Searching for a rewarding job can be stressful, frustrating and more demanding than running a multi-million dollar corporation. A few simple rules of the game is just about all it takes to make sure you land the job you want. These rules should be followed ALL the time with no exceptions. Know your strengths and accept your weaknesses. Not everyone can run a global empire, just as not everyone has the talent to build a house. Recognize your skills and talents and build upon them. Will you truly be happy managing a lumber mill when you would rather be in the woods cutting the trees? For the love of money?
Set your priorities before you apply for the position that will double your salary but will leave you no time for your family or outside interests. Do not let a large increase in salary cloud your perception of what will be expected of you. Know what you are willing to sacrifice for what amount of money. Remember, some jobs as well as a large raise may not always be the best option.
If you are presently employed and looking for a job, do not use your work email address when searching for job offers on the Internet because your present employer may have access to your email files. Establish a new email account at one of the many free email services such as yahoo or gmail. But do not create a user name such “hot_for_you” or “studmuffin.” Be as professional as possible when choosing your username. Be honest during a job interview. Don’t oversell yourself. It is important to highlight your talents, but skilled interviewers can tell when you are lying. Be realistic. Will two years of experience be enough to get you the position of CEO at IBM? Of course not. No one has ever been the president of a company just starting out. Be committed. Look at any successful person and you will see in them the drive and determination to succeed. The most successful people have had failures, but they have learned from them and continued on their journey. You have to keep trying and pushing harder and harder.
If you have been successful enough to be invited to a job interview, then well done you! The hard part is over with – you have already showcased your skills, told a company about your experiences and they have decided that they would like to at least give you a chance at working for them. Many people get worked out and nervous about a job interview, however, it is simply a matter of further showcasing your talents and abilities. They already know how good you are on paper, so you just need to back this up in real life. A big part of this is creating the right impression and a lot of this is to do with how you present yourself and the clothes that you wear. Whatever the job is that you are applying for you need to give a professional approach and show this in your interview. This means that even if it is only a casual job or one that doesn’t require you to dress up you need to dress smart for your interview. It is a good idea if you have a set of clothes that you keep aside just for interviews, that way you know that they are always going to look their best. Trouser suits, skirts, shirts and smart shoes are all ideal clothes for a job interview, no matter what that job interview is. What you also need to make sure of is that the clothes you wear are in good condition and look the part. Making sure the clothes you wear are pressed and look smart is essential. Making a little bit of effort goes a long way – making sure that your shoes are shined, your hair is tidy and that your clothes match are all small ways you can make sure that you look as good as possible. That way you know that you have done everything you can to ensure job interview success.
In today’s current era of technology, social media, choppy economies, and 14-year-old executives, it pays to learn the job search process. Anyone, whether employed or not, can benefit from learning how to streamline the job search process.
With over 40,000 websites and companies competing to offer job search services, it is easy to get confused. Career websites are set up so that you can submit resumes electronically to businesses. Applying for jobs takes time, and landing one is really a numbers game. Almost all potential jobs can now be examined, located, and applied for from the comfort of your own home. Follow these simple steps to learn how to manage your time and resources in an effort to get more interviews. Write Down your Goals. Before even writing a resume or applying, write down your goals. If you don’t write yours down, you will just be helping someone else achieve theirs. Decide what you want, write it down, and create a plan to get what you want. Get a Resume and Cover Letter. Write your own or use a service. If you think about the cost/benefit analysis of purchasing a resume, it really makes sense to invest in a custom resume written by a professional. This could be the difference between two jobs and big salary differences. There are numerous experts that say a cover letter is imperative. Most resume services will write a cover letter with the resume you purchase. Then all you have to do is change the company and contact name in the letter. Another reason to use a professional resume service is because they know how to write resumes integrating all the right keywords in all the right places. Research Companies. Research the companies for which you want to work. When interviewing it is always better to keep focused on the company and how you will benefit them. Don’t sell yourself short. Get Organized. When you find a job of interest, be sure to make a list of their contact people and email them your resume directly if possible. If there is a phone number, pick up the phone and call the headhunter. Log everything. You never know when HR will call. You will look really good if you know something about the representative. Submit your Resume. This is by far the most important step. Most of the time, jobs will find you, not the other way around on line at various job boards.
These five steps, if followed, will guide you to an interview. Always remember that your thoughts control your destiny. You have to be positive and patient. You can do it. Always remember, if you don’t respect yourself, no one else will.
Firstly, if you have gotten as far as the interview stage of a job application, then well done! There are many people who will also have applied for this job and who haven’t been as successful. It is a fantastic feeling when you know that a company likes the sound of you enough to invite you to an interview and now is the time to really showcase yourself. One of the most important things to do is not to panic. It is easy to worry about a job interview and let nerves build up; this can ruin the whole experience for you and make it much harder to showcase yourself as much as you could.
There is a famous saying: “fail to prepare and you prepare to fail.” There is not a situation that relates to this more than a job interview. If you do your homework and preparation when leading up to a job interview, then you are going to be in a much better position to give yourself the best chance of success.
What you do need to make sure you do is read up about the company that you are being interviewed for. Being able to ask relevant questions about the company or drop in facts that you know will really please the person that is interviewing you will put you leaps and bounds ahead of the competition. Knowing everything that the company does and all about them will also put you in a great position to be able to answer any questions that they ask you with the relevant answers.
When you are attending a job interview, it is obvious that you need to make sure that you create the right impression. This means you need to dress to impress, turn up with everything that they may have asked you to bring and make sure that you are on time. Show willingness at the interview and be keen when they are talking to you. Remember that it isn’t just being able to do the job that matters, but you also need to show them why they would enjoy working alongside you and how you are going to fit in amongst their already formed team.
One of the most important things that you can do when it comes to attending a job interview is to ask questions! Making sure that you attend the interview with a number of questions in mind will really help, so make sure that you have these in mind ahead of your job interview. This will help to impress the person interviewing you and will give you the best chance of being successful during your job interview.
The electronic age has revolutionized the way job seekers and employers meet. Online services take the volume of resume traffic to levels unimagined only a few years ago. With services to job seekers expanding continually, it’s important to understand the different options available to increase exposure of your resume to potential employers and recruiters. Two types are resume posting and resume distribution. Resume Posting. This is a service where job seekers post their resumes to a job board for employers and recruiters to find. This is a passive approach in that the employer or recruiter must find you within the resume database. They usually find you by calling up resumes via key words. The chances of their finding you depend greatly on your including all the appropriate key words in your resume.
This service is normally free to job seekers, and used only by those employers and recruiters who have paid a substantial fee to access the resumes. In other words, when you post your resume to an online resume posting service, not every employer or recruiter will find you. Resume Distribution. This is actually opposite of a posting service. With a resume distribution, the job seeker has access to a select database of well-qualified employers and/or recruiters to email his/her resume to. This service does cost the job seeker a fee. The amount will vary depending on the service you use.
There are several advantages of a distribution service. The advantages include not having to wait to be found, you decide who receives your resume and you are in control of who actually gets your resume.
Make sure the distribution service allows you to target the employers who receive your resume. At a minimum, you should be able to query the employer/recruiter database by industry, job function and geographic region. If the service offers no targeting capabilities, your resume may be sent out indiscriminately to employers and recruiters who do not match your employment criteria.
For optimum resume distribution or posting effectiveness you’ll want to make sure your resume is updated. If you are not currently getting the response rate from your resume that you’d like, using a resume distribution service will only be marginally helpful, because you will still be distributing a resume that is not working for you.
Both services, resume posting and resume distribution, are valuable strategies for your job search. Don’t be turned off by the fact that one is free and the other you must pay for. The money spent on a good quality resume distribution will repay you over and over again with valuable job leads and introductions to influential recruiters. After all, aren’t you worth it?
Your employer just let you go. You need to find another job, but how should you handle your termination on your resume? The days when you signed on with a company and stayed with it until retirement are gone. In today’s climate, employers are much more understanding when they see a less-than-perfect work chronology, but you still have to be careful how and when you present a termination. Do not put the termination or the circumstances surrounding it on your resume. You will have a much better chance of impressing hiring managers if you deal with this question in face-to-face interviews.
If you were recently let go, resist the urge to keep your position listed as “to present” on your resume, giving the appearance that you’re still employed. You will have to explain yourself later on, and potential employers might think you tried to mislead them. It’s a different matter if you were laid off instead of fired. In this case, you can mention the lay off in your cover letter. Employers are more forgiving of layoffs, so mentioning this might work in your favor. Focus on your accomplishments in your resume. Your goal is to wow your potential employers by highlighting those accomplishments and skills. Even if hiring managers are wondering why you left a certain employer, your resume should be strong enough for you to receive invitations to interviews in which you can explain your situation in person. Be sure to list all of your contributions about a previous employer, even any that laid you off. This too can be a red flag to hiring managers. Talk about your responsibilities, overall contributions to the company and if you received any awards or special recognition. All of this will go a long way in your favor and that’s what you want.
It has happened to all of us. Everyone has experienced a bad job interview sometime in the past. Anything from being late, botching answers to key questions or not being able to show knowledge about the company. Although the proverb is true, you never get a second chance to make a first impression, you do have an opportunity to make up some of what you lost in your bad job interview.
Often, people are their own worst critics, but this can actually be a good thing. When it comes to a job interview, you might be seeing things that weren’t actually there, or at least, that weren’t nearly as bad as you perceived them to be. Try to put the interview into perspective. Obviously, things like arriving late are negatives that will count against you but maybe other issues could be worse. Did you stumble through some questions? Did you fail to impress your interviewer with your knowledge of the company? Are there several things that were on the tip of your tongue that you were never able to express? Answer these questions and you’ll be able to tell yourself whether the interview was as bad as you first thought.
Think of it this way. Maybe that job was not the right one for you anyway. Did you feel like you weren’t able to connect with the interviewer? Did you feel out of place in the office? Were the questions exceedingly simple and not a challenge to you? Sometimes our instincts will show us in subtle ways when something is not right.
If you’ve decided that you did do very badly in the interview but still want the job, you can do damage control. The first thing to do is to analyze what went wrong. Write a thank you note or recovery letter. This is a way to follow up your bad job interview with concrete examples to back up your less than stellar answers to the interview questions. This is your chance to set the record straight and take back the initiative. Put together a concise, hard-hitting letter, using verifiable facts to back up your case wherever you can. When your prospective employer receives the letter, they will know, even if you didn’t show it in the interview, that you very much want the job and further, that you’re uniquely qualified for it.
There are any number of reasons why you can have a bad job interview. Often, it’s not as bad as you thought, or the interview will have given you enough of a perspective to convince you that the job wasn’t for you after all. But if you have a bad job interview for a job you really want, writing a timely, fact-filled and enthusiastic recovery letter can show the employer yet again that you are the best person for the job.
A lot of people have probably already done this, but it is important to make sure your executive resume is customized, tailored, and geared toward you in a good light. The best way to know if your resume is working is this: Have you been called in for a job interview? If the answer is no, then it’s time to customize your resume and try something different.
Of course, you want your resume to be a professional piece and it will be, but think about something. How quickly does someone scan over your resume? Interviewers are looking at your skills and experience, which will alert them to the needs that they are hoping you will fulfill. That takes maybe 20 seconds, tops.
So, what do you need to do? Make it pop! Bold certain words throughout your resume so they pop off the page at someone. You’ve got their attention now, right? An example would be: “have 10 years experience as a Project Manager”. OK, that sentence is just sitting there. But if you use “have 10 years experience as a Project Manager“. Much better, right?
Also, be sure to use the same phrases and job descriptions that the potential employer is using. This makes them feel as if you have really read the job requirements and understand the position. It’s only a matter of critiquing your resume so that when viewed it takes on a whole new life.
There are a number of ways of customizing your executive resume. Find the ones that work best for you. You can always find suggestions and help online; it’s just a matter of where to look.
