Chris Wellington “The Recruiting Guy”, President, The Wellington Group

“optimistic (people) are more likely to create their own luck”

This was a great quote I read in a #BNET article yesterday, and yes it had me up all night thinking, “What if all job seekers behaved this way?” Now before you take major offense, stop and think about your attitude and approach to finding a new job. You don’t have to be a displaced worker. No, all job seekers from Executive level to college grads fall into my post. Most people I connect with, literally dozens on a daily basis, for the most part don’t allow for much work, optimism and even fun in their job search. Many people tend to put in little effort and have an unrealistic expectation that “HR” or a “Headhunter” will just pick their resume out of a sea of paper/emails/HRIS profiles and, wah-lah I am hired.

The problem with this false expectation is that people don’t realize just how many OTHER people are looking for a new job or looking to change jobs, so any great employment brand or true recruiting professional is inundated with 100’s (if not thousands) of applicants each day. To that end, those who are bitter or show less than pleasant attitudes, lazy in their application or follow-up, or allow their inner emotions to control their outer attitude to the people coordinating the effort on their behalf, well you get to see the delete key.

Yes I said it; selection is at an all time high!

So how do you navigate this challenge? First start by preparing mentally, that finding a job is real work. You have to develop and execute a strategy; the right tools, a plan for using those tools, network, network, network and follow-up to show you are different from the 300 others who sent a mass LinkedIn message or email (see my previous post on “Don’t Send Your Resume to 50 Recruiters at a Time!”).

As you work through this challenge, be overly optimistic, positive and even contagious with those whom you interact. The receptionist where you dropped off your resume or met as you went in to interview, the recruiter who you have talked with three times about the job (if they are any good), peers that you network with and all the new people you meet while you are on this journey. Put in your mind each morning that you will show a smile and have a great attitude and follow-up, even if not selected for the job. Heck, many times the first person who is selected does not take the offer…are you number two in line?

Also prepare yourself each day on the amount of time and energy you will invest on your job search. I highly caution you not to make it sporadic or from the hip. Calendar out the times each day you will look at your job search agents, alerts, job boards, the people you are following on LinkedIn or the Ladders. See what is new and relevant to your background, move on from those opportunities that are not! Have a well developed and written resume, one which you can tweak to the job you are applying for and speaks to you being a fit for this need.

OK, enough of my rant for the day. After all, I may just get you on the line 3 times as we work through your next career opportunity! But as we do, expect for me to put some work back on your plate to ensure we are making the right match. For as my grandmother would say if I took too long of a break from chopping wood in Alaska, “It’s not going to get done by itself honeyboy, you have to get off your toosh and put some effort into it.”

Good luck in your job search, but take the time to do it right!

Chris

For questions or help on this and many other ideas on how to make your career search more effective contact the staff at The Wellington Group @ info@twgrecruiters.com  or visit The Career Store.

Chris Wellington “The Recruiting Guy”, President, The Wellington Group

OK job seekers…this one is for you! Here is a quick tip to help you stop some bad habits we are seeing in the World of Work or avoid them and put yourself ahead of the competition when it comes to applying to a job either with a professional recruiter, staffing company and even the Human Resources department.

Here is the scenario…

Jane sets out this weekend to apply to all the jobs that she has been finding on-line or through some sort of job alert strategy she has in place. She amasses all the individual email addresses and even the “apply to” or “hr@” and attaches her resume, ready to send. Jane hits send, with all 50+ contacts copied, CCed. See, she has put some very valuable time into perfecting her resume or has perhaps hired a professional to write her resume. So she is very proud of it and is sure that when all these people see Jane’s email, her week will be full of calls. Right?

Wrong! Here is the problem. While she did all the right actions to find a new job; set up alerts, targeted her niche and areas she wants to work, gathered contact email information or apply to email address, etc. She did not put in the extra effort to send an individual email to each contact or job opportunity. Instead, she mass emailed the entire group, hoping it would be seen.

Unfortunately when you do this, the recruiter seeing it hits delete as they feel you are just reaching out for anything OR that you applied to competing recruiters, the hiring company, etc. The ATS system, HRIS tool or even Outlook on the receiver’s end sees this as spam and tucks it away into a neat little folder or completely abandons the email message into the black hole of the internet. Jane’s resume is never really looked at by anyone, and she never does actually “apply to” a job for it won’t go through the system with this approach. Ouch right? Below are some tricks to avoid this from happening.

How should you send out your resume?

1. Send to one contact, recruiter or job opportunity at a time
2. Take the time to make sure your resume summary, bio or intro talks to the job and company you are applying
3. In your email, write a brief summary of why you for that job; skills, experience, education, etc. Bullet point out the critical areas is most ideal
4. Select the “read receipt” option before you send, at the least you know if someone did view your resume
5. Follow-up with a call within 24 hours to ensure your resume was able to be seen, many times it may get bumped out of the tool, dumped into spam, over-looked, or even deleted without review

Take the few extra minutes and put some thought and time into each resume you send out or job you apply to, put yourself ahead of the competing job seekers. After all, you have done this much work and a couple minutes more here and there to better your chances can’t hurt.

Good luck with your job search!

Chris

For questions or help on this and many other ideas on how to make your career search more effective contact the staff at The Wellington Group at info@twgrecruiters.com  or visit The Career Store.