Common threads in business development and job search

As a professional résumé writer and job search advisor there was a recent discussion in LinkedIn’s Account Manager Group that caught my eye and a response that prompted me to write this post.

“Need to convince a prospective client, but no way to get into him!” This was a discussion started by an Account Manager at a bank in Cameroon looking for strategic business development advice.

What I loved was this response posted by a Business Development Manager in the UK.

What do you need to convince the client to do - To buy something?

Why can’t you get to him – He refuses to talk or you can’t get past the gatekeeper?

When you hit a brick wall, ask yourself: How much do you know about his business? What is it that he does? How he does it? What is it that he wishes to achieve? Why would he change something? Why would he buy from you?

Find the answer to some of these questions, and you will find a way to get him to talk.  If you can’t get past the gatekeeper, find a way to build rapport with the gatekeeper first, or find a reason to be at his office in person.

I thought his response was categorically great advice for the banker and also perceive it as equally applicable for people engaged in a job search.

Throughout my career I keep telling people how important it is to think like a salesperson in all aspects of conducting a job search. So when I read this Q&A I saw the correlation articulated by someone from the sales side in a way you can appreciate and understand.

Cristian Andronache’s advice is something you need to seriously consider when writing a résumé and preparing for a job interview.  In both activities you are trying to make a sale and get beyond the initial gatekeeper. Just as he advised the banker, to be successful in a job search it helps to know as much as possible about perspective employers, their business, culture and the modus operandi of their operations. You need to research what is it they are looking for in this hire and why would they consider hiring you over someone else.

Extrapolating on what Cristian wrote, if you can answer these questions you will be prepared to write a targeted résumé that will get past the gatekeeper and get your foot in the door. Then, once inside the interview room you will know what to say to the interviewer that will get you a job offer?

As always I am happy to critique U.S. resumes and LinkedIn pages at no cost. Email me at perry@perrynewman.com

Sometimes What Makes You Special Might Turn Off Recruiters

As have other resume writers I know, I’ve become quite talented at creating marketing documents that take into account what clients have to offer and what makes them stand out from others vying for the same position, and presenting this information to match the desired ‘hire’ profile as closely as possible.

 

Moreover, the better resume writers have learned how to develop resumes that establish a unique personal brand that gets the documents noticed, even if it is in the middle of a stack of 100’s of other resumes, by being visually appealing and presenting success stories that validate a clients’ true worth and explain why they can do the job (depending on who the are of course) as well if not much better than others.

 

Among the most successful presentations I have created are Bio-Rez formats that have gotten excellent results when submitted directly to a company or someone the client wants to network with. As a matter of fact these resumes improved clients’ prior submit to response rate by up to 80%, thus getting them back to work in a shorter amount of time.

 

However this week I got yet another call from a client who told me about her recent traumatic experiences with a few so-called recruiters in well-known, mega-large placement agencies she visited to help her find a new job. From their tone and demeanour, I would not call the people she spoke with recruiters; they are more akin to 20^th century employment agency personnel who spew negativity and have no interest in the positive traits a candidate can offer unless they are employed and a perfect match for a specific job opening. Worse yet, they try and impress on people that the way to get a job today is through conformity and uniformity in a resume rather than establishing a personal brand; their take on resumes is they are a “One-Size-Fits-All document.

 

Each person she encountered offered her the same message. They told her how few jobs there were in her field because companies moved these jobs out of state (this is NYC we are talking about); they told her how fierce the competition for these few jobs is; and finally, puffing their chests out, they told her how choosy they are in referring resumes to a client.

After all this they looked at her bio-rez formatted resume and told her they would never send a resume like this to a client. If she wanted their help she would need to rewrite it and rather than have it be eye catching and easy to read, with lots of useful information that established her personal brand, they told her it would have to conform to what they called a “tried and true” traditional chronological format their clients preferred containing a generic opening summary statement and a laundry list of jobs and responsibilities in a template that mimicked every other candidate resume in their database.

 

Almost in tears, she told me she could not understand this and when I revised her resume to conform to their wishes she could not fathom why they would prefer such a bland presentation over the original one that stood out and had so much more important information.

 

I told her the answer is simple; their goal and hers are not the same. Her goal is to get a job and theirs is to earn a fee. But they are only paid a fee on a contingency basis, so if the company interviewed 1 or 10 of their candidates and none were made an offer they come up empty. Also her goal was to better if not totally eliminate her competition whereas their goal is to create competition and control it. This is how most permanent placement companies working in the $30k to $120+k range work and why at all times, no matter what is said, their allegiance is to themselves, their company and their client; never to you, their candidate.

 

The bottom line is if your resume stands out to them it will also stand out to their client and this causes a dilemma for them because the more candidates they refer who are interviewed the better the odds are of their earning a fee. If one resume they submit stands out above the rest the tendency of the client is to choose that person and reject the others sent by that agent. This opens the door for their competitors to get their candidates in the door, thus lowering the odds of their making a placement. So naturally it is in the placement agency’s best interest to submit resumes that lack a personal brand so they can better control the outcome depending on their relationship with the client.

 

This is why if you choose to register and send your resume to a number of permanent placement agencies you may need to have another version of your resume prepared in a ubiquitous generic format to suit their needs.

 

My question is this: Is it in your best interest that your resume conforms to the status quo and unanimity? I think not. Let me know your thoughts.

 

As always I am available to review your resume at no cost if you email it to perry@perrynewman.com and as a pre-Easter and Passover gift I am offering readers a 20% discount on bio-rez documents during the entire month of March.

Choosing A Résumé Writer - Who works for whom?

I won't enumerate my personal feeling why it is best to get a professionally prepared résumé for those seeking a position over $65,000 a year. After all I am biased.

Rather, I’d like to discuss what I heard from a professional I  recently met in a workshop who decided to write her own résumé this time around rather than trust someone she knew could do a much better job. 

This was nothing new to me. As a matter of fact I’ve heard this same train of thought from many people over the years; “after I paid them, the résumé company came across as if I was working for them rather than my feeling they were working for me. This was disturbing and I did not know what I could do?” 

I asked this VP what exactly she meant by this and this is what she said.

When I had my résumé written professionally a few years ago for my previous position, I asked the person I first spoke to if she is the person who would write my résumé. She said no. We will assign you to one of our best writers.

 

Once I paid and was assigned a writer, as a marketing professional I wanted to have some input into the design and format of my résumé and I was not 100% sold on the way the writer was approaching the project. I voiced this concern to her and she said “I’m the pro here and this is how we prepare all our résumés and this is how we’ll prepare yours. Trust me it will work.” 

I was not happy with the attitude but accepted that they were right and I was the novice. The result was it took me over 7 months of people telling me my résumé was the problem and my defending it until I landed a new job. 

To me this is no reason not to hire a résumé writer; rather it is a reason to go out and find a person who can offer you the respect and personal attention you deserve.

It may be true that most résumé writer are likely to know more about what needs to be done and how to do it than you do. However résumé writing is a collaborative art and you should be an integral part of the process. I’ll take it a step further, so should the people around you who you value and trust the most.

Recently I wrote what I felt was told was an ultimate marketing document for a client’s specific needs; it was extremely creative and at the same time laser focused to its target audience’s needs. What made this résumé stand out was my client had 3 of her most trusted colleges and mentors take a look at it and offer their insight and suggestions.  My client and I then discussed what they had to say and why, and then we incorporated their input and some industry jargon suggestions into her résumé and in the end all 5 of us agreed the final product was dynamic and on the money. (after 2 weeks it is too soon to judge results)

This is how a résumé can be written when you take a collaborative approach and are open to new ideas, constructive criticism and the fact that others know as much or more than you do about what sets your résumé  apart and what puts it smack dab in the middle of the stack. There are so many facets to writing a marketing document that tells a compelling story to the employer on ‘why you’ and not someone else is the candidate to interview and hire. My belief is 2 or more heads are better than 1 and a few extra  sets of eyes can see things that may have slipped through the cracks.

So when it comes to deciding who is best equipped to write your résumé remember the advice the Knight Templar gave Indiana Jones in pursuit of the Holy Grail; “Choose wisely.”

As always I am happy to critique US resumes (and professional overseas CVs) and LinkedIn pages at no cost if you email it to perry@perrynewman.com