Hello Internet! I’m
back from last week’s hiatus and ready to help you get a job! Things are going great here in Iowa. We’ve cooled down from last week’s heat wave
where I counted at least seven times that I got in my car and saw a temp of
over 105! It really is amazing how
everything is relative – today it’s going to be 96 and people are acting like its
fall. Ahh the Midwest! Last night we experienced one of the cooler things in our little corner of the
world – The National Hot Air Balloon Classic.
My kids loved it!
Today I’m going to talk about some of the little details
that help you get a job. Of course you
need to have an awesome resume, finely pressed suit, strong linked in profile
and the like. This is all really
important. However, many people have all
of these things and still don’t get the job even though they are more qualified
than other candidates. Why? It’s because they don’t do the little things
that set them apart. Below are five
little things you can do to enhance your profile and get the job:
1. Learn
how to leave a voicemail
Here’s the deal. Your
voicemail’s say a lot about who you are. The first thing you need to know is
that most people hate voicemails. I mean
they really hate them. What do they hate
more than voicemails – really long voicemails.
The problem with voicemails is that you really can’t help your candidacy
as much as you can hurt it. A long
winded, stream of consciousness, bland voicemail will either make you look a) incoherent, b)
boring, or c) annoying. So, what should
go into a voicemail? A good voicemail
should have three things:
- Your
Name – Hi Rick – It’s Jenny
- The
Purpose – I’m returning your call, I’m responding to your ad, I think you
saw my number on the wall.
- Your
number – Please call me back at 867-5309
A couple of other things on this matter. If you need to get more info across, let them
know that you will follow up over email. Finally, smile when you leaving the
voicemail. It will come through.
2. Learn how to send an Email
Email has become so informal lately and while I personally
think that this is bad for us as a society it is acceptable to use it as some
sort of bastardized version of instant messaging between people you know well.
However, if you are emailing someone that you are looking to impress –
you know because they are maybe going to hire you, you should probably put a
little bit of thought into it. At the
end of the day you should treat email correspondence with a potential employer
as a way to set yourself apart. Here is
what you need in an email:
- Give a
salutation – the simple act of acknowledging that the other person has a
name will put you ahead of the masses.
- Use
punctuation and capitalization – I don’t care if you are typing on the
world’s tiniest iPhone – you appear stupid and lazy when you don’t take
the extra millisecond to capitalize my name or put in a period.
- Write
in complete sentences with paragraphs – first of all its really hard to
read without them. Secondly, if you
can’t take the time to write a coherent, grammatically correct and fully
formed message – how much do you care about this job?
- Spelling
– errors or relying on spell check make you look stupid
3. Follow Directions
This one is really, really important. If a company tells you to email them your
resume. Email it. Don’t mail it. Don’t
fax it (If you are using a fax machine still…that’s a whole other
problem). Secondly, if the ad doesn’t ask
you to call – don’t call. I will tell
you that there is some gray area here with calling. If you are responding to a posted job
advertisement with a company – you shouldn’t call. The reason – the person conducting the search
has other responsibilities than the search alone. I can guarantee that there are so many other
people calling that you will not set yourself apart in any sort of positive
way.
However, there are two areas where
you can call. First, if it is an
independent recruiter like me – call away – these people’s jobs are to talk to
people about getting jobs all day. If
they are bothered by your call – find another.
Secondly, if there isn’t an opening at a company that you want to work
for and feel that your background would fit with them it is acceptable to call
the hiring manager (or a potential hiring manager) and ask for permission to
send them your resume. Anyway, back to
following directions.
While companies don’t put
directions on an ad as a test it still acts as an informal test. The inability to follow directions will lead
the company to make some (possibly) inaccurate assumptions about you. Some things that they might surmise from
this:
·
You don’t respect authority
·
You can’t read
·
You think you are smarter than the rest of us
·
You can’t do basic computer skills (this is for
you faxers out there)
Anyway – I’ve written more about this subject before and you
can read about it here:
4. Cover Letters
It’s time for a dirty little secret. Generally speaking the odds of someone taking
the time to thoughtfully read your cover letter is virtually non-existent. Yet – companies expect that you send
one. It’s just one of those stupid
things that are a vestige from another time – like the fax machine. So, how do you write a cover letter? You need three paragraphs.
The first
paragraph should have about three sentences.
Introduce yourself, state the job you are applying for and where you saw
it. The last paragraph should be equally
as short – it should thank them for their time, give them the phone number and
email you would like to be contacted at and suggest an interview.
The middle
paragraph is the most important. It must
be short but powerful and use bullet
points. The paragraph should look
something like this:
I feel my
experience would make me an excellent fit for this position. Specifically when I worked at Initech I
accomplished the following:
- Organized
paperwork using my Swingline stapler
- Was
the top producer of TPS reports in the company
- Assisted
in the removal of faulty office equipment
- Successfully
collaborated with a team to create a software program that made the
companies finances more efficient
So – why should they be short? It’s because there is an inverse relationship
between the length of a resume or cover letter and the likelihood someone will
read it. In other words – people are
lazy and busy and won’t take the time to read your cover letter if it looks
like a chore.
5. Short Answers
We live in a world where information is spoon fed to us in
sound bites less than 30 seconds, messages with less than 140 characters, text
messages and posts. Why? That’s all the attention span that our poor
brains can handle. When you are
interviewing you need to know this and embrace it. Now – I’m not telling you to start rolling
out a bunch of LOL’s or BRB’s. However,
you need to limit how long an answer is and give the other person a chance to
talk. An interview should be a
conversation – not a soliloquy or prepared speech. So how do you do this? It’s easy – practice and be conscious of
time. One tip I give people is to Google
and find a list of the top interview questions.
Pick a couple of them and practice answering them in front of a mirror
with a stop watch. If you are under 2 –
3 minutes you are doing well. If you are
pushing five minutes or more – you need to get out more and get that out of
your system.
That is all I’ve got for today. As always let me know your thoughts on this
and feel free to leave a comment. Also
feel free to email me directly at
sthompson@insurance-csg.com.
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