Our heart goes out to anyone aggressively seeking a position right now. We hope you’ll find a good job that pays you what your worth. Below is some quick advice that we hope can help your efforts.
- Never send your resume & cover letter to the HR department. In this economy, HR is already inundated with more resumes that they can handle and even if you are qualified, you can still get easily passed over. Send your resume and a personalized cover letter directly to the CEO instead. The CEO is the most important person in the company and the only person whom you need to have on your side. If you impress the CEO, they’ll forward your resume to HR – immediately making you stand out and changing how the HR department will view you during the interview. Granted the CEO will likely listen to the HR Department’s insight, if they really have a good feeling about you – you’re hired!
- Stop sending Word Resumes as a file attachment – sometimes they get caught in email spam filters. You’re better off pasting your resume in the base of the email so it can be read from a BlackBerry.
- Cover letters should be brief (two short paragraphs at most) and personalized. Tell the company you’re seeking to work for specifically what you’d like to do for them and what exactly you’d bring to the table. Present your big ideas! The more detailed you are, the better and the more you’ll stand out. If takes you more time to crank out letters, so be it. Generic cover letters than land on our desk always find the garbage.
- Create a web resume through WordPress. It’s free and it’ll make you stand out from thousands of other job seekers. Your web resume should have these tabs: Home, Resume, Testimonials, Contact. As far as testimonials go, ask people you’ve previously worked for a paragraph endorsement. If a CEO or HR person goes to our web resume and sees 4-6 solid letters of endorsement, you’ll impress them and will have already saved them a HUGE step in checking out your references! A web resume is also fantastic because you can easily paste the link in a brief cover letter. We can’t underscore how much of an impact this can have on your job efforts.
- Write a hand written thank you card after the interview – it’s a real nice touch.
- Don’t take it personally that a company doesn’t hire you. Businesses fail all the time and chances are if they aren’t smart enough to realize that hiring you is the most brilliant decision they could ever make – they’re probably one step away from filing Chapter 11.
- If you’ve gone through public schooling, it’s not 100% your fault for struggling economically. Public school teaches you that being passive, uncompetitive, and a follower of others will lead to prosperity – in this economy it will not. Public school’s religion is the church of mediocrity – in this economy the free market’s religion is individually generated prosperity. Public school also teaches you that you are “entitled to a job” – in this economy, you will never get in the door with that attitude. Our point is that if you can turn off the chorus of everyone telling you what they think is best for you and turn on the lone voice of your gut feelings, you’re going to be in a much better position fast.
- Can’t find a job but, know you have amazing skills and the ability to provide excellent service? Go into business for yourself. It’ll be one of the scariest and most rewarding experiences you’ll ever have and while we may not know you personally, we feel there’s an 80% chance you’ll be more successful than you ever thought possible. You can’t definitely do this – we believe in you. We would love to be competing against your business in the future.
We wish you all well in your searches. Good luck and be relentless.