A New Year, A New Job, A New Career, Where to Start

2013, a new year.  Maybe you are still looking for a job or you feel like a change.  Whatever the reason, new years, new seasons tend to encourage us to start looking at lifestyle and goal changes.  As in everything I do in life, I make a list.  Whether it's in a little notebook or on your iPad, start jotting down things that can help you in your job hunting or career change.

1. Update your resume.  Always have your resume ready to go.  You never know when or where you will hear about the perfect job that you have been looking for.  It could be at the coffee shop, lunch with friends, on the internet (job boards, twitter, facebook, LinkedIn).  Have a good look at the format:
• is the font easy to read (arial, tahoma), minimum 10 pt, black (for most professions:  IT, Finance) 
• keep the format simple:  profile, education, experience
• take out the superflous information:  hobbies, references, pictures, age, etc
• get rid of any fancy boxes, they don't copy over properly and things can be missed
• use tabs and returns, not spaces for formatting.  If you aren't sure how go on to google and take a quick lesson, basic formatting is really quite easy and will save you a ton of time in the long term
• make sure your contact information is up to date and shown on every page
• save as a word document
2. Update your on-line profiles.  Set up new on-line accounts.  Don't have a twitter account, then get one.  Network with your contacts.  Send out a quick "Have a great 2013, btw I am looking to change my career" or "Thinking of changing my career to ... any advice on courses or places to apply".
3. Look at the jobs you have been applying for and be truthful with yourself.  Do you need another certificate or upgrading of your skills, then maybe now is the time to do it.  
4. Check out the job boards and the business section of newspapers, etc to find out what is happening out there.  What's HOT, what's NOT.
5. Volunteering is a great way to meet people and show off your skills.  There isn't a lot of competition in volunteer groups, they are made up of people who want to help other people.  So let them know that you are looking for a job or planning on changing your career.  And to top it off volunteering is good for your self esteem and makes you feel great.

A new year, a new job, a promotion.  Be ready when opportunity knocks.

Happy New Year everyone.

and

Good Luck in your Job Hunting

5 easy to correct Resume Mistakes

How hard can it be to write a resume? You'd be surprised how many resumes I see everyday with these 5 errors that are so easy to correct.

Stop using First Person/Third Person. 

• Your name is at the top of the resume, the last thing the recruiter wants to do is read that "I did this" or "I was".  The only thing worse than this is "John did this" or "Mr. Smith did that".  Your name is at the top of the resume, it doesn't have to be in the body of the resume.
• Replace the nouns with ACTION WORDS.  Completed, Increased, Decreased, Improved, Mentored, Trained - to name just a few.  There are a number of websites out there with 100's of action words to choose from, try this one if you're stuck ActionWords

Aging yourself.

Age discrimination happens.  Make sure you don't fall into the too old pile of discarded resumes. You need to get to the interview stage before hitting the reject pile.  So a couple of simple things to do

• If you graduated before 1990, leave the date off of your degree/diploma.  Just put in the school and your program
• Any positions more than 20 years old, list under a blanket "Previous Positions".  List these companies and positions, but leave off the dates.

List your Achievements not your Duties/Responsibilities:

Your duties/responsibilities are basically the job description.  Employers want to know how you excelled at your duties, "what did you achieve while in this position".  

• Get rid of the line "Duties include" or "Responsibilities include".  Don't even put down "Achievements include".  Just list your achievements.
• How did you go above and beyond your duties/responsibilities.  
• What did you do that improved the processes?
• Did you find problems within the system that you were able to correct to increase productivity?
• Did systems run smoother because of your attention to detail?
• Did you help your employer to:  save/make money, save time, attract/retain customers, improve customer service.

Not tuning your Resume to the Job Posting:

Before sending out your resume, fine tune it to the Job Posting.  If the job posting is looking for specific details then make sure they are in the resume and easy to find.  Don't bury things on the 3rd page that are critical to the posting.

• Profile:  This is a great place to list specific qualifications and skills that they are looking for:
• Five years experience working with Java, J2EE in the financial industry.
• Education:  if they are looking for a degree or certification then put it on the first page where they can see it at a glance.  
• Technologies:  again if they are asking for specific technologies then put it on the first page under a "Technology" category. 
• Key Words:  It seems to be key words are all resume writers talk about nowadays.  They are that important.  So use them, read the job posting and use it to help fine tune your resume.

Layout - keep it simple

• Profile, Education, Technologies, Experience.  These 4 headings cover everything you need on your resume that an employer wants to see/read.
• Use a clean and professional layout.  No boxes, no pictures, no logos.  Employers scan 100's of resumes a day, the last thing they want to do is have to find key information in amongst all the pretty graphics.  
• ATS systems don't necessarily look for MicroSoft logos, but they will look for MCSE, MicroSoft, etc.  If you just put the logo in, it may get overlooked.
• Converting documents from different systems can leave off information if it is not in a simple format.  I have seen boxes in Word get copied over to Lotus Notes without the information inside the box.  Usually you put this information in the box because you feel it is important.  Well guess what, it wasn't copied over and now can't be found by the search system.
• Clean, white background, black type, bold, CAPS, italics (if you have to).  
• Easy to read font - tahoma, arial, 10 pt, no smaller than 12 pt (think of the reading glass generation)
• Yes I know the above sounds boring, but it is effective.

Good Luck Job Hunting

Is a Self Employed Contractor Resume different than a Permanent Employee Resume

Self-employed contractors resumes can be very different from a permanent employee. The major differences are in the number of positions they have over their lifetime, especially if they are a government contractor.

Contractors could have 4 or 5 different positions in a year, so over a 10 year span this could be a lot of positions. It's important that potential employers realize that you don't hop around from one job to another.  You are a contractor, you probably have your own company. So the first thing you do is put your positions under either a "self employed" heading or "your company's name". This shows stability and dedication in your career.

Check out my infographic below and see if it helps you set up your resume. And don't forget the rules for all resumes:

• keep the fonts the same, nothing too fancy or too small
• no pictures or logos
• stay away from tables and boxes they don't copy/scan over very well
• use ACTION WORDS
• Achievements instead of duties
• send it as a word document

How do you get a Recruiter to notice you???

Recruiters receive 100's of emailed requests and resumes every day. Not only are they working on current positions, they are also trying to form relationships for future endeavours.

Applying for a Current Position:
The most  important thing a recruiter needs is up to date information.  This is where the email becomes very important.  You want to grab them right away.  Keep your email short and sweet.  A one line introduction  with the following information:

• Availability.  If they are looking for a contractor to start immediately, then put that in the email.  
• two weeks notice
• immediately
• current contract ending mm/dd/yy
• Location:  If your home is in Markham and the position is in Mississauga, be sure to say:
• willing to commute
• willing to relocate (especially if the position is out of province)
• or put in a specific location, ie downtown Toronto
• Salary:  Give them a range.  Most positions advertised have a salary on them, if this is acceptable to you then put it in the email.  

The next thing you want to focus on are the keywords in the resume that relate to education and skills:

• Education:  Tell them you have a degree from Waterloo or you are a "Sun Certified Java Developer", etc
• Technical Skills:  5 years experience working with IBM WebSphere in a Windows environment
• Management Skills:  10 years leading teams developing ......using .....

Then again a 1 line closing sentence.  "I can be reached at .........  Thank you for your time"

So remember:

• 1 short introductory sentence
• 6 bullets briefly detailing the information that makes you qualified for a specific position
• 1 short closing sentence.

Future Possibilities

If you are sending your resume to a recruiter for future possibilities, then use the same format as above, but instead of your skills detailing specific keywords in the advertisement, put down your strongest qualifications and/or the skills you would like to be working on more.  Another key item the recruiter would like to know is if you are looking at permanent or contract positions or both.

Good luck Job Hunting

Businesses increasing their use of Remote Staff

Starting off my career in computer programming at Ontario Hydro, I watched the 80's bring in some of the first contract workers and consulting houses.  By 1985, I joined the contract team, but still had to go into the office to do my work.  The years progressed, laptops appeared.  We could now take our work home with us.  Then the internet arrived and home/virtual offices are becoming the norm.  The trend is growing as shown in the infographic below.  Are you ready to join the growing number of virtual offices?

Professional Profiles are they important????

You must admit resumes are pretty boring reading, especially when that is what you do all day.  Recruiters and HR employees read through 100's of resumes a day.  OK, read!!!  maybe more like scan.  That is if you are lucky enough to get past their ATS (Applicant Tracking System).  Now you have to grab their attention while they are doing their 10 second scan of your resume.  Sometimes I think Recruiters and HR employees can scan faster than their computer systems. The Professional Profile is the easiest way to entice them to actually read your resume.

The Professional Profile appears right under your name and contact information.  What makes a good professional profile:

• Keep it short:  one or two sentences giving a brief synopsis of your experience; followed by 3 or 4 small bullets of specific detail related to the actual job description if necessary
• Use key words from the job description.  If they are looking for a Java Developer, don't put in the profile that you started out as a Cobol Programmer
• Years of experience in your field
• If they are looking for a specific degree or certificate and you have it, put it in a bullet in your profile

Action words in your profile will give it a little more zing:

• boosted sales by 23%
• implemented an employee incentive program
• set up a new data centre
• maintained 200 desktops
• converted a 1000 desk data centre from windows to 
• increased production
• decreased customer service calls

Detail not to put in your profile include:

• personal information, ie hobbies, number of children, marital status - you get the point.  Truthfully this information doesn't even need to be on your resume
• opinions about anything, 
• that you can work independently, multi task, hard worker, always on time, etc.  These are taken for granted.
• the word "I"

Finally here is a sample professional profile for an IT position at a financial institution.

Java Developer offering a broad technical background working in the financial industry. This includes 7 years of WebSphere development, 3 years WebSphere portal development and 3 years of WebSphere/WebSphere portal administration experience.  

• Bachelors of Computer Science from the University of Western Ontario (if degree needed from job description)
• Certifications include:  (if specified from job description)
• 4 years experience in building mobile web applications.  (keyword from job description)
• In-depth experience in software full life cycle and design patter

A professional profile is just that, a profile, keep it short, to the point and targeting the specific job description you are applying for.  For some more examples check out this webpage http://jobsearch.about.com/od/profiles/a/resume-profile-examples.htm

Good Luck Job Hunting !!

How do you survive a Telephone Interview

Why are telephone interviews so difficult?  They should be so easy - right!!!  Wrong.  That's the first mistake everyone makes.  Now your first and only impression is your telephone manner.  If you treat this interview like it's a "no brainer" then chances are you will not get through to the F2F interview.

Telephone interviews are done to find the candidate that can actually do what the job description asks for and can also do the duties/achievements on his/her resume.   In this day of professional resume writing services companies want to make sure that you have actually done the activities on your resume.

What can you do to make it through the telephone interview:

• First of all treat the telephone interview as seriously as you would a F2F.  This means:
• Get out of your pyjamas.  Dressing for a telephone interview will perk you up and make you feel more professional
• Find a room to take your call in that is quiet and has no distractions (no radio, tv, children, pets)
• If you are going to sit down, then make sure it has a comfortable chair that doesn't allow you to slouch.  
• Try standing and walking around.  Your voice projects better when you are sitting straight or standing.  Talking with your hands will help add personality and animation to your voice as well.  
• The next important thing is to "Be Prepared".  Again treat it like a F2F:
• Study your resume - be able to expand on points in your resume when asked about specifics. 
• Study the job description.
• Think of questions that the interviewer may ask re your resume or job description and practice them. 
• Research the company and make a list of questions, if you don't have time to ask them all during this interview, you will have them ready for your F2F.  
• Use a cheat sheet.  No one can see you, this has it's advantages.  You can have your resume right in front of you.  Write down questions they might ask with the answers beside it.  
• Script your "hello, good morning, thank you for taking the time to interview me".  But remember it's not a play so ad lib as well.
• If possible try and find out who will be interviewing you and their position in the company.  
• Listen to the questions, if you aren't sure then ask them to repeat it.  Pausing to collect your thoughts is ok.  
• Don't get flustered if there are silences, the interviewer will be making notes.  Answer the question and then ask them if they would like more detail.
• Use a headset.  This will allow your hands to be free to take notes and your the reception is usually clearer for both you and the interviewer
• Do a practice phone interview.  Make a list of questions and get a friend or family member to call you and practice, practice, practice.  
• Little things can make a difference:
• Don't multi-task.  If your computer is open, have it open only to your resume or your cheat sheet.  Don't be checking out your email or your baseball scores or the newest sale at Guess.
• Turn off call-waiting on your phone and needless to say if you forgot don't answer it or even look to see who it was.
• Don't eat or smoke while on the phone.  Sips of water are fine if you find it necessary.
• Ask the interviewer for their email address so you can send a thank you note after the interview

Remember be enthusiastic, you applied for this position and you want this job.  You have to get those impressions through with your voice, the person can't see your face.  So smile, laugh and tell them you are looking forward to the F2F.

Good luck job hunting