You have carefully crafted your resume, reading all the tips and compiling your information before editing and polishing your presentation to be the best snapshot of the assets you bring to the hiring interview.How do you get that resume distributed so it gets read? It isn’t enough to go through the paper and send envelopes out to any address you find, hoping you get a response. A lot of companies will now ask you to apply online even though they advertise in that newspaper. It’s a good idea to learn how to work with online applications and attach your resume electronically.This is pretty much standard, and not knowing how to do it limits you. It’s also a good job skill so you don’t have an excuse for ignoring that whole technology thing. The next step after writing a resume – distribution – trips a lot of job-seekers up.They don’t really know how to distribute their resume and aren’t honestly aware of all the potential openings available to them. When you employ a hit-or-miss method to looking for a job, you are going to miss a lot of the job openings in your field. A “resume blast” indiscriminately blanketing the job market often is ignored or seen as spam. If you are serious about distributing your resume effectively, consider working with a recruiter.This is a professional whose career is connecting companies and potential employees. They know exactly how to get your resume into the hands of someone who will want to call you in for an interview. Recruiters often specialize in certain industries or areas. You can do the research yourself, hoping you find the right match, or you can do this: Professional Resume Services can connect you with the recruiters who fit your search.Instead of that resume blast or scattered attempts, the database of almost 16,000 recruiters is searched for the best options for you. This database is updated quarterly and has major recruiting firms, contingency and retained recruiters, and more. Once the recruiter is identified, a targeted letter in PDF and MSWord format is sent to each one. Then you get an Excel file with the contact information for every recruiter your resume was sent to.
That’s a lot more effective than circling want ads and hoping you find a job.
Nobody likes to be told they didn’t get the job. Rejection has a sting! But there can be some good things about it if you use that “NO” like a tool for making your job search better. There are more, but here are three reasons that job rejection can be good:
It gives you a chance to find out where you can improve. Most interviewers will have no problem explaining why you did not get the job if you ask them respectfully without arguing. Think of it as free career counseling and use it to focus on what to work on in your job search. Sometimes they will tell you that they’d like to keep your name on file for future positions as they open up and the only reason you didn’t get this job is because someone with more experience or seniority applied.
It gives you an opportunity to learn from any mistakes. Maybe you really didn’t do that interview well, or you forgot to turn off your cell phone. Is your resume updated and appropriately designed for the job? Did you vent your frustrations with your previous job? Were you dressed like you cared about this position?
It gives you motivation to keep looking if you change your perspective. To paraphrase a famous quote by Thomas Edison, now you know that job isn’t right for you. Job rejections are like a search engine, narrowing down the choices by reducing the possible matches.
It’s tempting to put all your hopes on getting a specific job, but that is surely going to disappoint you.The reality is that many more rejections will probably be part of your job search because we rarely get the first job we apply for. Most of us have applied for jobs more times than we like to think about. Use these rejections to improve your skills and your resume: this is your chance to polish things up and that’s good!
Are You An Underearner? What Your Salary Might Say About You
Recently, there was an article on LearnVest titled “Hello, My Name is Tom and I’m an Underearner”.It’s an interesting read about the characteristics of underearners and the presence of an AA-type support group called “Underearners Anonymous,” (Who knew such a group existed?) It got me thinking about how salary means more than money: It can affect how others see you, and how you see yourself, like a dirty window on the world. One of the problems that can develop during a job search is a completely unrealistic idea of salary.It’s easy to undervalue your abilities and ask for too low a wage, or to assume you can demand the paycheck someone with years of experience in your field would get. If you add up your monthly bills and just ask for that much, you aren’t using all the information that should go into salary ranges. Underearners are people who are not getting the salary that someone with their qualifications would reasonably expect. This could be because they don’t value those qualifications or are afraid to ask for a raise. It could be because they’d have to live up to their potential and they are afraid. There are a lot of reasons why salary and self-esteem are connected. In some cases, there is discrimination causing salary issues, but this cannot be assumed because sometimes the reason for the lower paycheck is actually performance-related. You need to dig deeper to find out why that paycheck is that amount. During a job search and interview, salary is a subject that you should be prepared to confidently discuss with a prospective employer without being demanding.The more you understand your worth, the easier it is to see that you deserve (earn) a wage that is accurate. There are two excellent resources available to you:
Job Search Resources — this page has a wealth of information, including salary calculators and self-assessments
Job Search Success System — this is a full course that will give you the skills to show your worth accurately to potential employers.
When you are getting the salary you should be getting, it’s like seeing your world through a clean window.
Tips For Cover Letters — Your First Impression Counts Big
The first impression people have of you can keep them from wanting to know you better or encourage them to seek you out.Your cover letter is that first impression for your resume and its quality will often determine whether or not that resume gets attention. Here are some simple tips to keep in mind when you are writing your cover letter:
Do your homework. Find out who to address the letter to, what style would be appropriate, and the job description. You want this letter to be personalized appropriately, professional in tone, and accurate in specifying what you are applying for. This is NOT the place for a generic “to whom it may concern” form letter that obviously is used on all your applications.
Identify your strong points and write a rough draft or outline matching those strengths to the job description. Now reduce that to one paragraph.
Keep it short. All you are doing is a three-paragraph overview to get them interested in looking at your resume. The first paragraph tells them what job you are seeking and how you heard about it (include any mutual contact people). The second is that paragraph you came up with from the previous tip. The third paragraph should be a “thank you for your time” and statement that you will be following up by the end of the next week. Be sure you do the follow up!
Proofread, edit, and proofread again! This is really important. If you know that you overlook mistakes, get someone to proofread it for you and check your corrections. Focus on being professional, polite, and concise. If your letter is on paper, hand-sign it. For an email, a typed signature is acceptable.
Think you have your perfect cover letter?Pretend you are the person getting that letter with your resume, along with hundreds of other applicants, and read it again. If you feel that you still need help, consider a professionally written cover letter. This is your potential employer’s first impression of you: big things are at stake. Make that first impression a good one so they will want to read your resume, call you in for an interview, and offer you the job!
Even if you have no plans to run a business, you have an online brand: it is the persona the internet world perceives you to be.What comes up when your name is put in a search engine? Are you on social media with embarrassing pictures? Why would I tell you to “own” your online brand? To own something is to be invested in it, to take responsibility for it, and to proactively maintain it.
Any prospective employer is going to be looking at what kind of presence you have online. The positions with more at stake may involve a bit more research, because there will be a desire to know if there’s anything that will be a problem once you are in the company. Security clearances can require quite extensive background checks. Depending on the position you are seeking, what comes up online on your “brand” might cost you a job. Now is the time to invest in your online brand. It can be an investment of time and effort, or you may choose to actually maintain a purchased site in your name with your professional highlights. A LinkedIn profile is worth the research and investment. Learn about online personal branding and get advice on the type of development your career should involve. Now is the time to take responsibility for your online brand. Do what needs to be done to clean up your profiles on Facebook and the rest of the social media you are involved in. Maybe you need to tighten up your privacy settings, and perhaps you should have a professional social media page, or a personal one — and be very careful about what is allowed on each. It isn’t difficult to find horror stories about pictures that should never have been posted being circulated beyond what was intended with consequences unanticipated. If you have made a major mistake, fix it to the best of your ability and be prepared to show how you have matured. Now is the time to proactively maintain it. Make the commitment to own your online brand and consistently check to see how the world sees you. Most of the people in the world will never see you in person, but if they can get online they can find out about you. Do what you need to do in order to keep your brand one that reflects the best about you.
A job search or career change is like building a home: both require thought, research, and careful planning to be successful. When you look at blueprints for a custom-built home, you see the wisdom of many experts compiled to create the perfect house. Codes and construction standards, design details and homeowner’s dreams — it’s all there in the blueprints, ready to become reality. If the experts aren’t part of the design process, those blueprints will be missing something. It’s like a kitchen designed by someone who only eats at restaurants; the non-cook has no grasp on what is practical for a kitchen. You could end up with cupboards too small for cereal boxes, counters with no outlets to plug the toaster into, and an oven that can’t be opened when standing in front of the stove because the island is too close. With a job search, there are similar problems that can arise. If you are trying to design your career plans without expert advice, you are going to miss some important factors that will cause problems later on. It’s just the way things work; we learn through mistakes, and if we are smart, we learn from others’ mistakes too. When you are keeping up-to-date with regular reading of available resources you are going to be able to see where you can do things yourself and where to call in an expert. Our Job Search Resources list contains all you need to accomplish this goal, with links to many experts and tools. You can find links to:
career research and exploration
job search sites for free or pay
social networking
salary calculators
self-assessments
and much more
The more expertise invested in designing the plan, the better your blueprint for a successful job search or career change will be.
Balancing work and family can seem like an impossible task. I struggle with this every day, especially once summer comes and the kids are home ALL THE TIME. As a mother of two young children, figuring out how to juggle everything has become a personal quest of mine. A recent article in The Atlantic looks at some of the numbers in recent studies on work-life balance in the U.S., and it makes an interesting read. Why do so many struggle with this balancing act? Is there ever a happy medium? The reality is that the process of balancing is dynamic, and it changes as the situations change. Here are some tips to help put this seemingly impossible task into perspective:
Recognize that family life has seasons. The demands on your time and energy will change as new members are added to the family and as kids get older. Homework becomes more independent for kids as they get older, meaning less homework for mom and dad to help with.
Schedule family times, just as you schedule business meetings. It might sound cold, or not spontaneous, but it works– especially if you are like me and live by your calendar. Plan some vacation time now and write it into your calendar. It doesn’t have to be two weeks at the shore, but you do need to have fun together as a family. A weekend at a cabin, a walk through town or your neighborhood, or an evening at an ice cream store works, too.
If the traditional family dinner hour doesn’t work for you, set a 8:30 meetup in your family room with a snack. The idea is to connect at least once a day for a short time because it is cumulative: all those short times build on one another to maintain relationships.
Turn off the electronics during that connection time! Think face-time instead of screen-time. You can’t give your full attention to anyone if you’re getting texts.
Say “no” to a few things. Choose not to “do it all” and just do one extra-curricular activity per family member.
Delegate and get help when you are overwhelmed. You can’t do everything. Sometimes you need to break down and ask for help. I finally did just that. After years of taking care of children, keeping a clean house, and managing a growing business, I finally had to break down and admit I needed some help– in one area in particular– my landscaping. Now, I must add that my husband is a huge help in keeping the house organized and picked up, and is a great with the kids and their schedules, but does he know the difference between a weed from a Spring bud? NO. To him they all get pulled out. So, I hired Joanna. She came in, took one look at what I was attempting to do with the yard, talked with me for awhile about what I wanted to see, and went to work. What a difference a professional makes! I never knew my landscaping could look so good. Delegating that task was the best thing I ever did.
There will be times when family has to be the priority over work: sudden illnesses, crisis situations, school activities, etc. There will also be times when work has to have priority over family because of deadlines. Balance is that shifting of resources to adapt to changing needs and keeping your focus on the priorities you’ve set. If you work outside the home, the bulk of your waking hours is spent on the job, away from your family. When you are at work, that has to be your focus and your priority. When you are seeking work, you need to spend time on the things that will help you get the job: resumes, networking, and research. Most of us would say that we work to provide for our family and that our families are also a priority. Deliberately investing your energy into connecting with your loved ones on a daily basis with occasional longer times together helps you maintain that critical balance between work and family. Delegating, limiting commitments, and asking for help allows you to focus on what is important.
In order to secure a job you must have a resume. There is really no way around it. Not only must you have a resume, but it needs to be professional and accurate. In order to get you started, here are the basic elements of any good resume. You might already know most of these, but in case you didn’t, here they are:
Heading: this includes your name and contact information. It should be easy to read and centered on the top of the page.
Career Summary: this is a 5-7 sentence summary of what you have done and are capable of doing. It focuses on your brand, expertise and experience. You need to let the company know what you can do for them.
Qualifications: this is a short bulleted list of your skills and qualifications for the job (i.e. keywords of the job position, keywords of what you’ve done “Process Implementation” or “Territory Sales”, etc.).
Experience: this gives a brief summary of your prior work experience. Include company name, your job title, your supervisor’s name, and a brief summary of what your duties were.
Education: this gives a brief overview of your highest degree of education and/or any additional education that pertains to the job. This could include classes or certifications in a certain area that would help you perform well for the company you are applying to.
Those are the main elements of a good resume. Remember to keep it clean, concise, and easy to read. Also, keep it up to date and accurate–do not add fluff or fake jobs to your experience (you’ll be caught).
These tips will get you started and as you apply for more jobs you will become even better at creating and adapting your resume for jobs.
