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Is your job search iced over? When there is two feet of snow outside, finding the motivation to get out to networking opportunities can be difficult. It is much more tempting to stay at home by the fireplace. The Northern Hemisphere is in the middle of one of the coldest winters in years. Snow blankets from New York to Beijing with flakes appearing in central Florida for the first time in decades. Many job seekers are dealing with power issues and travel problems during this period. Mother Nature is making front page news along with unemployment figures.

Does the weather affect hiring? It’s possible to some degree. If a hiring manager is stuck at home, it will be hard to interview candidates in person. However, remote computing allows many snow-bound workers to connect to the office from home and continue to conduct business. Productivity is maintained and often gained from remote work. Since most first interviews are conducted via telephone, lack of mobility is not a hurdle. While many bemoan the passage of the “face to face” first interview, technology may actually help overcome obstacles that might delay hiring such as weather, illness, or travel.

Savvy use of technology as a tool can be very helpful to job search. Know how to use social media properly and implement the basics of mobile computing and communications. Leverage the power of communication at warp-speed to maximize the effectiveness of your networking and communication. The more connections you can achieve, the better your chances of finding new opportunities. The Internet, LinkedIn, Facebook, and email in general make keeping your network warm easy – no matter what the weather outside!

Snowed in by the unseasonably cold weather? Find yourself invited to about a million functions for the holidays? Both can be advantageous to your holiday job search efforts. Being snowed in can allow you to devote more attention to your online job search efforts, while parties and dinners provide opportunity for networking. Make sure you do both, doubling your job search efforts during this month and you will move into January with a head start over other job seekers.

Think the end of the year is a bad time to job search? Think again. Let me give you an analogy: ask any mom what is the worst day to shop for groceries and she will say “Saturday”. The store is packed with people, the clerks are busy, the shelves are a mess, and the checkout lines run back to the meat counter. Saturday for grocery shopping is like January for job searching – it’s a zoo. In January, everyone jumps into the market and job seekers are elbowing each other for position. Waiting until January to put your efforts into your job search is like parachuting into the middle of a buffalo stampede!

On the flip side, what is the best day for grocery shopping? Usually Tuesdays are best; the trucks with fresh items have arrived, the clerks have time to assist you, and you can get in and out much faster. In job search, December is a “Tuesday”. Hiring managers and gatekeepers are in good moods and more likely to spend some time reviewing your resume or speaking with you on the phone. Getting in the door via events or network connections can be easier. And the other job seekers are at home thinking negative thoughts! December is a great time to work your job search!

Many charitable organizations are extremely active in both fundraising and events in December. Volunteer your help with some local organizations and you achieve several things. First, you accomplish something worthwhile, but you also bring yourself into contact with lots of other people, many of whom are working on behalf of their employers as part of a corporate sponsorship. Instant contacts! And what a great way to make a good first impression!

Make December count. Don’t stop now but rather redouble your efforts at meeting people, talking about companies, getting leads, and getting your resume and cover letter out. It’s job hunting season!
 

One of the most common questions we receive from job seekers is “How much time do I show on my resume?” While like everything else in job search, there is no hard and fast rule, there is a rule of thumb. When determining how much time to show on your resume, consider your audience. What is going to be relevant to the employer? Will your time in the Boy Scouts in high school matter to a prospective employer now that you are a senior manager? Probably not.

The “rule of thumb” for time span on a resume is go back to college graduation or back 12-15 years – whichever comes first. Employers are primarily interested in your most recent work experience because it relates to their current needs and the needs of the market today. You may have a 25 year career but it is the most recent decade or so that will matter most, especially considering how rapidly the world changes in terms of skills, technology, and processes.

It’s interesting – we had a contact on LinkedIn comment that Word files are now obsolete in today’s job search. We were stunned! No one told us of this amazing revolution! We even poll over a thousand recruiters twice a year and no one mentioned Word files were gone. Gosh! Did we miss a memo?

Myths such as these abound (and this IS a myth), and like other urban myths are often readily believed because they have a kernel of truth buried in them. No, Word files are not obsolete in the job search – far from it! In fact, Word is by far the most used format for resumes. The “kernel of truth” comes in with the e-resume format that is now used in conjunction with a Word format for tackling the job search. Job seekers truly need both types of files to conduct a thorough and effective job search.

Something that has changed significantly is the methods of job search. Resumes are rarely printed and mailed via postal mail to employers. Most of the time, they are uploaded to job boards or corporate websites and stored in large databases. In fact, many companies flatly refuse to accept a paper copy of a resume simply because they will not be charged with the time to scan it into the system. With the changes in technology and the methodologies of job search, resumes have changed.

E-resumes are a safe format for all databases regardless of platform or software. They are the “lowest common denominator” in terms of file formats and do not experience the problems that other file formats often have in upload and transfer. They are also the format to use when the job seeker copies/pastes information from the resume into resume builder fields that some job boards use. An e-resume is not going to create data integrity issues.

A problem, however, is the e-resume is not an attractive format to the human eye. We have become so accustomed to designed documents produced by word-processing programs that a document produced using only keyboard keys (like an old typewriter) looks plain and unattractive. There are no fancy fonts, bullets, horizontal lines, etc. All of the “pretty stuff” that comes with word-processing design is lost in an e-resume. What is gained is compatibility. When a Word document is uploaded, many of those pretty elements can disagree with the technology and corrupt the content.

The first entity to see the resume is usually the resume database, so starting with an e-resume makes the most of that first search. If the resume is retrieved in a search, the fully formatted Word document can then be provided upon request. When emailing a resume to a contact, go ahead and include both file formats and allow the recipient choose which one he/she would like.

Word files are not obsolete. Rather, resumes are in a “hybrid” state where two formats in job search. Smart job seekers use both!

We’ve all heard that old saying along with others such as “You are only as old as you feel.” I must say that some days I feel younger than others! Age is a huge factor in job search even though our laws state that it should not be.  Sure, age discrimination occurs covertly in the workplace despite all the legislation and court decisions that punishes it. As long as hiring is done by people, preconceptions, biases, and preferences will play a role in the candidate decision. People are fallible, imperfect. Laws and judges can rein in age discrimination from being overt and punish those that cross the line, but it is going to remain a factor until someone figures out how to take the human element out of the hiring process.

Age probably plays just as big a factor in employment when it is in the mind of the job seeker. When a job seeker comes to the job search with a mindset of “I’m too old. No one is going to hire me,” it tends to be a self-fulfilling prophecy! I’ve seen many job seekers struggle with confidence, attitude, and drive simply because they have already labeled themselves as “un-hire-able”.  Attitude plays a huge role in success in any endeavor and job search is no different.

Think of it this way – if you were a sales person selling ice to Saharan nomads, you can talk yourself out of success simply by continually telling yourself “They aren’t going to buy this! How are they going to carry it? How are they going to store it? No one is going to want this!”  You are entering the process with a failure mindset. As you think, so shall it be. If you go into the job search thinking you are going to fail, you will.

We recently worked with a wonderful gentleman who was a doctor. He started his career as a medic in the war – World War II! He was over 70 and still wanting to work in the health care industry! That was fantastic! He had a depth of experience that was literally unmatched by any of his competitors. He had been through it, seen it, learned it, wrote papers on it, and taught it. He had pretty much done “it” all - just fill in the blank for "it"!

Wow! What a great candidate! And he had a fantastic attitude in addition to all that experience. He was cheerful, funny, and sharp as a tack. He knew he still had a lot to offer health care and he wasn’t interested in sitting around playing shuffleboard. That wasn’t his mission in life. His mission was to deliver his knowledge, skills, and expertise to those who need it and he was determined to do just that for as long as he was physically and mentally able. I wanted to take his picture and put it on our wall as the poster boy for “You are only as old as you feel!”

Do you feel like you are facing age bias in the hiring process? It’s possible, but first ask yourself – “How old do I feel?” If you think of yourself as “too old” to compete against the other candidates, you are focusing on the negative. Focus on the positive! What can you offer that the younger generation can’t? What do they have that you may be lacking? Can you offer that too? How?

Gone is the “secure” job of 30 years, a pension, and a gold watch at retirement. The demise of General Motors is the headstone on that grave. Instead of careers being a train track – straight and one directional, careers are like ATVs – they are all over the place. People use their talents; leverage their interests; take steps backward or up or sideways; and develop new talents. Those who make progress use the wisdom they’ve gained to deal with the present and what the future deals them. Those who struggle are focused on the past or what “might have been”. So, how old do YOU feel today?
 

We have a sunroom that has an older metal roof. The sunroom was an addition by a previous owner and, for whatever reason, the roof of the sunroom was not replaced when the new roof was installed on the house proper. Whenever it rains really hard, our sunroom becomes a “rainroom” because the roof leaks like a sieve. We have put off having it repaired because there was always something else that needed the budget space. Now, it has become a major project involving not only a new roof but new insulation, new decking, and a new floor in the sunroom.

That roof is very much like a resume. People tend to put off having one prepared until there is a huge storm raging in their lives and they are knee-deep in unemployment flood waters. If we had had the roof repaired earlier, the unexpected rainy summer we’ve had would not have been such an issue; however, we procrastinated until it was something very urgent yet competing with other necessary expenses such as a new computer and school tuition. Every day, our writers work with people who are unemployed and knee deep in the flood waters of the job search, often for the first time in years!

Our team here at GetInterviews works really hard to throw floatation devices to those struggling to stay upright. It is very satisfying to work with a client who is overwhelmed in the job search to provide a great resume and self-marketing tools that helps him/her get back into a job quickly. We know what we do is extremely valuable – we help people avoid the storm of job loss, escape the rushing waters of unemployment, and hold a steady course when moving their careers through the eddies of a shaky economy. Our clients get jobs faster and that makes them happy, too. We really love what we do because we get the opportunity to help so many people while also doing what we do best – write!

Many of our clients are going through career changes. Some of the career changes are the result of a voluntary decision to go in a new direction, but many are the result of having an industry dissolve from under them. They have to suddenly jump from their sinking ship to a rock in the middle of the stream and they aren’t sure how to do that without drowning. How do they suddenly change directions in career?

A career change resume can be challenging, especially if the new career field is significantly different than the current one. A “reach back” career change resume – a resume that has to go back to a previous field and older experience – is also challenging. Showcasing older experience and making it relevant can seem impossible for many job seekers.

Some career-change resume “musts” include:

- Know what you want to do. A “shotgun” resume that is designed to hit anything available is not effective.

- State a clear focus in the beginning of the resume. If someone in distribution wants to target a job as a paralegal, the focus needs to be clear at the beginning so the employer doesn’t dismiss the resume out of hand.

- Show transferrable skills. Don’t make the employer try to guess at your qualifications or think “Why did this person send this resume to me?”

- Think outside the box. There are no “rules” in resumes other than to have no errors. Maybe a different organization of information will be better suited to your needs.

Are you facing a career change? Have you procrastinated in having your resume professionally prepared simply because you have “never needed one”? Let us help you!

What started as a teenage time waster has grown to an entity all its own – social media. MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and others have expanded their reach from the “tweens” to the grown-ups.  These phenomena are impacting job search and employment in whole new ways – some good and some bad.

Of all job search methods, networking has always been – and will probably always remain – the most effective method of getting a new job. The reason is simple: people hire people. Hiring has always been a people-centric endeavor and despite the implications of technology, it remains so.  Companies look to employee referrals first as potential hires because they generally make better employees. Current employees are generally hesitant to recommend someone to management for hire if that person is not truly qualified because it will reflect poorly on the employee; thus, companies know the quality of referred candidates will tend to be better.

While job sites have made it easier for recruiters and hiring managers to access huge pools of candidates at the stroke of a few keys, digging down to really good candidates can be difficult. It is also difficult for job seekers to get through the huge crowd of other candidates in the job site database and make it to the interview. We constantly hear the lament “If I could just talk to someone, I know I could get the job!”

Social media and networking sites may make “talking to someone” a little easier and more direct for job seekers. One of the best is LinkedIn, a professional site that is used extensively by people seeking to establish an online profile that can be used for job search, business development, and self-marketing.  Recruiters use LinkedIn extensively to “head hunt” candidates.

Unfortunately, many people do not consider the fact that employers and potential employers also monitor social networking sites. Be very careful what you post on your Facebook or MySpace page and tweet on Twitter, because it is very possible your employer will find it. If you are looking for a job, be aware that a Google search and a search on social networking sites is now commonly part of the screening process for new hires. What you post will speak volumes about you, much more so than anything your references could say.

Your photos are also fair game. Have something posted from last year’s Cinco de Mayo party that is not very flattering? You may want to consider removing it. Your employer may not think you a good candidate for a promotion and new employers may find it a reason to pass over you in the hiring process.
 
 

We are well into a deep recession with unemployment at a record high, approaching double digits. Because of the employment situation, we have worked more in the past six months with clients who are out of work in contrast to clients who are seeking to make a change or move up in their careers. Some of the clients come to us after a fairly extended period of unemployment. What makes it more difficult for some people to gain a new job while for other job seekers, reemployment is not such a huge hurdle? From our experience, it has very little to do with actual qualifications but rather with the attitude the client has about job search.

We generally start all our engagements with a free critique of the client’s current resume. In our communication with clients at this stage, we often get the “myths” list from job seekers. These myths are their perceptions on why they are unsuccessful in their job search. A myth list will often sound something like this:

“I’ve been looking for a job for six months and there just isn’t anything out there (Myth 1). I don’t have a degree (Myth 2) and I think that is one of the reasons no one is calling me. Add to it that I’ve 59 years old (Myth 3) and I have three strikes against me from the beginning. It’s a hopeless situation.”

Such a negative attitude is self-defeating. The job seeker with this attitude spends more time and energy taking a negative approach to the job search and less time actually taking positive action to get interviews! Notice the job seeker does not mention the resume even though the resume is the primary career marketing tool for generating interviews. A great resume will deal strategically with any conceived hurdles such as education deficits or age. Much of our approach and strategies revolve around nullifying or de-emphasizing issues that may stand in the way of an interview! If you are not receiving interviews, the first potential culprit that should be examined is the resume. It must do its job – sell your value, overcome potential problems, and generate the interview.

In the client’s comments above, he grasps some common myths concerning hiring. The first myth is that there are no jobs available. That’s untrue! There ARE jobs out there but there is more competition for each one. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released a figure last week stating for every open position, there are five applicants. New businesses are starting up as those laid off decide to take the opportunity to pursue The American Dream of owning their own company. Smaller companies are stepping in with cost-saving solutions where larger companies cannot compete due to huge overhead. There are some terrific opportunities in the market right now!

The second myth concerns the degree or lack of one. Many people feel the lack of a degree is a comment upon their character. That could not be further from the truth! In fact, here is a comment from a recruiter concerning education:

“I can tell you that too much education can be a bad thing when it comes to applying for jobs. Not only does it give the impression that you don’t know what you want to be when you grow up, it can also suggest that you don’t want to grow up. People who have dedicated so much time to their education often perceive its value to be much higher than it is to employers, and it can be difficult to convince them to downplay it. And it’s not just an issue of being "over-qualified" - in some cases it may be indicative that a person is "not qualified" because they spent more time in school than in the real world.”

Most people do not think of the education issue from that perspective, but rather think of lack of education as a huge strike against them. You cannot learn experience in a classroom! Employers know that, too! Sure, a formal degree is helpful but savvy employers know that it is not the only success indicator in hiring. You may notice that many, many employers will accept experience in lieu of a degree.

The third myth – the age issue – actually has some basis of truth. Is age discrimination a factor in job search? Yes, it can be. People hire people. Those who are the hiring decision-makers bring their own personal attitudes and biases to the process. While age discrimination in hiring is illegal, it still happens. In the comment above, the client believes his age is a reason for not generating interviews. If his resume was written well, his age would not “show” on the resume and the issue would be a moot point until he actually arrived for the interview.

Job seekers who successfully find their next job quickly have some common traits. They have positive, can-do attitudes. They do not listen to the negative messages coming from the media about the job market. They look for solutions to problems they face rather than caving to the problems. They focus on the positive attributes they have to offer employers rather than dwelling on the negatives in their past. They are constantly making efforts toward that next job – they do not stand still and wait for things to happen. And finally, they make sure they are using the most aggressive career marketing tools available – a fantastic resume and a sound job search plan.

I was surfing around some of the career pages of major companies that have recently had well-publicized lay-offs or hiring freezes such as IBM and General Motors. I was curious to see where their open positions are and for what positions they are hiring. While doing my surfing, I came across a link that led me to a link that took me to another link (you know how it is). I ended up at a good article on keywords and resume databases - http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/02/news/economy/kowitt_resume.fortune/index.htm. The article quotes Al Campa of Taleo software. Taleo is a brand of HRIS (Human Resource Information Systems) software that helps HR departments hire and manage talent. The article quotes Campa as stating. The whole automated system just makes it easier to go through resumes pretty painlessly. In the market today, even if the country was running at 3% unemployment rather than near 10% in places, HR departments of large companies simply cannot operate without HRIS systems. The volume of resumes is far too high to manage by hand. The resume database is a fact of life.

As with all facts of life, we need to stop fighting it and start working with it to achieve our goals. Resume databases are here to stay and the smart job seeker will accept that and go with the flow. We all lament the lack of personal touches in hiring but the days of having 25 applicants for a job opening are long gone. Today, a job opening will likely have 250 applicants instead and it is simply impossible to personally review that many resumes. We have to automate to survive. For the job seeker, survival means adaptation.

The article linked above has some excellent points. One is the use of a keyword or core competencies section. At Getinterviews, the core competencies section is an integral part of our resume strategy for almost all our clients. Having keywords that tag the skills of the targeted positions is very important. We make our core competencies section one of the main sections in the top half of the resume. As part of our intake process, we ask our clients for job advertisements that are representative of the career goals they are targeting so we can hone in on specific keywords. We want to bring those keywords into play and also provide details in the content that back up those skills. As the article describes, employers are looking for candidates with near-100% matches on qualifications. Everything we can do to make sure our clients resumes come up high in those searches will help make our clients more successful.

Another important factor is the use of an e-resume. Have you ever viewed your uploaded Word-format resume only to discover it is full of strange character sets? Word documents do not always upload cleanly to a database. Formatting and design elements will often cause strange or unusual changes to the content of the document, usually resulting in a document that looks messy, unprofessional and difficult to read. Other formats such as HTML or PDF files cause even greater problems in uploading. The only solution is to use a database-compatible e-resume. The e-resume is designed to be readable by computers but also easy on the human eye. It follows certain layout rules and is in a text format. The layout rules help the human reader and the text format helps the machine reader. The goal is to get the machine to grab it in a search and then have the human reviewer contact the job seeker after skim-reading it.

An e-resume is also used as a source document for the copy/paste procedure that some job sites and career pages require for inputting a resume. The e-resume content will copy and paste cleanly without worry about losing formatting or causing problems. It makes getting the resume into many of the job boards much less of a hassle.

The article notes there are no magical words that must appear on every resume and I totally agree. Content of a resume should be well-considered because a resume has a limited amount of space. Choose words that are powerful and representative of the skills targeted. The resume is a persuasive document with a goal of spurring an interview contact. It needs to be engaging and full of useful, keyword-rich information and description. Unimaginative sentence construction, word choice, or syntax only makes for a boring resume. Boring resumes don’t generate interviews.

Is your resume keyword-rich? Is it passing the database test? Are you consistently using an e-resume as an essential tool in your job search? If you answer no to any of these questions, you are not maximizing your job search efforts.

We are fortunate here at GetInterviews. We get the privilege of working with a lot of really interesting people while at the same time helping them through some tough times. The economy is pretty bumpy right now. I’m sure you know someone who has lost a job or is facing foreclosure. We all do, too. That’s why we feel fortunate to be in a position to help people get back on their feet with a strong resume and cover letter.

In addition to having a great resume, there are lots of things you can do to make your job search more effective. It’s very easy to send out the resume and then sit and wait but don’t fall into that trap. That path leads to discouragement. I realize it just seems easier to float the resume on the Internet and see what bites but "easy" isn’t going to get you back to work.

Tenaciousness is a virtue in a job search. Those who win out are the ones who stick with it, work at it, and try to help others along the way. Here are some ways you can make some noise in your job search and gain attention:

• Send follow up emails or letters to show hiring managers you are still interested in a position for which you’ve applied.
• Expand your networking web join an organization, join an online networking site, or simply talk to people you normally would just smile at (like other parents at your kid’s ball game).
• Find a job search group or partner and start sharing opportunities. This will not only help others but will multiply the opportunities that come your way, too.
• Go on every interview possible, even if it’s for a job you already know is not suitable. It will give you a chance to practice your interviewing skills. You also never know what other positions are in the "wings" the interviewer may realize that there is a different position coming open for which you would be more suitable!
• Refresh your resume online and make sure you Google yourself to see what is out there about you (you may be surprised).
• Volunteer somewhere. Charitable organizations are really hurting in these economic times. Even if you can’t donate money, you have time and that is quite valuable. Go help someone. It will get you out of the doldrums, expand your network, and give you the opportunity to give back. Remember, you generally receive back with interest all that you give, even your time.

In this economy, those who are proactive, positive and have a "can do" attitude will be the ones who win the jobs.