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Archive for personal brand

Getting Constant Rejections in Your Job Search?

October 24th, 2020
Getting Constant Rejections in Your Job Search?

Assumptions that individuals make during a job search, particularly when it comes to rejections, are rarely true. We second guess ourselves because of perceived failure. Below, I offer a more accurate assessment of what is often occurring, and a few tips to overcome it when the issue is one you can rectify. 

1) The organization interviews candidates but doesn’t hire anyone because they are too cheap to pay the going rate. Magically, days later, they re-advertise the same job with a new title at a lesser pay rate.

2) They already knew who they wanted. Job ad and interviews were for show and to meet Federal hiring requirements.

3) They are looking for a unicorn. Remember, unicorns (also called Purple Squirrels) don’t exist, and they couldn’t afford the salary if they found one.

4) The job never existed (trying to look good to the competition or testing the talent pool), or the requisition was pulled during interviews due to budgetary concerns (so it no longer exists).

5) Expectations on length of job search may be unrealistic. An average job search prior to COVID lasted approximately 23 weeks, and even now, despite increased hiring, is still 21 weeks. Those numbers are direct from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) A-12 Table. Additionally, current Total Unemployment according to BLS U6 Table is at 12.3% for September 2020 (that is the genuine number looking for work and unemployed, and not just those on unemployment benefits). 

Many a client or potential client comes to me expecting a one-month job search, and as you can see, that isn’t typical. Putting an irrational “target date” on your job search is a guaranteed recipe for disappointment and creates undue stress. 

6) Applying for any and every job that looks good, instead of a focused job search on one to three job types/careers. Determine the one to three careers you truly want and have the skills to pursue. Create a tailored resume and cover letter for each career (tweaking for every application). Stick to them for success.

7) Not dressing appropriately for the interview. Nice blouse, or shirt and tie, and please, put on real pants for video! We haven’t moved to a “casual everything environment” and jobseekers are still expected to dress appropriately, whether a video or in-person interview.

8) Poor camera and sound quality or utilizing a questionable background for video interviews. Test your sound and camera quality with a friend prior to that first interview. Also, it should go without saying that pictures of pot leaves, pot plants, political figures or slogans, smarmy or inappropriate sayings, liquor and beer bottles littering the area, too many religious items, Star Wars (sorry collectors) and Barbie items, etc., will ensure you won’t be invited back. Keep it simple, keep it professional, and see a good result. Don’t forget to look at the camera during the interview, not the screen!

9) Have a nervous “tick or tell” that happens when you are interviewed? Do a mock interview with a friend in HR or use an interview coach. Either party should offer constructive feedback that includes tips to mitigate the issue(s).

10) Offering negative answers to questions, especially when it comes to current or past employers/bosses. Try running your answer by friends who are hiring managers or in HR, to ensure you aren’t torpedoing yourself without realizing it.

11) You played the one-page game. Most resumes are actually two, sometimes three pages, depending on the experience. Tell a story with your bullet points, education, adjunct information, etc., of success in your career.  Employ the necessary keywords and key phrases throughout your experience and supplemental detail. 

12) Your social media is a hot mess. All that info to get rid of in a video background on my #8 applies to your social media. It isn’t private, they are checking, and it will cost you the job.

Things you can do to help yourself:

–Remember that your length of job search in no way reflects the value you have or will provide to an organization.

–While your job search may be taking longer than expected, it doesn’t mean that you are unemployable. Understanding that it takes several months for most people to get a new job, should give you comfort in knowing you are not alone. 

–Stay away from negative friends, family and acquaintances who are judging your job search. The irony of their judgment frequently becomes clear during their next job search.  If you can’t fully avoid the person, limit your exposure. (See my article “Give Jobseekers Your Support, Not Your Judgment” on LinkedIn.

–You can, when necessary, take a less than desirable job to have income. Do not allow that situation to end your job search. You have merely taken a Stop-Gap Job to meet financial needs, and this does not have to be a permanent relationship. Keep on searching!

Sometimes a job search takes longer than we anticipate or want. Never allow expectations to get in the way of your search, as they create frustrations and impede your progress. New jobs are advertised daily, so don’t permit current disappointment to keep you from applying and networking your way to your next job. Never give up, never surrender!

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers, executives and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, executive/career management coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 20-50+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Career Coaching, Interviews, Job Search, Networking, Personal Branding, Resume Writing
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The Importance of LinkedIn: How to Use It Effectively

January 15th, 2020

My clients regularly ask the following question:  Is LinkedIn actually necessary?  Yes, it is, and let me share why with a few statistics. 

–Percentage of Recruiters that use LinkedIn to vet candidates:  94%

Sourced from “22 Interesting LinkedIn Job Statistics (2019) by the Numbers” DMR Business Statistics and Craig Smith from Expanded Ramblings.com

–LinkedIn is popular with employers, given that its primary focus is professional networking.  Jobcast found that well over 93 percent of companies use LinkedIn to connect with and hire new talent, but less than half of all job seekers, just 36 percent, actually have a LinkedIn account.  Furthermore, just 14 percent of users reportedly check their account on a regular basis.

–73% of Millennials found their job through social media (with primary sources being LinkedIn and Twitter).

Sourced from “11 Social Media Recruiting Statistics to Make You Rethink Your Current Strategies” Study by Aberdeen Group and Jobcast and posted on CareerProfiles.com

Just these stats alone should have people clamoring for a free LinkedIn membership.  It should also underscore the value of creating a good profile and visiting LinkedIn at least weekly for profile updating and most importantly – networking!  So, what do you need to do for LinkedIn to be effective?

  1. Have a great picture. No selfies, dark pictures, photos you cut other people out of, old photos, etc.  Also, SMILE, there are a lot of grouchy-looking people on LinkedIn.  Smiling creates a connection, and the “I’m mad at the world” or “don’t care” look, chases people away.  Have someone you know take several photos of you in front of a nice bookcase, interesting brick or tile work, or beautiful artwork.
  • Make sure you fill out the Intro Section (where your photo resides), and that includes using the “job title” area to showcase some keywords and key phrases (you have 100 characters to use). 

Example One:  Senior Project Manager, PMP, Lean Six Sigma, Agile, Risk Management, Scrum, Jira, Mavenlink. 

Example Two:  Administrative Coordinator, Reporting, Process Improvement, Training, Workflow, Change Management.

  • Fill out the remainder of your profile completely, including the Summary, Employment (similar to your resume), Education, Skills (using industry and position-related keywords and key phrases), Volunteer Experience (you participate in), Certifications, and Accomplishments which consists of:  Honors and Awards, Organizations, Courses, Publications, Languages (besides English), Projects, and Patents.
  • Join applicable groups, particularly local groups where you can network, see additional local jobs advertised, and ask questions. 
  • Be a participant, not an observer.  Share great news from your company, invite people to an event, share an article, publicly congratulate a colleague on a promotion or accomplishment, share an inspirational quote, and congratulate connections on Work Anniversaries and New Jobs, etc.
  • Get and give Recommendations, not just Endorsements.
  • Build those connections.  While you don’t want to spam people with lots of invites, you don’t need to know everyone directly that you connect with on LinkedIn.  That’s the whole idea of this platform – six degrees of separation to make connections.  Invite or accept invites for quality of contact, completeness of profile, and use it to find those you have lost touch with over time.  Don’t be fooled by those who tell you that in order to have success with LinkedIn you must have 500+ connections.  That is overwhelming to most people.  Start with 30, that unlocks a certain amount of detail for your use, for free.  Build to 50, then 100, and the next thing you know, you will have a robust group of connections and access to copious free information via this dynamic tool.  

Check your LinkedIn several times a week and be active on a consistent basis.  In essence, if you want your LinkedIn to work for you, you have to work your LinkedIn.  This doesn’t mean spending hours of time on it.  Just 10 minutes, three times a week will be sufficient.  You can build a great group of connections and stay up to date with your profile, while proactively managing your career, business or job search.  To your success!

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers, executives and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, executive/career management coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing numerous seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Career Coaching, Career Management, Interviews, Job Search, Networking, Personal Branding
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Answering the Question: What Makes You More Qualified Than the Other Candidates?

November 16th, 2017

Answering the Question:  What Makes You More Qualified Than the Other Candidates?

 

This is a common question my clients are regularly asked in an interview.  There is worth to the question, despite what you read online, and I do understand the logic behind it.  So, here is how you handle it:

First, tell them you don’t know the other candidates’ qualifications, nor do you have their resume, so all you can speak to is your own qualifications for the position.  Not only is this true, but you avoid saying anything negative about the other candidates – this is one of the reasons an interviewer asks the question.  Be careful to address this at the beginning of your answer, as you don’t want the interviewer to feel as if you ignored a portion of the question.

Second, before you ever walk into that interview, fashion an answer.  Being perceived as caught off guard by an inquiry that is commonly used will certainly be a negative.  This is essentially another way of asking “what makes you qualified for the position.”  It doesn’t matter which of these questions you get, the answer will be primarily the same except for what I provided in the “first” part of the answer.

Speak concisely about how your skills, education and experience, with a couple of pertinent examples, relate to the job the interviewer is hiring for specifically.  Keep the answer to less than 90 seconds, so you have enough time to share some details, and connect them to the job, but not so much you bore the interviewer(s).

Use your biggest and best skills and experience, and only relevant education (if used at all) in the answer.  This is not the time to talk about your phone prowess as an IT Director, or how you helped your frat organize a “party” for an entry level bank teller job (or any job for that matter).

What is the organization truly looking for in this position regarding experience and skillset?  What will your typical tasks be day-in, day-out?  What unique capabilities, education, certifications, or experience are they desiring that you already possess?  Depending on the level of, and detail provided about the position, you can offer quite a customized answer to the interviewer(s).

Keep a cheat sheet on hand of this answer in your notebook or portfolio for the interview.  Now you will be prepared, and have a great answer that truly offers value, while setting yourself apart from the competition in a professional and likeable way.

 

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 30-70+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Interviews, Job Search, Personal Branding
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11 Interview Tips Experts Say Will Make You Stand Out

October 26th, 2017

11 Interview Tips Experts Say Will Make You Stand Out

I was honored to recently participate in a colleague’s article interviewing 11 experts on how to “stand out from the crowd” while in an interview.  Below is my tip for jobseekers, and a link to the full article.

“Craft answers to Behavioral Interview questions prior to the interview.  I take every one of my clients through an exercise to develop these before walking in an interviewer’s door.  Go through performance reviews, your own resume examples of success, think about projects you have worked on, documentation you have created, how you contributed to cost savings or profit and revenue development, and how you increased customer service.  Write these in a format of Challenge, Action and (successful) Result and take them with you in a career portfolio to the interview.  Now you will have an arsenal of perhaps 20 or more examples to refer to if necessary.  You can write them in a brief synopsis (three sentences will be sufficient) but can share and expand on during your interview session.

Since nearly every interview has Behavioral Interview questions, this exercise will pay huge dividends in your success.  Don’t be stuck trying to think of an answer for every interview question that comes your way, prepare ahead and reduce your stress while you impress.”

To see the full article, please go to the following link: https://www.offtheclockresumes.com/blog/11-interview-tips-experts-say-will-make-you-stand-out

 

Categories Career Management, Interviews, Job Search, Personal Branding
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Wonder Why Your Networking Is Not Working?

July 12th, 2016

 

Wonder Why Your Networking Is Not Working?

People, including experts, make networking so tough, and such a formalized process.  We write entire books on how to network.  It’s really quite simple – have a conversation, and remember that networking isn’t about you in a job search or a business interaction; it’s about you talking with another human being.  Just talking, we can do that, right?

We have so many opportunities to network in our daily lives.  Parties, weddings, funerals (not during the ceremonies mind you), church or other religious institution gatherings, and of course, networking events.  We should start promoting networking as a state of mind, not a process or methodology, or something only done on special occasions.

Wonder Why Your Networking Is Not Working?I recently had a business person in my Your Business Plan:  The Entrepreneurs Compass six-week program say the following “I attend networking events all the time and I can’t seem to get any leads.  I go there with the intent of getting business and just never get any decent contacts.”  My answer:  Stop going with the intent of getting a client, and start going with the intent of helping someone else.  I would tell a jobseeker the same thing.  Stop going to a networking event and trying to “get” something out of it, and start giving to others.  My course attendee was needless to say stunned at my comment and then the lightbulb went off.  She realized the entire strategy of going to an event to “acquire” a contact or new business was too much pressure on her and the other networker.  I explained that when our focus is on what we want, we communicate it in body language, our voice, and very likely the verbiage we use.  All we are saying to a potential contact is we want, want, want.  Not the most attractive communication approach.

When you take your eye off of yourself in a networking situation, and offer a fellow networker a tip, pointer, referral, potential contact, job or business lead, or just give someone a little guidance, that kindness will always come back to you in a positive way.  I’m not talking about getting the crystals out and singing “Kum-Ba-Yah” here, but when you give you truly receive.  Not only do you receive the knowledge that you helped someone else, that help to another always seems to return to you as help when you need it.  Remember the “practice random acts of kindness” idea – it works!

Wonder Why Your Networking Is Not Working?The other two tips I offered to the business person in my seminar were more for people who tend to be on the shy side.  First, take someone with you to an event, and even better, someone who is outgoing and let them do some of the work.  Trust me, those of us who aren’t shy will be glad to help, and you may be assisting another jobseeker or business owner network too.  Second, if you are alone, don’t feel as if you must go make a formal introduction to anyone initially.  Instead walk up close to a person on the outskirts of the event that like you is probably shy, and say the following:  Wow, there are more people here than I expected, or… there are fewer people here than I expected.  If they talk back to you in a friendly way, CONGRATULATIONS, YOU ARE NETWORKING.  Now introduce yourself and start a real conversation.

Wonder Why Your Networking Is Not Working?This isn’t rocket science, we don’t need more books on networking, but instead we need to as career and/or business coaches to show our clients how simple and empowering it can be once they step slightly outside their comfort zone.  In particular, we must emphasize this is an ongoing process with people you know, people you need to reconnect with, and people you have yet to meet, and can happen in most any social situation.  Putting people first makes you a better person, and I have found once my clients get a taste of that success in building relationships they want to continue the pursuit.  Who knows where that can lead?

 

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses.  After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm.  Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals.  She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 50-70+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area.  She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Business Coaching, Job Search, Networking, Personal Branding
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