How Not to Blow an Interview…

Well I guess I umm, well I did some stuff for this guy at ABC Technical for a while, mostly the same stuff the other network guys did…

I think I would hirer this guy right then and there. He is exactly what I need IF I am opening a new government office. All joking aside, after three initial interviews this week I am reminded of the importance a first impression has. Walk in with confidence, not over-confidence. Be polite but not too polite. Answer the interviewer’s question and back your answer with experience. Always have a good handle on what you know, what is on your resume, and how you have handled situations in the past. I find that when you have a interview coming up, it is best to sit down and write out as many questions as I can think of that an interviewer might ask. Then I write out the answers to those questions. Then I rehearse those answers until I can recite them in my sleep. I realize that the interviewer is not going to have MY questions in front of him, however, if I know my job well enough I should be able to guess at least 30% dead-on, get close on 30%, and should be in the ballpark on the last 30%. So with the answers I have rehearsed I should be able to sound like I am what I am, an expert in my field. This way also I don’t stutter or umm to much and it shows that I am in command of my knowledge, background, and experience.

Just remember that this is sales! (I know, I know, ma he said the s#@$% word again.) Sales, marketing, networking, sales… this is what we do as job seekers. Any successful sales person will tell you that knowing their product (your background, skills and experience), understanding the needs of the customer ( job requirements, skills sets, company background), and how their product will benefit the customer (do I need to explain this one?), along with their own confidence in themselves and their product is better than 2/3 of closing the sale. So practice, understand your product and go sale it!

Getting pissy about resume writers…

I have to stop for a minute and talk about resume writing services. When you are trying to select a resume writing service, keep in mind a few things:

Many resume writers have never been in HR or worked in a position as a hiring manager.

It is likely that they do not have more than a high school education.

Most have no formal training in career consulting or resume creation.

There are many companies that will set a person up in business as a resume writer. For a couple hundred dollars, you can get the templates and pre-written ads to place on Craig’s List or in the paper. I found twenty plus of this type of offer with one Google search.

With the current upswing in lay-offs and downswing in the economy there will be more and more “resume writers” out there that are doing shoddy work and taking advantage of job seekers.

I am not saying that you should not hire a service to produce a top quality resume and cover letter. If you are not familiar with hiring practices and writing documents such as these, by all means, hire someone to do it for you. But, make sure that the person you hire is a skilled professional. Someone familiar with hiring practices and methods. A person with a management background that includes hiring at many different levels and in many different fields of expertise is always good as well. Finally, someone who can provide you with samples of their writing style. You wouldn’t hire a caterer without tasting their food, would you?

In my years as a hiring manager, I have seen many resumes and can tell you which were written by people who knew what they were doing and those that were not. Let me tell you, a quality resume and cover letter makes a huge difference.

Here Comes Monday again. Are you ready?

Last week was a real bummer for me. I sent out about twenty resumes, drove about 500 miles, knocked on about thirty doors and applied for six entry level positions. Have I gotten any interviews? Not yet, but I will. Why, you ask. Simple, because I refuse to give up. Last week was more about identifying companies that are hiring more that applying for jobs. Yes, getting my resume in to these companies is important. It needs to be there for the next phase of my marketing plan. (Remember, this is all sales. A good salesman always has a marketing plan, it is his roadmap to success.) See, I keep notes on all the companies I visited, sent resumes to, applied at, or walked into. I look at it this way, I can leave it to fate that the hiring manager gets far enough down the stack of resumes sitting on his desk that he sees mine. But I am going be honest with you, if the stack gets to big, at least half of those resumes are going into the circular file without ever a glance. Believe me that this happens all the time. Managers have many things on their plates, reading resumes is the last thing a manager wants to do. So that manager is going to minimize this task as best he can. My job is to make sure that I am in the half that stays on his desk, preferably in the top three or four resumes.

How do I do it?

I could tell you all my secrets, but then I would have to kill you. OK, not really. Honestly, the last time I told someone that they needed to write letters and make phone calls to the hiring managers that had their resumes, two guys in black suits showed up and he has not been heard or seen since. When I told someone to drop off a short letter to the hiring manager at a company saying I know you have my resume but did you know I did this or that for this company or that, she was seen being dragged into a SWAT van and sent to a re-education camp in Cuba. So, I really can’t explain to you how I do this or what I will be doing this week. You can guess all you want, but I won’t tell you that I will be writing letters and making calls to keep my name and resume at the top of the short stack.

A Quick Note on Resumes and Language

I was at a networking group today. (See, there is that word again!) Afterwards I was talking with one of the ladies in the group. We were discussing her resume and cover letter. Always be positive in the language that you use in both your resume and cover letter. Never use words that are wishy-washy. Phrases like “I guess” or “I think” are not to be used. Be strong and firm, you are damn good at what you do and should not be afraid to say it. Remember, these are your marketing (advertising) tools, make them work for you, not against you.

WAN or LAN?

Thank you to Steve Fehl at PPWFC for the title of tonight’s post.

WAN or LAN? All the IT guys out there first think of these two acronyms when you talk to them about networking.  WAN stands for Wide Area Network and LAN, Local Area Network.  In my job search I work on both my WAN and my LAN. Lets start by talking a little about the later.

My LAN.

Wait a minute Bailey, I’m not here to learn about computers and such!

Not computer networks. Go back two post an re-familiarize yourself with networking as it pertains a job search.

My LAN is comprised of people that I know and know me. These are people that I can approach in a “social” situation. The people I have “face time” with on a regular basis. These are the people that I can comfortably ask for a referral into a company or for a reference as needed. They can also be former co-workers, supervisors or past employers. The main thing is that they are first or second level contacts. These are people that know me well.

My WAN is comprised of business contacts, former customers, and people I have come in contact with in many different aspects of my search or life. Everyone I meet and have the opportunity to get contact information from becomes a part of my WAN. Do not be afraid to ask someone for their business card, everyone you meet is a potential position or referral. My WAN is also comprised of contacts I have made through the many social networking sites on the internet. Remember theses sites are a gold mine for job seekers. Where else can you come in contact with thousands of people who are potential employers or referrals.

Networking, networking, networking! I cannot stress this enough, networking is the singular most important skill you can have as a job seeker. If you can’t get out there and talk to people, you have already lost ground to those who can. If you don’t know how to talk to people,find a networking group somewhere near you and join it. They will help to bring you out of your shell.

Jumpstart your resume.

I have one, you have one, anyone who has ever held a professional position has one, and we all hate them, right?  Wrong, while most people are never satisfied with their resume, I truly like mine.  But, I’ve spent 7 years and many dollars developing a resume that not only represents me extremely well, it also serves me well. What do I mean, serves? My resume is designed to be parsed by a database and/or search engine and feed back exactly the results that I want. I worked for a search engine and datamining company as the Professional Services Manager for several years. In that capacity I learned how to optimize websites, documents, and data for searchability. When I post my resume to Dice, Monster, Career Builder, etc… I have the utmost confidence that when a hiring manager or recruiter searches for someone with my experience or background, my resume is going to come up in the top group.

Don’t let anyone tell you that your resume has to be a certain font size or number of pages. Font size doesn’t matter, nor does the number of pages.  Write as many pages as you need to properly cover your background and experience properly. I would suggest that you try to keep it under two pages, but it not a necessity. Topics you need to cover would be your objective, background, expertise, and experience. Be clear and concise in your descriptions and keynotes. You should put in as much of your background as you can, but the past 7 years or 3-4 jobs is all you need. Use a format that is comfortable to you.

Overall remember one thing, keep it simple stupid.

Next…

Did you do your home work? In today’s economy, few companies are hiring. However, there are companies hiring. If you did your home work you found there are a lot of companies hiring. You also saw their advertised positions.  Understand that those are just the advertised positions, many of those companies have un-advertised or in-house positions as well. To get to those positions, you have to have the right marketing materials and do a lot of homework. It can take me up to two months to find out about inside positions in a company, but I can do it. I could give you a description and lessons on how to do it (and if enough people request it, I might consider doing a seminar or something).What I can tell you quickly is get on to as many of the professional and personal networking websites as you can. Build a neat and clean profile and connect with as many people in your industry as you can. It is important that you keep a tight grip on your profile, it is your ad to the hiring managers. That is the 10 cent version of one of the marketing tools I use, I have many more methods I use to market myself and have taught some of my friends.

Wait a minute, marketing, networking, ads; that sounds a lot like sales, Mike! I’m not in sales, I don’t want to be in sales!

Guess what, you are now. Looking for a job is one of the toughest sales jobs in the world. I’ve worked both sides of the coin, hiring manager and recruiter.  Sales, sales, and more sales. It’s all sales. Understand that it is sales and you are selling your skills and experience. Trust me, it’s not so bad. really.

BTW, how current is your resume and how well does it represent you?

Hmmmmmmmmm…

How to Begin…

Beginning a job search is never easy. Most people have a hard time coming to terms with the fact that they are now embarking on one of the hardest journeys that they could ever take. So let’s get a few things out in the open from the start: first, you are now in an elite group of people who are unemployed; second, you have a new job – finding a new position or career; and third, job hunting is a FULL TIME JOB! Realize these three things now, because the sooner you realize them, the sooner you can get down to business.

So….

What do I do now?

You need a workspace. Set up an office where you can go to “work”. You will need internet access, a phone, and a fax. This should also be a place where you can work with as few distractions as possible. Remember, this is a job, treat it as such.

I have my office set up, what’s next?

Now it is time to get down to business.

Yea! Who do I call to get a job?

Whoa! Slow down. Slow way down. If were that easy we would all be employed tomorrow.

Let’s start by hitting the job boards. Take a browse through Monster.com and Careerbuilder.com. Don’t put in a search phrase, just a zip code or city and state. Go through these ads, spend time on this step, it is very important. Read the job descriptions for the listed positions. Don’t just read the ones that have titles that are interesting to you, read many different ones. This gives you insight into the minds of the hiring managers. What are they looking for and how can you get their attention. This is a very important step. Tomorrow I will explain how to use this information.

The Search Begins…

The economy is getting worse; more layoffs to come; corporate shut-downs are inevitable and I’m looking for a position where I can help a company expand or develop their customer service, sales, or technical support organization. Am I an optimist or crazy? My business folded, another victim of the poor economy and imploding housing market. I have excellent business knowledge but horrible timing. Such is life. So tonight I begin the journey of the job seeker. I invite you to come along as I search. During the next few weeks I will be posting the methods, websites, and tricks of the trade that I use to try and find a position (and maybe a little advise). Looking for a job is the same now as it was years ago, the only difference now is that you have to be prepared to go at it a little longer. So polish up the resume, get comfortable in your chair, hold on, here we go………

Round and round we go...

Have you ever tried to do something you know how to do only to be told by someone that you can not do what you are doing unless you know how to do it?

Read it again, think about it.

See, the sentence makes sense by being confusing.

You see how absurd that statement is. But it is true. In my job search I have found many positions that I am qualified for that I can't get hired for. You see you can't get a job without a security clearance, but you have to have get a job to get a security clearance. Silly isn't it?

Sing,Sing,Sing

Starting a new year, a new chapter in everyday life, a new blog. Last year was most interesting in the terms of an ancient Chinese curse. By the looks of things this year may be better or it may end up in the crapper. If I were a meteorologist, I would give this year equal chances of being better, the same or worse than last year. Like them, I am certain to be at least partially right. I am not a whiner nor will this blog be a lot of whining. What it will be is a comedy of errors, a constant companion to a dad trying to make due for his family, a daily recount of how life is comedy no matter how it try's to keep you down. So here we go. A great man once said "All things start at the same place...the beginning."