The 10 Types of Crappy Interviewees

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Human Resources?

Human Resources is a dirty word to recruiters. They are generally difficult to deal with and change frequently. Trying to establish a relationship depends on the day, the weather and the stock market plus whatever they had for breakfast. Today's rant is advice - if you are actively seeking a new job then let's build on the thought "pick your top 10 companies where you'd like to work" and go a level up - never deal with 'em.
If you've been lucky enough to be called by an HR person who says "we'd like to discuss your resume", do whatever it takes to talk to the Hiring Manager first, even if it means calling the company and asking or crawling the internet to find out.

I read alot of blogs, I read alot of boards where job hunters whine and cry and pat each other on the back. That's ok for about 5 minutes but it's not going to take you to the next level.

Most job hunters make the job hunt their job. They email their resume out to everything that's out there - that's like shooting a gun in the air hoping you'll hit a duck. If you're a real job hunter, you've hunkered down to do exactly what I'm suggesting - focusing and honing in on that JOB.

Have you ever had a look at what Human Resources studies before they got their certification? Check it out sometime. See if what they study to do their job has anything to do with what you've studied and what you do - and they're in charge of hiring?

Another problem - the "I'm God" confusion that HR types tend to take on. Oooh the power of it all! They hold all the cards, so they think. They think wrong. The hiring manager is looking to find someone to make their headaches go away, that is YOU. Your job is to connect with the hiring manager and convince them that you are the magician who knows exactly what to do - not with lying or over embellishing or being obnoxious. HR knows zip to nil and doesn't have the smarts to question what you know about doing the job, so they're going to zip you through what they DO know - personality tests, behavior tests, tricky questions, watching your body language blahblahblah. That's crap. We all have worked with someone who squeaked through the interview, landed a job (probably at the desk beside you and made your life complete hell...I know mine did) and can do jack squat at the job.
Bypass the 3 ring circus and constant rejection. Focus on the job you want and figure out who to talk to. You need HR after you get hired for training or benefits information or maybe just signing that new contract!
Have you made that list yet? Have you researched that company's chain of command to see who to approach? You have control over it all, you really do.

Upgrading skills FREE? Online? Yale, Harvard & more?

One of the worst things about being out of work for an extended period of time is trying to  validate that block of unemployment on your resume. In this fast-paced millenium where we can be outdated and outmoded overnight, this email I got with employment information was a welcome surprise. Check this out:

"Employers are starting to hire again and we know for a fact that they’re going to hire individuals who can contribute. Employers see each of us as a unique mix of education, talents, skills, and experiences – and it’s up to us to continually nurture and fine-tune who we are and what we have to offer.
Never stop educating yourself. If you have access to a computer and the Internet you can give yourself a first rate education. Leading universities like Yale, MIT, Princeton, and Harvard are offering their courses for FREE online. This really levels the playing field, allowing everyone access to instruction from some of the world’s greatest scholars. One organization we recently heard about, Academic Earth, has brought the best courses from some of the most respected colleges and universities together in one place. Academic Earth was founded with the goal of giving everyone on earth access to a world-class education and they are working hard to achieve that goal. Their site includes video lecture clips, lecture notes, practice problems, exams, and other resources.
So start hitting those ‘virtual’ books and keep learning. Acquire the knowledge you need to get that next great job. There's nothing holding you back!:

How cool is that? In the comfort of our own home, in our pajamas and close to the edge of the depths of despair, quality free online education can get us dressed, keep our skills current and actually lead us to a great job with some top-of-the-line upgrading!

For the Zoomers and Boomers out there, this is especially vunderbar. In an economy where hires need to have a loaded bag of tricks, these upgrades plus the knowledge and maturity that have come with your years of experience make you all the more appealing and valuable.

While I'm not as enthusiastic as the email author that "employers are hiring again" (Which employers, where and how many? I haven't seen any real indication of a big hiring swing yet ) - I know that it definitely is starting to simmer out there. They're coming, those jobs, and let's all be prepared for them - a little Ivy League upgrading would look great on a resume, don't you agree? It can't hurt to check out what they're offering and how you can benefit.

Roundhouse kick to the head Resumes

Forewarned is forearmed! (See information on how to create e-z to scan, success-filled resumes at the bottom of the article.)

Research shows that only one interview is granted for every 200 resumes received by the average employer. Research also tells us that your resume will be quickly scanned, rather than read – the reader takes from 3 to 8 seconds. This is all the time you have to impress a hiring manager to read pursue your resume further. What this means is that the decision to interview a candidate is usually based on an overall first impression of the resume, a quick screening that so impresses the reader and convinces them of the candidate’s qualifications that an interview results. As a result, the top half of the first page of your resume will either make you or break you. By the time they have read the first few lines, you have either caught their interest, or your resume has failed. That is why we say that your resume is an ad. You hope it will have the same result as a well-written ad: to get the reader to respond.

To write an winning resume, you have to learn how to tell a prospective employer what you can do for them while pointing out what qualifications you have that match the job description. The new resume doesn’t follow the old standards – it grabs the reader’s attention and gets you put in the “yes” pile.

By starting with your current resume and some effort, you can make a resume that you’re confident that shows who you are and what you can do.

Each advertised position gets a ton of resume responses from those who are underqualified but hopeful to overqualified and close to perfection. All of these resumes are your competition. The hiring manager has to read all of these unless they have an assistant who will prescreen them first.

With a job description in front of them, someone is going to scan your resume starting with the email subject. For information about emailing etiquette, read our article. They may or may not know what all of the job necessities are or mean, so they’re looking for a resume that matches up quickly with the job description. This is your starting point:

THE OBJECTIVE/SUMMARY

A powerful objective that really tells what you’re looking for versus the standard “seeking a position as” that is 50 words or less is going to get the reader’s attention. Bolding any words that match the qualifcations from the job ad is easy on the eye and jumps out especially to someone unfamiliar with your occupation. This may be the only section fully read by the employer, so it should be very strong and convincing.

PREVIOUS EMPLOYMENT, SKILLS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS

This is the part where you demonstrate what you can bring to the employer by proving what you’ve accomplished in the past. You tell which skills you used that match the ones mentioned in the job ad or description and THEN you show your accomplishments that set you apart from the rest of the herd. The basic formula is:

1. Problem/ Challenge
2. The actions you took 
3. The outcome

In the combination objective/summary, you gave an overview. Now you tell the rest of the best of your story. Let them know what results you produced, what happened as a result of your efforts, what you are especially gifted or experienced at doing. Make sure that you are validating the most important highlights from your objective/summary.

EDUCATION

Be sure to keep the education section concise and clean. If you won any awards or published articles, list them seperately. Putting a grade point average is a personal choice but not necessarily needed especially if you won awards that will indicate your scholastic brilliance in a different section.

DO’s AND DON’Ts

DO spell and grammar check your resume

DO keep it to 2 pages or less if you can

DO apply this to any position – you’re selling yourself and listing previous job accomplishments is going to tell the employer they need you

DO make a different resume for each different job title that you’re applying for – “general” resumes don’t get interviews, they get “kept on file”.

DO include if your degree is from overseas and has been equivalency assessed by a North American certified institution such as WES

DO separate relevant work experience from non-relevant work experience

DON’T lie on your resume

DON’T add your photo

DON’T put personal information ie: marital status, Social Insurance Numbers, number of children, political or religious affiliation information on your resume

DON’T save your resume as “resume” – save it with your name and which position/job that it applies to

DON’T send wpd or obscure formats – send .doc or .pdf so that they can easily be opened or parsed by the reader. If you were the person reading 1000 resumes, you wouldn’t search for an program to read a resume, you’d delete it too, wouldn’t you?

Check out the resume sample before and after – apply this to your own resume. Get noticed and get the job with a winning resume!

 Before: Boring, average, unimpressive.

AFTER: WOW! Look how much money this guy could make us/save us! Impressive!

See original article at http://platinumstaffingsolutions.ca/articles-for-job-hunters/writing-a-winning-resume

THIS is the book that can show you how to turn your successes into numbers that win the interviews AND the jobs!