Are Résumés Obsolete? Résumé vs. Social Media Profile

A peer I respect, Martin Yate, author of the best selling “Knock Em Dead” books, recently posted a LinkedIn group discussion Are Résumés Obsolete? Résumé vs. Social Media Profile and he offered  some very good points on the subject. This is a serious question and I’d like to share my thoughts with you.

Personally I do not think a résumé is obsolete - Today - but ask me this again in 10-15 years and I may have to rethink my point of view and offer a different answer.

What I tell clients, workshop attendees and people I meet who come to me for advice is this: an eye catching résumé in .txt format for electronic submission for ATS, in addition to a .doc and PDF version that can be emailed, snail mailed, overnight expressed, faxed and handed out in person, PLUS a social media presence (particularly LinkedIn) are all essential in conducting an effective job search. Social media is not yet a substitute for a résumé, rather it complements and expounds on a résumé.

Résumés

To view this question in another context, I suggest we consider a résumé as the ideal Farming Tool.

By this I mean a creatively designed, extremely well crafted, soundly written résumé that tells the story of who you are, who your were, and who you want to be, while carefully highlighting the pertinent fine points about your experience, expertise, achievements, value and potential to succeed in a new role is the quintessential tool for a job seeker looking to FIND a new job. But the résumé should be a modern, state-of-the-art tool and not one from the Stone Age – circa 1995-2005 and earlier.

A résumé, as long as you know how to get it beyond ATS - meaning you know which version to use and how to modify and adapt it for specific positions - is the best document to submit to jobs you find posted for the general public on job sites and company/recruiter websites. Some sites may accept your social media profile in lieu of a résumé, however today most do not.

Your résumé is also the tool to use when meeting with employers and recruiters at job/career fairs, and it’s also the tool you provide people you’re networking with because a résumé can be easily handed out or transmitted by them via email to people in their network or workplace who can advance your job search.

Most important, a résumé is the document you will be presenting in-person to every person you meet on a job interview, so it must WOW them. In many cases it should include a hyperlink to your social media, but I would not suggest printing your LinkedIn page and presenting it as a résumé during an interview.

To sum this up; the value of a résumé lies in its ability to introduce you to people you found in hopes of impressing them to interview you or pass your résumé along to other interested parties.

Social Media

On the other hand social media is the quintessential hunting tool. But in this case you’re not the hunter, you are the prey.

Whereas a résumé is the optimal way to introduce yourself to people you find, the goal of social media is to allow talent acquisition hunters i.e. headhunters of all types and internal and contract recruiters in corporate and public sector HR departments to FIND you.

When you’re being hunted a properly constructed and optimized LinkedIn page is essential for success, especially if you rank among the Top 20% of candidates in your field. Therefore, a strong, searchable social media presence is as critical for people in this group as having a solid résumé to present once you are sourced and found. Once you are found you will almost certainly be asked to provide your résumé.

For the other 80% of job seekers you are less likely to be hunted for who you are. However if you have a properly constructed and optimized LinkedIn page you may be hunted for who you know. Once the hunter makes contact you can then follow up with a “WOW’ resume to catch that person’s attention and sow the seeds for future consideration for opportunities you may qualify for down the road.

Another reason a well constructed social media page complements a professionally prepared résumé is that social media offers validation of your value and potential in a way most résumés do not.

Social media allows you to display work product and valuable information, especially endorsements of your value and worth that are generally not included in a résumé.

So for now I recommend each job seeker have the most professional looking résumé and social media profile possible.

As usual I am available to offer a professional critique of resumes and social media profiles and offer thoughts on how to improve them. Just send your resume to perry@perrynewman.com. No cost/no obligation.

Are YOU among the 47% of Americans or the 53%?

Sorry to disappoint but this post is not about Mitt Romney or presidential politics, although it is about an equally serious topic - how to get career climbing, underemployed, and out-of-work Americans back to work and/or into higher paying jobs, therefore helping the economy grow and lower the unacceptable unemployment rate.

If you have been reading my posts for awhile you know I offer to review résumés without cost or obligation. Therefore I get to speak with a great many jobseekers of all ages, coast-to-coast in all fields, professions and occupations about the relative strength and weakness of their résumés and whether the résumé they are using helps or hinders their job search efforts.

For the most part people who contact me are not getting the results they anticipated. Similar to a person who is feeling ill and does not know the cause of the illness goes to a physician for a checkup, people who are not getting responses to their résumé come to me to find out what is wrong, and hopefully confirm the problem is not serious and they need not take drastic actions to rectify the situation.

What I find most perplexing, is the answers I get to my initial inquiry “If you were a hiring manager and received this resume would you call this person in for an interview and hire him/her?” Believe it or not nearly 53% of the people I ask this question to respond “based on this resume I would interview and hire this person.”

Then after a comprehensive résumé critique highlighting where and why their résumé is hurting rather than helping their cause, nearly 47% (usually the ones with the worst résumés) become a bit defensive and tell me I am nitpicking and being overly critical of their work.

It’s true, nearly half the people looking for a job have absolutely no conception of what a good résumé looks like.

Worse yet I’ve found the men and women with old fashion, boring, poorly constructed and visually unappealing résumés are the job seekers who assume making simple adjustments to their résumé is all that is needed to make it sparkle and get employers to start calling them back.

The reality is that résumé writing requires much more than the ability to put the proverbial pen to paper and articulate what you were responsible for doing in the past, where you went to school and what you studied, and the various skill sets you’ve acquired in your career.

So here are a few pointers for those who do not yet understand what is involved in creating a “WOW” résumé.

1: Understanding what decision makers in their field are looking for in a résumé.

2: Understanding what ATS software used by companies in their field is programmed to look for in their résumé.

      

3: Knowing the most desirable résumé styles and formats and how employers in their field want pertinent information presented to them, and knowing what will turn them off.

4: Building an ICP (ideal candidate profile) for the job/s they are looking for.

5: Determining how they stack up against the ICP and how to portray what they bring to the table in a way that makes them come across on paper as an ’ideal candidate’ and not just a “usual suspect” for the job.

6: Identifying their achievements and potential for success, how to put this into words and where to place it so as to generate maximum impact.

7. Understanding what a personal brand is and how to establish one on a résumé document.

8. Knowing how to incorporate social media into your résumé.

So now that you know what you’re supposed to know, if I asked you the question “If you were a hiring manager and received this resume would you call this person in for an interview and hire him/her?” how you would respond?

Need some help, reach out and I am here to help you if I can.- perry@perrynewman,com

Tell Me A Little About Yourself?

If you have ever been on a job interview the odds are you were asked this open ended, break the ice question, which is often the first one asked. Now if you worked with a resume writer/job coach like me, inwardly you would be jumping for joy because the exercises used to prepare your resume also prepared you to knock this out of the park.

However as a recruiter and hiring authority I was shocked at how many people were caught off guard when asked this question and how many struck out in my evaluation of them before the interview even started. After all, this question is a slow pitch lobbed right over the heart of the plate and I expected them to hit a home run, or at the very least to make contact and get on base.

OK I admit it, I am a huge baseball fan and the division playoffs begin this week.

So now that I got my baseball metaphors out of my system my advice to all of you is “expect to be asked this question and be fully prepared to offer the proper response.” After all this is not really a question, it is a request for information and your reply will set the tone for the balance of the interview.

HOW DO YOU REPLY?

1: First off keep your reply as brief as possible, not less than 60 seconds but no more than 2 minutes. Remember this is generally the beginning of an interview so you have ample opportunity to present relevant information later on.

2: Write your answer out and rehearse it until it comes out sounding natural and unrehearsed.

3: Be aware of your body language. Keen interviewers judge you by eyeballing you as well as listening to what you have to say.

4: Your reply must offer the following personality traits that employers look for no matter what level job you’re applying for: intelligence, enthusiasm, confidence and professionalism.

5: Present yourself in a positive yet humble way and by all means avoid sounding negative, cocky or braggadocios.

6: If you ever heard a politician or professional interviewed in person, on TV or the radio you will know that most reply with the same opening line, and you may want to adapt it in your response by saying, “That’s a very good question, where should I start,” and then go into your prepared spiel.

7: When you are done, politely throw the ball back into the interviewer’s court in a way that puts you on a more equal footing as the interview moves forward.

WHAT DO INTERVIEWERS WHANT TO HEAR?

When you prepare your response weave the following information (in any order) into your response.

1: A brief introduction of your experience and education.

2: Your key strengths as they relate to the position you’re interviewing for.

3: Relevant past accomplishments that demonstrate your understanding of what needs to be accomplished in the position you’re applying for and your track record of success in this area.

4: How you see yourself contributing in the position you’re applying for.

Here is a sample response:

GENERIC SAMPLE RESPONSE 

This contains the points you should touch upon but you need to put them in your own words.

That’s a great question and I am glad you asked it. To begin I earned my B.S in Computer Science from Baruch College cum laude and I have an MBA with a concentration in Business Management from Hofstra University.

In terms of business I have 4 years experience as a programmer/analyst, 2 years experience as a senior business analyst, and for the past 18 months I was a project manager at your main competitor, JJ Kindle.

However the most important thing I think you need to know about me is that I pride myself on my ability to face every business challenge head on - and I thoroughly examine all options and seek the opinion of my peers and superiors before I decide on a solution. An example of this is a project I recently completed where the budget was cut midway through the project. I was able to complete the project on time and slightly under the new budget by revaluating the project’s priorities, renegotiating our outside consulting costs and bringing some tasks in house at a lower cost, and I got stakeholder buy in to scale the project down by eliminating some costly enhancements that were mostly cosmetic and would not be missed.

I also think it’s important to mention that I thrive when working in a fast paced turn around environment like the one I would be working in here at Best and Company, and I can contribute valuable insights on how to achieve the efficiency and cost savings you are seeking to achieve over the next 24 months.

The final thing I think you should know about me is that I am a hands-on manager, and I have been told I have great communication skills; and at my previous position I was very successful in building productive teams and getting the most out of each team member by creating a positive work environment, mentoring the team members, and making everyone on the team understand their role and how important they are to the company’s success.

I know my skills and work experience will make me an asset here at Best and Company and I know I can deliver the results you are seeking from the new hire in this position.

Now is there anything you would like me to address in greater detail?

 

As you know writing a speech is different than preparing one you need to deliver. So if you’re stuck and need help working on your response email me and we can talk.

In addition I am available to offer a professional critique of resumes and social media profiles and offer thoughts on how to improve them.

Just send your resume to perry@perrynewman.com. No cost/no obligation.

You Should Conduct A Job Search Like A B2B Sales Pro

 When people who are out of work come to me for guidance and my expertise one of the first things I tell them is this. “If you are intent on finding a new job in considerably less time than the current 35-45 week national average you must view yourself as a marketable product and learn how to be new school B2B salesperson who can market and sell a product in the most effective and efficient ways possible.”

As I’ve said and written many times over, the rules of writing a résumé and conducting a job search change with the times and résumé writers and coaches like me and the job seekers I help must explore new options, methods and approaches as the marketplace evolves.

This is why I found a recent Harvard Business Review article I read of great interest and why I think it may be worthwhile food for thought for all job hunters, especially those of you with 5-10+ years of experience.

In the article “The End of Solution Sales” Brent Adamson, Matthew Dixon, and Nicholas Toman write “The hardest thing about B2B selling today is that customers don’t need you the way they used to. In recent decades sales reps have become adept at discovering customers’ needs and selling them “solutions”—generally, complex combinations of products and services. This worked because customers didn’t know how to solve their own problems, even though they often had a good understanding of what their problems were. But now, owing to increasingly sophisticated procurement teams and purchasing consultants armed with troves of data, companies can readily define solutions for themselves.”

The first and most telling similarity I found is that employers (aka customers) don’t need you the way they used to. The 2012 talent pool is deep, hungry and very competitive and employers today are sitting in the proverbial catbird seat. They dictate what they want and how much they’ will pay, and they rarely have to settle for less.

I also find that most employers and decision makers today (aka customers) know what their problems are and how to solve them; what they want to hire is someone who can execute their plan.

Most conspicuous I find that recruiters, HR departments, decision makers, and business owners today are much better informed than in the past and have more sophisticated tools to source and hire talent; notably social media and ATS software.

Since there is a correlation between B2B selling and conducting a job search it may be wise to look at what the new breed of successful B2B salespeople are doing instead of 100% solution based selling.

According to “The End of Solution Sales” this is what the new breed of B2B salespeople do and how they think.

• They “evaluate prospects according to criteria different from those used by other reps, targeting agile organizations in a state of flux rather than ones with a clear understanding of their needs.”

• They “seek out a very different set of stakeholders, preferring skeptical change agents over friendly informants.” This is something I am not sure is as applicable for job hunting as it is for B2B sales.

• They “coach… change agents on how to buy, instead of quizzing them about their company’s purchasing process.” This can be adapted to a job search especially in networking.

Let me know what you think. Do you think these are applicable points for job hunters.

Next week I hope to continue with this topic and discuss solution selling vs. insight selling.

As usual I am available to offer a professional critique of resumes and social media profiles and offer thoughts on how to improve them. Just send your resume to perry@perrynewman.com. No cost/no obligation.

Tweeting Your Resume

Social media, most notable Linked-In, Facebook, Twitter and blogs such as Career Rocketeer, have changed the way people around the globe communicate with each other, develop networks, and educate themselves about the nuances of resume writing, career planning and conducting a job search; and today social media is the premier tool for finding a new job and changing careers.

Twitter is unique among social media since it allows users to report on what is going on in their life and find out what’s happening in selected circles they follow in real time. What makes Twitter so special is it has totally changed our mindset to where we are now accustomed to communicate information in 140 characters or less and with abbreviations and symbols such as RT and # among others that convey instructions, directions and a call to action to the reader.

Over the past few years job seekers have been using Twitter to a greater extent to promote their availability and distribute their resume to a wider audience, while more and more recruiters and employers are beginning to use Twitter to source talent.

For me the jury is out on how effective a tool Twitter is in a job search, and which sector of job seekers it will benefit the most. Still since there is a potential upside and limited downside to incorporating this approach into your search action plan,tweeting your resume is an option worth trying if you are unemployed or don’t care if your employer may find out you’re in the market for a new job.

So here are some tips to help your get your resume seen by the right people.

Linking to Your Resume

As we all know Twitter-communication is done in 140 characters or less so it is impossible to post an entire resume on Twitter.

What you will post is a link to your resume that people can access; you can post it on your website if your have one, use Google docs or other file sharing you are comfortable with, and a very popular option is using TweetMyJobs.com. I do suggest active job seekers make the time to become familiar with this site. In addition to tweeting your resume, especially since so many sites now offer places for users to post their resume, you might want to also consider tweeting a link to your LinkedIn profile or portfolio, since it should have links to all your other social media profiles.


If you link to your LinkedIn profile, employers will see not only your resume but also any professional recommendations or references you have, as well as your involvement in personal and professional groups and networks. Similarly, a portfolio will show employers relevant skills and work samples in addition to your resume.

Once you’ve determined where your resume will reside online the next step is linking it to your Twitter message. This can be tricky if the URL has an inordinate number of characters. If that is the case shorten the URL by using TinyURL or Bit.ly or another URL shortening and bookmarking tools. This allows you to conserve your allowable 140 characters and add more information in your tweet that allows you to be found.

Short, Sweet & To The Point

Once you set in motion a URL where people can click and view your resume you need to promote it.

Since you have a maximum of 140 characters to use you need to become familiar with hashtag along with Twitter/Texting shorthand. This will help your resume get found by employers, recruiters and the people you want to network who are on Twitter and looking for someone just like you.

The reason to use a hashtag is it allows your resume to be found through site searches by people you are most interested to be found by. To create a hashtag you place a pound sign # before a word i.e. #jobseeker or #C++ PA seeking job.

To learn more about hashtag and what are the best ways to create them can visit HashTags.org.

Another helpful tip is to begin the message you’re tweeting with the letters RT thus telling readers who see this message that you would like them to retweet your message to gain additional and broader exposure.

Example:

RT #Perry Newman seeks Tech Writer job http://tinyurl.com/perrynewmanresume @TweetMyResume #resume #techwriterjobs. Using a TinyURL, with spaces this entire message is using on 122 of the allotted 140 characters you have available for a tweet.

In English this hashtag means Perry Newman is seeking a tech writer job and if you are interested in viewing his resume it can be found on TweetMyResume.com under this link. The other hashtag we used are to get the attention of people conducting a general search for resumes using #resume and a focused search for tech writers using #techwriterjobs.

As I said I am not sure how much results you will get with this broadcast method, but if you are an active and unemployed job seeker I see no reason why not to test the waters and see what results come from this fishing expedition.

As usual I am available to offer readers a no-cost professional resumes and social media critique and offer way to improve your presentation. Just email your resume to me at perry@perrynewman.com

Job Postings… Who Can You Trust?

Previously I wrote about information overload when it comes to wrriting your résumé and the information you can trust. Several people brought to my attention that the same trust factor holds true for job postings as well.

Just like job seekers, career changers, and professionals looking to move up and across the lattice who websites, blogs, and Linked-In groups to seek legitimate information on how to write a résumé and conduct their job search need to trust the advice people offer there, so too they need to trust the jobs posted om them.

The problem is many people posting jobs, especially on Linked-In groups, do not exist and post for an ulterior motive that can be detrimental to you as a job seeker.

What I find is there are two reasons these people, real and non-existent people alike, do what they do.

1: Many jobs are posted by an employee who assumes a Nam de Plume, or on occasion uses their own name to post opportunities to drive traffic to a site they are affiliated with. The catch is an online application is required and this can be problematic. Since this model pays a CPC fee these people’s intention is to get paid for clicks. The more clicks they generate the more money they make. Their intention is not to fill jobs but to fill their coffers.

For you the question is how safe your information is if you apply online and what is done with it. I can not answer this question, but once you lose control beware of what may happen to your resume and personal information. Also when you click you are likely to get some spyware on your computer and perhaps a virus of some sort.

2: A more serious problem is identity theft scammers use job posting as a way to gain your personal information.

In my early 20’s when I started in personnel with a Wall Street employment agency every applicant who came into the office filled out a form that went to the consultant they were assigned to and was available to others in the firm.

Truth be told this is one of the reasons I accepted the job. Let’s face it how many positions do you know where women come into your office everyday and give you their name, address and phone number? This allowed me to call them at home each time I had a new position to discuss with them, and I can say I was brazen enough to call many of these women at home to ask for referrals of their friends and others they might know looking for a new job. Some I even called and asked them out for lunch or a cup of coffee to get better acquainted.

Times were different then. Today there are several people and companies postings jobs that are stealing or selling your personal information for their personal financial gain, and on occasion they do so for outright identity theft.

What I suggest is before you post your resume online or file a detailed application– especially if it asks for a Social Security number – that you validate who the person who posted the lead is and who they work for to see if they are legit.

If you see certain people posting on a Linked-In group on a consistent basis, Google them and their firm and if the results don’t look quite Kosher, I suggest you comment on this so the group monitor can look into them.

The bottom line is, as technology expands you need to be more cautious about how you go about looking and applying for a job.

As usual I am available to offer a professional critique of resumes and social media profiles and offer thoughts on how to improve them. Just send your resume to perry@perrynewman.com. No cost/no obligation.

Résumé Info Overload… Who Can You Trust?

Have you noticed that in career services focused blogs and Linked-In groups, places that people visit and rely on for both guidance and professional advice, there is no shortage of expert opinions on the right way to write a résumé?

For instance, this year I’ve seen online résumé writing advice from professional résumé writers and HR professionals like myself and my colleagues on Career Rocketeer, a 75 year old retiree who is at least 10 years behind the times in his take on what works today, a secretary with a degree in English and a CPRW who has never interviewed or hired someone for a job who now feels qualified to offer résumé writing advice, a 2012 college graduate who has yet to find his first job but is undeterred in offering his 2-cents, and countless others who profess they know the right way to write the perfect résumé.

All of us are well meaning in our desire to help others, but cumulatively we have created an “information overload” on a subject in which too many contributors don’t have the hands-on experience, knowledge and training to be considered a true Subject Matter Expert.

I myself do not profess to have all the answers. However what I can say with certainty is the advice a SME should offer must vary depending on who they are advising; a 2012 college gradate, a recent MBA with several years experience, a mid career professional, a career changer, a mid-level manager, a VP and CXO level executive, and all of the over 50 year old job seekers having difficulty getting noticed in the crowd can not be treated as a single entity. Résumé advice also differs depending on the job seeker’s industry and occupation or vocation.

A knowledgeable authority should make it clear that, for instance, the advice offered a recent grad, a graphic designer, or a network administrator is not ‘One-Size-Fits-all.” Most written advice I see on blogs fails to make this differentiation.

One requires a traditional résumé, one a technical résumé, and one a résumé stylized to stand out in a huge stack of résumés submitted by almost equally qualified candidates. This is what a competent blogger should be telling people and what you should take to heart.

So if you are reading blogs like this, and especially if you are following discussions on Linked-In groups where there are way too many posters who are as phony as a $7 bill, you need to investigate who is offering the advice before you accept it at face value.

The first thing I suggest doing is to Google the writer to see that he/she is who they say they are and not just a cipher. On blogs like Career Rocketeer and mine you can read their bios, or next best go to their Linked-In page to learn more about their credentials and what others have to say about them. Then go to their website and look at samples of their work to see if they can “walk the walk as well as they talk the talk.” Finally I suggest you read articles they’ve posted in the past to see if they are consistent in their advice or if they are just looking to drive paid traffic to a 3rd party blog.

Doing all this is not an infallible way to ensure their résumé writing advice is right for you. So if you have any doubts I suggest you call or email them and ask them what they would suggest in your case. A true professional will be happy to return your call or email and give you a moment or two of their time. I know I would.

Again, I am available to offer a professional critique of resumes and social media profiles and offer thoughts on how to improve them. Just send your resume to perry@perrynewman.com. No cost/no obligation.

The GEN Y Generation

Every decade a new generation of entry level and early career employees arrive to leave their mark on how the job market evolves; in 2012 it is Gen Y – 18 to 29 year olds with a new attitude.

Here are some interesting facts about this collection of young men and women who will soon be our future business and social leaders.

According to PayScale and Gen Y research firm Millennial Branding 47% of Gen Y’s work for companies with less than 100 employees, while another 30% work for companies with less than 1500 employees. As for Gen Y who desire to work for mega large companies the preference is to work for companies known for innovation and leaders in technology like Google, Amazon and Qualcomm etc.

My feeling is what’s happened in the economy the past 5 years; the inability of well established companies to create quality jobs and their lack of loyalty in the workplace has created this trend to avoid working for the larger companies.

Where in the past the ‘American Dream’ was to start at the bottom rung on the ladder and slowly climb your way up, or when possible do so on the ‘fast-track, today there is a changing dynamic of replacing ladders with lattices. You can find out more about this from my previous post Career Lattice is replacing the Career ladder.

In terms of Gen Y preferences, researchers found the appeal is flexibility, a chance to be entrepreneurial, and the freedom to use social networks in the workplace without strict corporate guidelines.

In this global age when business can be easily conducted remotely, flexibility is quite important. The ability to get your work done outside of a strict 9-5 schedule and work from home some, most or all of the time is not only appealing, in many jobs it is crucial. With technology we can now attend meetings and collaborate with people on the opposite coast and across the pond on our laptops at home. So Gen Y workers see little value in being at the office at 5 am in the morning or at 11 pm to attend a meeting or speak with a co-worker in Paris or Tokyo about the project they are collaborating on.

Also there are many companies that allow you to work 100% remotely and this too appeals to Gen Y since it broadens the number of companies they can work for.

I think because of the lack of job creation today Gen Y also sees opportunities that allow them to develop their entrepreneurial skills a big plus because this way they can create companies and jobs a few years down the road rather than look for new positions or be among the long-term unemployed.

Wanting the freedom to use social media shows me how important social media such as Linked-In, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ etc. has become today, and how much it will grow in importance in the next 10 years. This generation grew up in the age of social media and older workers must learn from them how to embrace social media or get left behind.

On the negative side many entry level Gen Y employees are having a very difficult time finding jobs in their chosen field due in part to competition from older, more seasoned unemployed and employed candidates.

As for education, most Gen Y do have a 4-year college degree and many have advanced degrees, however these diplomas no longer guarantee placement in a white collar position. This is why so many are working in jobs that are beneath them and do not require a degree at all.

The smart Gen Y are now seeking degrees in science and related majors leading to jobs in biotech, neuroscience, robotics and similar fields.

This is the mindset of the Gen Y generation, but it is also worthwhile for career hangers in their 30’s and to consider these new workplace dynamics.

Again, I am available to offer a professional critique of resumes and social media profiles and offer thoughts on how to improve them. Just send it along to perry@perrynewman.com. No cost/no obligation.

Will You Pass the Background Check? A Guest Post by Jane Smith

A resume is a carefully self-selected presentation of relevant data that casts you in the best possible light. There’s a reason job interviews exist, rather than hiring candidates on the spot based on their resume: the employer wants a chance to independently verify the first impressions they’ve received from the resume, cover letter, and any other communications with a prospective employee.

But while an interview provides enhanced detail in the form of nonverbal cues, body language, personality, spontaneity, performance under pressure, and the answers given for any number of questions the hiring manager has prepared, many employers choose to go a step further and perform a background check on potential employees.

This is especially true in jobs that put an extra premium on physical safety (like mining or trucking), confidentiality or trade secrets, public image (any political job), or responsibility for minors (like teaching or daycare). While most job-seekers aren’t applying to work someplace with a truly intense standard of scrutiny, such as the FBI, it’s still worth asking yourself: if they dig into my record, what are they going to find?

It helps to know a little bit about how this research is conducted. There are different levels of thoroughness, ranging from the most basic due diligence to some real heavy detective work. At the lightest level, a conscientious employer will do the bare minimum of calling former employers and whoever else you’ve got listed as references (though you might be surprised how many of them don’t bother). This is a good reason not to burn bridges with the people you have worked for, even if you have to leave a job under strained circumstances.

The next step would be to check your credit history. There’s a law governing what employers can do in this regard, called the Fair Credit Reporting Act or FRCA. It requires that you be given a written form so you can sign off and give them permission to do a credit check. This is a piece of paperwork that’s probably handed to you at the interview itself. In that setting, you’re probably nervous and have a lot of other things on your mind, so consider this your warning beforehand. If you’re currently unemployed, one good thing to do with all that free time is check up on your own credit. Just don’t get suckered into subscribing to some other product as many supposedly “free” credit reports will have you do. There are various measures you can take to improve your credit, and you want to make sure you’re not being penalized for some kind of fixable error.

Aside from having you take a urine test to see what you’ve been smoking, the next and generally highest level of scrutiny would be a government records search. Your criminal record, any past bankruptcies, your driving record...all these are publicly accessible government documents. Laws vary from state to state on what information an employer can use to judge your fitness for employment; there’s often a statute of limitations so that they can’t judge you for what you’ve done beyond a certain horizon of years.

Unless you really are applying for a job with a government security clearance like the CIA (in which case they’ll interview just about anyone they can who knew you), there’s just one final step to the typical employee background check you should be aware of. There are two terrifyingly sophisticated and intrusive new tools whereby anyone who wishes to can learn practically every detail of your life.

They’re called Google and Facebook. There’s no bill yet that protects the right of employees not to have their name entered into a search engine. Make sure you’ve scrubbed any material you can from the Internet, not just visual but verbal, that might cast you in a bad light. Welcome to the new normal here in the mutual surveillance state. It used to be the Stasi had to collect information about East German troublemakers in vast storehouses filled with reams of paper documents. Nowadays, we voluntarily broadcast our dirty laundry and all anyone has to do is tune in. Make sure what you’re putting out there is the best version of yourself!

Familiar with personal information screenings and online background checks, Jane Smith regularly writes about these topics at backgroundcheck.org. Feel free to send her comments at janesmith161@gmail.com.

RESUME WRITING & THE DREADED ATS – Part II

If you happened to miss Part I it was posted  here on August 5th. 

Then as now I believe visual appeal is the key to resume writing to land a job. I also feel strongly that more job seekers will get hired via networking and getting a resume directly into the hands of a decision maker, or at least the hands of a trusted intermediary, than by means of electronic submission.

However numerous reader responses to my 8/6 post led me to conduct some further research on the topic. What I discovered is there is now a proliferation of software and products in the ATS market at a price that is affordable for small businesses and placement firms. Thus more employers and recruiters are jumping on the ATS bandwagon to deal with the high volume of resumes submitted for consideration.

This being the case, today more than ever unemployed job seekers and employed personnel who desire to advance their career must take ATS seriously when preparing a resume. This also means writing your own resume is now more complex than ever in terms of knowing what works best for electronic eyes and human eyes; how many resumes you need; how many formats your resume should be in; and which one to use at all times.

So here is some additional food for thought on resume writing and ATS.

1: ATS no longer searches strictly for key words. Now it is capable and programmed to parse and select key words in context. So, although it has value, a laundry list in say an Areas of Expertise section has less value today than in the past unless it is part of a well thought out ATS driven writing process.

Although it appears repetitive to a novice human eye, the computer assigns a value to each key word based on the number of times it appears. This is why advanced resume writing expertise and wordsmith skills are so important.

The ATS compliance process is somewhat complicated and is also constantly changing. But in simple terms certain words and phrases need to appear a number of times in the resume, they must appear in the proper physical location on the resume, and they need to be written in relation to the desired context and relevance of specific job descriptions.

2: I’ve been told by a few SME’s that a candidate profile is parsed, identified and stored in the ATS system as existing or new. So in many systems once a resume is parsed and uploaded that version will remain in the system for a predefined or indefinite amount of time, even if a new one is submitted. On this point I will say that not all experts agree, and most who do say it also depends on the software package.

If true, this means if a poorly written resume and/or one that is not ATS friendly was submitted first and then you edited or rewrote it completely and submitted the new version to the same company for a different job, there’s no guarantee it will replace the one already in the system. Instead you will still be bypassed as being an inappropriate match.

As a job seeker you don’t know which system an employer uses (if any) and when a newer version of your resume will replace the original one already embedded in the system. So my advice is to write and submit your resume with caution.

For those who work in fields or at levels where electronic submission is more prevalent, and for job seekers who target working for specific companies and submit their resume multiple times for multiple positions I’d suggest you get it right the first time or get a professional who knows about ATS to prepare your resume.

3: Key for the resume writer is the ability to read and categorize job descriptions and build favorable profiles based on the data, with particular emphasis on proper vernacular. A resume writer should also pay attention to identify and include specific and non-specific words and jargon that apply to the field and industry the resume is being written and targeted for.

If you have additional information on ATS to share with me and others, please email me and let’s talk. I can then include your knowledge and expertise (attributed or unattributed) in a 3rd follow-up post.

Again, I am available to offer a professional critique of resumes and social media profiles and offer thoughts on how to improve them. Just send it along to perry@perrynewman.com. No cost/no obligation.

Are You One Of the Long-Term Unemployed? by Phil Cooke, Ph.D. Special Guest Blogger

If you’ve been out of a job for more than a year, one big thing could turn it around.

It would be an understatement to say that the economy is in terrible shape. Statistically, it would be worse, except for the millions who have simply given up and walked away from full time employment. I have close friends who are brilliant, but haven’t worked in more than two years. I happen to live and work in Hollywood - an economy built on “freelance” talent. But even there, those who haven’t had a job in years are perceived as unemployable.

What’s the answer? In researching my new book One Big Thing: Discovering What You Were Born to Do I found something remarkable: the power of the niche. In today’s cluttered and distracted culture, special interest groups, demographic targeting, and digital technology have created a world where the niche rules.

Remember the days of major, national magazines like Life and Look? When I was a kid, there were only a handful of these mass-market national magazines available. But today, there are literally thousands of niche magazines catering to ever smaller, more specialized audiences. According to the Huffington Post, there are actual magazines called: Meat Goat Monthly News, Teddy Bear Times, Mules and More, I Love Cats, and Wood. You can pause your reading here if you’d like to race out and buy any of these magazines.

There are so many niches in the music industry that the producers of the Grammy Awards were harshly criticized recently when they cut the number of categories by more than thirty.

Today, corporations and their marketing teams understand that the key to connecting with customers is to be the best in the world at a very small niche. Even most giants of American business like Apple, Starbucks, and Walt Disney Studios, began serving a very small, focused market.

So what does niche marketing have to do with your career? Everything. Accurate statistics are hard to come by, but many believe the average person will move from seven to eleven different companies during their working life. Today, it’s rare that someone actually retires from the same career they began. To a certain extent, those statistics reflect the reality of changing technology and it’s impact on the marketplace.

But they also reflect the incredible distraction we face on a daily basis. Technology has made it far easier to tryout multiple jobs, communicate with more potential employers, and experience a wider range of opportunities. But it’s also created a generation of men and women who are average at many things, rather than being extraordinary at one big thing.

I suggest that it’s time to focus. The truth is, more and more studies are confirming that the only thing multi-tasking does is allow us to do many things badly. We may have many interests, but when it comes to our career, perhaps it’s time to become the best in the world at one big thing.

Olympic level athletes understand the power of focus. Even those who compete in multiple events keep it in the same specialty. Perhaps the reason Alison Kraus has won more Grammy Awards than any other female artist is because she’s the best in the world at the tiny category of Bluegrass music. No matter what happens in the other categories, when they announce the bluegrass awards, year after year, she walks away with the spoils, because she’s remarkable.

Take a moment of brutal honesty. You may be pretty good at many things, but are you world changing in a single area? Do you perform so highly at one big thing that people notice?

In a world of interchangeable workers – many of whom are mediocre at best – what’s the single area of focus where you could potentially perform at Olympic levels? Figuring it out could change the course of your career, and transform your future.

About the author:

Phil Cooke, Ph.D., is a filmmaker, media consultant, and author of One Big Thing: Discovering What You Were Born to Do. Learn more at PhilCooke.com.

Getting On A Recruiter’s Radar Screen

Although not at the top of most people’s game plan, for most currently employed and unemployed job seekers seeking out a retained or contingency search consultant has its place in your overall job search strategy.

More so for persons seeking jobs as a programmer or other IT professional or in an IT or related field.  

The most commonly asked question is “how do I get on these people’s radar screen and get them to with me.

So here are a few ideas, some are common sense and some a little bit more out of the box thinking on how to get yourself out in front of this core audience.

1: Ask around in your network and try to get personally introduced to a recruiter. Have your contact call ahead and arrange a phone or in-person meeting for you or at the very least have them forward your resume and tell the recruiter they will follow up on the referral in a few days.

2: Conduct a Linked-In search for recruiters in your field, look over their profiles, and based on their recommendations see which ones have gravitas. Then join a group they are part of and send them an invitation to connect and let them know how you found them, that you would like to talk to them about representing you and tell them you know people you can potentially refer to them now and in the future.

3: Scrutinize the jobs you are seeking and get some one to work with you to prepare a mock interview. You can also prepare Q&A session solo in a casual format, or prepare a1-to-1 session with a moderator. Then upload it on You-Tube, your website, Linked-In or some other online forum. Then send a nice intro letter with your resume to select recruiters and in the letter give them the link and tell them what to expect.

4. Giving speeches at industry events and trying to maintain a high profile is a time-tested way to get noticed by headhunters. If you are unemployed you may want to conduct occasional webinars and ask select recruiters if they would be interested in be a guest presenter or if they would like to be a co-sponsor and share the attendee list with you.

5: If none of the above appeals to you, use the old fashioned way and send them your resume and a cover letter and hope for the best.

If you want me to review your resume to make sure it is strong enough to send out email it to me at perry@perrynewman.com. There is no charge or obligation involved.

RESUME WRITING & THE DREADED ATS - Part I

I’ve avoided this topic, ATS, for a long time, so it is about time I added my $0.02 to the mix.

I am not a proponent of looking for job opportunities on job boards and submitting electronic resumes but it is inevitable many of you will. So here are a few helpful tips to keep in mind.

1: First you need to create a new version of your resume exclusively for ATS and electronic submission.

2: Be carful in the fonts you use; Arial, Georgia, Lucinda, Tahoma or Trebuchet is fonts I find work best with ATS.

3: If you have a border on your resume or you used some shading in some of the boxes for visual appeal get rid of them. Also if you have text boxes or you used a unique type of format, like the one I use for my bio-rez, place the text in a simpler styled, more traditional format and use the fancier one on the interview.

4: Spelling mistakes are harmful when it comes to human beings, but some folks will overlook them. Not ATS. If a word, especially a key word is misspelled the ATS will not auto-correct or know what you’re talking about.

5: A company uses language in a job posting that they are comfortable with, so I suggest you go over your resume and wherever possible use the exact same words and phrases they use to describe skills, experience and responsibilities. The ATS is programmed to look for these words so feed it accordingly.

6: I don’t know where this started or why, but nix white text key word insertion.

7: Stick to the facts. Lose some of the frilly adjectives and KISS.

8: If you have special characters or fancy bullet points get rid of them. I replace them with asterisks. : For ATS I will add special sections with keywords for technical skills, business skills and special skills and I will include industry specific acronyms that the ATS is programmed to look for such as CRM, FCMB, GAAP etc.

9: Do this for every job and the odds of a resume passing through ATS will be increased considerably.

10: Save and submit this resume in .doc and PDF only.

f you want me to review your resume send it to perry@perrynewman.com. There is no charge or obligation involved.

Here Are 3 Reasons Why Formal Resumes May Be Obsolete in 25 Years Guest Post by Samantha Gray

Resumes have been an important part of the job search process since the early 20th century. Functioning as a sort of “mini-biography” for job seekers, at present resumes are the most effective way for employers to screen candidates and select the ones best suited for an in-person interview.

Ever since the resume first became a necessary part of the job search, its format and purpose has remained, for the most part, unchanged. However, there are a few things happening in today’s world that just may make this popular employment tool unnecessary in the future. Below are three reasons why the formal resume could be obsolete in 25 years.

Online Applications
Although online applications are already in wide use today, most companies who utilize this tool still require their applicants to submit a digital copy of their resume, as well as bring a paper copy to the interview. However, over the years, we may see this part of the process negated, as employers begin using the information job seekers provide in the online application as the “resume.” This means that employees would no longer have to create a resume in Word, or any other resume building program, and attach it to an email or online application. They would simply fill out the online application, which would include sections for education, experience, skills and references.

Social Media
Professional social media websites, like LinkedIn, are highly functional hiring tools, because they provide a platform for job seekers and employers to network with each other on many different levels. Job seekers can post their resumes, apply for open positions, network with former and potential employers and join groups to make further professional connections. Employers can post jobs, review applications and instantly learn more about an applicant by viewing individual profiles. These sites provide a more efficient, smarter way to search and hire for jobs, because job seekers and hiring managers can find each other through a simple site search. And because Millenials prefer to do just about everything online, professional social media sites may take the place of the traditional resume in the future.

New Tools for Determining Qualification and Fit
Over the years, hiring managers have learned that resumes are not always the best way to choose applicants for interview. Someone who looks great on paper can end up being a bad choice for the company. The main downsides to hiring via resume include the time it takes to sort through them and the difficulty in choosing between similar resumes. This is why many companies are looking to change the way they hire, using a variety of different computer tools to narrow down the applicant pool. For example, some employers now require applicants to complete a qualification questionnaire or personality test after they fill out their online application. In the future, tools like these will take the place of the resume as the main way employers choose candidates for interview.

To prepare for this change, future job seekers and hiring managers should stay informed of all new technologies, especially social media and other Internet tools. As for preparing a resume; even if the formal paper resume becomes obsolete, employees should still keep a record of their education, professional experience and references. This information will still be asked for in job applications and should be recorded for easy access.

About the author:

Samantha Gray is a freelance writer by day and a high school and college tutor by night (well, in the evening, really). Samantha enjoys giving readers advice about the ins and outs of getting a bachelor's degree online.

Samantha welcomes questions and feedback at samanthagray024@gmail.com