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Finding a New Position:
How to Get started

By Laura D Lewis       
Excerpt from: Laid Off Now What        PRINT

Nobody likes to look for a new job.  Let's face it, it's frustrating and when the economy is down like it is on both coasts of the United States since 2001, (and since April 2000 if you're tech related), the task is twice as difficult.  But there are some tips you can use to shorten the time and improve your prospects. 

Step 1: Update Your Resume.

It doesn't matter if you are applying for a minimum wage position or a senior executive position. You'll need two formats and possibly several versions: The formats you'll need are Text Only and Document.

Text Only is a non-formatted document that you can copy and paste into an e-mail or online job board resume postings.  This means no text boxes, graphics, fancy punctuation like bullets and numbering, bolding and italics. Just straight text and paragraph breaks and a common font like Courier, Arial, Times or Times Roman.  This version forms the foundation of your online social media profile on Linked In, Plaxo, Dice or Xing.

Document is created in a word processing program like Microsoft Word or Word Perfect.  This is the resume you hand the interviewer, drop off or mail.  You want this to look crisp, professional and organized.  If you have less than 6 years experience, your resume should be only one page. 

If you are management or executive level, no more than two pages.  Print on high grade white paper because most companies will scan your resume through a computer and colored paper makes this difficult.

The key elements you need to cover in your resume are:

  • Contact Information: Name, Address, Phone, e-mail. Note if you are willing to relocate.  Include a link to your LinkedIn, Plaxo or Xing profile.
     

  • Experience: Dates employed (use years if possible) Name of Company, Size and location of company, URL, Your Position and a brief description of your duties. Include this information on positions relevant to what you are looking for.  Note at the bottom of the page unrelated positions. Don't waste space if they are not relevant. I.E.: In college I held a variety of jobs in retail and food service.
     

  • Education: List your last school attended if no degree and only colleges and universities where degrees were obtained, unless you attended an Ivy League School or other prestigious university. If you went to college, leave off your high school.  It's not relevant. Many companies now use computers to scan resumes and they typically look for Ivy League schools, abbreviations like BA, MBA or Ph.D.  Leave off  the year graduated to prevent age discrimination and GPA. Do state if you graduated with honors. In 20 years, nobody has ever asked or cared what my GPA was. Outside of college, it's rarely relevant

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Knock.jpg (6488 bytes)

  • Skills:  List software programs or special training you have that relates to the position.  Include any other languages. Words like C++ Programming, JAVA, PowerPoint are also actively sought by computer scanners.
     

  • Awards: Any awards you've received for work.  If none, don't list.
     

  • Associations: List any professional associations that are relevant to the position. If none, don't list.
     

  • Hobbies: Only put these on if they enhance your ability to get the job.  For example if you sail and are applying for a position with a boat manufacturer, this is relevant.

Step 2: The Cover Letter

If you haven't looked for a job in the past 5-10 years, things have changed.  Most online job services do not attach a cover letter to your resume or don't allow you to do one that is customized to the specific job.  On the human resources end, especially at big companies, the resume process is automated.  This means computers decide based upon key words in your resume, whether or not a human being ever sees your resume.  You'll find many of the key words in the ad posted. 
 

For the resumes you send in via snail mail or drop off though, the cover letter is very important.   The cover letter is where you go into detail about how you can be an asset to the company.  The object is to tell the company why they should hire you, not how wonderful you are.  What can you do for them? 

Concentrate on quantitative information like, "As the manager of the sales department, I increased sales among the associates by 60% in my first six months" or "By learning a new building technique in a seminar, I saved the foreman and my team three days of additional work".

And here's a real edge.  Early in my career I I discovered the Knock 'Em Dead series and once I adapted my cover letters to the Executive Summary format, I received response on 40% of my resumes, (those mailed directly vs those posted online).  Prior to that, I was lucky to get 5%, which is still better than direct mail. Martin Yates, the author, also does a Knock 'Em Dead book for resumes and one on interview questions. Both are well worth the investment.

Assemble Examples of Your Work
Have you designed anything...forms, ads, reports, presentations?  Do you have pictures of projects you've built, worked on or created?  Have you written an article, published or not, that relates to your experience and can be used to teach others your area of expertise? Do you have copies of reports you've submitted, proposals, letters or memos you've written, promotions you've created or executed?  If you worked in a service industry, do you have pictures of what the environment was like, who your customers were or better yet, one of you helping a customer? 

Visual aids will make you stand out in the interviewer's mind and show that you take pride in what you do, regardless of what level you work at.   For people in arts, sales, communication and marketing, a portfolio is essential. For those in other professions, it will surprise the interviewer and give them a better understanding of just what you are capable of.  There is a reason a picture is worth a 1000 words.  An example is worth even more.  It's proof positive you not only know how to do the job, but can. 

Webfolios: The latest job seeking trend with management through C-level positions is the webfolio. Mine is can be seen here, (Large file so be patient while it uploads)  This webfolio is created this with PowerPoint, PhotoShop and Illustrator.

Webfolios are being used in all fields, not just the creative fields as proof of what you do, how you think and tangible evidence of the skills you bring to the table. If you haven’t seen one before, feel free to use mine as an example, though there are many ways to put these together. Mine is an overall webfolio because I use it for freelance work.  You'll want to create a targeted version including between 10 and 20 pages for specific positions.

If you have access to recording equipment, you may want to do a voiceover and in Flash. If you have copies of TV and Radio programs featuring you as an expert, embed and include these as well. Do a search on YouTube first to see if possibly your segment or a segment featuring you is already up.  You may be surprised!

Even if you don't have computer skills, GoDaddy.com makes it easy for you to build your own online webfolio with their 'website tonight package', inexpensively and quickly.

 

Online Social Networking: Although employers are just beginning to figure out how to use this newest manifestation in peer-2-peer marketing, successful jobseekers above entry-level or retail positions will tell you, if you’re going to find a great job you better learn this quick:  Social networking, social networking, social networking. 

 

How it works: There are three major professional social networking sites: Xing®, Plaxo and Linked In.  Xing is Europe, Asia and the Middle East predominantly.  Plaxo® and LinkedIn® focus more on North America, though all are global.  Here you post your profile, connect with people, search for jobs and join various industry related groups.  This isn’t like Facebook® or MySpace® which are more appropriate for friends and family.  These are focused strictly on business and connecting professional people.

 

online job markets:
The two biggest are Monster.com and Yahoo!/jobs.  I have received employment through these once.  What I've discovered is that since the Human Resources (HR) Department receives the resumes, they generally stop after getting 10-20 good prospects. These prospects are vetted using applicant sorting software. This means unless your resume has exactly the right words in it, your resume may never be seen by a human eye. Sometimes the criteria used supports overt or unacknowledged prejudices or preferences of the programmer such as Ivy League education, or MBA.  You could be the best candidate for the job, but if you don't have the right key word, the chances that your resume will appear are negligible. 

 

Another important fact most job seekers fail to realize is that HR's primary responsibility is to eliminate candidates, not hire them. They work for the company, not for you. This is why I never go through HR if I can help it. Many times I've submitted resumes online and later contacted the company directly only to discover I was the perfect candidate, but the hiring manager never saw my resume!  Use the online markets as one tool.  Do not rely on them as your only tool. 

Another problem with online job sites is false postings. To comply with EOE requirements, companies are required to post all positions. In most cases, the position is already filled or they have narrowed it down to 2 or 3 candidates. The ad is simply for government compliance. Employment agencies will also post "dummy" jobs to build up their resume data base.  In these they describe the qualities they are looking for, but the job never exists.  You submit your resume and end up in a database for future reference. One of the things that frustrates me with online and print classified ads is that the majority of the positions are placed by employment agencies, not actual employers.  For the employers, you need to go direct and and speak to the person that would hire you, not the HR department. 

One service does allow you to scan new job listings on local employers sites Hound.com, but you must pay to play and this doesn't eliminate the use of screening software.  My issue with Hound.com is the company does not offer refunds if your card is automatically charged and you've made an effort to cancel your subscription.  To withdraw your subscription you must contact the company by phone.  It took me four days to do this and by the time I did, they charged my card again. I have issues recommending companies that don't allow you to easily cancel your order or withdraw your subscription. When you're on a tight budget, unexpected small charges like this can turn into hundreds of dollars in NFS fees. The only way around this is to get a pre-paid visa card that you load with the amount of money you will allow any company to charge.  Use a pre-paid card for anything requiring automatic billing and automatic renewals.  This will prevent your account from being charged for services you no longer want or need.   PRINT

Next week's article covers what works.   Access that here

###

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