If you know anything about Internet Marketing, you know the value of keywords, for SEO and page ranking. The same holds true to writing a Resume, computers are scanning Resumes for key words listed in the job posting, like strong verbal communication. To make it through the first initial screening, you need to have these keywords on your Resume, the more the better. Companies are now using word recognition software to scan Resumes, so try to match the phrase as exactly as possible. Phrases like strong verbal communication would be recognized, but public speaker probably won’t be recognized with that keyword.

To find the keywords look carefully at that and other simimliar job postings and look at the listed requirements. Even if you don’t have that requirement you can still use the keyword. For instance they wanted you to know a certain program, you can state the keyword (program) and say how quickly you could learn it. The more keywords the better your chances are. The same holds true for human eyes too. Remember to use exact keyword phrases.

A efficient way to gain exposure and be eligible for jobs not yet posted is to use national job boards, like monster.com, careerbuilder.com, hotjobs.com. Job boards can be useful for several reasons. One, is it is a good way to test market your resume. If you are not getting any responses it is time to to  back and re-write your resume and cover letter. You can test market your resume and cover letter and know in hours and days instead of weeks using non-electronic means if your resume and cover letter are going to get results. Use the job board to re-fine your resume, so when the job comes along you really want, you already know you have a winning Resume.  Often, before the job is even posted, hiring managers will look at the national job boards for qualified candidates. Imagine getting a job, without all the competition of a posted position.

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If you are writing a resume for the first time and are freaking out because you don’t know what to put down let alone what format to use, don’t despair. Research shows that resume get about 20 seconds to make the cut. So format is very important, use one that is easy to read and the most relevant information is the most visible. I mostly use a combination of the chronological and functional formats. Show off some of your computer skills and create your own format as opposed to a generic one found on your computer, that everyone else will have. You can use bullets to increase the readability to highlight relevant skills. Make sure and use a font that is easy to read and nice paper at least 30 weight.

 

Start off with your contact information, name, address, phone number and e-mail. You may want to create a free account with a professional sounding address, especially if yours is too cute or inappropriate for a work setting. Stud69 will not impress your new boss and may disqualify you before they ever read the rest of your teenage resume. Next I put a Summary of Qualifications, highlight your most relevant skills here. You will know what is relevant if you spend a bit of time researching similar job posting and take note of the skills they are wanting. I also suggest spending time researching each company you apply for and find there mission statement, sales, goals, check out business journals, and local news paper archives. If they identify team work as a core value document your team skills. If they are opening into a new market document relevant skills that would add value to their goal. That is the key right there, show how you will add value or contribute something they need and you will get an interview. Here are some items to include:

Spend some time either at the library or on-line looking at examples and formats and you will soon get an idea of the basic structure. Your school career counselor can help you too, I strongly suggest you have at least 2 professionals proof-read it before you drop it off. Teachers and parents will work.

Don’t forget a cover letter, check out this blog for How to Write An Effective Cover Letter. If you follow these guidelines you will be leaps and bounds ahead of your peers and you will pass the 20 second test.

This is still somewhat of a controversy. From what I have read and experienced is that most interviewers give an approving nod.

Here are the con’s

1. An interview is still considered by some to be a conversation, and thus taking notes is rude.
2. It may make the interviewer defensive,thinking about possible lawsuits. The last thing you want to do is to make the interviewer nervous.
3. It may indicate you have a problem with short-term memory or aren’t quick enough to think on their feet.

Here are the pro’s

1. The interviewers are taking notes, just don’t delay the process.
2. An interview is a business meeting and thus taking notes is not only appropriate, but professional and not showing signs of a scattered or disorganized mind. Certain business cultures provide all employees with notebooks and expect them to use them to stay accountable to goals and objectives.
3. It encourages listen and not talking, some coaches suggest the 80-20 rule, 80% listening and 20% talking.
4. The most important thing is to ask permission. Insurance plans and benefits can be complicated and I think it is best to have accurate information. I also think it demonstrates a level of seriousness and interest towards the position.
5. You have all the information you need to write a very effective thank you letter.
6. You may think of a question to ask or a topic you want to expand upon while the interviewer is talking and you don’t want to interrupt them, you can write it down to talk about latter.

It is very important to ask permission because it eliminates any surprises and draws attention to that behavior. You can also inject a sales pitch into the question.

Suggestion:

Do you mind if I take notes? I want to keep the details of this discussion very clear in my mind because the more I learn about the opportunity, the more confident I am that I can make an important contribution.

Suggestion for consulting your notes:

While we were talking, I jotted down a few points I wanted to ask you about. May I have a minute to consult my notes?

Thanks for the detailed description of the opportunity and the company. I know you answered most of my questions in the course of our conversation. Before  I came here, I jotted down a few questions I didn’t want to forget. May I consult my notes?

Pay attention to all the fine details in an interview including your pen and a notebook. I suggest getting a nice pen and a leather bound notebook. Taking notes with a pen that doesn’t work or a ratty looking, cheap notebook won’t impress anyone.

I got this information from a book called 201 Best Questions to Ask on Your Interview, by John Kador.

How important is a follow up thank you letter or thank you e-mail. Critical and the sooner the better, usually within 24 hours. Think of a thank you letter as another opportunity to impress your prospective employer with the reasons why you are the best candidate for the job.  The question becomes should it be hand written or typed or e-mailed. One should consider your audience and how formal or informal the interview was. Also consider the size of the company and the rapport built during the interview.

Get the thank you cards and paper before the interview and write the letter the first half hour you are home and walk it out to the mailbox!

This is the format you should use.

Your Name
Your Address
Your City, State, Zip Code
Your Phone Number
Your Email

Date

Name
Title
Organization
Address
City, State, Zip Code

Dear First Name, (or Mr./Ms. Last Name if you don’t know them well)

Thank you for all the help you have given me with my job search.

I especially appreciate the information and advice you have provided, and the contacts you have shared with me. Your assistance has been invaluable to me during this process.

Again, thank you so much. I greatly appreciate your generosity.

Best Regards,

Your Name

You can comment on anything you forgot to expand on or re-inforce why you can best serve their employment needs, be specific and mention any awards or certifications gained that you may not of had the chance to talk about in the interview. Thank them again in the end of the letter.

First, you should never turn in you resume without a cover letter that has been tailored to that employer. In the old days before word processors you might have gotten away with it, but not anymore. Be specific in what you are asking for, a job, an internship, inquiring about future employment. Tell the prospective employer how you heard about the position, it is appropriate to mention any person by name.

The job of an effective Cover Letter is to convince the reader to look at your resume, therefore it must be targeted to that employer. Research the company and find their mission statement, sales figures and/or goals and find personal attributes that are congruent with the company’s core values. Write how and what you are going to contribute to the employer. A good Cover Letter will reflect ones attitude, personality, enthusiasm, motivation, and communication skills. This is where you want to address any details the employer is asking for.

Cover Letters fall into two categories, a Letter of Application and a Letter of Inquiry. A letter of application is in response to an advertised position. A letter of inquiry is a letter asking if there are going to be any open positions coming up. Sometimes with all of your research you still may not have enough information to draft a successful Cover Letter, if this is a case you can write a letter requesting that information and then follow up on that letter in several ways. First by thanking them for the requested information and then address why you would be a great addition to their staff and explain why you are sending your resume.
Print your Effective Cover Letter on some nice paper.

This is how an effective Cover Letter should look.

Your Street Address
City, State Zip Code
Telephone Number
Email Address

Month, Day, Year

Mr./Ms./Dr. FirstName LastName
Title
Name of Organization
Street or P. O. Box Address
City, State Zip Code

Dear Mr./Ms./Dr. LastName:

Opening paragraph: State why you are writing; how you learned of the organization or position, and basic information about yourself.

2nd paragraph: Tell why you are interested in the employer or type of work the employer does (Simply stating that you are interested does not tell why, and can sound like a form letter). Demonstrate that you know enough about the employer or position to relate your background to the employer or position. Mention specific qualifications which make you a good fit for the employer’s needs. This is an opportunity to explain in more detail relevant items in your resume. Refer to the fact that your resume is enclosed. Mention other enclosures if such are required to apply for a position.

3rd paragraph: Indicate that you would like the opportunity to interview for a position or to talk with the employer to learn more about their opportunities or hiring plans. State what you will do to follow up, such as telephone the employer within two weeks. If you will be in the employer’s location and could offer to schedule a visit, indicate when. State that you would be glad to provide the employer with any additional information needed. Thank the employer for her/his consideration.

Sincerely,

(Your handwritten signature)

Your name typed

Enclosure(s) (refers to resume, etc.)

That is how you write an effective Cover Letter. You may want to get a free e-mail account just for job seeking, pick a professional one. The same goes for any recorded voice messages, this is not the time to be cute or show your personality.

Now take your Cover Letter and Resume and post them on a national board to see if you get any response, if you don’t get any hits for a couple of days, go back and re-write your cover letter. An effective cover letter usually gets results right away.

Like any other writing project, writing an outline will help with the successful outcome of your resume. It will help keep you on track and help you produce a resume that will get you an interview.  You are going to want to gather up several areas of information first.

1. Contact Information for yourself, address, phone, e-mail ( you may want to create an account just for job hunting, pick a professionally sounding address)

2. Education, high School, college, trade school, any trainings or certificates you have attended or obtained that relate to your field.

3.  Work Experience, employers name, job duties, responsibilities, dates. Some companies require you to fill out an application so get the addresses too.

4. Accomplishments/ skills, any awards you might have received.

Once you have all this information organized you are ready to pick a format, check Resumes 101 Formats,on this blog, for what format will be to your advantage. Mostly I use a combination of the Chronological and the Functional Formats.

A resume has one purpose, to get you an interview. If you aren’t getting any offers, go back and re-write your resume, make sure you are using action verbs and actively selling your skills and qualifications. I treat a resume like a living document and it is always evolving and changing for each situation.

Research the company and find a mission statement, sales, goals and identify them with some of your personal attributes and work that into your resume or cover letter. If the company identifies team work as a core value, document your team player attributes in your Summary of Qualifications, accomplishments or in your work history.

I no longer include the objective or references. The job or career objective was all about the job seeker and had little to do with what you could contribute to the employer, wasted space. It has also been my experience that an employer will not check your references before an interview. However, since you are gathering information you might as well check your references now, before they are needed.

Employers are getting hundreds of resumes and you have about 15 seconds to make it into the call pile. So a good resume is critical. How you approach gathering and presenting information will help with the finished product. A resume has one purpose, to get you an interview. There are basically 5 different formats you can use, Targeted, Inventory, Chronological, Functional and the Combo/Hybrid. For my clients who have spotty employment history and many have criminal records I use the Combo/Hybrid

A Targeted resume targets a specific career objective or specific industry, to highlight skills for what the employer is advertising.

An Inventory resume is for when you have a general objective, but don’t want to limit yourself to one job title.

The chronological resume documents progressive career movement and is easy to read. Document your work history In reverse chronological order. This emphasizes a progressive, steady employment

A functional resume highlight skills and qualifications and focuses less on the amount of work history you have. The top of your resumes highlights skills, qualifications and the bottom contains your work history and education.

The Combo/Hybrid combines several of the key benefits of them all. Start out with A Summary of Qualifications and highlight your best most competitive skills or traits. Then if education is your next best selling point put it next or maybe it is your work history.

Now take your finished product and test it out, post on a national job board like monster.com or try Worktree, one of the nations leading job boards, with thousands of postings.

I’m a Job Developer and yesterday I ran into an uncomfortable situation when a prospective employer was asking for my client’s diagnosis. My client has a severe Mental Illness that is still shrouded with so much stigma, I didn’t want to tell him.  I felt that the question was inappropriate if not illegal. So I did some checking and this is what I found out. My colleague felt the question was in legal territory, since  I introduced myself as a Job Developer and it wasn’t an interview with the client. Here are the absolutely illegal question subjects. 

An employer can ask you questions to determine your fitness for the job, not delving into your personal life. Illegal questions may be asked to eliminate you from the position or  because the interviewer is poorly trained, ignorant or just overly curious.

What is the best way to handle an illegal question?  I was vague and tried to answer the nature of the question.I told him he had an illness that required him to take medication, but that it didn’t affect his ability to do the job I suggested. I had talked with my client about disclosing his disability, so I had permission, but I didn’t think it was in my clients best interest to fully disclose. If an interviewer asks about your national origin, you can reply that you are legal to work in the Untied States.  You can also say that you are uncomfortable with that question and it doesn’t have anything to do with my ability to do this job. I never have confronted or anything I have read suggest confronting the legality of the question in the interview, because you don’t know their motivation (ignorance or malice). You can file a claim with the EEOC, U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, but there are time frames to adhere to.

You landed the interview, you have been offered a position, now you must negotiate for your salary package, what to do?

First, don’t go to the interview without first having a salary range for the position you are being hired for.  You will be at a huge disadvantage if you don’t do some homework first. There are several sites were you can find a range. One is http://www.cbsalary.com. You need to establish a bottom salary, the lowest offer you can reasonably accept and don’t go below that. This may become a balancing act with how badly you need the job and getting the salary you need.

Secondly, don’t take the first offer and don’t sell yourself short, but don’t start negotiating until an offer is made.  Don’t be afraid to refuse and offer, negotiate, make a counter offer. Ask more about the challenges and responsibilities. This gives you more information and can give you leverage. Repeat the offer, then remain silent like you are thinking about it. Be prepared with options and counter offers. Remember your selling points during the interview, revisit these if need be.

Lastly, don’t accept the job right away, ask for 24 hours to think about it. Know how badly the employer needs to fill this position. Continue to demonstrate your interest and enthsiasism for the position even though you are negotiating. Don’t substitute aloofness for holding out for a better deal.

Don’t forget to write a thank you note, this may seal the deal!