The Online Application Address Trap

Years ago when I was building resumes, I’d routinely add the address of the applicant. Just like many people today, I never gave the matter any thought to be quite honest; it was a given.

With the passage of time, it has now become my norm to first look at where the applicant lives in relation to the potential employer, and determining the proximity of the two from one another guides whether I add the address. After all, if a person is within a few blocks of the employer, it’s a huge advantage for the employer to see how close they live and this bumps up their credibility when they claim they’ll be able to be depended on to show up for work. Conversely, living 50 – 75 km’s or more away could play into the fears of an employer that this applicant will have attendance problems due to weather, traffic, etc.

Distance isn’t the only factor; an address has the potential to set off preferences and prejudices in the mind of anyone considering an applicant. Do they live in a nice or poor part of town? Was there a bad news story of late involving people on that street and could this have involved this applicant? Unfair? Sure. Does it happen? Yep.

So now I ultimately leave the inclusion or omission of a person’s address up to them in the end after having explained potential pros and cons of each and giving them my opinion.

Once a résumé includes the address, the full disclosure should be equally presented in the cover letter, and applying online where it’s an option to include is a non-issue because it’s been consistently shared both in the cover letter and resume.

The problem comes when the preference is to withhold the street address in both the résumé and cover letter; and do be careful to omit the address in the cover letter if that’s your résumé strategy otherwise it’s rather pointless to offer it in one of two documents you send. So where’s the problem? The online application.

Yes, I’m seeing more and more that online applications have mandatory fields which applicants must complete to send their application, and one of those mandatory fields? You guessed it; street address. So your snookered. Rats! Foiled again!

You’ve been smart to withhold this information on your résumé, wanting to eliminate being unfairly prejudiced from receiving an interview solely based on where you live. Of equal frustration is the fact that you can’t tell whether the online application will require your address or not when you first start the process. Sometimes the online application is to simply upload the résumé, fill in a name and phone number field and click, ‘submit’. Done.

However, if you’ve done many applications via the internet, you’ll see other applications have you fill in much more information and you can’t advance to the next page and get to the, ‘submit’ button unless you complete the mandatory fields – one of which may be your street address. There is no way now for any Employment Coach, Job Counsellor or Resume Guru to bypass this Human Resources Department guided, online application trap.

Give them credit; employers are catching up to what they see as needed information. Now taking me for example, I live in a community that is a 95 km, 1 hour commute to and from my employer. My attendance record for over 15 years has been excellent; in fact have a look at my LinkedIn profile and you’ll see I’ve included Attendance Awards as evidence of my reliability. Still, were I applying today and openly shared the distance factor, I wouldn’t even get more than a 4 second consideration with many employers. No chance to share my dependability in an interview or my online profiles; time dictates they aren’t going to invest any of theirs in looking further into my candidacy.

Now I’ve read articles and comments across social media where the discussions are to add or not the address. Some say include the city you live in or the zip/postal codes. I come down on the, ‘withhold this information’ camp. Where I live shouldn’t impact on my dependability – that’s my problem and I either have a strong work ethic and accountability standards or I don’t. Some people live 10-15 km’s from a workplace who won’t make it in on poor weather days or are consistently, ‘running late’ for other reasons. Distance isn’t the only cause that determines reliability.

I’d love to hear suggestions, advice, ideas etc. on if and how there are ways to bypass submitting addresses online when the fields are mandatory. To me, it seems to be an insurmountable obstacle.

Once you get a job offer and you’re signing on, sure that’s the time to give personal information like address, Health and Social Insurance Numbers etc. In an interview you may reveal your address if asked outright – but you got the interview without revealing it didn’t you? You can market your strengths and if reliability is one of them, prove it, making distance a non-factor in their mind.

Blind resumes; one’s that conceal name and address to end preferences and prejudices, may become more mainstream to mitigate such factors. However, someone in the organization is aware of these as they remove them for others who do the hiring. I wonder if the ones blinding the resumes don’t themselves have preferences and prejudices however.

 

Advertisements

What A True Resume ‘Expert’ Does

Many people will turn to someone else to write their résumé for them. Like so many things in life, you’ll either have a positive or disappointing outcome, in this case depending on who you get the help from and how they go about completing the résumé.

I suppose to be honest, it starts with your own level of commitment. Do you want the résumé just done for you, or do you want to be fully involved in the creation of the résumé and in so doing, pick up the skills you now lack so that you can do it for yourself in the future?

Now you might be the kind of person who really isn’t interested in learning how to do one. No, you might be quite happy to pay someone to do it and then pop ’round in a few days to pick it up.  Maybe your logic is that once it gets you a job, you don’t plan on having to write another one for years so why bother to learn how to do one?

I believe the most effective resumes; the ones that actually result in getting you through to the interview stage of the hiring process, are the ones where you sit side-by-side the person working with you to create the document. The major advantage is that the two of you can have an ongoing question and answer session, and the more the Resume Writer learns about you with the information you give, the stronger the résumé becomes. Why? Essentially they learn through those questions, information you haven’t provided otherwise, and it’s this information that they weave into the entire document.

I am reminded of this reality every time I run a group resume workshop, and then sit down personally with each attendee a day or two later. Many of those in attendance go ahead on their own prior to our personal meeting and do their best to incorporate the layout suggested to them, as well as targeting it to a specific job. When I’m sitting with them alone however, there’s a gap between what they’ve picked up in the group and what they pick up working together that gets bridged in the end. So many people comment on how they, ‘get it’ working together, because they can see the process first-hand as I craft it with them.

Honestly, it doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about highly educated people with doctorates and degrees or people yet to finish their high school education, the experience is richer when done working together. One thing about those questions and answers is that they morph, evolve, change and pop up as the process goes along. So it’s not like you could be given a list of questions to answer in advance and then just send the answers with your rough employment history and expect a winning resume. There are however, some Resume Experts out there who will gladly take your money and do this exact process. You end up having paid for something that looks great to the eye and you’re happy; until you realize the resulting interview invitation doesn’t materialize more often than not.

If you invest your time in sitting down with an expert to learn how to do it for yourself, with practice you get better. You don’t want or expect to be writing resumes for long of course, because your goal is to get an interview that leads to a job offer quicker and not longer. Then yes, you don’t usually plan on having to write another résumé for some time, perhaps years.

The thing is though, a real professional Resume Writer will craft a résumé for a single job posting. So before you pay them, if they tell you their plan is to give you 5, 10, 20 copies etc. of the resume so you can use it to apply to many jobs, this should be your sign to find someone else to work with. As I’ve said time and time again, no single resume should be used to apply to more than one job – even when the job title is identical. The details of the job – what you’ll actually do, the qualifications required etc. will vary slightly from one to the next, and so too should your resume.

We live in a world however where many often just want to pay someone to do things for them. There will always be these people and there will always be people willing to take their money. There are times when you want to pay an expert. If you’re having a window installed in what is now a brick wall of your home, call an expert in. You don’t have the skills and once that window goes in, you may never have another put in so pay up and be happy.

It’s highly probable however that you’ll be looking for employment again after getting your next job, or even more probable, you’ll be looking for employment after you send this résumé for the job you are applying to while waiting for a result. So it seems to me that if you pay for this kind of service, you should pick up skills necessary to do it for yourself in the future.

You won’t become an Resume Expert yourself just because you sit with one. Respect their work, respect the person. You can pick up a lot however that will serve you well on your journey.

The Importance Of Shifting The Agenda

I was really looking forward to our one-on-one resume appointment; after all, she’d been smiling and engaged all through the group presentation just a few days before. Adding to that positive first impression, she’d called ahead to advise me of a slight conflict with another appointment and respectfully asked to make a small change in our appointment time. (This kind of respect for other people’s schedules goes a long way). Finally, she’d also mentioned that she had, on her own, taken efforts to use the ideas I’d shared with the group; full marks on initiative and personal accountability!

So as I say, I was really looking forward to our meeting.

It started off well enough as she was on time, nicely dressed and there of course was the nice smile I’d remembered. As requested, she’d come prepared with a job she was interested in applying for too; a part-time Receptionist position with a local funeral home as it turned out. While she didn’t have a résumé and we were starting from scratch, she had obviously put pen to paper and with this data, it would be quicker to take what she’d put down and re-work and re-word things to fit the posting.

Ah, this was going to be a nice time together…probably just an hour I’d imagined.

After we had reviewed the job requirements from the posting, highlighting each one to make sure we’d note these somewhere on the résumé, I remarked that her last employment was some 7 years ago. “Why the gap?” I wondered to myself; so I asked.

“I took time off to start and raise a family…and I got a divorce.” Everything had been normal until she mentioned the word, ‘divorce’. In a seconds she was fighting for tears, looking expectedly around for a tissue, and not seeing the box behind her, was wiping away the tears from her eyes and apologizing profusely.

Instantly I realized the résumé could and would have to wait. This kind of thing happens more often than people might think. Years of working with people have taught me a number of things, and one is that for someone to break down so quickly at the mere mention of divorce suggested to me it was fresh, the rawness still very new, and yes, there was the distinct possibility she’d been on the receiving end of some kind of abuse.

As it turned out, it was a case of past abuse, for when asked if she had someone she might talk to about her experience, she mentioned she was seeing a Counsellor provided through a local women’s shelter. The mere mention of the shelter told me enough, as I wasn’t the right person nor was this the right time to have a counselling session. Still, it costs nothing to give someone your full attention and pause, assuring them that its okay to express their feelings.

I wondered if this woman was ready to work. I mean, it’s extremely probable that she’s going to be asked about the 7 year employment gap on her résumé in an interview, and would she share to them what she shared with me, and would this repeat itself anew?

When I very gently asked if she was ready to work, she said that she had original been thinking about volunteering to get going again, but the part-time job appealed to her as she hoped it would be through the day so she could still take care of and see her 3 children. “How silly of me though! I think I should just forget the job and look at volunteering somewhere.”

This could be a classic response of someone who was told things like, “No one will ever hire you” or, “You’ll never make it without me” etc., so it was really important to point out a couple of things to boost her fragile self-esteem. First of all, she was still sitting with me and wanted to do a résumé, which while she had broken down, she hadn’t gathered up  her things and bolted for the door. So it was important to her. Secondly, she had the skills required for the posting; and if granted an interview, she’d feel good knowing the résumé worked. If she got a job through the interview, it would bring added stress – but good stress, and if she didn’t get the job, she’d be no worse off for the experience.

Well we finished that resume together, and near the end, I again pointed out some positives. The smile was back on the face for the world to see, and she genuinely liked how we had marketed herself on the résumé which made her happy.

When you work with people in this field, it’s key to remember that the agenda you have all nicely laid out shouldn’t be so rigid that its importance outweighs the people sitting before you. While not a formal counselling session, this had been more than a résumé appointment.

This interaction highlights the difference between working solely with a résumé expert and a resume expert who works in the context of serving people first and foremost. Total cost for the 1 1/2 hour resume/listening/support/self-esteem repairing session? Zip.

For the record, I share not to get any praise or accolade. I share to highlight and remind us who work with people that establishing and nurturing a trusting relationship will take you places while remaining detached will have you wondering why your resumes don’t turn into jobs.

Allow _____ To Make Changes To Your Device?

Last evening as I initiated the shutdown procedures on my laptop, I was advised of a major update available, and so as I want to run the latest and greatest, (without really even having the remotest idea of what that entails) I said yes. Then I got the message, “This may take awhile”. So I went to bed.

At 4:30 a.m. I rolled out of bed and fired up the laptop, fully anticipating there would be a slight delay as the updates came on the screen. Sure enough, this particular update was more extensive; it not only affected the laptop but synced my phone so I could move seamlessly from one device to the other. Great! Now I sat here in the quiet of my sanctuary looking at two screens on two devices.

Of course up came the inevitable messages on both, “Do you want to allow _____ to make changes to your device?”

Now I don’t know about you, but when I get these messages, I feel like saying, “Gee I don’t know if I want such-and-such program to make changes to my device. Do I?” But more often than not I find myself clicking on the, “Sure go ahead I know exactly what I’m doing button and I’m intelligent enough to know this will be in my best interests to do so” button. You’ve seen that button on your device too haven’t you? I bet you have.

Sure it’s an online world; the update told me this in fact. “We’re protecting you in the online world” came up right on the screen of my laptop as the updates installed. That’s good I suppose.

It suddenly struck me as ironic; this constant decision I make and I assume many other users make, to trust the updates we install and although we might pause to consider, we inevitably click on the, “Okay” button to go ahead and give a program access to our contacts, send and receive emails on our behalf or track our physical locations. We assume these are things we’re supposed to do so we do. Well, the majority of us do.

So why the irony? Right, back to that. I find it ironic that people will give more trust to an electronic update of their devices storing all kinds of personal photos, phone contacts, financial banking and password information but when it comes to allowing someone right in front of them to make changes to their resumes or give them updated information on how to best prepare for interviews, many decline.

When you’re not having success interviewing but refuse to take advantage of free workshops and seminars on how to interview better, isn’t that akin to declining the latest and best updates on your phone or laptop? Updates designed to make your phone, computers, laptops, tablets etc. function better? I think so.

So we want the latest version of whatever piece of technology is available but when it comes to ourselves, the knowledge we have and the way we go about things, it’s like we’re okay walking around in a Windows 10 world masquerading as a Commodore 64 and expecting to be taken seriously.

Things change. Progress, updates, process improvements, best practices, accepted norms, innovation and new-age thinking; ignore these and you’ll stand out alright, but for all the wrong reasons. I read an article just last evening from Martin Ellis who lives in England. Martin is a respected colleague of mine though we’ve never met in person. You can find him on LinkedIn and view his articles through his profile. He was sharing for the umpteenth time his thoughts on resumes for the present day and how to best compose them. While acknowledging that there are many people with varying advice out there, his thoughts and ideas are worth a serious read. He offers them up with the intent of helping people.

Now so does my Kansas City colleague Don Burrows. Don’s written excellent books on the subject and famous for getting his clients to stand out like a meatball on a plate of spaghetti. He loves that analogy, and again, the man’s got testimonials attesting to the success of his methods and recommendations.

These two and the many others I could cite and point you to – as well as others I’ve yet to discover – want you to succeed. In order to do so though, you’ve got to be willing to do one thing and that’s embrace change. In other words hit the, “Sure go ahead I know exactly what I’m doing button and I’m intelligent enough to know this will be in my best interests to do so button.” Do it with confidence.

You may not really know at the start that what you’re doing will work or be in your best interests. So sure be cautious. However, like anything you update, use your personal judgement and actually reserve judgement until you can test the results of what you’ve learned. I suppose if I don’t like an update on my computer I can revert things back to the wallpaper I had before just as you can revert back to your old resume if you’re attached to it.

But like that old Commodore 64, your vinyl 78’s and that stereo console your parents had sitting on that 12 inch shag carpet in the late 60’s, things change; and for the better.

Get hip to the trip daddy-o and you’ll find it’s groovy.

Job Hunting: DIY Or Use An Expert?

What would you call someone who has a comprehensive and authoritative knowledge of or skill in a particular area? If you answered, ‘Expert’, you’re correct.

So you want a job. You can go about the job search process in several ways – and this is pretty much true of wanting anything actually. You can go about things yourself in a DIY (do it yourself) fashion, you can work with someone who isn’t an expert in job searching but is good at other things or yes, you can work with an expert in the particular area of looking for employment.

Now there are a lot of people who, no matter the job to be done, size up the situation and figure, “it can’t be that complicated, I’ll just do it myself. Why bring in an expert?” Think of that small bathroom or basement renovation you started two years ago last September. You plan on being finished one day but you’re either a perfectionist or a procrastinator. Or perhaps you did indeed finish the project, only to stand back and in taking things in, see the errors you made. Not bad for a do-it-yourself job, but by no means as good as someone who makes their livelihood out of doing renovations on a full-time basis. So are you the person who settles for, ‘not bad’ over ‘I love it!”?

Sometimes the easier things look, the more inclined we are to believe that anyone can do it. Take the résumé. It looks easy enough. I mean, it’s just words on paper, and with only a small bit of searching on the internet anyone can find resume templates and so it would seem a pretty simple matter to make one. As for the interview help, again, Bing and Google are logical places to look. I mean, doesn’t everybody turn to the internet for expert advice these days?

Of course the other place people turn for great advice and help is the people they know best and trust. The logic here is that your best friends wouldn’t steer you wrong and take advantage of you, and they are pretty good at their job as a Customer Service Agent. So it’s a pretty logical step in your opinion to imagine they must know a thing or two about looking for a job; after all they have one right?

For some reason however, few people tend to give the Employment Specialists their due. I suppose it does look easy. Dash off a résumé and send it in, sit back and see if you get an interview. Then go to the interview, do your best to answer the questions asked and then sit back and hope you get hired. Sooner or later you’ve got to get Lady Luck on your side; it’s just a question of probabilities; throw a lot out there and something has to work eventually.

Me? I’m an expert in my field. Sure go on and roll your eyes. I’m not an expert in everything; nor am I an expert in many things. When it comes to resume writing, cover and rejection letters, interview preparation, presentation skills etc.; yes, this is where I have an authoritative and comprehensive knowledge. It isn’t bragging; I can back it up with proof. Look, you’re the expert at what you do, so why doesn’t it stand to reason I can be an expert at something as well?

To we Employment Coaches, Employment Counsellors, Resume Experts etc., it’s interesting to see how many people approach us only after they’ve had a lengthy period of mixed results or downright failures. Then when learning some new ideas and reaching some small accomplishments turns into ultimately being successful and landing employment, we often hear, “I wish I’d come to you a long time ago! I could have saved myself a lot of frustration.” Maybe a person needs to tackle things themselves and see what they are capable of doing before turning to an expert – if only to appreciate the difference an expert can make.

Here’s something to consider though; if you’re going to use the services of an expert, you’d better be ready to get to work. Two weeks ago I met a woman who’s last job interview was in 1998. 1998! She applied for 3 jobs after some coaching and landed not one but two interviews. Of those two interviews, she got a job offer on one which she’s accepted and the other one has yet to short-list their candidates. While happy, she commented just yesterday to me, “I didn’t think it would happen this fast!”

Then there is another woman I worked with over the same two weeks. 64 years old, and she not only secured a job last Friday, she’s got another interview today plus she’s made the short-list for her dream job in two weeks time. Suddenly she’s going from desperation to interviewing with leverage; any new job offer has to beat what she’s already doing.

Yet, looking for a job appears so easy doesn’t it? Why call on an expert or consider paying someone to do what you could do for yourself or get your best friend to do for you? Hey if you do it yourself and it works, I applaud you. You’ve either got lucky or you’ve got the required skills.

However, if you want to get results with a higher probability of success, reach out to an Expert in the field near you.

 

A Simple Act Of Gratitude

Yesterday I was in the middle of facilitating a résumé workshop when I heard the Receptionist over the intercom say, “Kelly Mitchell if you’re in the building would you contact Reception.” Fortunately for me, I was in view of a co-worker who, seeing me look at him and throw up my hands in a helpless gesture, picked up his phone and told them I was not available. I continued on.

It was only a few moments later that I saw standing off to my left the smiling face of a man I’d worked with a couple of month’s back. He’d been one of 12 people who’d accepted an invitation to work with me on an intensive basis over 10 days in the hopes of landing interviews that would lead to employment. He’d been successful too; getting and accepting an invitation to work despite a couple of employment barriers that had previously turned off employers from giving him the chance.

So there he was, a respectable 10 feet outside the area I was in, grinning like a little child, intent on seeing me. There I was too, obviously in the middle of a presentation and fully aware that he wasn’t going without a brief word. Hmm…

Well, I acknowledged him by first apologizing to the group and waved hello, telling him I was just in the middle of a presentation. To me he said, “I know, I just stopped by to thank you again for your help.” “Things are going well then?” I asked. At this point he said that things were going great and that the resume and job search tips had paid off. It was at this point that I realized there was a real win-win-win situation here to take advantage of.

Yes, you guessed it. I waved him in for a moment and now in full view of the people in the workshop, I asked him to repeat what he’d just said. Well it was a real endorsement of my skills and the information I was sharing with the participants that I couldn’t have planned any better had I tried. With his grin and kind words, he told us assembled that not only was the job going well, he had since accepting that first job, a total of 6 companies contact him for job interviews, and he was very close to getting an extremely good job; one that he’d been hoping for as a long-term goal I’d previously known of. “The résumé works! I change it for the jobs I’m going for and it’s really made a difference.” Then with a handshake and some last good wishes, he was gone.

If you believe I’m sharing this with you for the purpose of saying how great I am, you’re missing the point; completely and utterly. His generous act of gratitude and thanks says more of him than it does for me. That same information you see that I shared with him, I’d shared with others, and continue to share. I am so happy for him but also so proud of him, for not only his success but in how he’s going about things now. Dropping in for the sole purpose of expressing his gratitude, feeling that he wanted to say thanks in person and knowing the impact it would have on me.

Of course, I brought him in largely to show to the group that the ideas I was sharing really do work. I mean, here before them was a bona-fide success story that they could replicate for themselves if they applied the same ideas and concepts in their own situations. Oh and believe me, the room lit up, the energy shot up in the room and everyone was smiling. When I said after he left that I hoped they didn’t mind the interruption, that it was so good to see him so happy, they simultaneously and to a person indicated it was more than okay.

In attendance I also had a co-worker who was sitting in to improve her own confidence helping people with their resumes. A long-time Employment Consultant, she wanted to both see and hear my presentation and from there use the same resources I made to help others. So you can imagine how wonderful it was for me to have this unexpected visit and expression of both gratitude and success in front of her.

So I felt great, the participants and my co-worker had proof before them the ideas work, and the gentleman himself left feeling good in having accomplished what he wanted to do; see me and extend a heartfelt thank you.

No matter how hard we work, how many successes we have, how many people we see, we all need those moments when others acknowledge what we do and express their appreciation. His act of kindness and the impact on me will last some time.

I urge you to do likewise when the opportunities present themselves. Genuine gratitude is always welcomed and could come exactly when needed most for some people. We all like to think we make a difference in this field of social work, that we’re having a real positive impact on the lives of others. Sincere acts of gratitude like I’ve described here reinforce that belief and give us encouragement to do more, give more and strive for more. He couldn’t have given me a more precious gift than his thanks.

No Job Interviews? Here’s Your Problem

So the assumption here is that you’re applying for jobs and you’re not getting anywhere; no interviews. Without being invited to the job interview, you’re not getting offers, and so you feel increasingly frustrated and discouraged. It would seem to make no sense at all to just keep on plugging away doing the same thing and expecting different results. To see a change in things – the result being you land interviews and do well enough to get offered a job – you’re going to need a change in how you go about things.

If you don’t like the idea of doing things differently from what you’re doing now, stop reading. So we’re clear here, a change in things means putting in the work to get the outcome you’re after. Hence, if you’re not ready to put in that effort, again, stop reading here.

To begin with, you need an independent and objective look at how you’re going about applying for jobs. If you’re mass producing a single resume and submitting it to all the jobs you apply to, the good news is we’ve quickly discovered one major thing you need to change. That was how you applied for jobs back in the 90’s when there were more jobs and fewer people to compete with for them. Today you need a résumé that differs each and every time you submit it. No more photocopying; no more mass printings.

As I’ve said time and time again, employers are generous enough to give away most if not all the job requirements in the job postings you’ll find these days. Any résumé they receive and check must therefore clearly communicate that the applicant has the qualifications, experience and soft skills they are looking for. It’s no mystery; a targeted resume (one that is made specifically for the single job you are applying to and never duplicated for another) will advance your chances.

Now are you writing a cover letter? This is something you’ll get differing perspectives on from Employment Coaches, Recruiters, Company Executives and Employment Counsellors. Some will say you should include them while others say the cover letter is dead. Unless the employer specifically asks you NOT to include one, my vote goes with including one. Why? The cover letter sets up the résumé, shows your ability to communicate effectively, tells the reader both why you are interested in the job with the organization, what you’ll bring, how enthusiastic you are about the opportunity and why you’re uniquely qualified.

Whether or not you go with the cover letter, please make sure you get your résumé and / or cover letter proofread by someone who has the skills to pick out improper spelling and poor grammar. Also, even if the grammar and spelling are correct, it might not be communicating what you really want to say. Unfortunately then, it could be doing you more harm than good; especially when applying for employment in positions where you’d be creating correspondence yourself, such as an Office Administrative professional.

Once you have applied for employment, what else – if anything – are you doing to stand out from the other applicants you’re up against? If your answer is nothing; that you wait by the phone for them to call if they are interested in you, well then you’ve just identified another area you need to up your game. Following through with employers indicates a sincere personal motivation to land that interview. After the interview, further follow-up is advised to again separate yourself from those who do nothing. In other words, how bad do you want it?

Recently, someone I know applied for a job and then took the steps of actually job shadowing someone in the role with a different organization so they could gain first-hand experience themselves. While this is a great idea, they failed to communicate this to the employer they were actually hoping to work for. So this initiative went unknown, as did their sincere interest in landing the job. In short, they just looked like every other applicant; applying and then sitting at home waiting.

Look, there are a lot of people who will claim to be resume experts, cover letter writers extraordinaire and so it’s difficult for the average person to know the real professionals from the pretenders. Just because someone works with a reputable organization doesn’t make them immediately credible. Some pros charge for their investment of time working on your behalf while others offer their services free of charge as their paid via the organizations they work for. You don’t always get what you pay for as I’ve seen some $500 resumes that had spelling errors and layout issues that won’t pass software designed to edit them out of the process.

Do your homework. More important than anyone you might enlist to help you out is the effort you yourself are ready to invest. If you’re happy to pay someone to do your résumé and you don’t have an interest in sitting down with them to give advice yourself and learn from the process, don’t be surprised if you still don’t get the results you want. Should you actually get an interview, with no time invested in learning how to best interview, you’ll likely fall short of actually getting the offer.

Applying for employment today takes time and effort, but the payoff is the job you want. Make the effort; put in the work.