Winning Job Searches From the Pros
From my client files this month, here are three success stories from people who got hired fast, with takeaway lessons you can use to jumpstart your job search today.
Case #1: Kathy from Montreal got hired over 1150 applicants for a position as a business analyst. How? Her resume positioned her as someone who could deliver results.
Kathy writes: “A lot of the feedback I got about the resume surrounded the fact that all of my achievements were so clear. The employer didn’t have to read through the whole document to find them and that was what they liked the most.”
Your takeaway lesson: Write a resume that focuses on results and displays them prominently, so hiring managers can quickly judge your potential value.
This will set you apart from most job seekers, whose resumes force employers to read between the lines and figure out the value of that they’ve done on the job. It’s up to YOU to do that thinking for employers!
Here’s a “before” and “after” example from a technical resume that got another client hired at a $15,000 higher salary.
BEFORE
Cleaned up Microsoft Access database.
AFTER
Helped retain $20-million contract with top client after working 16-hour days for four months to clean up Access database.
See the difference?
Write a resume that focuses on RESULTS.
Case #2: Jack from North Carolina got 4 interviews and 4 job offers with a resume I wrote to help him transition from retail management to real estate sales.
His comments: “Even the employers themselves committed that it was rare for them to make such a quick decision.”
That may be because most resumes written by career-changers fail to emphasize what’s known as “transferable skills.”
In Jerry’s case, he had increased sales for his retail stores dramatically using the same skills that would help sell real estate. In his case, those transferable skills were in sales, marketing and client service.
Your takeaway lesson: have a clear idea of the job you’re applying for. Know what skills you’ll need to do that job. Then write a resume that emphasizes those skills and how you’ve used them before.
You can go from being a scuba diving instructor to an elementary school teacher if you emphasize training as a transferable skill. Or, go from scuba diving instruction to ship’s captain if you focus on seamanship as that transferable skill.
So, write a resume that doesn’t force employers to think about how they might use you — they simply don’t have time when wading through a stack of 200-500 resumes.
Case #3: Bill from Florida got hired in a marketing management job with a 32% pay raise. He found his new job by networking effectively. Very effectively.
His comments: “I called a CEO I worked for back in the early ’90s. After revisiting what I had done since we worked together, he gave me a list of 10 CEOs and their companies with whom he had customer/vendor relationships.”
KC then parlayed that list of contacts into several meetings … and a terrific new job.
Your takeaway lesson: expand your idea of who you can network with. You can tap the hidden job market and unleash a torrent of leads by going back 5, 10 — or more — years among your personal and professional contacts.
In KC’s case, he went back nearly a decade. I have personally networked with people eight years after leaving a company.
Bottom line: you should consider every person you’ve ever worked for or with fair game in your networking efforts. And don’t forget people you went to school with, etc.
To make your networking even more effective, try to add value every time you contact someone. What news item, bit of industry knowledge or network connection of your own could you share with people when you call or write?
It’s been said that givers get. If you can give away just one piece of valuable information when you re-connect with people to ask for job leads, you’ll approach your networking with renewed enthusiasm. And those folks will be more likely to reciprocate and think extra hard of ways to help you find work. Try this and prove it for yourself.
Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash