Business

Over the years the way we search for jobs in our career has changed. In order to succeed at job searching one must master the art of job searching on line by capitalizing on technology and innovative thought. With that said, the ability to fill out online applications fast, deliver great content on your resume, be a polished interviewee and interviewer, and support your claims one must be innovative and willing to adapt to change.

This begins by organizing yourself. Make sure you have pdf and or jpeg files of all of your degrees and certifications. A Word document resume that conveys a brand with support to back up your statements and accomplishments. In addition, have a standard cover letter that can be quickly augmented for a specific position. Also, have a career summary which highlights accomplishments, personality traits and a value proposition; this should not look like your resume, but shorter and similar to an elevator speech. Next, make sure you have a few letters of recommendation, a demographic listing of all of your education, employers, and references in a Word document that includes names, addresses, dates and contact information. With these files and tools open while you are online applying for a position you can easily copy and paste the appropriate information into the applicable parts of the online application form, this will decrease your time to complete the application.

LinkedIn profiles are a great way to showcase your career. Your LinkedIn profile should be more than your resume. Profiles on Linked in should have examples of work, career summaries, and letters of recommendation, endorsements, and online references and yes even written and published posts. Posts that you publish should be related to your field, designed in such a way to convey your knowledge, a political and objective; this can drive traffic to your profile. An online profile should contain all of your favorite stuff including your degree itself. I suggest also placing pictures of examples of the product, service and or theme with each company you have worked for; along with examples of your work; this will add to the visual experience of your profile.

After you have interviewed for the position, consider the appropriate strategy and time to add the people you interviewed with as connections; this will help grow your network. I cannot tell you how many times I have interviewed with a company years after my first interview because of this type of strategy, and received multiple offers from the same company. Maintain a database of notes and outlook contacts for all places you have interviewed. Do not rely on your profile in a passive fashion. Make sure you always respond to job postings; it is a numbers game. Although I would advise applying to positions in your field that you are qualified for. Have a strategy that positions yourself maximum flexibility. My personal experience is that my rate of securing an interview from answering posts online applying for a position has ranged from ten to fifty percent.

Often times I have been able to maintain interviewing with companies two to three times a week for months on end. This has allowed me to grow my network. Use your face time in the interview to make a connection during the interview and after, which is what Linked in is for. This strategy has helped me to save time and money while expanding my network in the most productive and visible fashion. I do not attend networking events any longer; because of the strategy I explained and implemented has a greater success rate for me. Most people tell me they send a hundred resumes out before they get one phone call. I have a 25% average success rate as explained above, never been out of work, and learned to be extremely polished at interviewing; and receive lots of offers all the time. One can use recruiters, I do suggest doing so, however recruiters should not be relied on. Recruiters do not provide the same opportunity that you can provide yourself. I have held over 75 jobs as an employee, contract worker, or consultant over the years by marketing myself. In the end your search, online presence, attitude, applications, recruiters, staffing agencies and networking combine to enable the success rate of career moves. I have been able to do this simply from my home computer, telephone and face to face interviews.

If you would like to learn more about how to brand yourself, save time and money, and increase your rate of success on your job search without spending an enormous amount of time please feel free to contact me on my LinkedIn profile, email or cell phone. I have access to all the tools and the ability to teach you how to succeed without wasting time and money.

The adage that, “It is all in the cover letter, baby”, holds more merit in today’s job market than ever before.  As it applies to human beings the cover letter is extremely important.  Now when Human Resource managers and talent acquisition personnel receive literally hundreds of resumes for a position how can one stand out?  Well let me tell you, the cover letter is read; while the resume is scanned over if the cover letter is good. If the cover letter is no good then the resume reader is forced to read the resume.  Let’s face it reading a resume is hard enough, let alone hundreds of resumes, and when you are not in the specific field you are reading the resume for………well that only makes it more likely your resume gets thrown to the wolves.

A resume is a marketing document with accomplishments that one should be proud of and able to recite from memory.  The cover letter should tell the resume reader what is in the resume, why you are a good fit for the position, and what special qualities you possess that the competition does not possess.

A cover letter is usually three to four paragraphs from two hundred to five hundred words; the shorter he better.  An opening paragraph explaining who you are and why you are a good fit for the position.  Next a paragraph outlining the skills you have that the employer is looking for with perhaps a fact to back up your words; This comes directly from the employers add (I might add literally).  Next, what separates you from the competition and why.  Lastly a summary of specific qualities that show the employer you are the reliable, confidential and loyal person they are looking for.

Now the resume reader knows what to look for, and can probably spend less than one minute on your resume with the preconceived notion that you may be one of the people to interview.  This is how to get selected for the first round of interviews especially when the hiring manager is reading the cover letter and resume.

The ultimate goal in business and life is to set your team, or self, up for success.  The outcome of success or failure is determined by the setting up of reasonable and expectations.  The idea of perfection is tantamount in the success process.  Consequently a person or team must understand there is no such thing as perfection on earth; perfection is in a higher power such as God.

When perfection is expected, a person, or a team sets them self up for polarization in their mind.  The result of this mind set leads to anger if perfection is not achieved.  The anger leads to confusion, and an inability to think clearly due to polarization in the mind.  Consequently, conflict and miss communication manifest themselves into dialog.  Next there is a complete breakdown in communication which results in animosity, and or attitude issues.  As a result, the rate or probability of failure is increased if perfection is expected as an absolute.  This usually leads to the wrong decision.  Obviously perfection is a great idea and goal; not to be taken out of context as an absolute, or conclusion.

In conclusion, people and business must strive for the best possible outcome given the facts and circumstance.  Considering accuracy is very important.  Also, considering the effects on people and business is very important to the decision, and desired outcome.  Therefore a balanced, rational, and coherent thought process and decision is required for success.  This can only be achieved with clarity which requires methodical steps and thinking.