Job Hunting

[george237]

I just wanted to share my past and current exp with interview and resumes. I know there are a ton of people out there that are laid off and haven't interviewed in a while.

 

Resume.

Only put the greater of your last 5 years of employment or two jobs prior. If there is a gap between employment make up some business you started to fill the empty time, you don't want to say unemployed and owning your own business shows drive. Remember if you did something even once you can put it on your resume.

 

Keep your job descriptions brief and to the point and for your most recent job always make the description current (Supervise staff instead of supervised staff).

 

Obviously you will put your schooling on there but do not include your GPA unless it is over 3.5 or so.

 

Keep the resume to one page but make sure you fill out that entire page. Don't use spacing to try and fill it out, looks even worse.

 

Try and find a format that is different from what everyone else uses (the ones in MS word). You can find a ton of different templates on google.

 

Phone Screening

It is important that you are in a quite place, if you are driving or on a train tell them that you need to call them back. It is better to have them wait rather then you loose concentration because of background noise.

 

Ask questions but leave questions for the interviewer, usually the person you are talking to is in HR, they like to hear you ask about growth, work life balance, and why ____ is a good match for you. (read the website and know the company before calling)

 

At the end of the call the person will ask if you have any more ?'s this should be followed by another ?, which u prob won't have any, or I think you answered everything I wanted to know however there are some questions I would like to ask the manager when I come in. This shows that your interested and you are confident they will give you an interview.

 

Interview.

Show up 15 min early. You don't want to be too early and you def don't want to be late.

 

Dress for the job you want. If your dressed like a shlub you might as well just stayed home. This means if your suit is two sizes too small get another one, it will make a difference.

 

When you are asked questions make eye contact and don't play with your hands, pen, anything. If I get nervous I will lift my foot on my knee and hold the heal of my shoe. You want to look relaxed and confident.

 

90% of the talk should be about the company and position but make sure you also throw in personal stuff. Did you catch the ball game, do you golf, I just bought a house. You want the interviewers to see you as a person not just a work horse.

 

 

After the interview

You should receive business cards from the people you talked to. I always send an individual thank you email to each person. Remember talking to you cost them time and money. You can send the same email but make sure you don't send it as a mass email.

[alli]

You've got a lot of great points & I'm sure job seekers will find this helpful. It took me 4 1/2 months to find a job, which is actually right on target with how long the average length of unemployment is!

 

I wanted to add a couple things as well. Someone informed me that you actually don't need to list the year you graduated, if you went to college. It could actually be a hindrance if it is too recent or too distant. Since I recently graduated, I listed my "education" experience at the bottom of my resume so I didn't appear quite so "fresh out of college & don't know a thing"

 

Also regarding this:

 

Keep the resume to one page but make sure you fill out that entire page. Don't use spacing to try and fill it out, looks even worse.

 

Keeping it to no more than one page is great, but if you are trying to squeeze every last word onto that page or reducing the font to make more room, it's too much. An employer would pick it up & the first thing they would do is sigh because it's a chore to read so many words. Not a good first impression! After months of job-searching, I "fixed" my resume so that each of my jobs were described by one or two.. maybe three bullet points. No more. I was actually concerned that I didn't have enough on there, but immediately after sending it out I got 2 responses! And one of those responses ended up offering me a job!

 

One more thing. I used job search websites a lot, but the job I actually got did not have a listing. I thought of the place on my own, looked at their website & found the job posting. Less competition when it's not placed somewhere for everyone else to apply!

 

Great thread George.

[george237]

One more thing. I used job search websites a lot, but the job I actually got did not have a listing. I thought of the place on my own, looked at their website & found the job posting. Less competition when it's not placed somewhere for everyone else to apply!

 

Thats a good point. When I was looking out of school the firm I wanted to be at wasn't hiring and did not accept resumes on their website. I called the office I was looking at and asked for the recruiting manager because they contacted me and I lost their name and number. I then sent my resume to her in a fedex package. I did this because I know that no matter what is in one of those things I am going to look at it, verse regular mail which I might discard right away. I didn't get the job but I at least got an interview, which no one else could do.

[alli]

I then sent my resume to her in a fedex package. I did this because I know that no matter what is in one of those things I am going to look at it, verse regular mail which I might discard right away.

 

That's a pretty clever idea! I don't think doing that would have ever crossed my mind!

[Daligal83]

When I was looking for my first job, I researched agencies I wanted to work for. Even if they didn't have a job posting, I still sent them a resume so that if something came up, they'd already have my information. Actually got a job offer doing that. They just wanted a part-time person but after interviewing me wanted to hire me full-time, but I didn't take it.

 

For my current job, I got it off of a job website. I've learned overall though that the follow-up phone call is huge. Send in your resume/application, but then call a week later to make sure they have it and see if there are any openings. Not many people do this, so your name will stick out. It helped me get that other job I mentioned, plus a part-time job when I was younger.

[alli]

 

For my current job, I got it off of a job website. I've learned overall though that the follow-up phone call is huge. Send in your resume/application, but then call a week later to make sure they have it and see if there are any openings. Not many people do this, so your name will stick out. It helped me get that other job I mentioned, plus a part-time job when I was younger.

 

I've always been told to call but that did not work for me at all. Most of the time I left a message never to be returned, or told "we'll call you back" & they don't. One place did call me back but unfortunately I missed the call. I probably called that lady another 7 times, left another message & she never called me again. The calls almost ALWAYS went to voicemail, what's up with that? It was just getting ridiculous. And those places had job postings up, it's not like I was bugging them about a job that wasn't even available.

[Daligal83]

Some places are ridiculous like that. I honestly see it as a sign that I wouldn't want to work there. If they are that disorganized recruiting people to work for them, imagine how bad it must be once you actually work there!

[thejigsup]

When I am looking over resumes when my bf is hiring, I want to see at least two pages on the resume if a person is over 25. One page makes me think they haven't done very much with their lives or career. Five pages would be waaay too much! A separate cover letter is also a must if we are ever going to consider interviewing you. Phone calls are nice, but if you have the qualifications, we will call you. Of course, in this rotten economy, we are not currently hiring and I am now the total office staff, on top of going to school and teaching. I wish we could hire someone.

[thunderball]

What amazes me about job interviewing is that during a period of unemployment in the mid-80's, I received a thanks-but-no-thanks letter from roughly 90% of the business I applied with. Now I seldom get a response despite the universality of email.

[george237]

When I am looking over resumes when my bf is hiring, I want to see at least two pages on the resume if a person is over 25. One page makes me think they haven't done very much with their lives or career. Five pages would be waaay too much! A separate cover letter is also a must if we are ever going to consider interviewing you. Phone calls are nice, but if you have the qualifications, we will call you. Of course, in this rotten economy, we are not currently hiring and I am now the total office staff, on top of going to school and teaching. I wish we could hire someone.

 

If you look at any resume guide it will tell you to keep it to one page. In larger businesses they will get hundreds of apps for a job posting. It is better to have something short and to the point. I used to interview candidates at my old job. For people fresh out of school I would look at their GPA and if they had any work exp in accounting, if they didn't that's fine but I am not that interested in their time at radio shack.