Tips & Trends

A client recently asked me to help her navigate an online job application because she was quite frustrated with the site’s Applicant Tracking System.  I figured it was due to her technical skills and the system itself wasn’t the problem.  Wow.  More than an hour later we were still struggling to get her information into all the appropriate boxes, figure out if there was a spot to upload a Word or PDF document and determine if she had actually submitted her application.  It was eye-opening to say the least.

Many companies have implemented Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) for employment applications.  Candidate information is uploaded into a searchable database and is presented more uniformly for the employer.  However, for the applicant, each system is different, requiring re-completion of the same information in multiple and different formats.  The “parsing” process, by which a resume is uploaded and fields within the system database are auto-populated, is fickle and sometimes results in the need to manually fill out every data field.  After painstakingly completing the data upload process, job seekers often receive only an automated reply and then hear nothing else from the company.  Discouraging to say the least.

I unfortunately don’t have an easy answer to the ATS process; it can be cumbersome, but is necessary in today’s employment market.  What I can offer is a few suggestions that I hope might save some time here and there.

• Create a Plain Text file format of your resume.  For Microsoft Word, this means selecting Save As and choosing Plain Text as the Save As Type.  This will remove all formatting from your resume.  You’ll then want to “clean up” the document – fix spacing, add capital letters to differentiate sections, in general make sure everything is in the right place.  For systems that remove formatting, preparing this in advance will save you from having to reformat your resume within the ATS.
• For systems that parse from an uploaded document, prepare a Plain Text version (see above) without a career summary, areas of expertise and other introductory sections.  These sections can confuse the ATS system and muddle the conversion process and placement of your information.
• A minor time-saving suggestion is to have a hard copy of your resume printed out for reference, particularly while filling out dates and other details.  Unless you have duplicate computer screens, it is easier to go back and forth verifying dates, job titles and the like from paper to screen.
• Some systems only have one place to upload an attachment, and don’t provide a separate place for a cover letter (or other secondary documents).  If you have a letter to include (and I recommend only using a cover letter if it’s well written), save both your resume and letter into one file.  The easiest way to do this is to place the cursor just before your name on your resume at the top of the page and create a page break (Control + Enter in Word on Windows).  Then copy/paste your cover letter text to the blank first page.  Warning: if you have a header on the second page of your resume with Name, page 2, you’ll need to modify that within the Header & Footer Design tab in Word.  Select “Different First Page” and “Different Odd and Even Pages”.  That will allow you to have Name, page 2 of your resume, which is really page 3 of your document.  (I realize this is quite confusing; please feel free to contact me and I can walk you through it).

While completing an ATS is sometimes painstaking, it is a necessary step in the process. You’ll need diligence, savvy and above all patience; please let me know how I can help.

My best until next time,

Margie

I started this topic last month, but considering how broad a discussion it is, I broke it into 2 posts – so here is part 2.

We left off with the idea of networking, and building on that, below are some thoughts about increasing your network, and other next steps when contemplating a career move.

Join a Professional Association.  A professional association (e.g. Society of Human Resource Management) can educate you on hot button topics within your industry (or an industry that interests you) and familiarize you with industry-recognized certifications.  Attending local or national meetings is also a great way to both gain information and meet contacts.

Find a mentor.  Identifying someone who knows you and your work (or is willing to get to know you) can be an invaluable resource.  A mentor can serve as a sounding board, provide perspective and also give you impartial advice.  Often the best place to find a mentor is outside of your own niche; look for somebody you respect in a different department or even a different company or industry.  An outside contact might be better positioned to offer objective insights into relationships, projects or dynamics.

Dust off your resume.  Resumes have changed quite a bit in the past 5 to 10 years.  Your resume should have a career summary of some kind, focus on accomplishments as opposed to responsibilities, and be targeted according to the job, company or industry.

Contact a recruiter.  Particularly if you are trying to keep your job search confidential, working with a recruiter can be an excellent way to explore the job market.  Recruiters typically focus on specific industries, geographical areas (e.g., Dallas or the Upper Midwest), or sometimes a combination of both.  Find recruiters who will be interested in your background based on their expertise.

Stay organized!  Whether you use a spreadsheet, contact database or paper filing system, it’s crucial to stay organized.  Human Resources managers tell stories of candidates they’ve called for an initial phone interview and the candidate’s response is “Which job is this for? I’ve applied to so many that I can’t remember what is open at your organization.”  You can only imagine how far that candidate makes it in the interview process.

Send thank you notes. Send email or hard copy follow up notes to people who’ve talked with you and include your business card to stay in touch.  Make sure to keep good notes and collect others’ business cards so you can correctly spell the person’s name and have the right address.

As we head into the holiday season and start considering next year, I hope that you might put a career and/or networking goal of some sort on your list for 2012. Best wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season.

Best until next time,

Margie

Changing a job and/or career is a huge topic and so as not to overstay my welcome, I’ve authored this as a 2-part post.

It is easy to find reasons to stay in your current job.  The economy is still recovering. Looking for a new job is time consuming.  Your current job isn’t really that bad.  Your resume hasn’t been updated in years.  And those tedious but required online application systems seem to offer very low odds.

But complacency and dissatisfaction at work tend to impact other aspects of our lives and a new job, providing it’s the right fit, position and company, can help improve your entire outlook.  Knowing how and where to start is often a preventive barrier. So, here are a few ideas:

Learn more about yourself.  Start by thinking through projects you’ve worked on recently. What parts of those projects have you enjoyed most?  Or the least? Think through what you believe to be your strongest skills; then ask others for honest feedback and compare the results.  Some companies have formal 360⁰ feedback programs, but any comments from trusted colleagues, formal or informal, can be helpful.  Another option is to engage in some “over the counter” assessment.  Discover Your Strengths is an excellent book by Buckingham & Clifton.  It includes a link to a web-based software application that helps you identify your top 5 strengths; it is interesting to compare the software results with your own views and the notes you’ve gathered.

Use Social Media. Create a LinkedIn profile, invite contacts into your network, join relevant groups, answer questions and get recommendations.  Use Facebook to reconnect with people from the past and if you graduated from a University or College there likely is an online community.  Social media can play a major part in networking and job search strategy; remember though that you’ll also need to have “live” conversations along with your online activity.

Start networking.  A recent client of mine was interested in making a career change.  He connected with a former colleague over LinkedIn whom he hadn’t spoken to in several years.  Several conversations later, the former colleague offered my client a job which nicely complements his skills sets while also introducing him to a whole new industry.  Think through friends, former colleagues, and fellow parents on the sidelines of sporting events; have informational conversations to learn about their businesses and career paths.  Leave the door open to stay in touch and if it feels right, ask that person who they know in your career area or city.  Networking is not about asking for a job, it’s about gathering ideas, asking for advice and creating relationships.  It is commonly estimated that between 60%-80% of jobs are filled through personal contacts and networking – that’s an awfully big number to ignore.

More ideas on changing jobs to follow shortly…stay tuned!

Best until next time,
Margie

When I wrote my first resume many years ago, it started with a section called an Objective. It read something like “To find a challenging job in a growing organization using my attention to detail and communication skills.”

In the intervening 20+ years, after reading hundreds of resumes, I’ve decided that such objectives are not very effective. Why not? How should you start your resume? See below…

Let me first describe what I mean by resume Objective. An Objective is most often a statement that explains the type of position you are seeking and sometimes also incorporates a very brief summary of your skills. The Objective is typically positioned at the top of your resume, just after your contact information. Proponents of objective statements would say that they clarify what you want to do and give direction to the reader. I, however, think it’s more productive to explain your interests and the position you are seeking in a cover letter or within an email that accompanies your resume rather than through an Objective statement. And, if you are applying through an online job submission system, you typically apply for a specific position.

In lieu of an Objective, I recommend using a Career Summary, some bulleted highlights of your accomplishments or a combination of both. The Summary is most often a paragraph, no more than 4 – 6 lines, that describes “what you bring to the table.” It should be customized for the industry/ company/ position you’re seeking and incorporate keywords and language that will resonate with the reader. The Summary serves to indicate your interests and encapsulate your background. I also frequently follow the Career Summary with 2 – 4 bullets of significant accomplishments. These bullets should describe project examples that are quantified, specific and relevant and also address the breadth of your skill set. You will likely want to customize the summary and possibly the bullets depending on the reader and the skills most important to that particular company and position.

The top third of your resume is prime real estate and might be the only part that is read, particularly on the first pass. So use that space to sell your skills, explain what you bring to the company, and demonstrate what you’ve accomplished for previous employers. Convince the reader to delve deeper, pursue your candidacy and ideally set up an interview.

Best until next time,

Margie

If this was titled “Should you use open-ended questions?” you would have answered “yes” or “no” and the discussion would have been over. If the ultimate networking goal is to generate conversation and begin a relationship, using open ended questions is an effective technique to keep in mind.

Let’s first clearly describe open ended questions:

An open ended question is one that cannot be answered with “yes” or “no.” Instead of asking “Did you have a good weekend?” the question is “How was your weekend?” Or when talking with a networking contact, ask “What do you like best about your job?” instead of “Do you like your job?” An open ended question invites an exchange of ideas instead of merely generating a yes/no answer.

I believe the most successful networking conversations are based on information gathering, with opportunities for dialogue and grounded in curiosity to learn about the other person. Phrasing your questions in an open-ended format requires a response with more content, leading to opportunities for follow up questions and ultimately providing a richer base for a developing relationship.

“Tell me about” networking. Open ended questions help you learn more. “Tell me about” is my back-pocket phrasing because it’s an easy start that leads to a broad open-ended question. “Tell me about your company.” Or career path, or why you like your job, or what skills you find to be most relevant, or how the culture has changed with the new company leadership. Or any other number of endings. “Tell me about” isn’t the only way to start these questions but I find it very handy, especially when I’m not quite sure what to say.

The most important open-ended networking question. A key networking objective is to identify contacts who the other person knows that can help expand your network. It’s tempting to say “Do you know anyone else I could talk with?” but think about using an open-ended format. “Who else do you know that I could talk with?” will potentially meet less resistance and generate fewer “Sorry, but I don’t” types of responses.

Rewording your phrasing into open-ended questions takes practice. Start by asking someone “How was your day?” “What happened today?” or “Tell me about your day” instead of the usual “Did you have a good day?” Catch yourself in daily conversation and open-ended questions will quickly become a productive habit.

Did you find that helpful? What did you find most helpful? Happy networking!

My best until next time, Margie

It was amazing. I had looked at this resume at least 10 times over 2 weeks and then on the last cursory review, I found a typo. Really? After I’d already looked at it so many times?

Your resume conveys more than just experience. It’s about representing yourself professionally. The more attention you pay to the smallest details, the greater level of professionalism conveyed. Below are a few of those detail areas that are easy to overlook, especially when you’ve been submerged in the resume process for days or weeks and you’re just ready to feel done with it.

Use Spell-check! I have found myself being complacent with spell check, relying on the squiggles of red while typing to catch the errors. But I’ve realized that when you work though multiple drafts and versions, at some point (and I’m not fully sure when, although I suspect it is at the “save as” and a new file name when tweaking different versions) Word stops identifying all those spelling mistakes. So although it might feel redundant, find the spell check button and manually give your resume an extra review.

Enlist a Proofreader. When you’ve stared at and read the same text over and over, you lose your ability to find obvious issues. Recruit someone to help; their objective perusal might find some things you’ve overlooked.

Be Consistent. I like to say that there are no rules for resumes except to be consistent. If you capitalize a job title, capitalize all your job titles. If you use a period at the end of one sentence or bullet, use one throughout. And if you use a numeric date format, then use all numeric dates.

Eliminate Personal Pronouns. Resume phrases do not have a subject. Start with the verb – the I, we or they is implied and should not be part of your resume text.

PDF. A few weeks ago a prospective client sent me his resume. I opened it in Microsoft Word and the last 2 lines had shifted down to a second page. On his computer it was one page, but Word has a distressing habit of changing spacing and page transitions from one version of Word to another or from Mac to PC. Using PDF is a sure way to avoid this and there are several PDF converter programs you can download for free.

The gravity of any of the above is really dependent on the reader – some are more forgiving than others. The issue is that these things imply an inattention to detail that employers aren’t typically looking for in a new hire. You might feel tired of looking at your resume, but just read it one more time and consider the thoughts above.

My best until next time,

Margie

Why is writing a cover letter so painful? What is difficult about stating your qualifications for a position or company? If you answer the second question at baseline, it’s not that hard at all. The challenge comes in writing a letter that is purposeful, interesting, concise and really markets your skills for that opportunity.

 Here are some thoughts to keep in mind:

 Use an interesting first sentence. If you are a hiring manager who receives 55 resumes for an open position, I’d bet that 50 of them start with the same “I’m writing to express my interest in your ____ position which I saw posted on _____.” Blah. Mix it up a little bit. I’m not saying to get crazy or irreverent, but try stating your experience first, or comment on something you read about the company on their website.

“The seven years I’ve spent answering help desk questions for X Company has made me sharp, customer focused and knowledge about web-based applications.” OR “Your company’s recent release of first quarter earnings was a positive sign in an otherwise troubled market. Bringing my skills to an environment successfully blending new products and cost control is an exciting prospect.”

 It makes for a much more interesting read.

 Use an example or 2 to demonstrate the skills you have instead of a “laundry list” of your qualifications. A recent client was applying for a recruiting position with a hospital. He has multiple years of experience managing nursing homes, and recruiting has been a function of his positions. His original letter stated, “Among my responsibilities in human resources I have redesigned the recruitment program for improved selection and hire of qualified candidates. I have evaluated benefit programs for the associates in my employ, implemented a performance appraisal system which incorporated salary adjustments, and conducted reviews and changes to employee compensation to better align it with the organization’s objectives.  Some additional accomplishments included initiating an employee satisfaction survey and a reorganized safety program where associates went over 585 days without a lost work time accident.”  This was only part of the middle paragraph where he went on to cover 2 more areas of HR where he has experience.

 Remember that this was for a recruiting specific position. Instead of covering multiple areas of HR, which were not necessarily relevant for the hiring manager, we changed his letter to focus specifically on recruiting and use examples to showcase what he can accomplish.

“Among my responsibilities in human resources I redesigned the recruitment program for improved selection and hire of qualified candidates for a long-term care facility.   In addition to the many typical ways to recruit i.e. ads, hiring bonuses, and referral bonuses, I decided to try some other methods.  We used direct mailings, hiring while candidates completed their programs, word of mouth, and job fairs.  By doing so we met and hired several nurses and other key staff we likely would never have attracted.  We also offered flexible schedules and extended orientation, targeted at the areas about which staff felt most uncertain.  We also created a mentoring program, taking care to match the new hire with an optimal training partner.”

 Your cover letter’s job is to generate interest in your resume, answer any questions about your background that might be confusing from your resume and very importantly, demonstrate your writing skills. If you can accomplish those things, you’ve written a successful letter – and will be ahead of lots of others in the employment pool.

 Writing a good letter, one that is interesting, not blah, is incredibly time consuming and can take as much or more effort than a resume – so hang in there!

The previous edition of Tips & Trends focused on cover letters and while there is more to convey, I decided to digress. Many people will attend holiday parties in the coming weeks and I thought it might be helpful to refresh our minds with ideas to make those interactions meaningful, thoughtful and valuable. Get beyond the handshake and take the opportunity to get to know someone better. The thoughts below will hopefully help you achieve that.

• Depending on the gathering, you might want to shake hands as the party progresses. This is much easier if you take food or drink but not both at the same time, leaving one hand free.
• Daunted by cocktail party environments? Prepare for the party by thinking of an assortment of open ended questions that start a conversation. (An open-ended question is one that cannot be answered with yes or no, and will encourage a dialogue instead of a Q&A session.) Ideas for these kinds of questions: “What are your plans for the holidays?” “Who do you spend the holidays with?” or “What has been keeping you busy lately?”
• Don’t get stuck on the weather! Introductory commonalities (weather, traffic, sports) are ok for the first minute to get your bearings, but do little to create sustainable dialogue. Move on from the weather.  Find out what’s important to the person by asking questions that create conversation.
• Think about quality, not quantity. Some proponents of networking suggest “working the room” and speaking to as many people as possible. I’d rather concentrate on conversations that build a foundation for meaningful relationships. My goal is to leave a party feeling like I’ve connected with 2 or 3 people with whom I can follow up and include in my network, as opposed to having quick chit chat with more people but without gaining any real knowledge about them as individuals.
• Remember to listen. Conversation and rapport are easier to develop if you respond to the other person. It is impossible to do that effectively if you’re focused on what you are going to say next, instead of what the person is saying to you.
• Do what you say and what someone suggests for you to do. If you end a conversation with “yes, let’s have coffee after the holidays to catch up more” then remember to contact the person in January, and actually do it!

A happy and healthy holiday season to everyone. And more on cover letters in January!

We’re back! Pardon the hiatus for Tip & Trends.

I get lots of questions about cover letters and many of them boil down to “I’m not quite sure where to even start.” There is much to be fuzzy about – should you even include one? Let’s tackle that question first.

Should You include a cover letter? The answer is complicated, of course. If you are applying for a specific job posting that asks for a cover letter, the answer is Yes. But beyond those situations, it gets murkier. When you’re not sure, here are a few thoughts:

A cover letter is a writing sample, so if you include one, make sure it is well written. If you are going to include a letter that has poor grammar, has a company name left over from the previous submission (and believe me, I’ve witnessed too many of those), or one that is so generic that it fails to market you for that particular company or position, think twice about including a letter at all. Your application may be stronger with only a resume.

A cover letter can help clarify your interest in a position or company and/or explain parts of your background, making sense of your experience and hooking together skills that may not at first seem like an obvious fit for that company or position. This is a great use for a cover letter and a reason to include one, even if it’s not clear if one is required.

If you are forwarding your resume to a contact you know, a traditional cover letter can be kind of awkward. Consider writing a less formal note in the body of the email instead of longer 3 paragraph-type letter.

When applying for a position on a company site or through a recruiting firm that does not explicitly mention whether you should attach a cover letter, I’d recommend including one only if you have the time to write a good one. But what do I mean by good? Your letter should:

• Target that particular company or position
• Address a specific contact if it’s at all possible to find one
• Start with a first sentence that grabs the reader’s attention
• Specifically speak to the skills mentioned in the job posting
• Use 1-2-3 examples to demonstrate how those skills have impacted your previous employers
• Be carefully proofread!

Writing a letter that takes the above into consideration is very time consuming. But spend the time. A generic letter will detract from your application, but a well written one will enhance it.

Stayed tuned next month for content ideas and examples. Until then, please contact me at margie@search-forward.com with any questions.

I am often asked “how much time can I ask for?” in reference to negotiating offers as well as setting interview dates. A bit of a tricky question but I’ve decided that “matching” is a good rule of thumb.

Let’s say you receive an offer for a new job on a Monday and the company asks you to give them a decision by Friday, which is 4 business days. If that isn’t enough time (you’re waiting on another offer, you need to discuss it with a mentor or partner who is out of town, etc), I’d recommend asking if you can have until the following Thursday or Friday to decide, thereby matching their 4 business days – give or take.

This can be particularly helpful if you are changing industries and aren’t sure of the culture. A recent client was invited to an on-site interview with a progressive technology company. He currently works in an academic setting which moves at a much slower pace particularly with hiring processes (understatement!). The recruiter proposed an interview date 10 days out from their conversation. He asked to delay the date 3-4 weeks, which would have been reasonable in academia, but he unfortunately hasn’t heard from them since.

I wish he had matched their offer.