You wonder why you weren’t hired

Many job seekers have asked me why a position is re-posted after they applied, especially when they didn’t even get an interview. Mary said that there are many reasons that happens.

• Perhaps as they reviewed candidates, none of them quite fit either the structure of the organization or the position.
• Perhaps background checks or reference checks didn’t work out.
• Or perhaps their top candidates declined the position.

The value of the right fit to the hiring manager

One of the bullet points we have in my HR director’s resume (Mary) says:

Collaborated with department managers to build understanding of the value in selecting the best qualified candidates and continue recruiting until the right fit is found for the position.

Mary trained the department heads on how to evaluate prospective candidates and not settle for someone just to fill the position. The “right fit” will add value to the organization and be an asset in growing the organization. The wrong fit could be problems down the road.

What can you do to make you the right fit?

Mary and I discussed the many things that job seekers can do to improve their chances of being picked.

1. Read the job description. Make sure that you actually CAN do the job and don’t apply to jobs that you are clearly not qualified to do. Mary used the example of a person in retail applying for a high level IT position. She had no technology experience. It wasn’t entry level. The job description clearly defined both the qualifications and what the position would entail.
2. Incorporate those Key Words from the job description into your resume and cover letter so that you come up as a match.
3. Make sure your resume is filled with accomplishments and quantify those accomplishments so that HR and the hiring manager understands that you can DO the job.
4. When you apply online, make sure you have first created your resume so that you are putting real content into the application. Write the traditional resume first and then use a text resume for applying instead of just filling in the blanks on the application. Directions for the text resume: Click here.
5. Research the company and the position. If you are called for an interview, you need to able to show them that you understand the company and what they need for the position.
6. Prepare for the interview. When you come to the interview, have a battery of additional accomplishments to share in the interview to demonstrate that you fit their needs.
7. Make sure you are not carrying baggage into the interview or into the background check. If you trash talk your old employer in the interview or even with people who could be providing the reference, you will blow your chances to be the one chosen. Attitude matters!

If you follow these suggestions, your job search will be on target and you will become the right fit for a new job much quicker!

Stuck in your job search or just ready to move on from your existing position? Julie Walraven can help you find a new career! To find out how, Click here!

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But then, who am I? Julie Walraven, yes, I may be the owner of Design Resumes, a professional resume writer, and even a CPRW, but really, should I go up against the Wall Street Journal? The Wall Street Journal should be right, yes?

Should we dismiss the time-tested resume?

No! And happily I followed a tweet by Jorgen Sundberg,  Undercover Recruiter to this post by John Hollon, the Vice President for Editorial of TLNT.com, and the former Editor of Workforce Management. His post is entitled: Weekly Wrap: Why Are We So Quick to Dismiss the Good, Old Résumé?

Mr. Hollon points out that the “some firms say” is really a study of 3 firms… Yes, I said 3. Yup, I really believe an information that bases the opinion on three firms instead of in-depth research with reliable results. This article is so good that I recommend you do read it later but I want to share my favorite part:

Ok, I get that traditional résumés are old school — boring, old technology, one directional, often poorly done — but they haven’t lasted as long as they have by accident. They work, even in our technology crazy times, because of one simple thing: they allow a hiring manager or recruiter to get a quick, brief snapshot of an applicant.

Why résumés still work

It may not be the best view they get, but it is one they can get quickly and easily with little muss or fuss. Give me an hour and a two-foot pile of résumés, and I’ll give you the Top 5 or 10 candidates in that stack. Yes, I still want to see their social media presence, but I can thumb through and scan that résumé pile pretty quickly — and a lot faster than I could track down and eyeball all of their LinkedIn profiles or Facebook pages.

It’s frankly silly and somewhat dishonest for The Wall Street Journal to take what three companies do and give the impression that it is the big new trend. Yes, a résumé isn’t the perfect way to evaluate a job candidate, but it’s a good start that is easy to access and understand, especially for your technology challenged CEO.

And yes, both the hiring managers and job seekers are buried

Brilliant! I understand that recruiters and HR managers are buried in resumes and I know many job seekers do it wrong by blasting out volumes of poorly written resumes instead of carefully targeting just the jobs they are both qualified for and really want. But the need for the right, well-written, accomplishment-laden resume to open the door for the job seeker has never gone away, especially in the worst economy in 80 years.

One more quote from Mr. Hollen’s article:

Oh, and by the way, that same WSJ story about the expected death of the résumé noted this way down in paragraph 16:

At most companies, résumés are still the first step of the recruiting process, even at supposedly nontraditional places like Google Inc., which hired about 7,000 people in 2011, after receiving some 2 million résumés. Google has an army of “hundreds” of recruiters who actually read every one, says Todd Carlisle, the technology firm’s director of staffing.”

Imagine that. Google still uses old school résumés. I wonder if that has anything to do with how they’re doing?

I stand by my belief that the resume is indeed the foundation of your job search. Just spend some time getting that resume right and then some time actually targeting your job search coupled with a very healthy dose of networking and you will be on your way to a new career!

Stuck in your job search or just ready to move on from your existing position? Julie Walraven can help you find a new career! To find out how, Click here!

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What’s the goal of a job seeker on Twitter?

Your goal should be to build beneficial and productive relationships on Twitter. Hence the word join instead of follow.

Dictionary.com defines follow as:

I don’t know about you but I don’t like that idea. Let’s look at the definition of join:

Stuck in your job search or just ready to move on from your existing position? Julie Walraven can help you find a new career! To find out how, Click here!

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image by Sean MacEntee

I know I sound like a broken record but networking is absolutely key in your job search. The image above is NOT the right way. I’m going to tell you a little client story about when it does work.

The majority of my clients who are hired quickly are hired because they implemented a networking strategy in their job search. I started working with this particular client (we’ll call her Mary) a long time ago and have been her career professional throughout her career from her first positions when she was still in school getting her architectural and residential associates degree in 1997. Mary later went back for her Bachelor’s Degree in Organizational Administration.

Why you need periodic professional resume updates

Periodically, Mary returned as a client for updates to her resume. She strongly believed that the professionally written resume from Design Resumes was key to her success in landing new positions.

We rewrote her resume in December and talked about the life changes she was going through. As a mom, Mary was balancing raising her children with a full time job in a very male-dominated field as a Civil Engineer Technician. We analyzed her accomplishments and redesigned, reformatted, and substantially updated her resume. Take a peak at some of her accomplishments:

• Assigned to the I-52 N/S Corridor, a three-county project valued at $1.9 billion to assist Civil Engineers with design and played a key role in locating utilities to alleviate any potential damage caused by highway changes.
• Designed plans for ALA 52, County NN to ALA 59. Length of project: Six miles (four miles expansion/reconstruction with additional lanes and two miles reconstruction) with a cost of $19.7 million. Type of work: Construction/reconstruction with additional lane, including three roundabouts.

Mary started looking for new positions with her new professional resume and found one at an engineering firm for a Civil Engineering Technician-Senior or Level III. I’ll let her tell the story:

I think I was pretty lucky to get this job, they were not hiring, but I knew someone that worked there and he was pretty high up. I worked with him at the Dept. of Transportation so he did know me…that helps a lot. Plus, I had a great resume…very professional looking and it got my foot in the door:)

My salary is way more than expected…did some research and knew what I was worth, wouldn’t settle for less.

I love networking!! It is crucial now-a-days, more so than ever before. My dad always had a saying and I am sure you have heard it before “It is not what you know, it is who you know.” Both will get you a job though:)

There you have it! Networking success AND a higher salary!

The keys to effective networking in your job search

1. Note that the company not hiring but Mary knew someone who worked there.
2. She had a previous relationship with the person.
3. She contacted him and he helped her.

You need to nurture those relationships. If you just worked with someone without growing a relationship and came back years later and said, I need a job, you are likely to experience rejection. Key to networking is continually nurturing relationships. You give, they give, you give, they give and then at some point when you really need to come to them for help, they are only too happy to help you. I asked Mary this morning if I could share her story with you and she said she was only too happy to help me… and the networking goes on.