Category Archives: Job Searching

Apr30

Got Skills?

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Got Skills?

Ask some folks what their skills are and they get that “deer in the headlights” look and begin to rattle off a list of things like: Microsoft Excel, Outlook, or ACT.

Or they might say they are able to read and write – usually it sounds like this: Ability to communicate at all levels; Business Writing.

Some skills are basic and expected – such as reading and writing.

Some skills are necessary for the job – and are usually listed in the job description – as in the example above with the Microsoft Office applications.

And some skills are what are called “soft” or “transferable” skills.  These are the ones that most candidates/job seekers forget to discuss.  These elusive skills are the also the ones that may not be written in to the job description even if the hiring manager is looking for those skills.

A good recruiter will have gleaned those from interviewing the hiring manager or their representatives, but the candidate may not have the benefit of a recruiter who knows these unspoken requirements.

So how do you know if you have the skills that are desired for the position?

Ask.

Ask what they are looking for that may not be written in the job description.

Ask what the team might need to round it out and become more effective.

Ask what skills the “ideal candidate” would have.

Before you ask, you should be aware of what your skills are, so you can give good examples of those skills in action, if asked.

So what are these magical skills?

They are things like (but not limited to):

  1. Organization – do you have an organized approach to work?  Do you categorize and label everything in your home? Do you live by your Day Planner or calendar software?
  2. Persuasion – are you influential to your circle of friends?  Do people listen to your opinion and are swayed by it?
  3. Charisma – do people instantly like you? Are you able to make friends, or start conversations easily?
  4. Leadership – do people seem to look to you for leadership/guidance even when you are not officially “in charge”?

These are just some examples of soft or transferable skills.

Why would they be important?

Sometimes, the soft skills are more important that the skills that can be trained.  It is relatively easier to train someone to do email in Outlook than to have an organized approach at work, for example.

And while it is difficult to show soft skills on your resume, you should be prepared to discuss, demonstrate and give good examples of those skills in your interview.

Hope you find this helpful.  Have a great week.

 

Feb6

The Devil is in the Details

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The Devil is in the Details

Potential clients and potential employers are inundated with resumes.  Before you add yours to the fray, run down this checklist and make sure you have taken care of the details:

1.  Don’t forget a cover letter.  Make it short and sweet.  Tell them why you are submitting your resume, a summary of why you think you are a match for their position and what you would like to get back from them (Phone call? Appointment? Interview?)  If they have asked for salary information – make sure you have added it.  If you know you are not what they are looking for right now, ask them for a time frame to check back with them for openings.

2. Spellcheck AND grammar check AND have someone who writes well double-check your resume.  Some of the mistakes people have left on their resumes are the stuff of urban legends – check and double-check.  That goes for the cover letter, too.

3. Ditch “Objective”  and “References”- they take up real estate on your resume and don’t offer any value.  Everyone assumes that your objective is to get a job.  If you say too much there, you may talk the reader out of looking further.  And “References”, if the employer wants them, will be asked for, no need to share contact information up front.  Plus, anyone who has agreed to be your reference will undoubtedly have nice things to say.  Most high level jobs will call your references, AND call your previous employers to see what might get volunteered.  Your best reference is to try to always leave or complete assignments on good terms.

4.  KEY WORDS – if the position or assignment has specific requirements such as “MS Project ” or “Quickbooks” then make sure that those words are present in your resume! If they are not, the person(s) screening the resume will not assume that you have those requisites, they will move on to a resume that has them stated.  And remember, sometimes it is not a person, but a software application that does the screening…if the key word is not there, the resume doesn’t make it through the screening – period.

5.  Depending on the conservative level of your potential employer or client – and this is a judgement call based on your research about them – you may wish to leave off employment that is not germane to the position you are applying for.  Some companies only want to see what applies to their industry, and do not care about your previous careers in other fields…and some understand that skills can be transferred across industries (some of them anyway) and will appreciate seeing them.  Think hard about it before you go one way or the other.

Does it sound like you must have multiple versions of your resume?  The answer is YES.

Plus you should have one “Master Resume”with your entire work history on it to use as reference when you are asked to complete an application – which many companies still require even after they have viewed your resume.  The application should be complete with your work history, as often it is used for background checking.

Good luck and Happy Monday!

Jan18

What do hiring managers look for?

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What do hiring managers look for?

Here’s a great article on what a successful interview looks like – click here.

It is always a good idea to look at the interview from the perspective of the hiring side – do some research – what kind of people do they have on their team already?  How will you fit in? What would you like to learn more about their business?

Jan17

Mini Marketing Plan

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Mini Marketing Plan

Whether you are new to small business, or have an existing business – or if you are newly in the job market or have been looking for awhile – sometimes a mini-marketing plan is just the ticket to open new doors or stimulate your creative juices.

This article at INC give more details.  Click Here.

If you are a member of Linkedin, you can initiate a group.  Or even on Facebook.   Or find a forum in your field (either of business or profession) and start a conversation there.  Do something small and new and kick-start your job search, or search for new business leads.

Another mini-marketing strategy is to ask for advice – often it will lead to referrals or new ideas that will help you.

Let me know what specific strategies work for you and I will share them here! Thanks and make it a great day.

Jan5

Unemployed or underemployed

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Unemployed or underemployed

I am talking to nearly everyone I know when I use these terms: unemployed or underemployed.  The workplace has changed, the effect is heart wrenching in some cases – and what we all have to remember is that while we all have stories of how it was in the past, we need to focus on now.  Things I know from being on both sides of the job search (looking for work, and as a recruiter):

1.  A resume is not just an introduction to a potential employer, it is a screening tool.   More often it is used to rule out a candidate rather than a flag that says “here is the perfect candidate – hire him/her now”.  This is why you will see the more savvy experienced applicant leaving off some of his/her experience unless it is specifically germane to the job at hand, so that the employer will not screen them out for age or “over”qualification.

2. Knowing someone personally or having a reference that is personally known to the potential employer is helpful.  If you are one of those folks who believes that jobs are awarded by merit, and not by a few other various and sundry criteria, then you need to go find a good therapist because you probably are still hung up on how unfair life is….yes, I know that sounds harsh but reality is that humans are looking for humans that they feel good about to hire, whether that is because of trust in a third party’s opinion, or the fact that you go to the same church, or went to the same college or know the same golfing buddies – all people are looking for someone they can relate to as well as if you can do the job.  Obviously this can be distressing if you are a rocket scientist and you know that there are few rocket scientists with your credentials, but I assure you that unless you are the ONLY one with your credentials and they meet perfectly what the employer is looking for,  you will need at least one more item in your favor.

3. I know that in many cases of desperation, we are all willing to take ANY job.  The great frustration about this is that employers are not always willing to hire us for a position they think we will get bored in, or is less than our previous salary….it is an awful position to be in, and I have been in it.  This is where we all have to be creative, and know when to walk away and find something else to apply for, which is often one of the hardest things to do.  I am going to be 55 this year… I don’t feel old, but I know some employers see me that way because at my age – benefits are more expensive, the potential for illness and time off are more probable, and younger employees and clients may have difficulty relating to me and I to them.  The point here is to not fixate on the jobs you cannot get, but to continue to search for ones you can get, or to find ways to be entrepreneurial and either work or sell for yourself.

I fully believe that the next big thing will be cottage industries – especially with the trend to buy locally to alleviate dependence on oil, help conserve resources, and to be greener.  People who find ways to help others be green, upcycle old items, organize recycling where it really makes sense – those are the folks who will help re-establish small businesses and therefore create jobs.

Good luck out there.  If you are self-employed because of unemployment or underemployment – drop me a note and share your experience. We all learn from each other.  Thanks!

Feb15

Writing a Great Resume: Principles for Technical Professionals by Liz Klein

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Writing a Great Resume: Principles for Technical Professionals by Liz Klein

Your skills, talents and experience are as unique as your fingerprints.  No one else has your mind, your aspirations, and your way of seeing the world.  The purpose of a resume is to present yourself effectively to a prospective employer, to showcase yourself as the valuable professional you are.

The following suggestions are intended to guide you through the process of creating an excellent resume and finding the position you are seeking.

Step One: Spend some time thinking about where you want to go.  Then write a descriptive paragraph that highlights your key strengths and skills that make you valuable to an employer.

Most of the people I interview have some idea of where they want to go in their careers.  It’s difficult to get where you want to go if you don’t know where that it is!  Not knowing your career objective is like setting out on a vacation with no itinerary, just wandering here and there, without goals or plans, and without a timetable.  That may be okay for a vacation, if you like traveling in that fashion, but it can lead to much frustration in your career.

If you’ve been downsized, all of your former plans have been altered, and your initial reaction may be fear.  I would encourage you to view this change as an opportunity to move towards something better.

There is no longer any “job security” in the old-fashioned sense.  Rather, security comes from keeping skills strong and up-to-date.  We all need to pay attention to the marketplace, because technology is constantly changing.  We will need to become life-long learners to succeed.

Most of us are very busy on a day-to-day basis.  The tyranny of the urgent can easily keep us so occupied that we forget to plan ahead for the important steps we want to take.  I firmly believe that sitting down on a periodic basis (at least twice a year) and writing out goals for different areas of our lives can help us move in the right direction.  You may have unexpected detours, but if you know your desired destination, you will get there.

Here are some questions to help you compose a good descriptive paragraph:

Do you want to move to a new level with your next position?  For example, if you are a Software Engineer, are you looking for a team lead or Senior Software Engineer position?

Are you attempting to transition to a new field?  If you see certain skills as transferable, you may wish to connect them with your objectives and your desired move.

Do you desire to work with a particular technology?  Are you looking for a particular kind of experience, for example, working with back-end technologies rather than the front-end development you have been doing?

What are your long-term goals?  You may not want to state them in the objective, but you need to know them.  They will help you to decide whether the position offered is a positive step for you.

Step Two:  Spend some time thinking about where you’ve been.  Then describe your experiences clearly, concisely, and honestly.

Write down the major responsibilities of your positions.  Your resume should list your positions in chronological order, working backwards, with accurate dates.  Any gaps in your work history should be explained.

It is easier to read bullet points than dense paragraphs.  Remember, the managers and human resource professionals who review your resume have a hundred more on their desk.  Make it easy to read.  Along the same lines, a font less than 10 points in size is difficult to read.  The same would apply to fancy fonts that look like handwriting or hand printing.  Be considerate of the time constraints of the people reviewing your resume!  Allow some white space, use bolding for company names and/or position titles, and keep your descriptions concise.

Don’t overstate your experience.  At the same time, be sure you are including anything that might be relevant to the position you are applying for.  Be sure to include clear information about the technologies and tools you worked with.

The old suggestions about keeping your resume to one page are obsolete, especially if you have been in the work force for several years.  On the other hand, a resume more than three pages long is probably overkill.  You may wish to go back no more than 10 years, and summarize or leave off your history prior to that time.  If you have worked on many projects, you may wish to develop a separate document which will describe your project work in great detail, which you can bring with you to the interview, or e-mail separately to a manager who wants more detail.

Step Three:  Do create some type of skills chart listing the languages, tools, platforms, and databases, etc. that you have used.  You may wish to rank your skill level, or highlight your key skills.  Managers can include appropriate skills, also.

A laundry list of all the skills you have can be useful, but I almost always end up asking candidates, “What are your key skills?”  Usually there are three to five technologies you are expert at using.  Can someone reading your resume figure that out?

I’ve attached some sample skill charts, including my own, to show you that this can be done in many different ways.

Step Four: Put everything together and lead with your strengths!  What will an employer find most appealing in your work history?

When you’re ready to put things together, think about what your strengths are.  If you’ve done contract work, have a lot of different employers or projects on your resume, and have a desire to move back to regular employment, a skills chart or key word chart can pull everything together into a coherent whole.  If you have a master’s degree in physics with a 4.0 GPA, you have a rare brain, and should probably put that on the first page of your resume.  Some people include a brief description of themselves, for example:  “A talented and hard-working developer with superb communication and leadership skills, and strong experience in manufacturing environments.”

If you don’t know what your strengths are, ask your co-workers, or think about what your manager praised you for at your last performance review.  Your spouse and your friends can help you decide, also.

Be careful to spell check your resume, and have someone with good editing skills proofread it for you.  Many companies and recruiters eliminate candidates with spelling, capitalization, punctuation or grammatical errors.  When you have 100 choices on your desk, would you call the person who misspelled a word?

Step Five: Choose your approach to the job search process.  Should you use a recruiter, apply on-line, fax your resume, network with friends, or sit back and wait?

If you are serious about changing jobs, I would never advise sitting back and waiting!  Perhaps you’re here because you need to update your resume and that’s as far as you want to go right now.  I think, in today’s workplace, it is wise to keep one’s resume updated at all times.

If you’re working 12+ hours a day, and you’re serious about job searching, a recruiter may be your best choice.  There are many advantages to using a good recruiter.  A recruiter can lead you to companies you might not find on your own.  Oftentimes, the recruiter has a relationship with the manager and can get your resume directly in front of the hiring authority.

To find a good recruiter, network with your technical friends.  You may find a position just by doing that!  Networking with friends and through your professional associations is another key way to job search.  Friends in other companies may be able to put your resume in front of hiring managers, also, and sometimes they receive a bonus for referring you.

It is difficult for a recruiter to assist a candidate who is going through a major career transition.  If you are a C programmer who has just completed a Java training program, but you have no experience using Java on the job, a recruiter may not be able to help you.  The fees paid to recruiters are a reward for finding the “almost perfect” candidate, and that usually means a candidate with two-plus years of experience in the desired technology.

Generally, e-mail is the most desirable method of sending your resume.  Be sure to include the job number, if requested, in the subject line, along with your name and/or the position you are applying for.  Faxing resumes is cumbersome, because the recruiter or HR professional would need to scan the resume onto the computer in order to send it on to a hiring manager.

You may also wish to post your resume on one of the major career sites on the Internet.  Be prepared for a lot of phone calls.  Make sure you have a reliable answering machine or a service like “call notes” to accept your messages.  Or, include only an e-mail address (not your work e-mail!) so you can weed out positions you are not interested in.  If you only have e-mail service at work, make sure you set up a private e-mail account with Yahoo, Excite, Hotmail, or a similar portal that offers free e-mail.  If you are employed, you may wish to post your resume confidentially rather than openly, and most job boards offer that option.

You can find Liz Klein at http://www.thewwword.com and http://site.talentlegends.com/.

Posted via email from Natalia’s Other Blog

Jan26

How to Set Boundaries With Your Boss | eHow.com

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How to Set Boundaries With Your Boss | eHow.com

This article, by Michelle Vermillion Lawrence, is a great guideline for setting boundaries with your boss.

via How to Set Boundaries With Your Boss | eHow.com.

I suggest that the steps described work well with co-workers, friends, and relatives as well.  Setting boundaries when you fear consequences, is always a challenge, even when those fears may be unfounded.

Oct2

Reaching out – A Best Practice of Networkers

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Reaching out – A Best Practice of Networkers

One of the things I try to maintain is “reaching out” to my friends, and colleagues.  It is something that is not just a great tool for business, it is a requirement to maintain relationships in this high tech – high diversity – far spread society!

Some of the folks  who “reach out” to me, do so in the form of forwarding massively long emails (long because everyone else has forwarded them, and not bothered to cut out the long addressee list)… but still, I recognize that it is the fact that the person thought of me that is the important portion of that.  Side note: This is a source for spammers to scrape addresses – so one should strip out the addresses and footers/signatures when forwarding if you can, and you think of it. And when forwarding, it can also be construed as spam, so be careful.

Others use the various services that allow you to forward an article from a site, to share… or let’s you clip an article which can be shared with followers like socialmedian.

Still others actually do it in “snail mail” – sending me articles of interest.  I admit that I still enjoy receiving actual hard copy paper mail…. LOL.

I tend to do all three and love the ability to share online articles – both to my Facebook Page and to individuals I think might be interested.  The key is to let people know you are thinking of them,  know them well enough to know that the item is of interest or entertaining to them, and opens the door to further communication.   (There is also an article on the WhoDoYouKnowAt blog about this today…not bad.)

I even love the connectivity of Twitter! It is a great way to reach out into the vast beyond and see what you get back! Follow me on Twitter by clicking here.

Whatever way you “reach out” do it with relevance and value, and you will find that the connections become of increasing value to you! You never know what opportunities, information, or entertainment will come your way simply because you thought of someone and let them know.

Aug13

To PMP or not to PMP

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To PMP or not to PMP

Project Management Certification – some companies swear by it, others are happy to see “equivalent” experience.  Which is the right course?  It depends on you…it is never a bad thing to have an industry certification – it shows that the uniform standards which are accepted by professionals in your field, have been satisfied.  It also will generally command a higher salary.   And PM Certification requires a certain number of “field hours” as well, showing practical application of the tenets as well as demonstrating the ability to learn them in a classroom setting.

So why wouldn’t you get PM certification?  If you are close to retirement;  have amazing credentials in project management complete with ROI and your particular value added figures; or if you are in a job ladder that will promote you there anyway – you may decide not to pursue the certification.   Just remember that the PM certification could be the deciding factor if you are in competition for a position.  Ultimately – the decision is up to you.