Is Your Executive Job Search in Limbo?

Jessica Holbrook Hernandez of Great Resumes Fast

Executive job seekers have learned over the past few years that a search at any professional level can be challenging in a tough job market. If enough time passes, it could seem like the search is in complete limbo.

Of course, no job search is perfect. No matter how amazing your qualifications appear, it can be tough to secure a job against other highly qualified candidates. But by refining your resume writing and networking skills, you may be able to improve a search that seems to be stalling. Continue Reading

Your Job Interview: Preparation Meets Opportunity

Congratulations!  You have finally landed a job interview.  Now, the next step is preparing to show the interviewer that you are the best candidate for the job.  With good preparation, you have an opportunity to leave a favorable impression that could lead to a new job. Continue Reading

Job Search – It’s Not Who You Know, It’s Who Knows You

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” – Mark Twain

One of my friends has been spending a lot of time building his LinkedIn contacts. He’s been working for over 25 years and is in the “500+” club on LinkedIn. He is in the process of looking for a job and, like all good job searchers should, he’s tried to leverage his network big time. Whenever he applies for a position he checks his contacts for direct connections at that company and lets his contacts know. Similarly, if he gets an interview, he will try to leverage his contacts as well,  going to “2″ level (connected through someone you know) or even “3″ level (connected through someone you know that knows someone – and no, I’m not kidding). For all of his work, this tactic does not really seem to help that much. What he has found very effective is leads from people who know his background and the work he’s done. Now I’m not suggesting that you ignore your contacts when interviewing or applying, but your greatest resource are those that know first hand what you are best at (so don’t expect too much help from your grandmother’s friend who happens to work at a company where you’ve applied). So where am I going with this? Read on. Continue Reading

Patience is a Virtue (but a job would be better) – Wish Upon a Job Part III

“The first rule of business is: Do other men for they would do you.” – Charles Dickens

A friend of mine found out that their job would be ending in 6 to 12 months. That sounded like more than enough time to find a great job with time to spare. Plenty of time to be patient and pick the best opportunity. Of course, that was 5 months ago and now it looks like their job will end in another 2 to 3 months. Where did all of that time go? Well I can tell you it was not spent looking for a job. When I asked her how many of her target companies has she contacted, she looked like I was speaking in tongues (“target companies?” her eyes seemed to say).  We’ve all been in that situation where we had lots of time to get something done and we squandered it, and then we scramble to make up for lost time. If you are serious about finding a new job, you must treat each day as if it was your last day employed. And if you are already out of work . . . Continue Reading

7 Tips For Getting the Most Out of Your Internship

4 Job Hunting Tips for Recent College Grads

· You may have more experience than you realize – While recent college grads are likely to highlight internships and part-time jobs on their resumes, they may not know that many employers will consider volunteer work (53 percent), class work (33 percent), managing activities for sororities or fraternities (26 percent) and sports (20 percent) as relevant experience. One-in-ten employers (12 percent) would also consider social media (personal or school-related blogs, social networking pages) to qualify as relevant experience.

· Expand your network of contacts online and offline – The number one way employers recruit recent college grads is through employee referrals (49 percent) followed by postings on online job sites (42 percent). Continue Reading

Selling Yourself Short – 5 Ways to Promote Your Job Search

“We must become the change we want to see.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Team leader or “individual contributor”? Manager or supporter?

Successful organizations are filled with all personality types. The best leaders in the world would be very unsuccessful if they had no followers.

When you are looking for a job, it is no time to be modest. You need to be your biggest cheerleader and sell yourself to whomever will listen. And, while you need to take credit for all of your achievements, you also need to be careful not to exaggerate your achievements to the “unbelievable” level. Continue Reading

Tips for a Successful Internship

Photo of walking uphill through snow courtesy of Shutterstock

I graduated from college way, way back in 1988. Yup, I’m 42 years old. That makes me ancient to virtually every student on a college campus. Back in my day, we walked 12 miles to school, through eight feet of snow, with no shoes, it was uphill in both directions, and we loved it. Oops. That was in the days of my grandparents. But I digress.

Very few Gen X’ers like me had internships. Those of us who graduated with any work experience tended to have jobs that had little to nothing to do with our career aspirations. Those going into accounting waited tables or stocked shelves, for example. Gen Y’ers are completely different. They understand that in order to have a reasonable chance of finding a good job upon graduation that they must complete at least one and preferably multiple internships. And employers are catching on too. Some 50 percent of employers expect a college graduate to have completed at least one internship. Indeed, 20 percent of employers expect a college graduate to have completed two internships. How times change.

So what should a college student to ensure a successful internship? Continue Reading

Where the Jobs Are

A recent study that addresses the recruiting trends for next year was just released by Michigan State University. The study showed some surprising results, given the turbulent job market, and it has implications for all young adults.
First, overall hiring is expected to decrease by 1% next year. Not a huge surprise. But what is surprising is where the hiring is expected to take place.
There are three types of employers who are expected to hire next year:

• Those that need global talent
• Those that need workers to replace boomers (example: the federal government), and
• Small, fast growing employers (example: the video game industry)

In fact, companies who have between 54 and 300 employees are expected to increase hiring next year by 7%.
So, what does this mean for those young professionals who are entering the workforce for the first time or for those who are looking for their second job?
It means that you are going to have to work harder to land the job. Typically, small companies do not have a strong on campus presence (or any at all, for that matter) nor do they hire based on the academic calendar.
Here are a few recommendations to finding the right companies.

• Know what you want to do and why. Be specific. A career goal that states: I want a job that uses my critical thinking skills will not cut it. Rather, an objective like: “business analyst position in the health care industry that utilizes my analytical skills and abilities” is much more concrete and more successful in the job search process.
• Identify and target the employers you want to work for. Network with everyone you know to see if there is anyone who works there and can help get you in. Approach the organization in person with resume in hand. Believe it or not, that has a very high success rate for young professionals (16%).
• If all else fails, be creative in how you approach the companies. I once had a client who wanted to work for Saucony. He noticed that on their web site they claimed that they could be guilted into going running with candidates. So, my client bought a pair of Saucony shoes, brought his resume in person just before lunch time. He asked if anyone was available for a run. I know that approach is a little out there, but he got their attention.
• Be sure to follow up with all your contacts. Keep them posted on your progress. Send them information that they can use. Example: One client wanted to work in the video game industry in quality assurance. He knew this was the entry level opportunity in that industry and he had 7 employers targeted. When playing a well known game, he noticed that there were some behind the scene errors. He emailed the hiring manager with that information and got a job offer shortly thereafter.
• Keep networking.

Article by, Susan Kennedy, career counselor for college graduates and young professionals

Largest number of jobs lost

It seems like every day on the news we hear more and more about jobs that are being lost. Last Friday the numbers of jobs lost were the highest in years. So many of our clients are anxious about what to expect in the job market that they aren’t sure they where to start.
Understand that most of the hiring right now is coming from companies who have between 53 and 300 employees (Michigan State University). Those organizations actually reported a projected 7% increase in hiring for next year.
When approaching an organization of this size, keep in mind that they may have a small HR department. This has an impact on how you should approach them.

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