If you have been sending out your resume and not getting interviews, you can certainly blame the resume.
Without a good resume, companies have no idea that you even exist - unless you are invited to an interview by the hiring authority, you may as well be invisible. We live in a market economy and you must learn to market yourself effectively and aggressively - or suffer in a 'go nowhere' job while your friends move on to new opportunities and brighter futures.
As a matter of fact. your resumes only job is to open doors !
A hiring manager takes 10 seconds to scan a resume This 10 seconds make or break you. It provides the information that hiring mangers use to make decisions on who gets called, interviewed, and hired. It is your resume, which decides that!
Get your profile out with an Online Resume
Recruitment Managers don't have the time nor the inclination to sift through the hundreds of resumes they receive. If your resume is not available on the manager's desk at the correct time, with the correct format, the job assignment is going to go to the person whose resume managed to get there first, even if you're the better person for the job.
So in order to get your resume into the hands of the recruitment managers, the best method is to have your own online resume. A manager is then able to access all of your information at once, instead of being forced to slog through links after links. Therefore getting your resume online will definitely give you a better access to recruitment companies, managers and headhunters.
Resume Posting
Personally, I have my reservations on this so called Resume Blasting, as I feel it is just another marketing stunt. But as a job seeker, you don't normally be very choosy. Then again, some services do give you the option of who receives your resume (Resume Distribution), unlike most others who do a "general blast" - don't be surprised with a job offer from Uganda !
This service is normally free to job seekers, and used only by those employers and recruiters who have paid a substantial fee to access the resumes. Years ago, when Monster and other similar job search boards were fairly new, it cost about thousands of dollars for Head Hunters, just to take a look at resumes posted on one job board. So you can imagine what it must cost today!
Besides, when you post your resume to an online resume posting service, NOT every employer or recruiter will find you, only those with the huge recruiting budgets. And that leaves out a good part of your target market.
Getting your resume submitted by a professional submission service is a great idea. This may cost a little, but in my mind it is worth every penny.
Focus on a list of companies that best match your existing skill set and career focus, rather than applying to help wanted ads or conducting an exclusive online search. Create a new list weekly and follow-up with each employer within 5-8 business days to ensure receipt and to answer any questions.
Resume Distribution
With a resume distribution, the job seeker has access to a select database of well-qualified employers and/or recruiters to email his/ her resume to. This service does cost the job seeker a fee, usually anywhere from $45 to several hundred. The advantages of a resume distribution over a posting are that you don't have to wait to be found, you have more control over who receives your resume and besides you can control how many employers/ recruiters you contact-several hundred or several thousand-all at once. It is very quick and efficient. You submit your resume once and reach your entire targeted audience of employers and/or recruiters.
Make sure the distribution service allows you to target the employers who receive your resume. At a minimum, you should be able to query the employer/recruiter database by industry, job function and geographic region. If the service offers no targeting capabilities, your resume may be sent out indiscriminately to employers and recruiters who do not match your employment criteria.
Come to think of it, it is really powerful and fun to have the entire company, headhunter database at your fingertips
However, the fun last only for 30 days and if you don't get a job by then, its either back to the drawing board, or purchase this software!
Questions To Ask The Interviewer
Don't keep silent after or during an interview. Keep up the momentum with some questions from your side as well. Such as;
Getting a 4% raise and a $6000 bonus probably seems fantastic, before you compare it with your colleagues and the market benchmarks for your position. Again Monster has some good information on existing market trends viz., salary scales etc. However, no matter how sophisticated compensation systems get, I don't know any system that is viewed as perfectly fair by everyone. Every rating system-including those with complex formulas-include a component of subjectivity.
Wetfeet Insider Guides, gives you an inside scoop on thousands of hiring companies - what they pay, their mehods of interview, and most of all how to get hired!
Job Search
Choose a career you can enjoy, not one that is only directed at making money. After researching careers you find interesting, narrow down your career selections.
There are links to some of the popular job placement sites, such as Monster, Job Bank USA , Executive Career Search and Career Mag , which is part of the 4Jobs.com career network has links to massive amount of job and career links sites, which is very important during a job search campaign.
There are also some specialized and unknown job sites, such as Craigslist , where jobs, that are unlisted in other sites, can be found.
Focus your job search using networking, online and offline tactics. Networking is still the tried-and-true king relevant to an effective job-search campaign.
Training
Give yourself an online Aptitude test and get your Aptitude, Entrepreneur and Personality reports at Analyze My Career.Com. You can obtain an open self-assessment, polish your skills and if possible even learn a new one and also obtain career guidance
The search is endless. As the average time-span is around 3 months and by which time you don't get a job, then, you've to review your plans, goals and strategies.
I personally recommend starting a home business or going in for other part-time job, say such as blogging, and try to make some income during this period, which you can use to cover your resume writing, job search and other activities.
Remember to evaluate your priorities for any venture, before jumping in. Remember it is only part-time. So it should be fun. You can always convert it to a full time once you've learned the ropes and can afford to quit your full-time job
The above job campaign plan is just a sample which should suffice for somebody just out of a job and is searching. If you're searching for a great career resource, make The Riley Guide your starting point. Margaret Riley Dikel has done a masterful job editing, organizing and delivering this best-in-class resource. Here you get a step by step advise on how to work out a job campaign plan.
Without a good resume, companies have no idea that you even exist - unless you are invited to an interview by the hiring authority, you may as well be invisible. We live in a market economy and you must learn to market yourself effectively and aggressively - or suffer in a 'go nowhere' job while your friends move on to new opportunities and brighter futures.
As a matter of fact. your resumes only job is to open doors !
A hiring manager takes 10 seconds to scan a resume This 10 seconds make or break you. It provides the information that hiring mangers use to make decisions on who gets called, interviewed, and hired. It is your resume, which decides that!
Get your profile out with an Online Resume
Recruitment Managers don't have the time nor the inclination to sift through the hundreds of resumes they receive. If your resume is not available on the manager's desk at the correct time, with the correct format, the job assignment is going to go to the person whose resume managed to get there first, even if you're the better person for the job.
So in order to get your resume into the hands of the recruitment managers, the best method is to have your own online resume. A manager is then able to access all of your information at once, instead of being forced to slog through links after links. Therefore getting your resume online will definitely give you a better access to recruitment companies, managers and headhunters.
Resume Posting
Personally, I have my reservations on this so called Resume Blasting, as I feel it is just another marketing stunt. But as a job seeker, you don't normally be very choosy. Then again, some services do give you the option of who receives your resume (Resume Distribution), unlike most others who do a "general blast" - don't be surprised with a job offer from Uganda !
This service is normally free to job seekers, and used only by those employers and recruiters who have paid a substantial fee to access the resumes. Years ago, when Monster and other similar job search boards were fairly new, it cost about thousands of dollars for Head Hunters, just to take a look at resumes posted on one job board. So you can imagine what it must cost today!
Besides, when you post your resume to an online resume posting service, NOT every employer or recruiter will find you, only those with the huge recruiting budgets. And that leaves out a good part of your target market.
Getting your resume submitted by a professional submission service is a great idea. This may cost a little, but in my mind it is worth every penny.
Focus on a list of companies that best match your existing skill set and career focus, rather than applying to help wanted ads or conducting an exclusive online search. Create a new list weekly and follow-up with each employer within 5-8 business days to ensure receipt and to answer any questions.
Resume Distribution
With a resume distribution, the job seeker has access to a select database of well-qualified employers and/or recruiters to email his/ her resume to. This service does cost the job seeker a fee, usually anywhere from $45 to several hundred. The advantages of a resume distribution over a posting are that you don't have to wait to be found, you have more control over who receives your resume and besides you can control how many employers/ recruiters you contact-several hundred or several thousand-all at once. It is very quick and efficient. You submit your resume once and reach your entire targeted audience of employers and/or recruiters.
Make sure the distribution service allows you to target the employers who receive your resume. At a minimum, you should be able to query the employer/recruiter database by industry, job function and geographic region. If the service offers no targeting capabilities, your resume may be sent out indiscriminately to employers and recruiters who do not match your employment criteria.
Come to think of it, it is really powerful and fun to have the entire company, headhunter database at your fingertips
However, the fun last only for 30 days and if you don't get a job by then, its either back to the drawing board, or purchase this software!
Questions To Ask The Interviewer
Don't keep silent after or during an interview. Keep up the momentum with some questions from your side as well. Such as;
- Ask about your new job, i.e., whether its a newly created position etc.
- Ask for a description of your job duties and to whom would you be reporting to and supervising
- Ask with whom you will be working most closely, and the companies short and long term goals?
- Ask the interviewer on what he/ she likes most about working for this company
- Ask about any company training programs, and about company's promotional policy etc.
Getting a 4% raise and a $6000 bonus probably seems fantastic, before you compare it with your colleagues and the market benchmarks for your position. Again Monster has some good information on existing market trends viz., salary scales etc. However, no matter how sophisticated compensation systems get, I don't know any system that is viewed as perfectly fair by everyone. Every rating system-including those with complex formulas-include a component of subjectivity.
Wetfeet Insider Guides, gives you an inside scoop on thousands of hiring companies - what they pay, their mehods of interview, and most of all how to get hired!
Job Search
Choose a career you can enjoy, not one that is only directed at making money. After researching careers you find interesting, narrow down your career selections.
There are links to some of the popular job placement sites, such as Monster, Job Bank USA , Executive Career Search and Career Mag , which is part of the 4Jobs.com career network has links to massive amount of job and career links sites, which is very important during a job search campaign.
There are also some specialized and unknown job sites, such as Craigslist , where jobs, that are unlisted in other sites, can be found.
Focus your job search using networking, online and offline tactics. Networking is still the tried-and-true king relevant to an effective job-search campaign.
Training
Give yourself an online Aptitude test and get your Aptitude, Entrepreneur and Personality reports at Analyze My Career.Com. You can obtain an open self-assessment, polish your skills and if possible even learn a new one and also obtain career guidance
The search is endless. As the average time-span is around 3 months and by which time you don't get a job, then, you've to review your plans, goals and strategies.
I personally recommend starting a home business or going in for other part-time job, say such as blogging, and try to make some income during this period, which you can use to cover your resume writing, job search and other activities.
Remember to evaluate your priorities for any venture, before jumping in. Remember it is only part-time. So it should be fun. You can always convert it to a full time once you've learned the ropes and can afford to quit your full-time job
The above job campaign plan is just a sample which should suffice for somebody just out of a job and is searching. If you're searching for a great career resource, make The Riley Guide your starting point. Margaret Riley Dikel has done a masterful job editing, organizing and delivering this best-in-class resource. Here you get a step by step advise on how to work out a job campaign plan.
