Let’s start with Benjamin Franklin’s timeless definition of insanity: “You keep doing the same thing over and over hoping for different results”.
Do you really believe that wishing and keeping your fingers crossed will make a difference?
Why?
Everyone knows you’ll just get the same mediocre, inadequate, inconsequential results again – so why do most candidates keep doing the same thing?
Let’s pretend for a moment you buy into the Definition of Insanity and you decide you’re going to try something different this month in your job search.
What will YOU do different this month compared to last month?
What did you do different last month compared to the previous month?
Brad and I would love to hear what you plan on doing different this month vs. last month
Here are some examples of things you could be doing differently this month:
Take a volunteer role and become a leader in a civic/non-profit group
These are only a few of the hundreds of tactics/strategies/initiatives you could do differently this month to improve the effectiveness of your job search.
As you know, Brad and I great proponents of dramatically reducing the time it takes to cut your job search in half – however, if you keep doing the same things over and over —
Your Job Search is going to be a never ending quest – lasting 6-9-12 months or more.
STOP the nonsense now and begin to do things your peers are not doing. Take a step in doing something different this month.
No longer is a simple 2 page resume enough to capture interest.
It’s boring.
It’s mundane.
It’s ineffective at fully telling your story (especially if you missed the last dozen or so blog posts that Brad and I wrote about putting together a good resume and cover letter – cycle back and read some of the posts first).
Along comes the explosion of social media/social networking and like magic – instant resume booster shot.
So, if social media/social networking is so darn powerful, why are so few executive and managerial job seekers NOT using it effectively?
Let’s zero in on one specific tool – LinkedIn.
LinkedIn could be a panacea for job seekers. First, almost all recruiters, HR people, and hiring managers are doing two things when they see a resume that is a potential match for their open position – they Google your name and they search for you on LinkedIn.
Personally, I go to LinkedIn first.
As a Retained Executive Recruiter, I want more information about you.
I can’t get enough.
I’m insatiable when it comes to learning about who you are even before I pick up the phone and talk to you.
I’m trying to leverage my time, and this discovery process is far quicker than wasting time on the telephone.
I want the kind of depth of who you are that I cannot glean from your resume and cover letter.
This approach to researching job seekers is becoming more common.
Don’t be the one who misses the train.
You’ve now read about it in almost every business publication, heard from the experts, read about it on blogs such as this one, and your mother last week pointed out the growing importance of building your profile on-line when she saw the segment on the CBS evening news.
Unless your resume literally “blows me away”, I need more information to decide if I want to talk with you about one of my open executive searches. By the way, I might come across one resume every quarter that “blows me away”. Most just fade into the woodwork with their “bland” approach. I want your information to leap off my computer screen, smack me in the forehead, and scream at me that I would be an idiot not to want to learn more about you by immediately pick up the phone to talk with you.
Don’t fall victim to being “vanilla”
Don’t fade into the woodwork.
Some might call me lazy – I prefer to think of myself as highly effective at leveraging myself in time management. This process of quickly discovering whether you’re worthy of a phone call from me as recruiter – by matching your resume with your LinkedIn Profile has probably boosted my productivity by a factor of 2X-3X. I’m now able to spend time on the phone and in-person with the right candidate.
In the next few blog posts, we’ll re-visit how to specifically leverage LinkedIn as a Job Seeker to give your resume a booster shot in the arm. If you’re not effectively using LinkedIn as a resume enhancement tool, shame on you. If you’re not even on LinkedIn and you’re a manager or executive – sorry – but the train has left the station without you!
Here’s a suggestion I would like to toss our to our readers: In preparation for the next blog article in this series titled – “Job Search Marketing 101 – Your LinkedIn Profile Heading”, I would encourage you to complete our one page scorecard for assessing the effectiveness of your LinkedIn Profile for Job Search.
Thousands have used this FREE tool to dramatically give their paper resume an on-line booster shot in the arm. Now armed with your self-assessment of your LinkedIn Profile, you’ll be well prepared as we dive deeply into the various components of leveraging LinkedIn to create a powerful online personal brand for yourself, a powerful magnet to attract recruiters and hiring managers, and a beautiful enhancement to your resume that was not possible just a few years ago.
Do you know the core best practices of conducting a job search?
Could you rattle these off the tip of your tongue right now?
Here’s the killer question – are you executing flawlessly against these best practices in your current job search?
If either you don’t know the core best practices and/or you are not executing flawlessly against them, your job search could be taking 2X-3X longer than necessary.
In our work with over 200,000 candidates over the last 25 years, we’ve discovered that most candidates are not up-to-speed on the latest job search best practices, nor is there an effective leverage and execution of the best practices – what’s the result of this lack of best practice knowledge:
Mental anguish
Burning through your savings account
Wasting precious time on the wrong activities
Taking too long to find a job
Humiliation, rejection, and despair
But wait – there is hope. You can create an effective job search around the most common best practices.
Over the last 15-20 years, we’ve been continually working on and refining a simple structured approach to conducting an effective job search. We call that process the Career Success Methodology. As many of you know, Brad and I have published a book on the Career Success Methodology called “This is NOT the Position I Accepted”.
Here are the simple 5 core best practices of an effective job search and the terminology we use in our Career Success Methodology to describe each one. There are a number of job search systems “out there”. We happen to be slightly biased and think ours is the most comprehensive. However, at a basic level – there are a few best practices that regardless of the system, terminology, or trademarked name – all have the same basic elements.
1. Introspection – this is the stage of honing what you are looking for, what you bring to the table, what will bring you joy – the ideas behind one the most popular job search books ever – What Color is Your Parachute? Before you can start putting a resume together, thinking about where to send your resume, and prior to interviewing, you must go through this deeply reflective process.
2. Uncovering Job Leads and Referrals – this is the blending of traditional networking with social media to cast a large net and generate an abundance of opportunities from the hidden job market – the 80% or more of job openings that are never advertised. The vast majority of candidates rely on job postings in their job search – which at best yield 15-20% of the available opportunities.
3. Resume and Cover Letter – This is one of the most important documents you’ll ever create – yet most candidates give this the least amount of time in their job search. Very few understand how to create an exciting marketing-oriented document that captures the attention of HR, Hiring Managers, and recruiters. The vast majority of resumes and cover letters yield a response rate of less than 1%. You cannot conduct an effective job search if your response rate is less than 1%.
4. Interviewing – Very few candidates recognize that the secret to acing the interview has nothing to do with what goes on during the interview. It’s all in the preparation. The small amount of time and effort most candidates spend in preparing for interviews is a complete waste of time and is essentially worthless. Interview preparation is like preparing for a battle – was it not Napoleon Bonaparte who claimed that battles were won in the planning tents of the generals – not on the battlefields?
5. Closing the Deal – Just because you had an interview does not mean you’re going to get an offer – and even if you get an offer it might not be appropriate for your ability and market potential. This best practice is about showing your value, keeping the process moving forward, convincing the company to extend an offer, and negotiating a great package. Many “deals” that should have come together as perfect fits for company/candidate fall apart at this stage due to poor management of the “deal closing” process.
I started recruiting in 1980, and in that thirty years I have either run or owned executive search firms. IMPACT Hiring Solutions is a very active executive search firm. For the first fifteen years I worked mainly in the finance and accounting field and most of the searches were contingent, meaning I got paid when the company hired a candidate that I presented to them. Until then I worked for free.
In the last fifteen years I have shifted to a retained recruiter and now my searches cover just about every functional area from HR, Sales, Finance,Operations and so on. Now as a retained recruiter I get paid when I start the search and as the search progresses.
This is only relevant to demonstrate that I have had a lot of opportunities over the last thirty years to see how recruiting and the hiring process has changed. I have been able to interact with just about every functional area in a company with literally thousands of hiring executives, HR professionals and CEOs to observe their practices. I’ve watched them screen resumes, I’ve asked if they want or read cover letters, what grabs their attention and what turns them off, what resume format they prefer and how long a resume should be.
The plain fact is that one can’t do anything for thirty years and not learn something.
HIRING HAS CHANGED
With the invention of the Internet hiring changed. It continues to evolve even today with the explosion of social media and sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. When I started thirty years ago we hadn’t heard of a fax machine. Resumes and cover letters were all sent via snail mail. If that wasn’t bad enough, they were typed one at a time on a typewriter (for those of you too young to know what a typewriter is Google it for a picture or the Smithsonian has them to view). Every tiny change meant you had to retype the complete resume. Cut and paste didn’t exist.
Hence the need for the “cover letter.” Back then customizing a resume meant you had to retype it yourself (and most people back then didn’t type) or paying someone to type it which wasn’t practical or affordable. So instead, candidates added a cover letter to highlight areas in their background to match the position. Some cover letters were even handwritten and that was acceptable. Back then, the cover letter served a valuable and practical purpose.
Fast forward to the 21st century. With laptops being as common as toasters, the invention of word processing, email, social media and the fact that everyone can type, the ability to customize a resume to a specific position can be done in a matter of minutes. Hence, the traditional cover letter lost its purpose and value.
But just like a government program, once it starts it rarely goes away, so the cover letter continues to live even though it is no longer useful (just like many government programs).
THE PROBLEM TODAY
All of the controversy today about cover letters lingers because so many candidates don’t know what to do or how to do it. As a result, they rely on outdated information, that is how we have always done it or that is the way we did it thirty years ago. Yeah, and my dad walked thirteen blocks everyday to school in the snow, sleet, pouring rain and without boots. Well, my kids didn’t do that because times have changed and some things just out live their usefulness e.g. 5.25 floppy disks, 8-track cassettes and DOS programming and the cover letter!!!
THE SOLUTIONS TO WORTHLESS COVER LETTERS
Cover letters can serve a purpose even today. They can still be used to highlight how your experience and skills align with the job. But that is it.
Candidates still use cover letters as a way to update their resume instead of rewriting it. They put information in the cover letter that should be in the resume and figure that it’s acceptable. WELL, IT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.
A cover letter today should be used like a sound bite in a commercial. It should grab the reader’s attention and get them interested enough to read your resume. Then, when they read your resume, they should find not only everything listed in the cover letter, but additional points of interest that distinguish you from all of the other candidates.
Your cover letter is simply a short advertisement about how you align with the open position, so that the reader is compelled to read your newly rewritten, focused and targeted resume for their specific position.
TO COVER LETTER OR NOT TO COVER LETTER – THAT IS THE QUESTION
Should you have a cover letter or not is another point. I say “YES.” Only because over the years many HR professionals, CEOs and hiring managers have told me that they want one. They believe it is polite and a professional introduction. It is true that many don’t care if you have one or not, but it is better to have one for those that want one, and those that don’t care will just ignore it and move on.
One more way we can help you is to speak directly with you utilizing our webinars. Our time and knowledge is valuable so YES, we do charge a nominal fee for the webinar. To balance that, we also offer a lot more tools and resources for FREE than what we charge for.
We’ve DEEPLY DISCOUNTED THE WEBINAR FOR THOSE JOB SEEKERS WITHIN OUR JOB SEARCH COMMUNITY – loyal followers on Twitter, readers of our blog, and members of our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group.
In a lively one-hour presentation, I’ll show you the inside secrets (from a retained executive recruiter’s perspective) of how to get your resume reviewed every single time and boost your resume acceptance rate (the number of times you get called for an interview from submitting your resume) from a dismal level of less than 10% to well into the 50% PLUS RANGE. If you’re reading this blog, when you sign up for the webinar use the coupon code IMPROVEMYRESUME.
If the small, inconsequential, almost non-existent fee for the webinar is too much to bear to boost your resume acceptance rate and cut your job search time dramatically, please feel free to download our many FREE resources for job seekers, including our radio show broadcasts, cover letter sample, and other tools.
You can download for free a sample cover letter that aligns your background with the position and is not a substitute for the resume. CLICK HERE to download your sample cover letter.
Join our LinkedIn Job Search Networking Group for vibrant discussions, articles and much more information to help you in your job search. CLICK HERE to join the 3600+ LinkedIn members that already have.
There is a raging debate in many LinkedIn Professional and Networking Groups, on our own LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group, hundreds of emails we’ve been sent, numerous blog comments, and an overwhelming number of tweets – all related to our last blog posting – “Pet Peeve – Your Resume and Cover Letter.”
Obviously, a few people have strong opinions on this subject.
Let’s review the debate:
We recommend you customize both your resume and cover letter for the specific job you are applying for.
Arguments for doing a cover letter and/or custom resume:
Employers and recruiters consider it disrespectful if you do not include a cover letter or resume
Employers and recruiters are looking for a reason to exclude you from consideration if you do not match up with their criteria. The custom resume or letter specifically addresses the key points in the job posting.
Employers and recruiters are overwhelmed in this poor job market with hundreds, if not thousands, of job applications per opening. They want to see an “extra effort” by applicants rather than a cookie-cutter shotgun scattered approach to applying for jobs.
Vast majority of job responses fall into the “Hot Potato” Method of applying for an opening.
The bland generic information in most resumes DO NOT give a recruiter or hiring manager enough information to decide whether or NOT to extend an interview invitation.
Arguments for NOT doing a cover letter and/or custom resume:
Low response rate from recruiters and employers – what’s the use. Even if I did one, the investment of time wouldn’t justify an improved outcome.
It takes too much time, is way too hard, and requires far too much effort.
Recruiters and Employers don’t read resumes or cover letters deeply enough, so why even bother?
It’s all a numbers game – the goal is to broadcast as many resumes to jobs I’m remotely qualified for, and maybe something will stick. I’m overwhelmed applying to jobs – no time to customize my response to each job posting.
Recruiters and Employers don’t provide enough information in their job postings to customize the cover letter and resume. They don’t list the important elements of the job or they have a laundry list of criteria that superman/superwoman couldn’t meet.
Recruiters and Employers are doing nothing more than box-checking resumes – a custom cover letter and resume will not help in this process of asking for everything under the sun and eliminating candidates if they don’t have one little inconsequential element checked-off.
Recruiters and Employers are using low level unskilled and untrained clerical staff to review resumes. Not possible for this level of person to accurately judge the resume of a managerial or executive candidate. Custom cover letters and resumes will NOT help (see bullet point about box-checking above).
Have I missed any of the arguments from each side? These would comprise over 90% of the responses to our last blog posting.
So, what to do from this point forward?
In my ever so humble opinion, I am going to stick by the perspective that for management and executive positions, a detailed cover letter should be written specifically addressing the top 3 points identified in the job posting and a custom resume should be submitted. If you don’t have the time to customize your resume, then at least have 3-4 versions of it and submit the one that matches up most closely with comparable accomplishments for the level of the job, the industry segment, or the common core success factor of that position.
We’re open to hearing from you as to your experience in this job market if you’ve really tried the custom approach. If you’ve not tried it yet, please don’t knock it. Test it and play with it. This strategy is but one of the many we recommend in our Career Success Methodology®. We’ve discovered that most job seekers at a managerial and executive level DO NOT conduct an effective job search. Implementing a few best practices in a structured framework can make an enormous difference in reducing the time it takes to find a great opportunity.
As a special offer to our job search community which includes:
Managerial and executive candidates who read our blog
Following us on Twitter
Participating in our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group
Following us through our discussions in a variety of LinkedIn Groups
You’ve downloaded our FREE Job Search tools and content
You’ve attended one of our webinars
You’ve bought one of our job search products
You’ve engaged us in one of our Job Search Coaching Services
We are offering a deep appreciation discount on our upcoming Webinar about resumes and cover letters this Friday January 29th, titled:
GET JOB INTERVIEWS WITH
POWERFUL RESUMES AND COVER LETTERS
This offer of over 50% off the public quoted fee is a special one-time appreciation offer for our job search community and is available only to a selected group – such as our loyal blog readers.
We also have to make a living. It’s very hard to be successful by constantly giving away free tools, templates, audio programs, examples, illustrations, responding to requests for help, and responding to hundreds of comments on our blog and within LinkedIn. We are both trying to build a successful business around effective job search and hiring top talent.
Sometimes, we’re going to make special offers to our job search community for products, services, subscriptions, and webinars. Don’t hold it against us.
If the content was crap – then you can complain. However, Brad and I believe we provide some of the very best content on the Internet for job search and hiring. As many of you know, we give away an extraordinary amount of information in solid tactical tools to improve your job search – maybe to a fault.
We believe the best way to build a loyal following is to give away a lot of our content and as a consequence many job seekers or hiring managers who have found the information useful will move to investing a few dollars in our professional products or services.
Brad and I would like to extend a big thank you of appreciation to all our loyal fans and readers.
I’m very frustrated today. I’m ready to explode at the candidates responding to my job postings.
On the outside I’d like to call candidates on the phone and invite them in for an interview – one the inside I’d like to call candidates and scream at them for their stupidity in the way they responded to my job postings.
Here’s a real-life current case study in how NOT to apply for a job. It’s one of my greatest pet peeves as a Retained Executive Recruiter:
Throwing out a resume without a custom cover letter and customizing the resume to fit the job spec described in the job posting.
There – that’s simply it – Finally, I got it off my chest!
I just put 3 new job postings up on LinkedIn. I posted the job on LinkedIn’s Paid Job Board Service and in the FREE Job Boards within various discussion groups (the results were no different for either approach). The jobs I posted were HR Manager, Construction Project Executive, and Senior Sales Executive.
I have received just through LinkedIn (referrals, recommendations, ad responses) over 1000 resumes so far. Approximately 90% did not have a cover letter. Less than 10 customized their resume for the specific job posting. Every one of these jobs is $100K and above. You’d think folks with that expensive parchment called a college diploma would know better.
More than 75% of the candidates who replied to these jobs have been out of work for over 6 months. Over 50% have been out of work for over 9 months. Why would you RUIN your chances of being interviewed by tossing out your resume as if you don’t give a darn what I do with it?
The responses went something like:
“Here’s my resume”
“Please review my resume”
Some just emailed the resume as an attachment WITHOUT a single comment – as if the resume “spoke for itself”. It’s sad to the point of making me want to cry – or laugh hysterically.
I’d be very interested to hear from your perspective as a candidate why you don’t care enough to write a cover letter describing how your background and accomplishments fit the job spec posted? I’d be interested to hear why you would submit a resume that doesn’t specifically and precisely address the expectations listed in the job posting?
As a recruiter (and I’m sure I’m speaking on behalf of the vast majority of recruiters, HR professionals, and hiring managers), why should I bother to open your resume or consider you as a viable candidate, when it’s obvious you could care less whether you are granted an interview.
SHOW A LITTLE EFFORT IN YOUR JOB SEARCH.
MAKE ME THINK YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THIS SPECIFIC JOB.
LET ME KNOW YOU’RE NOT BROADCASTING COOKIE CUTTER RESUMES AND RESPONSES OUT TO EVERY JOB POSTING YOU SEE.
What motivates candidates to respond to job postings with the “Hot Potato Method”? Are they burnt out on their job search? Have they reached a point of apathy and indifference in their job search?
Do they (YOU) care if you get a job next month or in 18 months?
If you would like to STOP THIS JOB RESPONSE Posting NONSENSE right now, I’d like to recommend you join me for our upcoming webinar on
We’ve DEEPLY DISCOUNTED THE WEBINAR FOR THOSE JOB SEEKERS WITHIN OUR JOB SEARCH COMMUNITY – loyal followers on Twitter, readers of our blog, members of our LinkedIn Job Search Discussion Group.
In a lively one-hour presentation, I’ll show you the inside secrets (from a Retained Executive Recruiter perspective) of how to get your resume reviewed every single time and boost your resume acceptance rate (number of times you get called for an interview from submitting your resume) from a dismal level of less than 10% well into the 50% PLUS RANGE.80-90%. If you’re reading this blog, when you sign up for the Webinar use the coupon code of IMPROVEMYRESUME.
If the small, inconsequential, almost non-existent fee for the webinar is too much to bear to boost your resume acceptance rate and cut your job search time dramatically, please feel free to download our many FREE resources for job seekers, including our radio show broadcasts, cover letter sample, and other tools.
I’m stunned that most candidates will not take advantage of great content, webinars, workshops, tools, audio programs, Youtube videos, blog posting advice, and other tools that range in price from small investments to FREE.
Don’t be the one to conduct a job search that takes 6-9-18 months when you could have done it in half the time by improving your resume and cover letter to raise your resume acceptance rate.
Thanks for letting my rank about one of my greatest pet peeves in job search.
Not having an effective LinkedIn Profile for your job search is the same as having an ineffective resume that gets tossed into the trash can all the time. STOP letting your online resume (LinkedIn Profile) be thrown in the trash!
LinkedIn provides an extraordinary online tool – your profile – a virtual resume and portfolio for you to do personal branding, self-promotion, and lay out a portfolio of your abilities, skills, and accomplishments.
The entry level account is FREE. This is the proverbial “no-brainer”. So, why are most profiles WORTHLESS? Why don’t professional job search candidates at managerial and executive levels consider this an important part of their job search?
TEST OF LINKEDIN PROFILES FOR JOB SEARCH
I’m in the middle of conducting a retained executive search for a Sales Executive. Like most recruiters, I’m using the search function in LinkedIn to find executives in specific industries and geographic areas. Everyone knows that LinkedIn is a significant tool for sourcing in the hands of recruiters, human resource professionals and hiring managers. I’m only searching for candidates that have flagged their account that they are open to career opportunities. I’ve now reviewed over 400 profiles.
Less than 20% have anything beyond a “skeleton” set of information.
Less than 2% have a decent profile fully completed with extensive descriptions of their accomplishments, an outstanding summary, lots of recommendations, and have their contact information (such as phone number and email address) available.
Less than 1% have taken the time to really leverage all the tools LinkedIn provides on your profile – slide presentations, attaching documents, reading lists, linking your blog and twitter accounts, and on the list goes. It’s absolutely amazing the value LinkedIn provides to job seekers.
As a recruiter reviewing profiles, it takes me about 5 seconds to look at a profile and make a first impression of whether I want to continue looking at it. If the profile is not complete, I will not bother to spend any more time with that potential candidate. You’ve just missed an opportunity which could have been the ideal job to move your career forward after you’ve been out of work for 9 months.
CONFUSION – WORTHLESS LINKEDIN PROFILES
I DON’T GET IT!
WHY DO THE VAST MAJORITY OF JOB SEEKERS HAVE A WORTHLESS ONLINE RESUME (LINKEDIN PROFILE)?
IS IT NOT TIME TO FIX THIS OBVIOUS OVERSIGHT?
HOW MANY JOB OPPORTUNITIES HAVE SLIPPED BY YOU BECAUSE RECRUITERS LIKE ME HAVE SKIPPED OVER YOUR WORTHLESS ONLINE RESUME (LINKEDIN PROFILE)?
We even put together a FREE one-page LinkedIn Profile Self-Assessment Scorecard to determine if your LinkedIn Profile is effective in being found by recruiters, HR professionals, and hiring managers. You can download the Scorecard right now and frighten yourself on your inadequate profile. You might want to also bang your head on the wall a few times over the potential job opportunities for which you’ve been ignored.
Take action right now and fix this simple element of your job search. STOP being ignored. Create a profile that allows you to instantly capture the attention of recruiters, HR professionals, and hiring managers that are looking for someone JUST LIKE YOU.
I receive hundreds of resumes daily from candidates in relationship to the searches we have underway. So many of these candidates actually believe they are qualified for the position. Many may in fact be qualified, however, many of these candidates will never get a call from me because basic vital information is missing from their resume.
I’m not talking about the content of their specific jobs, the accomplishments, or the activities they performed, I’m talking about the basic information the recruiter needs to decide if this candidate meets the minimum requirements for the position.
For example, I recently tested this theory. I sent out an email to my database regarding a search I was conducting. The total email was maybe 6 sentences. I kept it short so that the things I was looking for would stand out in the email. In the email I mentioned 6 times the words “outsourcing manufacturing,” 7 times I mentioned, “contract manufacturing,” and 4 times I said, “must have industrial manufacturing.” Given all that in just 6 sentences, what do you think I’m looking for on your resume?
Not in your cover letter, not in a follow up email, not on the phone interview, but on your resume, so I will pick up the phone and call you.
For those with an immediate grasp of the obvious you answered, contract manufacturing, outsourcing, and industrial manufacturing experience. Right answer.
How many of the 188 responses I received do you think took the time to include this vital information on their resume? Note that the vast majority, either in their cover letter or reply via email to me, mentioned how perfect they were for this position. If you answered 2 you scored 100% again. Go to the head of the class.
This is so important that I put together a short 5 minute video for you to watch that gives you the details on what basic vital information you need to include on your resume. CLICK HERE to watch this video.
I hope this short video will help you as you put your resume together. Making sure this information is on your resume will help ensure recruiters and hiring managers don’t put your resume in the trash because it is missing important information.
For more information on resumes, interviewing, and job search help join our LindedIn Job Search Networking Group. Over 3,500 people participate with great articles and discussions. CLICK HERE to join.
To help with your resume, download a free sample cover letter specifically designed to align your resume with the company needs. CLICK HERE to download.
If this was helpful to you, please forward it to your network, mention it on LinkedIn or Facebook so that others can also benefit. Everybody needs to help out in these tough times. Please help others.
In basketball coaching, we have a phrase we call “hitting the wall”.
My high school girls basketball team was crushing teams in a tournament last week and then they picked the championship round for 1st place to “hit the wall”. We were the better team – we had beat our competitor multiple times last summer, we had worked harder, had better shooters, and tougher defenders. Why did we lose the game?
We lost because we hit the wall. The girls were burnt out from daily non-stop intense basketball during December. We tried everything – taking time-outs, substituting more often, running different plays, switching up our defense more frequently. Nothing worked and we had nothing left in our gym bag of tricks.
This is a common malady affecting teams, especially young teams that lack the maturity and experience of multiple years of basketball competition.
Have you “hit the wall” in your job search?
Unfortunately, if your team “hits the wall” during a game – you’re stuck as a coach. You can sub fresh players, try to motivate them, run different plays, and try alternate defenses. However, as a coach you cannot play the game for them. At some point your team needs to perform. They need to stop the other team and put the little orange ball in the little orange hoop.
Fortunately, if your job search “hits the wall” there is plenty you can do. There is an almost unlimited number of tactics you can use in your job search to find open opportunities, increase the number of job leads and referrals, and expand your network.
What’s the one thing you’ve done differently in your job search since it “hit the wall”? You’ve probably heard that quote from Benjamin Franklin that paraphrased goes something like “If you keep doing the same thing over and over, you’ll keep getting the same results”. Benjamin Franklin called this the “Definition of Insanity”.
Brad and I would love to hear about the one new thing you’ve discovered or learned that has had a positive impact on your job search – something new that you decided to try since whatever you were doing was not working.
What’s the best blog article you read in 2009 that made a difference in your job search? Is there an article Brad or I wrote in the last year that is memorable for you?
What one product did you buy – a book, an audio program, a video course – that turned the corner for you on your job search?
What unique FREE tool – a sample cover letter, a template, a checklist, a scorecard have you plucked off of someone’s site (perhaps even from our FREE Resources Library?) that made a big difference or brought you an Aha moment?
There is a ton of FREE and inexpensive job search materials and content available. Sure – some of it’s a scam and can actually hurt your job search. However, there are outstanding experts in the job search field that have put together an unbelievable range of materials, content, tools, and samples. Are you taking advantage of this avalanche of materials that keep coming every single day?
If you’re not taking advantage of this FREE material and inexpensive products in your job search, then shame on you. Your job search will probably last as long as the average length of time (or longer) as other peers in your chosen field. If you want to reduce dramatically the time it takes to find a great job – then you’ve got to embrace the best practice information available at your finger tips.
In my recent article, Job Stalled? Do What the Pro’s Do, I discussed how when things aren’t going well or when results have changed, it may be time to get back to the basics. Take a look at what has changed from the past, reevaluate what was working and what wasn’t. Most processes have certain basics that must be followed. If we get away from these basics things go sideways.
One of those basics is following the three “P’s.” You can’t get much more basic than these. Take an objective look at your search and see if you are effectively implementing these in your search.
1) Presentation. I harp on this all the time. Candidates so often down play this or take it for granted. For some reason candidates just don’t focus enough energy here. This is the most basic of basics. Remember the most qualified person doesn’t always get the job, but the person with the best presentation and some minimum level of qualification will often get the job. PRESENTATION, PRESENTATION, PRESENTATION is the place to start.
Start with your resume. How does it present you and your accomplishments, experiences and skills? One big presentation error we regularly find, and also one of the biggest complaints by other recruiters, HR and hiring managers is that resumes leave off very important and vital information for the reader. Is yours doing this?
Video your interviewing presentation. If your body language, hand motion, voice inflection and eye contact is weak work on getting help to fix these. Again, very basic but one of the most overlooked problems by most candidates.
2) Preparation. If the presentation is working, now it is time to start preparing. This is a big job and again so often taken for granted by candidates.
Prepare your marketing plan. Are you in the right networking groups? Maybe it is time to change the groups you are attending. Are you meeting the right people? Look back over the people you met with in the last 3 months and evaluate who and what types of people have been helpful and those that didn’t provide any assistance. Identify companies and people you want to meet. Set up a plan to meet them. If you contacted a company 6 – 8 months ago things may have changed, so consider reconnecting or finding another way into the company.
If you haven’t video recorded yourself in a mock interview, I promise you it is time to do this. Before you do, prepare yourself for what you are about to see. Most don’t like what they see. Have someone else with you when you view the recording. This person needs to be someone who will be objective and honest. Listen to the constructive criticism.
3) Practice. This is probably the most important of the three “P’s.” Everyone has heard, “Practice makes perfect.” Well that also applies in a job search. Practice your body language. DON’T JUST THINK, “I now know that so I won’t do it in an interview.” Of course you will, it is your nature, and with all of the other distractions in the interview you don’t need one more.
Practice exactly how you are going to answer the standard questions asked in just about every interview. If you don’t know them, our book, This Is NOT The Position I Accepted, has a list of the most commonly asked questions in an interview. You can get the book now to review for just the cost of shipping $5. Might be worth it. (CLICK HERE for details).
These should be so well rehearsed that they come off as if it is the first time you answered the question.
Underestimating these three “P’s” is a fatal job search mistake most candidates make. They either take them for granted or will read this and say, “I already know this,” then go back and do the same things they have always been doing. For this group I highly recommend looking up the definition of insanity.
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