Is landing a good job difficult these days? Is there a way to stand out from the crowd of competitors? What to do to impress a hiring manager? Ah, so many questions on employment issues these days. Most likely you’ve come across the articles and posts online spilling the tea on some do’s and don’ts for job seekers. Now, let’s review a few quick tips that can help you become the person every recruiter wants to hire:
Create one of a kind resume
A recent research has proven most people these days have shorter attention span than goldfish. The same goes for HR managers, who spend approximately 6 seconds to review a candidate’s CV. Alas, if you think that people don’t care about resumes anymore, you’re dead wrong! And here’s why. A good old CV will never go out of fashion – the forms of presentation may really change, though. Here are just a few non-conventional CV examples that are in these days:
- Tweet-like resumes. Yes, you got that right! Today, writing a six-tweet resume profile, or supplying a resume with tweets may look quite natural depending on the field of employment. So, if you’re applying for a position in SMM or blogging, better keep your Twitter profile up tp date.
- Integrated resumes. This statement basically suggests you should incorporate the links to your social media profiles on LinkedIn, Twitter, an online portfolio, or other links into a digital CV you send out to your potential employers. However, don’t forget to clean up the mess in your personal social profiles or just make them private.
- Online portfolio resumes. There’s plenty of opportunities for self-representation, even if you know zero, zilch, zip, nada about website building. Using pre-made online portfolio themes like DW Resumé can come in handy if you have limited time and want fast top-quality results. Besides, professionals in various spheres will definitely appreciate a selection of personal pages WordPress themes to fit multiple requirements of job seekers.
- Branding resumes. Lately, there’s been a lot of conversation about building a personal brand, which is obviously the best option for a professional in demand. If you really want to land a job in a specific company, think about designer solutions like matching typography or color schemes to fit your resume in the brand of a prospective employer.
Show excellent performance and engagement during an interview
A great resume is only a half of your success, the other half solely depends on how skillful a communicator you are. Perceiving your work/expertise as top-quality goods you’re selling at an appropriate price is the right attitude that will surely let you succeed in a job interview. So, to make it a success, you’ll need to:
- Prove that you’re the solution to solve an employer’s problem. Not a secret that most positions are created because there is a need to get a certain issue covered. So, if you can figure, what the problem is just from a job description, prepare a speech to show that you’ve got the skills and experience to solve it.
- Give relevant examples. Of course, you can brag about how professional you are hours on end, but a job interview is not the time to do that. Be as specific and demonstrative as possible, providing examples of your achievements with a solid proof.
- Prepare short statements that highlight your skills. Something like “by writing X blog posts a month I’ve increased the incoming traffic by 25%” would be concise and, well, just perfect!
- Tell more about your accomplishments. Of course, you have listed all of the accomplishments and awards in your resume already. So what’s wrong with adding more details on how you actually got them during the interview? Focus on the “how”, instead of “what” side of your professional history.
- Send right nonverbal signals. Body language can speak volumes, so before you show up for a job interview, make sure you have at least practiced a firm handshake. In case you didn’t know, keeping eye contact, sitting straight and frequent smiling has helped people make positive impression for ages. And don’t forget about a triple nod to show you’re engaged in a conversation to the fullest.
- Be enthusiastic. Always think positive. That’s right, even if you had quit your previous job because you hated it like sin! Besides, it’s good to show enthusiasm for the job you’re trying to land for obvious reasons. For instance, try saying that you consider this new position more challenging and beneficial for your personal growth.
Don’t forget about the follow-ups
Follow-ups have become a common decency. So, let’s break them down a bit:
- After you sent in a CV, make a follow-up phone call later the same or the next day to confirm it arrived. Do it because, firstly, a follow-up call makes you stand out among the other candidates, and, secondly, it puts your email at the top of an HR manager’s mailbox. Follow-up calls make people think you are serious about this job, which may actually be true.
- Another good thing to do is to send a follow-up ‘thank you’ email after you had a job interview. Make sure you send a concise, personalized email to the person you’ve had an interview with earlier in the day. Just mention a small personal detail or a particular topic you discussed to support that positive impression they got of you.
- In case something went wrong and you didn’t hear anything back in a week after an interview, send a follow-up email to the hiring manager for the position. Make it brief and professional, seek to provide your value as an asset to the enterprise. But don’t be sassy or try to persuade them to choose in your favor, for this can be a turn-off!
Conclusion
As always, it’s been a pleasure to share some of the insights with you. Please, sound off in the comments below and feel free to add your own success stories or tips! Hopefully, this will be the year you’ll land your perfect job. Good luck!