How many people have been looking for a job lately? I would guess that quite a few people have been, as I know of a few myself. I have been looking, simply because my wife would like to relocate which may drastically increase my already long commute. This brings me to a revelation about those that are hiring...they are confused. Never have I been met with so many people that are just building a stack of resumes for "future jobs" or that are "hiring immediately", but it takes them a month to setup interviews. Nor have I had so many people tell me how qualified I am and how well I interview, only to never hear from them again. Is it the recession? Is it a growth in qualified candidates? Maybe it's just a growth of stupidity? I'm not really sure, but I have a few pieces of advice for those on both ends.
Job Seekers:
- Resumes - There are 2 ways you could handle your resume writing. On one hand, you can custom tailor it to the job you are seeking including their business name and specific references to their job description, albeit this looks incredibly professional and normally catches the employers' eyes, it is tedious and time consuming. The other choice is to make a few resumes that cover different employment environment related to your experience. This will tend to be more generalized, but will speed up the process dramatically for sending out ridiculous amounts of resumes in a short period of time. I have personally witnessed someone stuff envelopes all day with this type of resume and send it to companies all over.
- Why Limit Yourself? - Surely you can do more than one thing...right? Think of all the fields where you have experience and find out what jobs those skills could be applied to. Also, don't limit yourself to jobs that are hiring. "What?!?!" Let me explain...I witnessed someone doing something that I found pretty creative, despite its simplicity. He was going around to cities that interested him, locating businesses in his field and sending resumes to their HR department...whether they were hiring or not.
- Become A Stalker! - OK, lets not go that far. However, show the employer that you are genuinely interested in the position. Contact them to make sure that they received your resume, this also might give you an opening to start a little dialog, get some inside info for the position, and possibly gain some advantage. After your interview and ample time to discuss your suitability for the position, contact them and ask if they have made a decision. If they have and it wasn't you, ask why not. This will give you invaluable information that may help you get another job.
- Have A Plan - DO NOT post a job when you are not even sure what you are looking for! I went to an interview recently that they didn't know if they were hiring full time or part time, nor did they know if they were hiring one, two, or three people for the job(s). REALLY?!? By far the worst interview I have ever went to, and a total waste of my precious time. Not ready to hire yet? Then don't post a job saying "immediate opening"! I have applied for these immediate jobs, only to find out that the only thing they were doing "immediately" was pissing me off! I gave a follow call and asked how soon they were looking to hire, only to be told that "we should be getting anticipated projects soon". Thanks, I knew I didn't understand the meaning of immediate.
- It's Not You, It's Me - Look, if you are not interested just let me know. Don't string me along in the hopes that I will eventually give up. Man up! "Sir, I'm sorry but we looking for someone with more than an 8th grade education for the Nuclear Physicist position." Grown folks can take criticism (or at least they should be able to), so don't waste my time, just let me know. Also there is no standard that needs to be met for this, it can be a phone call or even a simple email. My wife recently applied for a job at WVU and they sent out a preformed email to those that didn't get the job....how easy is that...simply add all of the non-hires to the email and send out one mass email. For any employers that need assistance, contact me and I will be happy to show you how to manage this. I am available for consultations immediately (for those employers that lack the understanding of this word I have posted it below).
im·me·di·ate/iˈmēdē-it/
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Well, that's my advice. I'm by no means a professional in the subject matter, but I do possess some common sense. Subscribe to my Blog for continued knowledge and wisdom :)
