The Executive Update

Resume Errors: How Computers Are Making Us Dumber

If you work with hiring managers and recruiters, you will hear all kinds of horror stories about receiving resumes and samples. It appears that job search can impede common sense, and living out loud online has made us less concerned about how people perceive us as we rush from email to blog post to get the word out.

In many ways, the personal computer has made it easier to look foolish to a hiring manager or recruiter because computers make it possible to work faster without necessarily checking what we are doing. It has become too easy to send a resume at the click of a mouse or post material on the web to use as a reference, whether that material is a fit or not. One recruiter recently posted to her Facebook page that she had just received a cover letter directing her to a blog site for writing samples, and the blog site bears the disclaimer, “not suitable for readers under 18.” What was that job seeker thinking?

The computer age has made it easier to reach out to prospective employers via web, e-mail, e-forms, Twitter, LinkedIn, you name it. And that’s the problem, it has become so easy to reach out that the proprieties and protocols are suffering as a result – candidates don’t take the time they need to think and review before they hit “send.”

I recently saw a blog post from Peter Shankman, social media expert and author, and founder of Help A Reporter Out, who was seeking to hire an assistant editor. His experience is all-too-typical what recruiters and hiring managers are seeing today:

• He received 481 resumes, of which 33 were sent to the wrong email address so were disqualified for failure to follow instructions.
• Of the remaining 449, 184 had the resume attached to an email without a cover letter, note, subject line notation, nothing. They were immediately eliminated. As Shankman says:

“We didn’t specifically ask for a cover letter, but come on – Nothing? That doesn’t give us much to go on. That’s like a guy walking up to a girl in a bar and just screaming “SEX!” It doesn’t work. Give us some reason to look at you – This is your first introduction to us. “JOB!” doesn’t cut it.”

• Another 52 were immediately eliminated for spelling or grammar errors, or because they were addressed to the wrong person or the wrong company (the curse of cut-and-paste in haste).
• 213 resumes left, and 28 were eliminated for their email addresses (e.g. poopiepants47@hotmail.com)
• Of the 185 left, 20 were selected who matched the job criteria

So nearly half of the resumes he received for this job were eliminated for stupid errors and because the candidate did not stop to think or check his or her work. Maybe computers don’t make us dumber, but they do tend to make us more careless, and those mistakes will eliminate you from the running before you can even show your value.

Ask the Coach: Time for an Attitude Adjustment

Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is an excerpt from a recent session with career coach Don Orlando .

The economic downturn has played havoc with the job market and a number of very talented executives have been out of work for some time. It’s time to rethink your career strategy and take a hard look at your attitude. Are you presenting the right tone to the market to get hired? What you say in writing and in interviews says a lot about you and you want to make sure those on the receiving end are getting the right message.

During this week’s career coaching call, the discussion turned to “transitioning” due to layoffs. Don noted that attitude was really important for those in transition and you need to make sure you position yourself correctly and deliver the right message.

In the past, being “out of work” for a period of time put you out of the running with most employers. That’s not true these days. One NETSHARE member calling in said he had build a successful practice as a consultant and wanted to know how to leverage that experience to find a full-time position with a large corporation. He was listing his current title as “interim consulting” on LinkedIn and wanted to know if that was sending the right message.

Don suggested leaving out the defining term “interim.” That sends the wrong message and suggests you are only consulting part time, with partial value. Rather, you need to be seen as a full-time professional who provides valuable services to your clients. Make sure your marketing documents reflect that attitude; that you are committed to delivering value with superior expertise.

Companies will hire based on perceived value, so your attitude has to reflect that value. Show them the benefits you have to offer. Don’t point out that you are unemployed, and terms like “interim” do that, whether it’s intentional or not. Show them that you are passionate about what you are doing, and that you will be just as passionate at solving their problems.

Attitude is everything, and you have to put on a positive attitude to gain positive results.

“A Recruiter, An HR Manager, and a Hiring Manager Walk Into a Bar…”: The Power of Storytelling

Effective communications can be tricky, particularly in an interview setting. In the past we have talked about effective communications strategies, including constructive listening. I recently spotted a guest post by Ira Koretsky, The Chief Storyteller, on the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG) blog offering tips to improve your communications skills. The thing that rang most true for me was the notion of storytelling. We all have a story to tell, and effective storytelling is the best means to communicate your personal value proposition.

Storytelling is as old as the spoken word, and effective storytelling needs to be part of every aspect of communications, whether It’s your resume, your biography, or an elevator pitch. When you engage with anyone, you want to be able to tell your story in a concise and compelling fashion that engages and informs. As Ira Koretsy notes:

By reaching your audience’s heart and mind, you access the part of them that wants to believe in what you have to offer.  You need to inspire others around you to achieve your goals.  The greatest bonding and trust-building tools we have are effective stories.

Stories are designed to explain, inspire, bridge a gap, promote new ways of thinking, and most importantly for you in an interview setting, promote a shared vision of the future. Powerful storytelling can win over any contact to help you in your search, whether you are looking for new contacts to help you on your way, or trying to ace an interview.

So what are the elements of an effective story? Here’s what Koretsky has identified:

1. Use a story structure that has a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end. Even if you are telling a business story, you need to use a structure to show the listener that you have a point you are trying to make. The familiar beginning, middle, end structure will help build empathy with your audience since it’s familiar and they can follow along.
2. Tell your story with a message in mind. Before you start telling the tale, understand what you want your audience to take away from the tale. What is your objective? Do you want the reader to learn something or act differently? You can develop a targeted message by putting it in a category such as process, customer service, teamwork, leadership, etc. Apply one of the major reasons you want to tell the story, i.e. to inspire action, bridge a gap, reach a better future. You most important story is the future story you tell in the context of a better future; “tell me about yourself.” This is the storytelling about your future working together.
3. Make the journey in the story relevant. The one thing that interviewees often forget is WIIFM – What’s In It For Me! Connect with your audience by making it relevant and creating a shared experience. Make a connection that promotes empathy so they will act.

If you are going to be a good storyteller, then you have to know your audience. This is where you have to do your homework – identify with your prospective employer, identify with their problems or points of pain, and tell stories that are relevant. Observe how storytelling works in other aspects of your life and you can see how you can harness stories to get a desired result. Then you can find that balance between business and emotion that will let your story resonate with your audience.

Ask the Coach: If They Tag You, You Can Be It

Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is an excerpt from a recent session with career coach Don Orlando .

Technology is both a friend and a foe when it comes to job search. Certainly the ability to email a resume or complete an online application makes it easier to get in front of decision-makers. However, technology also may be filtering your resume out of the race before you even get a chance to make your pitch.

This week, career expert Don Orlando shared his insight into how to make sure your credentials are included in the mix. As Don noted, a number of organizations use applicant tracking software (ATS) to “parse” your resume into raw components, and then send a summary to a hiring authority. The hiring manager may never actually see your resume, but instead they will see a summary built from keywords extracted from your resume.

As Don notes, keywords are a moving target. The job description may specify a certain special skill, accreditation, or some other qualification (“no MBA; you need not apply”) but you have no idea what keywords the ATS will use. Your best strategy is to identify a number of job announcements that seem best suited to your expertise and credentials, then identify keywords embedded in the descriptors.

One tool that Don recommends is using Tag Crowd to uncover those terms that are most commonly used in your position and field. The process is simple:

1. Find sample job listings that most closely align with your criteria. If you can, use the job description for the specific job you are applying for.
2. Either past the URL for the job description into the Tag Crowd box (http://tagcrowd.com) or upload a plain text file containing the job description.
3. Set the parameters for maximum number of words displayed (Don recommends 25).
4. Click on “Visualize” and watch the result.

What you’ll get is a visual representation of keywords that the system weights as significant. Now perform the same exercise for your resume and marketing documents. If they highlight the same keywords then the ATS technology is working in your favor. If you get a different set of keywords, then consider revising your marketing documents to include more key phrases that are machine-readable.

If the hiring authorities are going to rely on computers to help them find the best candidates, your best defense is understanding how they work. So why not fight technology with technology?

Engineering Your Resume to Stand Out

We talk a lot about the value of social media to promote yourself as part of your job search. We talk about what to include and where to connect and how to use the Web to build your personal brand. But very few people actually discuss the mechanics of building your marketing documents in a way to support search and the Web. You can have the greatest resume in the world or the best executive bio, but if you don’t package them properly, technology may get in the way of people reading them.

I was heartened to see a guest post on recruiter Lindsay Olsen’s blog by Derek Pangallo, a political scientist who writes about new media, offering tips to get your resume seen using social media techniques. Some of these insights had never occurred to me so I want to share them here.

As Pangallo notes, you can leverage technology to make your resume work more effectively for you. He sees the resume as an important document since many recruiters pass over the cover letter and get right to the resume looking for information. So your resume has to be able to work for you to make a positive first impression. That’s why you need to control presentation.

He recommends using PDF format instead of Word. As he notes, foreign computer dictionaries can make mincemeat out of ethnic names, company names, and titles. He uses Acrobat Professional to control exactly how the resume is opened, providing a birds-eye view, but the point is that Adobe preserve the presentation and integrity of the document and can be read by anyone without changing the format. Also be wary of how you set the controls to view your Acrobat resume so you don’t trigger any “alert” messages on the recipient’s computer. Also note that some recruiters and companies don’t like PDF format because of applicant tracking systems, so you would need to have multiple versions.

You also can use technology to track how many people actually view your resume. Pangallo uses embedded links he shortens with http://goo.gl. If you are a Twitter user you know there are a number of free engines to shorten your links, but http://goo.gl lets you take advantage of Google Analytics. You can embed the Google address in the document, like this link to our website, and although when you hover over the link you see the Google address – http://goo.gl/FrnA7 - it still takes you to your Web destination. Now to check your traffic, just add a “+”symbol to the end of your Google address, like this http://goo.gl/FrnA7+. Very slick. He also has a discussion of how to use Google Analytics to track the effectiveness of your resume, and to determine who is opening it, from which city, how long they visited the web site, etc.

You can make your resume work for you with the right formatting and embedded links. But be sure you direct recruiters and hiring managers to destinations that have value, like your online portfolio, blog, or your LinkedIn profile. If you send them to your Twitter or Facebook account, for example, all they will see is your last post, and you don’t know when they’ll hit your site.

I’d be curious to hear other tips and techniques of how you are optimizing your marketing documents for maximum impact, and how you are tracking the results.

Four Ways to Capture Your Target Customer – The Hiring Manager

As we have said in the blog many times, job search is about selling your personal brand. No matter what your profession, when you undertake a job search you are now a salesperson, and the product you are selling is your expertise. This is why it is useful to learn from marketers once in a while. One of the newsletters I see regularly is from Marketing Profs, and a recent article entitled “4 Ways to Capture Me and Make Me a Buyer Forever” included advice that applies equally well to job search.

When you launch your marketing program, your strategy needs to include ways to get the attention from your target hiring managers, and then turn that attention into a positive experience that will result in closing the deal; offering you the job you want. So consider how you can use these four marketing tips to capture your next job:

1. Capture their attention. Your first objective is to get noticed in a positive fashion. That doesn’t mean barging into a social media discussion or a meeting and shouting, “Look at me! Hire me!” It means you need to engage in a positive way. From a marketing perspective, you want to provoke interest and a following. In marketing, you can use giveaways and gimmicks like American Express checks or Starbucks gift cards. Be creative and come up with a new way to capture someone’s attention with a provocative question or an innovative white paper on a subject you are passionate about.
2. Capture their imagination. Once you have their attention, you have to stand out from the crowd. Say something insightful, and different. Use a compelling example that will stick in the mind of a recruiter or hiring manager, or offer a train of thought or logic that addresses their problem. Don’t talk about yourself but make a connection for your audience to show them how you can solve their problem.
3. Capture their affection. In marketing, this is the emotional bond between the customer and the product or brand. In job search, this is your opportunity to make a human connection with the influencer on the other side of the table. Tell a story that inspires or creates that emotional connection. Make it personal and appealing.
4. Capture their self-interest. This is a big one that many job-seekers forget. Job search isn’t about you; it’s about what you can do for the hiring company. Appeal to their sense of “what’s in it for me?” by showing them how you can solve their problem. If you approach an exchange or an interview by starting with “here’s what I want,” you put the interviewer on the defensive. If you can understand what they want and appeal to their needs, then you can help them sell themselves on you as the solution to their problem.

When you engage for a job interview or with a new networking contact, see if you can touch all four points. If you can capture their attention, fire their imagination, gain their affection, and ultimately offer something of value, then you will have won a new ally in your quest.

Use the Right Words to Write a Powerful Profile

Our last blog entry was about the 10 most overused phrases found in LinkedIn profiles. Buzzword creep is a common problem in every executive’s marketing materials. It’s hard to keep jargon and business-speak out of your resume, but there are some strategies you can adopt to make sure your marketing documents are more powerful, and more accessible to recruiters and hiring managers.

Some good advice comes from Karen Burns, who blogs for the Money section of US News & World Report. She recently posted a blog on the most powerful words you can use on your resume which offers some solid tips on how to craft your resume or online profile:

1. Mind your nouns. Remember that employers search for nouns and not adjectives, so be sure to list your skills, titles, products, companies, certifications, and other things that speak to your personal brand. Think of search terms you would use to find someone like you.
2. Study those job descriptions. You can reverse-engineer your online profile by studying job descriptions for positions that are in line with what you are looking for, then using similar nouns and phrases. You can use the same key words and phrases to make your resume more searchable.
3. Check out the professional associations. See what your peers are talking about at conferences and in newsletters. See what issues are on the minds of your potential employers and think about ways to incorporate those ideas into your profile.
4. Think about your job titles. If you have an off-beat or unusual job title then it is less likely to show up in a search. Either use standardized job titles or find a way to expand on your job function to include more industry-specific titles.
5. Appropriate jargon is a good idea. Remember that hiring managers are looking for industry-specific expertise, so knowing the insider buzz words show you know your stuff. However, if you are looking for a career transition, be sensitive to the fact that a hiring manager may not understand jargon from another industry, so try substituting other keywords.
6. Be careful with your verbs. Use strong verbs like “achieved,” “resolved,” and “increased. “ Verbs that have less impact like “supported” or “aided” don’t promote your expertise.
7. Avoid meaningless adjectives. Overused words like “dynamic” and “experienced” create clutter not credibility. Stick with strong nouns and verbs.

Are You Guilty of LinkedIn Buzzword Buzzkill?

LinkedIn has become the “go-to” location for professionals, whether they are looking for a job or just trying to build visibility for their personal brand. LinkedIn is the right online location to demonstrate your expertise. And it’s becoming one of the most crowded. With more than 70 million LinkedIn users, it’s getting harder to stand out from the crowd. Especially if you find yourself caught in the blizzard of buzzwords that are plaguing LinkedIn profiles.

A recent blog posted by Manu Sharma on LinkedIn revealed a list of the 10 most overused terms for U.S. professionals for 2010. The list includes:

1. Extensive experience
2. Innovative
3. Motivated
4. Results-oriented
5. Dynamic
6. Proven track record
7. Team player
8. Fast-paced
9. Problem solver
10. Entrepreneurial

How many of those same buzzwords have crept into your LinkedIn profile, or your resume for that matter. As Sharma writes:

“Using adjectives to describe your professional experience doesn’t tell the world anything about you. You’ll be much better off describing your experience with action verbs and describing your specific successes along the way.”

It’s interesting, too, that those “overused” terms are largely the same from country to country. According to Sharma, the top four winners for the most-used adjective are:

• Extensive Experience – most used in USA, Canada, and Australia
• Dynamic – most used in Brazil, India, and Spain
• Motivated – the winner in the United Kingdom
• Innovative – most used in France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands

Remember that recruiters, chief executives, and hiring managers are searching LinkedIn looking for talent. If your profile doesn’t stand out then how will they find you in the crowd? Use nouns, not adjectives, to describe your accomplishments, since recruiters don’t search for terms like “managed” or “developed.” Use keywords and terms that relate to your industry and unique expertise; terms that are more likely to be used in a critical search.

Ask the Coach: Never Volunteer!

Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is an excerpt from this week’s session with career transition coach and career management consultant Randy Block.

If you have served in the military, you know there is a cardinal rule among the rank and file, “Never volunteer!” The same is true in job search, as Randy reminded us this week, and there are so many areas where this rule needs to be applied.

As Randy told those on this week’s Ask the Coach call, there still is lots of discrimination in the workplace. Employers still discriminate based on age, ethnicity, religion, accent, sexual preference, or any one of a host of other factors. Even if you know you are being singled out for some irrelevant reason, you can rant and rave all you want and even threaten to sue, but it won’t do you any good in the long run. There are many aspects of the interview that you won’t be able to control so don’t even try.

However, one of the things you can control is how much you divulge. You control how much information you are ready to share, and when. During the interview, you want to be responsive to the interviewer and answer his or her questions, but be succinct and to the point, without offering a lot of extra information. You can always follow up one of their questions with your own, “Does that answer your question?” If you didn’t provide enough information, let the interviewer instruct you as to what additional information they are looking for. This will help you keep you answered focused and succinct.

One pitfall that many interviewees fall into is focusing too much on their last (or latest) boss. Many are concerned about their failed relationship with their last boss, and if it was rocky it can be an impediment to getting hired. Remember, there are three parts to any employment relationship: 1) the employee, 2) the company or the boss, and 3) the fit. If you have an issue with your former boss, address your response to fit: “It wasn’t that there was a personality conflict, goals were unattainable, etc. The fit wasn’t right.” Fit is something that everyone can relate to, and for those with an engagement of less than a year, it is a very valid reason for making a change. If you have been in a job for some time, show where things have changed so the fit has changed as well.

If you don’t volunteer too much information, you can retain control of the interview. Hiring managers are often looking for reasons not to hire you or to eliminate you from the running. If you don’t give them too much information, they can’t use it against you.

Ask the Coach: “Son, Let Me Tell You Why to Hire Me” – Coping with Ageism in the Interview

Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is an excerpt from this week’s session with career transition coach and career management consultant Randy Block.

So you have spent the last 30 years successfully shepherding companies through turnarounds and opening new markets. You have proven your worth. So why is it so challenging now to convince Generation X hiring managers that you know your stuff?

This week, Randy tackled the challenge of interviewing with younger hiring managers. As Randy often says, no manager likes to hire his or her parents. So how are you going to overcome ageism during the interview process?

You land the interview because of your experience, and it’s clear the decision makers don’t understand what it takes to fix the company. You’re a forthright manager, so you want to tell them what’s broken, and how to fix it. But will such a direct approach sabotage your interview? How do you present yourself so that your expertise shines through without looking like a know-it-all father figure?

Randy made it clear that when you are interviewing with a younger hiring manager, tread carefully. Once you land the job, a no-nonsense approach may be appreciated, but you first have to convince them to hire you; that you are the solution to their problem. If you are an older job candidate then the hiring manager will probably be on the defensive, so to win the job, you need to align yourself with them – understand them. Until you convince them that you understand their problem and can move forward, there is no way to move forward. You know that to get to D, you must do A, B, and C first, but such a direct approach won’t be heard – who listens to mom or dad? Instead, you need to empathize, make them feel comfortable, and show them you are on the same page. Establish a rapport and understand how they perceive their problem, and where they want to go. Listen to them to understand their viewpoint and, ultimately, win them over.

Persuasion is your best weapon. Work to decide together that you have what they need to address their points of pain. The only way they will listen is when you have established credibility.

As Randy points out, most Generation Xers are good managers but they are not good leaders. They need leadership training. They need mentoring. That’s where you can make a difference. By coming across as the solution to their problem (without threatening their position) you can mentor and coach them; you can change their perception. Show them that you are the expert/advisor/guru they have been seeking.

Randy notes that in hiring into a company you can learn from family dynamics. In many families, the children and parents butt heads, but grandkids and grandparents deal smoothly with each other. That’s why many Millennials are going around Gen Xers in the workplace to connect directly with Boomers who can mentor them. Learn how to be gentle in assuming a mentoring role. Consider consulting, for example, which is much less threatening to younger hiring managers. You need to win them over before you can lead them.