Why Didn't I Get The Job Offer? - Job search question of the week

On Fridays, I'm posting a job search question from one of our readers. This was a question posted in response to my posting on Linkedin Answers “Candidates - What's your most difficult job search question?”

J.S. shared a question he had about his own job search, and asked:

"What did or didn't I say or do that lost it for me? Why didn't I get the offer for the job?"

This situation has happened to all of us - it's happened to me in my career, and it's happened to every one of you. We felt like we crushed the interview, yet we didn't get the job. Because hiring managers are too busy (and too afraid of lawsuits) to give meaningful feedback, we're left frustrated, unfulfilled, and scratching our heads.

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Job Seekers - 20 Ways To Brand Yourself On Linkedin

Hiring managers, recruiters and HR departments use more than just your resume to find and learn about candidates. That's good news for candidates who have additional ways to market themselves, and ways to differentiate from their competition.

Companies often look first to Linkedin when going beyond a candidate's resume, and often search Linkedin for candidates.

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How Long Will My Job Search Take?

There is one definitive answer for this question - Longer than you think.

It's interesting that when I talk to candidates, most have such an unrealistic view of how long their job search will take.

I think this reaction is driven by:

• Past Experience - Chances are, your past experience in looking for a job was in a better job market than today, unless it was in the 1930's
• Need - If a candidate is driven by the need to save their home and put food on the table, they are more likely to figure something out - even if it means working at a lower level position, even if it means working for much less pay
• Hope - It's great to be hopeful, not so great to be unrealistic

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Are You Planning To Fail In Your Job Search, Or Failing To Plan?

How many of you have a project plan for your job search?

I’m not talking about a marketing plan, or a list of target companies, or an opportunity pipeline tracking spreadsheet. I’m not talking about a to-do list, or a plan somewhere in your head.

I’m asking about a real, honest–to-goodness job search project plan.

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Who's Hiring – Top employers week of 2-22-10

Who's Hiring is a weekly survey of companies showing the highest hiring activity for the week of 2/22/10.

Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies experiencing growth. Despite the recession, these companies are all expanding.

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Who's Firing – Layoffs week ended 2-19-10

Who's Firing is a weekly survey of organizations announcing (or rumoring) layoffs for the week ended 2/19/10.

Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies that are contracting.
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Interview Road Kill - “I Haven’t Done It, But I Can Learn”: Best of reCareered

Ever respond to an interview question, by saying "I haven't done it, but I can learn"?

OUCH … I can feel your pain. Your interview ended with those words. The fat lady sang.

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What Font Type And Size Should I Use For My Resume? Job search question of the week

On Fridays, I'm posting a job search question from one of our readers. This was a question posted in response to my posting on Linkedin Answers “Candidates - What's your most difficult job search question?”

F.P. shared a question he had about his own job search, and asked:

“What font type and size should I use for my resume?”

Interestingly enough, people worry about fonts more than most issues on a resume, yet more get it wrong than just about anything else I see.

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5 Ways To Get Lucky In Your Job Search

In job search, it’s better to be lucky than to be smart.

Unfortunately, most candidates play by an outdated set of rules that makes them unlucky. Employers today use very similar procedures to pick which employees to interview and hire. These procedures are vastly different than the tactics that most candidates use (see: http://recareered.blogspot.com/2009/10/are-you-buying-mac-cheese-of-job-search.html).

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The Top 30 Job Boards For 2010

It's like the Oscars for job boards.

Weddles.com recently published its 2010 User's Choice Awards, based on year long surveys of recruiters and candidates.

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10 Ways To Manage Your Resume Real Estate

The real estate of your resume is one of the most important, and most over looked concepts of effective resume presentation. Most resumes I review have an antiquated notion, if any notion at all, about how use of real estate affects your reader’s impression of your qualifications.

First, what is resume real estate?

Resume real estate describes the use of space and placement on your resume. Not all spaces are created equal.

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Who's Hiring – Top employers week of 2-15-10

Who's Hiring is a weekly survey of companies showing the highest hiring activity for the week of 2/15/10.

Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies experiencing growth. Despite the recession, these companies are all expanding.


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Who's Firing – Layoffs week ended 2-12-10

Who's Firing is a weekly survey of organizations announcing (or rumoring) layoffs for the week ended 2/12/10.

Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies that are contracting.

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Candidates - Send Fewer Resumes: Best of reCareered

Which do you think is more effective: 1) Sending 100 resumes for many jobs in the hope that a few will be interested in you? or 2) Send a few resumes to a few jobs where you are a perfect fit?

While this strategy is counterintuitive, sending fewer resumes is a much more effective method. An effective and customized resume can get a 15-25% "hit ratio" (face to face interviews with hiring managers divided by total resumes sent) using a send fewer strategy. Notice this ratio doesn't include recruiters (nor informational interviews) - while both are nice they aren't job interviews...they may be a preliminary step to an interview, or they may not be.

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Do You Have Any Other Questions? - Job search question of the week

On Fridays, I'm posting a job search question from one of our readers. This was a question posted in response to my posting on Linkedin Answers “Candidates - What's your most difficult job search question?”

J.B. shared that his toughest job search question was:

"Do you have any other questions?"

This is not because I haven't done my research. It is because I did my research, developed a lot of relevant questions, and worked them in throughout the interview when they seemed most relevant. By the end of the interview, when that question is typically asked, I'm out of real questions.

• Should I just make up a question so I don't leave this one blank?
• Should I save a question that would have been more appropriate earlier, just so I can be ready for this?
• Should I just conclude that I've already asked them all?

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Job Seekers - 20 Ways To Brand Yourself On Facebook

Today, hiring managers find information about candidates from more places than their resume. Candidates, as well, have opportunities to market themselves in more places than just their resume.

Facebook, the 800 pound gorilla of social networking is an obvious place for job seekers to build your social brand.

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Resume Ideas - Add A Skills Inventory To Get Noticed For More Jobs

I wanted to introduce a concept that I use with strong success for my career coaching clients. A skills inventory is a way to expand on the candidate’s statement – “Here’s all the things I could do.”

Most candidates today make a big mistake and brand themselves with what they could do by placing it at the very top of the resume, often in a summary section.

Even though this is common advice, in practice it rarely works well today.

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How Job Seekers Can Destroy Networking Goodwill By Cyber-Glomming

I see this at just about every networking event, and even online – The glommer.

You’ve experienced the glommer at parties and hopefully you’re not a glommer yourself. The glommer is someone who over-capitalizes your time, who overstays their welcome with you, who just won’t let you talk to others no matter how politely you try to leave.

Instead of building goodwill with you, job seekers who are glommers destroy it.

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Who's Hiring – Top employers week of 2-8-10

Who's Hiring is a weekly survey of companies showing the highest hiring activity for the week of 2/8/10.

Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies experiencing growth. Despite the recession, these companies are all expanding.

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Whos Firing – Layoffs week ended 2-5-10

Who's Firing is a weekly survey of organizations announcing (or rumoring) layoffs for the week ended 2/5/10.

Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies that are contracting.

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Why “Networking Doesn’t Work” - Best of reCareered

If you keep your eyes open, you’ll never stop being amazed.

Jason Alba of JibberJobber.com quoted stats generated by JobBait (a resume mass mailing company) claiming (tongue-in-cheek) that “Networking Doesn’t Work”. But Mark Hovind’s (JobBait’s president) numbers also claimed that mass mailing 3,500 pieces of junk mail works 85% of the time for executive and managerial jobs. Maybe these stats were from the good-old 1970’s.

It made me laugh, because the statement is just so blatantly wrong.

Networking is a very effective way for candidates to find the best jobs – that goes for face-to-face and online networking.

Of course networking doesn’t work if a job seeker under utilizes networking opportunities.

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Bait Your Resume - Best of reCareered

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?

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What Are You Looking For? – Job search question of the week

On Fridays, I'm posting a job search question from one of our readers. This was a question posted in response to my posting on Linkedin Answers “Candidates - What's your most difficult job search question?”

M.M. shared that her toughest job search question was:

“What are you looking for?”

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Is Your Interview Attire Helping or Hurting You?

“Clothes don’t make the man, but clothes have got many a man a good job.”
 - Herbert Harold Vreeland

Today's post is a guest article written by Susan Mowder of the Style Principle, a wardrobe consulting firm.

Congratulations, you’ve got the interview!

Believe it or not, that may have been the easy part. Now, what will you wear? In today’s job market, there is no one right answer.

Industry expectations, company environments and your experience are all part of the equation.

Interviewers hope that you are the perfect combination of the skills on your resume and the ideal fit for their company.

Due to limited time, right or wrong, much of their decision will be based on your first impression—the first 5-10 seconds of interaction. Since few words are exchanged in that time, the way you look must speak volumes. Your ultimate goal is to visually present every quality and experience stated on your resume, tweaked to fit the company’s culture.

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Some Good News For Job Seekers

It’s the middle of winter, the job market is as tough as it’s ever been, and job seekers need to see a glimmer of hope.

CareerBuilder just published some statistics that might be that light at the end of the tunnel for candidates.

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More Control For Job Seekers Over Their Linkedin Profile

Linkedin announced some interesting changes today that has special impact on job seekers.

Linkedin can be a major tool that more and more job seekers use to manage their online reputation.

Many candidates have seen the power that a business network such as Linkedin can bring to their ability to connect with people in large companies, network for jobs, and build an online reputation.

Linkedin has its limitations, but one was removed today.

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Who's Hiring – Top Employers week of 2/1/10

Who's Hiring is a weekly survey of companies showing the highest hiring activity for the week of 2/1/10.

Not only is this valuable for job seekers, but for business analysts, corporate strategists, marketers, salespeople, investment analysts, financial advisers, and others who are interested in companies experiencing growth. Despite the recession, these companies are all expanding.

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