Archivo November de 2010
Have you ever wondered what hiring managers are really thinking when they review your application? Sure all the usual resume rules apply like use correct punctuation and highlight your relevant experience, but what makes your resume really stand out from the rest? More importantly, what keeps it from ending up in the reject pile?
Don Fornes, the CEO of ERP Software Advice, recently revealed 10 screening secrets he uses when filtering through job applications. Instead of filtering for who he should hire, first he looks for candidates to reject. It sounds harsh, but when reviewing hundreds of applications at a time, managers look for any way to be more efficient.
To help you avoid some of the “head-smacking” errors often overlooked by job seekers, be sure to read through his article: Don’t Name Your Resume, “resume” & Nine Other Head-Smacking Tips for Job Seekers. Here is a quick preview of Fornes’ recommendations:
- Don’t name your resume, “resume.” About a third of applicants name their resume document, “resume.doc.” “Resume” may make sense on your computer, where you know it’s your resume. However, on my computer, it’s one of many, many resumes with the same name. I used to rename them, but then I noticed the strong correlation between unqualified candidates and the “resume” file name. Now I reject them if I don’t see something really good within ten seconds. By using such a generic file name, the applicant misses a great opportunity to brand themselves (e.g. “John Doe – Quota Crusher”). If you’re qualified enough to sell or market for us, you won’t miss the opportunity to at least use your name in the file name.
- don’t use all lowercase. i’m not sure where this trend originated. is it some text messaging thing? it’s so easy to capitalize properly on a keyboard. how much time is this really saving you? to me, it screams out, “hi. i’m lazy. my pinkies are really heavy and I’d rather not move them to shift. when i start working for you, i’ll look for other ways to be lazy. i’ll also rebel against authority figures like you, just like i’m rebelling against the english teachers that dedicated their lives to helping me become literate.” seriously though, this bad habit buys you next to nothing and is bound to offend countless detailed-oriented hiring managers.
- Don’t write like a robot. I’ve noticed a funny phenomenon with many grads that are entering “the real world.” While their speech is still littered with “ums,” “likes” and “you knows,” their writing is exceedingly formal, long-winded and boring. The people that are reviewing your application were young once too. They may still be young. Most of them have a sense of humor. They get bored. Please, don’t make them parse dense cover letters and resumes that read like some robot ate a thesaurus and puked. Just use concise, well-written prose. Keep sentences short. Toss in a joke or two. Show us a little bit of your personality. We’re going to have to work with you more than we see our spouses, so show us that we’ll enjoy it. No robots.
Go read Don’s other seven suggestions – Don’t Name Your Resume, “resume” & Nine Other Head-Smacking Tips for Job Seekers.
A guest post by Jonathan Rick.
In the current edition of her e-newsletter, Claire Kittle, who runs the Talent Market staffing agency, recounts an anecdote that immediately rang true for me. With Claire’s permission, I’m reprinting the story, which I’ve edited slightly.
“I get dozens of applications every day, and you would be amazed to see how many seemingly intelligent candidates do not follow instructions. If I had to put a number on it, I’d estimate that 50% of applicants fail to send me what my clients request.
I used to give all candidates the benefit of the doubt. I would follow-up with them and ask for the information they neglected to send the first time. But I learned that those same candidates often still fail to follow instructions on the second (and third!) attempts, and worse—they frequently get belligerent about being asked for more information!
Here’s a sample scenario:
Me: “Are you free for a phone interview Friday at noon? If so, what’s the best number where I can call you?”
Candidate: “Yes, that will work!”
Sigh. Now I’ll only throw the life preserver to candidates with very strong resumes, but I still file away the fact they didn’t send the right information off the bat.
All this prompts the question: If a candidate can’t follow instructions for a job application, how will that person perform on the job? Will he take direction? Will his work be sloppy? How will he treat your customers? It’s hard to say for sure, but the initial data points don’t bode well for his future as an employee.”
Indeed, although I don’t work in HR, I encounter this bugbear routinely. A recent example:
Vendor: “Please provide profile details.”
Me: “Can you let me know if you can’t get this info from the document I sent this morning?”
The vendor’s response? Silence. Apparently, she could; it was just easier to ask someone than to find a previous e-mail herself.
I learned this passive-aggressive technique from an old boss. Rather than explicitly point out a mistake I had made, he would take the mistake to its logical conclusion. For example, if I wrote that a campaign would run from April-March (rather than March-April), he might reply, “When did our month-long budget get extended to a year?” While my first reaction was, Huh?, upon reflection I appreciated the humor—and gentle guidance.
So, what can we do to minimize these miscommunications? While people will always and forever be lazy, the principles of Web writing suggest separating out anything crucial from the body text. To wit: Any questions or requests should be put in (1) list (2) format, or at least be bolded or highlighted. The extra time this takes upfront will save you from wasting time down the road.
Jonathan Rick is a social media strategist living in Arlington, VA. He blogs at No Straw Men and tweets at @jrick.
I got an inquiry from a reader the other day after posting the article about Twitter to find a job article.
His question:
Using LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc. does not seem to help find me leads. I have profiles posted, but no one contacts me whatsoever. What’s up with that?”
LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook aren’t the magic solution to your job search. The leads will not come pouring in because you have a profile up. You need to work at developing your network and improving your online visibility – before you need them for a job search. Social sites are a component of your job search toolbox. You must be proactive to make them work for you.
That’s what I talked about in my post on US News & World Report this week. 6 Ways to Boost Your Job Search on LinkedIn. Check it out!
By guest PR columnist, Alison Kenney.
There have been quite a few blog posts with provocative headlines wondering if PR is dead.* While PR certainly hasn’t “died” it sure has changed. Led mostly by the advent of social media, an overhaul of traditional media and an overall democratizing of information, PR has evolved. But what exactly has it evolved into? Can we still call it PR?
The old notion that PR is responsible for putting spin on a story that appears in the media is certainly dead. That job is more accurately called “crisis communications” now. Also, the idea that PR is responsible for controlling a story is dead. As Hubspot’s Brian Halligan pointed out last year, journalists have faster and easier ways to get information besides going through a PR person and the “public” no longer consists of just a handful of important media outlets (now, we have a broad spectrum of audiences and channels that need to be managed).
I think it’s interesting to see how PR is perceived in other places of the world, too. As Janette van Kalkeren writes on the PR Conversations blog, public relations as it’s practiced in Europe has origins in wartime propaganda, which led to a media-focused approach.
“However, the negative connotations from this heritage of propaganda led to different ways of representing public relations. For example, in the Netherlands it is often called ‘communicatie’ (communication); in Finland it goes under three different names: ‘ytheystoiminta’ (affiliation work), ‘viestintä’ (communication) and ‘sudetoiminta’ (relationship activity). In most European countries, the term ‘public relations’ is rarely used, making it hard to define the practice across the entire continent.”
So what does it mean to “do PR” now?
Yes, social media is a big part of our reality but it certainly isn’t a PR killer – it’s simply a new way of doing what we’ve done for years with traditional media targets: identifying audiences and influencers, engaging with them, and giving them reasons to continue engaging (or following or liking or whatever) with us. It also isn’t a replacement for traditional media – rather, the two can and should work together. PR professionals are also involved with online communities, although the job of managing a community is typically a separate duty.
PR professionals have always had a role in forming strategy, part of which entails listening and monitoring industry buzz, competitive news and customer feedback. Although we’ve always had tools and services to help gather and analyze the buzz, today’s tools are much more complex and capable and we’re more likely to hire a PR team member who can be dedicated to this job, especially if we are in a large organization.
Content creation is also a major responsibility for the PR professional and I will argue that telling your story has never been more important than it is today and there have never been so many mediums available for telling it. As an example, Eloqua, a forward-thinking marketing automation solutions provider, just hired a corporate reporter.
What do you think? Is Public Relations the right name for what we’re doing today?
*Blog posts about the health of PR:
Brian Halligan’s post on HubSpot Is PR Dead?
Norman Birnbach on Six Reasons PR is Not Dead Yet
3Point Communications’ blog post: 10 Public Relations-related Discussions I Could Live Without
Alison Kenney an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience. She is based on Boston’s North Shore and has worked with organizations in the technology, professional services and consumer industries. She writes a bi-monthly PR column on LindsayOlson.com. You can find her at www.kprcommunications.com. Learn more about Alison Kenney.
Have you ever been contacted for multiple recruiters about the same company? That’s what I wrote about on US News and Word Report this week. Here’s the excerpt:
For job seekers, working with a third-party recruiter often raises questions. Who exactly do they work for? What’s the best way to use their connections to your advantage? And more specifically, what should you do if you’re contacted by more than one recruiter who represents the same company?
Unlike internal recruiters, who work directly for a company that’s looking to hire, third-party recruiters work for an employment agency that’s contracted by a company to find talent.
Say Recruiter Joe contacts you about a position for a software company. He collects your resume, says you’re qualified and indicates that he’ll talk to the software company about your candidacy. A few days after that conversation, Recruiter Jane calls you about another position with the same software company. You’re really interested in this second opportunity, but you haven’t heard back yet from Recruiter Joe. Should you pursue the position with Recruiter Jane?
To find out what you should do, go read it on US News: How to Work with a Recruiter to Find a Job
I have big news to share today. We just launched Hoojobs, a niche job board for the public relations, communications, and social media community. This has been a long time in the making and we’re so excited to have finally released it to the public.
As a recruiter, I hear complaints about the job boards all the time. Job seekers are overwhelmed with the complicated processes of applying for jobs or finding jobs that have already been filled. With this in mind, we wanted to design Hoojobs to allow job-seekers to apply for jobs without having to create an account or re-create their resume to apply for a job. We want to create a user-friendly experience for both candidates and employers.
Hoojobs features:
- Simple, clean, easy-to-use design.
- A live search tool to quickly find relevant results.
- Job alerts via email or RSS based on keywords or categories.
- Integrated social media tools to allow users to quickly share job leads with their networks via email, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
- Real-time job postings: Job posts are only posted for 30 days unless the employer re-posts the position. No more out-of-date jobs!
- A niche site marketed solely to communicators and marketers resulting in more qualified leads than the large job boards.
- Backing from Paradigm Staffing, a recruiting agency with over a decade of serving the PR and communications industry.
Please visit and let me know what you think! We’re still working on some minor details and will be improving the alert features to make it even easier for the job seekers to be notified immediately about opportunities in the field of interest.
And follow us on Twitter and Facebook!
Links:
http://twitter.com/hoojobs
http://facebook.com/hoojobs
This week on US News and World Report’s On Careers blog, I posted about using Twitter for the job search.
Here’s an excerpt:
Are you using Twitter for your job search? If you have yet to see results, don’t give up! Using the social-networking tool, you can find real jobs and connect with real people who are hiring.
One of Twitter’s most useful aspects is the access it provides you. Recruiters, HR representatives, hiring managers, and executives all use Twitter on a daily basis. Unlike an online job posting where you can only apply via the information provided, Twitter allows you to interact with these people directly by sending them an @ reply or a direct message. Your resume is much more likely to be seen and seriously considered if you’ve interacted with a company representative rather than applying to a job post along with hundreds of other job seekers.
Visit US News to read the rest of the tips to get noticed and hired on Twitter.
This is a post by Alison Kenney, PR columnist.
As PR pros we want our communications to resonate resoundingly, our brands to be strong and our communities to be vital. To achieve these goals, we hold brainstorming sessions, conduct marketplace research and surveys, monitor our industries and competitors and undertake SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analyses. But how many among us regularly incorporate cultural trends in our vision and PR planning?
In his book, Chief Culture Officer, Grant McCracken argues that every organization needs to thoroughly understand culture in order to succeed in the modern marketplace. Microsoft, for one (and not an insignificant one at that) is buying into McCracken’s premise: Dr. Mark Drapeau, Microsoft’s Director of U.S. Public Sector Social Engagement, agrees with McCracken that it’s important to have a “broad awareness of slow-paced cultural evolutions that can affect companies, and how to monitor them and incorporate them into planning.”
How do we develop that awareness of “slow-paced cultural evolutions”?
First, by monitoring cultural developments and identifying trends. Culture is driven by a very wide array of factors ranging from art, advertising, fashion and media to geopolitical factors, socio-economics, and global business issues to education, demographic and generation shifts, gender issues and much more. Take a look at this fascinating program for the WorldFuture 2010 conference that took place this past July in Boston to get a sense of the various cultural trends under watch.
Next, by considering how cultural trends could affect your brand. As an exercise, pick any cultural trend, e.g. Generation Y reaching adulthood or the ‘Going Green’ movement, and think of all the ways it could impact your job, your work, your company. What could your brand do to capitalize on the opportunities this trend presents? Trendwatching.com provides some excellent tips for tracking and applying trends.
Lastly, develop your own vision. This isn’t so much about having a crystal ball that can spot the “next big thing” but more of a sense of where the marketplace is heading – based on the values that are being revealed through cultural trends – and understanding how to capitalize on those trends. As 2010 rolls into its final months, it was fun to look back at this piece predicting food trends for this year.
Fortunately, there are as many sources for trend watching as there are trends to watch. So, get going, get watching and don’t forget to share your observations!
Alison Kenney an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience. She is based on Boston’s North Shore and has worked with organizations in the technology, professional services and consumer industries. She writes a bi-monthly PR column on LindsayOlson.com. You can find her at www.kprcommunications.com. Learn more about Alison Kenney.
This blog is to share my recruiting experiences and discuss thoughts on the job market, PR industry and technology.
Alison Kenney is an independent PR practitioner with more than 15 years of PR consulting experience.
