Tips for Polishing Your Resume
Just as April is a perfect time for some spring cleaning, the end of the summer — when things are slower and most of us start looking ahead to the busy fall — is a great time to dust off the cobwebs from your resume. Hiring experts say that even those not involved in an active job hunt should have an updated and polished resume — because sometimes when you’re not looking, that’s just when someone gets interested in you, right?
And for those on a job hunt, it’s important to continually update your resume. Use the hard-won knowledge you’re gaining about what works and doesn’t in a job search to ensure that you are using your resume to its best advantage — and that all parts of it are working for you rather than against you. Also, you want your resume to scream relevance — and the best way to do this is to highlight what you’ve been doing lately, such as freelance or consulting work.
Here are some tips for polishing your resume whether you’re actively job hunting or not:
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How to Maintain Your Online Reputation
Today I wanted to respond to an email correspondent who recently asked about how to maintain a good, smart image online — mainly on social networks — and stay on top of what is being said about you without spending all day checking on that. Good question and good concern.
Consumer-oriented businesses are increasingly worried about their online reputation — a spate of bad reviews, or has recently happened with BP, an online campaign against their products or services can turn into a marketing disaster. Yet individuals have reason to be concerned as well. Hiring experts preach the importance of marketing yourself online — developing “you as a brand” — but part of that requires keeping that brand or image focused and clean of detrimental messages. Hiring managers routinely “check you out” online, so you need to maintain your online image.
Here are some tips for doing that: Read more »
When It’s Your Turn to Ask the Questions
Hiring experts stress the importance of researching an organization and asking smart questions throughout the interviewing process. This not only shows that you’re prepared and indicates your interest in a position yet allows you to facilitate a real two-way relationship with the hiring manager — which has been shown to increase the likelihood of receiving a job offer from that company.
And it’s also a way, obviously, to obtain important information before they make an offer. Sometimes that information will cause you to end your candidacy as the organization, pay or duties may not at all match what you’re looking for — and better to do this earlier rather than later to avoid wasting your time and that of the hiring manager.
Yet the types of questions you ask and the way in which you ask them are crucial to your success in the interview process. Many otherwise well-prepared and qualified job candidates blow it at this stage by botching their questions in both the style and substance categories.
Here are some tips for succeeding when it’s your turn to ask the questions: Read more »
Five Time-Saving Networking Strategies
Part of the aversion that many people have to networking is how labor-intensive it can be. And while it’s true that keeping up with a number of people online and in person takes time, it’s still the best way to land a job when you need it and to manage your career prospects for the long term!
A reminder: Networking isn’t just about schmoozing or working the cocktail circuit (though that’s part of it). It’s basically reaching out to and then staying in touch with a variety of people who share some of your interests and have your interests at heart. It’s not just about job seeking, but you certainly want to tap your network when you are looking for a job.
With that in mind, here are five tips for making networking a less time-consuming and overwhelming process: Read more »
It Doesn’t Have To Be Forever
We all know that employers have little, if any, loyalty to employees these days. Layoffs, reorganizations and buyouts in recent years have taught us that our jobs are continually vulnerable and (unless one has a secure contract or tenure) we can be replaced at any time, for almost any reason. Yet when hunting for jobs, we often act as though this decision is one we are making for the long term — and that a misstep could spell disaster and land us in a lousy situation that we’ll be living with for a very long time.
What if, instead, we made career choices based on the hard, cold facts — that most jobs, these days, last for an average of four years, and so only represent a small slice of one’s career. Wouldn’t that take some of the pressure off a job hunt? Also, because it has become commonplace to jump around in one’s career, even short-term stints don’t have the stigma they used to — so if it doesn’t work out, you won’t be penalized like you used to be, especially if you find something else relatively quickly. That opens up possibilities and allows one to take some risks.
While I’m certainly not advocating that one should adopt a cavalier attitude toward accepting a job, it’s also true that evidence indicates that our careers will be made up of many shorter-term positions with a number of employers. And rather than fighting that, what if we embraced it and took advantage of this reality?
Here are some ways that accepting the concept of “it doesn’t have to be forever” can help in managing your career:
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How to Play the Expectations Game
Expectations play a huge part in a job hunt. Well-meaning friends sometimes jokingly advise job candidates to keep their expectations low so that they’ll never be disappointed. Well, there’s something to that. Yet if you only have bottom-rung expectations, you are unlikely to find a job that’s going to make you happy going in — and to keep you satisfied for very long.
So, how do you effectively play the expectations game in a job hunt, and also help manage the expectations that hiring managers have about you? Here are some tips: Read more »
Figuring Out Whether It’s a Good Fit
When people leave a job, often pay or a personality mismatch with a supervisor aren’t the only reasons. There’s often an issue of “fit” — when you don’t feel that you fit in with an organization or a team, every work day can seem interminable and the thought of staying years with this company may be unbearable.
Yet fit is, by its very nature, difficult to determine before you join an organization. You can do plenty of research on the company and your supervisor and you can ask around about the pros and cons of this workplace. Yet seeing how your individual personality and work style would mesh with this place is a whole other question — until you work there, how can you know?
Because of this question mark, and because fit is such an important ingredient to job satisfaction, hiring managers suggest that you try to take the temperature of the actual workplace — not just what it’s like talking to a few bosses in an interview or two — before you accept a job. Here are some tips for figuring out beforehand whether or not an organization is a good fit for you: Read more »
How to Change Their Minds About Your Candidacy
What Makes the Real Difference for Hiring Managers
Recently, I was asked to help diagnose what went wrong for two job candidates who didn’t get a job they thought they were about to land. Their resumes and cover letters got them in the door, their interviews seemed to go well, and while the situations were obviously somewhat different — one was seeking a journalism job and one a policy position — each felt they stood a good chance of getting an offer.
And then, for whatever reason, the job apparently went to someone else. (In one case, the applicant believes they were the No. 2 choice, having been told that by a “source” in the organization.) Their obvious question: What happened?
While they may never know exactly why they didn’t get these jobs, it gave me an opportunity to check in with some hiring managers and ask this basic question: What makes the real difference, especially in a competitive environment between equally qualified candidates? And while different hiring managers have different lists, all included this: someone who seems truly interested in the position — those who appear likely to enjoy this job and therefore will give it real effort and energy. If a candidate isn’t qualified, this won’t matter, but then, they wouldn’t have gotten this far in the hiring process.
So here are some tips for impressing a hiring manager with your interest: Read more »
Hard Times for Politicial Scientists
The American Political Science Association is reporting dramatic declines in the number of assistant professor openings in the discipline, according to Inside Higher Ed. At the APSA’s annual meeting next week, they will be offering a session titled, “Hard Times and Ph.D.s: The Political Science Job Market and Non-Academic Careers.”
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