Category Archives: Job Boards

Internet resume filters, why? And how to get past them

Posted on November 16, 2012 | Leave a comment

You must change how you apply for jobs on the internet. Federal contracting jobs are already out of your reach unless you are a perfect fit.  Half the jobs available on the internet are no longer available to you.  And that is a conservative estimate.

A regulation is in effect.  It says that companies have to keep track of the minority status of all internet job applicants.  Last year it was for Federal contractors.  Now it is for all companies over 50 employees and their recruiters.

It is hard to keep track of race without being accused of violating the Equal Employment laws.  In the old days you could look through the resumes that came in and choose people who were close to your requirements to interview.  Then you could start tracking race.

Unintended consequences

The new regulation says you have to start tracking race immediately, but you only have to do it for applicants that are completely qualified for the position.  That means that the applicant filters that big companies use are becoming essential for all companies.  They are not going to track anyone they don’t have to.  They don’t want to phone screen anyone unless they already perfectly meet the requirements.

That means many jobs you were close enough to get a phone screen for a few years ago, will be absolutely unavailable for you this year. You will have to get through the computer filter to even be considered for a job.  And the filters will be tighter than ever.

From here on out you need to make sure that your resume has every qualifying skill asked for on a job ad.  Consider putting every acronym in the job ad at the bottom of your resume in a skills section.  I might even cut and paste the skills section of the job ad to the bottom of my resume in a “Job Applied For” section.

The results of the regulations are ominous.  Companies are swinging wildly from filters that are impossibly tight, to no filters at all.  We are in a period of amazing resume filtering swings.

Be prepared.

Something to do today

Start today.  Make sure your resume has every job skill asked for in every job you apply for online.

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Later:              Clogging things up

Row away

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Posted in Job Boards, Resumes

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50 job hunting tips from recruiters

Posted on September 25, 2012 | Leave a comment

Need a job? Recruiters see every possible mistake, and some unusually successful ploys.

Here are 50 job hunting tips from good recruiters.

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Posted in Accomplishments, Attitude, Counteroffers, Finding jobs, Focus, Interviews, Job Boards, Networking, Perseverance, Quitting or Fired, Recruiters, References, Resumes, talent, Time management, Training

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Calls to companies – what to say

Posted on April 30, 2012 | Leave a comment

…fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day…and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.  (Esther)

Calls to companies – what to say

Calling a company when there is no job advertised is the scarier than visiting an undertaker to get measured for your coffin.  Get over it.

If you really really want to work for that company, you need to call.  You also need to be qualified.  Now, be positive, and be honest: Would you hire yourself for the job you want? Really?  Okay, then.  They might really hire you.

First write down the jobs you really want in that company.  Who would be your boss’s boss?  Not your direct supervisor, who is HIS boss.  Write it down. His title is sufficient. He’s the key to success.

Who do you know who knows that person, that Mr. Big?  Do you know anyone in the company?  Start by asking for their help to contact Mr. Big.  If someone you know can recommend you or get your resume directly to Mr. Big, you’ve got it made.  Give them your resume. Then call after Mr. Big should have it, and introduce yourself. There is a script for that call below.

If you don’t know anyone in the company, call the receptionist and get Mr. Big’s name and extension, or at least the department secretary.  Call Mr. Big AFTER you have written down some notes about how:

  1. You have saved a lot of money.
  2. You speeded up processes to save time.
  3. You saved customers or brought in new ones.

Not notes about your responsibilities, but notes about what you actually accomplished.  What got done because of your unique push.  What did YOU excel at?

Here is the easiest set of scripts.

When you give Mr. Big a call, you have a 1 in 10 chance of talking to him.  If you get voice mail, the first time leave a message asking him to call you. Don’t say what it is about.  Just say, “Please call me.”

Two days later leave a voice mail telling him briefly about 1, 2 and 3 above, ask for his help in getting a job, and leave your phone number.

Do the same thing 3 days after that.  If you still have no response, then call the person who would be your direct boss, Mr. Manager, in the same 3 day attempt.

Finally, after this 2 week attempt, call HR (Human Resources).

If you are asked to call someone else, do so.  Tell them Mr. Big told you to call.  But, before Mr. Big hangs up ask him, “What are your plans for the next few months for hiring a (my job)?”  Also send a resume to Mr. Big and the person he told you to call.  Mail or email works.  Ask the company receptionist for his address.

Now, put a reminder on your calendar and call Mr. Big, other person, and HR again in 3 months.  Leave one message reminding them you talked before.  Tell them you talked to the other person like they suggested and are just calling to follow up and see if their strategic plans have changed and they will need your help in the next few months.  Then send a note thanking them for their time.  The follow up note is as important as the call.  It gives them something to file away to contact you later.  Make this single call to each of the 3 people you contacted at the company every 3 months. You are establishing yourself as a candidate who needs to be called.

Scary?  For many people it is. If you really want to work for a company at a particular job, it is the best way to be considered for that job that I know of.

Something To Do Today

If you really are qualified for a job at those companies, write down your accomplishments so that you have crib notes.  Now introduce yourself to the big boss who can give you a job.

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Tomorrow:           Intelligent use of recruiters

Later:                    Get famous, get a job

Sneaky no good cops set a trap for me

Katrina, FEMA and who’s in charge of you

A surprisingly great trumpet appeared

Brass knuckles and the law

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Posted in Finding jobs, Job Boards, Networking

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Do you dare call managers and CEO’s in a company?

Posted on April 27, 2012 | Leave a comment

…fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day…and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.  (Esther)

Do you dare call managers and CEO’s in a company?

No ad is in the papers or on the internet. You want a job there.  So you look up their website and just send a resume.  Right?  Err, okay, but there is a better way.

Calling into the company can get you an interview and a job much more quickly.

Here is what often happens if you just send in your resume without calling:

HR gets the resume and automatically enters it in the database.  No job is available.  Two months later the job opens up.  They do a quick database search.  You might be able to do the job, but it has been 2 months and they have 187 fresh resumes to process.  They know they can just send those resumes to the manager without having to make any calls.  It is so much easier not to call you, why bother?

You see the opening and send your resume again.  The data entry clerk sees it is already in the database.  A flag is already set on your database entry saying you were checked out in this job search.  There is no significant change in your resume.  You are not considered for the job.

Think about it from the manager’s perspective. The ugly normal way is that he knows an opening is coming up.  He’s going to fire or promote someone.  Maybe they have a new project coming up and he’s budgeted for 3 more employees in 2 months. As soon as he tells the Human Resources (HR) department, they will ask him to write job descriptions (2 hours of work).  Then HR will advertise the positions and send him 187 resumes.  He will have his secretary wade through them.  He will then ask HR to call the 7 people he is most interested in.  HR will tell him only 5 can interview with him.  It is only going to get more time consuming from here on out. He hates the process.

One alternative.  He keeps in touch with likely candidates.  He offers those candidates a job and tells HR about his choice.  Which do you think he would rather do?

You need to be that likely candidate.  There is very little competition before a job opening is announced. The time to contact the hiring manager, CFO, controller, COO, or other person involved is BEFORE they need you.

Next week I’ll tell you two things you can do to be a candidate before the ad runs.

Something To Do Today

Write down the names of 3 companies you would really really like to work for.  Read this blog next week for what to do next.

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Next week:     What to say to companies

Intelligent use of recruiters

Get famous, get a job

Sneaky no good cops set a trap for me

Katrina, FEMA and who’s in charge of you

A surprisingly great trumpet appeared

Brass knuckles and the law

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Posted in Finding jobs, Job Boards, Networking, Resumes

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How to motivate yourself to search EFFECTIVELY

Posted on April 23, 2012 | Leave a comment

An actor asks himself, “What is my motivation?”  The rest of us laugh at him.  He’s trying to figure out which way to face on a stage.

Ice cream used to motivate me. I’d walk on hot coals to get it.  I still like ice cream, but it won’t get me to detour 100 yards to a store now.  Sometimes leaving work early is a great motivator.  Some days a chance to go for a walk will get me to work hard.  Winning is a great motivator at times.  Sometimes letting my kid just barely win is a motivator. What motivates me changes hourly, daily, weekly and monthly.

Getting a job is often not enough of a motivator in your job search.  To avoid pain, unmotivated people spend hours in front of a computer “playing” with job boards. There is no need to call people and admit you want a new job. Lack of real motivation is behind taking friends out to eat instead of creating a network by eating with more helpful strangers.

I have come to the conclusion that my subjective account of my motivation is largely mythical on almost all occasions. I don’t know why I do things. (Lloyd Dobens)

Use motivation in two ways.

  1. Figure out what motivates you to avoid a job hunting method
  2. Use motivation to get you to work harder.

Real networking is difficult for many.  Calling up a company and asking for the manager, VP, CFO or President is impossible for many people. Try to figure out why that call is difficult, while a call to HR (Human Resources) is easy.  HR knows less about jobs than the VP of Operations does.  If fear or embarrassment keeps you from making calls to real decision makers, admit it.  Talk about it with someone.  Make some commitments and work your way through it.

Making a few MORE contacts can also be difficult.  Find rewards that will get you to make a few more calls and submit more resumes.  It can be that you will only watch your TV show if you get 3 more resumes out or make 3 more calls.  Set a goal of only going golfing if you are taking a potential hiring manager from another company.  Decide you won’t turn on the computer until you have made 4 follow up calls where you have submitted your resume.

Think of what motivates you today.  Admit roadblocks and work around them.  Find little incentives you can give yourself to do just a little more in your job search.

Something To Do Today

Choose one activity you avoid.  Give yourself an incentive to do it.  Now do it.

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Tomorrow:           Waiting for the “help wanted” sign

Later:                    Networking

Calls to companies

Intelligent use of recruiters

Get famous, get a job

Sneaky no good cops set a trap for me

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Posted in Attitude, Finding jobs, Job Boards, Networking, Perseverance, Time management

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Your scarcest resource hunting a job or working

Posted on April 19, 2012 | Leave a comment

Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.  (Will Rogers)

Time.

Studies show that the Japanese “salaryman” puts in more time at the office than American “workers”.  They also show that American “workers” spend more time working. The “salaryman” spends a LOT of time around the water cooler and playing solitaire.  Americans work.

Time is your scarcest resource.  Every minute you use or waste is gone forever. You can’t save time and use it later.  The next hour will be gone in 60 minutes no matter what you do.  That’s a scarce resource.

In your job search are you a “salaryman” or a “worker”?  The “salaryman” job hunter spends his time seeking out new internet job boards and looking for new newspaper ads. It isn’t a total waste of time.  But it quickly becomes redundant.  The same jobs and agencies seem to be in all the boards and ads.

The “worker” job hunter uses the internet job boards and newspapers as a part of his job campaign.  Some researchers say that between the job boards and newspapers, only 25% of jobs are filled.  So spending 25% of your time on those methods makes sense.  The rest of the jobs are filled before they are advertised. So if you want to get a really great job you have to look where most of the really great jobs are filled.

Most really great jobs are filled by networking, calls to managers at companies that aren’t advertising, recruiters, and getting famous.  I’ll be talking about these methods in a few days.

Something To Do Today

In your job search are you spinning your wheels?  Keep track of what your job search time is spent at, and what you find.  If you keep turning up the same useless leads over and over, you need to change your attack.  Time is too precious to waste in ineffective repetitive motions.

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Tomorrow:     Short term rewards

Later:              What motivates me

Waiting for the “help wanted” sign

Networking

Calls to companies

Intelligent use of recruiters

Get famous, get a job

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Posted in Accomplishments, Finding jobs, Focus, Job Boards, Promotions, Time management

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Resume search optimization – how to get found

Posted on March 27, 2012 | Leave a comment

How to get your resume seen online could be a book.  That book hasn’t changed in the last 5 years.  Here are the basics:

  1. Include every keyword that is in the job listing
  2. Figure out a way to repeat the most important key words
  3. Resubmit your changed resume occasionally

Keywords are critical

Computerized filters are being used more often. Monster.com has them available for all employers who pay a slight premium.  If your resume does not have every important keyword or acronym, the computer eats it and spits out a form letter. No human sees your resume.

Put a list of certifications, education, software used, tools mastered and techniques employed at the end of the resume.  Include every abbreviation or keyword in the ad.  If you are missing a minor keyword, consider saying at the end of your resume, “I understand CDF and JCL but have never used them.  It may get you past the computer filter.  If you are submitting your resume directly to the hiring manager, you might take the list off.

Repeat important keywords

Your resume will be ranked by keyword usage.  When my query brings back 300 hits, I want to see the most likely resumes first.  I sort on “relevance” and cherry pick the top resumes.  The best way to be ranked highly is to intelligently use the keywords multiple times.

Resubmit your resume

Job boards usually show the most recently submitted resumes first.  If your resume has not been submitted for 3 months, it is at the bottom.  Worse, recruiters may assume you have a job if your resume is that old.  They won’t call you. Refresh your resume every week or two.

Just these three changes may change your invisible resume to a real interview magnet.

Something To Do Today

Go read the job description of the last job you submitted your resume for.  Did your resume have all the keywords?  Did it repeat the most important keywords?

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Posted in Finding jobs, Job Boards, Resumes

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Why your resume disappears when you submit it

Posted on January 25, 2012 | Leave a comment

Great article on why resumes disappear when you submit them to large companies. It also gives you some hope for getting through all the filters. Here’s the link.

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Posted in Job Boards, Resumes

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Polar Bear Testicles and your job search

Posted on September 29, 2010 | Leave a comment

CNN had a story on shrinking polar bear testicles.  They went into detail about how it was an indicator of global warming destroying the earth.  I would hate to be the scientist with a bag of bear treats trying to make that measurement.  Then there was a brief blurb about the lowest SAT college exam scores in 30 years.  The SAT scores were just barely worth mentioning.

Which of the two stories caught your attention?  Shrinking polar bear testicles.  It was improbable, bizarre, and got you worried about vague worldwide problems.

Which story was really the most significant for your personal prosperity?  The SAT scores.  It affects every company in the USA.  More money, focus, worry, and concern are being focused on polar bear testicles than on why SAT scores are dropping.

Everything is not of equal importance.  The biggest problem that most job seekers have is that they are very focused on the wrong thing.

Are you focusing on these things?

  1. Finding jobs on job boards
  2. Sending out resumes
  3. Perfecting your cover letter
  4. Creating one perfect resume
  5. New ways to search Indeed.com
  6. Sending out more resumes

They are the wrong thing. Sorry.

You should focus on….

  1. Talking to hiring managers
  2. Talking to the bosses of hiring managers

Those are the only things that count.  If you are talking to one hiring manager a day, you are outperforming someone who sends out 50 resumes to qualified jobs every day.

Networking is the most effective way to talk to hiring managers.

No. Asking someone to introduce you to a hiring manager is not what I mean.  That is great,  but it is also a distraction.  The IMPORTANT networking you can do every day is to find hiring managers, ask them for some help they can easily give, and then stay in touch occasionally.

I haven’t got time to go over the details today.  I’ve done seminars and a hundred articles on how to do that.  I’ll try to publish a slew of them in the next couple of weeks.

Don’t get distracted by polar bear testicles.  Focus on talking to hiring managers every day and staying in contact with them until you have that new job.

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Posted in Finding jobs, Job Boards, Perseverance, Resumes, Time management

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Reverse Resume Blasting

Posted on August 23, 2010 | Leave a comment

Reverse engineering is taking something that works and figuring out 10 ways it can’t possibly be done.

Us recruiters do a lot of reverse lookups.  We have paid for training in how to get information from the wrong source.  We x-ray websites.  Yes, that is what it is called.  We use social media sites to find companies.  We use resumes to find job openings.

How to use ResumeRabbit without paying for it

You may get more good from ResumeRabbit by not paying them a cent.

Here’s how:

They like to brag about the 85 websites they can send your resume to for you. They list them.  They send your resume to the sites that are the most popular with hiring companies.  Almost all those sites will show you lists of jobs and employers for free.  Go take a look at them.

And in case you haven’t heard, my favorite website for finding jobs is www.indeed.com .   They are an aggregator.  They go out to company and job board websites and scour them for jobs.

Go take a look at every website you are on today.  See if there is a way to get unintended information.  Like the list of job boards ResumeRabbit posts to.  I bet you can find a job opening in a way you never tried before.

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Posted in Finding jobs, Job Boards

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