5 Pointless Job-Search Tactics

5 Pointless Job-Search Tactics

by Liz Ryan

(from Yahoo! hot jobs)

In case the 2010 job-search experience doesn't already have enough in common with pushing a huge rock uphill, here's another jolt of bad news. Lots of conventional job-search activities are a complete waste of time--the job-hunt equivalent of trying to cure warts by swinging a dead cat over a stump at midnight. They just don't work. Here's our top-five list of pointless job-search activities:

Resume-blast services
There are vendors who will blast your resume out to zillions of employers for a fee. Only problem: employers are deluged with resumes already. Your unsolicited, uncustomized resume is the last thing they want to see. Skip these services and conduct your own research, using search engines and LinkedIn. Then write to hiring managers directly with targeted overtures.

Job fairs
When I was an HR person, job fairs were a fantastic way to hire highly qualified people. Today, job fairs have devolved into thankless, confidence-crushing cattle calls. Save the money you'd spend on dry cleaning and parking to attend a job fair; instead, contact employers one by one after researching their businesses.

"I'm job hunting" messages on discussion boards
I moderate a few online discussion groups, and I always feel bad for the folks who join a group to post a message that says, "I am seeking an accounting job" to the other members (that is, total strangers). The odds of getting a job lead that way are slim to none.

We need to know the people we refer for job opportunities. You're better off spending your online-community time making one-on-one connections, or following up via phone or in person.

Video resumes
Imagine the hiring manager sitting at her desk swamped in resumes, cover letters, reference lists, portfolios, and unanswered emails from job applicants. What's her incentive to watch your video resume? There isn't one. Video resumes are a solution in search of a problem. Craft a killer resume and get it out, along with a pithy "pain letter" that explicitly shows how your background makes you the perfect person to relieve a business's pain, to hiring managers instead.

Spray and pray
Applying to every job in sight with the same, uncustomized resume is a job-search non-starter. Employers hire people they believe can solve their problems. That belief comes from the understanding of the problem that the job-seeker demonstrates in his or her pitch. Research is the key!

So, how do people get jobs? They do it through thoughtful, well-crafted letters, resumes, phone calls, and LinkedIn overtures--sent in response to posted job ads or sent to employers who don't currently have jobs posted but who may well have business needs anyway. They do it through networking, and through careful follow-up with the people they know and the new people they meet during a job search. "Hey, I need a job" is not a compelling pitch--but "I think I understand what you're up against, and would love to talk about solutions" most definitely is.

Liz Ryan is a 25-year HR veteran, a former Fortune 500 VP, and an internationally recognized expert on careers and the new-millennium workplace. Connect with her at www.asklizryan.com. (The opinions expressed in this column are solely the author's.)

7 Little-Known Reasons You're Not Getting Hired

Karen Burns is the author of the illustrated career advice book The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl: Real-Life Career Advice You Can Actually Use, recently released by Running Press. She blogs at www.karenburnsworkinggirl.com.

On Wednesday May 12, 2010, 11:08 am EDT

If you're job hunting you're surely aware of the most egregious and common no-nos: showing up for the interview ten minutes late; answering your phone during the interview; handing over a resume riddled with typos; using a silly-sounding E-mail address; failing to demonstrate you've researched the employer; bad-mouthing your last boss; neglecting to follow up. You're not doing any of that, are you? Of course not.

But you may not have considered some of the less-discussed, under-the-radar issues. Give this list a look and ask yourself, "Do any of these sound like me?"

1. You have unreasonable expectations. Everybody wants the perfect job. But if your criteria are too high, if you're being too demanding, you may well remain unemployed. Nobody wants to be told to compromise, but the fact is that much of life involves just that, at least temporarily. Analyze your wants and needs. Which are must haves? Which are negotiable? Which can be put on hold?

2. You're relying too much on one search technique. Maybe you are only applying online, or only networking, or only using employment agencies, or only approaching companies that you know are hiring. Don't limit yourself to just one job-search method. Try them all. Cast a wide net, continue to build your connections, get creative.

3. You use the word "I" too often in your cover letter. The most effective way to endear yourself to potential employers is to put the focus more on them than on you. Show you've done your homework and understand what your target companies are seeking. Then tell them how you can fill those needs.

4. You are not demonstrating long-term potential. We get caught up in the moment. We need a job now. But employers, the good ones at least, tend to think long term. They want to know not only how you will contribute today but in the future, too. That "Where do you see yourself in five years?" question is not just for drill. They really want to know.

5. You are unknowingly repeating mistakes. After interviews, are you taking the time to review and analyze them? Many times the reason you don't get a job is beyond your control, and, in fact, has nothing to do with you, but not always. Trying to understand why the answer was "No" may help you to fine tune your approach.

[See the topics you can't discuss at work.]

6. You have not rehearsed. You may hesitate to rehearse answers to the most common questions. You don't want to sound canned. You want to be yourself. But consider the benefits of creating great answers to those questions you hear the most--short, vivid, three-sentence answers brimming with examples and facts--and practicing them until you can speak with conviction and confidence.

7. You put your job search on hold while waiting to hear back. Don't we all fall into this trap at one time or another? You've had a super couple of interviews with your dream employer. You just know you're going to get "the call" any day now. You think, I'm going to hold off until I hear back; after all, I deserve a little break. Well, no doubt you do deserve a little break--but don't. Keep on networking, applying, interviewing, and researching until you have a firm job offer in hand.

Looking for work is an enormous project. In many ways it's more difficult, and takes more energy, than even the most demanding job. So, in the midst of it all, find a way to nurture yourself. Keep on fine tuning and strengthening your approach. And hang in there.

Great News - FL gains 1,100 High-tech Jobs

Florida gains 1,100 high-tech jobs

Orlando Business Journal

Florida’s high-tech industry added 1,100 net jobs in 2008, according to the 13th annual Cyberstates report published on Wednesday.

The modest 0.4 percent gain to 292,300 high-tech jobs during a recession compared with an overall 4.1 percent loss in the state’s private work force in 2008, the most current data available.

Other findings from the study include:

• Florida high-tech firms employed 44 out of every 1,000 private-sector workers in 2008, ranking 26th nationwide.

• The state’s high-tech workers earned an average wage of $68,200, or 72 percent more than Florida’s average private-sector wage, ranking it 33rd nationwide.

• The state’s high-tech payroll totaled $19.9 billion in 2008, ranking it seventh nationwide.

• Florida had 24,500 high-tech businesses in 2008, ranking it third nationwide.

Nationally, the high-tech industry lost 245,600 jobs in 2009, for a total of 5.9 million workers. The recession–induced 4 percent drop is slightly lower than the 5 percent decline in the private sector as a whole and followed four years of steady growth in tech industry employment.

The study is put together every year by the TechAmerica Foundation.

Should I go into software development?

TechRepulic

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/career/?p=1938&tag=nl.e019&tag=nl.e019

• Date: April 14th, 2010
• Author: Toni Bowers
• 
  

This is a guest post by Justin James, host of TechRepublic’s Programming and Development blog.

A few months ago, I met someone through a mutual friend who wanted my opinion about whether he should study Computer Science in college with the goal of becoming a software developer. This is my response to him.

I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is, other than the lack of experience in the field, you are in a great position in terms of timing and geography (note: he is a high school senior who lives near Rochester, NY). The bad news is the software development field has started to undergo some very serious shifts in terms of how things are done, which could potentially make it a fairly unattractive field. Let’s start with the good.

The good news

First off, your lack of experience in the development field has allowed you to not have any prejudices about it, and unlike a lot of aspiring developers I talk to, you aren’t filled with delusions or fantasies about what it would be like to work as a developer. Too many folks go to school thinking that they are going to graduate and be working on, say, World of Warcraft. Yes, it is possible to go straight from school to the gaming industry, but you have to break your back in school to do so, and preferably go to a school with a specialized gaming program. I recently read an article inCommunications of the ACM about these gaming programs, and what those students are doing is not easy. Very few students make it to those schools and those programs, and people who have that kind of goal without the necessary motivation and talent will be sadly disappointed.

The next advantage you have is that you live near the Rochester Institute of Technology(RIT), which is a very good school to learn software engineering (not “how to program” but true “software engineering”). A friend of mine went to RIT, and I was very impressed by the education he received there. Even better, through that program, he was able to get some great internships, and he ended up at IBM, doing insanely cool stuff that I can’t even begin to understand. While the school you attend isn’t everything (you can get a decent education anywhere), going to a school with a good reputation that really gives you a solid fundamental education can be a game changer.

The bad news

More and more software development work is sent to India, Russia, China, Israel, Romania, and Ireland; these countries have excellent educational systems, much cheaper labor, and laws that do not give employees much power. A few years ago this was annoying but not horrible because the work shipped overseas was generally low value programming. A lot of these offshoring arrangements failed due to language barriers, time zone differences, cultural barriers, and other factors that basically act as “friction” in the process.

These offshore shops have wised up, and their own people have developed the expertise to work with U.S. companies with less effort. In addition, many of these shops (particularly in India) hired people who moved to the United States and learned the language, customs, etc.; those people are now going back home to bring their expertise with working with U.S. companies to the companies there. As a result, the offshore companies are getting a lot better. Some people thought that the offshore shops lacked the creativity or hands-on experience in the industry to develop applications completely on their own; this is no longer the case, and many overseas firms have created great projects 100% in-house with no outside guidance.

In other words, after you would graduate college, you would be competing not just with the other recent graduates in your area but with graduates around the world. Think of this as a challenge; someone else is willing and able to do the work for less money, so you have to be willing and able to do the work better.

Another factor is the changing nature of software development. In the last few decades, and especially in the last five years or so, we’ve seen a raft of products introduced that make programming more of a “gluing parts together” than ever thought possible. This doesn’t mean that, in the future, there won’t be programmers, but it does mean that there will be a pretty deep split between the people doing the “gluing” (who will be about equal to a factory worker from the early 1900s) and the people designing the glue and the parts. This trend will continue, and it must continue, for these reasons:

• Software development projects are very expensive, especially in relation to how much money they save in too many cases.
• Making changes to existing software is much harder than making it to begin with, and it is extremely difficult if the person making the changes isn’t who wrote the original (or if it has been a while since that developer touched the code).
• Software patterns are very well established in many cases, and there is little reason to keep re-writing the same code.
• Many current development techniques are rooted in things that were necessary 20 or 50 years ago but are no longer needed.

Every industry expert and veteran programmer I have talked to agrees that this is where things are going, but it isn’t known when it will happen — it could be five years, or it could be fifty years. But I wouldn’t want to be caught by surprise by this trend.

Does this mean you shouldn’t go into programming?

Not at all! It means is that if you want to go into this field, you have to be smart about it. I do not recommend that you try to be a programmer; slapping programs together is an increasingly low-value proposition. I suggest that you look into being a true software engineer because these professionals are pretty rare and desperately needed. Big companies are hiring people from other countries on H-1B visas, while local talent is unemployed because schools overseas are generating the software engineers that the industry needs while U.S. schools are cranking out programmers. Shoot for the stars. Go to the best school that you possibly can.

Unless you are personally opposed to it, I highly recommend either enrolling in Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) in college and going into the military or trying to attend a service academy. One of the biggest mistakes in my life was turning down an appointment to the Air Force Academy and a full scholarship through the Air Force ROTC. Even without the scholarship, going into the service would have been a great move, but I did not see it then. The military teaches incredibly important skills in many areas, and former servicemen and servicewomen often have a major advantage in the workforce (so long as they were honorably discharged).

In addition, I suggest that you start learning to program now. It will give you a leg up when you get to school; it will also allow you to find out if you hate the work before you are committed to anything. More importantly, you need to work development jobs and/or internships in college if you want to be employable when you graduate, and the more experience you get, the more likely it will be that you will land those jobs and internships. If you really want to be the best, you should start by reading Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (which MIT used to use to teach programming). This course will challenge you in a million ways, but when you complete it, you will know more about how to think about software development than most full-time programmers. The book is pretty tough to go through on your own (nearly everyone I know who read it on their own did so after they had some experience in the industry), but even taking an honest stab at it will do you some good.

To get experience, start with a few simple applications on your own or perhaps modify some existing open source code. Then start working on an open source project with other people, or volunteering your time to a non-profit to help them write software. This will provide you with hands-on experience, as well as something to put on your resume.

The key is that you must differentiate yourself. If you graduate school and you spent that time flipping burgers and getting Bs and Cs in Computer Science, guess what? There are thousands of students across the country who just graduated in that situation and thousands more overseas, all of whom are hungry for work. But if you graduate from school with two years of quality internships or part-time employment, with a background in real software engineering (especially if you took a specialized course like those video game programs discussed in the ACM article), then you should stand out and have no problem starting a rewarding career.

I hope this helps!

J.Ja

Handle the Stress Interview

Handle the Stress Interview

By Doug Hardy, Monster Staff Writer

Excerpt from Monster Careers: Interviewing

Ah, the stress interview -- the job candidate’s worst nightmare. It comes in many forms, from mildly provocative to sadistic. Its purpose: To put candidates on the defensive. The logic behind it: Stressful situations show the true person under the polished preparation, and candidates who perform well under pressure in the interview will handle work stress in a similar fashion.

Stress interviews aren’t perpetrated exclusively by creeps who want to see you squirm, although job seekers may beg to differ. This approach is a legitimate and effective way to predict a candidate’s performance at work -- which is, after all, pretty stressful at times. The candidate who handles interview pressure with confidence and grace goes light-years past the candidate who can handle only the easy questions.

Types of Stress Interview Tactics

• Painful or Aggressive Questions: Even a mild-mannered interviewer can test your interviewing skills by asking a question like “Why were you fired?”
  
• Aggressive Interview Attitude or Behavior: Some interviewers have a cultish faith in a tough attitude. They adopt a show-me attitude in their words, facial expression, body language and behavior. You’re supposed to believe their behavior is your fault, as if you were a naughty child.
  
• Unexpected Interview Behaviors: The interviewer tries to throw you off with unexpected behaviors. For example, an interviewer might ask the same technical question several times, pretending not to understand your answer. You explain several times, each time getting more exasperated at the questioner’s stupidity.
  
• Brainteasers or Puzzle Interviews: Puzzle questions are becoming more popular. You are not expected to know the actual answers to questions like “How much does all the ice in a hockey rink weigh?” but you are expected to explain how you would find out.
  
• Case Interviews: Briefly, you are presented an open-ended business situation -- usually a dilemma or set of hard choices -- and required to describe a path toward a solution. The case interview tests your knowledge of relevant business issues, quantitative and analytical skills, ability to prioritize and anticipate problems, and communication skills.

How to Respond

The key methods to use when asked stress questions are similar to tactics used in high-level salary negotiation:

• Clarify the question and the nature of the answer desired. This can buy you some time to think. What is the interviewer trying to get at? Don’t feel any compunction about asking questions to get clarification; sometimes, this is exactly what’s expected of you.
  
• Communicate what you’re thinking and doing.
  
• State assumptions, and ask for unknown information.
  
• Focus on the way in which you’re solving the problem, not necessarily the “right” answer.
  
• If you answer with a story, don’t lose the point.
  
• Be open, honest and direct, but refuse to be emotionally intimidated.

Like dogs, aggressive interviewers can smell fear. But be aware that the person who asks brutally tough questions might turn out to be warmhearted and easygoing -- after you’re hired, of course.

No Reply to Your Resume? Here's Why

by Anne Fisher
Thursday, April 1, 2010

Copyrighted, CNNMoney. All Rights Reserved.

Dear Annie: What is going on in HR departments at big companies these days? The last time I looked for a job, which admittedly was quite a while ago, if you submitted a resume and cover letter to HR, you at least got some kind of response (even if it was a form letter saying "no thanks").

That seems to have changed. I've been looking for work for almost a year now, since I lost my job as a brand manager at a mid-sized company, and it is incredibly frustrating. I've sent dozens of carefully crafted resumes to HR people, usually in response to specific ads on job boards or company websites, and it's like sending things into a black hole. I just hear nothing.

Are your other readers having this experience? How can I get these gatekeepers to respond to me, or if that's asking too much, how do I get past them? -- Just Joan

Dear J.J.: No doubt about it, what you're experiencing is awful. What's even worse (and, alas, quite common) is to have gotten as far as the interview stage, and had one meeting or even several that went swimmingly, so that your hopes are as high as can be, and then to hear...nothing.

It's hard to believe that people in a position to tell you yea or nay about a job are so insanely busy that they really don't have 30 seconds to dash off an e-mail telling you whether you've got a shot at it or not -- and small comfort to reflect that, if they're this rude to candidates, you wouldn't want to work there anyway.

But in defense of HR people, consider: They are overwhelmed. For one thing, at many companies, HR departments have suffered cutbacks right along with every other function: The average HR staff now numbers 9.2 employees, down from 13 in 2007, according to a recent poll by the Society for Human Resource Management. Any time headcount takes a 30% hit, you know the survivors are struggling.

Moreover, it's not that HR folks are unsympathetic to your plight. Plenty of them know firsthand what it's like to be unemployed for a painfully long time. SHRM did another survey, this time of HR professionals who'd been out of work (85% due to layoffs) in 2009, and found that of those who recently found a new job, 47% had been job hunting for six to 12 months, and another 27% had been looking for longer than a year. Among those who were still unemployed when SHRM conducted its poll, only 18% expected to find work within six months; 43% thought they'd have to search for a year or more.

The really disheartening part: Among those hired in 2009 after a lengthy search, almost half (49%) said they liked their new jobs less than the ones they had lost. The survey didn't ask why, but my guess would be overwork. HR departments are inundated with resumes, sometimes getting hundreds or even thousands for every available opening. Your carefully crafted resumes are buried somewhere in an ever-mounting pile, and HR staffers are hard-pressed to keep up, let alone give each candidate the kind of individual consideration that he or she deserves.

So how do you get around this? Vicki Barnett, head of a Denver career coaching firm called Make It Happen, says that, instead of sending resumes to HR, you should send them -- either on paper, electronically, or both -- to an executive at the company one or two levels above the hiring manager for the position you want. Granted, that person is likely to be extremely busy too, so he or she will delegate you to the person one or two steps down -- i.e. the one doing the actual hiring.

"Resumes travel down the food chain more easily than up," Barnett says. If the boss forwards your resume, a hiring manager is likely to give it a more thorough read than the 10 seconds HR may spend on it. After you've sent your resume, wait a few days, then follow up with a phone call to find out who has it and ask if you can schedule a meeting.

Obviously, there are still no guarantees you'll get hired, but bypassing HR gives you one big advantage, Barnett says: "Hiring managers have their 'wish lists,' but HR doesn't know what's on them, because what hiring managers really hope to find is often a combination of ineffable qualities that can be hard to spell out on paper."

HR people are usually just trying to match up keywords between your resume and the job description, Barnett adds -- and if you only have 12 out of the 15 keywords, you won't make it past that hurdle. Hiring managers, on the other hand, can look at a resume and read between the lines: "Even if your keywords don't match up precisely, you may have other experience or qualifications that would catch their eye."

Here's hoping.

Use LinkedIn as Part of Your Job Search!

If you're in the market for a job it's critical that you use LinkedIn as part of your search.
LinkedIn has replaced traditional job boards like Monster and CareerBuilder as the #1 choice for most recruiters out there who are looking for candidates, especially in IT. In order to be seen by companies and recruiters, you must have a profile on LinkedIn!

Here are some basic guidelines:

• Include a professional picture, of your face.
• Make sure to include your past experience. (Use LinkedIn as a mini resume. Include your titles and a brief description of what you did at each job.)
• NETWORK - Find commonality with other LinkedIn users and invite them into your network.
• Accept all invitation requests. (This grows your network and gives more people access to your profile.)
• Join Groups - There's a group for everything. Join the ones that are relevant to your skills and background.
• Have fun - Post updates and messages of what your doing as part of your search that day - OR - post an inspirational quote.

These are just a few things you can try to spark conversation and networking. Just by doing these every day, you will set yourself apart from other candidates.

Mike Baio

Recruiting Manager