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How to avoid a second interview in 10 easy steps

There is so much info out there on how to succeed in job searching, interviewing, career management, etc.  But what about the advice for those of you who don't want to get a second interview?  Surely with the way that some people behave in their interviews (I still remember the girl whose thong was visible AND who copped to falsifying her resume when being interviewed for a professional level role), that must be your objective.  So let's address your needs here with a short but sweet list:

1) Screw research.  Preparing for an interview by researching the company, their products, the actual humans interviewing you, and the organizational culture is a sure fire way to demonstrate that you are a bright professional...so just don't do it!  Ignore the website, Hoovers, BNet, and everything else.  You know where the building is-that's enough, right?

2) Practice is for sissies.  You don't need to practice, right?  You have been in the working world for umpteen years and you know the story.  You're not interested in going in there and BS'ing your way into a job-they can take you or leave you at face value.  Those people who make the time to map their accomplishments, skills, and experience to the specific requirements of the job are chumps, right?  I mean-who are they going to want?  The dude who sounds like he is rehearsed or the guy who just wings it with whatever comes to mind at that moment...

3) Let them do the heavy lifting.  Remember that they are supposed to be interviewing you, so don't bother creating a strategic list of questions that you want to ask them to both find out more about the role and let them see how you think.  I'm sure it's totally ok to go into an interview with zero questions, especially if you don't want to hear from them again.

4) Dress for the job you have.  So, sure you could dress up in whatever version of Sunday's best that you own for the interview, but that is going to severely hamper your ability to go to the driving range immediately afterwards.  I say as long as your jean shorts don't have stains and you wear your best beer t-shirt, you are golden.  Especially if the job is client facing.  Who wouldn't want to do business with the replica of their favorite frat boy?

5) Feel free to daydream in the interview.  You're there, sitting in the manager's office.  Wouldn't it be nice to have her job someday?  3 martini lunches, half days on Fridays, ahhh-the life.  Sure, you might be missing some of her questions and avoiding eye contact, but is that so important?  Obviously they called you in for an interview-I'm sure there is no one else more qualified than you.

6) Shoot straight.  They are eventually going to get to the part where they want to talk about why you left your last job or what you thought of your last boss.  Those days are behind you, so it's absolutely ok to tell them that your boss was a complete jackass and you were just about to quit when they fired you.  I would say too that it's ok to let them know that you then sued them for wrongful termination and if your settlement comes through, you plan on quitting whatever job you have to live off that money until social security kicks in.  I'm sure all of that negativity won't affect their decision anyway, so let it all hang out.

7) Sell yourself?  Nah.  I mean, I know some may say with unemployment ranging from 9-17% depending on market, you are facing more competition, but who cares.  If it's meant to be, it will be-you don't have to be prepared to demonstrate how you above all others are the most qualified candidate for the job.

8) Forget the thank you note.  Seriously?  You schlepped all the way there and had to TiVo your favorite daytime shows and they want you to thank them?  Nah-I would say that unless you want a second interview, do not under any circumstances send a thank you note within 24 hours referencing the specifics of the conversation.

9) Staying in touch?  That's what Facebook is for.  Again, like the thank you note, I would say skip any follow up once a week for the next 3-4 weeks until you hear back.  I mean, again, shouldn't they be doing all of the work?

10) Feel free to bash em!  Ok, so I hear lots of stories about companies who never follow up.  Sure, they could have valid excuses, but who cares-it is so freaking rude!  So, feel free to talk bad about them to all and any who will listen.  Social media sites are an excellent way to do this.  What's the worst that can happen?

Bottom line-I guarantee that if you follow these 10 easy steps then you too will be able to avoid future interviews.  And you know, if you change your mind about not wanting more interviews, well, then I guess you could just do the opposite of all of the excellent pieces of advice I shared here.  Now, I gotta go now-I have Cougar Town on Video On Demand...

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Sigh...you still don't know what I do?  Well, I do a bunch of stuff like recruiting, RPO, job search coaching, resume writing, social media training for job seekers, and watching Cougar Town.  I'm also found to be a big fan of sarcasm and bitchyness when the situation calls for it.  I hope you know not to take this post seriously and do the exact opposite of what I'm telling you, or I'm going to be so frustrated, I will have to bang my head against my desk again because honestly-I just want the best for you people.  Truly.  Sigh.  I really do have to go now..Cougar Town is on and I love that Bobby. 

In addition to these areas of expertise, Michelle is rapidly growing her knowledge base around Social Media and Web 2.0 as it relates to the work world.  She writes a regular blog on job searching that can be found at: http://hireme.typepad.com/michellemorettini/.  Want to connect to Michelle? 

Send her an invitation on LinkedIn at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/michellemorettini. 

Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mmorettini.

Are you sure you want to hold out for a Fed job???

This is a short post with some big numbers.  A friend of mine recently went through the interview process with a federal agency for a professional level position.  While I have no way of verifying that his experience is typical, I have a pretty good guess that it is:

Applied: month 1

Received response from application: month 2

Contacted to do interview: end of month 2

Interviewed for 30 minutes and asked 5 standard questions.  Told by interviewer that they had reviewed between 3000-4000 resumes.  He was about interview 300 (yeah-interview 300) for this role.

When should he expect to hear if he is going to make it to next round of interviews: end of month 4 to end of month 5

While the Fed may offer job seekers a bit more stability than the private sector at times, it can be an incredibly long process, especially if you are hanging your hat on that alone.  Bottom line?  Add federal employment searches to a nice, diversified search and be prepared to waaaaiiiit.  Good luck and happy hunting!

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Michelle currently serves as a recruiting and job search consultant helping professionals make the leap from looking to landed.  In addition to her time spent recruiting and coaching individuals, she delivers a variety of training sessions from Social Networking, Working with Recruiters, Online Resume Posting, and Interview Prep.

 

Michelle possesses over 15 years of diverse experience in functional areas such as recruiting, human resources, coaching, training, organizational development, staffing, sales, sales management, retail, and banking/finance.

 

Prior to her work as a consultant, Michelle made her career in the Placement industry working most recently for the 2^nd largest Staffing Company in the World.  For this multi-national organization, Michelle served as an Agency Recruiter, Corporate Recruiter, Senior HR Manager, and Area Vice President.  During her tenure with this organization, Michelle was also tasked with various Organizational Development programs including the creation of a company wide Career Progression Program.  Michelle also served on the three person team that introduced a new “Gen Y” based hiring model that included a greater emphasis on college recruiting/branding and internships.  As a result of this experience, Michelle considers her greatest strengths to be talent identification/retention, talent development, and coaching for performance improvement.   

Want to connect to Michelle? 

Send her an invitation on LinkedIn at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/michellemorettini. 

Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mmorettini.

Stop fiddling with your resume

I received an email recently from a very capable and bright job seeker I know.  This gentleman was convinced that the reason that he was not getting any responses in his job search was the format of his resume.  Now, in all fairness, let me say that I wrote his resume, so I might be a little biased...but I know it's not his resume.  And you know what-it's probably not yours either.  Let's talk about that a bit.

Remember that the Average recruity type (Art) spends about 5-10 seconds glancing at your resume (10 seconds is probably too generous actually) to determine if he/she wants to review it more.  From there, if Art likes the experience he first sees, then he will probably dig in a little deeper-maybe 30 seconds before deciding to call/email/smokesignal you for a further conversation.  Alas, the amount of time you spend in writing a resume is NOT directly proportional to the amount of time that Art spends reading it. 

So, while it's important to have a nice resume, the reality is that Art doesn't care if your font is Times New Roman or Arial, whether you use bullets or asterisks, or whether you use 11 or 12 point font-Art just wants it to be clean, easy to read, and full of information about what job you did AND how well you did it-ie performance metrics.  Now, resume writing services are going to tell you the exact opposite, but the reality is that changing up little formatting details on a well written, clean, easy to read resume is probably not going to do anything for you but delay the inevitable realization of...

the market sucks.

Yep, I know.  It's a shocker, no?  The market is terrible and even a resume written on a sheet of $100 bills may not get noticed.  Remember that for most of you who are relying solely on online applications, there is a good chance that your resume isn't even being seen by human eyes.  And I promise, the computer reviewing your resume doesn't give a rat's behind how it looks.  In fact, it probably would like you to have even more data/less formatting (hence the ASCII version of the resume-but that's a rant for another day.)

What to do then?

I think for any job seeker who is putting applications out there and getting no response, you have to ask yourself what you want.  Are you doing these things to A) satisfy the requirements for your unemployment, or B) are you ready to get back in the saddle of the working world?  If the answer is B, then let's talk about this circle...

As you can see from my 5th grade graphics, nowhere in the circle of a diversified search do I recommend leaning on one method above others.  The truth is that a good search (one that is going to uncover the best jobs, not just the low hanging fruit), they are all interdependent and feed into one another.  

Ok, I'm sold..how do I start?  Well, I think the trick is to start adding in additional strategies.  I highly HIGHLY recommend finding a local job search group/club and joining their ranks.  While I don't think that all of your networking should come from the ranks of the unemployed, let's face it-we all need someone who understands how we are feeling from time to time.  Check out sites like www.job-hunt.org, www.workministry.org, etc to find local groups for you.  Beyond there, I would say add in more areas as you can until you have your job search running as a strategy and not a function.  There is no magic bullet in job searching, but the closest we can come is having a diversified strategy.

Good luck and happy hunting! 

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Michelle currently serves as a recruiting and job search consultant helping professionals make the leap from looking to landed.  In addition to her time spent recruiting and coaching individuals, she delivers a variety of training sessions from Social Networking, Working with Recruiters, Online Resume Posting, and Interview Prep.

 

Michelle possesses over 15 years of diverse experience in functional areas such as recruiting, human resources, coaching, training, organizational development, staffing, sales, sales management, retail, and banking/finance.

 

Prior to her work as a consultant, Michelle made her career in the Placement industry working most recently for the 2^nd largest Staffing Company in the World.  For this multi-national organization, Michelle served as an Agency Recruiter, Corporate Recruiter, Senior HR Manager, and Area Vice President.  During her tenure with this organization, Michelle was also tasked with various Organizational Development programs including the creation of a company wide Career Progression Program.  Michelle also served on the three person team that introduced a new “Gen Y” based hiring model that included a greater emphasis on college recruiting/branding and internships.  As a result of this experience, Michelle considers her greatest strengths to be talent identification/retention, talent development, and coaching for performance improvement. 

 

 

Want to connect to Michelle? 

Send her an invitation on LinkedIn at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/michellemorettini. 

Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mmorettini.

Want to ace an interview? Try being "real"!

I do a lot of interview coaching in my life.  Friends, family, job search clients all eventually come to the place where they are ready to put their best foot forward and sell their skills for a new job.  Many of them are self-aware and well prepared to do just this...but there is a small, but mighty group of folks out there who think that to be successful in an interview, you have to be who the hiring company wants you to be.

Let me channel my two year old in giving you my opinion on that...NOOOOO!

To me, the definition of a successful interview is one in which a candidate and a company agree to compare the candidate's true skills/abilities/experiences with the hiring company's needs/culture/goals.  These areas collide and a hire should result in the effective matching of the two.  Does it always?  Of course not-there are plenty of lousy interviewers out there.  But for today, let's talk about what we can do as job seekers to make sure that we are holding up our end of the bargain.  Let's start with what I consider to be interviewing myths:

1) Revamp my resume to reflect what the company is wanting:  On the surface, this is an excellent suggestion...if you actually have the experience that you have written on your resume!  Too many job seekers think that they won't get caught if they add an extra title here, some extra tenure there, or skills in a certain technology that they only have seen on TV.  You will eventually get busted-let's just hope that it's not when you are on the job.  Where this can be good advice is when you highlight certain skills/experiences or even reformat your resume to bring attention to certain parts of your background.  There is nothing wrong with revising a resume, as long as it's completely honest and accurate.

2) I should always match my communication style to the person interviewing me:  Again, another great suggestion on the surface...unless your interviewer is a jackass.  It's ok to slow down your pace, or use SAT words if that is what would mirror your interviewer's communication style.  However, if he/she is cursing, badmouthing someone, or being aggressive-just remember it may be an interviewing tactic to get you to let your guard down.  Don't!

3)  I don't need to prepare for interviews.  I've been in this industry 30 years...I know my stuff!  I'm sad to say that I have heard this one before...and I can also say that these are normally the interviews that go slightly awry.  Everyone can use some prep beyond knowing the hard skills of the job.  Do your research-what's going on with the company, what's the title/background of the person interviewing you, what's the organizational culture, etc.  Great that you can speak to the technology involved, but honey-it's not enough.

4)  In prepping for the dreaded strengths/weaknesses question, it's ok to spin a weakness into a strength:  I would like to take a moment here and speak for the entire recruitment community and say....STOP THIS!  Come on...we know when you are BS'ing us.  We're just too polite to let you know it.  We all have actual weaknesses.  I only know one guy who didn't have any, and I'm pretty sure He already has a job.  If it's the rest of us, we're flawed, so you don't do yourself any favors by pretending otherwise.  What do I mean by spinning a weakness into a strength?  Here's one of my personal favorites: "I work too hard.  I'm a workaholic.  I am often at work 12-15 hours a day."  The sad thingis that for some people, this is a real weakness...but for most, it's what you think employers want to hear.  Where I might believe this particular one is if it went something like this: "I work too hard.  I'm a workaholic.  Where I'm challenged by this is that if I go too long with too many hours, I find that my innovation suffers and I'm not solving problems as well as I would were I experiencing a more balanced life.  What I'm doing to fix this is limiting myself to one late night a week unless something major is going on.  This way, I'm more rested and ready to tackle the tough situations."  Ok..so here..you are acknowledging that it's a true area of development for you and how being a workaholic might actually hurt the work you do.  This is believable!  But this only works if it is a real area of development for you.  So think long and hard about this question and prepare an appropriate..and honest response.  You'll gain a lot of points with the interviewer if they know you are a "real" person.

5) I'm good...I don't have any questions!:   I've seen this one more with people with less professional experience.  In your desire to please, you decide that asking few to no questions is one way to keep the person interviewing you from taking too much time out of their day.  Ok, that's so nice.  I get it-you don't want to be an imposition.  Thank you for letting me get back to watching episodes of Grey's online, but it's not gonna get you the job!  Always have questions prepared for every single interview.  I always like to ask a couple of the same questions for every single person I interview with at a company-it gives me an idea of how they think, plus tells me a lot about consistency of belief, value, and methodology runs through the company.  The last company that I interviewed with had extremely consistent answers and that impressed me a bunch.  By failing to ask questions in an interview, you rob yourself of a crucial opportunity to determine if this is a good place to work.

6) I have to impress them with my intelligence!  There is a reason that God gave you two ears and one mouth...listen twice as much as you talk!  Hear what I am asking for!  You do not need to beat me over the head with your awesomeness.  If you made it this far, I must not think you are a total nincompoop.  However, I want to know about your awesomeness in the form of specific experiences rather than you telling me how wonderful you, your mom, and everyone on the planet thinks you are.  Be prepared to relate stories to me in the STAR (situation/task/action/result) format, and I promise you-your fabulousness will tell it's own story.

7) I don't want them to know I'm nervous!  Uh..why don't you want them to know this?  See item 4..the one about us all being human.  It's ok to be nervous-it can actually help you.  It can even serve as an icebreaker if you let the interviewer know that you have a case of the nerves because you are so excited about your ability to do this job.  It's ok to ask for a glass of water or take a deep breath.  I can honestly say that while I have conducted interviews that have run into at least the quadruple digits if not higher, I still get nervous from time to time, so realize it happens to almost everyone.  You should however be prepared to control your outward expressions of your inward feelings.  What do I mean?  No leg tapping, hand grasping, or for me, brow furrowing.  Do a practice interview with a friend if you aren't sure.  I interviewed someone for my church who was (and still is) wonnnnderful, but I thought she was going to pop her hands right off her arms she was grasping them so hard.  Body language sends a powerful message-make sure yours is speaking the right words.

Bottom line is this.  Be yourself.  Be self-aware in your answers.  Prepare regardless of how much you already know.  Give specific examples that highlight your ability to do the job well, and you will do great!  Need a little more inspiration?  My blog today was inspired by a great and much more efficient post by Laurie Ruettimann over at www.punkrockhr.com.  Check her out-you won't be sorry!

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About me:

 

I am thrilled to be able to work as a consultant in the greater HR field,  specializing in recruiting and outplacement.  As a Job Search coach, I spend my time helping professionals make the leap from looking to landed.  I also get to do some interviewing/recruiting for organizations across the UShelping them identify the best possible talent utilizing Topgrading techniques.  In addition to my time spent coaching individuals, I deliver a variety of online training sessions from Social Networking, Working with Recruiters, Online Resume Posting, and Interview Prep/Execution.

Prior to my consulting life, I spent about a decade working in the recruiting industry doing just about every job possible from Agency Recruiter, Corporate Recruiter, HR Manager, and Area VP.  I was also lucky enough to work on some cool career progression programs that put employees in the driver’s seat along with new programs to focus more on the needs of Gen Y hiring.

I’m a total Social Media/Web 2.0 junkie.  Want to connect?  Send me an invite on LinkedIn at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/michellemorettini. 

And find me on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/mmorettini.

Could your voicemail be hurting your job search?

We've all heard these voicemail messages....long drawn out stories with stories, or jokes.  Or musical selections with the "sexy" voice at the end telling you to leave a message.  Someone's kids asking you to leave a number for mommy or daddy.  These messages are intended to be cute, funny, silly, interesting, or even charming....but to at least this recruiter, they are annoying as hell. 

Think about it from an employer's perspective-I'm calling you to schedule a time to meet, or to screen you for my job.  If I have to listen to a 5 minute message where I feel like you are trying to woo me with Barry White, I'm going to be a little irritated by the time I get to leave my message.  Time is precious, and if I have to do this 20 times in an hour-all of my time is gone and then some....and if your message is obnoxious enough, I may simply hang up without leaving a message.  What does that mean to you?  Goodbye opportunity!

Ok, so what does that mean for people who like to show a little personality in their communications?

Well, if you want to make sure that your communications (voice, email, online, etc etc) aren't hurting you, dial it down a bit:

Cell phone:Keep your voicemail message simple, quick, and professional.  No music, kids, or jokes.  If you absolutely can't bear to part with your silly message, then think about getting a pay as you go cell phone for job searching and have the employers call you there.

Home phone: Same rule here-keep your message simple.  However, the home phone has an added challenge...people may answer it!  The horror!  I can't tell you how many times I have been grilled by a wife, mother, or significant other when calling someone for a job.  Or had a rude teenager act like I am a total imposition when I ask to leave a message.  For an experienced recruiter, you know that this is just par for the course and it's ok.  If you actually get a hiring manager who hasn't made a ton of these calls-this person might get turned off by the potentially rude members of your household.  Make sure that you help everyone in your home understand how to handle calls like this...or if you should just let the voicemail pick up.  And please-make sure that you do have some type of voicemail. 

Email: Make sure that your email address is appropriate.  I'll never forget the candidate whose email was "sexypiratehooker@ISP.com"...It's probably been 5 years and I still haven't forgotten that candidate's email.  Her name and skills?  Long gone from memory.    It's probably easiest to make your email your name (or some version of it), however, try to avoid your year of birth or year of graduation.  That makes it a bit too easy for someone to play "guess how old".  While we are on the subject of email, make sure that if you use a signature line, it's professional and appropriate to your industry. 

Bottom line is keep it professional, and dare I say it..maybe a bit on the conservative side.  You probably won't ever lose a job opportunity from a boring message, but you sure might if you go a little too wild.  I'd tell you to ask "sexypiratehooker", but I can't remember her name!

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Michelle currently serves as a Job Search coach helping professionals make the leap from looking to landed.  In addition to her time spent coaching individuals, she delivers a variety of training sessions from Social Networking, Working with Recruiters, Online Resume Posting, and Interview Prep.

 

Michelle possesses over 15 years of diverse experience in functional areas such as recruiting, human resources, coaching, training, organizational development, staffing, sales, sales management, retail, and banking/finance.

 

Prior to working as a job search coach, Michelle made her career in the Placement industry working most recently for the 2^nd largest Staffing Company in the World.  For this multi-national organization, Michelle served as an Agency Recruiter, Corporate Recruiter, Senior HR Manager, and Area Vice President.  During her tenure with this organization, Michelle was also tasked with various Organizational Development programs including the creation of a company wide Career Progression Program.  Michelle also served on the three person team that introduced a new “Gen Y” based hiring model that included a greater emphasis on college recruiting/branding and internships.  As a result of this experience, Michelle considers her greatest strengths to be talent identification/retention, talent development, and coaching for performance improvement. 

 

In addition to these areas of expertise, Michelle is rapidly growing her knowledge base around Social Media and Web 2.0 as it relates to the work world.  She writes a regular blog on job searching that can be found at: http://hireme.typepad.com/michellemorettini/.  Want to connect to Michelle? 

Send her an invitation on LinkedIn at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/michellemorettini. 

Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mmorettini.

 

Are cover letters a necessary evil or just plain evil?

I ran a poll on my LinkedIn profile this Spring asking only Recruiters/Hiring Authorities to participate.  I wanted to know just how important cover letters are to those in a position to schedule interviews.  Unfortunately, the poll results that I received were exactly the results that I have been receiving my 10+ years in the recruitment world:

They may be necessary, or they may not. 

Tells you exactly squat, right?

The reality is that with everything in life, opinions may vary.  When I source candidates, I very rarely look at a candidate's cover letter.  The only time I look at a cover letter is when the resume is so far out of left field for the job they have applied for, I have to better understand what they are thinking.  Alas, even in this situation when a cover letter is attached, I normally found it to be the standard generic cover letter that we all have in our bag of tricks.  As a job search coach, I'm honest with my candidates in saying that a cover letter may not always get read, but it's probably a safe decision to include one...as long as it doesn't read like this:

Dear sir/madam:

I am applying for the job of insert title here that I saw on insert web page, print source, whatever here.  I feel that my skills and qualifications would be an excellent match.  If there is interest in scheduling a time to meet, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Lazy Job Seeker

972-555-5555

I figure that if you are going to take the time to apply (and my goodness can some online applications suck up your time), you might as well take the time to do it right.  Customize your cover letter to the job you want.  Think about what specific skills, attributes, experience they are asking for in the job description and draw a clear parallel to your background.  It's ok to use bullet points.  It's ok to use some success stories.  It's ok to use your personality!  Some other things to think about in writing your personalized cover letter:

• Include your LinkedIn URL or Blogs/articles/online resume URL
• Add in PAR or STAR statements with appropriate metrics/measures of success. For example: Identified a need to realign staff scheduling during peak times. As a result of scheduling realignment, increased employee productivity by 38%.
• Use Bold or Italics to highlight key accomplishments that are a direct match to the skills they want.
• Watch your font and length. Cover letters should be one page, easy to read, and have plenty of white space. This is not the place to write the next great American novel!
• Include a date/time to follow up and then do it! You may not always get to the decision maker, but if you do, chances are that he or she will be impressed with your persistence. Yes, it may feel like "bothering" someone, but if you aren't doing it, I promise-your competition is!
• If you can research the hiring manager, see if there are parallels between your experience and hers/his...and then make note of that in your cover letter
• Add in any relevant news/information about the company, industry, or competitors that shows that you are up to speed with the market.

Bottom line-you want to use the cover letter as your vehicle to keep the conversation going.  Do this by personalizing your letter to that specific job, showing your skills and knowledge through a short snippet of success stories, and tie it all together with some good competitive intelligence!  Good luck and happy hunting!

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Michelle currently serves as a Job Search coach helping professionals make the leap from looking to landed.  In addition to her time spent coaching individuals, she delivers a variety of training sessions from Social Networking, Working with Recruiters, Online Resume Posting, and Interview Prep.

 

Michelle possesses over 15 years of diverse experience in functional areas such as recruiting, human resources, coaching, training, organizational development, staffing, sales, sales management, retail, and banking/finance.

 

Prior to working as a job search coach, Michelle made her career in the Placement industry working most recently for the 2^nd largest Staffing Company in the World.  For this multi-national organization, Michelle served as an Agency Recruiter, Corporate Recruiter, Senior HR Manager, and Area Vice President.  During her tenure with this organization, Michelle was also tasked with various Organizational Development programs including the creation of a company wide Career Progression Program.  Michelle also served on the three person team that introduced a new “Gen Y” based hiring model that included a greater emphasis on college recruiting/branding and internships.  As a result of this experience, Michelle considers her greatest strengths to be talent identification/retention, talent development, and coaching for performance improvement. 

 

In addition to these areas of expertise, Michelle is rapidly growing her knowledge base around Social Media and Web 2.0 as it relates to the work world.  She writes a regular blog on job searching that can be found at: http://hireme.typepad.com/michellemorettini/.  Want to connect to Michelle? 

Send her an invitation on LinkedIn at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/michellemorettini. 

Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mmorettini.

How to find a good recruiter

In all industries, there exists the top, middle, and bottom players.  However, most of us don't pay this any attention until we are slapped in the face by a bottom player.  We can all think of someone...not just clueless, but proudly ignorant of what constitutes professional behavior.  And I'm not just talking about the people at McFriendlys who mess up my order for 1 small diet coke every stinking time or the recruiter who posted a naked picture on LinkedIn earlier this week (yes, I'm still offended by that!!)...I'm talking about people who are responsible for placing you in jobs...today's rant is about recruiters.

Now, before you think I'm going to talk about how awful recruiters, are, think again.  I LOVE recruiters.  I made my living as a recruiter of recruiters, among other skill sets.  This is an amazing profession.  However, as with all things, there can be some bad apples in the bunch that ruin the reputation of the whole industry.  So how do you find the recruiters who shine?  Well folks-you're going to have to do a little leg work here!  Ask, ask, ask questions of the people that you know such as:

1) Have you ever used a recruiter?  If so, can you introduce me?

2) Does your company use recruiting firms?  Any firm you'd recommend?

3) Do you have any friends who recruit?

These are some very basic questions that should get the conversation going regarding recruiter referrals.  However, once you find a recruiter worth checking out, some things to ask are:

1) Have you placed people with my skill set in the last 30 days?  Was it at my pay rate?

2) Is my pay rate reasonable for the marketplace?

3) What types of clients do you place for?

4) Do you place both full time and contract?

5) How long have you worked for XYZ company?

6) How will you market me for jobs?  Will you market me for other jobs?

7) What other recruiters do you know?

This is a pretty basic run of questions, but if you can get a recruiter on the phone, these questions can probably help you determine where you should begin to invest your time.  But be brief-most agency recruiters are wearing a ton of hats, so don't expect an hour long conversation.  Drive your questions forward while selling your skills and abilities.

I'm open to anything!

In today's economy, it's good to remember that generally speaking recruiters find people for jobs, not jobs for people, so if you are expecting your recruiter to be a career coach-you may be disappointed.  This may change when we are back to the days of milk and honey..but until then...be prepared to sell yourself!  In some industries, recruiting is a very transactional process, so you may not find a recruiter that is interested until he or she has a job to put you in.  Don't despair-just keep working your leads to make new recruiter connections while you see how leads pan out. 

How many recruiters should I work with?

I'm often asked how many recruiters should you be working with, and my opinion (and it's only an opinion!) is that if you are entry to mid level, you should work with at least 3-5(possibly many more depending on skill set), if you are senior to executive level, you might find that the field is a bit smaller and you should think about focusing on 1-3 recruiters to align with.  At the executive or C-level, the process is more collaborative, so will you really have time to sing cumbayah with a whole bunch of recruiters?  Probably not.

Once I've tapped my referrals, then what?

Many recruiters work large geographies without ever setting up a brick and mortar location.  Use social networking sites like LinkedIn to identify recruiters who are actively posting on their status updates, and within the groups.  You can also search for their updates on sites like Twellow.com to tap into the Twitter information stream.  Regardless of which site you use to network online (because you are doing that, right??!!), you should follow the posts and check out recruiters who are active.  It doesn't always mean that they are the best recruiters, but it's a good place to start once you have exhausted referrals.

Bottom line is recruiting is all about understanding skills, needs, and culture on both sides of the hiring equation.  It won't always be a perfect relationship, but when you find a recruiter who gets it-stay in contact with him or her through your career-not just when you are searching!  You never know when you need to find that person who shines...and better yet, understands that you do too!

Want to remove connections from LinkedIn?

I started my day this morning reviewing the LinkedIn accounts for one of my outplacement candidates.  However, before I could even get to this very nice man's profile, I saw that one of my recruiter connections had uploaded a new profile picture...

AND SHE WAS BUTT NEKKID!

I have to say that in my 5 years on LinkedIn that is the first time I have seen a naked picture....and it's hopefully the last.  So as I scrambled to remove her and her mammary glands from my home page, I wanted to make sure that you too had the ability to remove connections.  From the LinkedIn Help page:

To remove one or more people from your list of connections take the following steps below:

1. Click on "Contacts" found in the top navigation bar of the home page.
2. Click on the "Remove Connections" link in the upper right hand corner of the "Connections" view.
3. Select the people you'd like to remove from your "Connections" list by clicking on the box next to their names.
4. Click on the "Remove Connections" button.

Connections will not be notified that they have been removed from your connections list. Only the member that breaks the connection can re-initiate that connection.

Now, I'm on to reviewing a professional LinkedIn page...or dunking my face in boiling water to get the visual out...one of the two.  Yuck!

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Michelle currently serves as a Job Search coach helping professionals make the leap from looking to landed.  In addition to her time spent coaching individuals, she delivers a variety of training sessions from Social Networking, Working with Recruiters, Online Resume Posting, and Interview Prep.

 

Michelle possesses over 15 years of diverse experience in functional areas such as recruiting, human resources, coaching, training, organizational development, staffing, sales, sales management, retail, and banking/finance.

 

Prior to working as a job search coach, Michelle made her career in the Placement industry working most recently for the 2^nd largest Staffing Company in the World.  For this multi-national organization, Michelle served as an Agency Recruiter, Corporate Recruiter, Senior HR Manager, and Area Vice President.  During her tenure with this organization, Michelle was also tasked with various Organizational Development programs including the creation of a company wide Career Progression Program.  Michelle also served on the three person team that introduced a new “Gen Y” based hiring model that included a greater emphasis on college recruiting/branding and internships.  As a result of this experience, Michelle considers her greatest strengths to be talent identification/retention, talent development, and coaching for performance improvement. 

 

In addition to these areas of expertise, Michelle is rapidly growing her knowledge base around Social Media and Web 2.0 as it relates to the work world.  She writes a regular blog on job searching that can be found at: http://hireme.typepad.com/michellemorettini/.  Want to connect to Michelle? 

Send her an invitation on LinkedIn at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/michellemorettini. 

Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mmorettini.

Is your resume an owner's manual or a sales ad?

What makes you buy things?  Features and benefits are all well and good, but typically it's the advertisement that gets you in the store, right?  Well, if we can all acknowledge that we have been sucked in by advertising at least once in our lives, can you tell me why people still insist on writing resumes like owners manuals and not ads?

Ok, let me get off the resume soapbox and define what I mean here for a moment:

Style A: Owners Manual Resume

My pertinent details

A cold recitation of hard skills

Dates of employment

Job descriptions that I cut and pasted from the corporate job postings

 

And now let's look at...

Style B: Sales Ad Resume

My pertinent details

A summary statement that makes my skills and desires clear without extra language

Strong examples of past performance with appropriate metrics

 

And finally, the best of both worlds...the brief infomercial...

Style C: Infomercial Resume

My pertinent details

A summary statement that makes my skills and desires clear without extra language

Dates of employment

Job descriptions statements backed up by strong examples of past performance with appropriate metrics

See-the best type is the one that accomplishes both a features AND benefits explanation.  If you hire me, here are the features you get...but based on my past performance, chances are these are the benefits you will receive as well.

Having reviewed a whole lot of resumes in my time, I'm going to assume that everyone knows how to write the job descriptions part, but let me give you a little hint on how to add in the examples of past performance.  Think of yourself as a STAR..That's:

S: situation

T: task

A: action

R: result

This model is also very effective in answering interview questions, but that's a blog for another day.  Try and come up with at least 3-5 performance examples that demonstrate not just what you did, but how well you did it.  Don't feel bad if this feels tough-I personally think that resume writing is one of the toughest parts of the job search process.  And yeah yeah, a professional resume writer can help you with this...but as someone who is a professional resume writer, I can tell you that we still can't create the examples-the info has to come from you.  So, think about connecting with an old boss or co-worker who might help you think of some examples.  Ask the HR department of your old employer if you can get copies of performance reviews (laws governing release of this info vary from state to state-just fyi).  Just start simple-think about the example itself without making it "resume ready"...pull your data together, and then polish, polish, polish!  And if you are still stuck and not able to craft these stories...then think about getting help whether it's from your friends, family, church, or a paid professional.

Bottom line is this: I know what you are thinking...give me a break...is it as simple as that?  In a word, YES!  This is a highly competitive market where you are lucky when a real, live human even takes a look at your resume.  Do you want your resume to read like a piece of dry, wheat toast....or like a croissant slathered in butter that also promises to make your morning a little more pleasant?  Croissant Croissant!!!  Seriously though-take the time to create a resume that is deserving of your hard work.  If all you are doing is cut and paste from a job description, I promise you-it will look like it. 

---

Michelle currently serves as a Job Search coach helping professionals make the leap from looking to landed.  In addition to her time spent coaching individuals, she delivers a variety of training sessions from Social Networking, Working with Recruiters, Online Resume Posting, and Interview Prep.

Michelle possesses over 15 years of diverse experience in functional areas such as recruiting, human resources, coaching, training, organizational development, staffing, sales, sales management, retail, and banking/finance.

Prior to working as a job search coach, Michelle made her career in the Placement industry working most recently for the 2^nd largest Staffing Company in the World.  For this multi-national organization, Michelle served as an Agency Recruiter, Corporate Recruiter, Senior HR Manager, and Area Vice President.  During her tenure with this organization, Michelle was also tasked with various Organizational Development programs including the creation of a company wide Career Progression Program.  Michelle also served on the three person team that introduced a new “Gen Y” based hiring model that included a greater emphasis on college recruiting/branding and internships.  As a result of this experience, Michelle considers her greatest strengths to be talent identification/retention, talent development, and coaching for performance improvement. 

In addition to these areas of expertise, Michelle is rapidly growing her knowledge base around Social Media and Web 2.0 as it relates to the work world.  She writes a regular blog on job searching that can be found at: http://hireme.typepad.com/michellemorettini/.  Want to connect to Michelle? 

Send her an invitation on LinkedIn at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/michellemorettini. 

Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mmorettini.

 

LinkedIn invites, a quickie primer

I opened my LI inbox this morning to find an invite from someone I do not know, and have never heard of.  This person sent me an invite with the basic LI message selecting the "friend" option.  Well, I don't know her from Eve, and without a personalized invite, I'm unlikely to accept it.  I'm going to guess that it was just a mistake on her part...but it begs the question.  Do you know what you are doing when you send out those invites?  In case the answer is no, let's do a very quick run through:

Where do I invite someone to join my network?

This process is so easy.  You can either add connections in bulk using the Add Connections feature, or go the route of sending a personalized invite (which is what I strongly recommend) to people individually.  Simply search for them by name and once on their profile, you will see Add Name to your network:

Once you click Add to your network the system will take you to a secondary screen for input:

 
From here, you can select the appropriate option between colleague, classmate, done business together, friend, other, and the never recommended: I don't know Jack.  And I encourage you to put the emphasis on appropriatehere.  It's too easy to be viewed as a spammer if you are sending out messages to people that you don't know, haven't talked to, or didn't work with.  When you have no shared connection, group, or history with the person, other is a perfectly acceptable option to select since you are seeking to create a symbiotic connection (and if you are seeking to spam, get off my blog immediately as my blog has a self destruct feature for spam artists).  The system will typically ask you for that person's email address (depending on whether they are in an open link network or not-most are not), which you should then enter.  Don't have email and don't feel like putting on your Inspector Gadget hat to find it?  Then send them an Inmail (LinkedIn's email service) letting them know that you would like to connect, why you want to connect, and asking them if they are open to it.  It's not the fastest way of adding connections to your network, but it's probably the most "offense free" way of doing it. 

And that's it's-once they accept your invite, you are off to the networking races.  Remember to add value with every connection.  Good luck and happy hunting!

---

Michelle currently serves as a Job Search coach helping professionals make the leap from looking to landed.  In addition to her time spent coaching individuals, she delivers a variety of training sessions from Social Networking, Working with Recruiters, Online Resume Posting, and Interview Prep.

 

Michelle possesses over 15 years of diverse experience in functional areas such as recruiting, human resources, coaching, training, organizational development, staffing, sales, sales management, retail, and banking/finance.

 

Prior to working as a job search coach, Michelle made her career in the Placement industry working most recently for the 2^nd largest Staffing Company in the World.  For this multi-national organization, Michelle served as an Agency Recruiter, Corporate Recruiter, Senior HR Manager, and Area Vice President.  During her tenure with this organization, Michelle was also tasked with various Organizational Development programs including the creation of a company wide Career Progression Program.  Michelle also served on the three person team that introduced a new “Gen Y” based hiring model that included a greater emphasis on college recruiting/branding and internships.  As a result of this experience, Michelle considers her greatest strengths to be talent identification/retention, talent development, and coaching for performance improvement. 

 

In addition to these areas of expertise, Michelle is rapidly growing her knowledge base around Social Media and Web 2.0 as it relates to the work world.  She writes a regular blog on job searching that can be found at: http://hireme.typepad.com/michellemorettini/.  Want to connect to Michelle? 

Send her an invitation on LinkedIn at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/michellemorettini. 

Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/mmorettini.