opportunities. When people ask me what I do for work, I joke that I gamble for a living, but it is closer to the truth to say I constantly search for ways to maximize the odds of my own success, and so should every job seeker.Searches I take on are often contingency searches, which means I only get paid when I present the winning candidate and the company successfully hires them,so I am careful where I spend my time. This is one of the first things I want to share with folks looking for a job: The person you contact matters, the way you make contact matters, and your presentation matters. Lots of layoffs are taking place, and the first reaction is often panic, fear, and gloom. One might feel like wallpapering every available surface with a resume and cover letter, but honestly that isn't going to help.
Many people in today's market have never had to look hard for a job, and the job search landscape has changed a lot in the last ten years. Now we have job boards, web based networking and electronic resumes. Most people don't know how to search for a job beyond sending out batches of resumes or posting a resume on an internet job site. In my business we call that post and pray. Like most passive approaches it takes you out of control and does nothing to maximize your odds.
The first thing to do when you begin a job search is to look at what you have accomplished. Write down a list of accomplishments for each position you held in your career.. Be realistic, but also do not be afraid of sharing the best things about your history. Ask yourself what milestones made you proud. This will serve you in two ways. If you have been laid off, it will go a long way toward rebuilding your confidence. It will also give you more to choose from when constructing what will be the foundation of your resume. Most people just write a list of responsibilities under every position. Your job is to write impact statements about what you accomplished instead of bullet points stating responsibilities. Use numbers whenever you can. Your impact statements need to focus on how you have made money, saved money or made an difference in some way that accomplished either one. Companies are in the business of making money, and they hire people who understand that fact.
When writing a resume, think about how it will get used. It will probably get put in a database, so although all those fancy tables and ornate fonts might look fabulous printed out, go with clean, clear and simple. You should also have a key word section somewhere in your resume, even if it is at the very bottom of the last page. List specialized words or phrases from your industry that will help your resume get discovered by a key word search. While it is best to use such things in context in the body of the document, a key word section can maximize your exposure and keep you from sounding like you are just trying to use jargon.
I hear people say they were told to keep their resume to one or two pages. I think that is a mistake unless you are just starting out in the market. While one does not want to have a twelve page resume, I am far more concerned with creating a compelling presentation than I am with word count. I have no problem with a three or even four page resume if it is succinct, to the point, and full of relevant material. You will want to have a general resume that can be tailored to fit any specific positions you are interested in pursuing. Impact statements can be focused on specific markets or environments and taking the time to do that can make you really stand out from the pack.
If you take only one thing away from my efforts here make it this: Get rid of the objective at the top of your resume. Banish it. Your objective is to get a job, we know that already. Use that space instead for a Professional Summary. Tell your audience who you are, what you have accomplished, and how well you communicate, but most importantly tell them what you can do for them. A resume is not just a summary of you, it should be a compelling presentation that helps the reader see what you offer to them. The cover letter you right should have the same focus. Build a bridge between your history and what the company wants. You have to make yourself pop in print just like in real life. The harsh reality is with a resume you probably have less than 15 seconds to make an impression.
I want to touch on web research and networking tools like sites like Linkedin, and Jigsaw. People use them differently. Many folks choose to connect only with folks they know on Linkedin. My opinion is that I want as many connections on Linkedin as I can get, because many connections enhance its efficacy as a networking and research tool. I have 8500+ connections. From those connections I search from a pool of over 25 million individuals. By using Jigsaw and Linkedin together it is rare that I look up a company and am not able to get a targeted name and a contact number. Most importantly, I am often able to mine for connections between existing relationships. Priceless. If you had the option of havng the friend of a friend pass your resume to a hiring manager or emailing it in amidst a deluge of competeing jobseekers, what would you choose? I am not saying to bypass the posted rules, every time, one must be careful. But if you are doing your homework, it is most likely you'll find the best way to enter a company will not be through the generic hiring@comapnyx.com email address. The best place to enter a company is to find the person who is feeling the pain from not having the right person in place. That person will see you as a happy solution instead of one more candidate to run through the process.
I'll give you an example from just last week. I have an associate who is looking for a new job, and while doing some research, he saw a mid-sized company he liked a great deal. He called me to see if I knew someone there, and even though I didn't I was able to pull some contact names with phone numbers. I offered to make a call to make an introduction from him, because we know a reference reaching out on your behalf is often more powerful than reachng yourself. I picked up the phone and called the president. He called me back. After a lovely conversation, we forwarded my friend's resume which we had carefully tailored to fit that opportunity and organization. It was chock full of impact statements that applied to the work and the culture. I know he was on the top of the stack, despite our having not followed the directions posted on the website, because he got a phone call to interview the very next day.
I hope some of these ideas and techniques help folks navigate the job search landscape more effectively. Most of this is about getting to the dance. Once you get an interview I have some additional handouts I'd like to make available.
How to answer that dangerous but common interview question: "Tell me about yourself"
How to successfully ask for the job
Navigating tricky behavioral questions
