What Do You Want In Resumes You Receive?

One of the social media articles which came my way this past week showcased a, “winning resume” from what they stated was a large number of submissions for an annual contest. This resume had colour, broad bands of headings, was filled with numerical stats and while visually impactful, I couldn’t help wonder about whether or not such a visually busy resume would even get by the applicant tracking software used by many employer’s.

Now if it did get by, and if it found it’s way to the people making interviewing decisions, there are a lot of people who need to start overhauling their resume designs and advice. I’ll be one of them. Hence, I think it only wise for us in the business here in Canada to check in from time to time and ask employer’s what they want in the resumes they receive.

As is always the case, it’s important when reading articles – any articles – to determine the source. I can tell you this resume winner was from the United States. Maybe resumes of such ilk are in vogue there, but in Canada, I’ve yet to see a big push for resumes that were so busy; had colour, etc. Can I make these myself? Sure I can. The question is whether I can or not, the question is really whether I should in order to give those I partner with the best competitive edge.

So it’s out there as a question; what are you looking for in the resumes you receive?

 

Pick 5 To Interview

Imagine for a moment that you’re the person responsible for looking at some job applications. You’ve got to pick some to invite into the interview process. If you’ve already applied the ATS software (Applicant Tracking System), the reduced pile in front of you already meet your stated qualifications. In other words, the key words you and Human Resources identified as must haves and preferences are already checked off. You’ve got a nice pile of winners here.

So having a pile of 10 before you on your right and 60 the ATS passed over on your left, you begin. Hang on a second, what are you looking for? If you’ve never had to actually go through this process of choosing people to interview, it’s not as easy as it sounds. If after all, each of these 10 applications have already surfaced as the cream of the crop, why not just interview the 4 or 5 on the top of the pile; random selection?

Well, I’m sure some employers do. I mean, it’s possible isn’t it? No one has to know what the person narrowing these candidates down actually did to select them. But for the majority of situations, what does that person do behind closed doors to pick their next potential employee?

Quick question before proceeding; how many readers don’t like the idea of some computer-generated software creating these two piles in the first place; the potential winners and the losers? I’ll bet a fair number of people would rather a human being look over their application rather than having their potential employment governed by a digital scan.

Here’s the thing about that software though; it’s programmed by humans to select the applications which on paper at least, most closely match the stated needs of the employer. That software selects and rejects solely based on what it was instructed to look for. If you didn’t know this technology existed before, you do now. Oh, and it’s not so expensive that only the big organizations can afford it. Like a lot of technology out there today, its come down in price, it’s affordable and it sure helps the employer when the alternative is having to set aside a huge amount of time going through more resumes and cover letters than they’ve ever received in the past.

Okay, so now the impartial and unbiased computer program has put these 10 applications before you. The next phase is choosing from the 10, the ones you’ll meet and make your interview list from. Most organizations set aside time for this process, and they might have to coordinate the schedules of the Supervisor, Human Resources staff, and a second person in Management. Just coordinating the schedules of these three people might take some doing, and they’ll need a couple of days perhaps to clear their schedules. Meanwhile applicants are waiting.

So whether it’s just you or you and one or two others, you’ve got these 10 from which to choose 5 to interview, as this is all time allows. So half of these will move on and half will join the larger pile of passed over/rejected applicants. By the way, no one in that pile will be contacted yet (if ever) to advise them they’ve been passed over. After all, you might end up going back to at least one of those who almost made it if none of these 5 you end up interviewing work out.

So now that human eyeballs are finally involved in the interview selection process, you and I need to understand one other thing. In addition to your eyes, you’re filtering these 10 resumes with some other things too. You’re applying your biases, preferences, assumptions, stereotypes, past experiences, gut feelings and knowledge. Still don’t like computer software? It doesn’t bring any of these to the selection process.

In the mind of the person selecting people to hire, they know the chemistry of the existing team this potential employee is going to join or lead. They have in their mind the personal characteristics they see as needed or desired. They might have a preference for someone who went to a particular school or who worked for a certain employer in the past. They might grimace at an incorrectly placed comma or run-on sentence. Then again, they may overlook grammatic errors and take that as a sign of authenticity, especially if the job doesn’t call for written communication skills as a top priority.

If the names are on the resumes before them, (some companies remove these from the applications so they eliminate human bias), these alone can potentially sway a person to choose or pass by an application. The presumption of gender too might be present. Is this a good thing or not? Perhaps an organization is intentionally hopeful they might hire someone from a specific segment of the population to better reflect the communities in which they operate. How could a gender, ethnic, age, or other characteristic dominated workforce become more balanced if such factors of applicants remain unknown?

You see it’s more complicated than just randomly picking a few or going through every single application received. This process takes time and expertise to do it well. While all this is going on, each applicant is wondering why they haven’t heard from the employer. What’s taking so long you might wonder?

After selecting those to interview and conducting those interviews, more narrowing done happens until one is remaining. May that person be you!

 

Not Getting Many Interviews?

Wouldn’t it be nice if you were granted an interview each and every time you applied for a job? Obviously employer’s can’t grant every single applicant an interview; there just isn’t the time for them to interview everyone that sends them a resume. In only deciding to interview a small number of those who actually apply, it’s highly probable they fail to interview some excellent candidates.

On your side of table, that’s of little comfort if you’re among those passed over and not granted an interview. In fact, it’s hard to know whether the employer thought you were good enough to interview but there were just too many to meet with, or you didn’t measure up at all to what they were looking for.

Given the effort you go to in the entire application process, it would seem only fair that the company you apply to would at the very least acknowledge your application. I mean, even an automatic reply just verifying they received your application is exciting to someone just learning how to apply to online jobs. To someone more experienced, it means little; they’re after a human response, and to other applicants, only an interview will do as their measure of success. And then there are those who only consider actually being offered the job as being worth their time and effort.

So for the applicant, I guess it really comes down to the things you can control and leaving what you can’t aside. You can’t for example limit the number of people who are competing with you for the job, nor can you control the preferences and biases of those who might interview. The salary offered, the actual job responsibilities and the location of the job are other things you typically can’t control; nor the format preferred by the company for the interview itself; a panel, one-to-one, second or third interviews etc. Like I said, don’t fret about that over which you have no control.

What you can control however is the quality and quantity of job applications you submit. I can personally recall a time in the past when I got an interview each and every time I applied for a job. I suspect that had more to do with the times and the relatively low number of people applying for jobs as opposed to taking credit for the quality of my applications. I don’t hear many people these days claiming to get interviews every single time they apply for a job. There’s just too many other people applying for and competing for every single job out there.

Don’t get discouraged with that picture. You’re only out of the running for a job if you fail to apply at all. There’s an old saying that anything worth doing is worth doing well, and that applies to job searching and putting your name forth as an applicant. Sadly, I still see people every week standing in front of a photocopier churning out 20 resumes at a time and submitting that one document to multiple jobs. This is quantity for sure, but it’s definitely not quality. The only way this is likely to be successful is if that generic resume just happens to include what the employer is looking for, or they are so desperate for anyone to do the work they’ll interview anyone breathing regardless of how qualified they are.

To be interviewed means you need the following in your resume:

• skills and qualifications that match the employer’s needs
• no spelling or grammar errors
• proof that you’ve got experience that matches their requirements

That doesn’t sound like to much to need does it? Yet, it’s surprising how many resumes fail to have all three of these things. When an employer for example says they want someone with 6 month’s to a year’s experience, someone with 10 years will often say exactly that; figuring that they’ve got so much experience, the employer will be impressed and interview them for sure. Not always is that the case. 6 month’s to a year’s experience is really code for, “we want you to know enough that we don’t have to teach you everything, but we want you to also be green enough we can mould you and train you to do things our way.” Someone with 10 years experience might come across as experienced yes, but possibly they’ll bring bad habits and a narrow mind with them and be resistant to doing things the way this employer wants them done.

As for grammar and spelling, most employer’s figure your resume is a pretty important document in your eyes, so this represents you at your best. If it’s sloppy and full of mistakes, they fear you’ll be even worse when you work for them on things that are important to them but less so to you. This is of critical importance if you are seeking work where you will make correspondence in the course of your work, such as working in an office, but it’s important to every person no matter the job.

Look, the bottom line is this; you want interviews, and if you’re not getting many whatsoever, you’ve got to increase the odds in your favour. The only way to do this is get better at applying. If you know what you’re doing wrong, fix it. If you don’t know however, you must get help from someone who can point out some areas for improvement.

Generally Speaking, Here’s THE Problem

It’s not failing to market yourself in a job interview, writing a poor cover letter that fails to grab their attention, fear of initiating a meeting with someone in the role you want or even agonizing over your career path that is the biggest problem for most people. Interestingly however, all these are tied to the fundamental one thing which holds back being successful. That one thing? Positive self-esteem.

Again and again I interact with people who question themselves, who see their abilities and skills as needing improvement. They often show their lack of self-esteem in the words they speak and write, often without even knowing that their choice of words reveals more about them then they realize. Their non-verbal communication also gives away their lack of belief in their abilities. Yes, “Believe In Yourself” is one of the best pieces of advice a person can be given. However, it’s one thing to know you should believe in yourself and quite another to actually do it.

Take the person who, upon sitting down in an interview, starts off by saying, “Oh my gosh, I’m really nervous, I’m going to try my best but…” Or the cover letter that says, “I believe I can do the job”, and not, “I know I can do the job”. Then the body language people use, often folding into themselves in trying to become invisible, or the doubt they reflect on their face as they speak, the weak handshakes, the lack of eye contact etc.

Poor or low self-esteem is robbing employer’s of great employees, and robbing people of wonderful opportunities in the workforce. It keeps people in entry-level jobs when they do get them, and can keep people from taking chances because their fear of failure outweighs their desire for success. It’s sad. It’s more than just sad actually and it’s got to change.

Now if you feel your self-esteem is low, it’s likely you’re not to blame. If you seldom got praised or supported as a child growing up – be it from parents, extended family and teachers etc., it naturally follows that these key authority figures in your early life did you a major disservice which now as an adult has you instinctively doubtful of yourself. Now as an adult, you might not believe others when they say you’re beautiful; being overly critical of minor flaws. You might not have the courage to stand up and tell your parents – even as an adult – that what you really want to do in life is ….

Here’s the good news. Just as years and years of never being complimented, encouraged and supported can do a great deal of damage to your self-esteem, the same can be said of the reverse. In other words, you can in fact improve your self-esteem. This is not something however that’s going to correct itself overnight. Just telling yourself that you’re going to believe in yourself isn’t going to undo decades of damage. Damage by the way might seem like a strong word to use, but honestly, if you’ve been put down or never even had words of encouragement from your parents and significant people in your life, they have in fact damaged you whether it was intentional or not.

Building your self-esteem and self-respect back up is something you can do however. When someone gives you a compliment, do yourself a favour and accept their assessment instead of automatically downplaying or disagreeing with their words. What someone has recognized in you as good and worthy of noting is a good thing. The choice is yours to say a simple thank you or deflect those words with your automatic, “What? This old thing?” or “I don’t see myself that way.”

The person you are now is a product of your past, and it’s equally true that the person you become in the future will be a product of both your present and your future. Yes, it takes time, but time alone won’t change things much. You really need a combination of time, surrounding yourself with positive people who recognize and voice the good in you, and a willingness on your part to be open to seeing yourself differently; a change in your attitude.

You deserve a positive future. You are worthy of the good things in life; the very things you want such as a good job, supportive and positive relationships, feeling good about who you are as a person and seeing yourself as a person of worth.

One thing you can consider is removing yourself from the constant influence of negative people; the one’s who tell you that you’ll never amount to much; that you should just settle in life and you’ll always be flawed. You’re so much better than how they see you! When these people happen to be in your family, you might consider telling them how hurtful their words are, and that they’ve got to get behind you or get out of your way. The person you’ve been is not the person you’re going to be.

Build on small successes. Sure it starts with being open to the, “Believe in Yourself” philosophy. When others say good things about you, accept that they see something in you that you yourself may not; and they just might be right, especially if you’ve heard this from others.

Self-esteem can be rebuilt and when it does, it’s a beautifully powerful thing.

If Resumes Were Only About Key Words

More and more people are coming to understand that constructing a winning resume; one that gets you invited in for an interview involves ensuring the key words and phrases from a job posting are included in their résumé.

If that was all employer’s were looking for, you’d think they’d be receiving an extremely high percentage of such resumes, giving them the luxury of having many highly qualified people to choose from. You’d also think that if it’s just a case of putting these keywords in a résumé, anyone could consider themselves an expert by doing so. That’s not the case though; resume writing is a craft like any other endeavour, and there are those who are better at it than others.

This being the case, that resume writing is a skill; what would make some people believe that they can write one as good as anyone else? Especially if writing a résumé is something they only do when out of work and looking for a job. No, there’s got to be more separating those who craft resumes – and there is.

Your résumé you may recall from earlier posts, is your personal marketing document. It should therefore, or rather it must therefore, communicate clearly to the employer that bringing you in for a conversation will be worth their while. And by this, I mean that as their time is valuable (as too is your own), they have to perceive some benefit to be derived from meeting with you as a potential employee. Think, “How does hiring you benefit us?” and you’ve got it.

Many resumes fail to communicate this to an employer however. No, many resumes send the message, “I want to work for you so that I benefit in the following ways”. This message doesn’t appeal to an employer at all. Organizations aren’t in the charitable business of giving people jobs just so they can grow and learn new skills. Businesses have to be profitable, their workforces efficient, and how will hiring you achieve profitability?

So pull out your résumé – go ahead I’ll wait. You’ll find this useful trust me.

Okay so looking at the document, have a look at your stated qualifications. I would hope that what you have in this area responds to the stated needs of the company you are applying to. If it does, that’s good but that’s not all you need. Does each line stop there? Is that all you included? For example, if the employer says the successful applicant must have the ability to work well in teams, it takes more than just saying, “Team player”.  Maybe you said, “Work well with others” or “Work well in team settings”. Ho-hum, boring and pretty standard for a lot of resumes. If this is on your résumé, you don’t really think you’re making the best impression you could do you? Unfortunately, the answer for many is that yes, that is exactly what they believe.

• “Work cooperatively with co-workers; self-invested in working towards common organizational goals, achieving efficiencies and maximizing profitability”.

The above has a lot packed in to that single bullet. First it communicates how you work with others; in this case cooperatively. Don’t assume this is a given. There are many people who work with others grudgingly, and although it may seem to an observer there is a team of six people in a situation, it’s really 4 team players and 2 others standing next to them working in their own silos.

The term, “self-invested” is an interesting term that stresses how the person is committed and motivated internally, without needing an employer to be constantly monitoring their activity. Self-invested people are not just present, they are present and engaged in what they are doing, taking pride in what they do. The rest of the bullet is just as critical. It communicates that you understand that achieving maximum profitability requires finding efficiencies; streamlining processes, looking for ways to get more accomplished requiring, speed, fewer distractions, less waste, commitment and a unified approach – ie. the common organizational goals.

Now imagine if your entire resume took what the employer is looking for and better communicated how hiring you will fulfill their needs and realize their end goals, and not just plop down your qualifications.

Take two resumes for a Cleaning / Maintenance position. The employer’s posting states that the job requires mopping floors, cleaning office areas. One resume states:

• Skilled at mopping floors and cleaning office spaces

An exact match for the employer’s needs, but compare that to the 2nd resume:

•  Proven experience mopping and cleaning office areas, achieving full compliance with Ministry Health and Safety standards; ensure offices are welcoming for staff members daily

In this second bullet, not only does the applicant have the required experience, they are demonstrating that they know WHY they do what they do and HOW the work they do contributes to the overall productivity of the organization. They get the big picture. Staff who walk in to a clean office start feeling good and ready to go. Staff who walk into their office any other way are immediately distracted, waste time complaining or making a report. Meeting Health and Safety standards keeps the staff healthy and at work, and not needing time off for illness. In other words, both employees say they can clean but one did a better job communicating they understand the big picture and how their role fits.

 

 

You Need Acknowledgement, Progress And Success

Talk to anyone looking for a job and you’ll find what they expect at the minimum is to have their efforts acknowledged and feel progress is being made towards ultimately being successful.

If a person applies for work repeatedly without any acknowledgement from employer’s, or if they feel stuck without making any progress, their effort will likely ebb and flow at best, or they will give up altogether.

Now, depending on your personal circumstances, your motivation for seeking this new job and the results you are achieving, can have a significant impact on your self-worth, self-esteem and your confidence. Although very similar, they are different from one another, and all three are critical to your self-perception. You do want to feel good about yourself, feel valued; that you have something to give which others recognize and appreciate. When we feel appreciated, we feel better about who we are and that positivity  carries over into other aspects of our lives. Without feeling valued, we can start to feel doubtful, our ability to contribute suspect, and our worth as a person comes into question.

Acknowledgement and progress lead to success no matter what the situation. Were you to buy some carrot seeds and plant them in the garden, you’d feel optimistic when you laid them in that shallow trench. With the first sightings of some fragile green leaves popping up through the soil, you’d feel encouraged. As the plants take root and sprout, the higher the green leaves grow, the more you believe the orange carrots below are getting bigger and thicker. The promise of successfully harvesting some vegetables becomes stronger. When you do dig up those carrots, there’s satisfaction in washing them up and eating them.

However, without any seeds germinating, you wonder what went wrong. Not enough sun or water? Planted them too shallow or too deep? Bad soil? Bad seeds? Or maybe you just say you obviously don’t have a green thumb. That lack of progress in seeing something grow can put you off trying again. If that lack of success happens not only with the carrots but also the onions, potatoes and tomatoes, you might believe you’re not cut out to be a Gardener. In short, you’ll give up.

The thing about growing your own vegetables is that if you’ve never done it before, you might ask others with more experience or at the very least, read the instructions on the packets you buy and follow the directions. When you do this, you’re taking advice from professionals, and you do this because you trust their experience and want to give your seeds the best chance of ultimately being successful vegetables.

When it comes to applying for jobs, you’d be surprised how many people don’t follow this same pattern of behaviour. No, a lot of people – perhaps yourself – go about applying for work as best they can figure out on their own. It’s ironic don’t you think that someone will buy a package of carrots for $1.50, read the instructions and follow the advice to the letter, but then ignore the advice that’s available from professionals when it comes to finding work that could potentially bring in tens of thousands of dollars a year?

As I’ve said in many articles over the years, job searching without success is frustrating. That’s got to be a major understatement of the obvious. However, job searching with progress or even basic acknowledgement is even more disheartening. Resumes and cover letters take time to make, applying online takes time as does even finding the right jobs in the first place. You feel your time is valuable, and the last thing you want to do is put in a lot of time and get nothing in return. For some, even just being acknowledged by an employer that they’ve received your résumé would be nice.

Look, you have to decide what’s best for you personally. That has and will never change. If you are getting regularly acknowledged and are getting interviews, you might feel progress is being made and success is imminent. However, if you feel stuck and you’re losing momentum or have no progress whatsoever, what are you going to do about it? Your choice would seem to be keep doing what you’re doing and hope for a different result, or change what you’re doing and hope for a different result.

Changing what you’re doing is almost impossible if you don’t consider advice from others who have had success in what you’re trying to do – get a job. Without learning how others have gone about it, you’ll just be guessing about what you need to change or how to go about things differently. For all we know, how you’re going about looking for a job now might be like buying a packet of carrot seeds and planting the packet while still in the envelope or scattering the seeds on gravel. There’s always a chance one or two might grow, but the odds are slim.

By all means, do what’s best for you. Hammer away doing the same thing or enlist the help of a professional who can share some ideas on how to improve your odds of success. It starts with having your skills and experience as well as your applications acknowledged, moves forward with feeling you’re making progress as interviews start coming, and ultimately you’ll be successful when the job offer is made.

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.

 

Think What Your Email Address Says About You

When applying for jobs, many people take great care to hide their age on their resumes, and for good reason. They’ll go out of their way to omit jobs pre-2000, decline to add the year they graduated from high school, College or even University if it’s going to make it easier for an employer to figure out how old they are by doing some simple addition. All that effort is lost however if their email addresses contain the year they were born.

I see this time and time again in my position as an Employment Counsellor. Just yesterday, I spoke at the tail-end of a workshop on interview skills about this. When I asked what her email address was, she told me her first and last name plus the number 60. “Are you 57 years old by any chance?” I asked her. To this she looked at me somewhat surprised and confirmed I was correct. “How did you guess that?” she asked. “You told me yourself by including your birth year in your email”, I replied, and then the light of realization switched on.

The thing is a lot of people include their age in their emails. They’ll either put the year of their birth or their actual age. Having several times watched people attempt to create their email using their name only, I know that computers will often suggest various email addresses which are available, and they almost always include a number. Don’t allow a computer to randomly suggest an email address for you that you’re then going to let represent you! That kind of random generation might be okay for your phone number, but not your email.

Unfortunately giving your age away isn’t the only problem I find in emails. There’s the inappropriate sexy ones, the childish ones, the nonsense ones, and downright insulting ones. None of these I’ll give examples of, so just use your imagination. It never ceases to make me wonder how serious a person is about their job search when they preface telling me what their email is with the statement, “I know it’s not very professional; I should change it probably, but I’ve had it for a long time.”

Okay so enough with making the case for what not to have, here’s suggestions for what it could or should be.

My first suggestion is to begin with either the word, “contact” or “call” followed by your first name and last. In my case it would be, contactkellymitchell@ or callkellymitchell@. If your full name is too long or is already taken, try a period between your first and last name, or your first initial and last name such as callkelly.mitchell@ or contactk.mitchell@

As the person at the receiving end silently reads your email address at the top of the résumé, they cannot help read the words, “contact” or “call”, and aren’t these the very actions you want them to take? You want to be called or contacted by the employer with the offer of an interview. Your suggesting the action to them just by reading your email address alone. Not too many have caught on to this strategy yet so get yours while the getting is good.

Another strategy I suggest is reserved exclusively for those people who are committed to looking for one career. So take me for example. I want to brand myself on those I meet as Kelly Mitchell Employment Counsellor. So my email address is employmentcounsellorkelly@gmail.com Yes it’s a little long, but easily remembered. The email address includes my job title and my name; the two are now linked together creating the lasting connection.

If a PSW, you could opt for PSWjillwhyte@ or j.whyteyourpsw@ Get the idea? The only drawback with this email address comes if you should then start applying for jobs that are similar in nature but use different titles. A Personal Support Worker might apply for jobs as a Health Care Aide, Personal Care Provider etc. and the like, and while having PSW in the email wouldn’t be entirely inappropriate, there are cases where you might want to switch things up entirely and look outside your typical field and your email wouldn’t work. So a PSW now applying for a job as an Office Receptionist might hurt rather than help her chances by using PSW as part of an email address.

The first suggestion I made, using the words, “contact” or “call” don’t present this problem. You could use these indefinitely and for a variety of employment applications across any sectors. So my overall suggestion is when applying for employment, turn exclusively to using an email that either prompts action on the part of the receiver or brands yourself with your occupation.

Continue to use your existing emails for friends and family; your social address. Create and use a professional email reserved only for employment applications, running your business, or professional networking. By keeping the two mutually exclusive and not using your job hunting email for anything but looking for work, you’ll also avoid cluttering up your inbox with spam and junk mail. This means you’ll likely never miss seeing some important reply from an employer and mistaking it for your horoscope, dating website or those large sums of money just waiting for you to claim from some lawyer representing a person in another country!

 

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.

Market Yourself Like Produce

There are some people, (perhaps you are one of them yourself) who when applying for employment take a very passive approach in marketing themselves as the most desirable candidate. They have a belief it would seem that reasons if and when an employer hires them, only then will they demonstrate how good they are. Up until that point, it would be a lot of wasted effort trying to be the best candidate because they don’t know who they are up against. “Take a chance and hire me and you won’t be disappointed”, seems to be their message.

Now if you are one who holds this kind of outlook, I would like to give you something to think about with a goal of changing your view. In perhaps changing your view, you might then change your approach, and your new actions may thusly change the results you experience.

So I need some kind of analogy that the typical reader, (in this case you) can easily visualize; something that you see the logic in that best illustrates my point. Hmmm…..got it!

Okay so you’re at the supermarket and you find yourself in the fruits and vegetables area. You’re standing in front of the apples we’ll suppose and you’ve made up your mind to purchase a few. Now apples works nicely because not all apples are the same variety and each variety has its own characteristics making some best for pies, others better for snacking on as they are, and some are just that much sweeter or tart.

But there’s more. Even once you look the assortment of varieties over and narrow what you want down to a particular variety, you aren’t likely to just put the first four you touch into your cart and move on. Having done it myself and watched others do it, you my dear reader are in all probability just like all the other shoppers. You give them a visual inspection, you test the firmness, look for bruising or cuts, assess the overall size and shape of the fruit, and based on whatever you’re looking for, you finally decide.

Somehow amongst all those 50 apples of the exact same variety, you selected the 4 which lined up with your personal preferences. Those preferences of yours are your most desired qualities in an apple on that occasion, and you passed up some for the ones you walked away with.

Now the store itself knows how people shop and they too have watched the behaviours of their customers. They regularly have employees sorting through the apples if you think about it. They too are making those apples as appealing as they can for you the buyer. They will shine them up, remove ones they deem unappealing to the eye, turn the apples so they show their best side to the customers, and they position the overhead lights to best show the gleam of the products. Nothing is left to chance and of course any apple deemed to be bruised or damaged in some way is removed, put on a cart and either discounted for quick sale or removed completely from the store floor.

In this analogy, you the shopper are the employer making your selection. The employee putting their best out there is you looking as attractive as you can.

If you agree that the food stores are going through this process in marketing their products to the  best of their abilities, then it follows that I think you should also agree that you too should be marketing yourself to be the one to pick when applying for work.

When you pick out your wardrobe in advance of the interview instead of just throwing something on the morning of for example, you are polishing up your outward appearance to be at your best. When you research the job and the company as well as those who work where you also want to be employed, your arming yourself with knowledge and that knowledge you hope will appeal to the interviewer when you share what you did to prepare.

But you might argue, you buy your produce down at the farmers market where the apples aren’t polished, they aren’t stacked in nice pyramids, and they aren’t even washed or polished. What then? I would ask you then if when standing at that vendors stall you still don’t cast a critical eye over the apples you are considering purchasing. Of course you do. You do the same when choosing the head of cauliflower, picking the pint of berries that appears to be the best.

Employers are the same and act in the same way. They advertise exactly what they are looking for in the job postings. They cast critical eyes over the applications they receive to determine who on paper best meets what they want. They meet with those they are considering selecting to confirm what they want to know and in the end they make their selection based on who comes off as the most desirable.

Your chances go up significantly if you put in the required effort to market yourself to meeting the needs of the organizations you wish to work for. It may sound like a lot of time and effort to adapt to the needs of each employer but actually this approach is the one which will result in being hired sooner rather than later.

So are you a Granny Smith or Delicious?