1. Put Your Best (QR) Face Forward
At first glance, Victor Petit's resume looks similar to any other text-based CV. But flip the document over and you'll find a full-page image of his face as well as a QR code where his mouth would be.
Once a recruiter scans the QR code and places his or her phone on top of it, a video pops up revealing Petit's mouth, ultimately completing the full-page image and allowing the recruiter to hear Petit's voice.
QR codes are easy to make and can help you get noticed, especially if you ditch the standard black-and-white QR code and opt to add some pizazz to your design.
2. Sell Yourself ... Literally
Shopify, an ecommerce platform, says the best resume it has ever received is this one from Mike Freeman, who wanted to work at Shopify's marketing department.
"He built an online store using Shopify where you can read about his background, experience, etc. and the ecommerce part is you can 'buy' an interview with him for '$0.00,' " said Mark Hayes, Shopify's manager of marketing and media. "We get an infinite amount of resumes here. Yes, he got the job."
3. Leverage Facebook Pages
Henry O'Loughlin took to Facebook to showcase his "Social Resume," including a video in which he describes how to navigate his resume on Facebook.
"I work with mostly small businesses doing social media, so I am demonstrating through this resume all of the tools out there that can be utilized without an ad budget."
Using Facebook's Page feature, O'Loughlin was able to showcase his skills as well as show potential clients what he can offer them.
4. Video Killed the Resume Star?
Video resumes can be a clever complement to your existing job-search materials (i.e. print resume, cover letter and website).
Graeme Anthony ditched his print resume altogether and created a fun, interactive video where viewers can click on words (see 0:34) linked to an "about me" section, portfolio, skill page, timeline and contact information.
If you decide to make a video, be sure not to just rehash what's on your print resume. Have fun with it and show your personality. Anthony sure did.
5. Gather Online Networks in One Place
Alisha Miranda used Flavors.me as an online hub for all of her social media networks. Her profile, which essentially acts as an abridged online resume, caught the eye of her eventual employer.
"Before approaching Alisha, I monitored her social Flavors.me profile for about three weeks and saw what she was doing on Tumblr, Twitter, etc. to evaluate her marketing effectiveness and if her style matched what I wanted," said Tracy Brisson, CEO of The Opportunities Project. "Once I saw that she had all the goods, only then did I contact her to talk. As a career coach and recruiter, I can't emphasize the importance of creating something clients and employers want, which is results and evidence."
You can employ sites like Flavors.me or About.me to showcase all of the social media websites you use. Your existing website or blog are also good spots to place your social media icons.
6. Add Personality to Your Print Resume
HAMSTER? Hired! It's hard to take your eyes away from Katie Briggs's visually pleasing resume, which pimps her "fancy hamster," Belafonte.
"I wanted the first thing that people notice about my resume to be that it's a little fun, but still pretty much all-business," Briggs said. "In any creative field, at least, I think it's important to make your resume a testament to your work ethic. It shouldn't look forced but it should give the impression that the work you put into constructing your resume is an indicator of the kind of dedication and hard work you'll bring to the job."
Takeaways: Make sure your resume shows your personality and represents who you really are. Also, don't bore job recruiters.
"I can say that I haven't been turned down for anything I've applied for with this resume," Briggs added.
7. Think Outside the Box ... or On It
In 2D form, Omondi Abudho's resume goes beyond the standard text-driven resume. It even adds extra "creative juice" with a nutrition label-inspired skills column.
However, the resume can be folded into an actual three-dimensional box. It brings a whole new meaning to the phrase, "Think Outside the Box."
Using a resume design or structure that strays away from the typical printer paper size is a surefire way to get noticed.
8. Pitch Electronically
Beyond Credentials believes that "finding talent based solely on a resume is fundamentally flawed." Its service allows users to build "personalized pitch pages."
For example, Nadia Kouri's pitch page lists everything she would have on a print resume as well as her story, an enlarged quote, accomplishments, personality, a Q&A and writing samples. The page also includes icons linking to her LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter profiles.
9. Highlight Recommendations
While Jenn Pedde was revamping her full, multi-page resume, she used this one-page resume "teaser" on her blog. The resume puts major emphasis on the recommendations people left on her LinkedIn profile.
"The one page got so many compliments and it was so right to the point and social," Pedde said.
It's an effective way to translate your online presence to an offline print form.
Pedde's recommendation-focused resume led to her current job at 2tor where she works as community manager for the Master of Social Work program at USC.
10. Let Them Read Your Back
Even as a social media person, you'll have to interact with the offline world.
For those instances — if you are job hunting — you may want to make a resume T-shirt, which would have your resume on the back and something silly or informative on the front. The T-shirt pictured is from Blackbird Tees.
http://mashable.com/2011/05/20/social-media-resumes/#_
Showing posts with label Resume. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Resume. Show all posts
10 Creative Social Media Resumes To Learn From
Like flowers in early spring, new social media job openings are sprouting across industries as companies of all sizes look to create or expand their social squads.
The undeniable success and innovation of high-profile social media campaigns — from such brands as Old Spice, Google Chrome and Starbucks — have inspired this ongoing push for companies to hire people with social media skills.
If you're seeking a gig as a community manager, public relations representative, marketing person or any other social media position, check out these resumes for inspiration on how to stand out from the crowd. Also, let us know in the comments about any creative tactics you use to promote yourself and your skills.
10 Words Never To Use On A Resume
There are certain resume words and phrases that have become so ubiquitous they do little more than induce yawns and eye rolls from hiring managers. Employers are so accustomed to hearing from "team players" and "problem solvers," for example, that those descriptions are now essentially meaningless. To distinguish yourself from your competitors, you'll need to cut the clichés - or at least expand upon them with concrete details that back up your claims.
Robert Half recently asked more than 1,300 managers at companies across the United States and Canada to name the most overused resume phrases. Based on our survey findings, here are 10 terms to retire:
1. Hard worker. Nothing causes a hiring manager's eyes to glaze over faster than seeing this hollow descriptor. Why? Because virtually all applicants - even the least-motivated clock-watchers - claim to work hard.
To impress a prospective employer, you'll need to explain exactly how you've gone the extra mile. Do you regularly meet aggressive deadlines, handle a high volume of projects, exceed ambitious targets or volunteer to tackle tasks outside your role?
2. Self-starter. Companies seek astute candidates who can get off to a strong start without excessive managerial direction and handholding. (In another Robert Half survey, managers cited mastering new processes and procedures as the greatest challenge when starting a new job.)
Unfortunately, simply saying you're a "self-starter" won't convince anyone of your initiative, resourcefulness or ability to quickly make meaningful contributions. Instead, illustrate how you've thrived when managing important projects with little or no supervision.
3. Team player. This term is the cliche of cliches. Working well with others is imperative, but get specific. Spell out the ways you've collaborated with colleagues. Did you dive in to help an overwhelmed co-worker deliver a high-priority project or lead a key cross-departmental initiative?
4. Highly qualified. When it comes to your qualifications, show, don't tell. Skip this empty expression and describe what you'll bring to the position. Whenever possible, quantify your biggest achievements (think about money you've generated or saved your employers, for instance).
In addition, emphasize your most pertinent skills and certifications. Researching the firm and doing a careful reading of the job posting can help you determine which aspects of your background to focus on.
5. Dynamic. What does this well-worn term really mean? That you're bursting with innovative ideas and positive energy? If true, just say that. Characterizing yourself as "dynamic" is boastful and sounds unnatural. Unless you regularly don a cape as part of a crime-fighting duo, you can safely banish blasé buzzwords such as this.
6. Problem solver. While being a "problem solver" beats being a "problem creator," employers want tangible evidence of your effectiveness. What specific solutions have you devised? How have you overcome hurdles? Have you helped your boss or colleagues out of jams or streamlined workflow inefficiencies?
7. Reliable. Don't waste space touting "strengths" that are basic requirements of any job, such as reliability. It's expected that you -- and every other potential hire -- will be dependable. Showing up on time and doing your work isn't worth bragging about. After all, anything short of reliable would be unacceptable. Delete it.
8. Familiar with. Many job seekers rely on this ambiguous phrase to obscure a lack of in-depth knowledge in a particular area. For instance, a person can technically claim to be familiar with a software program they've used just once.
This type of wishy-washy wording raises red flags. It won't give employers any sense of your level of expertise, but it will dilute the impact of your more relevant core competencies.
9. Flexible. Change is the only constant today. As such, companies seek versatile professionals who'll adjust easily to new situations. But go a step beyond merely referring to yourself as flexible. Underscore your adaptability by explaining how you successfully responded to a major change at work or deftly dealt with unpredictable aspects of your job.
10. People person. Interpersonal skills are critical for most positions. Employers value professionals who can communicate effectively and build camaraderie with a diverse array of internal and external contacts. Cite examples of how you won over a challenging coworker, client or customer, or helped a group of stakeholders reach a consensus.
The bottom line is that clichés aren't memorable, powerful or persuasive. While there's nothing inherently wrong with the skills and traits listed above, they alone won't deepen an employer's understanding of who you are and what you offer. Stop using generic content as a crutch and embrace clear and specific information instead. As a job seeker, it just might be the most "dynamic" thing you can do.
http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2013/03/18/most-overused-words-resume/?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl24|sec1_lnk1%26pLid%3D285220
Robert Half recently asked more than 1,300 managers at companies across the United States and Canada to name the most overused resume phrases. Based on our survey findings, here are 10 terms to retire:
1. Hard worker. Nothing causes a hiring manager's eyes to glaze over faster than seeing this hollow descriptor. Why? Because virtually all applicants - even the least-motivated clock-watchers - claim to work hard.
To impress a prospective employer, you'll need to explain exactly how you've gone the extra mile. Do you regularly meet aggressive deadlines, handle a high volume of projects, exceed ambitious targets or volunteer to tackle tasks outside your role?
2. Self-starter. Companies seek astute candidates who can get off to a strong start without excessive managerial direction and handholding. (In another Robert Half survey, managers cited mastering new processes and procedures as the greatest challenge when starting a new job.)
Unfortunately, simply saying you're a "self-starter" won't convince anyone of your initiative, resourcefulness or ability to quickly make meaningful contributions. Instead, illustrate how you've thrived when managing important projects with little or no supervision.
3. Team player. This term is the cliche of cliches. Working well with others is imperative, but get specific. Spell out the ways you've collaborated with colleagues. Did you dive in to help an overwhelmed co-worker deliver a high-priority project or lead a key cross-departmental initiative?
4. Highly qualified. When it comes to your qualifications, show, don't tell. Skip this empty expression and describe what you'll bring to the position. Whenever possible, quantify your biggest achievements (think about money you've generated or saved your employers, for instance).
In addition, emphasize your most pertinent skills and certifications. Researching the firm and doing a careful reading of the job posting can help you determine which aspects of your background to focus on.
5. Dynamic. What does this well-worn term really mean? That you're bursting with innovative ideas and positive energy? If true, just say that. Characterizing yourself as "dynamic" is boastful and sounds unnatural. Unless you regularly don a cape as part of a crime-fighting duo, you can safely banish blasé buzzwords such as this.
6. Problem solver. While being a "problem solver" beats being a "problem creator," employers want tangible evidence of your effectiveness. What specific solutions have you devised? How have you overcome hurdles? Have you helped your boss or colleagues out of jams or streamlined workflow inefficiencies?
7. Reliable. Don't waste space touting "strengths" that are basic requirements of any job, such as reliability. It's expected that you -- and every other potential hire -- will be dependable. Showing up on time and doing your work isn't worth bragging about. After all, anything short of reliable would be unacceptable. Delete it.
8. Familiar with. Many job seekers rely on this ambiguous phrase to obscure a lack of in-depth knowledge in a particular area. For instance, a person can technically claim to be familiar with a software program they've used just once.
This type of wishy-washy wording raises red flags. It won't give employers any sense of your level of expertise, but it will dilute the impact of your more relevant core competencies.
9. Flexible. Change is the only constant today. As such, companies seek versatile professionals who'll adjust easily to new situations. But go a step beyond merely referring to yourself as flexible. Underscore your adaptability by explaining how you successfully responded to a major change at work or deftly dealt with unpredictable aspects of your job.
10. People person. Interpersonal skills are critical for most positions. Employers value professionals who can communicate effectively and build camaraderie with a diverse array of internal and external contacts. Cite examples of how you won over a challenging coworker, client or customer, or helped a group of stakeholders reach a consensus.
The bottom line is that clichés aren't memorable, powerful or persuasive. While there's nothing inherently wrong with the skills and traits listed above, they alone won't deepen an employer's understanding of who you are and what you offer. Stop using generic content as a crutch and embrace clear and specific information instead. As a job seeker, it just might be the most "dynamic" thing you can do.
http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2013/03/18/most-overused-words-resume/?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl24|sec1_lnk1%26pLid%3D285220
Your Résumé: Imaginary Friends as Job References
Here’s a tip: If you list something on your résumé, assume your interviewer is going to verify it. Sounds like common sense, but for many job seekers, it’s clearly not. CareerBuilder recently surveyed 2,500 hiring managers and discovered that 30 percent regularly find false or misleading references on applicants’ CVs.
“For some reason, people think companies aren’t going to check their references and they can get away with it,” says Michael Erwin, a senior career adviser at CareerBuilder. He says an estimated 80 percent of employers do check them, often before they call someone in for an interview.
The most common mistake applicants make is listing someone as a reference because they’ve got an impressive title—even though they barely know that person. “Interviewers don’t want to talk to your boss’s boss, they want to talk to the person you worked closely with every day,” Erwin says. In other words, you can’t list Jamie Dimon as a reference because you once made eye contact with him in the bathroom at a Knicks game.
Nor should you list Mom. Or your best friend. Or anyone you used to date. “I don’t want to hear from the person you had Thanksgiving dinner with,” says Toda Mukherjee, a talent recruiter at Rocket Fuel, a digital advertising agency in Silicon Valley. Mukherjee says he’s sick of calling references only to find out that although they may have worked with the applicant years ago, now they’re just personal friends.
Sometimes the references don’t know the applicant at all. Kevin Sorby, a municipal forester with the Village of Wilmette, Ill., once conducted an interview with a job candidate only to find that he himself was listed as the candidate’s reference. “I had no idea who he was. I’d literally never met him before in my life,” Sorby says. “I think he just looked over the names of people who worked for Wilmette and picked someone.” Sorby called the guy out, but he wouldn’t admit to his lie. “He turned red and then tried to make up some story about meeting me somewhere years ago. He obviously didn’t get the job.”
John Marino, a partner at RSP Marketing in Minneapolis, had a similar problem when he interviewed someone for a senior sales position who claimed to have worked at several prominent companies but couldn’t provide any references to prove it. “It’s not usually a problem with entry-level positions, because those people are coming to you right out of college,” he says. “It’s the mid- to senior-level candidates that you have to screen closely.”
Even the most honest applicant can be burned by a reference. Mukherjee says he routinely talks to people who don’t like the person they’ve been asked to recommend. “I’ve heard some very negative things,” he says. “It really surprises you as an interviewer.” Sometimes, he says, it costs the applicant the job. There’s an easy way to avoid this issue: Alert the people you plan to list on your résumé, explain why you picked them, and then tell them what you’d like them to say. That reminds me—I should give Obama a call.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-01-14/your-r-sum-imaginary-friends-as-job-references
“For some reason, people think companies aren’t going to check their references and they can get away with it,” says Michael Erwin, a senior career adviser at CareerBuilder. He says an estimated 80 percent of employers do check them, often before they call someone in for an interview.
The most common mistake applicants make is listing someone as a reference because they’ve got an impressive title—even though they barely know that person. “Interviewers don’t want to talk to your boss’s boss, they want to talk to the person you worked closely with every day,” Erwin says. In other words, you can’t list Jamie Dimon as a reference because you once made eye contact with him in the bathroom at a Knicks game.
Nor should you list Mom. Or your best friend. Or anyone you used to date. “I don’t want to hear from the person you had Thanksgiving dinner with,” says Toda Mukherjee, a talent recruiter at Rocket Fuel, a digital advertising agency in Silicon Valley. Mukherjee says he’s sick of calling references only to find out that although they may have worked with the applicant years ago, now they’re just personal friends.
Sometimes the references don’t know the applicant at all. Kevin Sorby, a municipal forester with the Village of Wilmette, Ill., once conducted an interview with a job candidate only to find that he himself was listed as the candidate’s reference. “I had no idea who he was. I’d literally never met him before in my life,” Sorby says. “I think he just looked over the names of people who worked for Wilmette and picked someone.” Sorby called the guy out, but he wouldn’t admit to his lie. “He turned red and then tried to make up some story about meeting me somewhere years ago. He obviously didn’t get the job.”
John Marino, a partner at RSP Marketing in Minneapolis, had a similar problem when he interviewed someone for a senior sales position who claimed to have worked at several prominent companies but couldn’t provide any references to prove it. “It’s not usually a problem with entry-level positions, because those people are coming to you right out of college,” he says. “It’s the mid- to senior-level candidates that you have to screen closely.”
Even the most honest applicant can be burned by a reference. Mukherjee says he routinely talks to people who don’t like the person they’ve been asked to recommend. “I’ve heard some very negative things,” he says. “It really surprises you as an interviewer.” Sometimes, he says, it costs the applicant the job. There’s an easy way to avoid this issue: Alert the people you plan to list on your résumé, explain why you picked them, and then tell them what you’d like them to say. That reminds me—I should give Obama a call.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-01-14/your-r-sum-imaginary-friends-as-job-references
10 ways to make your journalism job application better than everyone else’s
Dear Applicant,
The first time I finished a hiring process, having settled on a stellar candidate, my boss patted me on the shoulder and said, “You know, your first time really shouldn’t be this easy.” I took it as a straightforward compliment to me and the person I’d found. The position had attracted a solid pool of talented people, but the candidate I’d recruited and ultimately chosen had clearly stood out above all the rest. We knew we’d made an impeccable hire.
It wasn’t until years later that I realized my boss’ words had a double meaning — they were a compliment, yes, but also a piece of advice. Hiring — often the most important decision a manager has to make — should be hard. You want to have to make an excruciating choice from an impossibly talented pool of applicants.
So, I’m in the midst of hiring for this wonderful job you’ve applied for. It’s an extraordinary opportunity, and it’s drawn an equally extraordinary response. With the help of my colleagues on the hiring team, I’ve been poring over applications and talking to your fellow candidates for months. When I get a spare minute, I pull a few more resumes and cover letters off the pile to review, adding the most interesting candidates to a spreadsheet with notes and links to their work and social media profiles.
During most of my interviews, I realize two things: 1) Even though I feel like I’m moving at breakneck speed, to you this process feels mind-bendingly slow. 2) You have no idea how much I want you to rock — how excited I get when I read a terrific cover letter, encounter a superlative clip, or find myself engrossed in an interview. Or what a heartbreak it is when you seem great on paper, but present lackluster work or a dismal demeanor.
So to make this process harder on me (in the best possible way), here are 10 things I’m wishing for from you — and for anyone applying for a job in journalism.
Read between the lines of my job description. Yes, I know the prose is hardly gripping — wordsmithed, as it almost always is, by committee. But there are secrets buried in our bureaucra-speak. If you see an adjective twice, pay attention, we’re probably trying to tell you something. Even the boilerplate can sometimes speak volumes.
I know it’s hard to discern which of the approximately 300 “essential” skills and characteristics we’re most concerned with, but read them all twice. Highlight the ones that apply most strongly to you, and underline the ones that pose a bit of a problem. In your cover letter and interview, I’m going to want you to emphasize the former and give me reasons not to be concerned about the latter.
When there are multiple positions posted for the same team, look for which elements they share, and which are distinct to each. The former will tell you the qualities we’re focusing on most carefully, and the latter will give you a good hint about how we think of this particular opening.
Get your vanity search in order. You know I’m Googling you, right? Of course. Before I get there, take a look at what I might see and try to make sure your best material is easily findable. (Tip: Because Google and other search engines personalize their results, it might be helpful to do the search in your browser’s private or incognito mode. This should give you a good approximation of a generic search.)
If that vanity search still yields that ill-advised, gratuitously provocative screed you wrote for your college paper freshman year, it’s not a disqualifier. You don’t need to call up your alumni office and threaten legal action if they don’t take it down. Just make sure that your own site shows up at the top of the results and showcases your best work.
Speaking of which, please have a personal site. If your cover letter and resume are solid, this is what I’m looking for next. Make it clean and easy to read, with links to your best work, and a nice, readable copy of your resume. A crisply written bio couldn’t hurt either. Unless you’re a stellar designer (or you’re applying for a design job), no need to develop anything crazily distinctive; an about.me page or a nice, simple WordPress.com site is perfectly fine.
My strong recommendation is that you make it easy to find your best clips. If you use a blogging engine like WordPress, you can literally write a post titled, “My best clips on [topic you'd be covering]” and link to it somewhere prominent. (Heck, feel free to make a short URL out of it and stick that in your application materials.)
Your cover letter should tell me two stories, and both should be fascinating. First, as concisely as you can, tell me the story of how your experiences have shaped you for this position. Then, with similar economy, tell me the story of what you’ll do with this position if you land it.
Remember, these are stories and you are their protagonist. Hook me with them. Don’t just narrativize your resume, although the first story should probably include some of its relevant bits. You can rattle off as many superlatives about yourself as you’d like — “I’m a first-rate storyteller with an eye for detail and a passion for telling the untold story” — but do you really think that’s how great characters are crafted? (I loved that part in the Harry Potter books where J.K. Rowling was all, “Hermione Granger is a dedicated wizard with a passion and an instinct for all kinds of magic, as well as a loyal and compassionate friend to elfkind.” Oh, wait.)
And this should go without saying, but please — please — proofread.
There’s more than one way to skin a resume. I know what a pain it would be to customize your resume for each job, so I have no complaints with a reasonably generic resume format. But do make sure to emphasize the aspects of your experience most suited to the jobs you’re applying for. Hierarchy in a resume is all-important; the stuff you want me to notice most should go at the top.
If you’re fresh out of school and your academic accomplishments are your calling card, lead with them. If you’ve been a longtime freelancer for a variety of high-quality news outlets, the names of the organizations may be most important to emphasize. If you’ve steadily moved up in seniority from job to job and held some impressive positions, then foreground your titles and make that progression stand out.
Remember: the more of your background you include, the less I’m likely to remember. A comprehensive C.V. is unnecessary. Foreground your five most impressive credentials, and tuck the rest into aftermatter, or excise it altogether.
By the way, the Web software we use for job applications and hiring tends to render resumes unrecognizable. So unless you know for certain that the system is going to deliver the resume to me with formatting intact, make sure that it looks wonderful in a plain text editor (like Notepad on Windows or TextWrangler on Mac). If you have the option of both uploading a PDF and submitting a separate plain text file, do both.
Even if I’m not following you on social media, assume I am. You probably don’t work for my organization yet, so you’re not covered by our social media guidelines. But I’ll be trying to assess from your feed whether you could accommodate them. So try not to go too far out of bounds.
Also, if you signed up for a Twitter account a few days before applying because our job description asked for social media skills, I can probably tell. Newbie Twitter feeds are almost unmistakeable. Here’s a secret: As much as I’d love to see your witty, informative stream of 140-character bursts of insight, I can also very much respect folks who listen more than they talk on Twitter. If you don’t say much yourself, but are following an interesting bunch of people (and do interact when appropriate), that’s perfectly fine in my book. If you’re new to a social media community, there is no shame in signing up and listening. I’ll be thrilled if you demonstrate to me that you understand the dynamics of the community, even if you haven’t shared much yet yourself.
Don’t hesitate to get one of our mutual colleagues to recommend you to me. I value a good recommendation; it’s one more piece of information I can draw on in my evaluation of your work. But the mere fact that you and I know someone in common doesn’t really help me out at all.
The best recommendations have a few qualities in common: 1) They come from someone with a genuine, first-person sense of how you work. 2) They come from someone with a decent understanding of our aims for the position. 3) They don’t just tell me that you’re great, they tell me why and how.
A little follow-up at any point in this process doesn’t hurt. A lot might. If you haven’t heard from us a month after you’ve applied, there’s no harm in sending an email to check up on where we are in the process. And after an interview or test, a gracious follow-up note is always appreciated, especially if you note some ideas that struck you afterward. If we close the position and you still haven’t heard from us, again, feel free to write.
Beyond those few occasions, be gentle. There’s probably an optimum level of persistence that can slightly help your prospects or speed the process along, but it’s unlikely to make a significant difference in our decision.
The very best interviews feel like great conversations. This may be one of my quirks as an interviewer, but I’ve found this to be true both as an interviewer and as an interviewee. Interviews often start out as interrogations — a back-and-forth series of questions and answers. But great interviews don’t tend to end that way. With the interview, I’m not merely trying to unlock the bits of knowledge in your head, and I’m certainly not trying to see how well you anticipate the answers locked in my head. I am trying to assess how you think, what you’re passionate about, how we gel as colleagues.
If I veer away from asking questions and start riffing off your ideas or telling stories of my own, don’t wait for the interrogation to resume — join in. Your questions, reactions, asides, brow-furrowed musings and rejoinders are all just as interesting to me as your answers, and if I’m trying to elicit them, it’s a good sign.
Every hiring manager is different. At the risk of negating everything I just wrote, I’ll be honest: Nothing in this post is universal. You’re probably going to encounter hiring managers who don’t Google anyone, couldn’t care less about your personal site or Twitter stream, disregard recommendations, hate follow up and don’t truck with idle chit-chat in interviews.
The other members of my hiring team probably have different approaches and interests. If you have an interview with someone else on my team, feel free to ask what I can share with you about them; I want you to impress them too.
Again, when I wish you the very best of luck, I mean it sincerely.
Matt
http://www.poynter.org/how-tos/career-development/189491/10-ways-to-make-your-journalism-job-application-better-than-everyone-elses/
The first time I finished a hiring process, having settled on a stellar candidate, my boss patted me on the shoulder and said, “You know, your first time really shouldn’t be this easy.” I took it as a straightforward compliment to me and the person I’d found. The position had attracted a solid pool of talented people, but the candidate I’d recruited and ultimately chosen had clearly stood out above all the rest. We knew we’d made an impeccable hire.
It wasn’t until years later that I realized my boss’ words had a double meaning — they were a compliment, yes, but also a piece of advice. Hiring — often the most important decision a manager has to make — should be hard. You want to have to make an excruciating choice from an impossibly talented pool of applicants.
So, I’m in the midst of hiring for this wonderful job you’ve applied for. It’s an extraordinary opportunity, and it’s drawn an equally extraordinary response. With the help of my colleagues on the hiring team, I’ve been poring over applications and talking to your fellow candidates for months. When I get a spare minute, I pull a few more resumes and cover letters off the pile to review, adding the most interesting candidates to a spreadsheet with notes and links to their work and social media profiles.
During most of my interviews, I realize two things: 1) Even though I feel like I’m moving at breakneck speed, to you this process feels mind-bendingly slow. 2) You have no idea how much I want you to rock — how excited I get when I read a terrific cover letter, encounter a superlative clip, or find myself engrossed in an interview. Or what a heartbreak it is when you seem great on paper, but present lackluster work or a dismal demeanor.
So to make this process harder on me (in the best possible way), here are 10 things I’m wishing for from you — and for anyone applying for a job in journalism.
Read between the lines of my job description. Yes, I know the prose is hardly gripping — wordsmithed, as it almost always is, by committee. But there are secrets buried in our bureaucra-speak. If you see an adjective twice, pay attention, we’re probably trying to tell you something. Even the boilerplate can sometimes speak volumes.
I know it’s hard to discern which of the approximately 300 “essential” skills and characteristics we’re most concerned with, but read them all twice. Highlight the ones that apply most strongly to you, and underline the ones that pose a bit of a problem. In your cover letter and interview, I’m going to want you to emphasize the former and give me reasons not to be concerned about the latter.
When there are multiple positions posted for the same team, look for which elements they share, and which are distinct to each. The former will tell you the qualities we’re focusing on most carefully, and the latter will give you a good hint about how we think of this particular opening.
Get your vanity search in order. You know I’m Googling you, right? Of course. Before I get there, take a look at what I might see and try to make sure your best material is easily findable. (Tip: Because Google and other search engines personalize their results, it might be helpful to do the search in your browser’s private or incognito mode. This should give you a good approximation of a generic search.)
If that vanity search still yields that ill-advised, gratuitously provocative screed you wrote for your college paper freshman year, it’s not a disqualifier. You don’t need to call up your alumni office and threaten legal action if they don’t take it down. Just make sure that your own site shows up at the top of the results and showcases your best work.
Speaking of which, please have a personal site. If your cover letter and resume are solid, this is what I’m looking for next. Make it clean and easy to read, with links to your best work, and a nice, readable copy of your resume. A crisply written bio couldn’t hurt either. Unless you’re a stellar designer (or you’re applying for a design job), no need to develop anything crazily distinctive; an about.me page or a nice, simple WordPress.com site is perfectly fine.
My strong recommendation is that you make it easy to find your best clips. If you use a blogging engine like WordPress, you can literally write a post titled, “My best clips on [topic you'd be covering]” and link to it somewhere prominent. (Heck, feel free to make a short URL out of it and stick that in your application materials.)
Your cover letter should tell me two stories, and both should be fascinating. First, as concisely as you can, tell me the story of how your experiences have shaped you for this position. Then, with similar economy, tell me the story of what you’ll do with this position if you land it.
Remember, these are stories and you are their protagonist. Hook me with them. Don’t just narrativize your resume, although the first story should probably include some of its relevant bits. You can rattle off as many superlatives about yourself as you’d like — “I’m a first-rate storyteller with an eye for detail and a passion for telling the untold story” — but do you really think that’s how great characters are crafted? (I loved that part in the Harry Potter books where J.K. Rowling was all, “Hermione Granger is a dedicated wizard with a passion and an instinct for all kinds of magic, as well as a loyal and compassionate friend to elfkind.” Oh, wait.)
And this should go without saying, but please — please — proofread.
There’s more than one way to skin a resume. I know what a pain it would be to customize your resume for each job, so I have no complaints with a reasonably generic resume format. But do make sure to emphasize the aspects of your experience most suited to the jobs you’re applying for. Hierarchy in a resume is all-important; the stuff you want me to notice most should go at the top.
If you’re fresh out of school and your academic accomplishments are your calling card, lead with them. If you’ve been a longtime freelancer for a variety of high-quality news outlets, the names of the organizations may be most important to emphasize. If you’ve steadily moved up in seniority from job to job and held some impressive positions, then foreground your titles and make that progression stand out.
Remember: the more of your background you include, the less I’m likely to remember. A comprehensive C.V. is unnecessary. Foreground your five most impressive credentials, and tuck the rest into aftermatter, or excise it altogether.
By the way, the Web software we use for job applications and hiring tends to render resumes unrecognizable. So unless you know for certain that the system is going to deliver the resume to me with formatting intact, make sure that it looks wonderful in a plain text editor (like Notepad on Windows or TextWrangler on Mac). If you have the option of both uploading a PDF and submitting a separate plain text file, do both.
Even if I’m not following you on social media, assume I am. You probably don’t work for my organization yet, so you’re not covered by our social media guidelines. But I’ll be trying to assess from your feed whether you could accommodate them. So try not to go too far out of bounds.
Also, if you signed up for a Twitter account a few days before applying because our job description asked for social media skills, I can probably tell. Newbie Twitter feeds are almost unmistakeable. Here’s a secret: As much as I’d love to see your witty, informative stream of 140-character bursts of insight, I can also very much respect folks who listen more than they talk on Twitter. If you don’t say much yourself, but are following an interesting bunch of people (and do interact when appropriate), that’s perfectly fine in my book. If you’re new to a social media community, there is no shame in signing up and listening. I’ll be thrilled if you demonstrate to me that you understand the dynamics of the community, even if you haven’t shared much yet yourself.
Don’t hesitate to get one of our mutual colleagues to recommend you to me. I value a good recommendation; it’s one more piece of information I can draw on in my evaluation of your work. But the mere fact that you and I know someone in common doesn’t really help me out at all.
The best recommendations have a few qualities in common: 1) They come from someone with a genuine, first-person sense of how you work. 2) They come from someone with a decent understanding of our aims for the position. 3) They don’t just tell me that you’re great, they tell me why and how.
A little follow-up at any point in this process doesn’t hurt. A lot might. If you haven’t heard from us a month after you’ve applied, there’s no harm in sending an email to check up on where we are in the process. And after an interview or test, a gracious follow-up note is always appreciated, especially if you note some ideas that struck you afterward. If we close the position and you still haven’t heard from us, again, feel free to write.
Beyond those few occasions, be gentle. There’s probably an optimum level of persistence that can slightly help your prospects or speed the process along, but it’s unlikely to make a significant difference in our decision.
The very best interviews feel like great conversations. This may be one of my quirks as an interviewer, but I’ve found this to be true both as an interviewer and as an interviewee. Interviews often start out as interrogations — a back-and-forth series of questions and answers. But great interviews don’t tend to end that way. With the interview, I’m not merely trying to unlock the bits of knowledge in your head, and I’m certainly not trying to see how well you anticipate the answers locked in my head. I am trying to assess how you think, what you’re passionate about, how we gel as colleagues.
If I veer away from asking questions and start riffing off your ideas or telling stories of my own, don’t wait for the interrogation to resume — join in. Your questions, reactions, asides, brow-furrowed musings and rejoinders are all just as interesting to me as your answers, and if I’m trying to elicit them, it’s a good sign.
Every hiring manager is different. At the risk of negating everything I just wrote, I’ll be honest: Nothing in this post is universal. You’re probably going to encounter hiring managers who don’t Google anyone, couldn’t care less about your personal site or Twitter stream, disregard recommendations, hate follow up and don’t truck with idle chit-chat in interviews.
The other members of my hiring team probably have different approaches and interests. If you have an interview with someone else on my team, feel free to ask what I can share with you about them; I want you to impress them too.
Again, when I wish you the very best of luck, I mean it sincerely.
Matt
http://www.poynter.org/how-tos/career-development/189491/10-ways-to-make-your-journalism-job-application-better-than-everyone-elses/
How to Make a Résumé That Works
You've tweaked and crafted your résumé, spell-checked it at least twice. But have you included a "QR code"?
Those are the bar codes that are popping up in newspapers, on consumer products and elsewhere, that can be scanned by smartphones. Some people are adding these to their résumés to direct employers to online portfolios, contact information and other application materials.
"People are definitely getting creative," says Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at jobs site CareerBuilder.com. "Individuals can create a code and link it to other information about their background."
Other creative strategies to make a résumé stand out include using infographics and videos, which highlight job seekers' accomplishments and communication and technical skills.
Several months ago, an applicant's video résumé for a human-resources role at CareerBuilder caught Ms. Haefner's eye. While the applicant didn't win the position, Ms. Haefner says she was impressed.
"It's great that somebody was trying to do something different," Ms. Haefner says.
However, applicants need to know their audience and should think carefully before submitting a résumé that some employers may view as hokey. Furthermore, many employers spend less than a minute reviewing a résumé—they won't have time for or interest in videos and charts.
Indeed, unusual content and formatting can backfire.
"If you put your résumé on a watermelon, that won't get [positive] attention. The substance of a résumé is what matters. People who do serious work don't have to puff it up," says Charles Wardell, chief executive of Witt/Kieffer, an executive search firm based in Oak Brook, Ill.
Job seekers also should avoid focusing too much on a résumé and too little on networking. In many cases, networking will get an applicant an interview, and a résumé is needed only to remind an employer about a job-seeker's background.
Here are two other strategies to make a résumé stand out in a competitive job market.
Go Retro: Some experts recommend job seekers take a page from the past: Send in a basic application that includes a well-crafted cover letter with a résumé that highlights career progression.
A cover letter can be a separate document, or included in the body of an email.
Glenn Shagena, director of manufacturing human resources at Chrysler Group, says it's common to receive 10 to 50 résumés for an open spot. He appreciates conciseness and precision.
"It's surprising how many résumés you'll see with misspelled words, poor grammar," Mr. Shagena says. "There really is a war for talent, and a résumé that looks good and looks crisp and well-written will absolutely get somebody in the door."
Larry Maier, president of Peerless Precision, a small Westfield, Mass., manufacturer of parts for the aerospace, defense, and medical-devices industries, says he wants résumés from technical applicants that highlight training and relevant work experience—and that's it.
When it comes to reviewing résumés, 30 seconds is enough for Mr. Maier.
"I really don't care what their hobbies are and their personal life. What I want to see is if they went to a legitimate school and they have some training and experience," Mr. Maier says.
Focus on recent accomplishments: To stand out, a résumé should concentrate on an applicant's most important work experience—accomplishments within the past five to 10 years—rather than treating all listed positions equally, says John Challenger, chief executive of outplacement consulting firm
Challenger, Gray & Christmas in Chicago.
"Companies are interested in what you did today, and what you've accomplished over the last five years is going to be key in how they look at your candidacy," says Mr. Challenger.
Joanne Pokaski, director of workforce development at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, says job seekers who face competition from a large pool of applicants with similar or identical technical backgrounds should highlight specific accomplishments, such as improving an employer's operations.
"You want to figure out how to stand apart from your peers with the same basic skills," Ms. Pokaski says. "Are you someone who has won awards for excellent patient care? Did you create a new process for scheduling patients, reducing waste? A résumé that says 'You can count on me to get things done' makes an applicant stand out."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304211804577504580447785746.html?mod=WSJ_Careers_CareerJournal_4
Those are the bar codes that are popping up in newspapers, on consumer products and elsewhere, that can be scanned by smartphones. Some people are adding these to their résumés to direct employers to online portfolios, contact information and other application materials.
"People are definitely getting creative," says Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at jobs site CareerBuilder.com. "Individuals can create a code and link it to other information about their background."
Other creative strategies to make a résumé stand out include using infographics and videos, which highlight job seekers' accomplishments and communication and technical skills.
Several months ago, an applicant's video résumé for a human-resources role at CareerBuilder caught Ms. Haefner's eye. While the applicant didn't win the position, Ms. Haefner says she was impressed.
"It's great that somebody was trying to do something different," Ms. Haefner says.
However, applicants need to know their audience and should think carefully before submitting a résumé that some employers may view as hokey. Furthermore, many employers spend less than a minute reviewing a résumé—they won't have time for or interest in videos and charts.
Indeed, unusual content and formatting can backfire.
"If you put your résumé on a watermelon, that won't get [positive] attention. The substance of a résumé is what matters. People who do serious work don't have to puff it up," says Charles Wardell, chief executive of Witt/Kieffer, an executive search firm based in Oak Brook, Ill.
Job seekers also should avoid focusing too much on a résumé and too little on networking. In many cases, networking will get an applicant an interview, and a résumé is needed only to remind an employer about a job-seeker's background.
Here are two other strategies to make a résumé stand out in a competitive job market.
Go Retro: Some experts recommend job seekers take a page from the past: Send in a basic application that includes a well-crafted cover letter with a résumé that highlights career progression.
A cover letter can be a separate document, or included in the body of an email.
Glenn Shagena, director of manufacturing human resources at Chrysler Group, says it's common to receive 10 to 50 résumés for an open spot. He appreciates conciseness and precision.
"It's surprising how many résumés you'll see with misspelled words, poor grammar," Mr. Shagena says. "There really is a war for talent, and a résumé that looks good and looks crisp and well-written will absolutely get somebody in the door."
Larry Maier, president of Peerless Precision, a small Westfield, Mass., manufacturer of parts for the aerospace, defense, and medical-devices industries, says he wants résumés from technical applicants that highlight training and relevant work experience—and that's it.
When it comes to reviewing résumés, 30 seconds is enough for Mr. Maier.
"I really don't care what their hobbies are and their personal life. What I want to see is if they went to a legitimate school and they have some training and experience," Mr. Maier says.
Focus on recent accomplishments: To stand out, a résumé should concentrate on an applicant's most important work experience—accomplishments within the past five to 10 years—rather than treating all listed positions equally, says John Challenger, chief executive of outplacement consulting firm
Challenger, Gray & Christmas in Chicago.
"Companies are interested in what you did today, and what you've accomplished over the last five years is going to be key in how they look at your candidacy," says Mr. Challenger.
Joanne Pokaski, director of workforce development at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, says job seekers who face competition from a large pool of applicants with similar or identical technical backgrounds should highlight specific accomplishments, such as improving an employer's operations.
"You want to figure out how to stand apart from your peers with the same basic skills," Ms. Pokaski says. "Are you someone who has won awards for excellent patient care? Did you create a new process for scheduling patients, reducing waste? A résumé that says 'You can count on me to get things done' makes an applicant stand out."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304211804577504580447785746.html?mod=WSJ_Careers_CareerJournal_4
Selling Yourself in 45 Seconds or Less
That's how much time an employer might give your résumé. Start with this advice.
Crafting a good résumé for a job search is difficult enough. Doing so in later life—when issues like age discrimination potentially come into play—is tougher yet.
To get a better idea of how job seekers age 50-plus should approach this task, we spoke with Don Weintraub, managing director of performance improvement and career services at ExecuNet, a business and career network for senior-level executives.
Here are edited excerpts of that discussion:
WSJ: Who needs a résumé? Is it necessary for someone who has reached the top of his or her industry?
MR. WEINTRAUB: I think sometimes the person at the top really needs a document of this type more so than perhaps less senior folks. In the past, people came after them. Now they're finding that the phone isn't ringing.
WSJ: What should older job seekers keep in mind when writing or revising a résumé?
MR. WEINTRAUB: A résumé has become a document that's intended to brand, package, market and presell. And so folks need to think about this as their personal marketing brochure.
Our research shows that you have less than 45 seconds to capture the attention of the reader. What's most critical is the top half of the first page. You should have four or five accomplishments with metrics, literally spelling out what you did. Up on top [you need] about 12 to 15 core competencies, like "strategic planning" or "mergers and acquisitions."
If I'm doing a search [to fill a position], I tell the software to go out and find me candidates who have certain keywords in their résumé. The software…searches [résumés], looking for these keywords.
WSJ: That raises a good point: Most résumés today are submitted online. Is there any need for a paper copy of a résumé?
MR. WEINTRAUB: There are two schools of thought. One is that it may help get the attention of the reader if they get something in the mail. But at most companies [an application] has to go through the résumé database system. Even if you sent a paper copy to someone, they would more than likely ask you to repeat the process [online]. They need to have it on file in a common system.
WSJ: Where does the cover letter fit into this?
MR. WEINTRAUB: The question is, will it be read? When I was a recruiter, I would skip the letter and go straight to the résumé. But if it was someone whose résumé really captured my attention, I'd go back and read the letter. Experienced applicants are more likely to have skills relevant to the companies doing the hiring. They have an advantage in the cover letter. If they match up their experience and accomplishments, they're more likely to have stuff to say.
WSJ: What are some of the biggest mistakes that older job seekers make?
MR. WEINTRAUB: They use words like "seasoned," or start out with "over 35 years of experience." You're immediately playing the age card.
I eliminate dates of education. You don't want to put that in at all. List the schools, list the degrees—[but] no dates. Never go back more than 20 years [unless] you did something really interesting and/or you worked for a company that has real impact in the marketplace like General Electric.
WSJ: What mistakes are made when it comes to getting a résumé into the right hands?
MR. WEINTRAUB: They assume, "I'll go out and look at job postings, do a little networking and ask my buddies if they know of any jobs." The higher up you go in terms of role and salary, the less likely it is that the job will be posted anywhere. If you aren't making it easy to be found, like being on LinkedIn or ExecuNet or one of the other executive-level sites, you're eliminating 92% of the job possibilities.
Read more here
Crafting a good résumé for a job search is difficult enough. Doing so in later life—when issues like age discrimination potentially come into play—is tougher yet.
To get a better idea of how job seekers age 50-plus should approach this task, we spoke with Don Weintraub, managing director of performance improvement and career services at ExecuNet, a business and career network for senior-level executives.
Here are edited excerpts of that discussion:
WSJ: Who needs a résumé? Is it necessary for someone who has reached the top of his or her industry?
MR. WEINTRAUB: I think sometimes the person at the top really needs a document of this type more so than perhaps less senior folks. In the past, people came after them. Now they're finding that the phone isn't ringing.
WSJ: What should older job seekers keep in mind when writing or revising a résumé?
MR. WEINTRAUB: A résumé has become a document that's intended to brand, package, market and presell. And so folks need to think about this as their personal marketing brochure.
Our research shows that you have less than 45 seconds to capture the attention of the reader. What's most critical is the top half of the first page. You should have four or five accomplishments with metrics, literally spelling out what you did. Up on top [you need] about 12 to 15 core competencies, like "strategic planning" or "mergers and acquisitions."
If I'm doing a search [to fill a position], I tell the software to go out and find me candidates who have certain keywords in their résumé. The software…searches [résumés], looking for these keywords.
WSJ: That raises a good point: Most résumés today are submitted online. Is there any need for a paper copy of a résumé?
MR. WEINTRAUB: There are two schools of thought. One is that it may help get the attention of the reader if they get something in the mail. But at most companies [an application] has to go through the résumé database system. Even if you sent a paper copy to someone, they would more than likely ask you to repeat the process [online]. They need to have it on file in a common system.
WSJ: Where does the cover letter fit into this?
MR. WEINTRAUB: The question is, will it be read? When I was a recruiter, I would skip the letter and go straight to the résumé. But if it was someone whose résumé really captured my attention, I'd go back and read the letter. Experienced applicants are more likely to have skills relevant to the companies doing the hiring. They have an advantage in the cover letter. If they match up their experience and accomplishments, they're more likely to have stuff to say.
WSJ: What are some of the biggest mistakes that older job seekers make?
MR. WEINTRAUB: They use words like "seasoned," or start out with "over 35 years of experience." You're immediately playing the age card.
I eliminate dates of education. You don't want to put that in at all. List the schools, list the degrees—[but] no dates. Never go back more than 20 years [unless] you did something really interesting and/or you worked for a company that has real impact in the marketplace like General Electric.
WSJ: What mistakes are made when it comes to getting a résumé into the right hands?
MR. WEINTRAUB: They assume, "I'll go out and look at job postings, do a little networking and ask my buddies if they know of any jobs." The higher up you go in terms of role and salary, the less likely it is that the job will be posted anywhere. If you aren't making it easy to be found, like being on LinkedIn or ExecuNet or one of the other executive-level sites, you're eliminating 92% of the job possibilities.
Read more here
Why I Tossed Your Résumé
After serving on numerous hiring committees, I've developed a list of six mistakes that will guarantee your résumé a one-way ticket to my shredder.
You don't meet the minimum criteria. It took me only two minutes to find that first red flag in my four-inch stack. I saw an application on which someone from human resources had written "experience may not qualify." The candidate had spent two years working at a work-force-development agency, but the HR staff member didn't know if that would count toward our requirement that the applicant have experience in vocational education. After reading the job summary on the résumé, I knew the experience wouldn't count. Case closed.
The first step in the application process is understanding whether or not you even qualify for the job. Your application typically will not go straight to the hiring committee. Instead, it will first go through the filter of the human-resources staff members who won't forward unqualified applicants or will flag someone whose qualifications are uncertain. If you don't have the job's minimum requirements, the process is over. Note those minimums and clearly demonstrate how you meet them.
We fail candidates for bad grammar. It's sad that I have to write that. But every stack has at least one résumé with misspelled words, incomplete sentences, and other cardinal sins of writing. While the average employer would certainly drop you for such transgressions, we are a college so we get twice as irritated about it. Misspellings signal laziness, inattention to detail, and just the overall sense that you aren't taking this seriously.
Here are three pieces of advice: proofread, proofread, proofread. Every word processor on the planet has spellcheck. Is it that hard to click the little button? You've already (I hope) spent an hour or more writing the thing. Would taking another five minutes for a once-over be too much to ask? One final question: Would you take this article seriously if I butchered the wording? Of course not. The same perspective applies.
Did you even try to tailor your résumé? The next red flag in my stack of applications came from an excellent, well-crafted résumé. Clearly demonstrating the candidate's expertise in accounting, it included specific accomplishments in previous accounting jobs. It was without flaw. I may have even said aloud, "This is the best I've seen in a while." There was one small problem, though. We weren't hiring for an accounting position. On to the next candidate.
I'm sure many of us have either used or heard of the "spray and pray" method of applying for jobs. It means rapid-firing your résumé to every opening you can find. I have rarely seen that strategy work. In fact, one of the best things that applicants can do is demonstrate that they know what they are applying for. Mentioning specific programs or people at my college in your cover letter impresses me. I want to see a résumé that deals with our needs as a department line by line. You can't do that if you haven't bothered to notice what my department is asking for.
I know you're lying to me. Here's a great rule of thumb: If you already work at my college—or have worked with people who do—don't lie on your application. In fact, don't ever lie, because the truth eventually surfaces. But definitely don't lie if I can chat with someone down the hall who will know you didn't do half of the things listed on your application. Into the shredder you go.
Even if your lies help you make the first cut, you should know that I will do research on you before I call for the interview. If I even sniff deception, you're gone.
You didn't speak our language. Here's a trick I have used to land jobs myself: I copy specific phrases and buzzwords from the job posting into my résumé. Then I build them into the bullet points. "Instructional design a plus" from the posting becomes "experience in instructional design" on my application. (Obviously, I only do that when the statements are true.) I don't refer to instructional design as something else, such as "building course materials."
I have found that committee members who quickly scan résumés often look for the specific phrases they put in the job posting. Using other phrases to describe the same activity might cause a committee member to unknowingly pass over critical parts of your experience while they speed read. I have also heard of some corporate employers using an automated filter that electronically weeds out applications if they lack the right "keywords," which essentially are the words from the job posting. I don't know of any colleges that do that—yet. But in the emerging age of digital applications, that point doesn't seem too far off.
You used too much personality fluff. I encounter this last mistake a lot. It happens when candidates use descriptive phrases about themselves like, "dedicated worker," "innovative thinker," "cares about students." Those read like fillers you stuck in because you didn't have enough concrete work experience to fill a page. I yearn for the day when people stop writing them.
I don't care if you think you're "motivated to succeed" or "enjoy new challenges." Anyone can say those things and most people do, to the point of being cliché. Furthermore, just because you can say them doesn't mean they're true. I will be able to read your personality from the interview. That's what the interview is for.
Your résumé should show me why you have the best background and skills for the job. If you enjoy new challenges, I should be able to glean that from the long list of challenges you have solved in prior positions.
As you assemble your application, remember: When employers sift through a giant stack of applications, we look for excuses to end the relationship quickly. Don't give us one.
http://chronicle.com/article/Why-I-Tossed-Your-R-sum-/131576/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
You don't meet the minimum criteria. It took me only two minutes to find that first red flag in my four-inch stack. I saw an application on which someone from human resources had written "experience may not qualify." The candidate had spent two years working at a work-force-development agency, but the HR staff member didn't know if that would count toward our requirement that the applicant have experience in vocational education. After reading the job summary on the résumé, I knew the experience wouldn't count. Case closed.
The first step in the application process is understanding whether or not you even qualify for the job. Your application typically will not go straight to the hiring committee. Instead, it will first go through the filter of the human-resources staff members who won't forward unqualified applicants or will flag someone whose qualifications are uncertain. If you don't have the job's minimum requirements, the process is over. Note those minimums and clearly demonstrate how you meet them.
We fail candidates for bad grammar. It's sad that I have to write that. But every stack has at least one résumé with misspelled words, incomplete sentences, and other cardinal sins of writing. While the average employer would certainly drop you for such transgressions, we are a college so we get twice as irritated about it. Misspellings signal laziness, inattention to detail, and just the overall sense that you aren't taking this seriously.
Here are three pieces of advice: proofread, proofread, proofread. Every word processor on the planet has spellcheck. Is it that hard to click the little button? You've already (I hope) spent an hour or more writing the thing. Would taking another five minutes for a once-over be too much to ask? One final question: Would you take this article seriously if I butchered the wording? Of course not. The same perspective applies.
Did you even try to tailor your résumé? The next red flag in my stack of applications came from an excellent, well-crafted résumé. Clearly demonstrating the candidate's expertise in accounting, it included specific accomplishments in previous accounting jobs. It was without flaw. I may have even said aloud, "This is the best I've seen in a while." There was one small problem, though. We weren't hiring for an accounting position. On to the next candidate.
I'm sure many of us have either used or heard of the "spray and pray" method of applying for jobs. It means rapid-firing your résumé to every opening you can find. I have rarely seen that strategy work. In fact, one of the best things that applicants can do is demonstrate that they know what they are applying for. Mentioning specific programs or people at my college in your cover letter impresses me. I want to see a résumé that deals with our needs as a department line by line. You can't do that if you haven't bothered to notice what my department is asking for.
I know you're lying to me. Here's a great rule of thumb: If you already work at my college—or have worked with people who do—don't lie on your application. In fact, don't ever lie, because the truth eventually surfaces. But definitely don't lie if I can chat with someone down the hall who will know you didn't do half of the things listed on your application. Into the shredder you go.
Even if your lies help you make the first cut, you should know that I will do research on you before I call for the interview. If I even sniff deception, you're gone.
You didn't speak our language. Here's a trick I have used to land jobs myself: I copy specific phrases and buzzwords from the job posting into my résumé. Then I build them into the bullet points. "Instructional design a plus" from the posting becomes "experience in instructional design" on my application. (Obviously, I only do that when the statements are true.) I don't refer to instructional design as something else, such as "building course materials."
I have found that committee members who quickly scan résumés often look for the specific phrases they put in the job posting. Using other phrases to describe the same activity might cause a committee member to unknowingly pass over critical parts of your experience while they speed read. I have also heard of some corporate employers using an automated filter that electronically weeds out applications if they lack the right "keywords," which essentially are the words from the job posting. I don't know of any colleges that do that—yet. But in the emerging age of digital applications, that point doesn't seem too far off.
You used too much personality fluff. I encounter this last mistake a lot. It happens when candidates use descriptive phrases about themselves like, "dedicated worker," "innovative thinker," "cares about students." Those read like fillers you stuck in because you didn't have enough concrete work experience to fill a page. I yearn for the day when people stop writing them.
I don't care if you think you're "motivated to succeed" or "enjoy new challenges." Anyone can say those things and most people do, to the point of being cliché. Furthermore, just because you can say them doesn't mean they're true. I will be able to read your personality from the interview. That's what the interview is for.
Your résumé should show me why you have the best background and skills for the job. If you enjoy new challenges, I should be able to glean that from the long list of challenges you have solved in prior positions.
As you assemble your application, remember: When employers sift through a giant stack of applications, we look for excuses to end the relationship quickly. Don't give us one.
http://chronicle.com/article/Why-I-Tossed-Your-R-sum-/131576/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Attractive women should not include a photo with a job application
AT WORK, as in life, attractive women get a lot of the breaks. Studies have shown that they are more likely to be promoted than their plain-Jane colleagues. Because people tend to project positive traits onto them, such as sensitivity and poise, they may also be at an advantage in job interviews. The only downside to hotness is having to fend off ghastly male colleagues; or so many people think. But research by two Israelis suggests otherwise.
Bradley Ruffle at Ben-Gurion University and Ze’ev Shtudiner at Ariel University Centre looked at what happens when job hunters include photos with their curricula vitae, as is the norm in much of Europe and Asia. The pair sent fictional applications to over 2,500 real-life vacancies. For each job, they sent two very similar résumés, one with a photo, one without. Subjects had previously been graded for their attractiveness.
For men, the results were as expected. Hunks were more likely to be called for an interview if they included a photo. Ugly men were better off not including one. However, for women this was reversed. Attractive females were less likely to be offered an interview if they included a mugshot. When applying directly to a company (rather than through an agency) an attractive woman would need to send out 11 CVs on average before getting an interview; an equally qualified plain one just seven.
At first, Mr Ruffle considered what he calls the “dumb-blonde hypothesis”—that people assume beautiful women to be stupid. However, the photos had also been rated on how intelligent people thought each subject looked; there was no correlation between perceived intellect and pulchritude.
So the cause of the discrimination must lie elsewhere. Human resources departments tend to be staffed mostly by women. Indeed, in the Israeli study, 93% of those tasked with selecting whom to invite for an interview were female. The researchers’ unavoidable—and unpalatable—conclusion is that old-fashioned jealousy led the women to discriminate against pretty candidates.
So should attractive women simply attach photos that make them look dowdy? No. Better, says Mr Ruffle, to discourage the practice of including a photo altogether. Companies might even consider the anonymous model used in the Belgian public sector, where CVs do not even include the candidate’s name. http://www.economist.com/node/21551535?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/ar/donthatemebecauseimbeautiful
Bradley Ruffle at Ben-Gurion University and Ze’ev Shtudiner at Ariel University Centre looked at what happens when job hunters include photos with their curricula vitae, as is the norm in much of Europe and Asia. The pair sent fictional applications to over 2,500 real-life vacancies. For each job, they sent two very similar résumés, one with a photo, one without. Subjects had previously been graded for their attractiveness.
For men, the results were as expected. Hunks were more likely to be called for an interview if they included a photo. Ugly men were better off not including one. However, for women this was reversed. Attractive females were less likely to be offered an interview if they included a mugshot. When applying directly to a company (rather than through an agency) an attractive woman would need to send out 11 CVs on average before getting an interview; an equally qualified plain one just seven.
At first, Mr Ruffle considered what he calls the “dumb-blonde hypothesis”—that people assume beautiful women to be stupid. However, the photos had also been rated on how intelligent people thought each subject looked; there was no correlation between perceived intellect and pulchritude.
So the cause of the discrimination must lie elsewhere. Human resources departments tend to be staffed mostly by women. Indeed, in the Israeli study, 93% of those tasked with selecting whom to invite for an interview were female. The researchers’ unavoidable—and unpalatable—conclusion is that old-fashioned jealousy led the women to discriminate against pretty candidates.
So should attractive women simply attach photos that make them look dowdy? No. Better, says Mr Ruffle, to discourage the practice of including a photo altogether. Companies might even consider the anonymous model used in the Belgian public sector, where CVs do not even include the candidate’s name. http://www.economist.com/node/21551535?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/ar/donthatemebecauseimbeautiful
DreamWorks Resume suggestions
Some resume advice from an internship supervisor at DreamWorks:
People read Right to left / top to bottom
Top left is most important
Tell me about yourself in 300 words total on one page
Only include highlights of career
List in order of relevance to what job
Doesn't have to be chronological
For internships - education comes first, put graduation date to make it clear you-are you still in school?
For jobs - works comes first
Sell me on how the exp you have is relevant to the job-- Make dairy queen relevant (ex: promoted in job while going to school)
You must make it simple to catch the gatekeepers eye
Did you include technical skills? Software and such to show technical skills "Strong knowledge of.."
"Familiar with..."
Include student org involvement as experience
Only include study abroad if it's related to the internship
Marketing students and graphic design should have more than a black and white resume, show your design skills - little pop of color at least
Don't include salary requirements- put negotiable if asked
Avoid acronyms
What the company does and what you did there
Things you learned for the job you want - what you would not know if you hadn't had that experience
List projects and why it is relevant
Send PDFs rather than Word doc so you avoid font issues including cover letters
Gmail image could include photo
Is it easy to read?
Show it to someone who doesn't work or study in your field. If they have any questions, something they don't understand, then change it
Don't include references unless asked
Does it look good when you print it out?
If awards are included, then you need to tell what the relevance is for the internship or job
Never have two page resume
No perfumes
Bring copies of your resume and other material with you to interviews
Research the company ahead of time
Be prepared but not overly rehearsed
The more you say, the more likely they will find something they don't like
Ask for feedback
Ask for next steps and when is it OK to follow up
Don't take the decision personally
People read Right to left / top to bottom
Top left is most important
Tell me about yourself in 300 words total on one page
Only include highlights of career
List in order of relevance to what job
Doesn't have to be chronological
For internships - education comes first, put graduation date to make it clear you-are you still in school?
For jobs - works comes first
Sell me on how the exp you have is relevant to the job-- Make dairy queen relevant (ex: promoted in job while going to school)
You must make it simple to catch the gatekeepers eye
Did you include technical skills? Software and such to show technical skills "Strong knowledge of.."
"Familiar with..."
Include student org involvement as experience
Only include study abroad if it's related to the internship
Marketing students and graphic design should have more than a black and white resume, show your design skills - little pop of color at least
Don't include salary requirements- put negotiable if asked
Avoid acronyms
What the company does and what you did there
Things you learned for the job you want - what you would not know if you hadn't had that experience
List projects and why it is relevant
Send PDFs rather than Word doc so you avoid font issues including cover letters
Gmail image could include photo
Is it easy to read?
Show it to someone who doesn't work or study in your field. If they have any questions, something they don't understand, then change it
Don't include references unless asked
Does it look good when you print it out?
If awards are included, then you need to tell what the relevance is for the internship or job
Never have two page resume
No perfumes
Bring copies of your resume and other material with you to interviews
Research the company ahead of time
Be prepared but not overly rehearsed
The more you say, the more likely they will find something they don't like
Ask for feedback
Ask for next steps and when is it OK to follow up
Don't take the decision personally
Viral Infographic Resume
Sister site The Huffington Post just went on a journalistic hiring spree (hide your bloggers/hide your editors), scooping up New York Times editor Maura Egan, who will be Deputy Entertainment and Culture Editor under recent hire and fellow NYT alum John Montorio, along with Reason’s Radley Balko who joins as a Criminal Justice Reporter, Rebecca Carroll who comes on as Culture Editor of Black Voices, GOOD’s Amanda Millner Fairbanks as Education Reporter, and Jaweed Kaleem as Religion Reporter.
But the most interesting HuffPo new hire doesn’t bring the added name value of an old media publication or any publication for that matter. It’s Christopher Spurlock, a journalism student at the University of Missouri, whose ambitious resume as an infographic was posted to Huffington Post College on February 25th, and proceeded to go viral after Huffington Post Traffic and Trends editor Craig Kanalley tweeted it out to his 5,800 followers.
The original post, which amassing thousands of Facebook “Likes,” hundreds of tweets, and tens of thousands of pageviews, eventually convinced Kanalley to bring on Spurlock as a Huffington Post Infographic Design Editor, but not before Kanalley wrote a followup post “How to Make Your Resume Stand Out: 5 Tips From Chris Spurlock.” Indeed.
Kanalley weighed in on the hire, “It’s a step towards high quality content, stuff that people like. I definitely think it’s a continued move towards better journalism and a better site for us.”
The fact that a news organization as large as The Huffington Post is hiring into a full-time Infographic Design Editor position is a serious indicator of the state of journalism to come, and not necessarily in a bad way. After all, you can’t game searches for infographics like you can for posts about what time the Super Bowl starts. People actually have to want to share them in order for a publication to derive traffic benefits.
And almost everyone, but especially the self taught Spurlock, loves infographics. Spurlock’s so obsessed that he eventually wants to build a J-School curriculum for people interesting in making visual displays of factual information.
Says Spurlock, “I always keep a Twitter search handy for the word ‘infographic,’ and every day there’s something that’s huge. That’s been retweeted a thousand times.” Imagine his amazement when his own creation eventually met with the same fate.
“It’s something new and developing,” says Spurlock on his unique niche, “So there’s not really a place for it yet.“ When asked what his advice would be for J-School students trying to replicate his mainstream media success, “Do something different. You just got to get noticed, and it’s hard when the number of Journalism grads is increasing and the number of jobs is decreasing. But if you want someone to pay attention to you you have to make them.”
Welcome to the Internet, Chris.
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