The "What not to say..." blogs will be dedicated to the random selection of answers to my interview coaching session questions. Can you follow that?!
Question - What steps do you take to reduce personal stress during the working day?
What Not To Say - "I tend to Squeeze my squishy ball"
Luckily for that respondent he went on to receive a good 2 hours of interview counseling!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
The Questionnaire Laid Bare
As part of the information discovery process, I usually ask clients to bring along to our meeting any additional information they feel is useful, relevant or in some other way important. Last month, one of my clients produced an old "questionnaire" they had been asked to fill our by a resume writing firm about 8 years ago.
The first thing that struck me about the document was how impersonal it all was. Stock questions, soliciting the inevitable stock answers, strengths, weaknesses, lists - endless lists of attributes to circle. What i was looking at, was a template to build a template.
The end result, the resume, was as bland and uninspiring as you'd expect from such a process. I was amazed by the blatant listing of attributes throughout the cover letter and resume without any supporting narrative to put the clients skills in context.
Here's a section from the cover letter;
"I am a great communicator, can multi-task, give and take orders, have listening skills, organizational skills, planning skills, speak french and have good computer skills".
The above extract is absolutely meaningless without context. It looks like every other D.I.Y. cover letter project out there and was clearly lifted verbatim from the questionnaire and deposited unceremoniously into the cover letter.
Is that what you really want from a process and service charged with the responsibility of demonstrating your unique qualities to a prospective hiring manager? Templates are for the masses - let everyone else use them.
The first thing that struck me about the document was how impersonal it all was. Stock questions, soliciting the inevitable stock answers, strengths, weaknesses, lists - endless lists of attributes to circle. What i was looking at, was a template to build a template.
The end result, the resume, was as bland and uninspiring as you'd expect from such a process. I was amazed by the blatant listing of attributes throughout the cover letter and resume without any supporting narrative to put the clients skills in context.
Here's a section from the cover letter;
"I am a great communicator, can multi-task, give and take orders, have listening skills, organizational skills, planning skills, speak french and have good computer skills".
The above extract is absolutely meaningless without context. It looks like every other D.I.Y. cover letter project out there and was clearly lifted verbatim from the questionnaire and deposited unceremoniously into the cover letter.
Is that what you really want from a process and service charged with the responsibility of demonstrating your unique qualities to a prospective hiring manager? Templates are for the masses - let everyone else use them.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
It's Good To Talk...
I've just come off the phone to a client who was weighing up his options about whether to work with me or one of our competitors.
His deliberation was in part, based around the process each firm employed en-route to gathering the information needed to complete the project. So we had a nice little chat!
Our competitor likes to employ the 'questionnaire' method. The questionnaire, I was told, would require the client to spend between one and two hours in front of his computer answering questions about his work history. After this was completed, it would be sent to the company and the document would be pieced together around the information supplied.
Our approach is entirely different. Having worked in the recruiting and staffing industry as an executive recruiter over the last 10 year gave me the opportunity (on a daily basis) to extract detailed career information from top executives in order to determine whether or not they had the skills my corporate client needed to fill a particular role.
It is the ability to extract pertinent career information by talking with clients, combined with an expertise in understanding the best way to present this information to a hiring manager, that made me such a successful recruiter. It is this same combination of skills and experience that sets us apart from our resume writing competition. Many "resume writers" have little idea of how to ask for information or converse with someone one-on-one about the detail of their work history. This is because so many of them are writing resumes 'on the side' and have virtually no relevant professional experience or they lack the confidence or skill-set to be able to do so in a one-on-one situation.
We don't ask you to fill out questionnaires because we have the ability to get the information we need by talking with you! Discussing your career history, hopes and goals with an experienced professional skilled in this process can uncover key details that will form the basis of our project outline and branding strategy.
Our process makes for an enlivened and dynamic discussion where ideas flow freely, interesting facts or accomplishments are remembered and work history 'problem areas' can be openly discussed and strategized. Such synergy cannot be realised if you're staring at a computer screen typing out standard answers to a series of mundane flat, fixed questions.
As Bob Hoskins used to say in the BT Telecom adverts aired in the U.K. - "it's good to talk". My new client agreed!
His deliberation was in part, based around the process each firm employed en-route to gathering the information needed to complete the project. So we had a nice little chat!
Our competitor likes to employ the 'questionnaire' method. The questionnaire, I was told, would require the client to spend between one and two hours in front of his computer answering questions about his work history. After this was completed, it would be sent to the company and the document would be pieced together around the information supplied.
Our approach is entirely different. Having worked in the recruiting and staffing industry as an executive recruiter over the last 10 year gave me the opportunity (on a daily basis) to extract detailed career information from top executives in order to determine whether or not they had the skills my corporate client needed to fill a particular role.
It is the ability to extract pertinent career information by talking with clients, combined with an expertise in understanding the best way to present this information to a hiring manager, that made me such a successful recruiter. It is this same combination of skills and experience that sets us apart from our resume writing competition. Many "resume writers" have little idea of how to ask for information or converse with someone one-on-one about the detail of their work history. This is because so many of them are writing resumes 'on the side' and have virtually no relevant professional experience or they lack the confidence or skill-set to be able to do so in a one-on-one situation.
We don't ask you to fill out questionnaires because we have the ability to get the information we need by talking with you! Discussing your career history, hopes and goals with an experienced professional skilled in this process can uncover key details that will form the basis of our project outline and branding strategy.
Our process makes for an enlivened and dynamic discussion where ideas flow freely, interesting facts or accomplishments are remembered and work history 'problem areas' can be openly discussed and strategized. Such synergy cannot be realised if you're staring at a computer screen typing out standard answers to a series of mundane flat, fixed questions.
As Bob Hoskins used to say in the BT Telecom adverts aired in the U.K. - "it's good to talk". My new client agreed!
Thursday, January 7, 2010
New Year! New Resume! New Job!
We've been rushed off of our feet lately by a deluge of pro-active job seekers desperate to improve their chances of landing their dream job by having a complete resume and cover letter re-work.
New Year! New Resume! New Job! seems to be the mantra, and I can only applaud them for their foresight. I was speaking to a real live-wire sales manager earlier this week and he said that over the holidays, when contemplating the new year ahead, the thought of labouring away in his current position for another 12 months cast a dark shadow over the festive celebrations. He resolved to strike out immediately after the break and commit 100% to the pursuit of a role with a better work/life balance.
Judging by the ever decreasing number of available appointments I have over the next 2 weeks, he certainly isn't the only one. That first day back to the grind on a cold January morning is usually enough to put even the most talented procrastinator into job hunt overdrive!
I've been asked if I'll blog about employee issues such as work/life balance etc this year and yes, it is on my 'to do list', although it is free time dependent. Thanks for your suggestions - keep them coming.
Happy New Year to all! I hope your career dreams come true in 2010.
New Year! New Resume! New Job! seems to be the mantra, and I can only applaud them for their foresight. I was speaking to a real live-wire sales manager earlier this week and he said that over the holidays, when contemplating the new year ahead, the thought of labouring away in his current position for another 12 months cast a dark shadow over the festive celebrations. He resolved to strike out immediately after the break and commit 100% to the pursuit of a role with a better work/life balance.
Judging by the ever decreasing number of available appointments I have over the next 2 weeks, he certainly isn't the only one. That first day back to the grind on a cold January morning is usually enough to put even the most talented procrastinator into job hunt overdrive!
I've been asked if I'll blog about employee issues such as work/life balance etc this year and yes, it is on my 'to do list', although it is free time dependent. Thanks for your suggestions - keep them coming.
Happy New Year to all! I hope your career dreams come true in 2010.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Cookie Cutter = Job Hunt Stutter
The whole idea behind seeking professional assistance to create a powerful resume and portfolio of career documents is to get ahead of the competition. You do this by crafting a document that truly represents your strengths and achievements while never losing sight of the expectations of those likely to be reading it.
I was talking with a client who had previously sent off her resume to a multi-national corporation that promised to deliver a resume and cover letter for $50 based on answers to a questionnaire she had to fill out online. If you needed it real quick -for an extra $10 you could get it within 4 hours!
When my client received her freshly minted document, she was surprised to find that the resume she put together herself looked better than the resume that had just popped into her inbox!
Companies that claim they can produce a resume document without speaking to you are going to regurgitate the content of your old resume and toss it into a cookie cutter template. What else can they do?
If you've read my previous blog entry "Content is King", you'll already know why this mass produced, cheap, cookie-cutter approach will pretty much guarantee a stuttering continuation of your job search. If you think it saves money in the short term - consider the long term impact a poorly crafted document can have on your ability to secure an interview for a job that you really want!
If you have decided that you need assistance in crafting your documents, consider partnering with a consultant who will take the time to understand your career, aims and professional accomplishments. If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well!
I was talking with a client who had previously sent off her resume to a multi-national corporation that promised to deliver a resume and cover letter for $50 based on answers to a questionnaire she had to fill out online. If you needed it real quick -for an extra $10 you could get it within 4 hours!
When my client received her freshly minted document, she was surprised to find that the resume she put together herself looked better than the resume that had just popped into her inbox!
Companies that claim they can produce a resume document without speaking to you are going to regurgitate the content of your old resume and toss it into a cookie cutter template. What else can they do?
If you've read my previous blog entry "Content is King", you'll already know why this mass produced, cheap, cookie-cutter approach will pretty much guarantee a stuttering continuation of your job search. If you think it saves money in the short term - consider the long term impact a poorly crafted document can have on your ability to secure an interview for a job that you really want!
If you have decided that you need assistance in crafting your documents, consider partnering with a consultant who will take the time to understand your career, aims and professional accomplishments. If a job's worth doing, it's worth doing well!
Not All Resumes Are Created Equal!
I was contacted recently by a client looking to update their resume. The client wanted us to add in his most recent position but did not want us to re-write the resume as it had been "professionally done" by another resume writing firm.
After reviewing his documents, I was dumbfounded.
The format of the "professionally written" cover letter was unlike anything I had seen in a decade of reviewing resumes! The letter itself started more than half way down the page, with the entire top half dedicated to the inappropriate structuring of personal contact information and a sequence of bizarre spacing that made me wonder if a high school student had attempted to format it. The content of the letter repeated the detail found in the "Summary" section of the resume - never a good idea for reasons that will be explained in a future blog.
The resume itself looked like any other resume I've seen where job seekers have attempted to 'give it a go' themselves by using online templates and such like and the client had actually paid money for someone to produce this for him!
The content was bland, uninspiring and merely listed basic duties and alluded to "bringing value" and a "terrific ability to connect with people", without ever expanding upon these statements with facts, results, achievements or any other tangible benefit resulting from his corporate contributions or personal attributes.
The professional experience section gave as much weighting to his post-graduate entry level position 12 years prior as it did to his most recent advanced professional experience. They were afforded 4 bullet points each. WHY?
Tenses fluctuated from past to present within the space of a few words, full stops were missing in action, there was even a section on there where they had used a smaller text size to squeeze it all onto 2 pages. It looked terrible and I felt very sorry for him.
Here was a very nice guy trying to make his way and advance his career and who had invested in a service he thought would serve him well in front of hiring managers. Instead he was given a resume document that looks like he had thrown it together himself and a cover letter a high school student would receive a 'D' for (or a clip round the ear if it was 1960).
As much as I wanted to help him, I couldn't consent to working on the project as I could not associate my business with that resume unless I was tasked with completely re-working it. This was something which the client was unwilling to do as he had already paid for it to be "professionally done". I understood his predicament.
Choose your resume writing partner carefully. If a resume writer does not have an extensive prior professional background in recruiting, then they cannot possibly know how a diverse range of employers across a variety of industries hire, who they hire and why they hire them.
My background affords me the luxury of knowing what works and what most certainly does not work when it comes to grabbing the attention of a hiring manager.
Watch out for a future blog entry detailing 'what you should look for in a resume writer' and how 'telling isn't selling'!
After reviewing his documents, I was dumbfounded.
The format of the "professionally written" cover letter was unlike anything I had seen in a decade of reviewing resumes! The letter itself started more than half way down the page, with the entire top half dedicated to the inappropriate structuring of personal contact information and a sequence of bizarre spacing that made me wonder if a high school student had attempted to format it. The content of the letter repeated the detail found in the "Summary" section of the resume - never a good idea for reasons that will be explained in a future blog.
The resume itself looked like any other resume I've seen where job seekers have attempted to 'give it a go' themselves by using online templates and such like and the client had actually paid money for someone to produce this for him!
The content was bland, uninspiring and merely listed basic duties and alluded to "bringing value" and a "terrific ability to connect with people", without ever expanding upon these statements with facts, results, achievements or any other tangible benefit resulting from his corporate contributions or personal attributes.
The professional experience section gave as much weighting to his post-graduate entry level position 12 years prior as it did to his most recent advanced professional experience. They were afforded 4 bullet points each. WHY?
Tenses fluctuated from past to present within the space of a few words, full stops were missing in action, there was even a section on there where they had used a smaller text size to squeeze it all onto 2 pages. It looked terrible and I felt very sorry for him.
Here was a very nice guy trying to make his way and advance his career and who had invested in a service he thought would serve him well in front of hiring managers. Instead he was given a resume document that looks like he had thrown it together himself and a cover letter a high school student would receive a 'D' for (or a clip round the ear if it was 1960).
As much as I wanted to help him, I couldn't consent to working on the project as I could not associate my business with that resume unless I was tasked with completely re-working it. This was something which the client was unwilling to do as he had already paid for it to be "professionally done". I understood his predicament.
Choose your resume writing partner carefully. If a resume writer does not have an extensive prior professional background in recruiting, then they cannot possibly know how a diverse range of employers across a variety of industries hire, who they hire and why they hire them.
My background affords me the luxury of knowing what works and what most certainly does not work when it comes to grabbing the attention of a hiring manager.
Watch out for a future blog entry detailing 'what you should look for in a resume writer' and how 'telling isn't selling'!
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
300:1
It wasn't so long ago that the buoyant job market and apparent shortage of qualified candidates spun a tale that brought the phrases "Gen X" and "Gen Y" into the mainstream lexicon.
Employee wages and benefits were on the rise as forward thinking companies embraced the realities of the market and took concrete steps to offer innovative incentives or sweeteners to make sure they snared the best candidates for themselves. Many business and HR publications ran headlines that screamed about "skill shortages" and space fillers such as "top tips for employee retention" flooded the media. Then came the financial collapse..
Now, it's a different story. These days I'm hearing the same thing time and again - "competition is fierce"! Case in point, I was talking with a resume client last week about this issue. She works for one of the larger finance firms in town and her company had been actively recruiting for a low level 'teller' position. More than 300 applications rolled through the door and the posting still had a week to run!
How do you stand out among the crowd? If you're application was one of 300+ - what would separate you from your peers? What would catch the eye of a hiring manager as they spend their 30 seconds skimming your profile and resume?
Having your resume professionally crafted will certainly give you an edge on your competition! The aim is to get you an interview, make the final cut, then let your masterful interview technique and solid interview preparation dazzle the awaiting panel of judges. If your resume isn't as competent as it should be then you will certainly be marginalized by applicants who may be no more qualified than you but who have invested in creating a professional portfolio that is presented in an easy to read, eye catching format.
As I say in my marketing material - "Partnering with us could be the best career decision you ever make!". I wasn't exaggerating!
Employee wages and benefits were on the rise as forward thinking companies embraced the realities of the market and took concrete steps to offer innovative incentives or sweeteners to make sure they snared the best candidates for themselves. Many business and HR publications ran headlines that screamed about "skill shortages" and space fillers such as "top tips for employee retention" flooded the media. Then came the financial collapse..
Now, it's a different story. These days I'm hearing the same thing time and again - "competition is fierce"! Case in point, I was talking with a resume client last week about this issue. She works for one of the larger finance firms in town and her company had been actively recruiting for a low level 'teller' position. More than 300 applications rolled through the door and the posting still had a week to run!
How do you stand out among the crowd? If you're application was one of 300+ - what would separate you from your peers? What would catch the eye of a hiring manager as they spend their 30 seconds skimming your profile and resume?
Having your resume professionally crafted will certainly give you an edge on your competition! The aim is to get you an interview, make the final cut, then let your masterful interview technique and solid interview preparation dazzle the awaiting panel of judges. If your resume isn't as competent as it should be then you will certainly be marginalized by applicants who may be no more qualified than you but who have invested in creating a professional portfolio that is presented in an easy to read, eye catching format.
As I say in my marketing material - "Partnering with us could be the best career decision you ever make!". I wasn't exaggerating!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)