As a professional recruiter & owner of a staffing firm www.usatechsearch.com, it certainly is not the way we conduct business. In fact, if we did, we would be out of business in a matter of months!

A good recruiter would never send in a candidate’s resume, then sit and wait for a response, and repeat the same process over and over again with minimum results. A good recruiter would call his client (or potential client), pitch the candidate’s experience, and arrange an interview (or at least a tentative interview) before submitting a single document.

Maybe it’s a hidden secret amongst recruiters. Maybe it’s a general rule only experienced recruiters seem to follow. Either way, it time for the general public to start doing things differently and dramatically increase their job interviews instead of waiting by the phone for it to ring.

It’s quite simple. Professional recruiters do this all the time. There are FIVE easy steps:

I. Decide which positions you are interested in

II. Create a list of potential employers

III. Source the names of the hiring authorities you wish to speak with

IV. Call them and create an interest by “selling” your experiences

V. Set up the interview

I. Decide Which Positions You Are Interested In:

This is an essential step in this process because most people are pretty vague when communicating what kind of positions they are interested in. This annoys hiring authorities quite a bit. In fact, it is a primary cause for applicants being turned down for positions. I discussed this in great detail in my book, 25 Reasons Why I Won’t Hire You! What You Did Wrong Before, During and After the Interview- 2nd Ed, which can be found at www.25ReasonsWhy.com or www.Amazon.com

Remember, always have a focus and be as specific as possible when calling a potential employer about what kind of work you would like to do, or which position you are applying for.

II. Create a list of potential employers

There are several ways to create a list of potential employers. One way (the most obvious way) which is probably what you are most comfortable with, is to search the internet and/or job section of your newspaper or employment magazines. Do not send in your resume, simply record their name.

A second way to source names is to contact your local Chamber of Commerce and talk with them about local businesses– who is coming to town, who is expanding, etc. You would be surprised at the resources your local Chamber of Commerce might have to offer.

I recommend that you create a spreadsheet of all your potential employers so that you can keep your list organized. This is a necessary step to stay on task and document your results.

III. Source the names of the hiring authorities you wish to speak with

This is where some skills and creativity are going to have to come in. In most cases, you can’t just call a company and expect the receptionist to give you the name of the hiring manager, but in some cases (with less experienced receptionists), it does happen. If the name of the hiring authority (not HR contact person) is not listed in the ad, one effective way to get his/her name is to call the company and simply ask for that particular department.

Note: Often times, the HR representative is the name listed in the ad. This is not the person you want to talk to (unless you are applying for an HR position).

For example, if you are trying to reach the person who ran the ad for an engineering position, you might first start off by asking for the engineering department. It doesn’t matter who answers the phone in that department, because you simply want to ask for the engineering manager.

You can run into some objections with this technique, and I discuss how to handle those objections in greater detail during private career counseling sessions. However, for the most part, this technique alone will give you some immediate results. Don’t get discouraged if you hit a brick wall a few times, keep trying… the results will happen.

IV. Call them and create an interest by “selling” your experiences

Here is where you really need to shine! Once you get that key person on the phone, you need to sell yourself. Take heed- do not go overboard with rambling on and on (out of nervousness) and talk too much (Ch. 9 25 Reasons Why I Won’t Hire You! - 2nd Ed.) However, it is your time to shine!

There are a variety of scripts that will work depending on the position you are applying for and your years of experience. In my one hour counseling sessions, I discuss this in greater detail and help you to develop a script specifically for your field and years of experience. Here is one script that should help most of you:

Script:

Hi Mr. Baxter, my name is John Doe. I wanted to contact you directly because I noticed you were looking for a mechanical engineer for the new California division. I have over 10 years of experience in this field, and I worked for one of your competitors (name drop if you can) for three of those years. I also have my BSME.

Mr. Baxter: Yes, we have been looking for a few weeks now, and we have interviewed a couple of potentials. However, I decided to run the ad for another week or so.

John Doe: I noticed you said that you already interviewed a few people, yet you decided to continue to run the ad. If you don’t mind me asking, what is it that the other applicants are missing or lacking? (Note: This is good to say because now you are engaging him in a conversation, and whatever skill sets they are missing, you can tell him that you have that experience… if it’s true).

During this dialogue, you will need to highlight more of your accomplishments and do the best you can to convince the hiring manager that you are a great candidate. By the end of this dialogue, you conclude by saying:

John Doe: I would like to stop by there some time tomorrow to give you my information. Will you be available to talk for a few minutes, or would a later time be best? (Note: Don’t say, “Can I stop by there.” Tell him you would like to stop by there. Phrasing your question this way makes it more difficult for them to say no.) Mr. Baxter: Well, normally I do require to see something first before I set up anything. You can come by around 3pm, and hopefully, I should be available. (At this point, he may ask you a few more industry related questions so that he knows he is not going to be wasting his time).

John Doe: Great. I will see you then.

Guess what? You just arranged your own interview without a resume! Welcome to the wonderful world of professional recruitment!

Fact: The proof is in the numbers. Don’t give up after your first try. In most cases, you will have to talk with 10-20 people before you get your first interview. Either way, it’s better than waiting for the phone to ring!

Note: Be wise with the information you decide to place on your resume. Read 25 Reasons Why THEY Won’t Hire You! and learn how people of all ages and nationalities are discriminated against on a daily basis because of simple mistakes they make on their resumes, and during the interviewing process.

Put these simple techniques to work, refuse to give up, and you should be able to set up 3-5 interviews in less than a few days. Trust me, experienced recruiters do this every day, and it works!

I strongly encourage you to consider scheduling a one hour career counseling session. I have over 16 years of experience coaching and developing jobs for people in positions from skilled labor to the executive level positions.

Some of the things we will discuss include, but are not limited to:

1. Your career objectives

2. Your resume

3. We will perform a mock interview

4. Various scripts to use when arranging your interviews

5. How to handle objections, such as: a. Just send me your resume first b. We don’t see any applicants without first seeing a resume c. We don’t know when we are filling that position d. We already have a lot of applicants e. You seem overqualified f. You do not have enough experience, and much more

6. How to get past the receptionist when you call the company

7. How to walk into a company and get an interview on-the-spot

8. How to create a job opening. Forget about the ads!

9. What to do if you were terminated or fired from your previous employer

10. What to do if you have a criminal background

11. What you must do if you are:

a. Pregnant and searching for work

b. Over the age of 40

c. Have an “ethnic” name

d. Been unemployed for 6 months or longer

e. Have a physical disability

AND SO MUCH MORE…

To schedule a one hour career counseling session today, send your request to: jobs@25ReasonsWhy.com

Be smart. Get educated.

Z. Glass www.25ReasonsWhy.com

Recommended Reading:

25 Reasons Why I Won’t Hire You! What You Did Wrong Before, During and After the Interview- 2nd Ed.

25 Reasons Why THEY Won’t Hire You! How to Overcome Unfair Hiring Practices AND Get Hired

About the Author

Zenja Glass has over 16 years of experience as a corporate employment specialist, professional recruiter, and business owner of a job placement firm serving clients in the USA and abroad. She has interviewed thousands of people for positions ranging from general labor to presidents of some of the leading corporations in the USA today. To view her books, visit www.25ReasonsWhy.com.

Why dress for success?

Dressing has always been one of the higher priorities in the history of man. Since the Stone Age, dressing was an essential part of survival, as well as eating. The social evolution of man has now changed our priorities: if you’re satisfied with food and body protection, you’re now looking for social acceptance; dressing is one of the most important factors in defining the first reaction other people are going to have with you.

Also nothing nowadays is the result of a single person effort; our social life is now part of our survival as eating and sleeping. And how we look at a fist glance will set the tone for our interaction with other people we meet for the first time.

So should not come out as a surprise that a nice share of the success is the direct result of the way you dress and behave; this is why this topic has been studied thoroughly since very long topic. I’ve resumed here the top 4 tips from the experts.

Modern dress for success tip #1: Dress with quiet elegance

In order to dress for success in your day-to-day life you will need to develop a sense of quiet elegance. It’s not necessary using your wage to buy expensive clothes. And even if you do, you have not to be loud. Simple elegance will do the trick: exploit colours and accessories.

Modern dress for success tip #2: Dress with nose

Don’t be offended by this obvious principle: your body odour adds to the way you look.

Hence, investing in some good perfume (plus an effective deodorant) will go a long way to promote a positive first impression. Maybe you had experience of being near someone with a bad smell: every time you are going to meet him, this is the first thing you’re going to remember.

Modern dress for success tip #3: Understand the social etiquette

It is very important when you cultivate the dress for success habit, to develop the required etiquette as well.

Every social context has its own etiquette. You should know how to address an interviewer when you enter the room, you should know how to offer a chair to a woman in a restaurant; you should know how to dance at a formal party and so on.

Etiquette is not just “good manners”, but refers to the correct social formal behaviour in a social context. In other words, you can never dress for success without having the right attitude and correct etiquette.

Modern dress for success tip #4: Dress according to your counterparty expectations

If you want to create a positive impression on your counterparty, the dress code will be very important. It will set his or her judgement base and will imprint their first impression about you. This is equally important with personal relationships (are you going to a date?) and social relationships as well (are you going for a job interview?).

The more formal the context, the more formal the dress. This is a simple rule. So for a job interview the safest bet would be a business suit, tie, and black shoes.

From modern dress for success tips to action

These dress for success tips will help you in getting started on being quickly accepted in your social goals. Of course they are just tips and you have to find your own twist. But the first success principle is that nothing happens without action.

So exploit these dress for success tips to make reaching your social goals easier. If you are dressing for success, you’ll get through your path more easily, but you have still to follow through. These tips are just the start: you have to learn taking action and going ahead. You can learn how the power of action after these modern dress for success tips will help you reaching your goals.

About the Author

These modern dress for success tips are just an appetizer. Supporting your action with proper easy tips on a daily basis will keep you focused and will help you enjoying big and small results in your life. Get Mark Tern’s free 101 daily success tips ecourse and start getting results the easier way.

Visit: http://success-strategy.thesolution2.com

Hello! I am Elena Brouwer, International Etiquette Center in Hollywood, Florida. You can find us on the web at etiquettecenter.com. On behalf of Expert Village.com, I would like to welcome you. In business etiquette, sometimes you do the right things and sometimes you do the wrong things. Let’s observe and see what we have here.

When you are getting ready for an interview, allow enough time to get there, yes sometimes traffic is heavy but there is no excuse to be late. If you are on time or a few minutes early, you have time to relax, put yourself together, and feel that you are in charge.

]]> http://www.jobsearchsecrets.net/2007/07/11/video-business-etiquette-do-not-be-late-for-the-interview/feed/ http://www.jobsearchsecrets.net/2007/07/04/interview-tips-from-the-winners-of-the-apprentice/ http://www.jobsearchsecrets.net/2007/07/04/interview-tips-from-the-winners-of-the-apprentice/#comments Wed, 04 Jul 2007 05:38:19 +0000 Jeff Bosco Interview Strategies On the job Video Career Advices Job Searching http://www.jobsearchsecrets.net/2007/07/04/interview-tips-from-the-winners-of-the-apprentice/ They went through a tough 15-week interview to “win” the opportunity of their lifetime to work with Donald Trump. Hear from their direct experience on what tips, ideas and strategies they can provide to you if you either are looking for a job or you want to excel in your career.

As with all jobs, the job description is key. Let’s assume you care most about strategic planning and the ability to turn those plans into tactics, succession planning, and general management style. Based on those qualities, preferences, and skills, here are some questions you could use.:

• “Tell me about your management style when it comes to strategy. Give me a couple of recent examples.” Strategic thinking is an ongoing issue for senior managers. If all they do is one off-site every 19 months, they are not managing the strategic direction of the organization. When you ask for a couple of examples, you’re allowing people to use last week’s Operations Committee meeting, where they readjusted the product roadmap plus the quarterly strategic planning meeting, plus whatever else they have up their sleeves as examples.
• Follow up that question with, “Tell me about a time you changed strategic direction. Why did you choose to, how did you choose, and how did you carry out the changes.
• “Tell me how you make things happen in your current organization.” Some senior managers work through groups of people, some give more specific direction to their managers. This question helps you learn whether this person prefers more group decision-making or one-on-one decision making. You’ll need to ask more questions to see if your initial assumption is correct. “So based on what you told me about working with your OpCom, you tend to work more with each manager to set direction, and use the OpCom to bring the group together for information?”
• Some very young senior managers haven’t had to do succession planning yet. But you can ask this question, “Have you ever planned for any management job’s succession? What did you do?” and follow up, if the first answer was a yes with, “Have you ever planned for your succession? What did you do then?”
• Asking questions about general management style can be a little tricky. Here are some questions you can consider. “Tell me how you prefer to manage and give me an example.” That’s so open-ended, you need to be more specific and ask about the particular functional skills, such as giving feedback, coaching, organizing the work, and so on.

When you interview senior managers, do you look for something else? Let me know and I’ll post more questions.

Originally
from Hiring Technical People

by Johanna Rothman

1. Change your toddler’s diaper while interviewing a candidate. Yes, this happened to me early in my career. The hiring manager changed the poopy diaper during our interview. I like casual workplaces, but that was too much for me. (No, I was not a parent yet.)
2. Interview a candidate in the lobby. The lobby might have been ok, but the traffic level and the interruption level was quite high.
3. Interview a candidate in the stairwell. Yes, I sat on concrete stairs in an unheated stairwell, wearing a nice suit when it was below freezing outside. I was shivering about 10 minutes into the interview. When I asked to move someplace inside, my interviewer said, “I can warm you up,” and proceeded to hug me from the side. Ooh ick. (I extracted myself and ended the interview shortly.)
4. When the HR manager starts negotiating about salary and the candidate doesn’t even know if he or she wants the job. One of my interviews started with the HR manager. The HR manager must have been under orders to keep salaries down. The first thing he said was, “You make too much money.” I said, “Not yet. I’m looking for a raise from you if I come to work here.” The conversation went downhill quickly. I left and called the hiring manager from reception, explaining I was leaving. He convinced me to wait 5 minutes, but it was hard to take anything seriously from those folks.
5. Use a panel interview to interview an extrovert. I do love to speak, so when a group of 6 people tried to interview me in one hour, I took control of the interview. I had a blast. I don’t think they learned anything, but I sure did. I interviewed them.
6. Ask the candidate to sit in an uncomfortable or short chair. One hiring manager kept a short chair in his office, for other people to feel uncomfortable in, because they had to look up. I’m five feet tall; I look up at everyone. I complimented him on his choice of chairs and I thought he was going to have a stroke. (I actually meant it.) I’ve sat on lab chairs (good luck doing that in a skirt), and plenty of chairs that were too high.
7. Take the candidate on a walk around the facility without warning that you’ll be going through manufacturing areas. Back in the days I wore nice suits and shoes, one hiring manager decided to take me on a plant tour. I was not dressed for the tour, and requested we postpone it. “But we always take people on a plant tour the first interview.” “But I’m not wearing the right kind of shoes. I’ll destroy my shoes if I walk in here.” “What’s more important, the right job or your shoes?” “A manager who cares about my safety.” I left.
8. Invite a candidate to interview from 9:30-2:30 and ignore lunch. At 1:15, I asked the current interviewer what the story was about lunch, and he said, “That’s not my job.” I suggested we talk while I got a sandwich from the cafeteria. He looked worried. “Don’t worry; I’ll pay.” I did, but decided these folks were too flaky.
9. Making a candidate wait for your staff to interview. I agreed to an 8am interview, because that’s when the interviewers could start. I arrived at 7:50, and ended up waiting until 8:45, because no one came into work that early.
10. Making a candidate wait in the hall until the receptionist arrives. Same interview as above, but not only weren’t the interviewers in at work, neither was the receptionist.

Have any more good bombs to share?

Originally
from Hiring Technical People

by Johanna Rothman

How long should your resume be? Long enough to cover your work experience so that the employer may make a balanced judgment of your competencies. How long shouldn’t it be? Eight pages. I can tell you that for sure. But the one page rule is unnecessary for seasoned professionals who have more experience to cover. I will always recommend people err on the side of short with higher impact (tangible results, major accomplishments, etc…).

Do you have a high impact resume? If you are asking your question, the answer is no. Adding pop to your resume involves invoking phrases that make sense in any business. When you say you added $15 million in sales over three years, I understand that. When you say you met your goals for the last three years (even if those goals were to hit 15 mil), that doesn’t speak to me. You’re a great employee, don’t make me work harder to figure that out or someone else will show it to me. Go for tangible results. If you don’t know them, start tracking them.

How do you get past the phone screen? The phone interview was invented by a person who didn’t want to meet too many people in person for interviews. So they do these phone interviews to get to the cream of the crop. Those 5, 30 or 60+ minute conversations are typically a yes/no conversation. It isn’t the time to hold back. Go for it. Sell yourself. Make the choice obvious. Many people feel that the phone interview is just a formality but that is becoming less and less the case. Respond appropriately.

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Originally
from YourHRGuy.com

by Your HR Guy

on Apr 4, 2007, 12:48PM

When it comes to your job search and ‘advertising’ campaign, which company are you most like? Do you carefully plan and perform extensive research of your potential ‘buyer’ enabling you to align your experience with their needs, or do you just go in blindly? Strategic research and revealing the needs of your potential ‘buyer’ is also crucial for a job seeker. Just like the company not paying much attention to their clients’ needs, if the company’s needs are neglected by the job seeker, they too may be setting themselves up for disappointment.

Unfortunately this is one area that job seekers often fail to do, or fail to do well. So important is this process in your job search and interview preparation that our e-book Ace that Interview! Cutting-edge interviewing techniques EXPOSED!dedicates an entire segment to this strategy.

If you are not currently performing any real research and are not convinced this process is vital to your job search and interview campaign, here are a few of the key reasons why you should.

Researching a company and job requirements will allow you to:

1. Prepare responses with relevant examples pertinent to the job’s requirements avoiding elimination as you will be positioning yourself as a serious contender for the role;
2. Demonstrate a fit with the company culture;
3. Strengthen your understanding of the company’s structure;
4. Establish whether or not you believe this position and organization is a good fit for you, to prevent a possible fallout down the track were you to accept the role only to realize that it was not as expected.

Your research should endeavour to pinpoint:

1. The company’s products and services;
2. The company’s target market;
3. The company’s competitors;
4. The interviewer and their role within the company. [If you gained this interview opportunity through one of your network contacts, you may be fortunate enough to gain inside information as to characteristics, mannerisms and communication style of the interviewer];
5. Special projects the company is working on (that perhaps you may have been involved in during previous employment);
6. Whether the organization is a large or small enterprise which can impact on salary negotiation. Large and longer established companies could have a larger revenue base and may be able to offer a larger salary base compared to a smaller/start-up organization;
7. What structure the interview will follow. Whether it will be a panel (who is sitting on the panel); a group panel, involving psychological assessments etc;
8. Allows you to develop powerful questions to ask the interviewer.

To begin your research regime you can try the following resources:

• Company website
• Advertising brochures and other promotional material
• Newspaper articles, professional journals
• Your contacts that may have dealt with, or are dealing with the company including suppliers, customers, existing/former staff
• Business Review Websites
• Company Research Websites, and the list goes on

The information you compile will assist you in preparing relevant situations from your work experience, qualified with past performance and examples. This information should be strategically aligned to the needs of the organization, thus positioning you as the best candidate for the job.

About the Author

Annemarie Cross is a triple-certified/award winning Resume Writer, Career Coach and NLP Practitioner, and founder/principal of Advanced Employment Concepts, a career consultancy offering specialised solutions for people striving for success and fulfilment in their careers while maintaining work/life balance. Annemarie can be contacted at www.annemariecross.com [All content is subject to copyright © 2005]