Friday, February 20, 2009
Everyday job seekers come to my office confused as to why their strong credentials and well designed ‘all purpose’ resume is not working . The Internet has made it easy for job seekers to spread countless resumes far and wide. Because of this, hiring companies are now buried in a pool of generic resumes.
In better times, this ‘shot gun’ approach would yield some results. Now hiring managers can only afford to look at the tightest fit for the few positions that are out there. Still, these job seekers keep throwing more mud against the wall hoping that some will stick. Someone once said, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”.
As we slip further into the current recession it has been even more important that job seekers tailor their efforts for each position that they pursue.
Every resume must be tailored for a specific job.
Research the company. Pick out particulars of the company niche and culture that make the company unique. Pull together your skills and experiences that fit those particulars.
Read over the job description carefully and pull out key words and phrases. Pay especially close attention to the qualifications. Often hiring companies will use computers to scan for particular words or phrase and rank resumes based on the number of keyword or phases that match their list. If you fail to include their particular keywords, you will likely be eliminated by a computer without ever having human eyes look at your resume.
Tailor your interview:
It is also essential that you tailor your interview for each position you apply for. Hiring managers have a clear idea of what they are looking for. To prevail you must discover exactly what that is so that you can highlight what in your background and experiences fit their profile.
You likely have a number of skills and experiences that you are anxious to share with your interviewer. Remember the interview is not about you. It is about whether or not you are the best fit for a particular position. The information that you provide about yourself that does not sell the hiring manager on how you are a fit for the position only dilutes your case.
I recommend a simple exercise. Draw a line down the center of a sheet of paper. On the left side, list the 5 attributes that you determined are what most important to the company for the position at hand. On the right side list your skills and experiences that match the items on the left side. During the interview try to bring your answers back to these skills and experiences. This will keep your answers aligned with the particulars for each job.
Focus your job search efforts.
As a hiring manager, I am much more impressed with someone that I feel is consciously pursuing a particular position verses a job seeker that seems to be interviewing willy-nilly. It is very important that the job seeker really know the company, the position and why they are interested.
A focused approach is also essential for your networking efforts to be effective. There is no more effective way to land an interview than to have someone at the company put in a good word or at least the name of an employee that you can drop. Focus on a few target companies and work to develop a contact in these companies.