Providence St. Joseph Medical Center and Verdugo Hills Hospital.
Kristin Anderson, senior health care recruiter at Glendale Memorial, said the hospital has added 10 nurses to its nursing corps of about 400 through the program.
In recent years, hospitals have been hard-pressed to pay training expenses, and many have turned to temps or launched national and even international nurse recruiting efforts, Nakamoto said.
"The public perception is that there is a nursing shortage and anyone who comes out of school has multiple job offers," Nakamoto said. But a few years ago, "bottlenecks started developing. It was happening throughout the country."
Paul Celuch, vice president of human resources at Verdugo Hills Hospital, said the high cost of training nurses have contributed to the bottleneck.
Decisions by many experienced nurses to extend their working careers because of the recession's impact on retirement accounts or their spouses' jobs has also kept the job market tight, he added.
Mike Dacumos, 25, said he was surprised at what h
appened after he earned his nursing degree last year.
Every job hunter has the same question: What do employers look for, and how can I best show I’ve got “it?”
A few days ago, I attended a panel discussion for career coaches led by three of the leading recruiters in Greater Boston. Each recruiter had the assignment of explaining their view of today’s hiring environment, what employers are looking for, and then to give a few tips for candidates. The recruiters deal with different specialties, including: Human Resources, Medical Devices, Information Technologies (IT), and Marketing. Nonetheless they agreed on one thing: Five years ago, if an employer listed a job with 8-10 bullet points of “requirements,” a candidate might have been hired if he/she only had 3-4 of them. But today, virtually every client of theirs wants “12 out of 10 requirements to be evidenced – just to get the initial phone interview.”
It comes as no surprise they all report both recruiters and companies are being inundated by resumes, as more people are chasing fewer and fewer jobs. In this environment, they report employers have come to view job boards like Monster as counter-effective. When they advertise a position, they get SO MANY responses it becomes an overwhelming task just to sort through all the extraneous resumes to find the quality people who would be of interest. Result? They are utilizing alternative methods of identifying and recruiting top talent. It is more time efficient and effective for both corporate (in-house) and contingency (third party) recruiters to scour LinkedIn and other social media sites to find candidates worth pursuing. More and more, self-submitted resumes are not responded to because they aren’t even read!
Employers are looking for the following:
1. Candidates are expected to clearly articulate their accomplishments as part of their personal brand. LinkedIn profiles must highlight an individual successes and results! Skills are important – but only insofar as candidates use them to attain results. Never lead with: “XX years of experience doing…” Each resume bullet point should tell a story: “Accomplished X by doing Y, resulting in Z.”
2. Clear branding. Know who you are, what you offer, and what you are after. Be comfortable with your own story, and have that story down pat. Convey it consistently in your resume, LinkedIn profile, on Facebook, and increasingly on Twitter. Tip: get all those references to partying, and anything that wouldn’t well represent an employer’s brand off your own Facebook page – NOW! LinkedIn is seen as a way screen people in, and Facebook is viewed as a means to screen people out – even before an individual knows he or she might be considered.
3. Fit, fit, and fit! It’s the buzzword of the decade, but it means different things to different companies. Fit goes beyond the job requirements and speaks to an individual’s experience working in a similar type organization in size, product/service, marketplace or geography. Questions of “fit” go to the concerns. Would a given candidate be happy working as part of this company/team…and would the people here be happy to work side by side with this individual? If hired, would the person last? Commonly, employers are utilizing behavioral interviewing to determine if a candidate is a “fit.”
4. One recruiter put it this way, “The length of time [companies are taking] to fill openings is increasing. Companies are increasingly picky about who they hire. But they are hiring people who have ‘bull’s eye’ skill sets, have industry experience, and are a fit for their particular corporate culture.”More and more, you have to have all three to be hired, and candidates should adjust their job search accordingly.
Job hunting online seems to be simple these days, just a few clicks and you have submitted your application - but what if we are doing something wrong when applying to jobs online? Using the Internet for a long time now, I can safely say that while trying to get a job online is pretty straight-forward at times, there are some huge mistakes job seekers can make. To see what 3 big mistakes to avoid while job hunting online, read this article.
1) Applying to positions we are not qualified for.
The Web has streamlined how we communicate with each other. We often see postings on the Web we "may" be interested in and quickly apply to them without giving it more thought. That is the path to failure as the whole process is built on wishful thinking. Most people who have this habit will then have a tendency to send a short email, along with a generic resume (or no resume at all!). Recruiters can easily identify these types of applicants and will not waste their time reviewing these applications. For these applicants the issue really is: If you are not interested in the position, why bother applying and, if you are indeed interested in the position, why don't you put more effort into it?
2) Lack of professionalism when applying online.
It is certainly true that the Web has broken a lot of frontiers, including that between people. We are much more informal on the Web. Some people push this attitude too far however to the point of using the wrong "tone" when applying for a job. Keep in mind that a certain degree of formalism should remain. It's preferable to lean on the safe side. You probably have heard that when attending a job interview, better dress conservatively (except if you are an artist, or
working in the creative field) than push your luck. At the end of the day, you will be hired for your competence. You don't want your outfit to be a distraction. Same thing for your job application. You don't want anything to distract the employer when reviewing your job application. Being too informal could have a nagging effect on some recruiters and might jeopardize your candidacy.
Thinking of taking a year off after graduation and before heading into the workplace or grad school? No, we're not talking about a break to slouch on the couch. We're talking about a gap year: Europeans do it all the time, taking some well-spent time for themselves after receiving a degree. While gap years are less common in the United States, more and more students are carving out time to travel, volunteer, teach -- anything to reboot before entering the "real world." Here, we get the pros and cons from recent grads who've done it.
The Pros of Taking a Gap Year
Pro No. 1: It puts the world in your hands.
Should you choose to take a post-graduation gap year, there are infinite opportunities that will take you anywhere in the world:
Travel: Opting to tour Prague, Hungary, Poland and Vienna is an inexpensive way to see Eastern European sites -- without breaking the bank. The exchange rates are more tolerable than that of the Euro.
Teach Abroad: If teaching English abroad is more your speed, American grads travel all around the globe to instruct international youngsters. If you'd prefer to stay on U.S. soil, teaching programs such as Teach for America place applicants in low-income schools around the country.
Making sure your resume is a powerful marketing document is a wise investment in your career. It can set you apart from your competition, maximize the amount of interviews you land and ultimately play into how much a company offers you.
After all, you are negotiating with potential employers from the moment you connect with them to the time the offer is made. So everything that happens in that window of time plays into your offer…including how well targeted, well designed and compelling your resume is.
Here are five elements you will want to make sure your resume has:
Number one: Targeted Format
Your resume must be compelling for the type of position you are focusing on. If you are a sales executive of course you are going to want to quantify your sales skills in terms of territory development, revenue generation, and types of skills associated with sales and secondary support skills such as client management customer service, public relations and marketing.
Number two: Value Proposition Statement
Under the heading of your resume you should have a value proposition statement. An example of a value proposition statement is a 3 to 4 sentence overview of your focus and your strengths. Here’s an example of a VP Statement for a technology executive's resume:
Innovative and highly competent business and technology leader with 15+ years experience developing creative technology solutions that enhance performance, effect change, drive profits and growth. Proven reputation to:
Note: A value proposition statement is different from a personal objective statement. A personal objective statement is not the best to start out with on a resume simply because it’s a statement about what YOU want. Rather, share with your potential employer what skills and strengths you have to offer THEM.
Not getting the results you want in your job search? Here are eight ways to help put your search on fast-forward:
1. Monitor your online time: We’ve all experienced the phenomena of “online creep” where you log on to get one piece of information and three hours later, you’re still surfing the computer. Decide in advance how much time you need to spend online and then stick to it. If needed, set a timer to remind yourself that it’s time to move on to other activities.
2. Sign up for personal “job agents”: Many sites now offer “personal job agents” that can automate your job search for you. After registering information about the specific type of job you are looking for, the agent notifies you by e-mail when jobs are posted on their database that meet your criteria. You can then apply for any position directly with the employer.
3. Follow up your online correspondence: Don’t sit around passively waiting for the phone to ring after you respond to a job posting. Take the initiative and follow-up by phone several days later to check on the status of your application. This one action can distinguish you from the competition and get you an interview.
4. Use the job boards to scope out companies in active hiring mode: Do you repeatedly see ads for multiple positions within the same company? Apply directly to those firms even if you don’t see a specific posting within your field of expertise. Chances are they’ll need employees in a variety of positions and departments.
5. Maximize the research capability of the internet: The internet is the ultimate research tool. You can find out just about everything you need to know about companies and industries of interest – use that information to gain a competitive edge in your correspondence and interviews. One of my favorite resources for getting in-depth information on specific companies and industries is Vault.com. They have extensive reports on management consulting firms, law firms and a number of Fortune 500 companies (among others).
If you want to make a good impression during a job interview, it is important to say the right things. Here are ten things you should avoid saying.
Job interviews can be an intimidating process. There are a number of good resources that will help you to learn what the right things to say are during a job interview. It is also important, however, to know what things you should not say during an interview. Here are ten things that you should absolutely avoid saying during an interview if you want to walk away with the job.
1. "I'm sorry I'm late."
If you want to start an interview off on the wrong foot, being late is a good way to do so. Make a good first impression by being on time. Being late tells the interviewer that you do not respect his time, that you are unorganized and that you do not manage your own time well. Most importantly, when you have to start off an interview by apologizing for being late, you have already established a dynamic where you are subordinate to the interviewer rather than being an equal. This will hurt you immensely during the negotiating process.
2. "I left my old job because my boss was a jerk."
A prospective employer does not want to hear you bad-mouthing your old boss. When she hears you complaining about what a jerk your old boss was, all that is going through her head is that, someday, this is what you will be saying about her. Even if your ex-boss was a jerk, your prospective boss does not want to hire someone who, it seems, cannot get along with others, cannot accept responsibility and who is not a team player. Stay away from the negative, and focus on the positive. For example, does this new position offer more opportunities for responsibility and advancement? These kinds of things are what your prospective boss wants to hear.
3. "I'm just looking to work here until something better comes along."
Sometimes in life, we do have to accept employment that is less than ideal in order to keep food on the table while we are looking for something more appropriate. Your prospective employer does not want to hear this, however. He believes in what his company does, whether it is flipping hamburgers or washing cars or constructing luxury high-rise apartments. Every company makes its own contribution to the whole of society, and when a prospective employer asks you why you want to work for his particular company, he wants to know that you understand, respect and value the significance of his company.
As a recent college graduate, the process of networking may be a new thing to you. How do you approach people? How do you stay prepared for networking events? Job networking is never easy, but with this video (an introductory one), you can learn what web sites to use, how to show interest in other individuals, how to exude confidence, and more. Get a notepad and pen out, it's time to take notes! Networking events are in!
I'm continually surprised by how many people don't realize that the "required qualifications" in job ads are like wish lists, not inflexible lists of requirements. Those qualifications are a composite of someone's idea of the ideal candidate. Believe me; they will look at people who don't perfectly match it. So when a job posting requires four years of experience and you only have two, you're not automatically disqualified. If you think you could do the job, apply anyway.
That said, if you're a bit under-qualified, you need to work for it more. Here's how:
1. For starters, you must write a fantastic cover letter. If you don't do this and you're under-qualified, you have no shot. (See tips on writing a great cover letter here.)
2. Learn a ton about the company you're applying to, and let it show in your cover letter. I'm impressed when people know more than the basics about my organization and tie it into why they want to work for us. It's like the way it's far more enticing when a guy I'm dating talks specifics about why he's interested -- as opposed to seeming like he's looking for someone to fill the "girlfriend" slot he has open.
3. In your cover letter, acknowledge that you don't have every qualification they're looking for, and explain how you'll make up for it. (Be realistic here -- if they're hiring a graphic designer and you have no design experience, this won't work.) Acknowledging it is good because (a) it shows you paid attention to the ad -- something most people don't do -- and indicates an attention to detail that hiring managers love to see and (b) it shows that you're not one of those insanely overconfident candidates with no humility or sense of your own weaknesses.
Your resume is a company’s first look at what skills and accomplishments you might bring to the job. Don’t make it their last look! Be sure to avoid these major resume mistakes:
1. You failed to tailor your resume to the specific job you want.
So even though you have the skills that the company asked for in their advertisement or posting, you left the details out of your resume. Those specific skills must be in your resume and should be prominent, preferably at the top of your resume.
2. Your contact information is incomplete and does not include a professional e-mail address.
A professional e-mail address consists of your first and last name. Cute e-mail addresses are not professional. If you have a common name, try putting your last name first or adding numbers after your name. Avoid the numbers 1 and 0. In some fonts, they look like letters and can confuse people reading your resume. Does your johndoe1 address refer to John Doe One or John Doel?
3. You lied about or apologized for or over-explained your qualifications.
If you lack confidence in your abilities, how can an employer have confidence that you are the right person to hire? A resume should describe you honestly but also show you at your best.
For a job seeker to do well in an interview, they must answer the interview questions well, but also must have some of their own questions prepared. This tells the company that you are interested in the position and you are prepared for the job interview overall. Make sure you ask these three interview questions and make yourself stand out from the crowd!
With all the job hunting going on right now, I get a lot of questions about how applicants can put their best foot forward and get hired.
To get the best information possible, I went to the source and surveyed a group of hiring managers. They shared the following tips — things they won’t tell you at interviews, but sure wish you knew before you came in the door.
1. Know your stuff. Before any interview, do your homework and research the company. Very few candidates do this, so if you are one of them you’ll immediately set yourself apart. Research the industry and, at the very minimum, read every page of the company website to learn more about clients, services, management and competitors. Read the company press releases to find out what their latest projects are. Utilize websites like LinkedIn or Google to learn the background of the people you’ll be meeting.
Sample comment: “I have always been astounded when I ask the question ‘Do you know what we do?’ only to get a response like ‘I sort of have an idea.’”
2. Show that you’re a good match for the job and organization. Tell the interviewer how you see yourself fitting into the company and what value you’ll be able to add quickly. Show that you’re a team member who’s willing to go to the mat, and that you’re not just in the job until something better comes along. Strong commitment and positive attitude often go further than actual skill — as long as you’re teachable, open to feedback and a quick study.
3. Don’t be late. Allow yourself enough time to get lost or delayed in traffic. Make a dry run the day before so you know exactly where you’re going, the best way to get there, and where to park. Have the phone number of the interviewer with you so if you’re unavoidably delayed you can call and see if you should still come or if another time would be better.
4. Don’t be early. If you’re really early, find a place to freshen up a little bit and wait until your appointment. You can present yourself 5 - 10 minutes before your interview time, but no earlier. The interviewer is on a schedule and doesn’t want to see you until the appointment time.
5. Dress appropriately. This sounds simple, but too many people show up for an interview with dirty, unpressed clothes, uncombed hair, and/or needing a shower.
Sample comment: “If someone wants a job in my office, they need to show me that they are capable of looking the part. If you would wear it to the gym or the grocery store late at night, it’s probably not good for an interview.”
Competition for advertised jobs is fierce. An advertised job posting can generate applications from thousands of potential candidates. Likewise, employers can cherry-pick potential employees. So how do you differentiate yourself while job hunting on LinkedIn? With all the tools for job seekers on the site you may get overwhelmed. Try this step-by-step process below and land a job on LinkedIn successfully!
To increase your chances of generating a response including an interview from a job posting, you should:
• Use LinkedIn to locate a company insider with a common connection (professional association, alum, etcetera)
• Request an informational interview to determine if the job is still available, name of the hiring manager, desired characteristics of the potential employee, and etcetera
• Customize your resume and cover letter using this information
• Ask your company insider to deliver your resume and cover letter to the hiring manager
Next, I am going to provide you with the steps I used to apply for a position last week with a Fortune 100 company.
1. Go to http://www.linkedin.com/
2. Click on the “Advanced” link for the Search People field in the upper right region of your screen
3. Select “Located in or near:” for the Location field
4. Input a zip code for the Postal Code field and select the appropriate entry (such as 50 mi) for the Within field to ensure the location of the company is within this geographical range
5. Input the name of the company in the Company field and select Current in the box below this field
Ever submit a resume and wondered why you didn’t even get a call, when you felt that you were ideal for the job? Ever felt that your resume was buried in a database and not even getting seen?
Chances are your resume didn’t demonstrate the 3 things an employer looks for on a resume. Even in the prescreening process (databases, recruiters and HR staff) are instructed to search for these 3 things, by the keywords they search for.
If you can clearly present these three things in your resume, you give yourself a much greater chance of scoring an interview. But what are they?
#1: Can the candidate solve the specific top problems I have today? An employer is searching for evidence that you can solve their unique top problems. The best way you can demonstrate that you can solve their top problems is by clearly demonstrating that you’ve already solved those exact problems. Most resumes do a poor job answering this question, as most candidates create resumes that demonstrate general problem solving skills rather than solving the unique top problems a specific employer has 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
#2: Can the candidate build shareholder value?
Outside of the non-profit world, a company is willing to pay an employee because they believe you will make them more money than they pay - You are an investment. The best way you can demonstrate that you’re a profitable investment on your resume is to demonstrate how you’ve already built shareholder value for past employers and clients. Most candidates forget this notion, writing a resume that focuses on what they themselves want or a resume that describes how they spend their day.
• 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 companies accomplishments over your specific achievements
New Grad Life recently traveled to a few Universities in San Diego. We picked the most interesting responses and want to share them with you. Due to the nature of the questions most students asked to for us to leave their last names out and schools they were affiliated with. Read on to see what College seniors are thinking!
NGL: “Let’s talk about the various services your University offers. What do you think about the career fairs?”
Ashley: “Useless….I mean it’s usually a bunch of companies that have all these entry-level sales positions. Then there’s like, agencies; the police, highway patrol, sometimes I really don’t get what they’re doing here. I think it’s even worse for our University – it makes our school look bad, you know?” Omar: “A lot of the job fairs I’ve been to on campus are great. I’m not saying I got a job offer or anything on the spot, of course not, but I did get a few contacts and leads. You just need to weed out those ones that are not useful to you.” Sonia: “I think it depends on what school you go to, because better schools have better companies who visit. I’ve been to a few other career fairs, and some were worse, some were better.”
NGL: “What about career centers? Are they a helpful resource for students you think?”
Ashley: “I think the career advisors are helpful, but as far as the resources go, they just tell you what to do and not how to do it. You go in, and it's like you have hundreds of binders with articles, books, job listings around you. There's no direction - and besides I can get all this info on the Internet so I don't get the big deal.” Omar: “They definitely need more hands-on tools like workshops. Their web sites have hundreds of links to great career resources but they are more often than not generic in their advice. Maybe they should better pick such links and make sure they are referencing to the best career articles they possibly can.” Sonia: “Career centers don’t have a good rep usually, you know. Students don’t believe they can really help – but people don’t get they’re not there to place you in a job, that’s what a staffing agency is for. They are there to help guide you through possible careers and improve your skills."
Many of you are making 3 serious job search mistakes. We need to clear these up if you want to get a job.
#1: You believe your job search is completely dependent on your resume and cover letter.
Wrong. In a perfect world, your resume is more of a formality than a necessity. If someone already knows you or has received an excellent recommendation of you, they are more focused on getting to know you in the interview rather than picking through the details of your resume.
A bad resume is definitely getting cut, but a great resume does not guarantee you the job.
Let’s be honest, I don’t care how many cool internships you’ve had or what your GPA is: many employers feel that an entry-level candidate is an entry-level candidate. In large companies you may have to meet a certain GPA or major requirement, but much past that, it’s all about you.
Your personal brand is what lands you a job. Not your resume. Your personal brand should match online, offline, in your personality and in your appearance. The way you write your LinkedIn profile, what you say online, and who you meet in person are a few important aspects of a job seekers personal brand.
#2: The Internet is the only tool you have used to aid your job search.
I’ve been doing a lot of research for Job Search Boot Camp and have found career expert, after career expert claiming that 80% of open positions are not posted online. They also claim that the vast majority of job seekers rely solely on the Internet to find a new job.
To turn this idea into simple math, this means that roughly 80% of the people are going for 20% of the jobs. Not only are those online jobs way more competitive, they are most likely more generic than those you’d find offline.
So what does this mean for you? It means that if you’re smart, you’d be playing in the offline field where you’d be one of the 20% looking at 80% of the jobs.
This guest post was written by Go Banking Rates, bringing you informative personal finance content and helpful tools, as well as the best interest rates on financial services nationwide. Tweet
With all of the concerns facing modern college students, retirement is rarely a topic of conversation. After all, you're probably wondering how to pay for four years or more of higher education, not save money you won't use for at least 40 years. However, retirement does come up once in a while and it's quite likely you've heard Roth IRAs mentioned at some point. So what are they and why do people keep talking about them?
A Roth IRA is a retirement account, true, but it's much more. It's a savings vehicle, emergency fund and tax reduction strategy all in one. Even better, it offers advantages to students and young people like yourself, for whom retirement may seem like a far-off idea.
Making the Most of Roth IRAs In College
Here's the main attraction of Roth IRAs: You put up to $5,000 per year into it now, let it accumulate interest and other earnings for the next several decades so it grows to be much bigger than the amount you put it. You take all the money out after you retire and you never pay taxes on the earnings from all those years.
That's right--the taxes on a lifetime of compounded interest, dividends and so forth are not just put off or taxed at a reduced rate. Your taxes on them will be exactly zero, as long as you play by the rules.
The Rules of a Roth
One thing a Roth IRA does not do is give you a tax deduction when you put money into it like a traditional IRA or 401(k). For most young people, that's no great loss; they're probably paying few, if any, income taxes yet. Besides, you enjoy tax-free withdrawals anyway.
But, you say, what if I need the money now? That's where Roth IRAs are really flexible. Say you make a contribution and next month your car needs a new transmission. As long as the due date for your tax return hasn't passed, you can take your contribution plus any earnings back out as if you never made it in the first place. You can also withdraw your contributions (not earnings on them) anytime without penalty. In that way, your Roth IRA also doubles as a safety net for emergencies.
Job interview questions - some are pretty simple, some are tougher than you think. Sometimes the interview question only needs a short and sweet answer, but other times a longer, more detailed response is necessary. It's often these kinds of interview questions that catch job seekers off guard. One example is "What can you do for us that no one else can?" To find out how to answer this question and ace the job interview, watch the video below. After watching, don't forget to comment below on what you thought of the advice.
It’s frustrating to realize you suck at something … but most of you suck at job search. It’s especially frustrating when you’re really good at your job, but because you suck at job search, you’re having trouble finding a new job.
Then again, how can you be very good at something you do only a few times in your career, the rules have changed, the way you’re evaluated has changed, and the very purpose of what you’ve been taught has changed?
At least you’re not alone … most readers of this article suck at searching for a job, whether they realize it or not.
And it’s not your fault that you suck at job search. You were taught job search techniques that had a very different purpose than today. In addition, it’s the most competitive job market of our lifetimes, the first time in our careers where there have an extended period of job shortages.
So you don’t believe that you suck at searching for a job?
Here are 8 Signs That You Suck At Job Search:
1. Your resume response rate is less than 10%: Your resume response rate (Total resumes sent divided by actual face to face job interviews … excluding phone interviews, HR interviews, recruiter interviews and informational interviews) is the best indicator of how well your job search is going. The average resume response rate is a horrible 1.5% – 2%, about the same rate as junk mail – if you’re anywhere near these numbers, you suck at job search.
2. You aren’t getting many interviews: If your resume response rate is poor, then you aren’t getting many interviews. CareerBuilder projects it will take an average 17 interviews to get your next job. Remember that nurses, social media experts, renewable energy experts, and Silicon Valley software developers bring that average down. On the other hand, those in career transition, having sizable career gaps, over 40, executives/managers, those in industries that are downtrodden, geographic movers, and career changers all should expect a much higher number of interviews until their next job.
