Executive recruiters are a very useful resource for employers in the hiring process.They can have a profound effect on whether or not you get hired. This means you need to keep them happy in order to ensure you get the job. Here are some very important things to keep in mind that will help you keep recruiters happy.
Don’t be dismissive. Even if you’re happy in your current role, or just extremely busy, take a moment to speak to search consultants or to call them back. While you may not be interested in the position they’re seeking to fill, you may know someone who might be a good match. Search professionals appreciate getting references and practicing the law of reciprocity.
Don’t surprise them. More importantly, don’t surprise their clients. If you have a blemish on your record, let them hear your version first, before they learn it secondhand.
Don’t embellish. Even at the highest levels of executive search, some candidates can’t resist the urge to embellish their resumes. Sometimes they don’t get caught. In nine cases out of 10, however, they do. Avoid the pitfall and be honest.
Don’t fail your own history test. It’s surprising how many candidates can’t recite their own professional histories in chronological order. Know exactly what you did and where and when you did it before meeting with a search consultant. And it’s a good tuneup for meeting with a prospective new employer.
Don’t neglect your homework. Some candidates will spend the first 10 minutes of an interview asking basic questions about the position and the company at issue, showing that they never bothered to read the search specification. Candidates who do independent research create a favorable impression and show their clear interest in the new opportunity.
Don’t forget your manners. When meeting with an executive-search consultant, remember that every word, gesture or inflection will be duly noted.
Keep these in mind and you will be able to keep your recruiter happy and get the job.
What Do You Do When You Disagree With Your Resume Writer?
Hiring a resume service can be a very helpful tool for many job seekers who are stuck and don’t know what to do or where to go with their resume.Sometimes, however, you may disagree with your resume writer or service. You may not feel that their vision coincides with your vision and tension may occur. Dealing with that tension and disagreement can be difficult, but here are some things to remember that should help you get through the process and end up with a great resume.
Have A Clear Idea In Your Own Head: If you don’t know what information you want to put in your resume, then how can you expect your resume service to know? You need to think about what you want to do, where you want to be, and what skills and experience you have had to get you to your next career.
Communication is Key: Talk to your resume writer. Make sure that you have given them adequate information and have clearly expressed your career goals and vision. Even the best writers cannot build a resume unique to your needs if you haven’t communicated where you want to be in your career. Give the writer as much information as you possibly can, then let them do their job and streamline the information to create a resume will appeal to employers.
Keep It Professional: It will only make the situation worse if you are angry and bitter. Keep yourself calm and it will not only make the communication easier, but it will also be more enjoyable.
Above All, Remember You Are Their Boss: You have hired them. You are paying them to help you, not the other way around. Don’t let them walk over you. If what they are doing is not what you want, then you have the right to talk to them and get it fixed. However, also know that you hired them because they are certified, skilled writing professionals. You are paying them to stay on top of industry trends and share their knowledge of what content and layout works best to communicate your expertise and career history. You just need to make sure that your resume truly represents who you are and where you want to be in your career.
Keep your relationship with your writer open and professional, and you will end up with a great resume that truly markets your value to employers.
People are diverse. People are multi-talented. Every person has a unique set of skills that makes them unique and interesting.Now, while all those skills are interesting or useful in the right time and place, you need to determine when it is appropriate to list certain skills on your resume and when it is not.
For the most part, you do not want to put down skills that you have gained from hobbies. If your employer asks about your hobbies during an interview, feel free to briefly discuss your interests, but do not put “riding a unicycle” on your resume. Most employers do not want to hear about your personal interests, they want to hear about the skills you have that will add value to their company. Unless your hobbies directly relate to the position you’re applying for, leave them off of your resume.
Before you start writing your resume, write down your skills and decide which ones will be useful in almost any job. Computer technology and team building skills are always good to put down on a resume. Aside from those, you will want to put down skills that are tailored to meet the needs of the company and position you are applying for. If you are applying to be a Research Assistant, and you have had experience with a library system, that would be a good skill to put on your resume because it is directly applicable to the situation.
There are many skills that can be used in a variety of situations. You need to figure out which of your skills are best suited to the jobs you’re applying for. This will keep your resume from looking unprofessional or cluttered and will help your potential employers see the value and expertise you will offer when hired.
One of the most important sections of your resume is your employment history. This is also one of the most interesting areas for potential employers. It will give them an idea of a few things: how long you have been working, if the work you have been doing is similar to what they do, and what you may have achieved in each position. A well-written employment history will give potential employers an idea of how you would fit in working for their company.
Employers are looking for quick, impressive information in a resume. Each entry in your work experience should look something like this:
Job Title/Dates of Employment (years)
Company Name, City State
Brief Narrative
Achievement
Achievement
Achievement
This is merely an example. There are many other formats out there to document your employment history, and they should all have the same basic information: dates of employment, the name of the company you worked for, where the company is located, job title, and your duties and achievements. You should include your most impressive on-the-job functions, as well as the ones that are the most like what you would be doing at the new company.
Including the right information in your employment history may be the key to landing an interview, and then, hopefully an offer.
Personal branding is, in the simplest definition, the way you market yourself. It is the way the world, and potential employers, view you. And if used correctly, your personal brand can land you that job. Since your personal brand is the first impression that employers can get from you, you need to ensure that it is creating the impression that will represent you in a way that gets you a job. This means it needs to be professional. Whatever you say, write, or do, that is linked to your professional brand needs to be professional so that you can avoid embarrassment and avoid losing those important job opportunities. Think about what you want to present and make sure that everything you put out reflects that. Be careful that when you are making a professional brand you don’t make it boring or impersonal. It is still your brand. Let potential employers know who you are. They are not looking to hire a robot. They are looking to hire a person with whom they can work every single day. Let them know you can be that person. In order to ensure that your brand is seen and recognized by employers you need to spread it far and wide. Put your name out there. Put it on Facebook, put it on Twitter, put it on Tumblr, put it on LinkedIn, start a blog. Do all these things and advertise them on all the other sites you are a part of. Make it easy for potential employers to find you. These are fairly simple things to do, but they do take some time and careful planning. If you are willing to put in the time and effort, then you will be able to create a personal brand that will land you that job you want.
Going to an interview can be the most stressful part of the job search process.It is difficult not to get stressed or feel anxiety before the interview-you know there is a lot riding on the interview and how you perform during it can get you an offer or shown to the door. Being successful during a job interview is all about being impressive to your potential employer and keeping your cool.
So how do you keep your cool? With so much pressure to impress and get the job, how do you keep calm and ensure your answers effectively tell the employer why you are the best candidate for the job? While controlling your nerves during an interview may seem impossible, have no fear. We offer some tips and tricks that you can try:
Schedule a practice interview: have friends or family set up a mock interview for you to practice, or you can go to a career counseling or career services center and see if they do mock interviews. If you have an idea of what is going to happen, you will feel more calm and will come off confident instead of nervous.
Take deep breaths before going into your interview: It seems simple, but if you take deep breaths and focus on your breathing, then it will help slow down your heart rate and help keep your mind from racing. This will help you remain cool, calm, and collected.
Smile: Smiling does a few things. It will show your interviewer confidence, help them feel more at ease, and if you do it long enough smiling can actually change how you are feeling so you are happier and more at ease during the interview.
While these strategies will help, there is nothing more important than reviewing your resume and making sure that your content is factual and that you are prepared to speak easily about your expertise and achievements. If you have been called for an interview, there is something in your resume that impressed the employer. Keep your cool, be honest and forthcoming in your answers, and clearly communicate to the employer the value you will be able to offer the company.
You’ll do great!
Getting paid for job training is likely not something that your boss will do on their own. But, that does not mean that it is completely off the table. Here are three tips that will help you get paid for job training: have all the facts, explain the benefits, and be a team player.
Have All the Facts: If you want a clear answer, ask a clear question. It’s a lot harder to say “no” to a specific proposal, so make sure you’re armed with all of the facts. If you’re interested in attending a seminar or conference, make sure you know the location, date, and cost (including travel and hotel, if needed), and can summarize what you’ll learn.
Explain the Benefits: Explain exactly what you want to get out of the seminar you’re proposing and, more importantly, how that will benefit your work and your company. When it comes to benefits, don’t be afraid to get creative
Be a Team Player: Even though it will cost more overall, it may be easier in some instances to argue for training a group of people. It makes your request seem less selfish and reinforces the idea that you’re looking out for the team. If you have a large group (more than 10 people), some seminar companies will bring events in-house, reducing your travel and hotel costs.
When you approach your boss about paying for job training, think of it as a bit of a sales pitch. Keep it short but professional, and come armed with the facts, including a few bullet points about the benefits. Your boss isn’t always going to say “yes,” but if you know what you want, are sincere, and can demonstrate why training is valuable to the company, you’ll dramatically improve your odds.
You may think that if you search a recruiting agency’s job listings and there are only a few jobs, that a recruiter won’t be able to help you. That isn’t necessarily true. One of the actions a recruiter can take when he gets an exceptional resume, one with unique skill sets, is to skills market that job candidate. Skill marketing occurs when a recruiter contacts a company that does not necessarily have a job opening, but knows that the company may find a particular candidate to be a valuable asset regardless of not having open positions. Skill marketing can be a good tool to use to get noticed and hired by a company. However, you must be able to present your skill sets clearly on your resume, and keep up to date on trends in your field so that you know which skills may get your foot in the door. A good recruiter knows what those skills are, too, based on industry trends, but also on building relationships with companies. He/she often has a unique perspective on where a company is headed. For example, company Q may be known for digital printing, but the recruiter may know through conversations with hiring managers that company Q is moving towards other types of digital imaging as well. If you have skills working in digital imaging, the company may just create a position for you to spearhead their new ventures in digital imaging. So don’t just rely on job aggregators that list job postings from all over the internet. Feel free to use them. But also develop relationships with recruiters. Let them know what you are looking for in in you next job. If they don’t see any immediate openings for someone with your credentials, ask these recruiters to skill market you. You may just end up with a great job that didn’t even exist before you asked for their help.
