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If you
have ever sought a new job or if you can remember
embarking on your first job search - you know how hard
it can be to present your knowledge, skills and
abilities in their best light. Poor first
impressions can be hard to makeover and can cause you to
be eliminated from consideration from jobs for which you
may be well-qualified.
For that
reason Express Employment Professionals has gathered some resources
designed to help you land that dream job...from résumé
writing to interview skills it's all here!
Career Tools
Résumé
Writing
 Is there
anything harder than encapsulating your entire
educational and professional experience in one or two
pages? In a word - No! Even more difficult
is encapsulating your experience in a format that is
easy to read and proves your qualifications to the
"screener" whose job it is to weed out the poor résumés.
According to
RésuméEdge.com a strong résumé and cover letter
combination is your only chance to land an interview.
The average hiring manager will review over 1,000
résumés to fill a single position listed on popular job
sites like Monster.com or in the classifieds sections of
major newspapers. Competition for jobs with the federal
government can be even more severe. Faced with
this daunting task, the hiring manager looks for reasons
not to interview you and may even use computerized
résumé scanning software like Résumé to screen out 90%
of the résumés submitted.
The Internet is
a great source of information on résumé writing.
Here are links to some resources that we feel might help
you create a résumé to be proud of:
The
Riley Guide
Monster.com résumé
Center
RésuméEdge.com
CareerJournal.com - The Wall Street Journal
Executive Career Site
Stand Out From the Crowd
The cover letter
is the hardest working document in the job search
family. Not only must it be compact and
to-the-point it must also stimulate interest in the
person whose job it is to screen out the minimally
qualified. It is an opportunity for you to prove
that your grammatical and business communication skills
are also appropriate for employment. All in all -
your résumé may be stellar but if your cover letter is a
bomb you can sink your chances of being considered for
even an initial interview. Check out these
resources for writing a cover letter that opens doors:
RésuméEdge.com
The
Riley Guide
Get Organized
Before you begin
sending any letters, it is important that you devise
some way of keeping track of the letters you have sent
and the response you received. For instance, if you send
a letter to a prospective employer and offer to call on
a specific date to follow-up, you need to have that date
on record so you can be sure to meet that commitment.
Also, if you are sending out 40 letters to various
employers, it can be critical to know what you have said
in a particular letter to be able to follow it up
accurately. Here are two ways to organize your job
search letter campaign:
-
Create a
chart with columns for the prospective employer’s
name, contact person, date sent, commitments you
made in the letter, and follow-up action taken.
Make another chart showing the response you received
from each letter with column headings, such as
prospective employer’s name, person who replied,
date of reply, and action taken. Keep these
charts up to date and hold on to letters you
receive.
-
Make copies
of all letters that you send out and file them in a
folder. Keep another file folder for the
letters you receive which call for further action to
be taken on your part and a separate file folder for
your rejection letters. This method can be
especially helpful as a reference for use when
composing new cover letters since you will be able
to look back and see which letters were the most
effective in generating interviews.
Be Persistent
"The
squeaky wheel gets the grease." This saying,
though tired and over-used, is very true of the job
search process. If you have targeted a company as
one for which you want to work but is one with no
current or advertised openings, touch base regularly
with the hiring manager. Be careful not to become
a pest but professional - yet persistent - contact may
mean that when an opening does present itself your name
is on the tip of the hiring manager's tongue.
If you
are applying for an advertised opening be sure to follow
up your résumé with a call to ensure that it was
received. If you're lucky - you will have the
opportunity to talk to the hiring manger or the HR
manager who will be forced to locate your résumé in
order to ensure that they did indeed receive your
information. This is the perfect time to display
your professional interpersonal skills and to find out
the timeline for interviews. Hopefully your
personal interaction and stellar qualifications will
make you stick out in the hiring manager's mind when it
comes time to screen applicants.
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Dress the Part
The first
impression is often a lasting one. That is why
dressing appropriately for your interview is a critical
part of landing the job. Invest in the nicest
clothes you can afford. For professional positions
a business suit is often the most appropriate attire.
However, the right thing to wear often depends on the
industry and the position for which you are applying.
Kate Wendleton, president and founder of the Five
O'Clock Club, a national career counseling and
outplacement firm says, "The rule of thumb is that you
dress one or two levels higher than the job that you're
going for. If you were going for a job as a
mechanic, you wouldn't go in there in dirty overalls,
even though that's how you would dress for that kind of
work. You would still go in there and show respect. You
would go in with an open-collar shirt, clean pants and
maybe a jacket." She believes that by dressing
appropriately "you're definitely showing that you care
about this job, and that you know the game." Click
Here are more information about dressing for success.
Prepare for the Questions
The best
way to sink your chances at landing the job is to go
into the interview unprepared. Get your head in
the game before you enter the building. Practice
your answers to many of the standard interview questions
like: "Tell me about yourself." or "Why do you
want to work for our company?" Although these seem
like easy questions - the unprepared candidate can
ramble assaulting the interviewer with vague,
unflattering and/or
non-relevant answers. Practice your responses to
the "standard questions" out
loud and memorize the answers that put you and your
experience in the best light. Check out these
resources for more information about the interview
process and assistance with preparing for your
interviews:
Monster.com
RésuméEdge.com
Follow-up Correspondence
After the
interview be sure to follow-up with a "Thank You" note
to the hiring manager. Consider the content of
your note as carefully as you did your cover letter.
Be professional as you communicate your appreciation for
the interview and use it as an opportunity to
reaffirm your particular value to the company now that
you have more information about the job.
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Give us a call at
1-888-224-0744 or contact us today
to see how Express can help you
find your next career opportunity.
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