6 Ways To Become the Top Dog Before Your Interview

Did you realize that nearly all hiring managers pre-rank candidates before they’ve interviewed even one? If you’re the top candidate before interviews, then it’s basically your job to lose.

So how can you position yourself as the top candidate?

It takes a lot of planning, and takes into account all 4 audiences of your resume. Check out the post on 4 audiences to see how to write for all your audiences. Why? If you don’t write for the database or HR, then your resume won’t get seen by the hiring manager. That makes it pretty tough to be the top candidate.

But let’s imagine you’ve successfully written for the Database and for HR, and your resume is in the pile for review on the Hiring Manager’s desk. How do you get to the #1 spot on that pile, before they’ve talked to you?

Here are 6 Tactics:

1. Demonstrate achievements not management: Many senior level managers forget that they hire people to solve specific problems, rarely based on the number of people they’ve managed. Use active bulletpoints to demonstrate how you Created Employer Value. State that you increased profits by X% by doing Y, Increased sales by X% by doing Y, Cut costs by X% by doing Y.

If your major bulletpoints have verbs like “Managed”, “Led”, “Coordinated”, “Liased” you are shortchanging yourself, because you’ve probably done much more exciting things in your career. Sure, many people haven’t gotten a position because they hadn’t managed a large enough staff – that’s often a nice way of saying “We found someone we liked better”.

2. Determine Target Company Problems and Goals: If you can demonstrate that you’ve already solved the problems that the company or manager has, you’re an early favorite candidate. Research everything about the company, but don’t focus on what happened in past company financials (unless you’re a CFO candidate). Focus on finding the problems that exist right now, or will occur in the next quarter. Draw inferences to guess how your target department and potential manager will be affected.

3. Network to a problem. Here’s a fantastic way to use your personal network, LinkedIN network, Facebook network, etc. Most people network to find someone to ask for a job, and it’s often a low return activity. You can make much better use of your network by finding out what’s going on inside the company, and insight about the people you’ll interview with.

4. Club your reader over the head: Once you’ve found out what’s important from research and networking, construct bulletpoints to address those issues – and put them at the top of your resume. Bold specific individual words to address job description keywords. Don’t bold phrases – instead make a greater visual impact by just bolding words.

5. Be the unique solution to the problem: Demonstrate how you have already solved the problems the company or manager has. Show how you are a Subject Matter Expert in solving their specific problem. Be the right person at the right time and right place.

6. Communicate in their language: Use keywords from the job description – the EXACT words. Don’t rephrase, because databases don’t understand rephrasing. More importantly, the job description along with research, conversations, and networking can tell you how the company communicates. Pay attention to your research and conversations to pick up more key words, and to note the communications style. Mirror the style in your resume and include liberal servings of keywords, and you’ve got a recipe for being the top candidate before you ever step foot into an interview room.

So look at your resume….does it make you the top candidate?

If you’d like a free 30 minute resume consultation or some advice about your career transition, just email your resume to reCareered at phil.rainmakers@gmail.com, and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Build a LinkedIN Profile That You Can be Proud Of!

If you are looking for a job, you should count on employers looking for your LinkedIN profile. It’s becoming a business standard to check people out online before hiring them, whether doing a Google search or looking them up on LinkedIN or Facebook.

Are you searching for a job with a bland or empty LinkedIN profile? What does that say about you? When employers or people you network with Google you, the first entry they find about you will probably be your LinkedIN or Facebook profile (unless you’ve already been heavily published, or have already built an online reputation).

Most LinkedIN profiles are very generalist in nature, and do little to help the job seeker truly stand out. As a job seeker, do you want a profile that looks like thousands of others, or a profile that is totally unique, yet professional?

Then again, you can make your LinkedIN profile work FOR you, by writing a profile designed to help employers find you in searches. What are the steps needed to write a killer LinkedIN profile?

1. Develop a very defined Subject Matter Expertise. LinkedIN doesn’t help generalists nearly as much as Subject Matter Experts. Throw out the idea of branding yourself as a broad generalist…it doesn’t work anymore. See Who Needs Generalists Anymore?
2. Determine the Specific problems where your Subject Matter Expertise can provide the Unique Solution. See Will You Stop Looking for a Job Already?
3. Develop strong bulletpoints of accomplishments, to demonstrate your experience in solving specific problems, to demonstrate you are the Unique Solution. Demonstrate how you have provided employer value – see Do You Create Employer Value?
4. Develop a skills inventory, and match it against what skills you see in demand in the marketplace. This is a great gut check to make sure you are highlighting the skills that are important to employers, not just the skills that make you feel good about yourself.
5. Develop a template resume around your tightly defined Subject Matter Expertise.
6. Use the top 4 bulletpoints from your last or (present) job, 2-3 bulletpoints for relevant jobs with outstanding achievements that add additional proof to your Subject Matter Expertise. Don’t bother with bulletpoints for jobs over 10 years ago (unless it contains subject matter expert proof that you can’t show elsewhere).
7. For jobs over 10 years, just list without explanation. It was 10 years ago - how much about that job is still relevant to an employer today?
8. Develop a highlight line, absolutely no longer than one typed line on a word document. Make it extremely brief, but extremely targeted.
9. Include your education, including graduate degrees. Include any volunteer activities
10. Link relevant sites – samples of your work, your online portfolios, blogs, any groups you moderate. List other online profiles (Facebook, Plaxo, Twitter, Spock, Ecademy, Xing, Jigsaw, Zoominfo, etc.).
11. Get the right recommendations. See LinkedIN Strategies – Recommendations.

Your LinkedIN profile is your first step to Online Reputation Management, and building your personal digital brand. So take a look at your LinkedIN profile. Does it paint you as the unique answer to a very specific problem? Or does it paint you as yet another generalist?

If you’d like more information, a free 30 minute resume consultation, or some advice about your career transition, just email your resume to reCareered at phil.rainmakers@gmail.com, and we'll schedule a time to talk.

To Fax or Not to Fax – That is the Question

A client asked me if he should fax his resume, in order to get more attention. He was surprised when I said no.

Then I realized that there is still a misconception in the job seeker audience about faxed resumes.

The thought process in faxing resumes is to gain an advantage by delivering in a way that gets noticed. It was a sure fire way to get your resume seen…about 10 years ago. But not so much anymore – here’s why.

There are three roadblocks to getting your resume seen via fax: 1) Location of the fax machine; 2) Majority use of the fax machine; 3) Human Resources; 4) Aversion to paper

Location of the fax machine: Your faxed resume is likely to get lost. In the vast majority of companies, fax machines aren’t located in executive offices any longer. When fax machines used to be located in the executive suite, faxing your resume could be an effective way to get your background seen. Fax machines are now located in operations departments that send or receive faxes. Worse yet, many larger companies have adopted enterprise fax solutions, printing all faxes in a centralized location.

Majority use of the fax machine: Fax machines are typically used today when a written record is required of a signature, legal documentation/proof, or operational/accounting documents. They are typically used to transmit forms, where for accounting, signature or proof purposes, a paper form is necessary.

Fax machines are typically high volume collection points, wither separated by department or centralized in an enterprise printing operation. Unless you are certain that the decision maker you seek will review all faxes, assume that your fax will be lost. And are you certain that fax number is the machine your decision maker uses?

HR: In all but the smallest companies, Human Resources wants your resume in its database. The Human Resources department keeps statistics for the EEOC and Department of Labor. Since 9/11, Department of Labor audits became much more frequent and detailed and HR needs to get your information digitized, so they can quickly respond to government information requests. Faxes aren’t always the easiest to scan - If the print is too light or unclear, you risk having your resume rejected.

Aversion to Paper: Managers don’t manage paper well, and they are used to managing electronic documents. Paper risks getting lost or thrown out.

There are some exceptions, mainly clerical roles, where faxed resume can still work. Here are some examples:

- Applying for a job to sell or service fax machines or related supplies
- Applying for a job as a clerk who regularly processes faxes (order entry, accounts receivable, accounts payable, payroll)
- Applying for a job where sales orders are transmitted via fax
- Small very low tech companies
- Clerical or Blue collar jobs

Finally, if you are in technology, and you’re not emailing your resume, do you think an employer will take you seriously? Is the IT department typically a big user of faxes?

So…still want to fax your resume? I didn’t think so…..

If you’d like more information, a free 30 minute resume consultation, or some advice about your career transition, just email your resume to reCareered at phil.rainmakers@gmail.com, and we'll schedule a time to talk.

4 Killer Ways to Use Research

An important part of resume customization and interview preparation is research. But I’ve found that many candidates could research more effectively.

Many candidates research a public company’s annual report, looking for sales and profit figures, understanding what industry they are in, who the officers are, and the major events of the past year. They research historically. But few of these facts will help much in making your resume standout, or impressing during an interview.

How can you make the most of your research time? Research prospectively – to gain insight on what’s happening now.

Think of research as finding information that falls into three categories: 1) Company Goals; 2) Company Challenges; 3) Questions; 4) Culture.

Goals & Challenges: If you’ve already Stopped Looking for a Job and instead are looking for a problem you are uniquely qualified to solve, then the process of research can be focused to find that problem. After you’ve found that problem that you’re uniquely qualified to solve, use the research as a background to craft your custom resume, showing how you’ve:

- Solved the exact challenge a company is facing
- Capitalized on the opportunities a company sees
- Broken through roadblocks to achieve the exact goals of your target company
- Solved problems that occur before or after a company has reached those goals

The higher in the organization you’re targeting, the bigger piece of the solution you’ll want to demonstrate on your resume. If you’re interviewing for a C-Level position, you’ll probably want to show how you solved the whole problem or most of it (if it’s cross functional). But even if you are interviewing for an Administrative Assistant’s role, you can show how you contributed to increasing sales by developing sales, margin, or commission tracking systems, dashboards, and ways to quickly report information to management. You can even show how you’ve decreased costs by streamlining processes or travel vendors.

Questions: If you’re preparing for an interview, you’ll want to look for questions. The most effective interview questions you can ask are questions you already know the answers to – and that lead the interviewer to bring up opportunities or challenges that you’ve already solved (see How to Take Control of the Interview).

Consider how you can turn company opportunities, challenges, roadblocks and problems into questions that address the problem, and break it down into the parts you want to discuss. Consider also how to turn these same facts into implication questions – what happens if the opportunity is missed, the challenge not met, the problem not solved? Finally, develop questions that “twist the knife” by monetizing the issue – How much will you lose if the opportunity is mist, how much will it cost if the problem is not solved?

Once you’ve monetized the problem, you’ve not only demonstrated more understanding than 99% of candidates, you can also demonstrate that you are an inexpensive solution to that problem.

Culture: Look at pictures of people and workspaces on annual reports and marketing brochures. Read every quote from employees of all levels that you can. Gain clues and insight on culture, communication styles, dress style, and the types of people who succeed within the target company’s environment. If you can find quotes, pictures, or best yet a podcast or video on the person who you are interviewing with, that can give you such an unfair advantage, it’s scary.

Ask yourself - Are they formal or informal? Laid back or intense? Analytical or creative? What are they being quoted on (it’s probably important to them)? What are they wearing? What’s in the background? What does the office look like (neat or cluttered)? What’s their facial expression? Do they talk fast or slowly? Expressive or reserved? Do they use their hands when speaking?

Discovering clues about culture can help you with communications style in your resume and non-verbal communications so critical in the first 2-30 seconds of an interview (See Non Verbal Interviewing, and Interview in a Snap). Even if a podcast or video features someone other than the specific hiring manager interviewing, you gain huge advantages in setting first impressions by picking up communication style clues within the organization, Why? Most people within an organization communicate using similar styles - mirroring that style gives you an advantage at making a great first impression.

Here’s list of 10 not so apparent places to find target company research:

1. Organization’s Website
2. Annual Reports – Public companies, Regulated Industries and some Non-Profits, Hospitals, Educational Institutions publish Annual Reports
3. Quarterly Reports – Mainly from Public Companies and Regulated Industries
4. Press Releases
5. Organization’s Blog (Blogs)
6. Google
7. Yahoo Finance
8. Hoover’s
9. LinkedIN contacts & company page
10. Technorati Searches

So how will you change how you use company research, and what you use it for?

If you’d like more information, a free 30 minute resume consultation, or some advice about your career transition, just email your resume to reCareered at phil.rainmakers@gmail.com, and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Who Wants a Piece of Me?

Hey, want a piece of me?

Go right ahead, just steal my content…

In case anyone noticed the comments between a couple of readers and me over the past few days, you might be wondering why I’d ask anyone to steal my content.

But first, how can today’s rant affect job seekers? As a job seeker you publish content also. Maybe it’s just your resume, but hopefully you’re getting other ideas from this blog and others. Hopefully, you’ve got content on your personal web page, LinkedIN, Facebook, MySpace, Interview on Demand, on an online portfolio, or your ResuBlog. Maybe you have video or audio on YouTube, pictures on Flickr, or bookmarks on Del.icio.us. Or you’ve shared your thoughts and commented on other blogs, forums, and groups.

Sharing expands your web presence and helps you promote and expand your subject matter expertise. As for me - I’m a “give before I get” kind of guy. For example, at networking events, I ask people how I can help them…and it usually has nothing to do with career search. In the same light, I want the content of this blog to be shared widely, and to benefit as many job seekers and career changers as possible. It’s my form of “Business Karma”.

This blog is about sharing, and hopefully making the job search market a little less dysfunctional. Fortunately, enough people appreciate my advice and want more. This allows me to pay my bills, and have time to give back to the job market through my blog and the 30 minute evaluations I offer free of charge.

What greater compliment can someone give me than republishing my work? It makes my day when I get a heartfelt email or comment of thanks. But there’s no greater validation that the hours I devote to this blog are worthy, when someone else uses my work.

I ask you to steal my content for the same reason Robert Scoble asks in Steal My Content, Please! Scoble, one of the brighter bulbs in the Blogosphere, writes “I WANT YOU to steal my content. In fact, next year I’m going to do stuff to make all my content available via Creative Commons license so you can use it whereever and whenever, including my video shows. I’d like a credit, yes, but don’t demand it. I’d rather just add to the human experience and if that means that other people make money off of my work, so be it. I’ve found that the more I give away my content, the more magical stuff happens to me anyway and if that means my photos or writings or videos get used in some way that I don’t really like, well, that’s a risk I’m willing to take.” You’re welcome Robert…I’ve stolen your content.
So now that I’ve asked you if you want a piece of me, I’m releasing any copyrights on material in my blog. Use my content anyway you like. If you can find a way to make money on it…good for you! You don’t even have to email me asking for permission to republish, if you don’t feel like it (Of course, I’d appreciate it if you did email me, so I can properly thank you for stealing my content, and just maybe make a new friend). It would be nice if you cited me, and linked back to this blog, but you don’t even have to do that.

Why would I release copyrights? For starters, copyright laws are designed to protect large corporations, not entrepreneurs. If one of the big boys wanted to steal my content, they could anyways…so I’m inviting you to. Besides, do you have any concept how expensive and time consuming it would be to protect a copyright? I’d rather spend my time helping career changers.

And how could sharing my content hurt me? I don’t take advertisers on my site, so it’s not like someone else is getting ad revenue from my content. And if you can make ad revenue from my writing…Do it! WAY TO GO!

The worst thing that could happen is that my Google page rank could go down just a bit, because Google penalizes exact duplicate pages published elsewhere. No worries, I’ve already republished many places already. Page ranking is nice, but helping more people is much better.

This is one of the really beautiful things about blogging. It’s altruistic. Blogging is about helping and reaching as many people as possible. Bloggers, even competitors in the same market, are collaborators who help each other. It’s a phenomenon I’ve never seen before in 25 years of business experience. Thank you for listening, and for your readership.

If you’d like to say thanks back, join the discussion.

Comment, email, or give me the greatest compliment you could…by stealing my content, please.

If you’d like more information, a free 30 minute resume consultation, or some advice about your career transition, just email your resume to reCareered at phil.rainmakers@gmail.com, and we'll schedule a time to talk.

A Seat At the Table With the Expert - Jackie Bassett

Jackie Bassett joins us today to discuss the media industry, and demand for new media professionals.

Jackie is a published author and the CEO of BT Industrials, a Washington DC based consulting firm, focusing on “turning problems into profits” for clients. Advertising and Media firms are one BT Industrials major business verticals.

reCareered: Thanks for joining us today Jackie. What do you see as the 2 greatest issues in Advertising and Media today?
Jackie Bassett: That’s easy, the two biggest issues are 1) Identifying what customers want, and 2) Finding Digital Talent. Today companies are great are managing collaboratively. For instance, the President of one client chose to move their offices closer to their talent, even though it doubled his commute.

reCareered: If your clients are having challenges finding digital talent, what skills do you see most in demand today?
Jackie Bassett: Flash, Actionscript steaming, content creation (video, audio, written). My clients need people who can get messages across to an ADD world. They need marketing specialists who can make effective byte sized content. Also, employees with experience in creating YouTube video is in high demand.

reCareered: Why do you think your clients are having problems finding this talent. Are there shortages?
Jackie Bassett: Maybe, but companies are looking in the wrong places for talent. It’s out there, even if it’s not the primary job of the candidate. Often my clients are looking for talents that haven’t been demonstrated in the workplace yet, but demonstrated in worker’s hobbies. Since worker hobbies rarely show up on a resume, the system overlooks some great talent. That’s how they look in the wrong places.

reCareered: If traditional search methods are the wrong places for this type of media worker, then what are the right places?
Jackie Bassett: You’re more likely to find these workers in the places they normally hang out. For instance, if you want a great YouTube video creator, why not go to YouTube and look for people who are creating innovative material?

reCareered: What kinds of people are on YouTube creating great videos? What would their resumes look like?
Jackie Bassett: They might be Network Admins, traditional advertising people, even accountants. These skills are probably not on their resume.

reCareered: So how can a digital media hobbyist get their work noticed and possibly make a career of these skills.
Jackie Bassett: Create a portfolio. MySpace is a great place to build a digital portfolio, or Facebook, or your own website. Create a blog if you are a writer to display your written content. Today there’s so much junk in the content world, and it takes so much time to find “diamonds in the rough”. Make it easy on the hiring company, and put together an organized professional digital portfolio.

reCareered: Why would media companies hire hobbyists without real world experience?
Jackie Bassett: It’s like the early days of Web Development. There were so few people who could build web sites and program HTML, companies would hire hobbyists. In today’s digital media world, some of the best talent out there is amateur talent, because it’s still emerging and few people have these work experiences.

reCareered: Isn’t it pretty risky for someone with a stable Network Admin career to jump in to the new world of new media?
Jackie Bassett: Sure it’s a risk, but it’s a good risk. If a hobbyist has good skills, and is passionate about their content, their pay will likely be comparable or close, and they’ll be doing what they love! There will be increasing needs for content, and long term career success, plus the benefit of doing what they like to do.

reCareered: Can you give an unusual example of how companies are hiring media hobbyists?
Jackie Bassett: Sure…Best Buy is an interesting example. They hire unemployed tech workers, and repurpose them to be media experts. Best Buy has vendor trainers train the floor sales force to use camera, video products, editing software, digital instruments. That way the sales staff develops expertise, and can demonstrate cool things products can do…for the buying public. They can also be resident experts in the store, not just to sell merchandise. Best Buy wants their sales staff to give you advice to better use products they’ve already sold, so you’ll come into the store to ask questions. When was the last time you left a Best Buy without buying something – at least a CD or DVD?

Jackie, thanks for your insights into the fast growing market for digital media talent. Jackie Bassett is the founder & CEO of BT Industrials, Inc. BT Industrials’ focus is on turning problems into profits. As a strategic management and technology consulting firm, they provide collaborative management consulting services to create value innovation. Jackie is also the author of two books “So You Built It and They Didn't Come. Now What?” and “A Seat at the Table for CEOs and CSOs: Driving Profits, Corporate Performance & Business Agility” .

If you’d like more information, a free 30 minute resume consultation, or some advice about your career transition, just email your resume to reCareered at phil.rainmakers@gmail.com, and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Achieve Enlightenment Through Networking Karma

Do you want to build a network that works for you? Who wouldn’t?

In past articles, I’ve talked about mass network strategies, about how to build a large database of names through social networks. But I’ve also said that I use a dual approach of large and small networks. In addition to spending time building a network of size, I work with a subset to build a network of quality.

These are my go-to people, people who will gladly introduce me or help me if I need to ask. No there aren’t 10M of them. But every one of them has a commonality. I’ve helped this group first.

I call this Networking Karma, and it works beautifully in face to face networking, as well as online networking. There’s nothing that turns a loose connection into someone willing to spend time, effort, energy, and reputation to help you faster than Networking Karma.

Many readers of this blog were people I met face to face at networking events, who experienced Networking Karma first hand. When I meet someone at a networking event, and am asked what I do, I often answer “I help people for a living”. This nearly always get a response like “Sure…what do you really do?”. That gives me the opportunity to reply “Why not tell me what you do, and I’ll show you how I might help you?”

This exchange does a few things…First, I truly am at networking events to find people I can help – not find clients (sure, I’ve found a few this way). I look to help people connect to others, to refer someone, to help others get to the contacts and resources they need to thrive. If I’m given the opportunity to help someone, it’s rarely forgotten, and I’ve just made a new friend.

This exchange also helps me to listen. I’m best able to listen when I turn the conversation to the other person, inviting them to talk about themselves, their business, their job, and their goals and challenges. I find that after I’ve heard another persons’ story, I’m often able to ask them about what they’ve left out (sometimes it’s their goals, their challenges, or to describe two people they’d really like to meet in the next 30-60 days).

At the end of this exchange, after the other person has had plenty of time to describe themselves, I suggest how I might help them, and add that my hobby is Career Coaching, and authoring this blog. If the other person asks who they might help me, I suggest they refer people considering job change to my blog. It’s free, it gives innovative job search information, and there’s no pressure to buy anything.

A job seeker can make this effective also. Go to networking events with a different goal in mind than looking for a job. If you recall my earlier article Would You Stop Looking For A Job Already?, I wrote how job seekers are more effective if they stop searching for a job, and start searching for problems to solve. Networking works the same way. If you search for problems you can solve at networking events, you do more than collect cards, you build a fan base.

And when you ask how you can help someone, you are searching for problems you can solve, even if your solution is referring someone to solve that problem. This type of referral not only wins you fans, but instantly builds your trustworthiness in the eyes of others. Try it at your next networking event, and see how it works.

But how can you make this work for online networking? When I send an initial email to someone I wish to connect with, I ask “How can I connect you to people you’d like to reach?” My profile on LinkedIN and Facebook starts with “I’m a professional at helping. How can I help you?”, long before I describe my business. Why do I start this way? Because I’m looking for people to help.

Along the way, sometimes through people kind enough to refer me or point a career changer to this blog, the right clients find me. These are job seekers who believe in the job search strategies that I teach, and who want help. I don’t want thousands of clients, because reCareered is set up to work personally with the clients I serve. I want to work with fans.

As a career changer, how can you adopt Networking Karma to your job search? Same way…build a fan base, by helping people, connecting people, referring people. Don’t be surprised if good things start to happen. Not overnight, but how often does the perfect job materialize overnight? Now along the way, make sure your fans know you’re in career transition, and have seen your online profiles, ResuBlog, and online portfolio. I do this through my email signature block, and by referencing my online presence on LinkedIN, Facebook, and this Blog.

In future articles, I’ll feature interviews with experts in Networking Karma, to give you their take on how to best use networking to accelerate your job search.

Thanks for reading…..How can I help you today?

If you’d like more information, a free 30 minute resume consultation, or some advice about your career transition, just email your resume to reCareered at phil.rainmakers@gmail.com, and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Who Else Wants To Add More Facebook Friends?

One of the limiting factors of Facebook is that you only get one degree of separation, while LinkedIN gives you 3 degrees of Kevin Bacon.

Here’s why that matters….I have almost 3K first level connections on LinkedIN, which gives me access to 10M members. On Facebook, I have over 1K first level connections, and that‘s all I can connect to.

Facebook has 2 applications that can help you: More Friends and People You May Know. Both applications attack the same issue from different approaches: Connecting to the friends of your friends efficiently.

Sure you could go through your friends lists, and invite people you know (or don’t know) to grow your network, but that takes a lot of time. Both applications suggest people who are friended by many of your friends. This means that the person is likely to have a lot in common with you, or be an open networker who accepts all friend invitations.

Using these tools also avoids the spam problem. Going through your friends’ list of friends and emailing them also looks like spam to the Facebook spam police, and will likely get you a nasty email warning saying Facebook will explode your PC if you continue (or kick you out of Facebook). Instead, sending invitations through either of these applications generates a default email that tells the receiver that you’ve got like a gazillion friends in common, and don’t you think we should connect?

More Friends: More Friends is an application that you need to add to Facebook. In order for More Friends to work, your Facebook friends have to have installed it also. This can be through your invitation, or you’ll probably see many friends have already added the application. After you add the application, More Friends searches your database, and the databases of all your friends who have added the application….and lists common connections, ranked by the number of common friends. I find people regularly that I share over 100 Facebook friends in common. I like that More Friends also lists location for most members, so I can add US based friends.

The real upside to More Friends is that many are open networkers, who are also looking to build large databases. This means that few will view your friend request as intrusive, and most will have large networks – giving you access to still more people through More Friends. In addition, the greater number of friends you have using More Friends, the greater number of common connections you will show with others. I get personally get a dozen or two inbound friend requests from people who want to add me to their databases.

More Friends does a great job by ranking the number of connections you have in common, but it has a downside. More Friends is useless unless you have friends in your network that have also installed it. You might have to invite some people to add the application, and some people consider this junk mail. You’ll also get a couple of Facebook spams, but it’s nothing like your junk mail folder.

People You May Know: This tool was recently added a few places within Facebook. It’s not an application, it’s part of Facebook, which means you don’t have to add it – it’s already there. People You May Know also suggests you might know others through common employers and education. You’ll see People You May Know on your home page (Right hand column), Find Friends, and also as News Feed stories. You can deselect, if you don’t wish to contact someone, and Facebook takes this feedback to make better future recommendations.

An interesting feature of People You May Know is the ability to not just friend people, but to refer them to other of your friends. Perhaps this is because you know that all of you were friends from work, or because you felt that person’s background was interesting. For instance, if you have a friend that’s looking for a job, you can suggest that I friend them. That will give them Facebook notifications when I post new articles to my blog (don’t worry…just like I don’t spam you, I won’t spam your friends either).

Will you find More Friends and more People You May Know to help your job search networking efforts? Please let me know about your experiences, and what works well (and not so well) for you on Facebook.

If you’d like more information, a free 30 minute resume consultation, or some advice about your career transition, just email your resume to reCareered at phil.rainmakers@gmail.com, and we'll schedule a time to talk.

The Secret To Getting Simply Hired

This is the job board that most recruiters won’t recommend. It’s THAT good.

SimplyHired is also the job board that both LinkedIN and Facebook link to. It’s THAT good.

Peter Weedle, who does an annual survey of the top job boards, not only listed it as one of the top general purpose job boards, but in an interview, described participant comments like "SimplyHired is hands-down by far the best job board on the Web.”

SimplyHired’s mission is to be the biggest job board on the planet. Even though SimplyHired started behind CareerBuilder and Monster, they’ve leapfrogged to be one of the top job sites on the net, listing over 5M jobs. SimplyHired does this by crawling and gaining submissions from thousands of other job boards and corporate websites…so SimplyHired is the aggregator of aggregators. SimplyHired not only crawls the majors, but it gives promotion to companies and smaller boards, by taking their feeds and listing their jobs.

These guys have a sense of humor. Let’s face it, most people would rather do their taxes than search for a new job. SimplyHired realizes this and tries to make the process a little less painful, by making a very easy to use interface. SimplyHired claims they build “…solutions that make sense to your mom, your uncle, your teenager, and even your dog…” Wow - smart doggie!

In addition to a single source for jobs, SimplyHired also offers some of the best job tools on the planet. SimplyHired interfaces with LinkedIN as its first API, allowing you to see if your old drinking buddy from your first job 20 years ago might be your boss at the firm you’re targeting. You know how LinkedIN has a tool that allows you to superimpose your contacts (out to a 3^rd degree of Kevin Bacon) over CareerBuilder and Monster ads…they expanded this to SimplyHired – and simply hired has many times more jobs listed than either of the other two. I used this tool and found the guy who first hired me from undergrad – who’s now the CFO of a fast growing, midsized public company.

You know when you click on the jobs tab of LinkedIN? Guess who’s job board they connect to? You guessed it…SimplyHired. Facebook connects to SimplyHired also.

Other Job Search 2.0 tools include candidate ratings of jobs. Imagine that! The job you think is your dream job is rated a dog by 95 other candidates. Maybe you’re more excited about the little start up given a high ranking by 6 people.

SimplyHired gives you lots of ways to slice and dice their job database. You can filter by Job Type, Education level, Experience Level, Company size, or ranking (Fortune 500, Working Mother 100, Forbes 100, Minority rankings, etc.).

SimplyHired has some brilliant add on functions, that give amazing market insight. EmploymentTrends allows you to graph the % of total jobs on SimplyHired by keyword combination over the past 6 months. Check out Ditch Your Crystal Ball for the detailed review of EmploymentTrends I did back in April.

SimplySalary allows you to compare your salary to averages of jobs listing the same keywords, with salary information provided by PayScale.com. You can use this in career planning to determine skills you want, or in salary negotiations to determine if your salary demands are in line with the market.

LocalJobs give local search tools that go beyond just job listings by city or zip. With LocalJobs, you can actually map where jobs are located on Google Maps. This great mashup tool is invaluable in helping job seekers figure out their commute, or how close a prospective job is to their house, daycare, or kids school. LocalJobs pulls information from Wikipedia and other sources to give economic and demographic information right there on your job board, so you don’t have to search Google only to find out that Cleveland is about the same size as Mesa AZ and ½ the size of Motown. LocalJobs lists the largest cities by population, but also Highest Job Growth (Myrtle Beach, SC), Lowest Unemployment Rate (Overland Park, KS), Highest Average Income (Pleasanton, CA), Lowest Average Home Cost (Youngstown, OH – less than a Lexus), Most Racially Diverse (Motown), and Shortest Average Commute (NOT Chicago…wait, it’s Wichita Falls, TX at 13 seconds – or is that minutes?). Now you’re not just searching for a job, you’re practicing for Trivial Pursuit!

SimplyHired gives company research tools, just like most major job boards. But they also have forums…discussion boards where job seekers can exchange information, experiences, hints, and even find ex (or current) employees of the target company.

Where else can you find all this plus over 5M jobs all in one place? Try SimplyHired and compare it to your current search boards, and see how you supercharge your job search.

If you’d like more information, a free 30 minute resume consultation, or some advice about your career transition, just email your resume to reCareered at phil.rainmakers@gmail.com, and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Do you Recognize These Early Warning Signs of an Egocentric Resume?

Do you have an Egocentric Resume? What’s an Egocentric resume, you ask?

Egocentrism – defined by Wikipedia as a) the incomplete differentiation of the self and the world, including other people and b) the tendency to perceive, understand and interpret the world in terms of the self. The term derives from the Greek ego, meaning "I". An egocentric person has no theory of mind, cannot "put himself in other people's shoes," and believes everyone sees what he sees (or that what he sees in some way exceeds what others see.)

So based on Wikipedia’s definition, an Egocentric Resume is a resume you’ve written for yourself as the audience. It makes you feel good. It should – you’ve written an autobiography and probably summed it up in a page or two.

Egocentric Resumes take different forms. Some give vast amounts of detail about management or projects that the writer was most proud of. Others are understated, stating “just the facts, m’aam.” Still others are full of puffery and overly self promoting, but often about accomplishments that are less important to hiring managers.

There’s one major problem with Egocentric Resumes … they usually don’t cover what interests the audience.

For example, I recently helped a friend with her resume. This woman is brilliant and engaging, a part time freelance writer published in major magazines, who spent much of her career as a restaurant manager. She egocentrically described how she managed, hired and trained staff. After hours of dragging information out of her with a pair of pliers (ok, I’m exaggerating a little), I discovered many amazing things she had achieved. While the manager of a single location, she developed and implemented a new revenue channel program for her major national restaurant chain that increased their annual corporate revenues by 20%!

Now she wants to apply her skills and recent education in health fields. Regardless of the industry or job she’s applying for, don’t you think increasing national revenues by 20% would interest employers, giving her an edge to overcome real-world health experience? But because she didn’t think it was rocket science, she left it off her resume. This is just one example of individual brilliance, left off client resumes because the accomplishment didn’t fit the candidate’s self perception, regardless of how incredible the achievement was.

Imagine that! You’ve spent many hours finely crafting your resume, getting 10 different and conflicting comments from 10 different people, had it proofed 3 times … and then you wake up and realize it’s written to stroke your own ego, and misses the information that’s relevant to hiring managers.

Congratulations! If you’ve actually realized this, you’re ahead of the game. Most job seekers don’t recognize their own ego, and remain frustrated with today’s changed hiring system. Others accept underemployment, largely due to a resume that doesn’t adequately communicate their skills.

Ok, ok, I admit it! I’ve got an Egocentric Resume. Stop twisting the knife and HELP ME!! Now what do I do?

Glad you asked…you’ll probably want the opposite of an Egocentric Resume, one that is written for the perspective of your resume’s 4 audiences. Let’s call it an Altruistic Resume, the anti-Egocentric Resume. Since I’ve already covered writing for these audiences in depth, I’ll summarize, and give references to the detail. As a bonus, I’ll give detail on writing for Hiring Managers, and give still greater detail via link.

Audience #1 – Make your resume database friendly through Resume Search Optimization. Write your resume like it’s a web page to be found by a Google search. This means writing an infinitely modifiable, one time use resume. For more details, see Search Engine Optimize your Resume.

Audience #2 – Make your resume stand out to HR in just 15 seconds, because that’s all you get on average. Learn how to effectively use Resume Real Estate, club the reviewer over the head with your relevant skills, and grab the HR reviewer by the collar so you go in the interview pile, all in 15 seconds.

Audience #3 – Hiring Managers want subject matter experts, not generalists. The best way to demonstrate subject matter expertise is to show you’ve already solved the company’s (or department’s or hiring manager’s) problems in past jobs. Show you’ve Created Employer Value. How can you show that? Research and network to gain insight into that area’s problems and opportunities. Once you can guess at problems and opportunities, show your achievements, and how you’ve accomplished them (hint…pick achievements that demonstrate you solving your target company’s problems). Make it active and numeric…I saved X% by doing Y. I increased sales by X% by doing Y. Using verbs like Managed, Collaborated, Participated in, shows that others achieved, not you. Make your resume altruistic, and give your reader what they want….results.

Audience #4 – To appeal to the Hiring Manager’s boss & peers, network into the company through informational interviews to gain an understanding of communication style, culture, and what’s important to peers and managers. Incorporate this in your writing style.

My recruiter friends claim there’s a 5th Audience….of course, Recruiters. And I guess they’re right. Recruiters are somewhere between Audience #2 & #3, depending on experience. Great recruiters understand their clients, their culture, and the hard and soft skills they are looking for. Recruiters who can think like the hiring manager are like Audience #3. Less experienced recruiters are more like the HR screeners of Audience #2.

So will you look at your resume from the readers’ point of view and make yours an Altruistic Resume?

If you’d like more information, a free 30 minute resume consultation, or some advice about your career transition, just email your resume to reCareered at phil.rainmakers@gmail.com, and we'll schedule a time to talk.

See How Easily You can Master Non-Verbal Interviewing

In Interview in a Snap, I discussed research that found that hiring decisions are made within the first 30 seconds of an interview…perhaps as short as just 2 seconds. The rest of the interview just served to justify the hiring manager’s initial impression.

Was that shocking to anyone else?

That led me to wonder, how can a candidate influence the first few seconds of an interview, and quickly become the favored candidate?

So I talked to a few experts in workplace Non-Verbal Communications, who gave some fascinating comments about how to make an instant connection upon walking into a room, and passing the 2 second interview test with flying colors.

Mike Murray, Author of Forget the Parachute, Let Me Fly the Plane stated that “Most hiring managers don’t understand how they hire, because we have no concept of our own bias. Humans have a fundamental attribution error…we often don’t understand what motivates us to an action.”

What Mike is describing, the rest of us call “Gut Feel”, and it’s all established based on Non-Verbal Communications. While we don’t always understand what motivates our “Gut Feel”, we usually follow it.

Based on research, you only get between 2-30 seconds to form those “Gut Feel” impressions with the interviewer. So how can a job seeker establish rapport with a hiring manager in the first 2-30 seconds? It’s all about mastering Non-Verbal Communications, which establishes trust, likability, & rapport almost instantaneously.

So what can you do in the first 2 seconds to instantly Non-Verbally Communicate that you’re the best person for the job?

Karen Rothstein, Non-Verbal communications coach with Transformation by Design, suggested “The biggest thing you can do within the first few seconds is to adopt a Physiology of Confidence”. Karen suggests the best way to exude confidence is through preparation. Karen advised “ Visualize a time when you were at the top of your game, and remember how that felt. Practice that feeling, and then visualize that time just before you go into the front door of your target company.” Feel confident, and you’ll be confident.

What can you do in the first 15 seconds to slay the interview?

Mike Murray has additional ideas. Mike suggested “Most hiring managers want to hire someone like themselves. The first thing you can do is to look like you already work at your target company. Dress like them. Do some research and ask other employees about the company. Look at the brochures, press releases and website. How do people dress? What are the employees like?”

Mike even recommended reconnaissance - by going to the lunch place closest to your target company, and watch people who come in. Strike up a conversation if you can, or just watch, paying attention to how people talk and what they are wearing. The closest bar for happy hour may work also, or just stopping into the office at the reception area – just notice the first few employees that are in the lobby.

So after you’ve done your reconnaissance or pre-networking (think LinkedIN and/or Facebook) to ask about the culture and office attire, you’re prepared to look like you’re already an employee. This goes a long way to establishing rapport, by blending in and causing the hiring manager to think “Wow, this person already looks like they work here”.

What can you do in the first 30 seconds to own the interview?

Mike then suggests “After you’ve established rapport, build upon it with mirroring. Keep your energy level comparable to the interviewer. Adopt similar posture, gestures, and tone. Even breathe at the same pace, by watching how their shoulders rise and fall, and copying their breathing pattern.”

If you really want to ace the interview, do some research on the hiring manager, to find out what they are like. I’ll do a later article on that topic, as it’s more involved.

Finally, eye contact is critical. Keeping eye contact when you first approach an interviewer and shake hands gives non-verbal cues of confidence and trustworthiness. Keeping eye contact when you are being asked questions gives non-verbal cues of listening skills. And finally, keeping eye contact while answering reinforces the answer, builds rapport, and reinforces trust.

But also evaluate the company’s Non-Verbal Communications to see if you want to work for the company or hiring manager. How the company communicates to you non-verbally will help you make a good choice of companies and opportunities.

Keep in mind that your goal is to:
1) Find a problem that you are uniquely qualified to solve
2) Make sure that you WANT to solve problems for this company

If you’d like more information, a free 30 minute resume consultation, or some advice about your career transition, just email your resume to reCareered at phil.rainmakers@gmail.com, and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Stop Writing Cover Letters and You’ll Get MORE Interviews

Most people’s first response is….Huh? That’s right, if you stop writing cover letters, you’ll get more interviews.

Most people have been taught paper-based resume strategies, that encourage writing a static resume and customizing with a cover letter. But this strategy doesn’t work in today’s world of digital resumes.

I know it’s counterintuitive, and goes against everything you were taught, but it’s true. I’ll prove it to you with one sentence.

EMPLOYERS DON’T INCLUDE COVER LETTERS IN THEIR SEARCH.

Employers strip cover letters, before adding resumes to their database. So when a company searches for key words, or does word matches to find the best resume, they have already digitally thrown out your cover letter.

Still a fan of cover letters? Read on….

Employers realized just after 9/11 that they could find many micro-targeted resumes by loading resumes into their own HR database, and key-word searching. By doing this, they could get 20-30 very close matches, and not have to read through the other thousand resumes who may or may not be qualified.

Employers set up systems to reward candidates who customize their resume to fit the exact words in the job description they post. And employers required line managers to scan ALL resumes through HR databases, in order to accumulate EEOC statistics. In public companies, these procedures have become part of SOX and it’s audited, with negative repercussions for those who cut corners.

While networking to find a job can help, it still doesn’t keep you out of the HR database, nor change the fact that cover letters aren’t an effective way to customize your resume. If you’re applying to a really small company, or the hiring manager is your next door neighbor, you might skate by.

Sometimes a cover letter is required by the employer. In that case, make your cover letter basic and static. Put all the meat and customization in your resume, because that’s what will sell you and get searched.

What if the company asks you to tell why you’re perfect for that job in the cover letter? Just say no….don’t do it. Instead, tell the employer why you’re perfect in the resume, by demonstrating how you’ve already solved the problems that department faces today.

If companies digitally search for experience details within your resume, and expect your resume to show why you’re a perfect fit…..

…Why are you wasting all that time on cover letters, when you could be customizing your resume?

If you’d like more information, a free 30 minute resume consultation, or some advice about your career transition, just email your resume to reCareered at phil.rainmakers@gmail.com, and we'll schedule a time to talk.

You Don’t Have to be Shakespeare to Write a ResuBlog

First, what in the world is a ResuBlog? And why would I need one? No one else does?

It’s just what it sounds like – a mashup of a Resume and Blog. That’s exactly why you need one, because few others use ResuBlogs.

Need a reason to start a ResuBlog?…here’s 5:

1. Google Rankings – Good blogs can get the author ranked page 1 of Google. Want proof? Search for my name on Google & Yahoo. Blogs and social networks in combination got me 5 first page listings.
2. Subject Matter Expertise – The single fastest way to promote your subject matter expertise is to write about it. Tell your war stories.
3. Networking – Blogging makes you the expert. People seek the advice of experts. And other bloggers are big online networkers.
4. Conversation – A blog isn’t just your pulpit, it’s a conversation. Employers can reach you through your blog, and have a reason to comment. Companies have a reason to tell you about their problems. Wait a second…Aren’t you looking for problems that you’re uniquely qualified to solve?
5. Differentiation – So few job seekers blog, it makes you stand out – when everyone else sends out a personal biography, you’re describing industry expert solutions to business problems.

So how do you Resublog?

It’s so easy, you don’t even need a website. The two leading blog providers Blogger & Wordpress can host for you. You don’t have to know a thing about programming, as Blogger & Wordpress make it pretty automated for you (Blogger is easier). Or if you want to heavily personalize, Blogs give you a chance to show off your design and programming skills.

Pick a blog name that reflects your expertise. Calling your blog “Billy Bob’s Blognation” might sound cool to you, but it won’t give your readers a clue about your content.

But I’m not a writer, how am I going to blog?

No worries…there’s so much content already on the web, you can be a publisher instead. A publisher takes other author’s content, and makes their own collection of articles on their own blog. If you want to get fancy, put comments before the articles, to review them. Even if you don’t write original content, as a blog publisher, it makes you an expert on the blog’s content. Just make sure you ask permission first, then give credit to the original author and blog, or copy the links into your blog article. Not all blog authors wish to have their content republished, so ask first.

Be specific – think long tail

Don’t write about the trials and tribulations of being a controller. As gripping as the stories about reconciling accounts might be, it’s tough to stand out. Instead, write about cost saving efforts in your industry. Don’t just tell your war stories…interview your peers and tell THEIR stories. Interview your peers’ bosses and tell their stories.

Wait a second….when you’re interviewing your peer’s boss, you’ll want to send that CFO a link to your ResuBlog (that contains your digital RESUME), so they’ll see who’s interviewing them. Encourage them to tell their friends! That gets you more readers, more content, and more people seeing your resume in your ResuBlog!

Have an opinion – Take a stand

A blog’s no time to be shy…you’re the boss of your own blog. Take a stand, have a strong opinion. What if people disagree? Let them….having a healthy dialogue and even disagreement on a blog can be very entertaining for your readers.

Don’t forget - Attach your Subject Matter Expert Resume! Back up your subject matter expertise with your experience.

Let’s review:

You can stand out from the competition, get listed front page of Google, you have an excuse to interview hiring managers and discover their challenges, and get your ResuBlog in front of many hiring managers…and you don’t have to write If you aren’t comfortable being an author.

What are you waiting for??

If you’d like more information, a free 30 minute resume consultation, or some advice about your career transition, just email your resume to reCareered at phil.rainmakers@gmail.com, and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Who needs Generalists Anymore?

Seth Godin, one of the marketing geniuses of our time, had a brilliant post yesterday, “We Specialize in Everything”. Seth recognizes that when we can easily find the best, we want the best.

So what does this mean for job seekers? It means Subject Matter Experts Rule!

So why did this change? Remember, back in the day, when employers wanted generalists? Well rounded employees that could adapt to anything?

From 2000-2001, a “perfect storm” of events all combined to change employer demands for subject matter expertise. Consider this…during that time period, all of the following happened:

- The majority of resumes were delivered online
- CareerBuilder, Monster dramatically increased membership of job seekers
- Numerous other job boards grew in popularity
- The majority of company web sites now housed expanded Career sections. The majority of large and mid-sized companies were listing all of their jobs on their websites.
- Advertised jobs were now drawing hundreds, in some cases thousands, of resumes for each position
- Proliferation of inexpensive home internet connections
- Reasonably priced Human Resource Information Systems were implemented to manage the flood of resumes companies were receiving electronically
- Hiring of consultants for small projects became widely popularized, as timely project completion became mission critical
- Companies were careful not to add headcount during a recession.
- The distinction between employees and contractors became blurred as more subject matter experts chose to work as independent consultants
- Subject matter experts were suddenly available due to a recession

This perfect storm of events allowed Hiring Managers to micro-target multiple criteria in job searches, allowing them to search for subject matter expertise. And since a post 9/11 recession was underway, there was a great deal of specialized talent available.

So why did Hiring Managers begin to favor subject matter experts? Because they could.

And Hiring Managers over the past 7 years now have gotten used to and expect Subject Matter Expertise.

But strangely enough, most job seekers haven’t gotten used to living in a Subject Matter Expert world. Most still describe themselves as generalists, and write resumes to look like they can do all things for all people.

But as Seth comments …“When choice is limited, I want a generalist. When selection is difficult, a jack of all trades is just fine. But whenever possible, please bring me a brilliant specialist.”

Bet Seth in the end, why did you cave? You added a PS the next day, stroking the generalists in your audience who complained, and gave the irrelevant reference that Leonardo was a generalist. That was in the 15th Century, where Leonardo was considered a Subject Matter Expert, the best in the world….just in many things. Then again, people like Leonardo daVinci just don’t come around every day, and in today’s world, could you afford Leonardo’s salary or hourly rate?

So which do you want to be today…a generalist, or a specialist?

If you'd like a free 30 minute resume consultation, or some advice your career transition, just email your resume to me at phil.rainmakers@gmail.com, and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Trackback: http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/2123/29027232

Top 30 Job Boards

Weedles.com, a publishing firm and consultant for headhunters, published the results of its survey, the User’s Choice Awards. Job seekers and recruiters voted for their favorite job sites, and the results are in for 2008.

Peter Weddle, publisher of the survey, commented about some of the responses. Remarks range from the “unprintable” to responses like "SimplyHired is hands-down by far the best job board on the Web." The User’s Choice Awards are "the only recognition in the $6 billion-a-year global online recruitment industry where actual users - job hunters, employers, and recruiters - get to pick the winners."

The biggest surprise about the survey is the sheer number of job boards in existence. 50,000 boards. WOW!

It’s interesting to note that the majority of winners were niche sites, that focus on a profession, industry, or geographic region. Weedle suggests that a job seeker use up to 5 job boards, including 2 general sites, and 3 niche job boards in their search strategy.

In order to make it easier to manage searches at 5 job boards, set up search criteria, and have each board mail you daily matches. That way, you can have an easier time short listing which positions you’ll apply for, and spend more time on your network and your research.

So here’s what you’re waiting for…the Top 30 Job Boards:

General Sites:

CareerBuilder.com
CareerJournal.com
Craigslist.com
Indeed.com
Job.com
Monster.com
SimplyHired.com
Workopolis.com (Canadian)
HotJobs.com

Niche Sites:

Profession:

CareerBank.com (Accounting & Finance)
ComputerJobs.com
Dice.com (IT)
HEALTHeCAREERS.com
JobsInLogistics.com

Industry:

AbsolutelyHealthcare (HealthJobsUSA.com)
AllHealthcareJobs.com
BioSpace.com
hCareers.com (Hotel, Hospitality)
HealthCareerWeb.com (Healthcare Jobs and Social Network)

Regional:

JobCircle.com (Mid-Atlantic)
Jobing.com

Demographic:

CollegeRecruiter.com (Recent college grads)
LatPro.com (Hispanic & bilingual)
VetJobs.com (Veterans)

Career-Level:

EmploymentGuide.com (Hourly)
ExecuNet.com (Senior Level Executive)
The Ladders.com (Senior Level Executive)
Net-Temps.com (Contract, Temp)
6FigureJobs.com (Senior Level Executive)
SnagAJob.com (Hourly)

Weedle’s newsletter states “Given this critical role, it's important to remember that job boards are barely more than ten years old. A decade ago, there was a Monster Board, the Online Career Center, CareerMosaic.com and a handful of smaller sites. That's it. Today, there are more than 50,000 job boards operating in the U.S. alone and an equal number offering their services elsewhere around the world. Which begs the question, ‘How can you determine which sites will best help you achieve your employment objective?’

…Are there other great job boards out there? Absolutely. The winners, however, have generated enough enthusiasm among their users that those individuals are willing to take the time out of their busy day to visit the WEDDLE's site and cast a ballot for them. As with the voting for Major League Baseball's All Star teams, it's not a scientific process, but it is definitely a measure of the intensity of support that sites have been able to generate among their users.”

What’s your favorite job board?

If you’d like more information, a free 30 minute resume consultation, or some advice about your career transition, just email your resume to reCareered at phil.rainmakers@gmail.com, and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Reading the Hiring Manager Mind – Kelly Royer of Northwestern Mutual

Today’s Reading the Hiring Manager Mind features Kelly Royer, Director of Recruiting and Development for Northwestern Mutual Financial Network. Kelly oversees Recruitment & Development for full time Financial Representatives and College Financial Representative in NML’s Intern program.

Northwestern Mutual was ranked the #1 service company to sell for in the 11/07 Selling Power survey, the Most admired Life Insurance Company each year since 1983 in Fortune Magazine’s annual survey, and ranked in America’s Top Ten Internships each year since 1997 in Value Guide to Internships annual ranking.

reCareered: Kelly, thanks for joining us today. How is NML’s business these days? Are you hiring?
Kelly Royer: We’re going strong, but our growth depends on increased hiring.

reCareered: What is your best source for candidates?
Kelly Royer: The way that NML recruits is different than most. I talk to hubs, or centers of influence, who refer me to great people. Referrals are our #1 source of talent.

reCareered: What is the profile of people you hire for NML?
Kelly Royer: We generally look for early-mid career professionals who want to get into sales. We typically don’t look for new grads, and want people who will be able work long enough to take advantage of the annuity cash flows they build from client renewals. However, we do hire current college students for an internship program.

reCareered: Can you elaborate?
Kelly Royer: We look for Accountants, Financial Service Operations, Engineers, Health Care, Customer Service, etc. A good candidate for us is someone who always wanted to get into sales, but weren’t able to get past political boundaries in their past career.

reCareered: What types of skills do you look for in candidates?
Kelly Royer: I look for people who 1) quickly build trust - I mean, if I’m going to invest money with someone, I need to trust them; 2) have great communications skills; 3) can demonstrate at least one accomplishment; 4) are entrepreneurial and ambitious; 5) are likeable – Can I go to dinner or have a beer with this person?

reCareered: What types of networking events have you found helpful in recruiting?
Kelly Royer: I’ve only tried the Chamber of Commerce events, with mixed results.

reCareered: Have you seen many people from the Real Estate or Mortgage industry these days?
Kelly Royer: We saw mortgage people, until rates dropped again. We continuously see people with Real Estate backgrounds. We see a lot of Financial Services people in analytical roles who want to make the move to sales.

reCareered: How about people moving into the Chicago area?
Kelly Royer: We concentrate on people who have already built a strong network in the Chicago metro area.

reCareered: What sorts of questions do you ask to determine if a candidate is the right fit for NML?
Kelly Royer: I’ll ask what a candidate’s goals & priorities are. If a candidate isn’t money motivated, they aren’t going to be a good fit for our sales culture. I’m interested when a candidate tells me they want to make 6 figures minimum. I’ll also want to know what outside activities they participate in, to gain insight into how well rounded and well networked they are.

reCareered: What are some deal killers for you with candidates?
Kelly Royer: I look for inconsistencies in answers – are they saying the same thing, or changing their tune? I also look at how they describe their former (or current) employers – Do they blame past employers or take personal responsibility? If a candidate bad mouths a past employer, what will they say about NML?

reCareered: Kelly, how often do you receive paper or fax resumes?
Kelly Royer: I don’t know that I’ve ever gotten a paper or faxed resume. These days, everything comes in via email, from our website, or the job boards.

reCareered: How much time do you spend reviewing a resume?
Kelly Royer: Just a few seconds before the interview. I review the resume to get an idea of some questions I can ask. I’m more interested in how a candidate describes their experience rather than the detail of their experience.

reCareered: Do you look at a candidate’s cover letter?
Kelly Royer: No…I’m getting my questions and insight from the resume

Kelly, thanks for letting us read your mind today. If budding salespeople want to learn more about working for a company ranked Best to Sell for, email your resume to Kelly at kelly.royer@nmfn.com. Better yet, network your way to her through LinkedIN.

About Kelly Royer: As Director of Recruiting and Development for Northwestern Mutual Financial Network, Kelly oversees Recruitment & Development for full time Financial Representatives, and NML’s Intern program. Find out more at www.nmfn.com.

About reCareered: If you’d like more information, a free 30 minute resume consultation, or some advice about your career transition, just email your resume to reCareered at phil.rainmakers@gmail.com, and we'll schedule a time to talk.

The Best Job Search Tools on LinkedIN

One of the less promoted features of Linkedin is their job search tools.

While LinkedIN heavily promotes its ability to connect you to friends of friends of friends, it also features some tremendously powerful job search tools. I’ll discuss some of the best today.

LinkedIN JobsInsider: LinkedIN JobsInsider is jaw dropping. Amazing. It downloads into your IE or Firefox browser, and is a brilliant use of technology mashups.

After you download – and then go on to some of the top 7 job boards, pull up a job. LinkedIN JobsInsider will overlay contacts from your LinkedIN network who work at that company. So you can contact people for informational interviews, to find out more about the employer, and network your way to the hiring manager….and bypass HR.

Are you saying WOW yet? I did when I first used it.

Find the link at the bottom of your LinkedIN home page, listed under Tools. You’ll be sent to a download page, that gives you instructions to load the LinkedIN JobsInsider widget into your browser. It will appear up near the toolbar after installation.

After you’re loaded up, use LinkedIN Jobsinsider with: CareerBuilder, Monster, Hotjobs, Dice, CraigsList, SimplyHired, and Vault. LinkedIN is building support for many other job sites to be released going forward.

Whenever you view a job listing on a known job site, the JobsInsider opens up in a side pane in your browser. In the JobsInsider, you will automatically see your inside connections to the company whose job you are looking at. These inside connections can help you get hired for the job through informational interviews or by introducing you directly to the hiring manager.

Jobs Tab: At the top of any LinkedIN page, you see a Jobs Tab. By clicking it, you’ll have access to simple and advanced search tools that connect to SimplyHired, a job board aggregator.

SimplyHired is a job board aggregator, which crawls thousands of other job boards, aggregates listings. SimplyHired claims they have the most jobs on the planet (I believe them). You’ll get a very broad view of job postings from the major boards, Craigslist, and many niche boards.

Not only does SimplyHired crawl the net for new job boards, it encourages job boards to submit feeds, to list new jobs on smaller sites quickly. SimplyHired pulls jobs from job boards, company pages, online classifieds and other data sources.

SimplyHired has partnered with both LinkedIN and Facebook to integrate job search with online networking. For instance, clicking "Who do I know?" will instantly reveal whether your old cube-mate back at that awful job you used to have is now the hiring manager for the job you want. In a broader sense, it works in a similar way to the LinkedIN Jobsinsider feature, but it's even easier to use.

Watch for a more in depth review of SimplyHired coming soon.

LinkedIN Advanced Search: Click People on the top LinkedIN tab, and use the Advanced search features to find hiring managers with specific titles, specific companies, industries, geography, or skill sets.

Let’s say you’re a Controller in Boston looking for work – you probably want to talk to CFOs and VPs of Finance. Search for the key words CFO and segment by only listing contacts that are close to Boston.

Maybe you’re a Java developer in Minneapolis. You probably want to see which other companies are Java shops, and maybe find some Project Managers or Directors of Application Development. Search for Java and segment by searching close to Minneapolis. Take your list of Java shops as your Target company list.

Maybe you’re a Manufacturing Manager for an Auto OEM, and you’re open to move. Search for OEM, under the industry dropdown Automotive, and see what companies appear. Then individually search those companies one by one to see who is likely to be close to your prospective hiring manager.

With a reasonably sized database and LinkedIN Advanced search, you can find Kevin Bacon or Elvis.

What innovative ways have you found to use LinkedIN in your job search?

If you’d like more information, a free 30 minute resume consultation, or some advice about your career transition, just email your resume to reCareered at phil.rainmakers@gmail.com, and we'll schedule a time to talk.

The Definition of Insanity

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”….Albert Einstein

I speak to frustrated job seekers every day, people who have been looking for a career change for a while. Sometimes a month…sometimes over a year.

In particular, older workers blame a broken system and age bias. I agree…the hiring process in most companies is dysfunctional. There is age bias. It’s unfair.

But this broken system can give the smart job seeker an unfair advantage. Would you like to know how to exploit the cracks?

I’m surprised that most don’t. Many job seekers want to stay in their comfort zone of what they were taught many years ago, and what worked earlier in their careers - before electronic resumes and CareerBuilder…back when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Not only do many job seekers do the same thing over and over, expecting different results….when the going gets tough, they do MORE of the same thing, expecting different results.

These are some examples of insanity that continue to be used by many job seekers.

- Expecting a recruiter will do their job search for them
- Believing that your network will provide value to you, even if you aren't continuing to provide value to them
- Confusing a headhunter with a coach
- Continuing a job search strategy based on paper resumes
- Writing a one page, or even a two page resume
- Forgetting to describe how you've already solved a key problem your target company currently has
- Using your resume for more than a single job application
- Customizing cover letters, when they aren’t included in database searches
- Use LinkedIN to talk to someone about their company, then turn it into an ambush interview
- Forgetting that your resume is just one more email in the hundreds your network contacts get each day
- Go to local Chamber of Commerce networking events, but looking for a Fortune 500 job
- Poor use of Resume Real Estate
- Not describing on your resume why a hiring manager should consider you over thousands of competitors
- Writing your resume as an autobiography
- Placing too much reliance on your network
- Describing about what you managed instead of what you accomplished
- Mailing or faxing a paper resume
- Defining yourself as a generalist
- Blaming the system, instead of changing your tactics to beat the system
- Applying for more than 20 jobs per week
- Junk mailing or email spamming your resume to thousands of recipients
- Forgetting that your voice mail is just one more voice mail in the hundreds your contacts get each day


Ask yourself honestly, are you using any of these?

If it’s time for you to stop the insanity, and change your tactics to try something new, we should talk.

If you’d like more information, a free 30 minute resume consultation, or some advice about your career transition, just email your resume to reCareered at phil.rainmakers@gmail.com, and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Bait Your Resume

Yuck! Why would you want to bait your resume?

Do you want your resume reader to have a desire to learn more about you? Do you want your resume’s reader to see that you’re something special, unique, extraordinary, a “must have on my team” player?

Or do you want your resume to look like the hundreds, maybe thousands of other resumes that your employer sees?

Most resume writers and recruiters will encourage you to leave no questions unanswered on your resume, so you look prepared. And most job seekers follow this advice. Sadly, it doesn’t work well.

I disagree with that old school advice. I guess it works if you want to look like all the applicants. But who can afford to be average, when you are competing with large numbers for just one job?

Today, you’ve gotta stand out. Be different.

Bait makes you different.

So what’s bait, and how can I get some? I’m not referring to nightcrawlers, minnows, Pillsbury dough, or anything else fish eat.

Bait is a statement that causes your reader to want to know more – and has to talk to you to find out more. A statement where you tell part of the story – the sizzle. But you’ve ‘forgotten’ to tell how you got the sizzle.

If you tell an employer that you solved their problem, BUT DON’T TELL THEM HOW YOU DID IT….don’t you think they’d want to talk to you, to hear how you slayed their personal dragon?

Want to sample some bait?

Bait: “ - Delivered client application packages 25% under budget and two weeks ahead of schedule, by adopting new management techniques”.

Bait: “ - Improved profits by 20% by applying innovative tax planning techniques, approved by IRS standards”

Bait: “ - Increased division sales by 70% through a variety of new management techniques”

Bait: “ - Cut transportation costs 40%, by implementing innovative solutions that also cut delivery time by a day on average”.

Bait: “ – Increased new accounts by 50% by applying exciting new prospecting methods”

To your reader, this bait doesn’t taste like worms, it tastes like gold. You’ve demonstrated how you’ve solved specific problems - and if you’ve laid the bait correctly, you’re showing how you’ve solved your target company’s specific problems. Yet you haven’t given away the golden goose.

To get answers, the target company has to talk to you.

Target companies needing to talk to you? What job seeker wants that?

If you’d like more information, a free 30 minute resume consultation, or some advice about your career transition, just email your resume to reCareered at phil.rainmakers@gmail.com, and we'll schedule a time to talk.

A Fine Whine

Just quit yer Whinin’!

Yet another in a long line of things that amaze me….The Fine Interview Whine.

Think back….have you ever caught yourself whining in an interview? Complaining about your old company or boss? How well did that interview go? Did you ever get a job by whining?

Face the facts, managers consider whiners as emotional cancer within their departments. Not every decision made at your new company is going to go your way. Most hiring managers want team players that will support them politically and support their decisions.

We all know better, but yet job seekers still obliterate their chances by whining in an interview. Savvy managers bait job seekers to whine, by asking what they liked and didn’t like about an old job, how they got along with their boss, or why they left a past job. These managers just want to see if the job seeker will disqualify themselves by whining.

Some candidates may refrain from whining in an interview, but whine to a recruiter, believing them to be more of a “friend”. A recruiter is interviewing the job seeker just like a hiring manager, because the recruiters’ impressions of your soft skills will determine if they present you to hiring managers to interview. If you whine to a recruiter, they can be concerned that you may whine to the hiring manager.

So how do you express yourself in an interview without whining?

First, you’ve got to know when you’re whining. Practice your interview with a friend, or better yet, video yourself. Have your friend ask you the bait questions you’ll get from interviewers (Why did you leave? How did you like your last company? Last boss?). Watch the video and have someone else watch it too.
So you’re a whiner….how do you stop?

A strong strategy is to develop and practice strong, positive answers to the bait questions interviewers ask most.

- “The company changed its strategy, and I don’t see it fitting my long term goals” instead of “No one at my last company had a clue“
- “My boss’s tactics aren’t consistent with my family values”, instead of “My slavedriver boss kept me at work until 9:00 each night”.
- “I’m seeking a new challenge where my efforts can make a difference”, instead of “I got fired because my company didn’t appreciate my work”

Wow! You just went from sniveling whiner to strategic genius in 10 seconds!

If you’d like more information, a free 30 minute resume consultation, or some advice about your career transition, just email your resume to reCareered at phil.rainmakers@gmail.com, and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Inside the Head of the Headhunter – Geremy Cepin of PDI Global

Today we go inside the head of Geremy Cepin, Director of Executive Search & Placement for PDI Global, a Chicago area company specializing in leadership positions within all practice areas of public accounting and financial consulting firms nationally. Geremy has many years experience in search and staffing in finance, administration, and health care.

Geremy was kind enough to share his thoughts and experiences in the financial job market, expressing optimism in the current hiring environment and expectations that financial job markets will continue to be strong.

reCareered: Geremy thanks for taking the time to share your views with our audience. With all the talk of a recession, how busy are you these days?
Geremy Cepin: The job market is still really good, still very strong. There are still plenty of accounting firms who are still expanding beyond traditional accounting and tax, so they still need people. Due to the expansion of new practice areas, and desire for differentiation, firms are beefing up to separate from competition.

reCareered: Why all of a sudden are accounting firms recognizing these needs?
Geremy Cepin: It’s not so all of a sudden. As the Big 4 has moved upstream to concentrate on the largest corporate clients, there were mid sized clients who wanted greater attention to their needs. Increased Government regulation has placed a greater accounting, financial, and administrative burden on companies of all sizes, and caused greater demand for accounting and consulting services.

reCareered: In which areas of your practice do you see the greatest needs today?
Geremy Cepin: Tax, due to greater international expansion, increased government regulation, and international accounting changes. The demand for tax professionals has gotten so high that some firms are willing to train CPAs to be tax specialists. The priority is still to hire Subject Matter Experts in tax consulting and tax credits & incentives.

reCareered: Is this growth just in the large national firms?
Geremy Cepin: No, most of this growth in demand is for regional and large local firms, which now offer services that only the Big 4 used to offer. Regional and large local firms have attracted Partner level staff from the Big 4, who look to make more of an impact and have a better quality of life at regional & local firms. Then those partners look to make an impact in their new firms by building practices around their specialties, and need managers & staff experienced in those areas.

reCareered: Where do you see weaknesses in the job market?
Geremy Cepin: Consulting has gotten weaker. Bearing point is starting to decrease, PWC laid off a hundred in New York after they changed their business model – rumor is they may sell off some business lines.

reCareered: Why the softness in consulting?
Geremy Cepin: As companies continue to internalize SOX into their process cycles, the SOX related demands to professional firms have slowed. Most of the management items identified over the past 5-6 years of SOX audits have been completed by companies or their consultants.

reCareered: How do you recommend that job changers utilize online social networking?
Geremy Cepin: Candidates are going on LinkedIN all the time, even people in their 40’s and 50’s, and finding tons of LinkedIN friends and old co-workers. The same with Facebook, just not so much in the Accounting industry.

reCareered: What is the top mistake you see job changers make?
Geremy Cepin: I see some job changers with unrealistic salary expectations due to the differences between national and regional firm salary levels. And some just don’t quite realize the tradeoffs between national and regional firms. If your hourly billing requirements decline in a regional firm (tradeoff for quality of life), you’ve got to be ready to make an economic change in your lifestyle.

reCareered: Can you suggest any changes in approach to job seekers?
Geremy Cepin: Be open to “out of the box” opportunities. Be willing to listen, and remain open minded. The industry is changing and there are some exciting, though untraditional opportunities available.

Geremy, thanks for your insight today. If CPAs consultants and financial professionals are looking for a solid recruiter, email your resume to Geremy Cepin at gcepin@pdiglobal.com.

About Geremy Cepin: As Director of Executive Search & Placement for PDI Global, Geremy specializes in conducting targeted Partner and Practice Leader searches for accounting and consulting firms. Geremy is thought of as a trusted advisor to both client and candidate, producing “win-win” marriages of skill set, strategic vision, and long-term career and personal goals. In addition, Geremy often represents opportunistic audit, tax, advisory services, and consulting professionals who wish to engage in a confidential search for a more challenging and rewarding role.

About reCareered: If you’d like more information, a free 30 minute resume consultation, or some advice about your career transition, just email your resume to reCareered at phil.rainmakers@gmail.com, and we'll schedule a time to talk.

Visualize your Dream Job

We’ve all heard that a positive attitude is critical to your job search. But is it enough?

Visualization exaggerates a positive attitude. And there are many reasons.

For starters, how can you get that great job if you don’t even know what your perfect job looks like? How can you recognize and get excited about that perfect job, if you haven’t defined it for yourself? Would you even recognize it while you were interviewing or applying for it?

When I speak to clients, I’m surprised how often they don’t have a clear vision of where they want to go. All too often, I hear broad undefined ideas of a perfect job. This tells me as a coach, and tells a hiring manager, that you may be unhappy where you are (especially if unemployed), but you really don’t know where you want to go. Why would a hiring manager choose someone without direction, who’s just looking for anything? A job seeker might be able to get away with this where there are severe labor shortages (nursing), but not in a job market that’s even slightly competitive.

In addition, as your job search continues, your goals may change, It’s crucial to keep track as they change so you are moving toward your revised goals, instead of wasting time and effort chasing obsolete goals.

The more time you spend thinking about and defining your perfect job, the more excited and driven you’ll be to find it. The more you visualize your perfect job, the more effort you’ll put into finding it. And the more you think about it, the more likely you are to find your perfect job.

So what’s the best way to visualize your next job? The most important thing is that you carve out a short amount of time per day to visualize. Five minutes is literally all it takes.

Writing the definition of your perfect job is a great way to make visualization work for you. You don’t have to do the whole thing in a day. In fact, it works best as a continual work in progress. Schedule 5 minutes to work on goal definition and visualization each day, and just revise a little bit. Every day.

Some might suggest meditation, and if you practice meditation, it can be a good way to visualize.

It takes so little effort, and you’ll be surprised how visualization can focus your efforts and bring you closer to your perfect job.

Start today … invest 5 minutes to define and create your dream job.

If you’d like more information, a free 30 minute resume consultation, or some advice about your career transition, just email your resume to reCareered at phil.rainmakers@gmail.com, and we'll schedule a time to talk.