As job search coaches, my colleagues and I are experts at helping clients plan and implement their job searches. We teach about social search (leveraging social media), Web 2.0 networking, the Direct Approach, uses of job boards, how to work with recruiters, email and direct mail campaigns etc.
The only trouble is ... sometimes the very nature of job search can cause people to feel uncertain, not in control, anxious, vulnerable, over-eager, even desperate. And these feelings tend to undermine both the activities of job search and interviewing.
To complicate matters, clients frequently are dealing with feelings related to short- or long-term unemployment or sudden termination due to company changes beyond their control (mergers, acquisitions, natural disasters like Sandy, a shift in the company's strategic priorities) or complications such as personnel conflicts or perceived non-performance.
The inevitable emotions that accompany any of these circumstances need to be acknowledged, validated and processed so that they don't creep into your voice, body language or job search effort. Talk to a friend, or get short-term counseling if you need to.
Even if you have a solid position of employment and are just looking around, you will most likely experience a degree of tension about being assessed or judged by hiring authorities or recruiters as they consider you for opportunities.
So, stress, anxiety, self-doubt are often unwelcome guests at the job search party.
This is where some radical healing is needed. This is where some simple Buddhist practices can change your stress into calmness, anxiety into serenity, self-doubt into confidence. Practicing the following breathing exercises as presented by Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh can transform the way you go about your job search.
Try saying these to yourself, a couple of times a day, breathing deeply in and out, as you go about your job search. Picture yourself in your mind's eye as a flower, mountain, still waters, space and as a living being and internalize the helpful feelings that accompany those pictures.
Breathing in I see myself as a flower, breathing out I feel fresh
Breathing in I see myself as a mountain, breathing out I feel solid
Breathing in I see myself as still waters, breathing out I feel calm
Breathing in I see myself as space, breathing out I feel free
Breathing in I am alive, breathing out I smile to myself
Thich says, "The best way to take care of the future is to take care of the present - that is the only thing you can do."
Try these practices and see if your job search doesn't start to feel more purposeful and skillful. You may find that you feel more serene as you go about your job search activities, secure in your own unique value in the world and focused on the things you can do in the present, knowing that they will lead to a future that will be good for you.
Image attribution: fastcodesign
Cross-posted on Jean Cummings' blog http://www.aResumeForToday.com/high-tech-resumes/
As job search coaches, my colleagues and I are experts at helping clients plan and implement their job searches. We teach about social search (leveraging social media), Web 2.0 networking, the Direct Approach, uses of job boards, how to work with recruiters, email and direct mail campaigns etc.
The only trouble is ... sometimes the very nature of job search can cause people to feel uncertain, not in control, anxious, vulnerable, over-eager, even desperate. And these feelings tend to undermine both the activities of job search and interviewing.
To complicate matters, clients frequently are dealing with feelings related to short- or long-term unemployment or sudden termination due to company changes beyond their control (mergers, acquisitions, natural disasters like Sandy, a shift in the company's strategic priorities) or complications such as personnel conflicts or perceived non-performance.
The inevitable emotions that accompany any of these circumstances need to be acknowledged, validated and processed so that they don't creep into your voice, body language or job search effort. Talk to a friend, or get short-term counseling if you need to.
Even if you have a solid position of employment and are just looking around, you will most likely experience a degree of tension about being assessed or judged by hiring authorities or recruiters as they consider you for opportunities.
So, stress, anxiety, self-doubt are often unwelcome guests at the job search party.
This is where some radical healing is needed. This is where some simple Buddhist practices can change your stress into calmness, anxiety into serenity, self-doubt into confidence. Practicing the following breathing exercises as presented by Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh can transform the way you go about your job search.
Try saying these to yourself, a couple of times a day, breathing deeply in and out, as you go about your job search. Picture yourself in your mind's eye as a flower, mountain, still waters, space and as a living being and internalize the helpful feelings that accompany those pictures.
Breathing in I see myself as a flower, breathing out I feel fresh
Breathing in I see myself as a mountain, breathing out I feel solid
Breathing in I see myself as still waters, breathing out I feel calm
Breathing in I see myself as space, breathing out I feel free
Breathing in I am alive, breathing out I smile to myself
Thich says, "The best way to take care of the future is to take care of the present - that is the only thing you can do."
Try these practices and see if your job search doesn't start to feel more purposeful and skillful. You may find that you feel more serene as you go about your job search activities, secure in your own unique value in the world and focused on the things you can do in the present, knowing that they will lead to a future that will be good for you.
Your resume makes an immediate first impression on your audience.
If your resume gets past automated pre-screening, your human audience reacts to your personal brand in two immediate ways. In the first 6 seconds of a visual review, your reader decides if you’re qualified or not based on gut feel (based on TheLadders recent heat mapping study). How could they have time for anything else in 6 seconds? Next, in the first 15 seconds, your audience decides if you’ll get an interview or not by a quick scan of what’s on your reader’s screen.
Because both decisions are made so quickly, they aren’t made on fact. These decisions are completely based on your reader’s perception, developed in less time than you’ve spent reading this short paragraph. So managing your resume’s personal brand is critical to passing both hurdles.
Unfortunately, our backgrounds, traditions, rules of thumb and intuitions about writing a resume were developed around paper resumes, not resumes read on screen (yes, even today, for you recent grads).
This is why most candidates have a rough time communicating a personal brand. In the past, your personal brand was the entire first page of your resume and that’s still pretty much what’s taught today. However, in today’s job market, recruiters, HR reps and hiring managers review resumes on screen, limiting the portion of your resume that’s seen in 15 seconds.
Most candidates try to communicate their personal brand in a way that ends up being clear as mud. It’s not intentional, but it’s difficult to brand yourself in 6 or even 15 seconds, when you’ve been taught that you’ve got the whole first page to do it?
The result most candidates use is to write summary sections, core skills tables, selected accomplishments that take up much of the first page. Most candidates try to stuff so much into their personal brand, trying to be all things to all people.
This creates an extremely confusing personal brand, often resulting in the appearance of a jack-of-all-trades/master of none with shallow knowledge in many different areas, but deep knowledge in none. Why would an employer hire you for many shallow areas of thin knowledge – that’s what Google is for and it’s free.
This type of confusion often makes it difficult for your audience to tell which job you’re applying for. How can they judge that you’ll be a superior candidate when they can’t see which job you want?
Be crystal clear.
One good way to get past the 6 second and 15 second pre-screen is to make an easy decision for your reader. By making it easier for them to see you’re qualified and superior you increase the odds that you’ll win the interview.
What Job? First, you’ll want your audience to clearly see which job you’re applying for. For example, listing a resume title (or objective) of Manufacturing Executive is so broad that no one can tell what job you’re applying for or what level you think is a fit. Instead, list the actual title of the specific job from the specific company that you’re applying for. Why make your reader’s guess?
What makes you superior? you need to explain exactly why you’re a superior candidate. Most candidates bury the reason they are a superior candidate for a specific job in the middle of many other skills, because they don’t know what’s truly important to the hiring manager. If you don’t know what’s important to a specific hiring manager before you send a resume, you guess (odds are you’re guessing wrong) or you scattershot (trying to hit the hiring manager’s needs somewhere within 50 or more key skills). Even if you’ve included the hiring manager’s needs within this list, how do you think it will be found in a 15 second scan?
Hiring manager’s priorities: If you first understand the hiring manager’s top 1 or 2 problems and priorities, you can brand yourself as having already solved similar problems – a very clear way to brand yourself as a superior candidate. So if a hiring manager is trying to cut costs, you might brand yourself as being an expert in cost cutting (if you’re in purchasing or finance) or process improvement (if you’re in manufacturing or IT).
Go take a cold, hard look at your own resume.
Is your resume like most of the others out there? Is it a deluge of information, hoping the reader picks up what’s important in a quick scan? Are you branding yourself through a mass of information, using a shotgun approach, assuming the reader will make interview decisions by reading every word of an entire page in detail? Are you guessing what’s important to your reader?
Or is your personal brand crystal clear to your reader? Can they see (in an instant) the exact job you’re applying for, that you’re a superior candidate and that you can help the hiring manager with his/her priorities?
Author:
Phil Rosenberg is President of http://www.reCareered.com, a leading job search information website and gives complimentary job search webinars at http://ResumeWebinar.com. Phil also runs the Career Central group, one of Linkedin’s largest groups for job seekers and has built one of the 20 largest personal networks on Linkedin globally.
The email is often the first point of contact between you and a perspective employer, and can solely determine whether or not you are considered for the position. Below are some tips to help you get the most out of your initial emails.
Before You Email, Connect
Recruiters get hundreds of emails for a single job opening, so you need to make sure your email stands out from the rest.
To get noticed, first ask yourself, “How can I connect with the recruiter besides just sending an email?”
Well, a great place to start is to use Simply Hired’s Who Do I Know? feature. Log into LinkedIn via Simply Hired’s search result page and check to see if you have any connections at the company. If you have a connection, either reach out to this person directly for a referral to the position of interest or request an introduction.
If you don’t have a connection at the company, consider searching for a new connection at the company on LinkedIn. You can also look for the recruiter on Twitter and introduce yourself. The point is, use whatever means you have to ensure the recruiter recognizes your name and looks over your application.
Composing the Email
When it comes to actually sending your email there are a few things to keep in mind:
Send Emails from a Professional Address - No HotGURL22@yahoo.com or Cowboysfootballfan99@comcast.net. The simple name.number@isp.com works best.
Craft an Attention Grabbing Subject Line - Avoid simple subjects like Sarah’s Resume or Jeff’s Application for Employment. Include the title of the position you’re applying for and any kind of credentials you have that set you apart from the pack.
Remember, the subject line contains the only 50 characters the recruiter or hiring manager is guaranteed to see, so make them count!
Personalize! Personalize! Personalize! - Forget the cut and paste cover letters or templates with a few substituted keywords (if you forget to update the company’s name in your template, that’s a sure-fire way for your email to get deleted right away). The last thing you want is for the recruiter to think you only put a template’s worth of effort into applying. This email is your cover letter, so customize your email to show how you meet the requirements laid out in the job description, whether that’s specific experience, skills or credentials. And don’t be afraid to show a bit of personality to stick out from the other candidates!
Be Courteous and Polite – Your mother was right -- manners always have and always will go a long way. So make sure you include a greeting and introduce yourself at the start of you email. Likewise, include a thank you and a salutation (Best, Sincerely, etc.) at the end.
Be Precise – Make your email concise and engaging -- many recruiters/hiring managers only briefly scan your cover letter for a few seconds, or a minute or two if you’re lucky. Include the most impressive information first so they are more likely to read it and add the more standard stuff towards the end. If they list specific requirements, or if they ask any questions, include that information first, more general information can go at the end. Throughout the email be sure to compose short concise paragraphs or even bullet points, rather than giant blocks of text.
Proofread – Whether in an email, a resume, or any other correspondence, you don’t want to be dismissed as a candidate because you misused the semicolon or used the wrong there/their/they’re. Check your work. When you’re done proofreading your email, proofread it again or have someone else look at it. Remember that once you send the email, it is set in stone!
Keep these tips in mind to ensure that your emails will catch the eye of those hiring managers and recruiters and you will land that first interview.
The email is often the first point of contact between you and a perspective employer, and can solely determine whether or not you are considered for the position. Below are some tips to help you get the most out of your initial emails.
Before You Email, Connect
Recruiters get hundreds of emails for a single job opening, so you need to make sure your email stands out from the rest.
To get noticed, first ask yourself, “How can I connect with the recruiter besides just sending an email?”
Well, a great place to start is to use Simply Hired’s Who Do I Know? feature. Log into LinkedIn via Simply Hired’s search result page and check to see if you have any connections at the company. If you have a connection, either reach out to this person directly for a referral to the position of interest or request an introduction.
If you don’t have a connection at the company, consider searching for a new connection at the company on LinkedIn. You can also look for the recruiter on Twitter and introduce yourself. The point is, use whatever means you have to ensure the recruiter recognizes your name and looks over your application.
Composing the Email
When it comes to actually sending your email there are a few things to keep in mind:
Send Emails from a Professional Address - No HotGURL22@yahoo.com or Cowboysfootballfan99@comcast.net. The simple name.number@isp.com works best.
Craft an Attention Grabbing Subject Line - Avoid simple subjects like Sarah’s Resume or Jeff’s Application for Employment. Include the title of the position you’re applying for and any kind of credentials you have that set you apart from the pack.
Remember, the subject line contains the only 50 characters the recruiter or hiring manager is guaranteed to see, so make them count!
Personalize! Personalize! Personalize! - Forget the cut and paste cover letters or templates with a few substituted keywords (if you forget to update the company’s name in your template, that’s a sure-fire way for your email to get deleted right away). The last thing you want is for the recruiter to think you only put a template’s worth of effort into applying. This email is your cover letter, so customize your email to show how you meet the requirements laid out in the job description, whether that’s specific experience, skills or credentials. And don’t be afraid to show a bit of personality to stick out from the other candidates!
Be Courteous and Polite – Your mother was right -- manners always have and always will go a long way. So make sure you include a greeting and introduce yourself at the start of you email. Likewise, include a thank you and a salutation (Best, Sincerely, etc.) at the end.
Be Precise – Make your email concise and engaging -- many recruiters/hiring managers only briefly scan your cover letter for a few seconds, or a minute or two if you’re lucky. Include the most impressive information first so they are more likely to read it and add the more standard stuff towards the end. If they list specific requirements, or if they ask any questions, include that information first, more general information can go at the end. Throughout the email be sure to compose short concise paragraphs or even bullet points, rather than giant blocks of text.
Proofread – Whether in an email, a resume, or any other correspondence, you don’t want to be dismissed as a candidate because you misused the semicolon or used the wrong there/their/they’re. Check your work. When you’re done proofreading your email, proofread it again or have someone else look at it. Remember that once you send the email, it is set in stone!
Keep these tips in mind to ensure that your emails will catch the eye of those hiring managers and recruiters and you will land that first interview.
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Unfortunately, our backgrounds, traditions, rules of thumb and intuitions about writing a resume were developed around paper resumes, not resumes read on screen (yes, even today, for you recent grads).
Search Millions of Jobs: Follow Us!
