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January 13, 2009

3 Mind Boggling Ironies of the Job Search

Filed under: Job Searching,Motivation — Tags: Job Search, JobTabs, Motivation — admin @ 12:21 am

Think you’re ready for the job search? I’ll bet you’re not. The job search is laden with upside down, mind numbing, ego jolting ironies. Allow me to apprise you of a few.

#1. The more you search the tougher it gets
“Huh? Don’t you mean, ‘The more you do it the easier it gets?'” Nope. That’s why its called an irony. The longer the job search takes, the longer you have been scrutinized, probed on very private matters (annual salary, reason for departure, who are you, etc.), rejected, let down, dead ended, passed over, etc. Ouch. You can’t possibly expect yourself to be as resilient after six months of this as you are in the beginning. Invest in the right tools and resources that will make the journey easier.

#2. Just when you get good at it you have to stop
When you finally get good at identifying opportunities, researching the employers, tailoring your resume, and interviewing – when you have finally mastered all of this – you have to stop. This is because you finally got the job offer you want. Wouldn’t it be great if once we got good at it, we could keep on doing it for a couple more months in case there are hard times ahead? Yes, that would be great but that is not how it works. When you get that job offer, you close the books on any other irons you may have in the fire. You are now among the employed and unless you can work two full time jobs you will have to let other employers know you have accepted a job offer.

#3. Work all day. Get no reward
The job search is a 0% commission proposition. You do not get paid to look for a job. In fact, all of the work expended in the job search is just to have the opportunity to walk into a company for the purpose of reestablishing the work to reward process. Yet, most people will tell you that they work harder at their job search than they do at the job they get paid for. An irony indeed.

What is really creepy is that this is the irony where the head games begin to seep in. Who would otherwise be hard working men and women have trouble getting out of bed. The job search begins to give way to those cob webs in the corner of the room that have for the first time in the past four years become really annoying. And look at the dust in the back of this filing cabinet! The aversion to your computer will be particularly acute, but you won’t know why. And then you won’t care.

The job search is an emotionally taxing endeavor. It is riddled with too many ironies to mention (Did I forget that you have to smile and exude confidence even though you don’t even have a job?) It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you use all of the resources you can so that the transition will never be difficult again.

All of this served as the foundation upon which JobTabs was built. Allow us to show how JobTabs flips some of these ironies.

The more you search the easier it gets
Every time you apply to a job with a perfectly tailored cover letter and resume, you at least have that cover letter and resume to serve you for the next position. I am not talking somewhere on your hard drive, in the newest email application, zipped up files stored on the web or anything like that. I am talking right there in JobTabs in a hierarchical tree so that you can identify exactly how that resume puts your best foot forward for each kind of job. The more jobs you apply to the larger your arsenal of perfectly, tailored resumes becomes. Moreover, the more jobs you apply to the less work you have to do to perfect each resume to the specifics of any new job posting.

When you get good you will be able to begin right where you left off
We believe that if you want to stand on the shoulders of giants, the best shoulders to stand on are your own. Simply put, JobTabs has powerful facilities to create your own personal job search knowledge base. This includes file attachments, hyperlinks and even entire web pages. What’s more every contact and every single conversation you had with everyone along the way is chronologically ordered for your review. You will never forget a child’s name or a contacts favorite vacation destination ever again.

Work all day and get no reward
I would love to tell you that we can pay you while you are looking for a job – I can’t. However, I can assure you that you will get more benefit for the work you expend than you could have ever imagined. I know because I imagined and derived the benefit of that labor for fifteen years. Its your turn now.

Are there any ironies we overlooked? We would love to hear what they are, so please share any ironies we over looked in the comment section below. Thank you!

John Coffey is the President of JobTabs, LLC. Through JobTabs Job Search & Resume Builder, thousands of job seekers have taken control of their destiny in finding new and fulfilling careers. JobTabs Job Search & Resume Builder motivates job seekers by making the job search easier by a huge order of magnitude. John Coffey can be reached via his website at JobTabs Job Search & Resume Builder, by email via jpcoffey at jobtabs.com, and by phone at 404-255-0248.

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January 12, 2009

Billy Mays here with some great tips on getting a job . . .

Filed under: Job Searching,Resume Writing,Sell Yourself — Tags: Career, Employment, Job Search, JobTabs, Resume Writing — admin @ 12:48 am

Billy Mays didn’t write this post, but he serves as the backdrop for resourceful ways to sell yourself on the job search.

There are all kinds of subtleties at play during the process of selling. You need look no further than the ads that abound on CNN and late night TV. Personally, I find these ads demeaning. The sales pitch is so overwhelming it is as if they are focusing on creating a knee jerk reaction on behalf of the user to pick up the phone and buy the product. The most prolific seem to be these ads featuring Billy Mays, the purveyor of

Mighty Mendit
Mighty Putty
HandySwitch
Steam Buddy
and a host of other handy dandy items.

I have studied these ads intently.

What can I glean from these ads that would help the taberatti (people who use JobTabs) land their next job?

Common to all of these sales pitches, whether it is Billy Mays or someone else, is invariably,

“This product is amazing!”
“If you order now I will double/triple the offer!”
“But wait there’s more, I will throw in this handy dandy gizmo absolutely free!”

If you think about it, these are all resourceful ways to sell yourself on the job front. Let’s have a closer look.

This product is amazing! The message is that this is a product that delivers solutions. There are compelling videos of people struggling without their product and then showing satisfied people who are using the product.

Let the value you impart as an excellent candidate be unmistakable. Here is how you do this.

1. Present yourself as a problem solver. Much like the videos, use your resume to paint a picture of problems that were not being solved and how the company was suffering. Then you came in and solved the problems and everybody was happy. This is the P.A.R. (Problem – Action – Results) approach to writing your resume.

2. Quantify the impact you had on the solution. What percentage did sales increase? How many dollars did you save? You don’t have to do a business school case study to get these numbers. Use the best resources available to you and roll with it.

3. Sprinkle the commendations and accolades you have received from management to let the person reading your resume know that you are good at what you do.

Be sure you understand the professional demands of the position you are applying to. There are often challenges faced in one company that have been overcome in another. Be sure that your exposure in the field is rounded enough so as not to disqualify you from consideration. Make an effort to research the company and find out what challenges they are up against. The best thing you can do is put your talent in the context of the specific challenges the company is facing to the best of your ability.

If you order now, I will double the offer. The goal is to create a sense of urgency.

Don’t be afraid to create a sense of urgency. This can be a powerful motivator for employers to give your candidacy serious consideration now. It is important to note that this has to be done with tact. Too urgent could disqualify your candidacy because the administrative process cannot move fast enough. Not urgent enough, will cast doubt on how urgent all of this really is. In your cover letter, you can mention that you are getting a great response from companies looking for your qualifications, but working at XYZ Corp. is the fit you are looking for. Examples,

“The breadth of my hands on experience in the field has garnered more interest from employers than I had initially anticipated given the economic downturn. As much as I appreciate their interest, I firmly believe working at XYZ Corp would be the best fit for me. Simply put, I have the experience to leverage the breadth of the product line to give key advantages to XYZ customers that competing firms cannot offer. As confident as I am that I could deliver results for XYZ, I would not want any delays in the hiring process to impact my candidacy with other employers who are more forthcoming with their interest. If we could meet this Friday . . . “

“My success at delivering results has garnered more interest from employers than I had initially anticipated given the economic downturn. As much as I appreciate their interest, I firmly believe working at XYZ Corp would be the best fit for me. Companies want increased sales and that is what I do best. I would not want any delays in my candidacy for this position to be construed as ambivalence by other employers who are ready to move more quickly. If we could meet this Friday . . . “

“My ability to think outside the box and deliver innovative solutions has garnered more interest from employers than I had anticipated given the economic downturn. As much as I appreciate their interest, I firmly believe I can lend the most value to XYZ Corp. While every company needs structure and deadlines to succeed, XYZ Corp has long had a reputation for fostering innovation and creativity and this is an environment where I thrive. As confident as I am that I could have a huge impact at XYZ, I do not want to put off any employers who have made their interest in my innovation and creativity readily apparent. If we could meet this Friday . . . “

But wait there’s more, I will throw in this handy dandy gizmo – absolutely free! The message is that if you buy this product, you will get more than what you pay for.

We are hardly suggesting that you work for half price. We are suggesting that you stress the extra value you are bringing to the table above and beyond what they are looking for. Remember, it is not incumbent upon the employer to draw the conclusion that you are bringing a lot to the table. For example, if you have a Masters Degree in Management don’t count on your employer saying, “Hey, this candidate has a Master’s degree. This will provide a better foundation for her judgement.” It is incumbent upon you, the job seeker, to tie the extra value you are bringing to the table with what they are looking for. Sell it. For example, in your cover letter for a Product Manager position you can say something like,

“My immersion in Boston University’s M.S. in Management program allowed me to understand organizational behavior and the signposts to look for as a product line evolves. In addition to leading the product team more prudently, I will be set able to set realistic goals as well as avoid pitfalls that have beset lesser companies.”

In closing, getting a job is going to require some level of salesmanship. While we readily discourage the use of any knee-jerk, impulse buy sales tactics, there are some subtleties in this approach that you can use to improve your candidacy for the jobs you apply to. Give your candidacy an edge and sell yourself. Did I miss any other part of the sales pitch? Let me know and I will fill in the gaps!

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January 8, 2009

Resume Writing [4 of 5] – Let them find you.

Filed under: Job Searching,Resume Writing,Sell Yourself — Tags: Career, Employment, Job Search, JobTabs, Resume Writing — admin @ 5:26 pm

If action verbs are the subtleties of selling yourself, nouns are the over-bearing, in-your-face, loud mouths. The right verbs are there to help people see you as an action oriented person. The right nouns are there to help machines see you as a candidate. You need killer nouns to have a winning job search.

Allow us to illustrate. Let’s say someone in HR is looking for a self-starter, capable of working independently for an engineering project. If they typed in “self-starter” and “works independently” they would belabor themselves with sifting through the resumes of every former nursery school teacher, grounds keeper, sous-chef, and Phd candidate who would describe themselves in the same way. However, if they were to use the nouns which would unmistakably confine them to the genre of professional they were looking for – which is exactly what they do – then they would have much more pertinent results.

Nouns that describe job titles work well.
Integrated Circuit (IC) Design Engineer
Quality Assurance Engineer

Nouns that describe constraints work very well.
“. . . in compliance with MIL-STD-9858 and MIL-SPEC-2207.”
“. . . in compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley.”

Nouns that have acronyms as well as the acronym spelled out.
“Designed Printed Circuit Boards (PCB) to modulate . . . .”
“Designed Unmanned Vehicle System (UVS) to explore . . .”

Nouns that describe tools.
“Developed solution using MS Visual Studio C# to . . .”
“Utilized the Fabius GS, and Narkomed 6400 gas machines in operating room . . . .”

Not only do you need killer nouns you need lots of them. Once the search engine finds the keyword it will typically sort resumes in order of relevance. Computers qualify poorly, but quantify magnificently. This means they can’t read, but they can count. Therefore, which ever resume has the highest number of keywords is the most qualified candidate for the search terms. That seems like a pretty inefficient way to find the best person for the job, however that is how it is done and until something better comes along this is the constraint you have to work within.

To make the best of the situation, do what you can to have plenty of the right words in your resume without ruining ease with which it can be read by people. One way to do this is to summarize keywords at the bottom of your employment period with each employer. You can do this by listing the tools you used, the technology you were exposed to, or the constraints you were in compliance with. Again, the emphasis here is to move your resume higher in the search results so that they will look at you more closely. Just make the information you summarize pertinent so as not to bore the reader or waste valuable space where you can sell your accomplishments.

This is a resourceful way of making sure you get enough of the keywords to make you a more relevant candidate. Another way of doing this is to simply have a summary of keywords at the end of your resume for the explicit purpose of making it easy for search engines to find you. Be careful. Some recruiters will strip these lists out under the impression that you are trying to game their system.

In closing, the right nouns are there to raise your visibility. Above all else your resumes need to show you doing your job and doing your job well. The final piece in our five part series is the importance of bringing your resume to life.

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January 7, 2009

Resume Writing [3 of 5] – Put yourself in motion.

Filed under: Job Searching,Resume Writing — Tags: Career, Employment, Job Search, JobTabs, Resume Writing — admin @ 5:23 pm

Action verbs are a key form of salesmanship. You need look no farther than your workshop, pantry or under your kitchen sink to find clear examples.

Pick up a can of WD-40®, a common household lubricant, and you will read, “Stops Squeaks”, “Protects Metal”, “Loosens Rusted Parts”, and “Frees Sticky Mechanisms”.
Pick up a box of Ziploc® sandwich bags and you will read, “Keep your sandwich fresh by…”, “Use sandwich bags to decorate cakes. Fill the bag with icing…”, and “Fill sandwich bags with….”
Pick up almost anything under the kitchen sink and you will read, “Cleans, Disinfects, Polishes, Shines”.

While these products have little to do with each other they all have one thing in common. They define their qualities with proactive verbs at the beginning of the sentence. These are facets of salesmanship that are all around us yet they are so subtle we rarely take notice. JobTabs makes it easy for you to leverage this same form of salesmanship in your resume to convey yourself as a can do candidate.

The JobTabs word processor provides an action verb dialog, shown to the left, which lists powerful action verbs that can put your resume in overdrive. The verbs, with very little duplication, are grouped by nine cross-disciplinary categories which are,

Communication Skills

Creative Skills

Financial Skills

Helping Skills

Management/Leadership Skills

Organizational Skills

Research Skills

Teaching Skills

Technical Skills

What makes this collection of verbs so special is that they are ideally suited to resumes. Specifically, they are proactive, positive verbs that can easily be understood. What’s more is the verbs can be used across many disciplines. For example, just because you are in the financial services industry doesn’t mean that you have to confine your choice of verbs to the Financial Skills category. No doubt there were times when you had to help others, be creative, or use your analytical skills to solve a technical problem. You can pull action verbs from the respective categories to help you qualify your accomplishments.

For what its worth, we were surprised by the appalling quality of action verbs offered by competing products on the web. They offered a large number of verbs, but didn’t seem to have done anything to make sure they were resume grade, top quality verbs. For example, one product offered “Abandoned” in their list of action verbs. What proactive, can-do person would ever abandon anything? A proactive, can-do person would have,

“Optimized resources which increased profitability by 8%.”
“Reprioritized projects to maximize productivity, by…”

Optimizing and reprioritizing imply that something had to put in the back seat or possibly abandoned altogether, but you would never openly state that you abandoned anything. Always apply discretion to anything you put on your resume or seek the guidance of someone who can help you.

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January 6, 2009

Resume Writing [2 of 5] – Be Relevant

Filed under: Job Searching,Resume Writing — Tags: Career, Employment, Job Search, JobTabs, Resume Writing — admin @ 5:10 pm

Employers are interested in the value you can impart to their enterprise. As hard earned as your experience may be, they really don’t want to sort through your career looking for the nuggets they need to bring you in for an interview. There are typically so many applicants that they don’t have time to read anything that is not immediately pertinent to the position they are trying to fill.

Consider also, that typically the employing managers were not hired to screen and bring in new applicants as an end unto itself. They were hired to manage a team to accomplish something on behalf of the company. While they know that hiring the right people is very important, managers are still likely to regard the process as an administrative burden.

Your resume needs to cut to the chase and instill confidence from the get go. The employing managers would really like to get back to work with as much peace of mind as you can give them.

Let’s say we have an auto mechanic who excels at working on transmissions. He is applying to a job at the Mercedes dealership for a Transmission Specialist. Let’s consider the bullet points he could use to sell himself. First read the bullet points below in their entirety, then read them again. They do an adequate job of presenting his skills.

Transmission Specialist – Original Bullets

Successfully repaired transmissions of domestic and foreign manufacturers.
Generated additional business by calling customers with vehicles on recall and offering to do the repairs.
Conducted training seminars on BMW transmissions to the local BMW Enthusiasts club.
Received training from a wide range of vendors on the particulars of their products to include body repair, power train products to tire balancing.
Repaired alternators for Range Rovers by learning to read complex wiring diagrams specific to Range Rovers.
Completed all work within the allotted man-hour requirements of the company 97% of the time.
Completed advanced transmission instruction at DeVry Technical College.

Now read the bullet points he is using now that he is using JobTabs.

Transmission Specialist – JobTabs Bullets

Successfully repaired transmissions of Mercedes, Porsche, BMW, Volkswagen, and Audi among others.
Participated in the fuel pump replacement recall for the Daimler 123SE.
Conducted training seminars on BMW transmissions to the local BMW Enthusiasts club.
Received training from Bosch on the specifics of clutch degradation and the materials manufactured by Bosch to prolong clutch life.
Completed training from Heinrichs GMBH on the variations of transmission fluids and the considerations for using each type.
Completed all work within the allotted man-hour requirements of the company 97% of the time.
Completed instruction on the new Advanced Overdrive Technology pioneered by Daimler Chrysler in an advanced transmission training class at DeVry Technical College.

As an aside, the reference to Porsche, BMW, Volkswagen and Audi among others adds value of the mechanic’s experience. The nature of automobile manufacturing is very nepotistic in that manufacturers on each continent by and large procure from manufacturers on that continent. Just as US automakers procure from US manufacturers, the European automakers procure from each other, e.g. it is unlikely any of these manufacturers procure spark plugs from any other source other than Bosch.

The JobTabs bullets differ from the original resume on several considerations. The JobTabs bullets intimate the mechanic to the needs of the Mercedes automobile. While the mechanic is not misrepresenting himself on either resume, on the JobTabs resume he is clearly intimating himself to all things Mercedes and downplaying a connection to anything else. By doing so, he is much more likely to appear as a Mercedes transmission expert. Clearly gone is any reference to Range Rover wiring diagrams. Instead of generalizing the training he has received from vehicle suppliers, he clearly specifies the training he has received related to transmissions or from European suppliers. Even the advanced training class he took is skewed to the demands of his prospective employer.

One of the best articles I have ever read on the importance of tailoring your resume is,

Don’t Make Them Think! from the job-hunt.org web site.

Author Susan Joyce, admonishes job seekers to not make them remember as well. I agree!

This job candidate has an edge. He has worked smarter – not harder. The organizational chaos that would usually result from this level of detail is nonexistent. If this job application doesn’t materialize, at the very least he certainly has a new arrow in his quiver with which he can use to easily qualify himself for new opportunities. To illustrate, if the Volkswagen dealership began canvassing for a new Transmission Specialist how many bullet points would need to be modified to make our applicant an ideal candidate? Only two,

Participated in the fuel pump replacement recall for the Daimler 123SE.
Completed instruction on the new Advanced Overdrive Technology pioneered by Daimler Chrysler in an advanced transmission training class at DeVry Technical College.

While the mechanic would have to draw from his experience with Volkswagen automobiles to intimate himself to the Volkswagen job requisition, even these two bullet points are not too far off from what Volkswagen might want. As we have stated and will continue to state, the more you qualify yourself for new opportunities the easier it will be to qualify yourself for subsequent opportunities. At the risk of being very bold, the job search will actually be fun.

Creating a slew of resumes this specific and being able to readily gather and sell the gist of the resume, would normally be untenable without a tool. While anyone can start out extremely organized, eventually the labor of maintaining that level of oversight for a prolonged period is simply too taxing. Invest in a tool to help you with your job search – the other people competing for the interview already have.

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