Now What?
Common Question
One question I hear the most is “Now what do I do?”
Whether you have suddenly found yourself out of work or after reworking your resume a dozen times or more, the question arises…where do I go from here?
It’s an excellent question and one I wish I had a fail-proof answer for…unfortunately I don’t. I do have some suggestions:
Start with your resume.
Look at it with “fresh eyes.” What does it say about you?
Just as you are judged in the first 30 seconds when you meet someone in person, your resume gets about 10 – 30 seconds before the reviewer moves on. When you are reviewing dozens or hundreds of resumes, you learn quickly to pick out what is important on a resume. That is assuming a person is actually looking at the resume. If it’s going through a computer and a keyword search program first, then the rules are even stricter.
Time yourself.
What do you see on your resume in the first 30 seconds? Is your contact information easy to find and read? Can I reach you by phone or email? Do you live anywhere near the job opening? If you live locally and don’t include at least your city and state, you could be passed over because it appears you need relocation.
Trivia: In some instances in Word 2010, when I enable the document to save it, everything in the Header disappears. Not everyone knows how to get that back. So if your contact information is in a header, it may not stay visible.
Do you have an objective line that states specifically what job you want or do you change that for every job application? Are you remembering to change it? It’s a huge turn off to receive a resume with an objective stating a job other than the one that is open.
I see more candidates replacing the objective with a concise summary of experience and career highlights. It’s a good way to get the skills you have that are applicable to the job you are applying for to show up fast.
Are you assuming you are an engineer or accountant because you know you’re an engineer or accountant or because your resume states that very clearly somewhere near the top?
Are your titles clear? Dates of employment? Educational background?
Have you included the specific technical skills (MSOffice, C#, .NET, SolidWorks) required for the job? Never assume that just because you have done the same type of work, the hiring manager will know you already know how to use the tools/software they have.
If you have been unemployed for some time, what have you been doing with your time? It is much more impressive to show that you are taking classes relevant to you field in your free time or keeping current on the technology.
Common advice seems to be to leave off the date of graduation to avoid “age discrimination.” I’ve seen resumes that have no dates at all on them. In my opinion, that’s going overboard. How can I tell if you have three months of work experience or 30 years if I don’t know when you worked somewhere and for how long? Are you a job hopper, spending a couple of months in each position or can you show longevity in each position? Dates are important.
If you have more experience than is required for the position, there’s nothing wrong with abbreviating your resume to the last 10 – 15 years to show the experience that is relevant to the current opening. But don’t assume that someone will know that you have just exactly what they need in your background, if you’ve cut it off the resume because it was 20 years ago.
Read it word for word backwards if you have to. Make sure there are no spelling mistakes.
Looking for a job is a full time job. No matter what happens you have to keep a positive attitude and project a competent and upbeat persona. Be the kind of employee that everyone wants to work with…even if you have to fake it for a little while. There is truth to the power of positive thinking.