The Job Search Rules

The Job Search Rules

I have covered a great deal of material related to getting hired or promoted on this blog. One thing I feel I must share is an article I wrote for ezinearticles about 16 months ago called Cover Letter - Volunteer Magic.

It talks to the importance of bringing your volunteer work to the forefront in your cover letter and thus your resume. The article has been read almost 2,000 times or about 4 times a day, everyday.

It obviously is resonating with people and when time permits I would encourage you to read it if you haven't already seen it. It would appear to be one of the more important job search rules to keep in mind.

Cover Letter - Volunteer Magic

Job Search Canada | one search. all jobs

Hey guys:

If you haven`t heard of this job search site
you might find it interesting (for Canada).

Job Search Canada | one search. all jobs.

http://www.indeed.ca/

A Few New Articles You Might Enjoy

Hey there ..

Frosty here in Northern Ontario .. Holy Smokes !! Try minus 35 degrees Celsius! That`s like 35 degrees below zero Fahrenheit ... Cold In Any Language!

I added a few new articles to the collection and mixed them in with a few older ones as well. Thought they might interest you on a frosty winter night.

Stay Warm,

http://www.mikeperras.com/articles.htm

Twitter Rules

If there's one thing you should do going into 2009 I hope it's to start really exploring Social Media. To that end I hope you'll start with a site called Twitter if you aren't already. Go there & explore, it's a wealth of networking with terrific people. And really very different from Facebook.

I can't sell you on all the benefits, that's something we all experience in our own way. Anyway I do hope to see you there and hey, don't forget to say hello.

Mike Perras, P.Mgr
twitter.com/mikeperras

Let Nepotism Be Your Friend

First off, I think we all agree that we hate any form of nepotism or patronage. That is of course unless it's working for you and then well .. we just look the other way.

When it comes to nepotism and getting hired, we've all NOT got the job or contract because of someone else who knew someone who in turn knew someone.

So, how can I make nepotism work for me? Pretty easy actually.

Firstly, embrace Wayne Dyer's quote "when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change" I mean completely embrace it. We need to change how we think of nepotism. You need to make nepotism your friend or else you will be forever on the outside. "change the way you look at things .... " start right now!

The truth is, we all know people. We all do. Make it your goal to tell them what you want. Let the universe hear you say it out loud to everyone you know & who cares what they think, get your desires out there, get them out there LARGE.

Put your ego in the crapper man, ego is your worst nightmare, holding you back from all the good stuff out there.

Now, tell your friends, I WANT A JOB, I WANT THAT CONTRACT! Yeah but what will they think of me "who gives a crappola anyway" .. get the message out there and then just let it go .. but you have to take that first step and be clear about what you actually want.

It's a call to action .. like Nike says "Just Do It" .. no truer words are now needed in these horrid market conditions. It's not going to get any better for awhile. Make your desires for That Job, That Contract clearly known.

The friends you tell, will tell people etc ... and the social media channel will start working for you immediately ... this is nepotism 101 or like insider trading.

Ok Ok I was ranting a bit .... but really, just get out there & talk to your family, your buds anyone. It will come back to you sooner than you think. Ok done, more coffee!

To Your Job Search Success,

Mike Perras, P.Mgr

Take The Holistic Approach & Win!

I talked to the head of HR at a university recently and we discussed Holistic Recruiting. Her eyes were wide open while I described this approach. The simplicity of it was obvious. Instead of just looking at the credentials of a potential employee, professor, dean etc. Why not look at the whole person, the complete package.

Proper qualifications and experience get you the interview of course. It is the complete package, the entire person you really need to hire. Taking this approach, knocks many out of the competition immediately as their overall emotional intelligence is a non match to the environment you have carefully established at your university or company.

So let us reverse this for a minute and say you, a potential employee, take a Holistic approach when being interviewed for the job. Well, guess what happens, the whole you comes out in the interview, and it is done intentionally on your part. Now the whole you approach makes you a very interesting and desirable employee. Just make yourself interesting, because you are!

You do a lot of volunteer work, then say so. It usually means you are a selfless giver and thus a great team player ... see where I am going here.

Job Interview Questions - The Final Frontier

I get more questions about preparing for the job interview than anything else. This of course assumes that your cover letter and resume have already cleared the way for you to get that elusive job interview.

If you look on line you`ll see sites that offer 250 job interview questions to know. Now come on man, there are at best maybe 25 absolute key questions and strategies in answering them. I mean what`s question #207 ... "what color are your dogs paws" .. really. Ok Ok that`s my rant on silly sites that focus on the wrong things. Less is more, almost always!

Here`s a question that no one & I mean no one ever takes seriously:

The recruiter wraps up & asks "Well that`s it Mike, thanks for coming in, do you have any questions?"

This question is worth as many points in the interview as any other question, it is not a fluffy throw away question at all. They want to see what you are thinking after the interview, it`s a perfect time to really leave them with a lasting impression.

Remember, it`s the last thing you`ll say to them prior to leaving & likely the one thing they just might remember that really made you stand out.

It`s an open question, meaning, it`s your show now, so ask away. Butttt NEVER EVER ask a self serving question, how much do I make etc .. that`s a sure fire killer.

Make your question an impression grabber & thus a memorable question/answer.

- Yes, thank you for asking, I am interested in your commitment to ongoing training as I do want to advance in this field. Do you offer training related to this position specifically.

- Yes, thank you for asking, I know that you have an ongoing newsletter. I have done some writing and would very much like to volunteer to help in that area.

See where I`m going .. not self serving at all, just you interested in growing and interested in helping the company. Be prepared to have maybe 3 or 4 good questions, as they may answer one or two during the actual interview.

To You Job Interview Success

Mike Perras, P.Mgr
www.extremelistening.com

PS - Don`t be a stranger, I welcome your feedback.

Cover Letters Are More Important Than Resumes

As a long time recruiter, coach and teacher, I have seen many aspects of the Job Search process change over the years. And bar none, nothing has evolved more in your job search process than the art of good cover letter writing. Regardless of what you may been reading today or what other experts are saying, think of it as a process and you’ll understand it very clearly:

The Job Search Process:

- I need a job or a better job

- I need a company to notice me and for them to call me

Isn’t that it in a nutshell? Nothing else matters! The process today is simply getting noticed enough to have a company go to the next stage.

- cover letter = first level of interest

- resume = your obvious qualifications

- job interview = determines your hire ability

The real you comes out in your cover letter, it’s an introduction and in that simple introduction you have to make that Real You stand out. We already assume that your resume qualifies you, but with a better cover letter as your introduction, the rest just doesn’t matter. If they don’t get past the cover letter, your qualifications, as great as they may be, just won’t get the recognition they deserve. That’s as simple as I can put it.

Resumes need to be good, whether they are functional or chronological. But at the end of the day, they don’t get tweaked too much. Altered slightly to best fit the job at hand yes, but that is still only a minor alteration. After all your resume is a blueprint at best, where you’ve been, what you’ve achieved, core competencies etc. There is only so much you can tweak in that area. But your cover letter now, is the real challenge. It needs to be altered for every possible career opportunity. Anything less is a template cover letter!

Your cover letter always needs to be tweaked exactly right for every job you apply for. These days the template cover letter is absolutely dead. They will never stand out, as everyone else is sending exactly the same thing, that’s what templates are, a sort of cookie cutter approach. And trust me, recruiters have seen thousands of letters, a stand out letter is rare and does just that, it really stands out when you write from the heart, a genuine, sincere and real person behind the word, gets noticed every time.

Remember the process. A recruiter reads your cover letter, when it’s interesting enough, they want to read your resume, where you detail your already qualified status and thus an job interview is arranged. But that process is all about your cover letter first!

Think of it this way, from a recruiter’s point of view. I receive 100 letters and resumes and all the resumes are about the same quality. How do I decide who to interview. Again, it’ll always come back to that amazing cover letter, that real you, they read as your introduction. This is the area we struggle with, as we are actually selling ourselves in the cover letter, like it or not, that’s exactly what you are doing. Telling your story yes, but really and truly Selling Selling Selling! Afterall do you want this job or not .. ok then, sell yourself! The resume doesn’t sell you, it’s a blueprint, a static page of information. They have to get through the cover letter to get to the resume. So the bottom line is prepare your resume first, you’ll need that as reference when writing a truly solid sales cover letter of introduction.

After your cover letter, the next obvious skill you really need to master is the art of the job interview itself. Again, that’ll come down to being real and your ability to articulate and communicate well any of your skills, experiences etc. Most people dread the job interview and rightly so, one needs to properly prepare. But most people don’t even get a job interview because they missed the single most important step, the cover letter.

I don't do this often, but there is one service out there that I do truly believe will give you the magic you need in cover letter writing. His name is Jimmy Sweeney and he’s been at it a very long time. In fact he has helped about 20,000 job seekers just like you. I would not hesitate to recommend his service or at the very least, suggest you read through his web site and see what his take is on cover letter writing overall. I have included a link to Jimmy’s website.

To Your Job Search Success!

http://www.extremelistening.com/coverletters.htm