Your Resume is Just One of the Tools in Your Job Search
A resume is a tool. It allows employers to see what skills you have and what benefits you bring to the table. When an employers looks over your resume they will most likely scan for highlighted points. Most HR people do this. This way they weed out your resume. When writing your resume, make sure you tailor it for your specific job. You want the employer to see what you have to offer. Put yourself in their shoes. If you were the hiring manager what would you want to see? Would you want to see that someone was able to reduce costs or was able to use a certain computer program? Think of all the relevant things you did in your experience. Take all the time you need here. Write down everything you have to offer. Don't skimp. The goal is to keep writing them down. Once you have your list. Go over them and pick out ones that stand out to you. Again, think like the hiring manager would. What would you be looking for? Do this until you pick out a list of 3-5 things you can use on your resume. Once you have these down, ask yourself. Do they answer the all important question? What's in it for me? HR may get a hold of your resume first. This is why this step is crucial. They will most likely scan over your resume for the key points. If you don't have them, it's probably good bye and in the round file. If you think your resume has gone in the round file and you have no chance of being hired with that company think again. This is where you can put your calling skills to work. Call the company and find out who is the head of the department you want to work in. See if you can get his or her email address. If not and you get voice mail leave a message like this. Hello, my name is Paul John. I sent my resume in to you about 4 months ago. I trust you were able to read it. I am very interested in a sales position with your company. I was able to produce a 100% growth rate over a three year period. Please give me a call back so that I know if you were able to read my resume or not. My number is... You want to leave the finer points here about what you have to offer. If you are able to get the managers email address, apply the same principals as you would with the voice mail. Just be personal in your writing. Speak to the manager as if you were in person but also be professional. You can use this technique when you don't think you are going to get a call back from a company. This could be anywhere from 3-6 months. Remember if something does not work out with a company, always try something different. Todd Jirecek is the Author of: Headhunting Secrets Revealed. If you want to learn more go to:http://www.headhuntingsecrets.com | | | | RELATED ARTICLES Wanted: A Diva for the Job of a Lifetime! "When I was a child, I always thought the world was mine, A stomping ground for me, full of opportunities. I always had this attitude that I was going to go out into the world and do all the things I wanted to do." ?Madonna Outsmart Other Job Seekers by Showing These 5 Key Strengths Getting an appointment for an interview these days is an accomplishment. It indicates that you have a good resume, and/or that networking has paid off. Bravo. Now for the all-important in-person phase of the process. How to Choose Your Ideal Career They say that most people do complete and total career changes at least once often twice in their lifetimes. Very few people chose the ideal perfect career for themselves when they're in high school and blissfully happily work those same jobs for the rest of their lives. With the way that technology and everything else changes so fast, I think it's ridiculous to expect to stay in one job from the time you leave school until you retire. Even staying in the same company can be a huge challenge. So how will you pick your first career? Your next major career change? Dynamic Interviewing Practices The pre-hiring process can be a challenge. If you're reading this article, you are finished with the pre-hiring process and are looking for tips that will guide you through the interview. Career Success Through Self-Marketing Marketing shouldn't be limited to advertising companies. Finding a job or enhancing your current position requires good self-marketing skills. What is self-marketing? Basically, self-marketing is communicating your benefits to potential or current employers. Think of yourself as a "product" and explain to employers what differentiates you from other "products." Job Interviews -- The Four Worst Objections You?ll Face and How to Deal with Them Dealing with tough questions and objections is an essential part of job interviews. Here are four common ones that derail many candidates. Read on to find out what they are and how you can deal with them. Marketing You and Your Career Imagine if a business invested years into the research, design, and creation of a new product, and then failed to tell anybody about it. What if the company assumed (even expected) that consumers should discover their new product, just because it was â??greatâ??? Flawed logic, right? Yet, thatâ??s how many people treat their careers! They spend years learning a trade, gaining education, and writing resumes - but do nothing to promote themselves. In fact, they assume others should recognize them just because they show up and do a good job. What they donâ??t assume is accountability for their own career. Could You Write Performance Reviews For Money? Writing performance reviews can be an excellent way to earn a living. Who wouldn't want to go from place to place watching actors, singers, and chefs perform at their best (and maybe their worst)? Getting paid to do something like this just seems like fun, doesn't it? But, in reality, these jobs are not easy to come by nor are they easy to do. A writer will need to have many qualifications and have to write very well in order to establish themselves as worthy candidates of this type of work. Writing reviews is a little more complicated than just telling what you thought of the show. So You want to be a Bodyguard? Then let me start by helping out. The politically correct phrase these days is not "bodyguard" but personal protection specialist, executive protection specialist or close protection operative, depending on your place of training and other preferences. How to Success On The Job from Job Hunting to Keep Your Job and Get Most of Out of It INTRODUCTIONThis article will prepare you for the difficult task of job hunting. Not only will it show you how to get a job but it will show you how to keep your job and get the most out of it. You will be able to use the most modern psychological measures in dealing with other people so that you are always ahead. Follow the instruction in this book and see yourself go to the top. Resume Objectives ... The Hidden Pitfalls Why Use Resume Objectives Risk-taking - Get Your Feet Wet! We often use the phrase, "Get Your Feet Wet" when we are just beginning to learn how to do something or are about to pioneer a new initiative. When we participate in a project for the first time, there is usually a hesitancy to step out into the unknown. Perceptions How was your latest car wash experience? Freelance Work: The Changing Face of Employment The world sure is changing, and if you look at job employment you will see what I mean. Let's just go back to our grandparent's generation, even though I'm sure if we went back further we would see very different structures of work in the tribal periods of our history. Our grandparents usually found a skill, and then used that one skill to work for their whole career. An example is my grandfather who was a salesman for the same suit company for 44 years. There is nothing wrong with this. His job was secure; he knew there would be a superannuating fund when he retired, and that there would always be food on the table for his family. These days in the 21st century things have changed, and they are still changing rapidly as we speak. Using Your Whine Factor Brian's work was exceptional. Still, as his boss, I rarely offered him additional responsibilities, never thought of promoting him or selecting him for a critical project. Why? His whine factor got in the way.  He was quick to complain to anyone who'd listen how much work was on his plate, or how hard or how late he worked. His whine factor was a protective shield that insured he didn't get more work to do. But, it also shielded him from getting the opportunity filled assignments, more interesting work, and the highest pay raises. Stephanie was a different story. She was masterful at weaving vivid details with a precision that explained exactly why the expected outcome didn't happen. This week it centered on a miscommunication, last week it was the delayed delivery, or the reduced advertising, an incompetent supplier or a staff illness. Every story was accurate; every reason plausible; every explanation justifiable; always a good reason why she couldn't deliver the promised quality, precision or timeliness. As her boss, it took me time to realize that Stephanie's accountability decreased each time her whine factor increased. As she became more entrenched in offering reasons why something didn't happen, she became less personally involved in the actual results. I've seen the whine factor derail projects and people in my twenty years in management. Whining shifts a mindset from can do to can't do, allows potholes to become sink holes, turns challenges to complaints and reframes opportunities into woe is me. You can use your own whine factor as a barometer to keep you on track. If the factor is high, be alerted that your actions are, most likely, becoming less accountable. That should signal you to tune into what you can personally do to control, adjust or correct the current course so you can deliver the expected results. I think that point is worth repeating because it differentiates performance in significant ways. If you want to control the outcome, you'll need to get your hands a bit calloused along the way. Learning to listen to your whine factor is a helpful self-feedback mechanism to guide you towards greater accountability and winning at working behaviors. Less whine means more accountability. Higher accountability typically means better results. And better results are what most of us are after. (c) 2004 Nan S. Russell. All rights reserved. Look in the Mirror Take a moment to step outside yourself. Now, be honest with me here? If you could be your own boss, how would you rate your own performance in the last three months? Would you get a raise, a day off as a treat, or would a big and brawny security guy kindly escort you to the parking lot? So, Why Dont You Tell Me About Yourself? "So, why don't you tell me about yourself?" is the most frequently asked interview question. It's a question that most interviewees expect and the one they have the most difficulty answering. Though one could answer this open-ended question in a myriad of ways, the key to answering this question or any other interview question is to offer a response that supports your career objective. This means that you shouldn't respond with comments about your hobbies, spouse, or extra curricular activities. Trust me, interviewers aren't interested. The Background on Background Checks In one of my past lives I held a Top Secret clearance as a Civil Service employee working for the Air Force. So I am familiar with background checks. But many job seekers are not. Here's a little background on background checks... Job Search Blurts I coined this word to draw attention tothe nervous and apprehensive way ofsaying something in the job search thatmakes you feel like a buffoon. A "blurt"is a catchy way of saying: Gaffe. Job Interviews: Answering Whats Your Greatest Weakness? Many interview guides advise candidates to answer the common "What's your greatest weakness?" question with a positive trait disguised as a weakness. For example, "I tend to expect others to work as hard as I do," or "I'm a perfectionist."
|