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#JobSearch : 5 Tips To Pass The Resume 30-Second Test. That is the Time you Have to Engage a Recruiter. A MUSt REAd.

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You can spend hours crafting your resume and conducting your job search, but today’s labor market can be competitive, and you need to go above and beyond if you want to stand out.

As if that wasn’t tough enough, recruiters will only dedicate a short amount of time to scanning your application. In fact, if you want to be shortlisted for an interview, you have as little as 30 seconds to impress them.

The good news is, there are some steps you can take to perfect your content and format your resume as effectively as possible. This will make it much easier for the recruiter to find those all-important details.

But how do you go about passing the 30-second resume test?

Tailor every application

Writing a strong resume can be time-consuming, so it’s understandable that tailoring every application you submit can feel like a lot more work. However, recruiters have become wise to this over the years, and they can spot a generic resume with just a quick scan down the page.

Generic resumes look lazy, and unprofessional, and suggest that you don’t have a genuine interest in their job role. Therefore, it’s crucial that you tailor every resume to the specific position and company before you submit your application.

This will require a certain amount of research, as well as using the job description to highlight important keywords and shape your content.

Engage the recruiter immediately

Your resume needs to start with a professional summary that grabs the recruiter’s attention immediately. As a senior professional, this should be a short summary that includes your current position and years of experience. You must show your relevance to the role and highlight your key achievements.

This section must also be tailored to the specific position and company. As we’ve said, a generic application won’t cut it, and if you get this wrong in the first instance, your resume is sure to end up on the rejection pile.

An engaging and focused summary will hook the reader and convince them to keep going, getting past the 30-second mark and increasing your chance of being invited in for an interview.

 

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What Skill Sets Do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Did you know?  First Sun Consulting, Llc (FSC) is celebrating over 30 years in the delivery of corporate & individual outplacement services & programs to over 1200 of our corporate clients in the U.S., Canada, the UK, & Mexico!  

We here at FSC want to thank each of our corporate partners for the opportunity in serving & moving each of their transitioning employee(s) rapidly toward employment!

 

Article continued …

Keep it relevant

As you gain more and more experience, the list of things you can add to your resume will only grow. The problem is, with just one to two pages to impress, including every job you’ve ever had is unlikely to get you over that 30-second hurdle.

Recruiters only want to see your most recent and relevant experience, qualifications, and skills. With this in mind, it’s a good idea to review all your past positions and only go into more detail about those that are relevant to the role. For example, it’s unlikely that if you’re being considered for a senior position, that the employer will want to read 10 bullet points about an internship you did over a decade ago, so cut it down or remove it completely.

This is important because the recruiter will not waste time wading through chunks of irrelevant text. If they start reading and the content quickly seems unrelated to the role they’re hiring for, you’ll simply end up on the rejection pile.

Be specific

The more specific details you can give about what makes you great for the job, the better.

So, when describing your experience, avoid giving generic explanations and give specific details instead. This includes quantifying your achievements to show how you made a real impact in past roles.

This will also apply to your key skills. For example, if you know how to code, be sure to list the specific programming languages you understand. Alternatively, if you are proficient in several types of accounting software, be sure to name the exact tools you’ve used.

Think carefully about structure and readability

Of course, the content of your resume is absolutely vital, but so are readability and structure. If your resume is poorly formatted, the recruiter might not give it any more than a quick glance. So, in order to make it easy for them, you must use headings and subheadings to structure your information and guide the reader’s eye.

Bullet points are also a great way to break up chunks of text because large blocks of text can be very off-putting. As can quirky or hard-to-read fonts, so it’s crucial that you choose a standard font that makes your resume easier to scan through.

Finally, it’s a good idea to think carefully about how you structure your content. As a more senior professional, it’s likely that your skills and experience will take precedence over your education. So it’s better to put these sections closer to the top of the page.

You’ll be able to get a better understanding of what the employer deems most important when you look through the job description.

By following these five tips, you can quickly engage the recruiter and ensure that your resume makes it as easy as possible for the reader to see that you’re a good fit for the role. This is how you hold their attention for at least 30 seconds and secure yourself an interview.

 

Forbes.com | February 2, 2023 | Andrew Fennell

#BestJobSearchTips : Collection of Favorite Job Search Tips From 2022, that Will Help you in 2023. MUst REad!

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With 2022 winding down, a lot of us are thinking about our goals for the new year. But if those goals include landing a new job, you might have a lot of work to do. From polishing your résumé and writing cover letters to interview prep and company research, looking for a new job is basically another job in itself.

“Before accepting a job, there is usually a time to negotiate salary, and this is a good opportunity to negotiate your job title as well. The same goes for any promotion. Pick a job title that has the highest earning potential.”

To help you get started, we’ve rounded up the best job searching tips of 2022 from the always-helpful r/LifeProTips subreddit. Here are the tips people loved in 2022 to help you start your 2023 job search right:

1. “When applying for a job, keep in mind that you are being interviewed long before your interview begins.”

“When communicating back and forth for a potential job, any and all correspondence that you have with the person hiring is being taken into consideration.”

I am currently hiring for a Front Desk position that would require the future employee to interact with customers (both in-person and via email) and be professional and timely at all times. I have been emailing with a number of applicants to organize interviews, and I am blown away by the number of people who have not been professional throughout the process. I have already written off the applicants who have been short and unprofessional in their emails, shown up late for their interview, or been poor communicators throughout the process.

Extra Pro Tip: Research the company you are applying for! My first interview question is ‘What do you know about our company and what made you want to apply for this job?’ And more often than not, applicants have responded with, ‘I don’t know anything about your company.’ Any and all information they would need is on our website under the ‘About Us’ section, and would show me that they have the forethought to prepare ahead of time!”

You might find social media accounts and can see how they present themselves and if you will get along with them. Maybe you find out that you share hobbies, maybe they share extremist political content. You will know more after Googling, which might help your decision if you want to work with them.”

“They likely did the same to you, might as well look them up too.

Because a job interview isn’t just them interviewing you, you are interviewing them (more so when you are competitive for your field/industry). Realizing this helped my mindset in interviews. I don’t need to be nervous. I need to show them what I can offer to the job and decide if I want to work in the work environment they are offering.”

 

Like this Article?  Share It!    You now can easily enjoy/follow/share Today our Award-Winning Articles/Blogs with Now Over 2.5 Million Growing Participates Worldwide in our various Social Media formats below:

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Best Daily Choice: Follow the Best of FSC Career Articles/Blogs @

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Question: Want the ‘the best/current articles/blogs on the web’ on Job Search, Resume, Advancing/Changing your Career, or simply Managing People?

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What Skill Sets Do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Did you know?  First Sun Consulting, Llc (FSC) is celebrating over 30 years in the delivery of corporate & individual outplacement services & programs to over 1200 of our corporate clients in the U.S., Canada, the UK, & Mexico!  

We here at FSC want to thank each of our corporate partners for the opportunity in serving & moving each of their transitioning employee(s) rapidly toward employment!

 

Article continued …

2. “Use AI to generate cover letters to save time applying to different jobs.”

“Recently my wife has been applying for jobs on the market. She’s tired of writing cover letters for different companies, so I helped her generate them using AI instead. ChatGPT blew up recently and everyone’s been using it.

Put things that contain the company information and your background like ‘A cover letter for applying to an accounting company as a bachelor of finance,’ the more specific the better.”

“I just tested this, and I’ll be damned if it didn’t work. It didn’t seem perfect. There were lots of things that could be improved, but you go from authoring to proofreading and editing instead, and that’s a big benefit.”

3. “When changing your status on LinkedIn to be ‘open for work,’ make sure it’s set to be visible to recruiters only.”

“I’ve made this mistake before. My current boss sent me a LinkedIn message and it was pretty awkward.”

 

4. “When filling out a job application that requires you to answer long questions online, write them out in a Word document first.”

“I learned this lesson many years ago, applying to a job with long essay questions, and of course the application glitched and didn’t save. My spouse just learned this lesson last night, and I feel horrible for forgetting to tell him my painful experience, so here we are.

Therefore, whenever you are filling out long answer questions online, write them out in Word (or whatever you use), or at the very very least, copy and paste your answers into Word. Trust me! Plus that way you can save them should you need those brilliant answers in the future.

And don’t trust that ‘save application’ button. Don’t click it until you’ve copied and pasted your answers somewhere else first. Websites time out and don’t tell you sometimes.”

5. “If you barely don’t meet the job requirements, apply anyway. You may be able to land the interview and progress from there. Let them decide if you’re good enough, don’t do their job for them.”

“It’s incredibly common for hiring managers to ‘shoot for the moon’ on the job description, listing the skills of their ideal candidate, but not necessarily a realistic one. Always apply if you truly believe you can do the job. I have seen countless times where candidates who were under-qualified on paper were hired over more-qualified candidates thanks for their interview, attitude, etc.”

6. “If you can, don’t apply for a job that is complaining about ‘severe employee shortages’ or the like. There’s a reason they can’t retain employees, and you don’t want to have to find out what that reason is.”

“One of the questions I always ask in an interview is, ‘What is the average tenure of the team I’ll be working with?’ Some are quite caught off guard by the question, and I’ve even seen the life drain out of some of them when they realize exactly what it is that I’m asking. It’s a perfectly legitimate question and can give you a mountain of information from the actual tenure, which is nice to know, to how they answer (or dance around) the question.”

7. “When job searching on LinkedIn, filter for ‘in my network,’ then reach out and ask your connection for a referral.”

“I know many of us are unwilling to give up remote work, and many companies are forcing people back. That puts a lot of us in the job market. There are over 550,000 remote jobs on LinkedIn right now. LinkedIn is really great for job searches because it’s shows you your connections at a given company. You can even filter for ‘in my network’ to see companies you know people at. Reach out to those people and ask for a referral. A referral can be the difference between getting an interview or not.”

8. “If you are looking for a new job and reading reviews of a company always look at the date reviews are posted. If all the five-star reviews are posted on the same day, avoid it.”

“My current employer took their rating from 1.7 on Indeed to 4.6 in three weeks by incentivizing reviews.”

9. “If your home doesn’t have a space suitable for having a virtual interview, check with your public library to see if they have a meeting room you can use.”

“Or your local employment or unemployment office — they have rooms just for that reason.”

10. “Copy/paste all job descriptions you’re interested in into a notes app, with the job title, company name, and how you applied.”

“Job applications don’t last forever on the respective sites/boards. Job titles can easily blur; you do not want to think you’re interviewing for Software Analyst I and it’s really Systems Analyst I at a completely different company.

Jot down the info in the title so you can easily keep up with what you’re doing AND be able to mentally compare the job description to what the recruiter entails it to be. If you’re good at multi-tasking without looking distracted, you could even have it (or a brief description) pulled up on your device/monitor while looking into the camera, verbally checking off the items during the discussions.”

11. “If you are in the process of applying for a job, please make sure you have set up the voicemail on your cell phone.”

“My job responsibilities include setting up interviews for open positions that we have. We get flooded with applications. I call those who are deemed most qualified. Most people do not answer the phone and that’s fine. But too many candidates have not set up voicemail on their cell phones, and I can’t leave a message. I hate for that to be the reason they don’t get an interview.”

12. “It’s better to negotiate a good starting salary rather than relying on raises to hit your target.”

“If you accepted a low-ball starting salary, it’s unlikely that you can rely on a raise to get you to where you want to be.

It’s best to negotiate a starting salary to start off where you want to be. Remember, once an offer has been made, the ball is in your court and you have negotiating power.”

13. “Keep a CV or master résumé for when you are applying for jobs. You can make custom résumés quickly by pulling necessary info out while also keeping all of your résumé information in one place.”+

“By making a master document, you have everything you have ever done already formatted and summarized in a résumé format such that you can copy and paste from it to generate custom résumés for each application.

Likewise, you have all of your information in one place so you don’t have to look across multiple versions of your old résumés to remember what you have done.”

“As soon as you start a new job, add its job description to your ‘master résumé’, even as just a place-holder that you’ll edit later. In six months or a year, come back to it and update that portion based on what you’ve learned.”

14. “When submitting a résumé online, make sure you use a filename with your first and last name.”

“Oftentimes people don’t realize the filename you use to submit your résumé is seen by the recruiter. If you name it something like ‘new revision for accounting firms,’ they will see this. What’s more, if they are downloading them they have to go out and rename the files, which takes time. Best approach is to just name your PDF with your first and last name.”

15. “Keep a running list of career accomplishments and things you’re proud of.”

“Not only can you use this list for building future résumés or negotiating your salary, but it’s also great to look at when imposter syndrome comes creeping in.”

16. “If you have a job interview coming up, practice describing your job to someone who isn’t familiar with your industry. Include descriptions of what you do and what tools you use.”

“This can be especially good so that you can practice keeping a straight face if the question sounds silly. Remember the first person you meet in a job interview may be HR and may not know anything about the details of the actual job you are being hired for.”

17. “When you have an interview at a company, Google the people you have the interview with.”

You might find social media accounts and can see how they present themselves and if you will get along with them. Maybe you find out that you share hobbies, maybe they share extremist political content. You will know more after Googling, which might help your decision if you want to work with them.”

“They likely did the same to you, might as well look them up too.

Because a job interview isn’t just them interviewing you, you are interviewing them (more so when you are competitive for your field/industry). Realizing this helped my mindset in interviews. I don’t need to be nervous. I need to show them what I can offer to the job and decide if I want to work in the work environment they are offering.”

18. “When interviewing for a new role, ask the hiring manager to clearly define what success looks like in the role.”

“If they can’t paint a vivid picture of what it takes to thrive, run.

A company that can’t define how you will win with them is destined to lose.”

19. “In interview situations, practice avoiding filler words such as ‘like’ or ‘umm’, and don’t be afraid to briefly pause to collect your words. This will help you seem more assured in your responses, and shows you’re thinking carefully about your statements.”

“I train technical trainers and this is sound advice. That being said, filler, especially in English is natural and fairly unavoidable 100 percent of the time for most folks. You just want to be conscious of it and make sure it isn’t a distraction. Most people don’t notice it if it is intermittent. People will notice if you use ‘ummm, uhhhhh, ok, right?’ as punctuation on every sentence or in-between every few words.”

20. “If a prospective employer asks why you’re leaving your current employer, give a reason that involves something the new employer has that the old employer doesn’t.”

“If this new job is a smaller company, ‘I’m looking to work for a smaller company.’ If the new job is more hands on, ‘I’m looking for a job where I can be more hands on.’ Etc.

That way you are already complimenting something this prospective employer has while refraining from negativity regarding your current employer.”

21.“When interviewing for a job, ask what day-to-day work would be in detail.”

“There is a wild amount of hiring going on right now and copy/paste errors and omissions (both intentional and non intentional) on job descriptions mean red flags or mismatched responsibilities to your talent stack may not be caught in the application process. Also hiring managers will only ask what you know/did. It’s on you to ask what tasks you will be doing on a day to day basis.

A friend who applied for ‘Business Analyst’ roles found out during the interview process that one role was for a monotonous data entry process while the second one was a technical writing role.”

22. “If you interview for a job you don’t get, send a gracious response email.”

“Nobody likes to give bad news, and people will remember you as a class act who handled a disappointing situation with professionalism.

My go to is something like: ‘Thank you for the prompt response. While I am obviously disappointed, I understand there were many qualified applicants to choose from and I very much enjoyed meeting you and your team. Thanks again, and best, (name).'”

23. “When you get a job offer and you’d like a higher salary, ask. The worst thing they will say is no.”

“I was chatting with a friend who got a job offer and wanted $10k more annually but was nervous about asking.

When I asked what he was nervous about, he explained that he was concerned that they would revoke the offer.

I reminded him that if you get to the stage in the interview process where you are receiving an offer, they WANT you to work there. Asking for more money will result in one of two things:

• Getting more $$ than they initially offered

(or)

• They do not have additional budget to increase your salary and they tell you they cannot go higher.

It would be incredibly bizarre for a company to revoke an offer completely after spending time putting you through the interview prices and deciding they’d like to hire you all because you asked for a higher salary.”

24. “Job titles can often be negotiated. Before accepting a job, there is usually a time to negotiate salary, and this is a good opportunity to negotiate your job title as well. The same goes for any promotion. Pick a job title that has the highest earning potential.”

“Look around at that next level job you want and advocate for a job title that would give you an edge on your application. For example, you may have a current job title of ‘office assistant’; but if you are the assistant to one of the executives and have been there longer than another assistant, you might able to push for a job title change to ‘Senior Executive Assistant’. These may seem like small changes but can mean thousands of dollars a year when you try to find another job.”

25. And finally, “Do not resign your current job until your next job’s background check is completed.”

“I just watched this scenario unfold: Employee gets a new job — hurrah! Employee resigns from current job sure that their background check is clean. Background check comes back and there are red flags. Red flags cause the employer to revoke the job offer. Person has now resigned their current position (no takebacks) and hasn’t truly secured their current position.

Don’t do that. Just wait until your background check is completed before quitting.”

 

BuzzFeed.com | December 29, 2022 | Megan Liscomb

 

#JobSearch : Five Social Media Secrets To Get Yourself Hired. People Fail to Realize Social Media Can Be the Very Reason Why/How you Got that Job. A MUst REAd for All!

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With 2023 right around the corner, most people already know employers will scroll through their social media profiles before offering them a job at their company. But in case no one has told you, let me be the first to say you should probably take photos of yourself partying in the college on your Facebook page.

It only takes 15 seconds and an impulsive tweet about quiet quitting to go from a company’s top candidate to another resume tossed in the recycling bin. Fortunately, most social media mishaps can be avoided by relying on common sense and using a little extra caution before you post something.

What people fail to realize, though, is that social media can also be the very reason why you do get a job position. Sending a cold email to an employer? Submitting your resume to a company after coming across a job description? You’re not paranoid if you think the next thing they’ll do is look at your social media profiles.

A survey from the Harris Poll found that 71% of U.S. hiring managers think looking at candidate’s social media profiles is an effective way to screen applicants. Sixty-seven percent of hiring managers actually do use social media as a way to research candidates, more than half of whom say they have come across content that has caused them to reject a candidate.

Recruiters are less likely to look at an applicant’s resume now more than ever. A study from Capterra found that 75% of recruiters use applicant tracking systems to weed out candidates before their resume is seen by a real recruiter. In other words, submit a resume that doesn’t match enough key words in the job description and you’re out of the race before a recruiter even knows you applied for the position – and that’s how it works for most jobs you’ll apply for.

 

Like this Article?  Share It!    You now can easily enjoy/follow/share Today our Award-Winning Articles/Blogs with Now Over 2.5 Million Growing Participates Worldwide in our various Social Media formats below:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-g-laughter-b46389198/

Twitter: Follow us @ firstsunllc

Best Daily Choice: Follow the Best of FSC Career Articles/Blogs @

https://twitter.com/search?q=bestoffscblog&src=typeahead_click

Question: Want the ‘the best/current articles/blogs on the web’ on Job Search, Resume, Advancing/Changing your Career, or simply Managing People?

Answer: Simply go to our FSC Career Blog below & Type(#Jobsearch, #Resume, or #Networking) in Blog Search:  https://www.firstsun.com/fsc-career-blog/

What Skill Sets Do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Did you know?  First Sun Consulting, Llc (FSC) is celebrating over 30 years in the delivery of corporate & individual outplacement services & programs to over 1200 of our corporate clients in the U.S., Canada, the UK, & Mexico!  

We here at FSC want to thank each of our corporate partners for the opportunity in serving & moving each of their transitioning employee(s) rapidly toward employment!

 

Article continued …

If a recruiter does like your resume, they’ll assess a second source of information: the narrative that emerges from a collection of your LinkedIn comments, Facebook updates and Twitter thoughts. For recruiters, social media is SparkNotes about a candidate’s job history, life accomplishments, networking history, personal woes, and life philosophy.

Modest candidates may feel inclined to avoid the trend of commemorating their achievements with posts on LinkedIn. But this is the wrong approach, especially during a time when employers are less likely to reach out and communicate to get information that could just as easily be posted online. In other words, if your social media doesn’t portray you as an active student or standout employee, recruiters will likely assume that’s because you aren’t one.

But enough with the negativity — social media also offers job candidates several advantages, namely curating the image of themselves that employers see.

So, how do you make yourself stand out from the crowd when recruiters are looking at dozens, if not hundreds, of social media profiles? It all comes down to having the right strategy.

1. Choose your network wisely. At their core, social media profiles are essentially digital networks visible to the public. This concept, however, gets lost in the addiction that keeps us coming back – scrolling. LinkedIn, particularly, gives employers a pretty good idea of what your professional network looks like and the connections you’ve made in your respective industry. Be mindful of the people who you add to your circle. Influencers, business owners, teachers, or scholars — following these people not only exposes you to their insight, but also gives employers information about the kind of person you are and what you value.

2. Plow into the discomfort. If the rules for communicating were the same on social media as they are in real life, we’d be professing our latest achievements to strangers before having enough courtesy to introduce ourselves . Which is to say, catching the eye of an employer on social media means throwing some of the etiquette you’ve been taught out the window. Get comfortable posting about your accomplishments, even if doing so may feel out of character in the beginning. Employers check social media platforms because they want to see what you can bring to the table. Playing it modest by not highlighting these skills and accomplishments won’t get you rewarded.

3. Practice active liking: What you like, retweet, share, and comment can say just as much about you as what you post. Platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter will show your followers what you’ve liked or commented on, so it’s important to be intentional. Engage with posts that show the latest happenings and updates in your industry, but also think about the message you’re sending others through the posts you like. Endorsing ideas that are negative, political, or unprofessional is not only off putting to a future employer, but also overshadows the posts you do want them to see.

4. Reach out; stay consistent. One of the biggest benefits of job hunting in the age of social media is that distance doesn’t poses fewer obstacles. Networking with an employer through social media takes the same amount of time and energy regardless of whether they live across the country or down the street.

You don’t need to direct message an employer on LinkedIn to get a lot out of the platform – and that actually poses a problem. It is easy to tell yourself that scrolling through social media and commenting on people’s posts is a version of networking, but there’s really much more to it than that. Launching yourself into a career that fascinates and energizes you is quite the challenge – especially without any help. Professionals who can shine some light on the industry – and maybe even be a future mentor – are what helps people get their foot in the door. But none of them are going to reach out to you first. It’s your job to take the first leap that gets the conversation going. While cold messaging someone can be intimidating the first few times you do it, setting a goal for yourself, like initiating one networking conversation every week, is a good way to hold yourself accountable when nerves begin to hit.

5. Reverse engineer an employer’s ideal candidate. Employers scouting candidates through social media are looking to fill a company need. The job may only require a qualified and competent candidate, but ideally a recruiter would prefer to hire someone who also checks a bunch of other boxes, like being collaborative, enthusiastic, motivated and insightful. Take some time to think about the job you’re applying for and ideal qualities a recruiter is likely looking for. What would you want to see in a candidate if you were trying to fill the position? Then, look through your social media profile and assess whether these qualities would shine through to someone who hasn’t met you in person. If the answer is no, tweak your content, bio, likes, or comments to reflect the qualities and skills think recruiters will be looking for.

 

Forbes.com | December 15, 2022 | Ashley Stahl

#BestofFSCBlog : 5 Resume Hacks To Pass ATS. Applicant Tracking System (ATS) Software Scans Resumes to Weed Out Applicants. A MUST REad!

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Applicant tracking system (ATS) software scans resumes and cover letters to weed out applicants based on factors set by the employer. This can include keywords, design and layout, length, and salary requirements. If your resume doesn’t make the cut, you won’t be asked for an interview.

Other companies direct applicants to apply online using one-word or drop-down responses and auto-fill resume features. One wrong response and, presto, you’re out!

This process can be incredibly frustrating to job seekers. Especially for those that are qualified for the position. With 98% of Fortune 500 companies use an ATS to vet credentials, it isn’t going anywhere soon. But there are some things you can do to increase your odds of passing ATS.

1. Focus on keywords. Read the job description thoroughly and circle keywords. Present keywords and phrases throughout your resume — but be honest! Here are tips on how to use ATS keywords on your resume.

  • Always include the company’s name and the exact position title on your resume.
  • Include a few role-specific keywords in the education and hard skills portion of your resume. Copy and paste keywords, not sentences from the job description. Include action verbs and specific skills from the job posting.
  • Do an internet search for relevant industry keywords to include. Compare the job posting to similar job announcements to pull keywords.
  • Don’t stuff your resume with keywords. Remember, at some point a real human being is going to read your resume.
  • Never lie about your abilities. If you cannot back it up, don’t write it down.

2. Stay away from PDFs. Often ATS misses pdfs, so use a Word document instead.

3. Ditch your headshot. Unless the posting specifically asks for a headshot, it is not necessary. Instead make sure your LinkedIn and social sites include a professional photograph. (And clean up anything on your social sites you wouldn’t want your employer to see … 67% of employers screen candidates using social.)

4. Avoid overused jargon or buzzwords. Never use clichés or overused phrases such as “self-starter” or “attention to detail.” Use a show, don’t tell approach on your resume and cover letter. Instead of “I am a self-starter,” write “I initiated a company-wide volunteer program that resulted in 1500 prepared lunches for school age children in impoverished areas.”

5. Avoid fancy graphic designs. Be basic. Use bullets to get your points across. Be succinct. Make sure that the information on your resume is easy to find and easy to read. In positions where design matters, you’ll be asked to present a portfolio where you can showcase your style.

Eventually, your resume will be read by a person. So, you want to be sure that it is easy to navigate, readable, professional, and includes information pertinent to human eyes … not just ATS. Here are some tips:

1. Highlight relevant experience. Make it easy for recruiters to pick out relevant experience over longevity of experience.

2. Use bullet points and short sentences. Hiring managers and recruiters spend an average of six seconds reading your resume.

3. Include a link to your LinkedIn profile. While you’re at it, update your LinkedIn profile especially concerning dates! (Pro tip: update your LinkedIn profile URL so that it is your name: example https://www.linkedin.com/in/yourname/).

4. Include a link to your portfolio, personal website, or social media sites. Make sure to include or include links to relevant and requested information. Not every position will require a portfolio, but if yours does, you better include a link.

 

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What Skill Sets Do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Did you know?  First Sun Consulting, Llc (FSC) is celebrating over 30 years in the delivery of corporate & individual outplacement services & programs to over 1200 of our corporate clients in the U.S., Canada, the UK, & Mexico!  

We here at FSC want to thank each of our corporate partners for the opportunity in serving & moving each of their transitioning employee(s) rapidly toward employment!

 

Article continued …

Just as there are things to include, there are aspects of a resume to ditch. Here are some tips to tighten up your resume:

1. Omit your GPA. Unless you recently graduated magna cum laude, there is no need to include your GPA. Work experience is more relevant.

2. Don’t include every job you’ve ever had. Part-time jobs, non-relevant jobs, and side hustles should not be included unless they specifically demonstrate why you’re qualified for the position.

3. Avoid discriminating against yourself. Unfortunately, age discrimination is real and it is really easy to slip information about your age onto your resume. Here are some tips to age-proof your resume:

  • Avoid using AOL and Hotmail email domains. Register for a new email on Gmail that is succinct such as your first and last name.
  • Remove graduation dates from your education section. De-emphasize irrelevant degrees. Instead, highlight relevant training and experience.
  • Avoid including jobs that are older than 15 years.

Job hunting is a laborious process, but you can increase your odds of an interview by following a few common sense tips. Also, be sure to use spell and grammar checks. Independently check for types (pro tip: read your resume backward so your eye catches typos more easily).  You can’t trick an ATS, but you can increase your odds of getting your resume in front of HR or a recruiter.

 

Forbes.com | December 12, 2022 | Ashley Stahl

#JobSearch : 5 Unusual Mistakes You’re Making In Your Resume. Unusual Resume Blunders that Could be Costing you the Interview. Great CheckList.

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If you’ve put a lot of time and effort into crafting your resume, not hearing back from countless applications can become disheartening. By now, we know all of the common mistakes that are likely to see your resume overlooked. For example, spelling and grammatical errors, poor formatting, or overused clichés will see your application rejected quicker than you can say ‘hardworking and dynamic professional’.

But did you know that there are also some more unusual resume blunders that could be costing you the interview as well?

By getting to grips with the following mistakes, you can eliminate these lesser-known errors from your next application and increase your chances of being invited in for an interview.

Using an unprofessional email address

Your email address occupies just a small space at the top of your resume, and yet the effect it has on how you are perceived by employers is huge. This is even more true when you’re applying for senior roles, where perception and reputation are vital.

If you have a quirky email address that you’ve had since you were a teenager, it’s best not to give this pride of place on the top of your resume, as it will look unprofessional and can show a lack of attention to detail.

So, if your email reads something like ‘TopGolfer99@gmail.com’, it’s best to create an entirely new email address for your job hunt.

In most cases, it’s best to simply claim an address using your name, or a close variation of your name if it has already been taken. For example “SteveJones1968@gmail.com”

It’s also important that you don’t use an email address connected to your existing job, especially if you are trying to keep your job search discrete.

 

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Answer: Simply go to our FSC Career Blog below & Type(#Jobsearch, #Resume, or #Networking) in Blog Search:  https://www.firstsun.com/fsc-career-blog/

What Skill Sets Do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Did you know?  First Sun Consulting, Llc (FSC) is celebrating over 30 years in the delivery of corporate & individual outplacement services & programs to over 1200 of our corporate clients in the U.S., Canada, the UK, & Mexico!  

We here at FSC want to thank each of our corporate partners for the opportunity in serving & moving each of their transitioning employee(s) rapidly toward employment!

Article continued …

A bad file name

You’ve spent hours crafting your resume, and the final stage is to hit save and submit your application. But too many professionals fall at this final hurdle. It’s important to remember that the filename will be visible to recruiters when you attach your resume to an email or application, so it must look professional.

It must also be clearly labeled, so the hiring manager knows whose resume they are handling, and they can quickly find your resume when searching their database.

Saving your resume with a name like ‘My resume – draft 3 – FS job’ does not give the best impression. Firstly, it looks clumsy. Secondly, it might also give away that you’re applying to multiple roles at once. Although you are perfectly within your right to do this, it can show you’re less dedicated to their specific company and position.

Although it might not always be a dealbreaker, a bad file name can look unprofessional and could see your resume rejected before it’s even been opened.

Making unproven claims

It’s vital that your resume includes impressive facts and figures that showcase your achievements. However, you need to make sure that any claims you make are substantiated and that you can always offer proof.

This doesn’t just mean being able to back up your facts and figures. It also means that if you refer to an organization as an ‘industry leader’ or to yourself as ‘the number one marketer’, that you can back it up.

Of course, recruiters might not examine every tiny detail on your resume, but if they do look into it and find out you’re making false claims, it could potentially cost you the job. So instead, stick to hard facts that you know you can prove.

Including salary expectations

You want to get the most from your job offer. Of course, you do. But including your salary expectations or history on your resume can be a major red flag to hiring managers.

If you set the bar too low, you’ll short-change yourself, and if you set the bar too high, your resume might end up on the rejection pile. Not to mention you can harm your negotiation power further down the line.

Plus, talking about money too prematurely can imply that you’re only interested in the job for the money and not because you’re genuinely passionate about the company or position.

So, unless a job advert specifically asks you to include your salary expectations, it’s best to leave this off.

Stuffing your content with keywords

Including relevant keywords on your resume is important, so don’t neglect this. However, over-stuffing your application with keywords can quickly backfire. It means that your resume won’t read naturally and can look clumsy and confusing.

It’s always important to write your resume with the recruiter at the forefront of your mind. It needs to be persuasive, read well, and be written for real people, not just for ATS scanners, so you need to get the balance just right.

Although they may seem smaller, these unusual mistakes can be just as detrimental to your resume as the larger, more common errors. Therefore, it is important to keep these in mind when writing your application and check your resume thoroughly before you hit send.

 

Forbes.com | November 11, 2022 | Andrew Fennell 

#BestofFSCBlog : Over 12K Reads! How To Find A Job Between Now And The Beginning Of 2023. Waiting for the First of the Year is a Very Bad Idea. A MUSt REad!

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If you start searching for a job now, you’ll benefit from the needs of companies to quickly hire before the holiday-season slowdown. If you miss this window of opportunity, position yourself to be ahead of the crowd for early next year.

It’s both an exciting and challenging time for job hunters. There are only two months left in 2022. Historically, once it gets close to Thanksgiving Day, the hiring process starts grinding to a halt. It’s one of the few times of the year when Americans collectively agree on something: they ease back on work and focus on family, friends and social activities. After being cooped up at home, people will be more eager than ever to take extended vacations and long weekends.

You want to be a contrarian. This entails some delayed gratification. Stay the course while most other job seekers take a break during the holidays. With fewer people applying for jobs and interviewing, you’ll stand out.

The odds will turn out in your favor if you keep hustling. It’s a numbers game. If you continually submit résumés to target companies, get job leads from your network and contribute content on LinkedIn to get noticed, there is a higher probability of achieving interviews leading toward a job offer.

This may seem crass, but there will always be some bosses who desperately need to hire someone quickly. They’ll lower their requirements, increase compensation and acquiesce to your work style preference, including working from home as an enticement. By being persistent, you could end up in the right place at the right time, leading to a job offer you never thought was possible.

 

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Question: Want the ‘the best/current articles/blogs on the web’ on Job Search, Resume, Advancing/Changing your Career, or simply Managing People?

Answer: Simply go to our FSC Career Blog below & Type(#Jobsearch, #Resume, or #Networking) in Blog Search:  https://www.firstsun.com/fsc-career-blog/

What Skill Sets Do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Did you know?  First Sun Consulting, LLc (FSC) is celebrating over 30 years in the delivery of corporate & individual outplacement services & programs to over 1200 of our corporate clients in the U.S., Canada, UK, & Mexico!  

We here at FSC want to thank each of corporate partners in the opportunity in serving & moving each of their transitioning employee(s) rapidly toward employment !

 

Article continued …

The Challenges You’ll Face

It becomes harder to secure a new job as vacation schedules and personal days are taken, making the hiring process clunky and inconsistent. The human resources person is away when you are available to interview. When the HR representative returns, the business people you need to meet with are not around. The in and out of workers involved with the hiring process creates a loss of momentum. Other end-of-year corporate priorities start taking precedence over the recruiting and onboarding process.

During the last few months of the year, businesses start focusing on closing their books. They conduct annual reviews, determine who will get a promotion or raise and those slated for layoffs, and commence working on the new budget and headcount allotments for 2023.

Many white-collar professionals receive a bonus and stock in addition to their base salary. During this belt-tightening time, corporate leadership is not inclined to buy out five-figure bonuses and stock options to induce job seekers to leave their current employer. Their rationalization is that it’s prudent to wait until candidates receive their bonuses and new salary numbers.

Once a job hunter knows their numbers, they’ll either immediately begin a job search, due to feeling disrespected over the lackluster total rewards package, or happily remain with their firm because their needs were met.

Sometimes companies have a use-it-or-lose-it budget. Management allocates a specified amount of funds toward hiring new personnel. If the supervisors don’t hire in 2022, the bosses will contend that the open jobs are not mission-critical and will withdraw the job listings. Savvy, experienced managers understand the game and will aggressively look to see if they can hire someone quickly. Otherwise, they’ll lose the budget for next year.

Focusing On Finding A Job In Early January

Despite the clunkiness of November, December and early January, it makes sense for you to keep interviewing. You need to be mentally prepared that most jobs will linger until mid-January 2023. What you hope for is that there will be at least a small number of job openings that managers want to hire eagerly.

Instead of sitting on the sidelines, take action. The holiday season is a great time to rekindle old relationships. Get in touch with former co-workers, college alumni, people in your community, folks you met online and others to build up your network. One of the best ways to find a job is not through responding to a job advertisement, but to have an insider at a company recommend you for the role.

Seek out recruiters who are active in your field. You want them to know all about you. Sell them on your talents, experience, work history, a record of accomplishments, emotional intelligence and communications skills. Since most headhunters work on contingency searches, they only get paid if they successfully place you. Therefore, the recruiter is highly incentivized to extol your virtues and aggressively pitch you to their clients.

Everyone has areas upon which they can improve upon. Find a mentor to help you devise a plan to accelerate your career. They could offer advice and guidance throughout your job search and career. Utilize the services of career coaches and résumé writers. You can find them on LinkedIn. These career experts provide interview tips, ensure that your résumé looks current and sharp, help with role-playing an interview scenario and offer constructive criticism and feedback.

Write out an elevator pitch. Similar to a catchy commercial on TV or radio, you want to be able to offer your value proposition in a tight, upbeat, excited 30-seconds-to-a-minute sales pitch. It’s also akin to when a politician gives their stump speech with the same talking points.

The goal is to clearly and concisely offer what roles you had at your current or prior firm, some of your great achievements and how your background, talents, education and skills perfectly match the job. Talk in an enthusiastic, but not too over-the-top manner.

Additionally, take a look online for frequently asked questions by interviewers. Then, practice answering the standard, “Why do you want this job? Why should I hire you instead of the other applicants? Can you please tell me about yourself? Where do you see yourself in five years?”

 

Forbes.com | November 1, 2022 | Jack Kelly

#BestofFSCBlog : Reality Check- Recruiters are Not your Friends. There’s No Such Thing as a Professional Job-Finder. MUst REad!

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This fact may burst a bubble for most job seekers. The hard reality is job seekers have the wrong idea about what recruiters and headhunters do for a living. When one starts a search for a new job, the first professional they may try to connect with is a recruiter. A recruiter would know where to find a job…right? They can take the resume and push it to everyone they know…right? Dead wrong.  

Here is the hard-core truth. Recruiters are too busy to call anyone their company isn’t ‘interested in’ for a specific job. Recruiters will not return phone calls, voice mail, email, or text messages to strangers or applicants who don’t meet the minimum job requirements. They are already overwhelmed with communications trying to find the ‘perfect candidate.’ If you are not ‘the match,’ – you can talk ’til you’re blue in the face,’ but it won’t change circumstances. You will only waste your and the recruiter’s time.

There’s no such thing as a professional job-finder. Resume writers, career advisors, career counselors, life coaches, or outplacement service professionals may operate with parallel tasking – but they’re not job-finders. Recruiters are candidate finders. It’s not their responsibility to find a job for job seekers. Don’t blindly contact recruiters and ask them to help you find a job. 

 

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Question: Want the ‘the best/current articles/blogs on the web’ on Job Search, Resume, Advancing/Changing your Career, or simply Managing People?

Answer: Simply go to our FSC Career Blog below & Type(#Jobsearch, #Resume, or #Networking) in Blog Search:  https://www.firstsun.com/fsc-career-blog/

What Skill Sets Do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Did you know?  First Sun Consulting, LLc (FSC) is celebrating over 30 years in the delivery of corporate & individual outplacement services & programs to over 1200 of our corporate clients in the U.S., Canada, UK, & Mexico!  

We here at FSC want to thank each of corporate partners in the opportunity in serving & moving each of their transitioning employee(s) rapidly toward employment !

Article continued …

It’s also a numbers game – job seekers submit resumes, aim for multiple interviews, and hope for an offer letter. Recruiters review hundreds of resumes from websites, headhunters, or employee referrals for each position, query the resumes for matching keywords, and send the top 5-10 results to a hiring manager. The hiring manager picks the top three to interview and make a decision based on salary (budget), availability, knowledge, skills, experience, abilities, and personality in the interview.  

It sounds harsh, but it is reality. Finding a job is not a matter of justice, fairness, or luck. No one owes anyone a job. Recruiters are your ‘friend’ only if you meet the immediate requirements of an open job requisition. Recruiters don’t have time to invest in job seekers, their inconveniences, and their car or family problems.  Recruiters do care about recruiting, filling jobs, keeping hiring managers happy, and staying within a staffing budget. They will be polite to qualified candidates and perform the steps necessary to get that candidate hired.  Likewise, hiring managers do not care about applicants’ inconveniences and problems.  Hiring managers care whether the qualified candidate has great skills, stays within a labor budget, and can get the job done.  

Recruiters and headhunters are ‘people finders,’ not ‘job finders.’ They have a set number of specific openings at any given time and usually only hire one person per seat. One. Recruiter’s jobs are to conduct a ‘high throughput’ process. It is a matter of getting the right resume with the needed skill set to the recruiter to solve a company’s problem.  

Job seekers must ask when the decision will be made during the interview. If the company is interested in hiring, they’ll call. If you know when the position closes, call the day after if you haven’t gotten a ‘sorry, we found another more qualified candidate’ message. One call…no more. Drop that job lead into the dead file if you get a voicemail and no callback. Most recruiters have an email management system within their ATS, and there is a chance they’ll notify the ‘rejects.’ But most likely, they don’t have time for follow-up. 

To summarize, there is little point in calling a recruiter to ask them to help you, the job seeker, to find a job. Job seekers should recognize the recruiters’ viewpoint for what they do for a living. It is up to the job seeker to find that job and apply. It’s not a recruiter’s responsibility to help the job seeker find or get that next career position.

 

FSC Career Blog Author:

Dawn Boyer, Ph.D., is an associate of First Sun Consulting, and the owner of D. Boyer Consulting – providing resume writing, editing, and publishing consulting services. Reach her at: Dawn.Boyer@DBoyerConsulting.com or http://dboyerconsulting.com.

Bio: Dawn D. Boyer, Ph.D., manages and operates a consulting firm in Norfolk, Richmond, Colonial Beach (Dahlgren), and Gloucester, VA. Her background is 24+ years in the Human Resources field, of which 12+ years are within the Federal & Defense Contracting industry. She is the author of 940+ books on business, human resources research, career search practice, women’s studies, genealogy lineages, and adult coloring books. Her books are listed on Amazon.com under her author’s page for Dawn D. Boyer, Ph.D.

 

FSC Career Blog | October 13, 2022 | Dawn Boyer, Ph. D. 

 

 

 

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#BestofFSCBlog :Over 5K Reads! 5 Tips To Beat The Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Increase your Chances of Beating the Bots & Get That Interview. GReat REad!

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You know the job you want, and you know you’ve got the right skills and experience to be successful, but you’re yet to be invited for an interview. In fact, you’ve rarely received so much as a follow-up email. Surely that many recruiters can’t have passed over your RESUME/CV?

Before you start to doubt your credentials, there might be one important step you haven’t considered. As with so many areas of our lives, many hiring professionals now rely on technology to help them screen applications.

So the problem is that an actual person might not see your RESUME/CV for a long time after you submit it. Instead, it will pass through an applicant tracking system (ATS); an HR tool that determines whether your RESUME/CV is a match or not based on keywords.

 

This means you need to become an expert in beating the bots. The good news is there are some simple steps you can take to get your RESUME/CV past an ATS.

 

Include the right keywords

The most important thing you need to do is ensure that your RESUME/CV contains the right keywords. Recruiters will search for RESUME/CVs based on set keywords and criteria relevant to the role, so if you haven’t included these in your application, it will likely go unnoticed.

These keywords could be specific skills, qualifications, and job titles that showcase your experience. The best way to ensure you’re ticking the right boxes is to look through the job description and pick out the specific requirements set out by the employer. You can then pepper these keywords throughout your RESUME/CV.

For example, if the recruiter is looking for a ‘web developer’, be sure to get the job title in there. Not only this but be sure to highlight important skills such as ‘project management and ‘testing’. You could also include specific tools if the recruiter has listed them, such as ‘CSS’ or ‘JavaScript’.

In doing so, you make it much easier for the ATS to scan through and find all their relevant keywords, flagging that you’re a good match for the recruiter’s search criteria.

 

Like this Article?  Share It!    You now can easily enjoy/follow/share Today our Award-Winning Articles/Blogs with Now Over 2.5 Million Growing Participates Worldwide in our various Social Media formats below:

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Twitter: Follow us @ firstsunllc

Best Daily Choice: Follow the Best of FSC Career Articles/Blogs @

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Question: Want the ‘the best/current articles/blogs on the web’ on Job Search, Resume, Advancing/Changing your Career, or simply Managing People?

Answer: Simply go to our FSC Career Blog below & Type(#Jobsearch, #Resume, or #Networking) in Blog Search:  https://www.firstsun.com/fsc-career-blog/

What Skill Sets Do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Did you know?  First Sun Consulting, LLc (FSC) is celebrating over 30 years in the delivery of corporate & individual outplacement services & programs to over 1200 of our corporate clients in the U.S., Canada, UK, & Mexico!  

We here at FSC want to thank each of corporate partners in the opportunity in serving & moving each of their transitioning employee(s) rapidly toward employment !

 

Article continued …

 

Cut the fluff

When it comes to writing a strong RESUME/CV, it’s always important to ensure you only include the most relevant information. However, when trying to beat an ATS, this is even more important.

Though it might usually be beneficial to give details of your passion for the industry, how you’ve risen through the ranks, and your willingness to keep learning, these are rarely termed a recruiter will search for using an ATS.

Therefore, it’s best to cut the fluff and keep your RESUME/CV clear, concise, and absolutely to the point. Stick to actionable skills, qualifications, and job titles that you think recruiters might be searching for.

 

Use traditional headings

Your RESUME/RESUME/CV should be broken up into sections to make the information easier to digest. However, you need to ensure you’re using standardized headings and making them clearly different from the body text. Otherwise, you might confuse the ATS, prompting the tool to organize your information incorrectly. This will make it harder for recruiters to run searches and find your RESUME/CV.

With this in mind, it’s best to stick to traditional headers like a personal profile, key skills, work experience, and education to help organize your information, and ensure all headings are big and bold.

The same applies to job titles. Be sure to use clear and traditional job titles, specifically those listed on the job description. Avoid any quirky titles you might have had in the past, such as developer evangelist or cloud chief architect, as these will only be confusing and could cost you an interview.

 

Format your RESUME/RESUME/CV correctly

An ATS might be very technically advanced, but it still has limitations. At the end of the day, it is a machine and not a person, which means poor formatting can make it impossible for the machine to scan and understand your RESUME/CV.

To give yourself the best chance of beating the bots, you need to make sure your document is left aligned, with margins of at least half an inch. Also, be sure to use standardized fonts such as Arial or Verdana and no smaller than font size 10.

Ensure all information is contained within the body of the document and nothing has spilt into the header or footer. This will boost your chances of application success.

Choose the right file format

You’ve spent hours carefully crafting your RESUME/RESUME/CV, so you don’t want to fall at the final hurdle. You need to make sure you save your file in the most reader-friendly format. Some job descriptions will specify the type of file you should submit; however, if this is not the case, it’s best to stick to a Word document or PDF, because they are easily readable by machines. Never submit your RESUME/CV as an image file because most ATS will not be sophisticated enough to pull words from a non-text-based document.

Keep these five tips in mind as you continue your job search, especially if you suspect your RESUME/CV will be going straight to an ATS and not to a person. This will increase your chances of beating the bots and securing an interview.

Forbes.com | September 27, 2022 | Andrew Fennell

#JobSearch : Lost Your Job?  First Steps First. Great Ideas to Get Through the Unemployment Period.

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Nothing is more worrisome than being out of work and dreading the bills coming in the mail that you can’t afford to pay.  Scarier yet is not having funds for job shopping (gas money or interview clothing).  Here are some ideas to help you get through the unemployment period and make time without a job work to your advantage.

Your full-time job while unemployed is applying online for jobs. Once you lose your job, you should immediately research your state’s unemployment benefits options.  In some states, a two-week waiting period must be reached before application; in other states, you may be eligible on the first day of unemployment. You must file for the benefits. In most states, you may do so online via an Internet-based application. The state will require forms completed pertaining to the circumstances leading to the job loss. Be truthful. If you were fired, state the honest reason. Not all states deny unemployment benefits for being fired unless the termination was for extreme reasons (e.g., embezzlement, equipment destruction, theft, avoidable OSHA-related safety incidents, or vandalism).

 

Like this Article?  Share It!    You now can easily enjoy/follow/share Today our Award-Winning Articles/Blogs with Now Over 2.5 Million Growing Participates Worldwide in our various Social Media formats below:

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Twitter: Follow us @ firstsunllc

Best Daily Choice: Follow the Best of FSC Career Articles/Blogs @

https://twitter.com/search?q=bestoffscblog&src=typeahead_click

Question: Want the ‘the best/current articles/blogs on the web’ on Job Search, Resume, Advancing/Changing your Career, or simply Managing People?

Answer: Simply go to our FSC Career Blog below & Type(#Jobsearch, #Resume, or #Networking) in Blog Search:  https://www.firstsun.com/fsc-career-blog/

What Skill Sets Do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Did you know?  First Sun Consulting, LLc (FSC) is celebrating over 30 years in the delivery of corporate & individual outplacement services & programs to over 1200 of our corporate clients in the U.S., Canada, UK, & Mexico!  

We here at FSC want to thank each of corporate partners in the opportunity in serving & moving each of their transitioning employee(s) rapidly toward employment !

 

Article continued …

Regardless of the waiting period, the employment commission in each state is one of the best places to search for a new job.  Many companies post job openings to comply with the EEOC mandate for the 3-5-day public posting of positions, and they can do so for free. The state also supplies job listings within an easy commute to your city and surrounding areas.

Apply directly to public job openings – some companies will allow resume uploads into their Automatic Tracking Systems (ATS), even if there are currently no job openings (this is called ‘resume farming’  by recruiters). Alternatively, apply online by uploading your resume to proprietary resume databases, e.g., Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com, Indeed, or USAJobs.gov (resume loading for the job seeker).

You don’t want a blank space on your resume where you were unemployed if you can avoid it. Recruiters are not fond of seeing extended periods of unemployment (the UNNA syndrome – Unemployed Need Not Apply). However, after the 2009 housing crash and the COVID pandemic, they are more used to seeing these phenomena of long periods of unemployment. The good news is that there are two rich opportunities to add content to your resume, allow you to meet new people, and network for new employment opportunities.

First, offer your time or assistance to non-profit organizations or obtain training to enrich your job skills. Many small non-profit organizations (NPSs) are desperate for grant writers, volunteers, mentors, and specialists. There is a shortage in these skills for many small NPOs who can’t afford to pay salaries for these job skills – your local paper may run lists of NPOs needing assistance.

Second, if you can’t do the education or training and can’t offer assistance as a volunteer, the next best activity is to go into business for yourself as a consultant. Shop the market for companies needing your skill set as a 1099 consultant (a local city business license may be less than $50).  You never know when your skills sets may turn into a more realistic method to replace that lost salary.  Recruiters will note you didn’t let the dust settle after a job loss and view you as a more viable candidate.

While you are unemployed, get the training (or education) you didn’t have time to take while you were working, and add industry or trade certifications to the achievements on your resume. Take classes to advance your education beyond the courses or degree you last achieved.  There may be inexpensive adult education classes in your city that provide insight into a fresh new topic for you. Computer skills are one of the hottest training needs in any industry. If you gain insight into how software or a process works, it will move you ahead of the job’s competition.

As you achieve the training, education, or volunteer work, add it to your resume as the most recent ‘employment’ activity.  The longer you are unemployed, the more obvious the non-productive activity and the less viable a candidate you become to recruiters.  Filling that gap with volunteer activities, education or training, and/or part-time consulting work demonstrates you are still a viable and highly qualified candidate.

FSC Career Blog Author:  Dawn Boyer, Ph.D., is an associate of First Sun Consulting, and the owner of D. Boyer Consulting – providing resume writing, editing, and publishing consulting services. Reach her at: Dawn.Boyer@DBoyerConsulting.com or http://dboyerconsulting.com.  

Bio: Dawn D. Boyer, Ph.D., manages and operates a consulting firm in Norfolk, Richmond, Colonial Beach (Dahlgren), and Gloucester, VA.  Her background is 24+ years in the Human Resources field, of which 12+ years are within the Federal & Defense Contracting industry.  She is the author of 940+ books on business, human resources research, career search practice, women’s studies, genealogy lineages, and adult coloring books.  Her books are listed on Amazon.com under her author’s page for Dawn D. Boyer, Ph.D.

 

FSC Career Blog | September 19, 2022

 

#JobSearch : 6 Things To Do When You Don’t Know What To Say In A Job Interview. Share it: What Difficult Question Did YOU Have to Answer?

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Research the company. Iron your clothes. Come up with questions.  If you’ve ever Googled “How to prepare for a job interview,” then you already know that acing one means — at the very least – checking these boxes.

But I’ll admit, despite all the hours of interview prep in the world, sometimes you get thrown a question that makes you sweat.

“What’s the biggest piece of criticism you’ve received from previous employers?”

“What’s a mistake you made in your last job and how could you have handled it better?”

“What does a meaningful career look like to you?”

As the hiring manager looks at you with raised eyebrows, your mind goes blank. You have one thought and one thought only: “I don’t remember putting on antiperspirant this morning…”

Maybe this sounds like an all-too-familiar situation, or maybe it doesn’t. But go to enough job interviews and I promise you one thing: eventually you’ll be sitting across from a hiring manager who throws you a curveball that you can’t hit back.

Of course, it’s much easier to overlook the possibility of this altogether (sounds tempting, doesn’t it?). But just like ironing your clothes, figuring out what to say when you don’t know what to say at all is a necessary step if you want to end the interview process with a job offer in your hands.

Here are six steps you can take to form an answer to any question thrown your way during a job interview.

Step 1: Stop worrying.

A successful job interview is more about your energy than your words. Even with the perfect response, bad energy kills the mood. Reducing your anxiety during a job interview is easier said than done – especially since job interviews aren’t the ideal time to take long deep breaths and meditate.

Still, take a moment to challenge your negative thinking. Consider books for this like Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth and Byron Katie’s Loving What Is. Remind yourself that one weak answer in an interview won’t necessarily eliminate you from the running. You’re human, so give yourself permission to be one.

Employers ask job candidates difficult questions on purpose. Filling a new position costs companies an average of $4,129, so employers want to make sure they’re hiring the right candidate. But this also benefits you — difficult job interviews are statistically linked to higher employee satisfaction once the job is accepted. Make it through employers’ tough questions, and you’ll be rewarded for it later.

Still feel anxious? While I’m not a big believer in the concept “fake it until you make it,” there is something to be said about mustering confidence for important situations.

Research shows that almost 40% of employers reject candidates for the quality of their voice and overall lack of confidence. If you don’t have a question ready-to-go in your back pocket, the best thing you can do is minimize your fear and move forward with confidence. You need to answer the question either way, so you may as well do It without looking scared.

 

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What Skill Sets Do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Did you know?  First Sun Consulting, LLc (FSC) is celebrating over 30 years in the delivery of corporate & individual outplacement services & programs to over 1200 of our corporate clients in the U.S., Canada, UK, & Mexico!  

We here at FSC want to thank each of corporate partners in the opportunity in serving & moving each of their transitioning employee(s) rapidly toward employment !

 

Article continued …

Step 2: Take a moment to pause.

A strong response doesn’t need to be quick. Don’t word-vomit your way to an answer. It should be expected that a good interviewer will ask you one or two questions you don’t see coming, and it’s completely reasonable to take a few moments to think about your response when they do. In fact, taking a moment to ponder your answer shows the employer that you’re introspective.

If a quick pause doesn’t suffice, signal to the hiring manager that you’re still considering the question by saying something along the lines of, “That’s a great question. Do you mind giving me a moment to think more deeply about this one?”

 

Odds are the recruiter will be more than willing to give you the time you need to pull your thoughts together. Have a notepad handy, start writing, and don’t be afraid to ask the recruiter to repeat the question. In some cases, they may even suggest moving to the next question so you’ll have time to develop your answer by the end of the interview.

 

Step 3: Think out loud & proceed with caution

It usually only takes a few seconds before a response starts to form your head. Deliberate on it for a few extra moments to make sure it’s appropriate and relevant to the question being asked. Then, extract the key points or lessons you want to highlight and weave them into an answer.

Some people might find it easier to think out loud. If done correctly, verbalizing how you arrive at your answer can showcase your creativity and problem solving skills to a hiring manager.

With that being said, be sure to proceed with caution if you have difficulty predicting where a thought is headed. You don’t want to go off on tangents and you also don’t want to reveal an unflattering image of yourself. Speaking slowly and deliberately will buy you more time to think and hone your response.

Step 4: Respond with honesty and authenticity.

Formulas used to answer interview questions don’t usually help when you’re thrown a curve ball that leaves you stumped. It’s hard enough to figure out how to come up with an answer when you’re flustered, let alone organize it neatly using the S.T.A.R. method.

In a more positive light, leaving room for your authentic and messy thinking can actually serve you well. A survey of 200 talent acquisition professionals reported that, in addition to their confidence, hiring managers value candidates with authenticity and honesty the most. Don’t aim to impress the hiring manager with a perfect response (these don’t exist, anyway). Instead, show your ability to be vulnerable by grappling with a difficult question on the spot.

Pulling an authentic and impromptu response together relies on more than basic interview prep. When given a daunting and abstract question like “What do you hope to accomplish throughout your lifetime?” you need to rely on more than what you learned from reading the about page on a company’s website.

Instead, think about how you can work the self-awareness and insight you already have into your answer. Deciding what career path to pursue has already required you to think about your goals and motivations. Weaving this background information into your answers where appropriate not only shows your authenticity, but shows the employer that you see your work as more meaningful than a paycheck.

 

Step 5: Elaborate on your growth mindset

In the same survey with 200 talent acquisition professionals, 72% said they consider a candidate’s arrogance as the biggest personality turn off.

If you don’t know how to answer a field-specific question, it’s okay to admit that you don’t know. But don’t end things there — convey your growth mindset to employers by explaining your willingness to learn and improve new skills. While you might not have all of the hard skills a company is looking for fully developed yet, describing your interest in the field and openness to feedback tells employers you have the drive to grow at the company.

 

Step 6: Emphasize your desire to grow at the company

Conveying a growth mindset is good, but also need to emphasize that you are especially interested in honing your skills at the specific company for which you’re interviewing. This is the time for you to sprinkle in the information you gathered from researching the company during your interview prep. Be open to discussing your personal connection to the company. How do their core values resonate with you? Have they done any recent projects that interest you? If the hiring manager hasn’t already asked you, address your motivation for applying for the job.

Above all else, hiring managers want to know that their employers are committed to the company and invested in their work. Most specific job-related tasks can be taught or picked-up during the onboarding process.

… But as far as the motivation to excel goes, only the employee can bring that.

 

Forbes.com | August 12, 2022 |  Ashley Stahl