How Social Media Can (Quickly) Sink Your Candidacy – True Story

When you send in resume, make sure it matches your LinkedIn profile (this is dead-easy to do, and there’s no excuse not to). Also, when the recruiter/ HR/ whoever drops your e-mail into Facebook search (look, Virginia, no there isn’t a Santa Claus, and yes, you’re gonna get Facebook checked), make sure what comes up is professional, and is actually you. Not some fake profile you created to play Mafia Wars when your boss wasn’t looking. I mean, is your name really Mad Eyes Marilyn Mondroe?  That’s actually kindda basass, if it is. But when your resume says “Jane Smith”, we have to assume the worst. That, or you’re a secret-assassin.

If nothing else, make the list of Zynga Games you “like” non-public, and don’t use the same e-mail address you’re using on your resume.

Here’s the interpretation: If you’ve gone to the trouble of creating a fake profile for gaming, and like everything from Farmville to Palookaville, it’s a safe bet you’re spending your working hours planting watermellons, and offing Mafia dons. That, and you’d rather live in that rather sad, shallow world, and can’t even spend the time to hit the “Import Your Resume” button on LinkedIn. You’re considered damaged goods, DOA as a candidate.

Just a thought.

I Promise You, I Thought This Was Satire

And Another Thing… Words You Should Never Use On a Resume, Cover Letter….

Image via CrunchBase

I do like LinkedIn – it’s a good thing. Part of what I like about the company is the data they pull out, and serve up. That may be because I’m a people junky (“stick them in my vein!!” Hmm. That may get edited out later). One of their new ones is an analysis of the most overused phrases on people’s LinkedIn profiles – basically, words that make you look like… well, like everyone else. The full post is here

Apparently, the majority of the people on LinkedIn are/ have:

1. Extensive experience
2. Innovative
3. Motivated
4. Results-oriented
5. Dynamic
6. Proven track record
7. Team player
8. Fast-paced
9. Problem solver
10. Entrepreneurial

Hooray! Everyone’s amazing!!

The thing is… really? Because I’ve worked with a lot of people, and, well…. never mind. Just trust me: find some diferent ways to describe yourself. Pronto. Use words that relate to what you actually do, for the love of Pete. 

Oh: and stop using the word “vast”. And trousers. Slacks, as well.  But, mostly “vast”. You don’t have “vast knowledge”. Trust me.  Also: “people person”. Why is everyone a “people person”?  How in the world is that a compelling reason to hire you?

Anyways.

No, seriously, I’m done. Just can’t find a way to roll off naturally. Fin. Talk to you later? Hasta la pasta, baby?

How Zipcar Learned to Stop Worrying, and Hired Jeff Clark (Or, The Continuing Evolution of the Job Hunt)

Ahem.

Testing, testing… is this thing live?  Great.

So. Sorry if I’ve been a bad, bad blogger. Not posting every week. Heck, not even posting every month.

But, you know….

Facebook.

Twitter.

Texting.

Talking out loud. Sometimes to other people.

All that said: sometimes, something has to be said. This is one of those times.

Most of the people who read this thing (I assume) are my relatives, or my friends, and generally get to it by clicking in the wrong link in their news feed.  So, a bunch of you know our mutual friend, Senor Jeff Clark.  Jeff’s always been an innovator when it comes to getting a job, not to mention generally innovative in most aspects of his life. He’s just good at that – and, he’s a good guy. I’d hate him, but, well, he’s a good guy. Dammit.

Jeff took an approach to getting a job recently that you need to know about – and, you need to think about replicating.

He applied to the job. By applied, I mean it in the way Webster’s Dictionary defines it: applying general principles to solve definite problems. Jeff had a problem. He was in Chicago. He wanted a job back in Boston. And, he wanted that job to be somewhere he found interesting.  To top it off, Jeff was an avid Zipcar user and proponent, and they were looking for a Web Developer.

Here’s the nut of the problem: he wanted that job. So did a ton of other people.  Competition would be fierce, and he was handicapped by not being local to a market chock full of great engineers.

Here’s the general principle: the only way to get a job you want, is to get, and hold, that company’s attention. Then, prove you’re the right fit for the job. That matters….

Jeff’s approach was what makes his use of the general principle unique – he customized.

That’s right: he actually took the time to market himself to the company he wanted to work for.

I know, weird, right? I mean, isn’t it easier to sit there for weeks and months and months spamming your generic resume and cover letter out to random job openings?

Of course it isn’t. It’s painful for you, and no more fun for the company receiving the resume.

So. Jeff made a site, appropriately called “You Should Hire Jeff Clark”, with Zipcar’s name in the URL. He wrote them, basically, a love letter. About how great they were, and – because you need to sell a bit – how great he was for them. A bit cheeky, but with a point: he would be an asset.

Hey there. I’m Jeff.

I’m a web developer + designer. I really like making websites and I heart Zipcar.

I think we should talk.

Before he sent Zipcar the URL (as opposed to a resume) he shot a couple of us the URL to check out for feedback, and general hilarity. He didn’t publish it, as he was still fine tuning – but, as fate would have it, the site was unlocked briefly.

Zipcar saw it.

Zipcar called him.

Zipcar love it.

Zipcar hired him.

I know. “But, I’m an accountant, I can’t create a website.” Okay, first off, I get that. Chances are, a CFO might not be blown away by a cheeky web site with a slightly snarky hipster edge to it (I know Jeff: you don’t wear skinny jeans, or live in Brighton or Allston – anymore – but, you get the point…).   I’m betting you could put together a (free, easy, and I mean easy) site using WordPress, where you talk a bit about your achievements around revenue recognition, with a few quotes from your references, and addressed directly to that CFO’s company.  It’s not rocket science.

It’s just personal. It’s refreshing. It gets attention (the good kind). It may well get you the job.

Pinny Cohen on Keyword Optimizing Your Resume

(Reposted from Pinny Cohen – full post is here)

Usually when I discuss optimizing keywords I am referring to targeting search engines like Google, but what about the “niche” search engines that are mushrooming up all over? Those search engines are often used not just by consumers, but also by job recruiters (among others).

I’ll take for example a site like Monster.com or Craigslist, both sites with tons of resumes posted on there. How do you get your resume seen by as many recruiters as possible?

The answer is of course, to include information that they are looking for. Just like there are ways of getting data on popular search words on Google, we can look at the most popular keyword searches by recruiters on job sites, and learn from that. The list is useful for three reasons:

First, it tells us what the “preferable” term for what we do is. Most jobs or actions in the business world have more than one term, and sometimes that causes confusion over who has what experience. For example, a digital planner and a media planner could be doing the exact same work, but there will likely be one searched for more often. If you find out which term is better searched, you can make those changes on your bio or resume and ensure that you are located more easily.

Second, the list tells us what positions are in demand in the work force currently. We can use this information to navigate our career in a direction that is lacking manpower and therefore get more competitive offers.

Third, if and when more data is offered from sites like TheLadders.com, we can use this information to trend certain keywords and see if they are becoming more or less popular, or if there are more or less openings than there were at a previous point in time.

The top 10 keywords recruiters search for on job sites:

1 Sales
2 controller
3 cpa
4 SAP
5 project manager
6 cfo
7 tax
8 Director
9 recruiter
10 Human resources

One notable thing I noticed from the top ten is that three out of them were related to finance (cpa, cfo, tax), another three for running things (controller, project manager, director) and two for getting more manpower to find the previous two (recruiter, human resources)…..

Read the rest here: pinnycohen.com

Great tips from Pinny Cohen. Make sure that your resume shows up – and not just to search engines. Recruiters use applicant tracking systems (ATS’s) to manager what can be a huuuuuge inflow of junk. There are lots of people who use programs that spider the internet for jobs that match certain keywords, and then apply – it’s recruitment SPAM, and the better the recruiter is at doing their jobs (getting the word out about the openings their trying to fill), the more junk they get. So we use the ATS to filter, and only show us jobs that match certain skills. That’s where keywords come into play – and may well be why you feel like your resume is going into a black hole. It probably is. One thing I’d add: don’t try and “stuff” keywords into your resume by writing in tons of extra buzz-words in white-font in between subjects, jobs, etc. While it’s true that the recruiter’s database will see those while the recruiter’s naked eye won’t, most of us are onto the trick – if we can’t figure out why a resume has popped up on our screen, we’ll hit “select all” and change the font color for the entire document to black.

I Need a Job

Sound familiar?  It should.  One of the most commonly searched words on Google is job, and “need a job” is up there in terms of phrases.   You’ve got company, in other words.  Likely this guy is one of them.

You’ve done what you think is the right thing: created a solid resume, and cover letter.  Used one of the job search engines (Indeed, SimplyHired, etc - blow off Monster, HotJobs, etc, the only jobs there are the ones that companies pay to put up, whereas the engines crawl employer sites, job boards, CraigsList, etc – everything in one spot, way easier).  Applied and applied and… oh wait: that’s where it seems to break down.  Nobody’s calling you back.

Don’t worry – the same people you’re competing with are having the same issues.  Here’s a tip: it’s likely no one even looks at your resume.  The reason comes down to resources on the hiring side.

Think of it this way: you see an interesting job at what seems like a great company.  You e-mail in your resume with cover letter as instructed (btw, copy and paste your resume into your e-mail – below the cover letter/ e-mail – as well as attaching it – trust me here).   Want to know how the sausage gets made from that point on?

• Resume gets e-mailed into an applicant tracking system (ATS)
  • The ATS rips your resume apart (parses is a nicer way of saying that), looks for keywords, then reassembles it into a file in the ATS
  • (hopefully) a copy of your resume gets attached to the file
• The recruiter logs into their ATS
  • They don’t look at every single applicant
    • Here’s why: they don’t have the time
    • Why? Simple math: if they’re working on 10 openings and doing their job right, they’re getting on average (and I’m making this average up, but it sounds right) 10 applicants per day
      • So, no big deal, right? That’s just 100 resumes to look through
        • Hmm – ‘k, so let’s say they give each resume an average of 5 minutes, which is a poor return on your investment of days and days of working on the thing, but so be it
        • 5 minutes X 100 resume = 500 minutes
        • 500 minutes = 8.3 hours
          • Per day
          • It’s not gonna happen
          • Whoever’s doing initial resume screens has meetings, coffee, interviews, lunch – hell, they might even go to the bathroom
• Instead, the recruiter uses a nifty feature that every ATS comes with: a search box
  • Let’s say they’re looking for a Senior Software Engineer, and you have a couple of key requirements before somebody will even be considered
  • They type in things like J2EE, Hadoop, Spring, etc
    • The results get looked at – if you’re not one of ‘em…

There’s a lot more beyond this, of course – the recruiter might find you, say “a-ha!” (I prefer shouting “excelsior!”).  Then, the manager might say “no, I don’t like that typo…” or “they change jobs every two years” or “who uses that font?”  and rule you out.  It’s a crappy world.   All that said: you need to at least get your resume looked at.

How? Keywords, keywords, keywords.  Don’t make things up or drone on and on, but think about how the search will operate: likely by somebody who doesn’t work intimately enough in your field to read between the lines and understand that when you say X, it also includes Y and Z.  It’s perfectly acceptable to add a technical skill-set to the resume, separate from your day-to-day job descriptions – if it’s a long one, you can add it at the end of the resume with a quick summary of your Core Skills at the top.

One caveat here: there’s a trick floating around where people add keywords in white font all over their resumes, in between sections, at the end, top, wherever.  The idea is that they can add every tech term in the book and the ATS will read it, but the naked eye won’t thereby making sure you get “found”.  Don’t do it: savvy recruiters will find the resume, wonder why the keywords they searched for aren’t there, drop a copy of the resume into a Word doc, hit “select all”, and change the font to black – et voila, all your keywords now belong to us.  And you don’t make it in.