Tuesday, December 16, 2008

How to Prepare for the New Year

We finally got the admitting news a few days ago that we have indeed been in a recession for the past 12 months. OK! I think most of the awake and sober people in the country were well aware of this apparent revelation. So how bad is it? I don’t have that answer. I guess it depends on many variables.

For us at JTL, we were fortunate enough to have had a great year. The largest contributing factor to this is that, quite simply, we prepared. We made some wise business model modifications this year that without a doubt have helped us grow.

The bright side of the economic historical pendulum tells us that we should start to come out of the recession in about 6 months – being that we are many months into it already. For all of us, my fingers are crossed, and my hopes are that this will be the case but I’m not too confident and certainly not yet sold. Therefore, I will remain in conservative mode and give an extra layer of checks and balances with all that we do within the business.

But what can you personally do in this trying time with regard to career planning?

Honestly, when it comes to finding a job it doesn’t matter what the market condition is all that much. Sure it may have some impact, but it is far from the top of the list of reasons to connect or not connect with a potential job. Bottom line, as you should know by reading my blog, one of the best ways to landing that next job is to use a skilled recruiter.

“Come on, JTL is a recruiting agency”. OK. So what? You really need to understand that finding jobs for people is what recruiters do and depend on to make a living. Don’t be ignorant and think that because the market is down that companies are not going to pay a fee for services to find the “right” candidate for their open positions. Perhaps the market is such that it doesn’t warrant a fee being paid for you. If that is the case a recruiter will level with you and try to help you even if it means that they won’t get a fee. Now that may sound like a pitch for you, but think about it. Part of the core of a recruiter’s business model includes building relationships with both clients and candidates. A quality candidate has current and future value on many levels.

You see the market determines the talent pool. When the market is down companies can and do become more selective with whom they hire. Why? It’s simple. There are more people in the market who are looking for jobs. When the market is good then the opposite occurs. Talent dries up and companies will pay a fee for a body. Is this making sense? Put another way, when the market is down the fish bowl gets filled with fish. Finding the right fish gets more difficult. Recruiters are much better than companies in finding the right fish. Hence their paying fees for us to do so.

The question you need to ask yourself is where do you fall? Are you the best talent in this market? If you are how are they going to know that? Resume job board? Faxing or mailing your resume to an ad in the Sunday paper? If that honestly is your game plan, your likelihood of not succeeding is pretty high. Certainly, by all means, give it a shot. Do let us know how that works for you!

A good recruiter will promote you and create the urgency to get you that interview. Again, that is how they make a living. They have to be good at it.

So back to the topic… How do you get your career ready for the new year? For starters, read through our blog postings. Read through the volumes of information on the Internet and prepare and plan. This becomes Darwinism at its best. The strongest will succeed. You want to increase your strength and rise to the top of the pile. Again, plan and prepare. Treat yourself as a brand and brand yourself. While treating yourself as a brand, realize that effective branding is about opening up proper channels of distribution. Use a recruiter to help bridge your brand to a company looking for that brand.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Some Resume Advice - Please Take It

The amount of resumes we have been receiving as of late is staggering. A sure sign of the economic struggles we are facing as a nation. Puzzling to me is what seems to be a lack of understanding when it comes to preparing and sending a resume. It is frustrating to go through 100 resumes in a day and find that only 5 of them are keepers.

With all of the wealth of information available to us via the Internet, it seems we still aren't taking the proper time to better educate ourselves with regard to creating our resumes. People... sending a resume that screams that you could care less how to create a proper resume is exactly the formula that recruiters or hiring managers look for to advance that resume directly to the trash.

Though there is no definitive blueprint for creating a resume, there are specific guidelines that are constant. Below are just a few guidelines that you really should strongly consider when creating your resume and sending to recruiters and/or hiring managers. But don't stop here. Search the Internet for more advice. The extra hour fine tuning your resume could make all the difference.
  1. Do not lie. I could write a book on why not, but it just seems too obvious. And if you don't know why you shouldn't lie, then I probably cannot help you out. Here is a link to a previous blog I wrote that may help. Believe me, recruiters and hiring managers will Google you. So, you should also Google yourself, checking for any digital dirt that may come up about you. What is digital dirt? Click here for another blog I wrote explaining.
  2. Proof your resumes for spelling and grammatical errors. A resume with spelling or grammatical errors is another sign of laziness and carelessness towards something important - your career.
  3. Spare the details. Too much detail is not a good thing either. Spare the micro-details and boasting. Stick to the highlights.
  4. Spare the outdated details as well. Your high school activities and accolades may not be necessary and add unnecessary fluff to the resume. And job specifics that are more than 10 years old may not be necessary either.
  5. Carefully explain any work gaps. If you were not employed for any reason for a specific period of time, simply state personal reasons. If your resume makes the cut, a recruiter or hiring manager will ask so be prepared to answer. The resume is not a place to explain a work gap.
  6. This should be a professional resume, so create a professional resume. What I mean by that is make sure the entire resume is professional, including an email address you use. In other words do not use an email address like kegstands07@domainname.com on you resume. If you do not have a professional email address, go get a free one at hotmail.com.
  7. Include years of graduation with your higher education areas. When you do not provide this, it can be a reason to move on to the next one in the pile. You have to understand, a recruiter or hiring manager sifts through hundreds of resumes a day sometimes. We sometimes discount a resume for the simplest things.
  8. Make sure your resume fits the job description you are applying for. If the job description requires, for example, someone with SAP experience and your resume doesn't include experience with SAP, then it very well may get put aside or tossed. Do not just assume just because you have a degree from a good school and are a solid overall individual that it will overshadow the necessity for a company seeking someone with specific experience. Simply and better stated, just make sure your experience meets the job requirements.
  9. Too much movement can be a red flag. In other words, if you have a new job every 9-12 months, we will wonder why? And sometimes there is good reason. If you have what would be considered more than normal job movement (approximately 3 years at a job on average is average and okay), then you might want to explain in a cover letter, avoiding too much detail on a resume.
  10. Have references ready. They will be checked. But... we aren't looking for your aunt or neighbor to provide a personal reference. We would rather see one from a former boss or peer. References should be relevant to your job experience.
Careerbuilder has a resume template that is pretty decent. Here is the link. Again, there is no exact science to creating the resume, but following the above guidelines may help your chances of stopping it from quickly ending up in the trash.

Keep this in mind. With the increasing unemployment, that will mean more supply of job candidates seeking new jobs and less available jobs. This is more of a reason to take the time to get your resume right. Good luck.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Should You Flood Your Resume Though the Market?

No!

Oh how I would really like to just leave that answer, "No", and not write anything further. But of course, I will need to elaborate to explain why it makes no sense to rush and flood the market with your resume when seeking a new job.

For executive level job seekers, getting your resume in the hands of the best recruiter is paramount. That means getting the resume in the hands of a recruiter who really understands your industry and the market you seek. That means finding a recruiter or agency with the right experience and who have agreements in place with the right clients/companies. That means finding a recruiter or agency with a proven track record and real testimonials to prove it.

The last thing an executive recruiter wants to learn is that a great potential candidate has flooded their resume through the online galaxy. Why? Simply because an executive job recruiter has to work hard and diligently to prepare and promote a candidate. It takes a plethora of cumulative hours completing this laborious task. Just read through my posts to get a good idea of what is involved with real job preparation. When a recruiter completes this work and then later, after the fact, learns that the candidate has already gotten their resume to this client it equates to wasted time. Hence one of the first questions a good recruiter will ask - where have you sent your resume already?

The misconception that a recruiter wants this resume control so that they can control the hire and hence make the fee is downright stupidity for lack of a better way to phrase this notion. Understand that there are oceans of candidates seeking jobs. Good recruiters have access to quality candidates. Understand that good recruiters have strong relationships with their clients. Understand that a good recruiter is somewhat of an extension of a hiring company and therefore a solid bridge to employment within a company.

If your resume is good enough to properly promote yourself, and you are also fortunate enough to capture a hiring manager's attention without the help of a recruiter, then that is great. Nothing wrong with attempting to make a connection on your own. In fact, please do not misunderstand this post. I am by no means indicating that you as a job seeker should not try to promote yourself and attain an job on your own. I am more indicating that it is not a good idea to "flood" the market with your resume using the likes of Monster and CareerBuilder.

To me that would be like spending all your money and not leaving some for when you need it. Eh, perhaps not a good analogy I know. In other words if you are not fortunate enough to connect yourself to a job and then you revert to using a recruiter, you may not be on the top of a recruiter's list if he or she knows your resume is broadcast in every direction already.

One additional final comment. If you are still confused or not in full belief, then try the reversal. Try using a good recruiter. If you need help finding one - read this. If after a given period of time, let's say two weeks, you do not feel like progress is being made, then try to connect with companies - but one at a time. And please, do not post your resume on Monster or CareerBuilder arbitrarily.