Category Archives: Finding jobs

Beat the job boards – electronic filters

Posted on January 7, 2014 | Leave a comment

When I put an ad on a job board I often get 100 replies, but only 1 or 2 candidates are viable.  Since people have to go through 100 terrible resumes to find one or two good ones, electronic filters have been employed.  Some of those filters are pretty good.  Most of the filters are terrible.

Filters are mostly keyword driven.  They have a list of words that have to be on your resume in order for you to be considered.  If you don’t have those key words, you will either receive an instant rejection, or nothing will ever happen because your resume is dumped. 

There is another reason for the filters.  Federal law says large companies have to be able to prove they don’t discriminate by race, sex, age, etc.  They have to keep records of everyone they consider for jobs, except for people who are filtered out immediately.  There you are!  Another government law with unintended consequences.  Because they don’t want to have to guess your sex or race, they eliminate you completely unless you are obviously qualified.    

The easy way past the filters is to carefully read the ad, and put in all the keywords they use.  Even if you do NOT have a particular skill or experience here is how you can put it on your resume.  At the bottom just put a line that says, “I know how to fish, but have never done underwater basket weaving, though I can learn.”  Because you mention underwater basket weaving, you get past the filters.  It is at the bottom of your resume, so no one reads it.

Another method that works is to paste the ad at the bottom of your resume with a note that says, “This is the ad I am responding to.”  Every key word will be in it then! Note: you have to do this on the RESUME because the filter is always applied to the resume.

One last note, if you are totally unqualified you will still be instantly rejected by the first human to see your resume.  Spamming still does not work.  Also, if you are qualified, your resume has to get past the human screener. Well talk about that too.

Something To Do Today

Go fishing for trolling ads.  Find a few ads that look very generic.  Start collecting them and seeing if they are out there for month or years.  Some are a decade old.

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Later: Beat the job boards – posting your resume

– beating hundreds

Now to get past the human filter

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Posted in Finding jobs, Job Boards, Resumes

Beat the job board trolls

Posted on January 6, 2014 | Leave a comment

Putting out an ad for a job that doesn’t exist is called “trolling” in the recruiting business. 

When you troll for fish you drag a bait or lure behind your boat as you putter around the lake.  Eventually a fish grabs it, and you reel in the fish.  When you troll for candidates you put a generic ad out, refresh it occasionally, and try to catch a qualified person looking for a job.  You don’t have a specific job, you just place the ad.

A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other. (Samuel Johnson)

By the way, trolling for candidates is illegal in some states.  Recruiters do it any way because it works. The candidates who get jobs don’t mind.

You need to decide which ads to respond to.  You want to find a company that has a job for you, or a recruiting agency that has a job for you.  That means at times you will deliberately respond to trolling ads, and other times you won’t.

A trolling ad is usually very generic.  It gives no disqualifying details.  It just says, “accountant”, “salesman”,  “vb programmer”, or “electrical engineer”.  Look at trolling ads to figure out which agencies work in your field regularly. Ask some friends if they know the agencies whose ads impress you the most.  Call those agencies when you really just want your resume out to as many hiring companies as possible.  There is nothing wrong with that.

If you are more concerned about getting the right job, only respond to very specific ads.  The more disqualifiers an ad has in it, the more likely you are to get the specific job you want.

Responding to trolling ads is a choice.  You may not care today, but someday it could be important to you.

Something To Do Today            

Go fishing for trolling ads.  Find a few ads that look very generic.  Start collecting them and seeing if they are out there for month or years.  Some are a decade old.

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Later: Beat the job boards – electronic filters

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Posted in Finding jobs, Job Boards

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9 ways a recruiter can help you

Posted on November 25, 2013 | Leave a comment

I was talking to a job hunter who said, “Recruiters have never done much for me.” I understand the sentiment. It depends on what you expect.

As a recruiter I help people get jobs, but only a few people. I also prepare a bunch of people to get jobs on their own.

Some things I can do for you are:

  1. I help you get your resume to look good enough to get you interviews.
  2. I find jobs you didn’t know about and submit you for them.
  3. I talk to hiring managers and try to give you an unfair advantage.
  4. I give you guidance on better interviewing.
  5. I remind you to send a thank you note after the interview.
  6. I follow up and follow up and follow up with hiring managers.
  7. I negotiate a higher salary.
  8. I help you resign successfully.
  9. I smooth the way into your new job.

Now, you’ll notice that a bunch of those I do whether you get the job or not. As a recruiter I may not directly get you a job. I may just help you learn some job hunting skills even if I am not paid for it.

One more thing. If I find a better candidate anytime during the process, I will present him to the company. My driving loyalty is getting the best person for the job. I am absolutely committed to avoiding second best. I’ll help you, but you need to be the best candidate for a job. Live with it.

I help people get jobs. I help a few people get the job I submit their resume for. However, I have a huge impact on a lot of job seekers as I help them to become more employable.

Something To Do Today

Make a list of suggestions you have received from recruiters that have helped in your job search.  Make sure you remember them for the interviews where the recruiters are not involved.

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Posted in Finding jobs, Recruiters

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How to get experience before you have it

Posted on November 22, 2013 | Leave a comment

Experience is that marvelous thing that allows you to recognize a mistake when you make it again. (Franklin P. Jones)

You can’t get in the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG) unless you have a job acting in a movie that is going to use union actors.  You can’t get a job in a union movie unless you have a SAG membership.  So how does anyone ever become a SAG member?  Here’s the trick. Someone puts together a movie company, gets a bunch of actors who want a SAG card to sign a contract, then goes to SAG and says I want this to be a union picture, so give all these actors a SAG card.  It happens all the time.  Those films are rarely made.  They exist only for experience.

I talked to a guy who wants to be a programmer.  The trouble is that he has no experience, just some education.  He and some friends are building a website with a game.  It is not a simple task.  It will take the 3 of them about 6 months to complete. He is still going to school.

How do they make a hobby programming project look great on their resume?

They form a company to do it.  Just like the SAG actors.

In Pennsylvania, and most states, you can register a company with the state for a few bucks.  You don’t have to incorporate, just register a name and an owner.  Now the three of them have a company, a project they can use to show off their skills, and six months of programming experience that looks good on a resume.

If you are in school an internship is incredibly useful for getting a job after school.  It is just as useful to create a job with some friends.  Put together a real product and a real company.  If it fails, no big deal.  You still have experience on your resume.

You can also do this if you are 50 years old and want to switch careers.

Think about it.  What can you do to get the experience for the job you want.  Is there an alternative?  Can you get some friends to form a part time company that will give all of you the experience you want?  Make sure it really does give you the experience, and you will have a great line on your resume.  Who knows, you may even start making real money and not need someone else to give you a job.

How do you get experience before you have it?  Do it yourself.

Something To Do Today

Sit down with a pad of paper and a pencil.  Make a list of 20 companies you could start to give yourself the experience you want.

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Posted in Finding jobs, Perseverance

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5 things I do to stop procrastinating

Posted on November 11, 2013 | Leave a comment

Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work. (Peter Drucker)

An old friend laughed when she read my article on procrastinating.  She knows I am a king at procrastinating.  She mentioned how I paid my kids to help me stop procrastinating.  The first one to call me after 3 p.m., and ask if I had met my goal for telephone calls that day, got paid.  It was cheaper than having a boss take 50% of my commissions.

I am an expert at procrastination.  The only way I have been able to beat that problem is to think about it….then set up motivators.  You need to do the same thing with your job hunting duties.

There are certain things that help me stop procrastinating:

  1. Guilt
  2. Rewards
  3. Getting checked up on
  4. Momentum
  5. Brain games

Guilt

If I make a plan that I know will succeed, and don’t follow it, I feel guilty.  Simple.  I pray for help, come up with a plan to reach my goal, and am goaded by guilt.  (Why don’t you write down a plan for finding a job. You’ll feel guilty for ignoring it.)

Rewards

One month I earned a membership at the Climbnasium by making a placement.  I basically don’t buy much of anything unless it is a reward for reaching a goal.  At the end of this month, I get a “prize” if I call 30 new people every work day.  I’ve used trips, shoes, clothes, a car, computer accessories, a camera, lunch, and leaving before 5 p.m. as rewards. (You can set up a reward for sending out 10 resumes, or making 5 calls.)

Getting checked up on

I mentioned paying my kids to call me and check up.  I’ve had my wife call at noon when I was having a lot of problems procrastinating.  I have kept daily charts of how many new people I call, how long I am on the phone, and other important daily accomplishments. Having a helper or just having to check up on myself every day is a big help. (Try making a chart for how many ads you respond to, or how many networking lunches you have in a week.)

Momentum

Funny thing about starting, it’s easier to keep going after you get some momentum.  The first 3 calls I make every day are to people I already know who are actively looking for jobs.  That gets the phone to my ear.  After those 3 calls, it is much easier to make the other calls to people I have never talked to before. (To start your day you can send out two resumes thru Monster first, then send out two resumes to companies with no openings, then call the two companies you sent resumes to yesterday.  Get momentum going.)

Brain games

The most effective thing I have done to get me to make calls is a simple brain game.  I have 50 dollar coins – 40 are gold colored, 10 are silver.  Every time I call a new person I noisily drop a coin into a cup.  Silver coins are for sales calls, gold are for recruiting.  It reminds me that every call means money.  It works for me.  At the end of the day, if I only have 20 or 25 calls, I can see how close I am to my goal of 30. It is a brain game that really motivates me. (What is a brain game you can use for job hunting?)

 

Procrastinating the most important parts of your job search can be a major problem.  Figure out what you can do to get working on the important things every day.

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Tomorrow:     Mental hygiene

Cover letter anesthesia

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Posted in Finding jobs, Focus, Followup, Networking, Perseverance, Time management

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Free career intelligence 5 ways

Posted on November 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

Here are 5 ways to get free career intelligence.  This can help you find and land a job.

1. Every day I give away useful business intelligence.  I am an expert in a few job markets. I’m a recruiter. Every time you talk to a recruiter, grill them.  If a recruiter calls you out of the blue, you have a right to be very nosey.

2. HR (human resources) people give away business intelligence.  They are experts in their company and will tell you how you fit in.  If you ask they will often tell you where you stand in the job competition. Hiring projection for 3 to 6 months into the future are often on the tip of their tongues if you just ask them.

3. Salespeople are incredible sources of information.  They also like to talk a lot.  Take a salesman from your own company, a supplier, or a place you want to work, out to lunch. Or just talk to them. You’ll find out more than you would think possible.  Often they can tell you about all the competing companies in your area.

4. The web. Indeed.   Monster.  CareerBuilder.  Look for “trolling” job ads.  What ads are there for months?  Often they are renewed weekly, but they are the same ad forever.  Those are jobs that constantly need people.  Sort by company and look for ad clusters.  Is a company creating a new project team?  Often they advertise for 3 different jobs while they have other unadvertised openings for the team that will be created. The manager job may be unfilled.  Or another team has an opening because the manager for this team came out of that team.  Keep all the possibilities in mind.

5. Every industry has a trade magazine or ten.  Subscribe.  Many are free.  There are even more industry trade publications appearing as email magazines.  There are specific trade publications for cement, computer banking systems, turkey processing, pizza shops, jewelry making, dog kennels, dairy farmers and more.  Even if you just read the cover you will be better off than if you didn’t get the magazines.

Open your eyes.  Look around.  Where do the experts go to become experts or to show off their expertise?  That’s where you need to go to get career intelligence.

Something to do today

Subscribe to 3 trade publications.

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Posted in Economy, Finding jobs, Job Boards, Recruiters

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Why people you barely know are better to network with

Posted on October 18, 2013 | Leave a comment

Your closest friends are less useful in a job search than people you barely know.

Anti-intuitive, but true.  Here’s why.

The people you know well are few in number, and may all work in only 2 or 3 different companies.  They all know about the same job openings.

There are a lot more people you barely know.  They are spread through a much more diverse set of companies and geographical areas.  There is a much better chance that the people you barely know will tell you about a job or company you didn’t know exists.

Some studies have been done on job hunting through strong and weak networks.  It turns out that people really do get better job leads from weak connections.

Moral of the story: Tell everyone you know, meet, and recognize about your job search.  You may just get a lead to an unbeatable job by talking to those folks you barely know.

Something To Do Today

Have you been spreading your job net as wide as you can?  Talk to people you barely know from an association, your church, a club, or your kid’s soccer league.  Tell them about your job search.  It may just work.

And, do talk to your close friends about your job search.

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Later:                                  How many times…

A Korean attitude

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Posted in Finding jobs, Networking

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The Elmer Fudd job hunt

Posted on October 14, 2013 | Leave a comment

When Elmer Fudd went hunting for Bugs Bunny, he always started out with a plan.  He carefully prepared and then waited.

Bugs would come up to him and say, “What’s up doc?”

Elmer replied, “I’m going to get me a wabbit.”

Then Elmer would realize that the rabbit was talking to him instead of falling into his trap.  Elmer overreacted and Bugs got away.  Elmer kept overreacting more and more.  It got less dangerous for Bugs and more dangerous for Elmer.  Eventually Elmer would turn into a whirlwind, shooting in every direction. There was no chance he would hit Bugs.

Does that also describe your job hunt?

Did your first plan fail?  Then, you reacted too far in the other direction?  Then you overreacted in still another way?

You need to react to what you learn, but you also need to carry out a workable job search plan.  You need to put in enough effort in a disciplined manner to get results.

Something To Do Today

Sit down and think.  Are you feeling strung out and desperate?  Then find someone to help you review your job search plan.  You may just need to slow down, plan, and then execute in a disciplined manner.

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Later:              How not to be a liar

The strength of weakness

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How people really find jobs in 2013

Posted on September 27, 2013 | Leave a comment

People are NOT finding most jobs at Monster, Career Builder and other job boards.

A survey was done in 2013 of companies with over 5000 employees.  These are companies that keep great records of where they find people.  These companies employ every possible method of finding new employees.  The details are at

http://www.careerxroads.com/news/SourcesOfHire2013.pdf

The biggest job filler was internal candidates already working there – 42% .

There were an average of 74 applications per hire. Frightening, isn’t it?

Outside hires

From here on out, I’m going to talk only about percentages of the external candidates hired.  The ones who came from outside the company.

Referrals were the biggest source of external candidates at 25% of all jobs filled.  Of those referrals, 95% were referrals from people who worked at the company. You are 3-4 times more likely to get hired if you can get someone inside the company to refer you.

The company website got credit for 23% of candidates.  This is a suspect source according to the study authors, who suspect other things drove people to the website, but I’ll accept that number for the sake of argument.

Online job boards filled 18% of jobs.  The most significant job boards were Indeed and SimplyHired.  They found more people jobs than Monster and CareerBuilder.

It is simple mathematics, job boards are useful, but they are not the main way people find new jobs. Just going to company websites and submitting resumes blindly appears to be more effective than the big job boards.

Social media only got credited with 3% of hires, but it influences, drives, or combines with referrals, company career sites, job boards, direct calls into competitors, college recruting, temp-to-hire, and career fairs.

Recruiters like me only accounted for 3% of hires. They use recruiters only for the jobs that are begging for people.  They don’t want to pay my fee unless they just can’t find the right person easily.

Print is dead. Print ads only filled 2%.

What it all really means?

The real key, however, is networking.  It may not be easy, but it is still the main way jobs are filled.  Even in giant corporations. You are 3-4 times as likely to get hired if you network your way into a company.

Something To Do Today

Bite the bullet.  Do something in your job search other than rely on internet job boards.

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Tomorrow:     Slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

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Posted in Finding jobs, Job Boards, Networking

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How do you get started in a new profession?

Posted on August 26, 2013 | Leave a comment

This is a short video about how to become a journalist, politician, salesperson, accountant, programmer, etc.  It is a great real life example of how to become what you want to be.

Do you know how many engineers do NOT have a degree?  I have a bunch of them in my database.  Accountants, CFO’s, and Controllers without a college degree?  I know managers in CPA firms who do not have an accounting degree, much less a CPA.

Oh yes, I almost forgot.  How many people got a degree and can’t get a job in their field?  I get many of those resumes every single day.  Watch this video to see how one person got started.

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Posted in Attitude, Finding jobs, Focus, Perseverance, talent, Training

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