Honing Your Approach To The Job Hunt
How much are you worth?
If you're in the midst of a job search, you have a product to offer: yourself. Prospective employers are your customers, and you truly have to sell yourself to them. As Reid Hoffman writes in his book The Startup of You (a great title): "You are selling your brainpower, your skills, your energy. And you are doing so in the face of massive competition. Possible employers, partners, investors, and other people with power choose between you and someone who looks like you."
So what makes you the right choice?
In our conversations with candidates every single day here at Seegers & Associates, we often have this type of conversation. And we have yet to meet a candidate who doesn't have something special to offer. Sometimes it's just a matter of teasing it out. Call us if you'd like to tease out your "something special"!
The formula for resume success
Even with the help of recruiters like us, getting your resume to stand out from the others in a pile is on you. And that's an intimidating prospect for most job seekers.
Google is the natural resource to turn to for best practice around how to apply for jobs today - the company, not the search engine. Google sees more than 2 million candidates apply every year, so the company's HR organization makes public the tips and tools to help you get your resume in the right hands. This information is highly useful when you're applying to other companies, too.
Consider Google's HR advice to use the X by Y by Z formula:
"Accomplished [X] as measured by [Y], by doing [Z]."
In other words, lead with your successes.
And we won't question anyone's intelligence by reminding you to check for typos, but... check for typos. No, seriously. CHECK FOR TYPOS.
Advice to ignore
What do all of these statements have in common?
... Stay at a job for at least a few years, even if you hate it.
...You can't dress too nicely for an interview.
... Always take the safest or highest-paying offer.
Give up? They're all useless pieces of job-hunting advice baby boomer parents give to their millennial and Gen Z kids.
In our work with both companies and candidates, we engage with people across the entire spectrum of generations. When we read the article "Are Boomer Parents Giving Their Kids Bad Career Advice?" on Next Avenue, we found ourselves nodding our heads frequently.
The truth is, things have changed dramatically when it comes to job-seeker best practices, at least from what we see here at Seegers & Associates. Today, there's little stigma around leaving a job you aren't happy in. Dressing conservatively is not mandatory. And there are plenty of great reasons to take a job beyond the salary and job security.
If you want to know what IS important in job-hunting today, contact us!