Is there something wrong with your resume that you are not getting any responses?
I was asked this question today by a frustrated job seeker who wanted help in fixing her resume.
My response follows:
I would be more than willing to look at your resume and offer suggestions, BUT it is essential that you share with me the job titles and company names of the openings to which you have applied.
Without knowing to what and where you have submitted your resume, I have little clue as to what should be in your resume.
Your resume is only as good as the specific keywords it contains as they match with the keywords of the job posting or description.
Also, most importantly, your qualifications have very little to do with whether or not you get any response to your resume.
The resume gatherers, the people to whom you send your resume, are screeners. Their job is to scan quickly resumes for keywords and send on those that have all, or at least a majority, of their target keywords.
They only have seconds to review a resume or applications and don't have time to read much of anything let alone think about what they see. In fact, in many cases, they have computer software scanning and finding the keywords for them.
The overwhelming, 90% of the time, reason why you don’t get responses is simply that resumes get lost in the heavy volume of them, in many cases 1000s, that are sent by desperate job seekers.
Your odds of ever getting any response to your resume or application, regardless of your qualifications, without following up repeatedly, is less than one in one thousand or .1%.
So playing the odds by just sending in your resume and/or submitting your application and waiting for a response means you would have to send in a resume or apply to at least 1000 openings to get one response!
You’ve got 900 more to go.
And, better still, you have one hundred with which you need to follow up.
Discover and determine the contact information for the company holding the job opening. Knowing specific contact people within the company, especially the hiring decision maker(s), makes all the difference in getting noticed. And without getting noticed, you probably won’t get a response.
If the company is not clearly identified, then do some detective work based on clues in the job posting like an email address or the type of business and location.
Then follow up with additional information like faxing another version of your resume or emailing your Facebook or LinkedIn link or dropping off your resume in person.
Repeated follow up has now become a requirement in making contact after you have sent your resume or applied for the job.
Let’s stay in touch,
Walt
And stay in touch with me and JVS at www.jvsdet.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
The Four Basic Steps to a Successful Job Search - Step 2
As stated in Step 1 - Make Contacts, a job search is really very simple.
And this bears repeating.
No secrets, no magic, no special skills or hidden markets...just four simple steps.
BUT you do need to take action. You do need to make the effort. And you do need to keep at it, to stay the course. It is your responsibility, and your responsibility alone, to start and to stop.
Step 2 is Follow Up.
"Success comes from taking the initiative and following up..." Anthony Robbins
Once you have started, initiated contacts, then you assume the responsibility to stay in touch. It is up to you to keep the contact going.
Not only is it very unlikely that the employer, recruiter, contact, with whom you are trying to connect will have the time or be able to make the effort to respond to your application, resume, email or phone call; but when you follow up you also take the opportunity to demonstrate your interest, seriousness, commitment, persistence and many other desirable qualities.
In fact, most employers await your follow up to see how you handle yourself. And the applicants that follow up are always more likely to get the employers attention.
Add to your follow up efforts by thinking of, and doing, things that add value to your application.
Share information of interest to the employer. Email a website, an article, or news that shows your deeper interest in the company and gives something of value to them.
But, above all, stay in touch. Even if it is a 30 second phone message or a brief email message that expresses your continued interest and availability, staying in touch is a requirement.
If you need help in following up and staying in touch, do so with us at JVS.
Visit us at www.jvsdet.org
Let us help.
Walt
Walt Tarrow, wtarrow@jvsdet.org, www.LinkedIn.com/in/walttarrow
And this bears repeating.
No secrets, no magic, no special skills or hidden markets...just four simple steps.
BUT you do need to take action. You do need to make the effort. And you do need to keep at it, to stay the course. It is your responsibility, and your responsibility alone, to start and to stop.
Step 2 is Follow Up.
"Success comes from taking the initiative and following up..." Anthony Robbins
Once you have started, initiated contacts, then you assume the responsibility to stay in touch. It is up to you to keep the contact going.
Not only is it very unlikely that the employer, recruiter, contact, with whom you are trying to connect will have the time or be able to make the effort to respond to your application, resume, email or phone call; but when you follow up you also take the opportunity to demonstrate your interest, seriousness, commitment, persistence and many other desirable qualities.
In fact, most employers await your follow up to see how you handle yourself. And the applicants that follow up are always more likely to get the employers attention.
Add to your follow up efforts by thinking of, and doing, things that add value to your application.
Share information of interest to the employer. Email a website, an article, or news that shows your deeper interest in the company and gives something of value to them.
But, above all, stay in touch. Even if it is a 30 second phone message or a brief email message that expresses your continued interest and availability, staying in touch is a requirement.
If you need help in following up and staying in touch, do so with us at JVS.
Visit us at www.jvsdet.org
Let us help.
Walt
Walt Tarrow, wtarrow@jvsdet.org, www.LinkedIn.com/in/walttarrow
Thursday, October 21, 2010
The Four Basic Steps to a Successful Job Search - Step 1
A job search is really very simple.
No secrets, no magic, no special skills or hidden markets...just four simple steps.
BUT you do need to take action. You do need to make the effort. And you do need to keep at it, to stay the course. If you stop, you are the one who quit.
Advisors and experts and coaches are creeping out of the woodwork promising you amazing results by sharing their secrets of how to get your dream job.
But the answer, the way, the method is very simple, very basic and really no mystery at all. And this truth does not get attention, does not sell books, does not fill seminars, does not put money in their pockets.
By the way, what kind of secret, magical method, is it if you tell anyone who is willing to pay the fee?
Step 1 is Make Contacts.
"The secret to getting ahead is getting started." Mark Twain
You get started by making contact.
Start with a website like www.indeed.com and search for jobs of interest. Use the titles and keywords of jobs which you have done, or believe you can do, and in which you have an interest. You can also search using the names of companies for which you would like to work.
Then apply according to the instructions -- online, submit a resume and a cover letter, email, fax, mail, in person, and/or phone.
Just make the contact! Don't delay by continuously reworking your resume, your cover letter. Capture the keywords from the posting, incorporate them into your application, resume, letter and send them on their way.
"If you keep thinking about what you want to do or what you hope will happen, you don't do it, and it won't happen." Joe Dimaggio
Then expand your contacts to any and all companies that are similar to the companies to which you have applied. Even if they are not hiring currently. Especially if they are not hiring currently.
Most jobs are filled before they are ever advertised. Get in before the flood of resumes.
The objective, your goal, in Step 1 of your job search is to make contact with, become known by, and, hopefully, impress, every employer who might sometime have a job for you.
How's that going for you? Are you working toward that goal? If not, then it's time to get to work.
If you need help in making those contacts, make contact with us at JVS.
Visit us at www.jvsdet.org
Let us help.
Walt
Walt Tarrow, wtarrow@jvsdet.org, www.LinkedIn.com/in/walttarrow
No secrets, no magic, no special skills or hidden markets...just four simple steps.
BUT you do need to take action. You do need to make the effort. And you do need to keep at it, to stay the course. If you stop, you are the one who quit.
Advisors and experts and coaches are creeping out of the woodwork promising you amazing results by sharing their secrets of how to get your dream job.
But the answer, the way, the method is very simple, very basic and really no mystery at all. And this truth does not get attention, does not sell books, does not fill seminars, does not put money in their pockets.
By the way, what kind of secret, magical method, is it if you tell anyone who is willing to pay the fee?
Step 1 is Make Contacts.
"The secret to getting ahead is getting started." Mark Twain
You get started by making contact.
Start with a website like www.indeed.com and search for jobs of interest. Use the titles and keywords of jobs which you have done, or believe you can do, and in which you have an interest. You can also search using the names of companies for which you would like to work.
Then apply according to the instructions -- online, submit a resume and a cover letter, email, fax, mail, in person, and/or phone.
Just make the contact! Don't delay by continuously reworking your resume, your cover letter. Capture the keywords from the posting, incorporate them into your application, resume, letter and send them on their way.
"If you keep thinking about what you want to do or what you hope will happen, you don't do it, and it won't happen." Joe Dimaggio
Then expand your contacts to any and all companies that are similar to the companies to which you have applied. Even if they are not hiring currently. Especially if they are not hiring currently.
Most jobs are filled before they are ever advertised. Get in before the flood of resumes.
The objective, your goal, in Step 1 of your job search is to make contact with, become known by, and, hopefully, impress, every employer who might sometime have a job for you.
How's that going for you? Are you working toward that goal? If not, then it's time to get to work.
If you need help in making those contacts, make contact with us at JVS.
Visit us at www.jvsdet.org
Let us help.
Walt
Walt Tarrow, wtarrow@jvsdet.org, www.LinkedIn.com/in/walttarrow
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Are you wasting their time?
When you are looking for a job you want to contact and connect with as many people as possible. The more connections you have, the more likely you will make the right connections.
BUT are you an asset or liability to those connections?
Do your emails, your phone calls, your visits add value to their days, their lives? OR, worse yet, are you wasting their time?
When you apply for a job online, by email, fax or mail, do you follow up with a phone call to verify they received your application, your resume, your cover letter?
You may be fortunate and connect to someone who takes some time from their busy schedule to talk with you. But have you added value to their day?
And after your application is in process, are you easily reachable?
Do you make it easy for employers to know what they need to know about you? Are your application and your resume complete and error free? Do you have additional information, such as references, a complete LinkedIn profile, diplomas, degrees and transcripts, and work samples, readily available?
Can employers get in touch with you quickly and easily? Is your voice mail set up properly and professionally? To be certain, maybe you should call yourself and listen to what they will hear.
Do you have an email address that is easy to understand and remember for employers? Does your email even work? To be certain, maybe you should email yourself and see what they will see.
And do you check your voice mail, your email throughout each day? Or, better yet, do you stay in close touch with them?
And are you an asset or a liability?
When you make your contact, what is your purpose? Is it all about what you want, what you need? Are you entitled to their time, their return call, their help? And that is according to whom, to what rule?
If you keep taking from them, wasting their time, giving nothing in return, you are a liability. And you are even more of a liability if you make being in touch with you difficult for them.
Approach all of your contacts keeping in mind how you can be of value to them and how you can minimize their effort in getting back, and staying in touch, with you. If you keep withdrawing from any shared account you might have without contributing, very soon you will be overdrawn and have no credit with them at all. They will have no reason to stay in touch with you. They may even close the account, stop all contact with you, and feel you owe them big.
Stop wasting their time.
Respect all your contacts. Be considerate of their time, their effort and their value to you.
Be clear, complete, quick and concise in your emails and phone calls. Short and sweet is the way.
Hopefully, you will find ways to add value for them. But, at the very least, don't be wasting their time.
Make effective use of your time by using the job search resources at JVS. Visit www.jvsdet.org for calendars of upcoming events, weekly meetings and seminars, for links to JVS on Facebook and Twitter, for our online job bank, and more.
As always, you can reach me at wtarrow@jvsdet.org and on LinkedIn.
Now go out there and make some contact happy,
Walt
BUT are you an asset or liability to those connections?
Do your emails, your phone calls, your visits add value to their days, their lives? OR, worse yet, are you wasting their time?
When you apply for a job online, by email, fax or mail, do you follow up with a phone call to verify they received your application, your resume, your cover letter?
You may be fortunate and connect to someone who takes some time from their busy schedule to talk with you. But have you added value to their day?
And after your application is in process, are you easily reachable?
Do you make it easy for employers to know what they need to know about you? Are your application and your resume complete and error free? Do you have additional information, such as references, a complete LinkedIn profile, diplomas, degrees and transcripts, and work samples, readily available?
Can employers get in touch with you quickly and easily? Is your voice mail set up properly and professionally? To be certain, maybe you should call yourself and listen to what they will hear.
Do you have an email address that is easy to understand and remember for employers? Does your email even work? To be certain, maybe you should email yourself and see what they will see.
And do you check your voice mail, your email throughout each day? Or, better yet, do you stay in close touch with them?
And are you an asset or a liability?
When you make your contact, what is your purpose? Is it all about what you want, what you need? Are you entitled to their time, their return call, their help? And that is according to whom, to what rule?
If you keep taking from them, wasting their time, giving nothing in return, you are a liability. And you are even more of a liability if you make being in touch with you difficult for them.
Approach all of your contacts keeping in mind how you can be of value to them and how you can minimize their effort in getting back, and staying in touch, with you. If you keep withdrawing from any shared account you might have without contributing, very soon you will be overdrawn and have no credit with them at all. They will have no reason to stay in touch with you. They may even close the account, stop all contact with you, and feel you owe them big.
Stop wasting their time.
Respect all your contacts. Be considerate of their time, their effort and their value to you.
Be clear, complete, quick and concise in your emails and phone calls. Short and sweet is the way.
Hopefully, you will find ways to add value for them. But, at the very least, don't be wasting their time.
Make effective use of your time by using the job search resources at JVS. Visit www.jvsdet.org for calendars of upcoming events, weekly meetings and seminars, for links to JVS on Facebook and Twitter, for our online job bank, and more.
As always, you can reach me at wtarrow@jvsdet.org and on LinkedIn.
Now go out there and make some contact happy,
Walt
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Some more observations on what means overqualified
Are you told you are overqualified?
Is your resume presenting you as overqualified?
If you are not getting interviews, your resume might be overshooting the "profile" of the job. Your resume might not be matching the duties, responsibilities and/or requirements for the job.
It is all about the match. And a mismatch can go both ways - under and overqualified.
If you get interviews, your resume obviously is working.
But overqualified means much more than just the mismatch.
Employers use interviews to get to know the candidate, the potential employee, better – who you are, what motivates you, what makes you tick. They are a chance to demonstrate that you have the right stuff. Think of them as sales calls. After all, when it comes to interviews, are we not all in sales?
"Overqualified” translates for them to mean you, based on your length of experience and past compensation, expect, and feel entitled to, a higher level of pay. And that you don’t have to justify why you deserve it since you have professional “seniority.” They are afraid that you will leave your position and the company as soon as a better offer comes along because you deserve more money, better benefits, and a better opportunity.
Be prepared with enthusiasm and even excitement to tell them why you want to work for them and how you will eliminate problems and add value. Without presenting solid and passionate evidence about how you will deliver each and every day, you are in danger of being seen as resting on your assumed laurels and coming across as arrogant.
Just because you have experience, perhaps even extensive expert experience, does not make you invulnerable to the pitfalls and problems of everyday work life. Even if you are the best of the best of the best, you still need to be doing your best always. Overqualified means you are presenting yourself as above it all and that very likely you will not try to do a better job of it because nobody does it better than you. And again you deserve top pay just because you are you.
As it’s been said in the circles of sales professionals, “you are only as good as your last sale.” You have to prove your worth. Be prepared to do so when you have that face to face meeting, that interview, that sales call.
Listen to their needs and tell them, show them, how you will deliver.
If you need to practice that interview, contact me.
Walt Tarrow
wtarrow@jvsdet.org
And check out JVS at www.jvsdet.org for job postings, seminars, events and more.
Join me and NextJobs~JVS Detroit on LinkedIn.
Is your resume presenting you as overqualified?
If you are not getting interviews, your resume might be overshooting the "profile" of the job. Your resume might not be matching the duties, responsibilities and/or requirements for the job.
It is all about the match. And a mismatch can go both ways - under and overqualified.
If you get interviews, your resume obviously is working.
But overqualified means much more than just the mismatch.
Employers use interviews to get to know the candidate, the potential employee, better – who you are, what motivates you, what makes you tick. They are a chance to demonstrate that you have the right stuff. Think of them as sales calls. After all, when it comes to interviews, are we not all in sales?
"Overqualified” translates for them to mean you, based on your length of experience and past compensation, expect, and feel entitled to, a higher level of pay. And that you don’t have to justify why you deserve it since you have professional “seniority.” They are afraid that you will leave your position and the company as soon as a better offer comes along because you deserve more money, better benefits, and a better opportunity.
Be prepared with enthusiasm and even excitement to tell them why you want to work for them and how you will eliminate problems and add value. Without presenting solid and passionate evidence about how you will deliver each and every day, you are in danger of being seen as resting on your assumed laurels and coming across as arrogant.
Just because you have experience, perhaps even extensive expert experience, does not make you invulnerable to the pitfalls and problems of everyday work life. Even if you are the best of the best of the best, you still need to be doing your best always. Overqualified means you are presenting yourself as above it all and that very likely you will not try to do a better job of it because nobody does it better than you. And again you deserve top pay just because you are you.
As it’s been said in the circles of sales professionals, “you are only as good as your last sale.” You have to prove your worth. Be prepared to do so when you have that face to face meeting, that interview, that sales call.
Listen to their needs and tell them, show them, how you will deliver.
If you need to practice that interview, contact me.
Walt Tarrow
wtarrow@jvsdet.org
And check out JVS at www.jvsdet.org for job postings, seminars, events and more.
Join me and NextJobs~JVS Detroit on LinkedIn.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Some recommendations about recommendations
Regarding recommendations on LinkedIn or anywhere else for that matter.
Who is/are the target audience that you want to see, and be impressed by, your recommendations?
What do you want people to say about you that sends the right messages to, creates the right images for, your target audience?
Who can best represent, and speak to, your various work, education, and other experiences?
Who, and from where, are the people who are most relevant to your target audience?
Once you have answered the questions above, contact the people you want to recommend you on LinkedIn (they have to be members of LinkedIn to give you a recommendation). Provide them with a recommendation you scripted for them and ask them to review, edit if they want to, and send to you to be posted on your LinkedIn profile.
Offer to do the same for them.
LinkedIn prompts and directs you about recommendations under your experience and education on your profile.
Any performance review or evaluation you received at your workplaces from your immediate supervisors can provide an excellent source of recommendations. If you do not have copies of performance reviews, contact the company and ask for a copy of your personnel records.
Remember that the most preferred recommendations come from previous supervisors and other work associates including customers who can testify to your work performance.
You can also provide evidence of your "soft skills" such as interpersonal, communication, organization, leadership and the like with recommendations from non-work contacts who have been witness to related behaviours. Also, fellow workers and other contacts of yours can speak to personal characteristics of yours such as trustworthiness, reliability, honesty and professionalism.
Recommendations are simply testimony provided by others to verify and support your claims about your different sets of skills, work performance and achievements.
Your skills, work, and achievements easily could fill a book, but without the right "recommendations" on the jacket, that book may never be bought.
For help with crafting your recommendations, feel free to contact me.
And follow me and JVS at www.jvsdet.org and check us out on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube. Job postings are at www.ParnossahWorksDetroit.org as well as the calendar of upcoming seminars and events.
Walt
wtarrow@jvsdet.org
Who is/are the target audience that you want to see, and be impressed by, your recommendations?
What do you want people to say about you that sends the right messages to, creates the right images for, your target audience?
Who can best represent, and speak to, your various work, education, and other experiences?
Who, and from where, are the people who are most relevant to your target audience?
Once you have answered the questions above, contact the people you want to recommend you on LinkedIn (they have to be members of LinkedIn to give you a recommendation). Provide them with a recommendation you scripted for them and ask them to review, edit if they want to, and send to you to be posted on your LinkedIn profile.
Offer to do the same for them.
LinkedIn prompts and directs you about recommendations under your experience and education on your profile.
Any performance review or evaluation you received at your workplaces from your immediate supervisors can provide an excellent source of recommendations. If you do not have copies of performance reviews, contact the company and ask for a copy of your personnel records.
Remember that the most preferred recommendations come from previous supervisors and other work associates including customers who can testify to your work performance.
You can also provide evidence of your "soft skills" such as interpersonal, communication, organization, leadership and the like with recommendations from non-work contacts who have been witness to related behaviours. Also, fellow workers and other contacts of yours can speak to personal characteristics of yours such as trustworthiness, reliability, honesty and professionalism.
Recommendations are simply testimony provided by others to verify and support your claims about your different sets of skills, work performance and achievements.
Your skills, work, and achievements easily could fill a book, but without the right "recommendations" on the jacket, that book may never be bought.
For help with crafting your recommendations, feel free to contact me.
And follow me and JVS at www.jvsdet.org and check us out on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube. Job postings are at www.ParnossahWorksDetroit.org as well as the calendar of upcoming seminars and events.
Walt
wtarrow@jvsdet.org
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Interviewing Questions
So many questions, so few answers...
There are hundreds of job search books containing thousands of interview questions with suggested answers to help you prepare for your interview. Yet every interview you have seems to add at least one question you never heard before.
Here is a list of ten questions that a helpful job seeker emailed to me just today. The company provided him with these questions to help him prepare for his interview for a logistics/warehouse position.
1. How does our position fit in with your career goals and objectives?
2. What separates you from the rest of the candidates? In other words, why should we hire YOU?
3. How would your previous Supervisors and Co-workers describe your ability to be dependable?
4. Please give us examples in one of your previous positions that addresses your productivity level while still maintaining a high level of accuracy and quality?
5. Tell me about one of your previous positions that you enjoyed? Why did you enjoy working for that company? What are some things you would have liked to see change?
6. Please describe how you would handle the following situation: At 9:00 am the Warehouse Supervisor gives you several shipments that need to go out by 10:00 am. By (9:45 am you realize you will not be able to accomplish this and your Supervisor is nowhere in sight).. How do you think you might handle this?
7. There are times when we work without close supervision or support to get the job done. Tell us about a time when you found yourself in such a situation and how did things turn out.
8. When we talk about customer service, we often think about external customers or the people who are not part of our organization. Tell me about a time you were confronted by a frustrated ‘customer’? What did you do to resolve the situation?
9. Give me an example of when you showed initiative and took the lead on a project at work?
10. Listening is an important part of providing good customer service. Describe good listening skills. Please give us an example of a time when you’ve demonstrated good listening skills?
Question #2 is one of the two basic questions that are asked, in a great variety of ways, ultimately by all interviewers.
Those two essential questions are:
Why should we hire you?
Why do you want to work for us?
The number one reason that applicants lose interviews is lack of preparation.
And having, and practicing, good answers to basic interview questions is essential interview preparation.
What answers do you have?
What messages do you need to deliver at your interview to be a winner?
Be prepared to be a winner.
If you have any tough interview questions you would like to have some help with creating good answers, please contact me.
Walt Tarrow
wtarrow@jvsdet.org
www.linkedin.com/in/walttarrow
www.jvsdet.org
Follow me and JVS on Facebook and Twitter.
There are hundreds of job search books containing thousands of interview questions with suggested answers to help you prepare for your interview. Yet every interview you have seems to add at least one question you never heard before.
Here is a list of ten questions that a helpful job seeker emailed to me just today. The company provided him with these questions to help him prepare for his interview for a logistics/warehouse position.
1. How does our position fit in with your career goals and objectives?
2. What separates you from the rest of the candidates? In other words, why should we hire YOU?
3. How would your previous Supervisors and Co-workers describe your ability to be dependable?
4. Please give us examples in one of your previous positions that addresses your productivity level while still maintaining a high level of accuracy and quality?
5. Tell me about one of your previous positions that you enjoyed? Why did you enjoy working for that company? What are some things you would have liked to see change?
6. Please describe how you would handle the following situation: At 9:00 am the Warehouse Supervisor gives you several shipments that need to go out by 10:00 am. By (9:45 am you realize you will not be able to accomplish this and your Supervisor is nowhere in sight).. How do you think you might handle this?
7. There are times when we work without close supervision or support to get the job done. Tell us about a time when you found yourself in such a situation and how did things turn out.
8. When we talk about customer service, we often think about external customers or the people who are not part of our organization. Tell me about a time you were confronted by a frustrated ‘customer’? What did you do to resolve the situation?
9. Give me an example of when you showed initiative and took the lead on a project at work?
10. Listening is an important part of providing good customer service. Describe good listening skills. Please give us an example of a time when you’ve demonstrated good listening skills?
Question #2 is one of the two basic questions that are asked, in a great variety of ways, ultimately by all interviewers.
Those two essential questions are:
Why should we hire you?
Why do you want to work for us?
The number one reason that applicants lose interviews is lack of preparation.
And having, and practicing, good answers to basic interview questions is essential interview preparation.
What answers do you have?
What messages do you need to deliver at your interview to be a winner?
Be prepared to be a winner.
If you have any tough interview questions you would like to have some help with creating good answers, please contact me.
Walt Tarrow
wtarrow@jvsdet.org
www.linkedin.com/in/walttarrow
www.jvsdet.org
Follow me and JVS on Facebook and Twitter.
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