The most common time killers in a job search (excluding procrastination) involve interviews that go nowhere, networking meetings that net nothing, and countless job applications that get no response. Here’s how to manage these and other situations so that you can turn waste into haste and jump-start your job search.
When I first look at a client’s resume, I quite often see a list of bullet points that reflect only responsibilities. One of my clients, for example, an accountant, listed a bullet point that read: “Responsible for managing the monthly close.” After we discussed the impact she made through her management, we modified the text to read: “Managed the monthly close, reducing turnaround time by at least 30% while improving accuracy.” Do you feel the extra power
A prospective client once came to me for help. “In the past year I’ve applied for about 100 positions, yet have had no interviews!” she told me in frustration. I was pretty confident that I knew the crux of her problem straight away. It was the emphasis she placed on the number of jobs she had applied for. Usually, just applying for jobs is not nearly enough, especially at more senior levels.
A number of resume “professionals” say not to use formatting such as bolding or underlining because it can prevent Applicant Tracking Systems from identifying formatted keywords in your resume. ATS’s are often used by large organizations to do initial automated resume screenings for job postings, before resumes are seen by a human. My take on this claim: TOTALLY FALSE.
How do I know? Simple—you can test it yourself. Get a free Google Drive account, which includes gigabytes of cloud storage, and upload your PDF (or Word) resume there. Google Drive is known for making
If you’re not, you’re not a good networker– you’ll miss opportunities! Getting meetings (and then “acing” these meetings) is 50% of what you need to do. Keeping in touch following these meetings is the other 50%.
Many job-search cold emails and cover letters that ask for a meeting or an interview are not even read by the recipient. The email subject line doesn’t resonate, or the content is too dense or irrelevant to the reader. Clients who have applied the following nine rules, however, have seen big improvements in their email response rates.
Rule #1: Make your letter easily “scannable”
People are usually too busy to take the time to read through a long, dense email.
What do you do if a hiring manager says you are “overqualified” for a position? First, you need to know that what they really mean is a) you’re going to want too much money, b) you’re going to be bored and will leave in six months, or c) you won’t fit into the culture. All three of these underlying issues can be addressed with these two approaches:
I once went to a seminar where the presenter was sharing some leadership development ideas with the audience. At the end of the presentation, we were all left with the same question— What do we do with this information? In fact, someone asked this very question (“what is our next step…”), and the presenter’s response was “That’s a good question, I’m not sure.” BIG mistake, and it was the key reason his presentation was a fail.
The number one question any audience member has is “how does this help me?” For your presentation to have any chance of achieving greatness (or even goodness), you must answer this question.
LinkedIn now makes it easier to find volunteer opportunities. Gain access by going to http://volunteer.linkedin.com or by clicking on the “Jobs” menu option, selecting “Advanced Search,” “More Options,” and then entering “volunteer” in the job title. LinkedIn has partnered with some major volunteer matching sites to make this happen. Here’s why this feature is so great.
How you present yourself or your work can determine a potential promotion, sale, or job offer. These three simple ideas, from my book, Peak Presentations, can go a long way towards helping you achieve the outcomes you want.
Make it Useful: Focus on their Bottom Line
It’s easy to talk about what you know. It’s harder to apply your knowledge to the specific issues of the audience members before you. Every audience member wants to know “how can this help me?” Taking steps to keep the focus on your audience’s bottom line is key to winning them over.
Here’s an example: I facilitated a meeting between David, a business owner with a client-relationship-management (CRM) software product, and Julie, a potential client for David, whom I knew and thought could benefit from David’s product. I had both worked with David before and used his software, so I could vouch for him and his product.
About five minutes into David’s initial presentation to Julie, however, I began to see that David was not going to get the sale. The reason: he went right into the features and the bells and whistles of his software, instead of keeping the focus on Julie’s specific problems, and how he could help solve them! In short, he took the easy route, instead of the harder route which would have involved seeking to understand Julie’s issues, and then translating his product’s benefits into solutions for Julie.
Following this non-event, I worked with David on his sales presentation. The next time around, he did his homework about what problems his software could solve for the prospective client, and what opportunities it could open up. He also made sure to ask a few key questions early in the meeting which further identified CRM-related issues the prospect was facing. This time, he got the sale.
PowerPoint Slides: Don’t Compete!
When using PowerPoint slides to support a presentation, make sure the slide content doesn’t compete with what you are saying.
Often this can happen when the presenter places too much content on the slide, so the audience has to decide– read the slides, or listen to the presenter? Think back to a recent presentation you attended, and you’ll know what I mean. That’s why you need to keep the slides simple– relegate them to a true supporting role. They should enhance your words, not compete with them; people are there to listen to you. The handouts, on the other hand, are a different story– that’s where you can give them details.
Have an on-the-job pitch at the ready
Having a very short, “five second pitch” at the ready for unexpected encounters can turn a mundane situation into a career-enhancing opportunity. The following client experience illustrates how this “mini-presentation” can help you.
Mike was in an elevator at work. The doors opened and in walked a more senior executive, Andrea, with whom Mike had little interaction. She said, “Hi Mike, how are you?” Mike could have made small talk, but instead, he used his five second pitch: “Well, we’ve just rolled out the new workflow-management platform, so things are great!” ”Oh you’re involved with that?”, asked Andrea. Mike’s response: “Actually, I’ve been leading the effort for the past three months!” Now they were having a conversation about this big triumph in Mike’s career.
Andrea ended the conversation with “Given your leadership role, we may want you for our cross-functional task-force for company-wide workflow management– I’ll talk to your boss about it.” The result? Mike transformed a potentially trivial encounter to a possibly significant career-enhancing opportunity.
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When I first look at a client’s resume, I quite often see a list of bullet points that reflect only responsibilities. One of my clients, for example, an accountant, listed a bullet point that read: “Responsible for managing the monthly close.” After we discussed the impact she made through her management, we modified the text to read: “Managed the monthly close, reducing turnaround time by at least 30% while improving accuracy.” Do you feel the extra power
Avoid These Six Job-search Time Wasters!
by Robert Hellmann • Getting Interviews, Job-Search Strategy