Job Search

How Technology Tanks an Interview

Wendy Terwelp 1 Comment

Yesterday I met with several direct hire and exec recruiters for a networking / brainstorming meeting. Pet peeves always come up during these talks and here are some direct from the recruiters’ mouths:

“Get this,” said Gary an IT recruiter. “I’m interviewing a guy and he interrupts the interview to take a call from his cell phone!” Gary went on to describe how the candidate told Gary that the call was very important – during the interview. “Needless to say,” said Gary, “the rest of the interview lasted about 5 minutes and I will not place this guy – EVER.”

Think about it, if the interview to get the job wasn’t important enough to put calls on hold for a half hour, what’s going to happen on the job?

“I want to talk about CRACKberrries,” said Gina B. “During an interview a woman is actually holding up her crackberry and typing with her thumbs like this,” she demonstrated. How important is it to answer email during an interview? Truly?

Tips:

1. Take control of your personal technology! You control it – it does not control you.

2. Turn cell phones OFF during an interview or put the ringer on silent (not vibrate).

3. Turn Blackberries off during an interview. You can email AFTER you get to your car. In fact, why not email that interviewer a thank you note when you get to your car? Use technology for good. 🙂

Of course, I do have to say how our meeting ended. As things wound up, Patrick whipped out his Sprint phone that had email, a keypad, phone access, THE WORKS. He starts emailing his candidates and returned some calls. Proudly he said, “Hey, at least I waited until the meeting wrapped up!”

You can do the same.

Networking: How to choose a group

Wendy Terwelp 2 Comments

I know. You heard it over and over – “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know that gets you hired.” That translates to networking. When deciding on which networking group (or groups) to join, I recommend people join at least three types of groups: 1. Professional Group: Many professional groups for your specific field have job boards accessible only to their members. Professional groups also give you an opportunity to build a network within your field and often you get a chance to put a small bio on their website in the members section. This helps you build your online brand – as 77% of employers now Google candidates prior to interviewing them. 2. Peer Group: When you’re in job search mode, groups like 40+ can provide support and brainstorming. Make sure your group is proactive and positive. Groups that become “downers” are not going to help you with your search. Employers often hire attitudes over skill sets – and that means positive ones.  3. Common Activity Group: Groups like Toastmasters are a good example. You not only network, but you learn a skill that enhances your career at the same time! Now, go on, pick your group and get active!

The Great Thank You Note Debate

Wendy Terwelp Leave a comment

Oh, you didn’t know there was a debate, eh?

The Do’s:

“It’s the right thing to do,” said multiple sources including recruiters, employers, and career coaches. I agree, but here’s how to say THANKS the right way:

1. Always thank whomever for their time. Mention something personal, even if it is minor, that you learned about that person during the interview. If you are dropping the note to the secretary, mention how helpful or how pleasant they were during your wait.

2. Enclose a proposal or action plan regarding what you could do for the company. How you can SOLVE THEIR PROBLEM (whatever it was). You can mention accomplishments of yours that might be relevant to their situation. (Use your professional resume. There should be several listed from which you can choose!) This type of action plan makes you PROACTIVE. And shows how much you listened during the interview, how much you care about their company, and how much you’re dying to be a part of it.

3. If you interviewed several people, you may wish to enclose a second resume as a MEMORY JOGGER.

4. You want your letter to show your enthusiasm for the position/company, your compatibility with their team, how their goals match your goals, and your desire for the job! People have actually LOST positions because they didn’t ASK for the job. 

“It puts the candidate at the top of the call-if-(the)-No. 1-(candidate)-doesn’t-work list. In 5 years at Harvard, I saw this happen at least once a quarter,” said Susan P. Joyce, Editor/Webmaster, at Job-Hunt.org. She is “pro” thank you notes. 

“As a former hiring manager, I would be totally impressed with someone who wrote an appropriate thank you card,” said Jason Alba of JibberJobber.com. “It is above and beyond an e-mail, and shows a lot of thought. It is a gesture that would help me know that this person would take care of (internal and external) customers.” 

“In some situations, when considered with the interview, the thank you note had influence as to whether or not to extend an offer of employment,” said Steve Gallison, Professional Outplacement Assistance Center. 

As a former recruiter, I can tell you that Steve is right. I still remember getting a call from one employer saying, “Chris is fantastic! Do you know he FAXED over a hand-written thank you note right after his interview? WOW. When can he start?” Yes, Chris got the job. The employer had never received a thank you note from anyone in the past. The note made Chris stand out. Another client landed a job at Microsoft. The thank you note he sent got him over the top.

The Do NOT’s:

“Thank you notes are a waste of my time,” said one recruiter. “No one ever reads them.”

Not true. According to one executive recruiter, her candidate – who had aced the interview – lost the job offer. How? She sent a thank you note with spelling errors, typos, and bad grammar.

Of course thank you notes that just say, “Thanks for your time” are a waste of my time, said one HR director.

Instead, use this key paragraph provided by Don Orlando, MBA, of The McLean Group: “I want to do more than just thank you for your time. I was thinking about your problems and I have some ideas to help solve them. I know they must be tentative, but I’d like to get your reaction to them.” Check out No. 2 above for strategies to back up your claim.

Companies hire people who can solve their problems. Demonstrate how you can do so – and you’ve got a greater chance of getting in the door with a solid offer.

Am I a fan of thank-you notes? You bet.

Recruiter Rants

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Hi, this contribution is from Alice Hanson, former resume writer turned recruiter. Enjoy!  [Oh, and some side bar stuff from me, Wendy Terwelp]

It struck me today how far I’ve gone from resume writing and my former job in career coaching…It’s just a very different perspective here. I am hiring mid level technical contract positions. We get and fill about 10 jobs a day. With this kind of speed, there are some things that really drive me crazy…thought I would share. And a great resume is still a great asset-thanks to those who do them!

Recent pet peeves:

Applicants who don’t put their phone number in the Monster job ad…how am I supposed to call them? Do you want a job or what? Don’t be coy on me. I’ll call someone else and sometimes I don’t have time to mess with an email and wait for you to email back..the job will be closed by then or I will have submitted someone else. The market is really moving.

[Note: I must say, I too have been receiving resumes for review that have only a name listed as contact info. Hello! Read the above!]

Applicants who call back a week later expecting the job to still be there…uh, no, sorry.

Applicants who have nothing but soft skills on their resume. Even if they are a project manager or business
analyst or product manager or even a project coordinator, I want to know what type of projects, technical skills, and expertise they can manage:

Software development, networks, new products -what kind? What beside a PM are they? Don’t tell me they are “good with people.” What industry? What tools? What did you create? Give me all the alphabet soup. Are you a Linux guy or a MS guy? Database or Web/front end? .net or Java? If you test, have you done black box, white box, performance and load, UI or regression testing?

[In other words, provide specific examples of your projects – we call them “achievements.” Quick tip: Use the CAR technique – Challenge, Action, RESULT.]

Give me a grid of hard skills that I can match against the job desciption I’m sourcing…Get really specific and stick it in a chart with number of years used and the year it was used….very helpful….if I see the right skills, then I read the most recent job description and check the date of their last employed date and the job history.I hate resumes that are done in two column tables. Give it to me straight and direct. I just dump out all the formatting and stick it in our corporate format anyway..and tables make it harder..the hiring manager never sees your formatting if you go through a recruiter. 

[Now, now, there is SOME formatting – like paragraphs and bullets. 🙂 ) I don’t bother with profiles..and this makes me grimace after all the pain I used to put into picking the right adjective that “captured” the uniquness of my client…but I don’t mess with them…10 seconds of reading is very true..often I read the resume from the bottom up, looking for career history and how the candidate evolved. If the candidate makes it through my screen, the hiring manager may be interested in the profile so I guess profiles have a role. I determine
who the person is by the phone screen. Chronological formats, to the point, are my favorite…but they don’t hide much, so there you go.

[Time and time again I hear chronological is the fave. I personally use a combo, a few meaty statements in front and chronological info right after. To date, rave reviews from employers and recruiters alike. How do I know? My clients get hired. And sometimes the HR person who hired them becomes a client!]

Six page tech resumes can be fine, suprisingly. I had a Microsoft manager tell me the other day to take a one page resume and “give it more beef.” We had to add a lot of left out details to make the candidate look credible. The old adage–make the resume as long as it needs to be to make the candidate looks credible and worth the money they are asking.

[Six pages?! No way!]

Anyway, a perspective from my desk…thought I would share for what it is worth.– Alice Hanson

You said what on your interview?!

Wendy Terwelp 1 Comment

Thanks to Jackie Farwell of The Associated Press for providing these lovlies courtesy of a recent poll by staffing firm Accountemps. In this poll executives were asked to name the wackiest pitch they’d ever heard from a job seeker. Here are some of their responses:  

“An individual told me he was allergic to unemployment.”

 

“One candidate said that we should hire him because he would be a great addition to our softball team.”

 

“A person said he had no relevant experience for the position he was interviewing for, but his friend did.”

 

“One person brought his mother to the job interview and let her do all the talking.”

 

“One job seeker said he should get the job because he had already applied three times and felt that it was now his turn.”

 

“One candidate sang all of her responses to interview questions.”

 

“One individual said we had nice benefits, which was good because he was going to need to take a lot of leave in the next year.”

 

The nonscientific national poll included responses from 150 senior executives with the nation’s 1,000 largest companies.

 

Want to be a rock star on your next interview? Check out these interview tips right here: www.knocks.com/news.html. Enjoy!