Archive for Job Search
How to Google-Rank Your Way to a Recruiter’s Heart
Posted by: | Comments7 Tips for Helping Hiring Managers Find Your Resume Online
By Traci Armstrong and Tracy Cote
Published: October 02, 2009
During an average week, a recruiter reviews countless resumes, responds to hundreds of e-mails, conducts phone screens, video interviews and in-person interviews — all to find one perfect candidate match. The sheer volume of work has been exacerbated by high unemployment and a down economy. As a result, many recruiters are casting a smaller net, relying on sources like social media, employee referrals and Boolean search to attract a smaller, more qualified set of candidates.
For job seekers, this means a change in job-search approach. Rather than the “find a job” mentality, job seekers must focus on being found. Recruiters are holding the proverbial glass slipper — looking for the perfect match to open positions. Are social media and web tools the digital fairy godmother that introduces you? Here are ways to make it easier for a recruiter to discover you:
1. Expand your glass slipper’s footprint. Posting your resume on mega-job boards and searching for open positions on these boards is only a point of entry for job searches today. It’s a foundation — but it isn’t a very strategic or holistic approach. To broaden your digital footprint, start with this checklist: Do you appear on LinkedIn? Twitter? Facebook? Delicious? YouTube or Vimeo? Flickr? Do you have a blog, using sites such as TypePad, WordPress, Blogger?
For an even wider presence, create your own website and register a personal URL for yourself; sites such as GoDaddy.com make it very easy and inexpensive to do. There are also services that offer HTML resume solutions like ResumeBuilder.com and VisualCV. By posting your resume as its own web page, recruiters have a better chance of finding it through a Boolean search.
Once your digital footprint is established, include your information on your e-mail signature to increase connections with those in your network. Cross-post your digital-footprint links on multiple sites. Is your Twitter feed posted on your LinkedIn profile? Is your LinkedIn profile posted on your blog? And so on. Most people still have personal preferences of the social media site they visit the most. The wider your reach, the more likely it is that the right people will find you.
2. Define your magic keywords. A recruiter isn’t going to find you by your name. They search based on skills, experience, your work history. Take the time to think it through: If someone conducts a search on Google, Bing or a social-media site to find you, what keywords will they use? Which key descriptors specify your unique skills and where you’re located?
Start out with 10 words. Include items such as your title, region, area of expertise and your industry. Once you define these words, make sure they appear on all of your digital profiles. Conduct your own keyword audit to check the reach of your digital footprint. Do all of these words appear in the profiles that describe you to a potential employer? If so, that will make it easier to find you.
3. Customize your handle. If your name is common, think about how you might make it more unique. Can you include your middle initial? Maybe initial your first name or perhaps use your full middle name? If you’ve taken on a married name, does it make sense to use your maiden name as well — and hyphenate? As an example, if we search for “Traci Armstrong,” we find 9,740 results on Google. But, at the risk of snickers, if we initial the first name and use her married last name “T. Ann Cakebread,” the results are far more selective: four!
Be cautious, however, on what name you create for yourself: Don’t choose something that makes it difficult for people to identify you. And, whatever identity you choose, be consistent so you appear the same everywhere you post.
Another great tool at your disposal is the vanity URL. Many sites offer this feature; both Facebook and LinkedIn allow you to customize your profile in this way, adding your name to your link. You can claim yours on Facebook or, on LinkedIn, click edit on the Public Profile featured in your profile settings. There is an option at the top of this page that allows you to edit your URL.
Job seekers should also take advantage of signing up for a free Google Profile. This allows you better control of how people see you when you appear in Google — and increases the likelihood you will appear if someone searches you by name by expanding your footprint in yet another direction.
4. Don’t be a wallflower. Having a presence on a social-media site without participating is like going to the ball without dancing. Not much fun and no interaction. The key to successful engagement is to create authentic content and connect with others. The more involved you are in dialogue relating to your expertise area, the greater the chance your dialogue has in showing up in a search engine.
There are tools that make it easier to monitor the conversations of those you’d like to be hired by — try Seesmic for Twitter, Google Alerts for broad web search or Technorati for blogging entries. When you find a discussion you feel comfortable joining, participate. Most bloggers are desperate to find good, consistent content. In situations where you can lend authentic, credible expertise and opinion, offer to guest blog.
5. Use blogs to show off more than just writing. If you’re a writer, blogs are a terrific way to showcase your writing. But blogs can also flaunt visually creative work. If you’re a photographer, illustrator or designer, post your recent work on a blog and describe it in short detail. Tag your visuals with keywords that could lead someone looking for your visual style to your posting. Use the vertical your visual category is for (such as automotive or consumer package goods), the style, the client as key words. Well-known blogging sites like Typepad and Wordpress allow for video postings — if you’re a film or video producer, post reels of your work on your blog. And then, make sure all of your digital profiles link to your blog, driving traffic to it and improving your Google ranking.
One rule of thumb: Any time you post something on your blog, invite your connections from social-media sites such as Twitter and Facebook to read your posting. And forward a link of your postings to influencers: those that have a strong following themselves and may pass your info along.
6. Tweet and encourage re-tweets. Encourage re-tweets with a trackable URL shortener and keep your tweet short. Remember, the more click-throughs to any site within your digital footprint will increase your Google ranking. When promoting your social-media postings through Twitter, Organic’s group director-search, Marshall Clark, recommends keeping your original tweet well below the 140-character limit.
7. Join groups. There are thousands of groups on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter’s group version, Twibes. Look for like-minded people in your industry and find ways to interact. Be open about your job search, join discussions, answer questions and post links to valuable content you may be blogging about.
Panel Interview Tips
Posted by: | CommentsThe panel interview can occur in any industry, and the number of interviewers can range from two to eight (or more). In order to succeed, follow the tips below:
Panel interview technique # 1: Eye contact – Not knowing where to look during a panel interview is a concern for many. As a general rule, you should start answering questions while making eye contact who asked the question. Then you should look around to the other interviewers and finish answering the question while making contact with the person who asked the question.
Panel interview technique # 2: Ask Questions – Determine the leader of the group, and direct questions to her/him at the end of the interview. The leader is usually the person who makes the initial introductions and/or asks the most questions during the interview. For specific questions that only a person in a specific department can answer, ask the individual representing the department.
Panel interview technique # 3: Remain Focused – The good/bad cop scenario is when one interviewer is friendly and another is harsh. This method is used to determine how you will react in stressful situations. Keep your cool, and do not let the interview to get under your skin.
Panel interview technique # 4: Respect Silence – Do not feel the need to fill every empty space. Silence is a strategy interviewers may use to get you to reveal information you ordinarily would not. Avoid falling into the trap. When you finish answering a question, stop talking.
Panel interview technique # 5: Follow-up Letters – Send a thank you letter to every interviewer. The focus of each letter will differ depending on the job title of the interviewer. For example, the supervisor of your department will be interested in your teamwork and productivity skills, while a member of a partnering department will be interested in your ability to work collaboratively with his/her respective division. To ensure you get the spelling of everyone’s name and email right, ask for everyone’s business card.
In many ways, a panel interview mimics other types of interviews in that the interviewers will want to hear about your knowledge, skills, and abilities. A good way to find out whether or not a panel interview is going to take place, ask when making interview arrangements.
- Linda Matias, NCRW, CIC, JCTC
Has it been a while since you were a job hunter?
Posted by: | CommentsWhen you submit a cover letter and resume, it’s best to put your cover letter in the body of the email and then attach your resume. As in days of old, the content of the cover letter is very important, since it needs to be customized to the opening and the company. A good cover letter also differentiates you from the competition. It should make a compelling impact.
The same holds true for your resume. One-size-fits-all doesn’t cut it anymore. You need to speak in results language and match your past results to the requirements of the job. A pdf format works well for the reasons you mentioned. When mailing it in, colored paper doesn’t matter.
Most HR departments are lean and so they are looking to the latest technology to find talent for their openings. Most companies have their own career section on their website and they make use of some of the better, secure job boards out there. Better yet if you have not done so, create a free profile on http://www.joboodles.com today.
Employers scan for certain skill sets or certain kinds of experience. That means you need to be careful to use specific key words in your resume so your resume comes up when employers are searching. For instance, they may want to hire a facility manager but if you have used the term property manager, your resume won’t come up when they search. Nouns are more important than adjectives, since key words specific to the requirements of the job are what matter.
Conversely, when you are searching a job board to find your dream job, use the following search rules (and use FAQs and tutorials on their site):
• Use lower case letters in your search. If you use upper case, such as Property Manager, you will only pull up jobs where that phrase has been capitalized.
• If you require two specific things in your job search, such as System Administrator and $65,000. Search with AND. For example, System Administrator AND $65,000.
• If you want to link two words, such as IT manager, use quotes around the words: “IT manager”.
• If two phrases are interchangeable and you want to see jobs using both phrases, use “IT manager” OR “Technology manager.”
Incidentally, job seekers should know companies often search their own company name to see who is job-hunting. And they are increasingly checking out social networking sites such as MySpace to find out what potential candidates are saying (or showing) about themselves, so use common sense when revealing personal information about yourself on the Web.
Refining Your Target While Searching for a Job Online
Posted by: | CommentsIf you are here, then you are most likely already using the internet to help you find a job. The internet can be a real time saver when it comes to assisting you in your search for a new/different job.
The problem is that the internet is also fraught with misinformation and can, in some cases, actually hurt your chances of landing that new job, instead of helping you. The fact that you can do an online job search and be sending your resume to lots and lots of prospective employers can be really appealing. And that is NOT necessarily a good thing!
It kind of reminds me of the first time I went quail hunting with my father. I would see a group of birds on flight and swing my shotgun up and shoot away. After about 4 hours (and getting more and more frustrated every time) the only thing I had to show for my efforts was a really sore shoulder. My Dad quietly watched my frustrations all morning long and never said a word.
We went in for lunch and I tried to explain my frustrations to my Dad. I said “I don’t know what’s going on, I’m aiming right in the middle of the flock and I never hit anything.” At this point I guess my Dad decided that I was ready to listen to some advice. Now that I’m older I realize that he knew that if he had offered any advice before I had tried it my way, I wouldn’t have listened anyway. After all, at that age I knew everything.
He said “You have to aim at a target”. And before I could explain that I WAS aiming at a target he said “I know you THINK you are aiming at a target, that being the middle of the flock but that is not a target. You see son, a target is a very specific thing. So what you need to do is to aim at a specific bird, not at the flock, just a single bird. Assess your situation, and then select your target, take aim and pull the trigger”.
That afternoon it was amazing how much better I was. We both had a great time and yes we did eat the birds that we shot. Bacon wrapped quail breasts are great but that’s another subject entirely.
Later in life I was playing golf with a friend of mine whose handicap is a negative number and he regularly attempts to qualify for the U.S. Open. For you non-golfers out there, what I’m saying here is that he is a great golfer. After a few holes, while on the tee box of a left dogleg par 5, I asked him what his target line was and he said “You see that oak tree past the dogleg there.” I confirmed that I did see the tree because I had figured that would be my target line. Then he continued, “You see that third branch from the left on the very top?” Yep I saw it. He continued “I’m aiming for the second twig sticking out from the left on that branch.”
Well, at just that moment I remembered my father telling me that “A target is a very specific thing.” Bird hunting, golf, it doesn’t matter. A target is a very specific thing. Today anytime I establish a goal for myself, I try to remember that a “Target is a specific thing”. And as a side note, my golf game got a lot better after learning to narrow my focus to a very specific target. Again, that’s another subject….
I know this is a website to help you find a job and I coming to the point here…….
Too many people say “I need a job”, or “I’m looking for a new job”. Maybe you say or have said the same thing. When your aim is that general, the odds of you hitting your target are not very good.
I know it would seem that the larger the target, the easier it is to hit it, but that’s not how our brains work. If you really want to accomplish a goal or hit a target then you have to give your brain a very specific target to shoot at. Given a specific target, the subconscious will take over and assist you in reaching that goal or hitting the target.
I watched an interview with a famous wide receiver in the NFL and the person conducting the interview was asking him how he made some of the remarkable catches in his career. The interviewer said “With the defender in your face, how do you keep your eye on the ball?” His answer reminded me of my fathers advice, he said “I don’t keep my eye on the ball, I keep my eye on the point of the ball.”
You see, the ball was just too big a target, he narrowed it down to just the point on the ball.
So if your job search seems to be going nowhere then there’s a really good possibility that your target is too big. Narrow your focus!
At joboodles.com, that’s what we do. We help you aim for a specific target. You don’t want a job, you want the best job, with the best company that will give you the best possible return for your efforts. That’s what we want too.
And the flip side is that if you are an employer looking for employees, you don’t want just an employee, you want the very best employee, who can make an immediate impact and will work best in the environment and with his co-workers and his supervisors. Well that’s what we want too.
Interview Questions
Posted by: | CommentsOver the next few weeks I will be posting some of the most common questions asked during a job interview along with some tips on why that particular question is being asked along with some pointers on how to prepare for that question as well as the best response.
The objective is not to give you word for word answers but to show you how you can vary the answers to show off your experience and strengths.
So let’s get started with one of the most common questions asked during a job interview……..
“How long have your been looking for a job?”
The reason that question is asked is to try to uncover a few things about the person being interviewed. Things like internal motivation and to perhaps pick up on potential problems too.
It’s not uncommon to have been looking for a job for a long time during the current recession.
The interviewer is looking for reasons why other potential employers have not hired you. Be careful when answering this question because if you say you have had lots and lots of interviews then the interviewer will begin to wonder why those other companies did not hire you. Lots of interviews and no job offer is a red light for them.
You should always be honest in your answers and to give you a little food for thought, think about this response:
“Until recently I have not been aggressively searching for a postion. Since I left my last job I have taken the opportunity to re-examine my career and where I am in my life versus where I want to be in the future. With that in mind I have been very selective about the postions I apply for. This position and your company are a good match and I am very interested.”
Of course you shouldn’t use that response verbatim but a response like the above removes the ‘perceived problem’ and with the last part of the response, turns the interview back over to the interviewer on a positive note reinforcing the fact that you are very interested in the open position.
This is one of a series of posts that will be covering the most common job interview questions.