Looking great on paper

Do You Stack Up?

Not too long ago, I met a couple friends for dinner. These were girls with whom I had gone to junior high and  high school; we had a great time reminiscing and talking about the “good old days.”  One of these ladies had been working in Iraq for several years and we were glad to have her back in the states now. Our dinner was to celebrate her relocating with her new husband to the other side of the country. While we were sad to see her leave once more, we were glad she was not boarding a flight to the Middle East.

We stopped by a local hangout to just sit and chit-chat before our night ended. We talked about everything from the boys we knew in junior high to trying to manage our own college-aged children. While we were discussing, a “loud-mouth” one table over interrupted our conversation claiming to know more about what we were talking about than we.  It turns out, he was one of the guys we knew from our younger years.   And he hadn’t changed much.  He was still obnoxious and he was still 12 years old.

He told half-truths and out-and-out blatant lies for thirty more minutes before we tried to slip out unnoticed.  He was exactly as we had remembered and we were disappointed.  Some of us have grown up and others never will.  Why is it that many stay trapped in the way they are comfortable and never expand or grow?  Blustering, lying, smirking, berating, and general know-it-all attitude can spoil anyone and then every recipient, as well.

Here’s a twist: How many of us look good on paper?
It will get you in the door, but not your name on it.

Several years ago, I was working on a retained search for a Director of Nutrition with a large health care facility.  The hospital’s influence was far-reaching with several satellite facilities plus rehab centers, health clubs, and nutritional centers.  I was excited about the assignment and identified several candidates within a few weeks who were presented and received with optimism.  The lead candidate was flown in from the other side of the country, invited for an on-site day-long interview process.  I received a call from the VP of HR asking if I had ever seen the candidate – I mean actually laid eyes on him.  . Of course, I hadn’t; it was not an executive-level search and this was pre-Skype.  Where was Green Job Interview when I needed them…

The candidate I sent in was interviewing for a Director of Nutrition. Unfortunately, he weighed about 400 pounds and had trouble getting around the hospital campus, having to stop to catch his breath often and wiping the spittle from the corners of his mouth.  Not the best candidate for a position in nutrition, eh?  He looked great on paper. Regrettably, paper doesn’t hold up under a lot of weight.

Play on words, maybe. But nonetheless, true.

Rayanne Thorn, @ray_anne is the Marketing Director for online recruiting software company, Broadbean Technology.  She is also a proud mother of four, happily engaged to Tom, residing in Laguna Beach, California, and a daily contributor for Blogging4Jobs.  Connect with her on LinkedIn.  

Frustration and Anger

I remember when he called me, frustrated and angry.  He had moved to Southern California from Seattle with dreams of making it big. Don’t they all?  But what he found was an ever-growing pile of debt lying next an even greater pile of heartbreak. Dashed hopes and rising bills.  It looks like heaven, but for him? It certainly felt like hell.

What do you say to someone who has followed all your suggestions, has done his homework, and – and, is a good man…, who just can’t seem to catch a break.  John got a job at the Magic Kingdom within the first few weeks of living in sunny CA.  He was the guy cleaning up after the thousands of daily visitors, and yet, they still called him a Cast Member.

Thriving at the happiest place on earth is a little more difficult than one might think. Especially when you see your dream slip through your fingers one sweep stroke at a time.  He left his ears at the gate after only six months.

John is, first, an actor.  Not your typical actor though, he actually does what a director tells him to do and doesn’t try to give reasons why or blame others for the choices he makes on stage. He just says ok when given direction. OK.  Yes, most actors have dreams of making it big, of surviving auditions, of actually being paid for their craft. There is very little chance of this happening.  It is only slightly more difficult for an astronaut to get a moon gig, than it is for an actor to get a paying gig.  But that gig has not been the focus of his year long job search – he has been looking for a real job.  Anything.

I sat across from John and listened to his dreadful story of student loans, car loans, stacking credit card bills, as he uttered the hushed words of bankruptcy.  Angst bannered his face and without asking for help, he told of what will happen if he is unable to find a job quickly.

It is an all too familiar tale.

LinkedIn, Craigslist, Temp Agencies, Want Ads, Job Boards, Recruiters telling him – Get Lost, and close to thirty interviews later.  No offers.  No jobs.

how can I help?

I jumped in the deep end with him on this one and sent out a “vulnerable” email to my local network. I told his story and vouched for him.  By mid-morning, I had received 10 replies with suggestions and job openings in the area.  And the emails continued to roll in. Like millions of job seekers, his resume makes him look like a job hopper.

Yes, he is struggling. Yes, he is angry…, but I saw it –> a glimmer of hope.  That may just be enough to get him through the next go-round.  Maybe.

Rayanne Thorn, @ray_anne is the Marketing Director for online recruiting software company, Broadbean Technology.  She is also a proud mother of four, happily engaged to Tom, residing in Laguna Beach, California, and a daily contributor for Blogging4Jobs.  Connect with her on LinkedIn.  

Your past is not...

I am waxing nostalgic. What is it about the past that keeps us in it? Or keeps us reverting to it or, sometimes, avoiding it? Do we value it as history and what we can learn from it or is it simply too difficult to let go? From reviewing a résumé to conducting professional reference interviews, we are often drawn to the past and what we can learn from it. There has been a consistent message over the last couple years, that your résumé is dead.

That’s right, I said it. So have many others.  Many people will be offended or want to tear my head off, but I am merely repeating what is already been said.  Again. As a matter of fact, back in 2007, Michael Fiore rang an early death knell with his white paper, “The Traditional Résumé is Dead…” I think I can hear a fugue playing in the background. Fiore states, “As the volume of résumés increases, the quality will not – this is, in my opinion, an inevitable result of human nature. With such a huge volume of incoming résumés and applicants, it will be virtually impossible for humans to physically sort through the number of résumés that will be received.” Oooo, was he foreseeing the future? He then goes on to praise applicant tracking systems. Of course, that was almost five years ago…, oops, there I go digressing to the past, again.

Think of how much technology has altered the state of business over the last five years. Do you use the same tools that you used five or ten years ago? I hope not. When was the last time you actually applied for a job through your own website or someone else’s? Have you tested the process to make sure it is clean, clear, and that an applicant isn’t getting worn out or feeling dejected by the process? How do you review a résumé? Are they a waste of time for you and do you rely more on the phone interview or first on-site? Do you follow the words on the paper, letting only those words guide your gut?

While the title may seem a recruiter revolt, Kristi Daeda concludes her article, Is the Résumé is Dead with, “Until more corporations, and their recruitment systems, embrace the social media revolution, the paper résumé is here to stay.” Well, more corporations are embracing social media.  And a challenge to Daeda’s statement is as simple as applying for a job online…, no paper involved there. Most organizations require a potential candidate to fill out an application online prior to even the first interview.
I once applied for a position that required I give my social security number and bank information before I even spoke to a representative or recruiter. I asked, “Excuse me, do you require all applicants to give this information before you even conduct an interview?”  The idiot manning the application process seemed surprised by my question and said, “Why yes…”  I walked out. Can you blame me? No one had even shook my hand and I barely received a hello before a clipboard was shoved across a messy desk to me. Sounds to me like a death, of sorts. But what is it, exactly, that has died?

I just want to make sure we are grieving the right loss.

“It’s never safe to be nostalgic about something until you’re absolutely certain there’s no chance of its coming back.”~Bill Vaughn

Are civility and manners ringing the same bells as the résumé?

Rayanne Thorn, @ray_anne is the Marketing Director for the online recruiting software company, Broadbean Technology.  She is also a proud mother of four residing in Laguna Beach, California, and a contributor for Blogging4Jobs.  Connect with her on LinkedIn.  

There was a reporter for the local paper who covered the local professional football team and the National Football League. He made a great statement once about mediocrity. He said, “Many years ago, there were 12 National Football League teams and 12 good quarterbacks. Now there are 32 teams and 12 good quarterbacks.” Wow. What a comment on mediocrity.As a job seeker, and I’m sure I speak for almost all job seekers, we tend to downplay recruiters and HR professionals in our job searching lives. We all have had the situation where an executive recruiter never returned our call even after they recruited us for a job opening. It’s so disappointing.

To us, they’ve been mediocre performers.

It’s partially a sign of the times. It seems like nobody returns calls these days. We also have to realize that the executive recruiter works for their clients and not for us.

It seems that there so many recruiters and so few good ones.

Executive Recruiters in a Whole New Light

Quite some time ago, an executive recruiter was helping me to change my resume for a job he had. He gave me a statement which, to this day, is one of my major branding statements and a substantial part of my 30 second speech!

I have had quite a few recruiters contact me and remain interested despite my never quite fitting their opportunities (at least yet). It really is incredible to see their level of interest when so many others won’t even take our calls or respond to our e-mails.

I had an executive recruiter, after hearing about a company that interviewed me rejecting me, go back and make an offer to the company to try to get me hired as a temp with an option to hire so they could see how good I was. That’s innovative thinking!

Advice for Job Seekers

So my advice for job seekers is to network with recruiters. Follow up with them. Keep yourself in their minds as they receive new positions. Make it so they are always thinking of you. I try to let those executive recruiters who have been good to me know every week or two that I am still available for work and am looking. They really appreciate it and it keeps me fresh in their minds.

For me, there has been such a payoff because I have had recruiters remember me and call with opportunities that otherwise may have not been sent to me.

So recruiters can be a great friend to someone looking for a job. No, there aren’t great recruiters on every agency or company team, but if you look some are out there. Find them, stay in touch, treat them well, and good things will happen.

Henry Motyka is a guest blogger for Blogging4Jobs.  His work experience is very eclectic covering fundraising, finance, & consulting.  Plus, he’s an MBA.  Connect with Henry on Twitter @henrymotyka or on LinkedIn.  

Photo Credit Preview-Property. 

A resume will get you through the door, but the interview is what will get you hired.

You might be the BEST at the JOB you are interviewing for, but if you don’t master communicating that in an interview, you may not get the job. Interviewing is a skill that can be learned… here is what you need to know to do it right.

• Apply to the right jobs.  You wouldn’t go on a date with someone who is totally wrong for you, so why would you want to interview for a job that isn’t a good fit? As tempting as it is to go for the highest paying or status jobs you can find, you should really only apply to jobs you know you are qualified for. Also, know what YOU want out of a job. This way you can make sure that the jobs you interview for are ones you actually want and can get.

• Know your stuff – and stop studying for the interview like it’s a test.  An interview is a conversation, not a test. So Don’t try to predict what will be asked. If you are applying to the right jobs, you really DO already know everything you need to know to talk about what you can bring to the job. Do practice a few things you KNOW you want to talk about related to your experience and definitely research the company so you know what they do, but don’t practice canned answers like you are playing a part.

• Answer the question.  Pay attention to what they are telling you during the interview and what questions they are asking. If they ask how much you grew business in Q4 of last year in your current role and you start talking about what you plan to to do when you are hired, it may seem as though you can’t focus on the task at hand. Keep answers focused and to the point and know when to stop talking and just listen – he who talks the most thinks the interview went the best…let it be them!

• Ask what success looks like.  “What are your expectations for the person in this role?”  “What impact are you looking for someone to have?”  Asking them to talk more about what they are looking for not only shows you are serious, it also may give you important clues on how to represent your experience to help them see you are the perfect person for the job.

• Back your answers up with specific examples.  Know your numbers and how to use them… If you are asked what your strategy would be to increase awareness of their brand, be ready to talk about how you might use a similar strategy to that was successful in your current position: that killer ad campaign you launched resulted in 89% growth in profits year over year.  Quantifiable success goes a long way to proving you are more than just talk – you get results.

• Set expectations.  An interview is not a one way conversation…don’t be afraid to ask them questions that will help you both have a clear idea about timelines. Ask them for guidance in terms of when you can hear back, how far along they are in the interview process, and if they have a date in mind by which they need to hire someone.

Also, let them know you plan to follow up – ask them something like “Hey, if I don’t hear from you in 2 weeks, would it be OK if I check in to see how things are going?”
Questions like these help you manage your follow up, and make sure you don’t leave still waiting for the phone to ring two months later or worse..turning into a total stalker.

Wendy Doulton is a guest blogger for Blogging4Jobs.  She’s a corporate headhunter and executive career coach who works in LA.  For more tips, catch the re-airing of her new reality television special called “The Headhuntress” on Bravo TV.  You can also follow Wendy on Twitter at @theheadhuntress or connect with her company, Katalyst Career Group. 

Photo Credit Voice Advantage.

I graduated college on May 15, 2010 with a Bachelor of Business Administration in International Business. I knew before I graduated that it would be hard getting a job. My dad was laid off from his job and it took him six months to find another. He then had that job for six months and got laid off again in which he was unemployed for another six months before finding his current job. Our economy sucks.  That’s a bold statement, but I think there has been a breakdown in communication between the HR world and those applying for jobs. I don’t necessarily blame this on Human Resource professionals because their industry has been affected just as much, if not more than other industries.

I have applied for job after job after job after job to no avail. You send your resume to employers through job sites such as Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, Yahoo Hotjobs, Craigslist (which is a joke), Simply Hired, Snagajob.com, and directly to employers. My experience through these job sites is awful. You spend over an hour filling out ridiculous surveys that employers say really do help, only to find you aren’t qualified for a certain job. That isn’t including perfecting your cover letter for each job and fine-tuning your resume to make it stand out for a certain job. I have learned that it’s not directly HR’s fault most of the time because these are required systems and it costs a lot of money to deviate.

I’m not sure HR professionals really understand the effort and time it takes to fill out these applications. If a job applicant was only applying for their job, I’d understand the time that it takes, but we are filling out 5-10 applications a day. That’s a full time job! I have been told in the past that if an application takes more than an hour to fill out, that I shouldn’t waste my time in completing it. I wish I could afford that luxury, but in reality most people can’t. I spend hours a day filling out these surveys to test if I like to build ships or solve math problems. I think these assessments are jokes nonetheless, but essential if you want to get a job. I€™ve read different job boards and blogs that have broken down the logic of these questions.

I know for a fact that Human Resource specialists and directors have tons of applicants per job, and in doing their job they don’t have time to read and carefully consider every applicant. They brush over your resume in five seconds, when it took you an hour or more to fill out the entire application. There are even more professionals out there that give you opinions on how to make your resume stand out, but there is no logic to it, because everyone differs, there is no one way.

Everyone is frustrated. College graduates who don’t have a job by the time they graduate are told to return to school and get their masters, but what about after their masters? With no experience and a lot of education, you won’t get anywhere. Internships that are paid are few and far between and you usually have to be enrolled in school to obtain one. Once you graduate, you are thrown to the wolves without experience, which means you are less likely to get a job that you want.

If the position makes under 25K, then I’m over qualified. Do HR professionals understand that we all have to start somewhere? There are two sides to the coin, but I think HR professionals usually look at the wrong side. It’s been two months since I graduated college. Those who are looking for jobs explain the process as depressing. I think it could be a lot better if HR professionals were more transparent in the process. I know it’s hard with 100,000 applicants per job, but it’s hard on our end as well applying everyday for months at a time until we hear news. We can show patience if you help us out and if we didn’t get the job, send us an email, anything.

What do you think?  Are HR professionals looking at potential applicants in the wrong manner? Are the job assessments really useful? I would love to hear from previous HR professionals about these assessments and what they tell you about applicants.

Disclaimer: This post is not meant to upset Human Resource professionals because I know your job is just as hard, your budget is being slashed, and you have tons of applicants to few HR Specialists. What I said isn’t anything that I haven’t been told by people who are searching for jobs. It’s a rough process and I believe if there was more communication we would all peacefully co-exist and finding a job wouldn’t be such a long and depressing process.

Blake McCammon, is an intern at Xceptional HR and is also our Gen Y twice monthly blog contributor.  Connect with Blake on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.  Blake is a recent grad of Northeastern State University with a degree in Business Administration.  During school he created and managed his university’s social media strategy while also spearheading the university’s Go Green campaign.

Photo Credit: eWashtenaw