In the Business of You

Many people say that you can tell a lot about someone in just the first few minutes of meeting them. I agree. Body language, tone of voice, attire, level of self-confidence, ability to convey a sense of believability and trust are just some of the snapshots we give or receive that go a long way to creating that critical first impression. Job seekers often do not realize that basically everything they do, say or write is considered when a hiring manager looks holistically at candidates for an open position. Below are some real life examples of impressions made: A soon-to-graduate senior at a large university is asked to go to the headquarters of a large, international company on a Thursday for a round of additional interviews that would take place the next day on Friday. He travels across the country and is picked up at the airport by a representative of the company. That evening he, along with about 50 other candidates, is asked to attend a “mixer” at the hotel in which the c...

Just the other day I met with a job seeker to do some resume coaching. What occurred prior to his arriving for our scheduled breakfast meeting was a great example of what today’s job seekers can do to really distance themselves from other candidates. Since the morning restaurant patrons had not yet begun to arrive, I had the opportunity to chat a bit with our server. I have been to this establishment on many occasions and noticed that this particular individual seems to be a customer favorite. She inquired regarding the party who was to meet with me and asked if I was going to do an interview (I had the job seeker’s resume out on the table and was making on it some additional notes for myself). When I responded that we were meeting to do some resume & job search coaching, the server said she had a unique story about landing the job with the restaurant. During her interview with the restaurant owner, the server provided to him a sheet of paper containing a list of names for...

In the first two days of this week, I heard from three of the people with whom I’ve had the opportunity to do some resume and job search coaching. All three just landed new jobs. What a terrific way to start a week..! They all had much in common in regard to the manner in which their job searches were approached…and I firmly believe that it significantly contributed to their individual successes (each of them wound up with a better job than the one from which they had been outplaced). They all did a terrific job of networking, putting together customized resumes that focused on specific examples of accomplishments and truly separated themselves from other candidates during the interview process. In addition to doing the right things during a job search…candidates in today’s very competitive job market must have the “right stuff”. OK…so what is that? From conversations with dozens of recruiters and hiring managers, I have compiled a list of the top ten competencies/attributes/...

So you have a Twitter account, Facebook page and a LinkedIn profile. That’s a good start. Now…are you actually using them as tools to help you to get re-employed? Or is your online presence creating the wrong personal brand/image and taking you out of contention for being seriously considered as a candidate? Twitter and Facebook are still perceived by employers to be “personal” while they look at a LinkedIn profile as being a good barometer of a person’s professional experience, interests and expertise. I’m hoping at this point pretty much everyone realizes that prospective employers will almost always do a good job of scanning the Internet as part of their overall due diligence regarding candidates in whom they have some interest. This means “Googling” your name to find “what’s out there” about you along with taking a good, long look at what people are posting on your “wall”, what you are “tweeting” and learning about past work experiences on LinkedIn (have you noticed over ...

Over the last few weeks, I’ve brought three new people into our firm, two veteran financial planners and a person to provide market research and analysis for our growing team of advisors. What has this got to do with tips for job seekers? Everything , because to get to these three I had to “say no” to dozens of quality candidates who were not going to be a “fit” for our company’s unique culture. Our firm, like so many others, works very diligently to ensure that it maintains its “mojo” – that “thing” – the “energy” - which does so much to make one company different from all of its competitors. And that “mojo” cannot exist without the synergies that are created by combining the wide variety of individual talents into a cohesive team that is focused on exceeding the expectations of our clients. Every person on our team understands that they all “own” every client, every prospect and every person who comes in to see us – including the UPS guy. Bottom line – that is our firm’s cu...

In my last post, “What Might be Keeping You from Receiving the Interview Phone Call”, I shared some of the main reasons candidates can miss the mark with hiring managers when it comes to their resumes. Today, I’m assuming that you did get the interview call…and want to provide some tips to help you prepare to have an interview discussion that will make a “wow” impression upon the hiring manager: Preparation. Use the vast amount of resources available to you (Internet, libraries, people in your network, etc) to help prepare for your interview by learning as much as you can regarding the company (e.g., history, products & services offered, rank in their industry, management team/philosophy, recent news items…) and your interviewer (LinkedIn, Google, etc). The more of this knowledge you are able to incorporate into your interview discussion, the more impressive a candidate you become – because the vast majority of those submitting resumes invest little to no time doing such res...

Just a few days ago I had dinner with a long-time friend who is the Marketing Director for a large non-profit organization. When I asked regarding what was the most frustrating part of her job, she immediately replied, “hiring new people”. She went on to relate how 400 resumes were received within two hours of posting an opening for a Marketing Assistant. When I asked how many of the 400 resumes she felt were good enough to warrant a call for an interview, my friend responded, “less than 10…and a few of those are borderline”. This is today’s reality for hiring managers. Regarding the most common reasons why she did not select a resume to be added to the “short list” of people to be called for interviews, I was told the following: No results – Bullet points that read like a laundry list of duties and responsibilities rather than specific examples of accomplishments and “how” those results/outcomes were accomplished. You cannot just tell me that you can do something well – you ...