Thursday, October 13, 2011

Indeed.com – save time by eliminating the need to hop from job search site to job search site

If you are applying for jobs online, chances are you spend a lot of time jumping from sites like Monster, to CareerBuilder, to The Ladders to ………… on and on and on every day in search of the newest job postings. Well here’s an idea: use Indeed.com. It is different than a lot of job search sites in that it funnels in job postings from major job search websites, classifieds, and other third party job posting sites to give you access to all of them in one place. Indeed.com also makes your searching easier by allowing you to narrow your search using simple point and click commands once you have a list of jobs. It will save you time, and you can focus more effort on networking and other job search endeavors.

A few interview tidbits to chew on

There are so many different aspects of interviewing for a job that can be covered; so many so that there are literally hundreds of books that have been written on the subject. In actuality it is does not need to be that complex, and I am wholeheartedly 100% against the interviewing books that teach people how to answer questions the way they think we want to hear it. It’s so easy to spot the rehearsed answers and B.S. If you want to be the ‘fake” candidate, then by all means use the canned and pre-packaged responses. If you want to actually impress, be genuine by being yourself, and by answering questions honestly.

I will be devoting more time to interviewing in later posts, but for now I wanted to talk about some of the DO’s and DON’Ts that come to mind. Every interview of course should be approached as a professional meeting, so treat it that way.


Let’s start with some DON’Ts:

Whatever you do, DO NOT bad mouth your current company or boss………EVER. This is the quickest way to disqualify yourself from a job. If you do it to someone else, what will stop you from doing it to them in the future.

DO NOT ask questions about salary and benefits – let them bring it up. You can refer to why this is so in a previous post, but let’s just say it shows a genuine interest in the scope of the job, not just the pay.

DO NOT chew gum, eat candy, or bring a drink with a straw. It’s annoying.

DON’T flirt. This may work if you’re looking to work at Hooters, but the majority of places will not look upon it favorably.

DON’T talk too much. It’s great that you talk about yourself, but dominating the conversation sends the wrong message. Use your listening skills and genuinely pay attention to what the interviewer has to say.

Now for the DO’S:

Study up on the organization you are interviewing with. Nothing is more impressive than interviewing a candidate who has actually done her/his homework. Conversely, nothing shows you could care less when not even knowing the company’s full name.

Focus on positives, not negatives. Nobody wants to hear about all of the bad experience in previous positions. Talk about the positive ones instead.

Use good body language and posture. This will show an interest in the position, and what the interviewer has to say.

Dress for the part, and dress appropriately. You probably shouldn’t be wearing a tux or evening gown, but for high-level professional jobs, a suit and tie for guys and a dress or women’s suit for gals fits the part. Some interviews may be less stringent, with business casual being the way to go. There usually are no circumstances were halter tops, mini-skirts, flip flops, t-shirts, or shorts are appropriate, Use your best judgment, and take some time to investigate the company if you are unsure.

Be on time. If you can’t make it to the interview on time, the very first impression you are giving them of you, then how can you expect them to believe you would be punctual if hired?

Turn your cell phone OFF. As much as this seems like it should be common sense, I’m still surprised how many people forget to do it. Even worse are the few people who have answered a call. It’s happened twice, and both times I ended the interview right then and there.

Bring a couple of copies of your resume. It’s always nice to have some just in case you end up interviewing with multiple people, or if the interviewer forgets his/her copy.

Most importantly – prior to your interview, be prepared with 4 or 5 professional achievements in mind. You will be surprised how you can use your accomplishments in almost any interview question. We want to know about you in an interview, and relaying personal examples is by far the best way to do it.

10 Steps to increasing your visibility and success on LinkedIn

As a job seeker, the point of being on LinkedIn is to make yourself as visible as possible for hiring managers and recruiters. So with that in mind, be mindful of the bar showing what percentage your profile is complete. If it is not fully complete, it will not be as visible as it could be. Here are ten ways to improve that, step by step:

1. Include a picture

2. Work on getting the number of your contacts up. One thing that you can do is search for people in the advanced search section with keywords of "IT LION." LION stands for LinkedIn Open Networker, and these are people who will accept anyone as a contact. They also usually have hundreds if not thousands of contacts which opens your network significantly. IT I of course use simply as an example for Information Technology, but you can use any words that accomplish the search purpose, LION is the key though.

3. Get recommendation. You don't need 20, but 4 or 5 won't hurt

4. Joined some associations. Be sure to participate in some of the online forums and give yourself chances to interact with others.

5. Make sure the Skills section is pretty well filled in. This will give additional key words a searcher may be searching for.

6. I would look at perhaps creating a personal website or blog. Although not completely necessary, it also can be a nice touch if you can show observers more about you, especially when it comes to your professional expertise. A blog is a perfect medium to do this.

7. The title. Think of a description to use. Something like "Highly experienced ,,,,,." It doesn't need to be out of this world, or too elaborate, but just something that gives some interest.

8. Perhaps most important, and this is why I saved it for near the last, is the Summary and Experience sections. I would copy and paste it directly from your resume, because that is more in-depth than the descriptions you have now. I would use the Key Contributions and everything. Also don't forget Technical Skills. If you have been laid off, or if you have an impending layoff, you can and should also mention that at the beginning of the Summary. In this case a title such as "Qualified .......... seeking position as......." would be appropriate.

9. Answer questions. This is something that helps increases exposure.

10. Use the status bar once in a while to update your status and by saying things like, "seeking position as ....."

Beyond that just keep being persistent and seek out contacts such as recruiters or colleagues that can help you. Also I would recommend researching anywhere from 5 - 10 companies that you would like to target, and once you have built your network start doing searches to see names who pop up within that company so you can send them direct emails. Often times you will notice that a job pops up on Monster or CareerBuilder, but instead of applying directly send someone in the company an email. It is a way to get around the red tape and get in the door.